Olympic Blog - Day 1

I'm going to attempt to blog for every day of the Olympics. I'm not in Beijing, I dont have a press pass and I don't have people fawning over me to make a good impression. I'm seeing it the same way as most people in China are - on t'tele.

Last night's opening ceremony was pretty extravagent. The main thing that struck me was how over-blown the Olympics is. I thought it was meant to be a meeting of amateur athletes to partake in a sporting event. But now it is a huge corporate event, regardless of where it is held. The ads on TV are constant. The Chinese hurdler who won gold in Athens, Liu Xiang, and who is now hugely famous because of it, has probably not had anytime to train with all the different products he's been endorsing. There's something quite odd about Olympic athletes encouraging people to drink Sprite and eat at KFC. But then the Games is hugely bloated, where governments and companies can acheive their differing aims. I must have seen the word 'Haier' (an electrical goods conglomerate) a million times today, as it bestrides the desks of every broadcast studio.

The ceremony itself was as expected, I imagine. What some guy has flying/running round the outisde of the stadium roof has to to do with Olympic spirit, I am yet to realise. There was the presentation of China's 5000 years of civilised history. The best sight was when the Chinese team entered the stadium.The American contingent was huge, but was dwarfed by the enormous Chinese team, which occupied fully half the track. China has competitors in every event for the first time. It seems the stage is set for a mass hoovering-up of medals by China.

This feeling was reinforced this morning. The first gold went to Croatia, but it wasn't long before China nabbed a couple of golds to go head of the medal table, I position I think'll they keep throughout. I've moved my desk into the living room, so I can study and watch at the same time, a perfect recipe for effective study. And I also have an Olympic guide to tell me when the next un-missable bout of fencing will take place.

My morning was spent watching the Woman's 48kg weighlifting, live from the Beijing Aviation University Sports Centre. There always seems to be someone out of their depth in events like these - like that swimmer from Equatorial Guinea in Sydney. This time it was someone from the weightlifting power house of Nicaragua. She came and went so fast I'm not sure it was the airfare.

This was in stark contrast to the Chinese competitor, Chen XiaXie. While the others where busy failing to pick it up, dropping it, and wobbling around, the Chinese competitor succeeded in all her attempts and won by a canter. An ominous sign for the rest, I think.

The second gold was earned by PangWei in the Men's 10m Air Pistol. For an event classed under 'Shooting', it was extremely dull and safe. If they used one of those toy guns that fires ping-pong balls, it would be more entertaining. A North Korean guy got bronze ahead of two Americans, so don't know whether he gets in trouble back in DPRK or not.

Coverage on TV is blanket. There's CCTV1, CCTV2, , CCTV7, and CCTV Olympic channel, as well as related programmes on local satelitte stations. You can watch everything for free on the Internet, although you'll also be watching a lot of adverts for a select few products. Some shops have set-up TVs outside so you can sit on the pavement and wonder how beach-volleyball is an Olympic event (along with softball and Equastrian). Sports no-one ever watches suddenly become fascinating - taekwondo, cycling, air pistol. The gymnastics remains one the better events to watch, although there's something slightly voyeuristic about watching people centimetres from paralysis.

In the woman's 'Shooting', the Chinese competitor came fifth and cried in her interview, a rare admission of failure. But with so many competitors in so many events, a few 5th places aren't going to dent the confidence. I'm currently watching the first round of the Woman's Volleyball, where the tallest women in China are pummelling the tallest women of Venezuela. Although the Olympic flag is white, you get the feeling that the colour of this Olympics is red, red, and more red.