On the Scene in Beijing -- Olympic Torch Arrives

Last Torchbearer Kept Secret

BOCOG releases details of the capital city torch relay, but guards the identity of the final torchbearer. NBA star Yao Ming or China's first gold medalist Xu Haifeng are among the prospects; both will take part in the relay, Beijing 2008 confirms. BOCOG officials receive the flame lantern in Beijing. (BOCOG)

The torch will travel in Beijing for three days, Aug. 6 to 8, hitting all 18 Beijing districts. The entire relay will cover 40km, with 841 torch bearers.

Wednesday morning's relay begins at the Forbidden City and ends at the Temple of Heaven. Day two begins at the Badalang section of the Great Wall and finishes at Ditan Park inside the city. The final day begins at the Peking Man museum and finishes at a middle school before being transported to the Bird's Nest stadium for the 8 p.m. opening ceremony.

Among the final torchbearers, 232 are members of BOCOG, 90 are members of national Olympic committees, 60 are members of the IOC and 170 are associated with sponsors. The remaining 289 torchbearers were handpicked by the Beijing city government.

The chartered plane that carries the torch touched down in Beijing on the evening of Aug. 5, after a flight from Sichuan province. The morning relay in the city of Chengdu was dedicated to the estimated 70,000 victims of the powerful May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 and left five million homeless in the mountainous region of Western China.

Chinese Themes for Official Music

The sounds of Beijing 2008 include tones from jade stones and a 2,400 year old gold bell, an orchestra and military marching band and a Swedish pianist. BOCOG released the venue and TV introduction song and the four compositions that will be played at all Olympic and Paralympic medals ceremonies. Tan Dun's theme for medal ceremonies will be played more than 1,100 times during the Olympics and Paralympics. (ATR)

"I was thinking, what makes a champion? How many days and nights of training?" said composer Tan Dun, who won an Oscar for his Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon score.

"How much love and passion makes a champion?"

The introduction features a sample from 1997 when the ancient two-tone set bells of Marquis Yi from the Hubei Provincial Museum were struck a single time to celebrate Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule.

Tan collaborated on the march-in theme with Wang Hesheng, composer from the Military Band of the People's Liberation Army. The award ceremony music employs the melody from Chinese folk song Jasmine Flower and is followed by the march-out music.

Zhao Dongming, director of BOCOG's culture activities department, said more than 1,000 songs were received during the year-long search campaign.

Bird's Nest Insurance Valued at $500 Million

The most expensive item on Beijing's insurance inventory is the Bird's Nest stadium, covered for some $500 million.

"This amount is 1.5 times higher than the cost of the stadium," says Wang He, vice CEO of the People's Insurance Company of China (PICC), the 2008 Games insurance partner. An official car leaves the Beijing Hotel. (Getty Images)

PICC has provided liability insurance, property insurance, motor vehicle insurance, group and personal insurance, as well as an insurance policy for volunteers as its VIK contribution to the Games, Wang says.

The insurance plan will cover the whole of the Olympic Games and Paralympics, including some 150,000 personnel, 8,000 vehicles, as well as all the competition venues in Beijing and six other co-host cities.

"It also provides emergency services to the spectators," Wang said, speaking at a press conference this week.

PICC has opened up an Olympics hotline at 95518 to provide critical information regarding medical institutions and Olympics-designated hospitals in five different languages: Chinese, English, French, Japanese and Arabic.

Wang also says his company's insurance makes Chinese athletes among the most well protected in the world.

"According to international practice, each athlete is entitled to 300,000 yuan worth of coverage under the group insurance, but after discussing with the Chinese Olympic Committee, we have decided to increase that amount by 700,000 yuan, bringing the total coverage for each Chinese athlete to 1 million yuan [$145,900]," Wang explained.

"Russians Systematically Doping," Says WADA Official; Four More Caught

Three Russian race walkers and a cyclist will miss the Olympics after failing drug tests. News of the positive tests comes just as WADA Vice President Arne Ljungqvist accuses the Russians of systematically doping.

"A year ago I would have answered no. However, I agree that it is a case of systematic doping. This would fall under the new WADA code that carries a four year ban," Ljungqvist is quoted in media reports.

"I find it frustrating that such planned cheating is still going on. I am very disappointed. Of course, the procedure is still going on and it is for the Russian federation to find out what was going on," says Lungqvist, who is also the IOC Medical Commission chair.

Two of the athletes, 20km walker Vladimir Kanaikin and rider Vladimir Gusev, were expected to compete for medals.

"The tests were taken in an out-of-competition here at home in Saransk on April 20. It showed traces of EPO in the blood of my athletes," Russian race walking coach Viktor Chegin told Russian media.

Team Astana, Gusev's professional team, fired him after he failed internal doping tests, and the Russian National team dropped him as well.

Gusev is the eleventh Russian to fail a drug test this year. Seven female athletes, five of whom were Olympians, were charged last week with false substitution of urine in the previous year.

China Names Xinjiang Terror Suspects

Kashgar, also known as Kashi, hosted a leg of the Olympic torch relay in June. Due to fear of an attack, the only spectators were those vetted by security forces; city residents along the route were ordered to keep windows shut. (Getty Images)Two men from Kashgar have confessed to the Aug. 4 terror attack on police in the far western city, according to a state media report. The two were arrested on the scene where 16 police officers were killed and another 16 injured when the assailants crashed a truck into a group of officers on a morning jog.

The report ties the attacks to an "East Turkistan Islamic Movement," adding that regional security authorities received a warning from the group promising attacks in the run-up to the Olympics opening ceremony.

In Beijing, BOCOG spokesman Sun Weide told state media that his committee is confident and capable of holding a safe Olympic Games under the leadership of the Chinese government and with the help of the international community.

Beijing Briefs…

U.K. Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said it "is vital" that Team Great Britain reaches its stated medal goal of 41 for the Beijing Olympics. "That is a serious target," Sutcliffe tells the BBC. "We want it to be achieved ... It's vital in the sense of the investment that's gone in." Luciano Barra, who projects medal standings at every Olympics, said the team's goal is attainable. If UK Sport said 35 medals, they know that they can win 40-something," he said.

Basketball minnows Angola promise not to be easy marks during the Beijing Olympics. "Sure we're underdogs but we will not roll over," says Joaquim Brandao Gomes. He says he wasn't afraid of some of the big names competing, like Kobe Bryant and Yao Ming. "Those guys are big stars but once the game starts we are all basketball players and anything can happen. We will not make it easy for them." Teammate Armando Carlos Silva echoed Gomes' sentiment. "They will be something to watch but we can't stand around and watch them." Angolan basketball's previous claim to fame came in 1992, when Charles Barkley of the Dream Team said "all I know about Angola is they in trouble."

The Olympic tennis tournament seeds will be drawn at 11 a.m. on Thursday at the Swissotel in Beijing. The electronic draw covers all events: men's and women's singles and doubles. Olympic rules require that players from the same country competing in any of the same event be drawn into separate pools.

Quote of the Day

"The ideal, it's to train hard. Right in this moment I can't do it because I just came from another tournament. Today I feel very tired." -- Rafael Nadal on resting up before the Olympic tennis tournament.

Written by Ed Hula III, Yang Min and Maggie Lee.