Top 100 momentsNo. 91
Beijing opens
China’s opening ceremony is a statement of scale. The Olympics become a geopolitical broadcast with a Bird’s Nest attached.
August 8, 2008. The Bird’s Nest. Thousands of drummers, a globe, a nation of 1.3 billion putting on a show that makes other hosts look like provincial fairs. Phelps and Bolt will steal the sport. The ceremony steals the politics.
The IOC had sold the Games as a way to open China. China uses the Games as a way to present China. Human-rights protests happen elsewhere. Inside the stadium the message is competence and size.
Every later Olympics is compared to Beijing’s opening the way every later 100 meters is compared to Bolt. The sport is inside a spectacle that is no longer pretending to be only sport.