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Marching orders Give Beijing the Games and put spotlight on China
Updated: Thursday July 12, 2001 4:09 PM
I await with the rest of the great media army for our marching orders to arrive on Friday from Moscow. The four-star generals of sport, the members of the International Olympic Committee, have gathered to vote and select the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The top contenders are Paris, Toronto and Beijing. The favorite is Beijing. I, for one, am hoping the favorite wins. I think our army can do great work in China. Forget Star Wars defense systems and Patriot missiles and all of the other military options the Pentagon routinely mentions in the great cold dance we perpetually stage with our totalitarian neighbor. Is China ready for Dick Vitale? Have these people ever seen Jim Gray with a bee in his bonnet? Can they defend their human rights record to, say, Howie Long and Terry Bradshaw? The world's most populous country desperately wants these Games, thinking they will bring prestige and honor, but what they really will bring is the spotlight. Hello, China. What's happening here? Battalions of aggressive reporters from The New York Times and The Washington Post and the news outlets of the world will fan out across the landscape, interviewing any subject that talks. Chinese life will be slo-moed, Fox-tracked, instant-replayed into small, digestable pieces. The secrets of the Orient -- secret forever -- will be spread across the table like so many team reports on NBA 2 Night. Is China and its closed society ready for Fred Hickman and Vince Cellini? Let's open the door. Let the Games begin. Sports Illustrated senior writer Leigh Montville appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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