SYDNEY, Australia -- Olympic Park gradually filled with anticipation.
Security guards stood by metal detectors and vendors filled food halls. Hosts guided early arrivals who clutched Opening Ceremonies tickets, wore flags draped over their shoulders and had hair braided with ribbons in national colors.
At dusk, titans of business and heads of state were herded into wood-paneled hospitality tents. Finally, the athletes climbed out of buses and assembled outside Olympic Stadium.
The scene was part World Cup, part afternoon tea.
Home to venues for baseball, basketball, swimming, archery, tennis and track and field, Olympic Park was built on a desolate old drag strip outside of Sydney. Everything from bleachers and bridges to light towers and wind tunnels are steel and cable twisted into a futuristic architecture, a post-industrial chic.
Once the cauldron was lit and the Park cleared and the history and mystery surrounding the entertainment ended, pomp was ready to give way to circumstance, sport ready to take center stage.
With beach volleyball elimination rounds starting Saturday, former U.S. flag-bearer and decathlon gold medalist Rafer Johnson will wonder and watch as his daughter, Jennifer Johnson Jordan, and her partner, Annett Davis, begin their quest for gold.
Squads of police and chain-link fences kept protesters from disrupting the Opening Ceremonies. Still, demonstrators have threatened to disrupt the Olympics as they did the World Economic Forum in Melbourne earlier this week.
Busts ...
The Australian dollar, which hit an all-time low this week, causing Australians to fear that not even a strong Olympics will help a weakening currency.
The IOC guests who were refused entry by the Australian government. The government denied entry because the guests were on a list of people who had been or were under investigation by the government.
The two members of the Chinese sailing team who missed their flight to Australia, and were told that they could not compete in the Games.
"The opening ceremonies, a Cecil B. de Fifteen-Million-Dollar homage to the modern Olympics' classical roots and multicultural present, spared nothing." -- Sports Illustrated's Alexander Wollf
Today's Finals
Fencing
M individual épée
Judo
W extra-lightweight (48 kg)
M extra-lightweight (60 kg)
Shooting
M 10-meter air pistol
W 10-meter air rifle
Swimming
W 400-meter individual medley & 4x1000-meter freestyle relay
M 400-meter freestyle & M 4x1000-meter freestyle relay
Will Chris Witty, 25, who won silver and bronze medals in speed skating, become the first U.S. woman -- and only fourth athlete ever -- to medal in both winter and summer Olympic Games? She begins time trials in track cycling on Saturday.
The Koreans -- North and South -- who walked together in the Opening Ceremonies amid hopes that tensions in those two countries will continue to thaw.
Beauts ...
What are friends for? Just ask Sports Illustrated's Tim Layden, who says 
"The 
Concerns that the streak of gorgeous, sunny weather in Sydney will end next week, with rain predicted for Monday.
David Nilsson and Luc Longley . The top Australian baseball and basketball players have Aussies across the host country hoping these athletes can lead their teams to medals.
