The big day has finally arrived. Seven years on from the decision to award Beijing the 2008 Summer Olympics the Games are set to begin with a “big bang” at the opening ceremony at the Bird’s Nest.

I’ve only been in Beijing a week so I thought I’d ask a couple of colleagues who live here in the Chinese capital to tell us how they feel now the waiting is (almost) over.

Nick Mulvenney is a sports correspondent who moved to China two-and-a-half years ago to help cover the whole Olympic build-up. Lindsay Beck is a general news corro who was here when China was awarded the Games and has been back living here for four years. Click on the video below.

PHOTO: Performers wait before the last rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 5, 2008. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo

When militiamen swept into their villages on horseback in the early 1990s, shooting, burning and raping as they went, tens of thousands of young Sudanese boys were forced to flee for their lives.

They walked for hundreds of miles, many dying on the way of starvation and illness. Others were eaten by lions. But many survived, ending up in refugee camps in the near-desert plains of northern Kenya.

In 2001, nearly 4,000 of the “Lost Boys” were resettled in the United States. On Friday, one of them will have the honour of carrying the U.S. flag at the opening ceremony for the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Lopez Lomong, who left his home in the southern Sudan in 1991 as a six-year-old boy, is now a successful middle-distance runner. Chosen by his own team mates for the honour, he says Friday will be “the most exciting day ever in my life“.

Lomong left home and lost contact with his parents at the height of Sudan’s civil war between its mainly Arab north and its largely Christian south. It was a devastating conflict, which left around two million people dead.

That conflict is now over, but the Sudanese government continues to arm tribes to do their dirty work, human rights groups say, spreading death and misery in the western region of Darfur.

China, a major investor in Sudan’s oil industry and supplier of arms, stands accused of not doing enough to press Khartoum to end the crisis in Darfur.

Beijing decided to revoke the visa of Olympic gold medallist Joey Cheek this week, who is now an activist for Darfur. But it seems it cannot silence discussion of its role in Sudan.

Lomong’s story is an inspiring one and perhaps U.S. athletes will say that is why they chose him for the honour of carrying the flag. But it could also be interpreted as a political choice, a statement to the governments of Sudan and China.

What do you think? Was it the right choice? Is it a case of crossing the line between sport and politics? If so, does it matter?

PHOTO: Lopez Lomong celebrates winning the 1500 meters at the Reebok Grand Prix athletics meet in New York May 31, 2008. REUTERS/Gary Hershorn

Dirk Nowitzki was picked to carry the German flag into the Olympic Stadium’s Opening Ceremonies on Friday but, in a country where carrying the national flag had long fallen out of favour, the NBA all-star basketball player was given a few unsolicited pointers by German Olympic officials on how to do the job.

“They gave me the tip that it’s not going to be like at Carnival and so I shouldn’t wave the flag around too wildly,” said Nowitzki, who added he was deeply honoured to be the country’s flag-bearer. “But I think I’ll still be able to have some fun with the whole thing.”

Nowitzki, 30, epitomises a younger generation of Germans born decades after World War Two who have embraced patriotism. Unlike their parents’ generation they have no inhibitions about showing their love of the country and even waving a German flag — something that was a very rare sight between the Black Forest and Baltic until only a few years ago.
 
The first surge in German flag-waving came in 2006 at the soccer World Cup when there was suddenly millions of German flags flying.

Nowitzki, like millions of others, even painted little German flags on his cheeks and put one on his car during the Euro 2008 soccer championship. But his little car flag didn’t survive long on the high-speed motorways. “Unfortunately I drive a little fast on the Autobahn,” he said. “It didn’t survive more than a day and I had to take what was left of it off.”

PHOTO: Dirk Nowitzki looks up during a practice session ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 4, 2008. REUTERS/Sergio Perez

Olympic organisers are praying that it doesn’t rain on the athletes’ parade at next Friday’s opening ceremony, but a little drizzle might in fact add some fizzle to the lavish show.

“The lighting effects will be more beautiful with a bit of rain,” said Yves Pepin, a French hi-tech wizard, who is a senior member of the creative team for the 3-1/2 hour extravaganza.

What the team fears is the sort of deluge that can batter the Chinese capital during August. “If it rains a lot then life will get very difficult. We have a plan B if this happens and some parts of the show will have to be downsized, although not cut altogether,” said Pepin, giving nothing more away.

With this in mind, a long range weather forecast released on Sunday provides some hope — there is a 41 percent chance of rain on Aug. 8, but a prolonged drenching is unlikely, according to Beijing’s Meteorological Bureau.

Even if it does rain, most of the 91,000 spectators in the Bird’s Nest will be fine thanks to a broad roof that extends over the seating area. The athletes and performers aren’t quite so lucky because plans for a fully retractable roof were abandoned to save costs, which means the arena is exposed to the elements.

In the nation that invented gunpowder, fireworks look certain to play a major role in the opening and closing ceremonies, but here too, the Chinese are quietly confident that their plans won’t be blown apart by the weather.

“With modern firework techniques, our firework display will not be affected by rain,” said Wang Yubin, deputy chief engineer at the Meteorological Bureau.

PHOTO: Fireworks light the sky as part of a general rehearsal for the opening ceremony for the Olympic games August 2, 2008 REUTERS/Jason Lee

UPDATE: I’ve added a video of the fireworks. Check it out below:

Picking my way through chaotic traffic, dust and unmade footpaths on my way to the Bird’s Nest stadium this morning, I had a flashback to the Olympic Stadium in Athens four years ago.

The difference was that when I was stumbling through the debris in Greece, it was just a few days before the Games rather than the 114 days that remain before the Opening Ceremony here in China.

Almost lost among the thousands of words written about the torch relay during the International Olympic Committee’s visit to Beijing last week were continual statements of confidence that the athletes were going to experience a top class Games this summer with facilities that few would have seen the like of before.   

If the Bird’s Nest is anything to go by, that assessment may not be far off the mark.

Forget the aesthetics of the twisted steel exterior, from the inside it simply looks like it’s going to be a superb arena for the world’s greatest athletes to strut their stuff.

I first really caught the sporting bug when, at a tender age, I first walked into the maelstrom of a stadium packed with thousands of spectators. In my case it was an English football stadium, but friends have spoken of similar formative experiences at baseball, rugby and cricket grounds.

That feeling of awe and delicious expectation remains with me and I felt a small twinge of it when I first glimpsed the inside of the Bird’s Nest. Packed with 91,000 cheering fans in August, it will be quite a place. 

It was difficult to see too clearly today, though. It was not one of Beijing’s much vaunted “blue sky” days and the smog hung thickly.

There is still much work to be done. 

Pictures by David Gray. Also check out Liu Zhen’s feature.