USATODAY.com - Nicholas Wapshott, columnist, in The New York Sun: "The Beijing Olympics will open with a ceremony that will be half Busby Berkeley, half Nuremberg rally. It will be the most overtly political Olympiad since 1936. … The Chinese communist leaders have made little attempt to conceal their joy at the propaganda gift the governing body of the Games, the International Olympics Committee, has awarded them. …

USATODAY.com - After tonight's opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics dazzles the world, the Games will morph for many viewers into a titanic battle between the United States and China for the prize of prizes: Which country will capture the most medals?

USATODAY.com - Who can think of the 2000 Sydney Olympics without recalling the national pride as U.S. track-and-field star Marion Jones won five medals (three gold, two bronze)? And then the kick-in-the-gut letdown last year as she admitted to taking steroids, was stripped of the medals and went to prison.