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Olympic trickery

Published: August 12 2008

The joy of sporting contests is that anything can happen. When you are a totalitarian state, however, this makes it risky to host them. The Chinese government has responded by trying to control every conceivable element of the Olympics, often by rather dubious means.

The stunning, widely used footage of firework “footprints” leading to the Olympic stadium during the opening ceremony was, it transpires, computer-generated. We now know why a film director was asked to run the event.

Lin Miaoke, the little girl who apparently sang the Chinese anthem, was in fact lip-synching to the voice of another little girl. A meeting involving a politburo member decided that although Yang Peiyi was the best singer, she was not pretty enough to take part in the ceremony. She should be heard, but not seen.

Then again, cheering crowds are being bused into stadia by the government, armed with noise-makers and decked in colourful attire to improve the leaden atmosphere inside. In some cases the visitors are taking the places of real fans, who have found themselves unable to buy tickets.

The reality is that the faults officials were trying to correct are not faults at all. No one would have complained that China had not followed its creeping barrage of fireworks with a helicopter. The little girl rejected as the face of the opening ceremony may have had imperfect teeth – but little girls usually do. And, we all know that not all Olympic sports are sell-outs.

Official obsessiveness was, of course, doomed to fail. The 10m air rifle competition was scheduled first so that China would win the first gold medal. But Katerina Emmons, a Czech, set a new world record and won while the Chinese competitor, Du Li, did rather badly.

Foreign companies often complain of Chinese counterfeiting, but the games are spectacular enough without fakery. Rather than announcing China’s arrival as a modern, dynamic country, they risk reinforcing the view that the Beijing government is comprised of control-freaks.

The London 2012 organisers may be tempted by this trickery. Any unfinished stadium could be fitted with a computer-generated roof for television viewers. A digital opening ceremony could even beat Beijing’s display of thousands of drummers, dancers and men dressed up as Confucius – a few hundred morris dancers will not suffice. But they should steer clear of computers. London does not need to offer grander spectacle, more a gentle reminder that it is all just a game.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008