Sport stars Yao and Liu unlikely to light Olympic flame
5/8/2008 17:03
So who is going to light the flame to mark the opening of the Olympic
Games on Friday? Such a question has aroused great speculation in Beijing, a
city gripped by Olympic fever.
The chances of basketball star Yao Ming or
gold-medal hurdler Liu Xiang lighting the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony
on Friday are slim if tradition is anything to go by.
Houston Rockets' center
Yao, easily the most visible, and perhaps tallest, athlete in the country, will
be one of the runners during the three-day Olympic torch relay campaign in
Beijing starting tomorrow.
Liu, China's 110-meter hurdles Olympic champion in
2004, was the first bearer when the country kicked off its global torch relay in
Beijing on March 31.
As such, it has been a tradition over the Games' history
that each bearer only holds the torch once during the relay. This leaves the
country's most popular sports stars with little possibility to light the flame
at the National Stadium, or the Bird's Nest, on Friday night.
So how the main
Olympic cauldron will be ignited and who will be the one to do so has been a top
secret. Undoubtedly, it will be one of the highlights of the opening
ceremony.
In total, 841 people, including China's first astronaut Yang Liwei
and shooting gold medalist Xu Haifeng, will carry the torch in turn in Beijing
as of Wednesday after the relay finishes its leg in the quake-battered Sichuan
Province.
Following the torch's arrival in the capital late on Tuesday, 433
bearers will participate in the relay the following day. It is expected to last
just over four hours along a 16.4 km route. The runners will start from the
Forbidden City and run through seven downtown districts to the Temple of Heaven
in the southern area for a festive ceremony.
On Thursday, 268 bearers will
carry the torch 14.5 km through eight districts and counties in about 3
hours.
Friday's route will be 7.9 km and the run will last about 90 minutes
and involve 140 carriers.
Xinhua
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