Beijing Games could break through the gloom

BEIJING -- This is not Athens, where the rush to finish major construction for the Summer Games left no time for beautifying the streets or tamping down the dust that arose in brown clouds from roads both ancient and new.

Beijing is ready for these Games.

So ready that it is able to focus on the minute instead of the formidable, to have workers polishing floors that are already shiny clean and watering the vibrantly colorful flowers filling pots along streets that wind among the swimming and gymnastics venues.

With Friday's opening ceremony merely hours away, little remained to do but rehearse for that big moment and the others that will follow.

In the middle of the Olympic Green, a large area that encompasses several venues, workers practiced marching onto an imaginary field to place and remove nine rows of hurdles. Inside the Bird's Nest, the iconic stadium that will be the scene of Friday's ceremony, workers busily laid a new carpet for the festivities. Music that will soon be heard by a global audience wafted over the wall.

"If I was to issue a gold medal," said Peter Ueberroth, chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee, "I'd issue the first one to the people of Beijing, people in the streets who are kind and friendly, the people who have planted enough flowers to cover six cities in our own country, so that every time you turn your head you see something that's beautiful and well-done."

That's only if you can see them through the pervasive and low-hanging haze.

Measures enacted to clean up the city's notoriously murky air have not had the desired impact. The sun was an eerie red ball suspended in a gray sky Wednesday afternoon and was not visible at all on Thursday morning.

Whether caused by pollution or Beijing's location in a geographical basin and the absence of cleansing winds, the skies have been gloomy and the humidity oppressive enough to wonder if distance runners and other athletes will suffer if they're outdoors for long stretches.

The weather aside, organizers appear to have gotten everything into line that is within their control.

They also seem to want to get everyone in line too.

These Games may become China's moment of affirmation on the international stage, an occasion for a massive nation to demonstrate its modern sophistication and efficiency against the backdrop of an ancient culture.

The Games could also become a front for something uglier -- the political protests you won't see, dissent that will hidden away like the old buildings that have been obscured behind the façade of Olympic signs in hopes the world will not notice them.

China's revocation of a visa given to Joey Cheek, the speedskating gold medalist turned humanitarian who has never advocated an Olympic boycott or violence in protesting China's human rights record, may do its image more harm than good. For a country that is supposed to be opening itself to the world, it has showed itself to be adamantly closed to discussion and peaceful dissent.

Government officials initially tried to bar visiting journalists' access to websites related to sensitive topics such as Tibet and Darfur but capitulated a few days ago in response to a firestorm of criticism. Relenting on Cheek too would be a generous and wise move for a country still sensitive to perceptions of its image around the world.

The easiest way to appear open and modern is to be open and modern and willing to tolerate dissent.

In the final days before the Games will be declared officially open. the mood in Beijing has been much like the flat, ash-gray skies. The sun tries to break through once in a while but has had only limited success, producing an occasional beam of golden light or picturesque pink sunset. More often, it loses the battle in soupy sky.

The only sure way to dispel this gloom is through the power of the human spirit, through the determination of athletes who have trained their minds and their bodies for years to be ready for their moment here.

That moment may occur in a pool, on the marathon course, in a weightlifting hall, on the gymnastics floor, at the shooting range or in a softball or baseball stadium. It is why we watch and care, waiting for the athlete or team that finds a way, if only once in a lifetime, to penetrate the darkness of clouds, adversity or oppression.

Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.