As the world's best athletes poured into Beijing and the Olympic flame passed over the Great Wall, Games organisers sought to shift global attention to what they promised would be a spectacular celebration of sport.
For China, the Games are an opportunity to show the world how far it has come since the communists came to power in 1949 following a brutal civil war, and particularly the past three decades of phenomenal economic development.
Beijing - China's once-in-a-lifetime Olympic dream neared reality on Friday as the clock ticked down to the Beijing Games opening ceremony, but gloomy weather and tight security risked dampening the celebration.
True to Olympic tradition, the person who will light the cauldron remains a mystery, with the Chinese press writing off the prospects of China's two most-loved athletes, basketball hero Yao Ming and athletics champion Liu Xiang.
Team South Africa, made up of 131 athletes representing 19 codes. The largest representation is shared by athletics and aquatics, both of which have 25 athletes.
There are high hopes that the swimmers will deliver some medal winning performances and the men's 4 by 100 metre freestyle relay team will be going all out to defend the title they won four years ago in Athens in a world record time. No doubt, the world's media will pay plenty of attention to one member of the SA swimming team, namely Natalie du Toit. She will become the first amputee in history to compete against able-bodied athletes at the Olympic Games when she contests the women's 10 kilometre marathon swim.
All we can do is hope for the best!
For more info on our Olympic 2008 teams have a look at: http://www.24.com/sport/?p=olympic_sateam.
The Olympic schedule is as follows:
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