On the Scene in Beijing -- Closing Ceremony Preview, Football Finish

British Medalists, Celebrities for Closer

BOCOG promises to stage a spectacular closing ceremony with a cast of some 7,000 performers Sunday.

Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who directed the opening ceremony, is the mastermind behind the dramatic finale. It is expected to be watched by around 1.6 billion people worldwide.

Heads of state and dignitaries from around the world will attend the ceremony where London Mayor Boris Johnson will receive the flag from the Beijing mayor to kickstart the countdown to London 2012.

England footballer David Beckham and a red London double-decker bus are among the stars of London’s eight-minute handover segment.

Beckham will bend a ball like only he can from the top of the bus into a field of athletes at the conclusion of the segment. Musicians Jimmy Page and Leona Lewis will perform along with three dance groups. Britain’s Olympic gold medalists Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton are also involved.

Bill Morris, London 2012 director of ceremonies, said the handover would mark the beginning of a journey.

“The handover will not be a distilled version of the 2012 opening ceremony,” he told a press briefing Friday. “Our opening ceremony will be youthful, proud, athletic and demonstrate London’s status.”

In London, the Royal Air Force's Red Arrows will perform a spectacular flyby as part of the U.K.-wide celebrations to mark London becoming the next Olympic city.

More than 40,000 people are expected to gather in the Mall for the special Visa London 2012 Party.

The Olympic handover flag will be raised in over 400 venues across the U.K. to mark the handover.

No Rice in Beijing

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will not attend the closing ceremony as planned "because of ongoing events around the world," said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao will instead be the leader of the U.S. delegation for the event.

Rice was in Brussels on Tuesday for a NATO meeting about Russia's invasion of Georgia. She is also dealing with the recent resignation of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf.

Baseball Must Have Marquee Players

IOC President Jacques Rogge sat behind home plate for the bronze-medal baseball game between the U.S. and Japan and said star Major League Baseball players must participate if the sport is to return to the Olympics in 2016.

Major League Baseball did not permit its players to be on the Beijing Olympic team.

"Yeah, it's a big factor," Rogge told MLB.com. “We have [Roger] Federer, [Roger] Nadal in tennis, LeBron James in basketball. We have the best cyclists. Ronaldinho is here in football. We want these guys at the Games. We're not saying it should be an entire Major League team, but we want the top athletes here at the Olympics."

Rogge said that he attended baseball despite its lame-duck status, because he wanted to pay thanks to the eight teams that participated. "I am pleased to go to at least one event of all the Olympic sports. I can't go to all the finals, obviously, so I go to the qualifying games in some. I was [at baseball] in Athens, too. And I was also at Sydney."

Football Finishes in Stadium

A near-capacity crowd of 89,102 saw Argentina defeat Nigeria 1-0 in the first and only Olympic soccer match at the Bird's Nest Stadium.

Players competed in heat that was at least 32°C (89.6°F), hot enough for Hungarian match referee Viktor Kassai to stop the match briefly in the first and second halves to allow players a water break.

The end-to-end action in the second half atoned for a dull first half. The game was a rematch of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics when Nigeria beat Argentina 3-2 for gold.

Stadium workers then had a busy afternoon to return the Bird's Nest to its athletics set-up.

Paralympic Torch Relay Plans

Four days after the Olympic flame is doused, the Paralympic flame will be lit Thursday at Beijing's Temple of Heaven.

“The Temple of Heaven is where ancient Chinese people offered sacrifices to Heaven," said Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of BOCOG. "The Paralympic flame will be lit at the Temple of Heaven to help "integrate Heaven and Man," a core concept in traditional Chinese culture."

The Paralympic Torch Relay will follow two routes through 11 cities, cover 13,181 km, and involve 850 torchbearers. About 20 percent of the torchbearers will be disabled. Each torchbearer will run about 50 meters.

Jiang said people from Taiwan, Vancouver, London, Sochi and Hong Kong have been invited to participate.

First Medal for Afghanistan

Rohullah Nikpai gave Afghanistan its first Olympic medal after winning the Taekwondo men's under 58kg bronze medal. He defeated the Spanish world champion Juan Antonio Ramos.

"We're too happy, and even can't express in words how happy we are," Ghulam Jilani Gharob, a spokesman for the Afghan Olympic Committee told Xinhua.

Gharob said the achievement would encourage more Afghans to support sports activities in the war-ravaged country.

Nikpai, 21, is an Olympic Solidarity scholarship holder benefiting from training possibilities abroad.

Another Ukraine Drug Cheat

Weightlifter Igor Razoronov tested positive for nandrolone on Aug. 18 and is the second athlete from Ukraine to be thrown out of the Beijing Games. Heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska was stripped of her silver medal after a positive doping result. Razoronov, 38, had placed sixth in the men's 105kg weightlifting event.

Greek NOC Resolute On Anti-Doping Stance

Greece will not tolerate drug cheats and will cooperate with the relevant authorities to ensure they are caught, a senior Hellenic Olympic Committee official said Saturday.

The decision of HOC Vice President Isidoros Kouvelos to immediately eject Athens women's 400m hurdles gold medalist Fani Chalkia from the village on news of her positive test won praise from the IOC.

Her 'B' sample also tested positive to Methyltrienolone, otherwise known as the banned steroid, M3.

The IOC later formally expelled Chalkia and took the extra measure of recommending that Greek authorities pursue her coach, George Panagiotopoulos.

"It [doping] is something the Hellenic Olympic Committee is determined to fight," Kouvelos told Around the Rings.

"We'll cooperate at the top level with the IOC and with WADA in every aspect to fight this problem."

"I think it has to be faced at all levels of the Greek government with new laws," Kouvelos said.

Where’s Jacques?

IOC President Jacques Rogge was at the Wukesong Baseball Sports Field Saturday.

Beijing by the Numbers

A total of 680 million Chinese television viewers - 56 percent of China’s television audience - tuned into CCTV's major Olympic broadcasting channels in one day, according to a recent study. The latest survey on viewership figures was conducted from 2 a.m. on Aug. 21 to 2 a.m. on Aug 22.

Written by ATR staff in BeijingFor general comments or questions, click here