The Games by the numbers

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BEIJING -- Roughly a quarter of the world’s people lives in China, but for the next three weeks even that population has swelled.

With nearly 11,000 athletes and more than 17,000 media people in Beijing, these Games are the largest in history. Not that everyone involved in the Games is a foreigner: Nearly 75,000 Olympic volunteers also are spread around the 31 competition venues in the Chinese capital and the six outside Beijing.

There will be competition in 28 sports and 302 events, 165 for men, 127 for women and 10 mixed-gender events.

More than 7 million tickets have been sold to Olympic events, with Friday’s opening ceremony in the 91,000-seat ‘bird’s nest’ the most sought-after.

-- Kevin Baxter