Olympics 2008

"Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in," said Michael Corleone in The Godfather: Part III (and Silvio in The Sopranos), and I'm starting to feel the same way.

It is not the sticky problem of putting my family business on a more legitimate footing that is giving me aggro, it is Beijing's pollution. It's fast becoming the type of media storm that is visible from space.

I suppose I could ignore it but that's a bit tricky when your brief is Olympic sports news and new stories about Beijing's air (lack of) quality appear every other day.

The most recent black cloud to appear on the Olympic horizon came earlier this week when Athletics Australia announced that most of its competitors will not take part in the Games' opening ceremony.

It's standard practice (and plain common sense) for competitors with events in the schedule's first few days to skip the chance to dress up like a tour guide, march into a stadium full of avant-garde dancers and then stand around for hours while the hosts reveal their take on a torch-lighting ceremony of very dubious ancient pedigree.

But most Olympians with the first week off normally decide the curtain-raiser is part of the whole experience, slip on some sensible shoes and line up behind the flag for a bout of serious smiling and waving.

Not the Aussies, though. And I don't think they will be the only team to give it a miss in China.

AA's performance director Max Binnington put it like this: "Anything more than five or six days (in Beijing during the summer) and athletes inevitably end up with some sort of respiratory problem.

"Many sports that don't have to be there early are choosing not to go."

So if the early birds (swimmers, road cyclists, fencers, shooters, judo players et al) aren't going to troop the colour because they need to be in bed, and the late starters aren't going to be in town because they're worried about catching black lung disease, who is going to take part in the opening ceremony?

Team GB's bosses have been less forthcoming and more diplomatic than their Australian counterparts (no, really?) on this subject. The official line is that it is up to each athlete/coach to decide if they should take part but it is clear there is concern about the issue.

I spoke to the British Olympic Association's chief medical officer, Dr Ian McCurdie, about our "pollution plan" a month or so ago and he made it clear that much effort, expense and time had been spent on making sure our boys and girls are ready to perform when the serious business starts.

The much-discussed masks are (a small) part of this plan, as is a scheme to test all our Olympians for asthma (which the Australians are also doing) and the establishment of a holding camp in Macau to help competitors acclimatise.

McCurdie played down fears about the impact of Beijing's air quality on the Games but admitted we are unlikely to see many records in the endurance events. He also said for many competitors, the opening ceremony is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity they should probably put off for another lifetime.

Despite finding most opening/closing ceremonies hilariously lame and about as much fun as Greco-Roman wrestling, I think this is a bit of a shame. I know if I was selected to represent my country at the Olympics (can we get pub quizzes into the Games?) I would want to tick every box.

I'd get the five rings tattoo and a silly haircut, I'd arrive at the holding camp as early as possible, I'd swap official kit with athletes from exotic countries, I'd catch some of the beach volleyball and I would proudly take part in the opening and closing ceremonies.

But then I've never been to Beijing in August and I've not spent half my life preparing for a single sports event.

All the same, it doesn't seem quite right that there are bound to be more acrobats than Olympians in Beijing's National Stadium come 8:08:08 on 8/8/08 (the Chinese have a thing about the number eight).