Secret video ruins surprise

The biggest secret in world sport is out after video of next week’s Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing was broadcast. In a breach of China’s fearsome security apparatus, a Korean television journalist walked straight into the National Stadium and filmed long sections of a rehearsal.
The results were shown on his network, SBS, and later put on the internet by News Limited, an Australian media group.
The video of a mock procession of athletes was followed by intricately choreographed dance routines, and powerful images of massed ranks of kung fu fighters dressed in white.
In perhaps the most impressive footage, ranks of performers dressed in huge boxes rise and fall in what appears to be a visualisation of the continuous building of skyscraper blocks that is China’s current cultural master achievement.
Olympic organisers on Thursday slammed the TV station for the unauthorised broadcast.
“I find it very disappointing that any organisation would breach protocol on something as exciting as an opening ceremony where it's supposed to be one of the big surprises of the Games outside of athletic performance,” IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said on Thursday. “It’s also the spirit of it, they know very well it should be kept private," Gosper said.
During another rehearsal last week, there was no disguising the firework display that lit up the sky.
To the organisers, the opening ceremony is the single most important element of these Games, mixing an almost religious element of ritual with a show of national culture that is supposed to restore China to its historic role as one of the world’s leading civilisations.
The choice of director — Zhang Yimou, one of the country’s best known film directors has proved controversial. His films are often accused of pandering to the mass market and Western tastes at the expense of tradition, while his eight-minute segment for the closing ceremony in Athens 2004 was called tacky and over-sexualised.
Steven Spielberg, the Hollywood director, withdrew as artistic adviser to the ceremony in protest at Chinese policy on Sudan and Darfur.
However, determined to stun the world, organisers have imposed a blackout on images of the rehearsals. Those allowed in are searched and made to sign contracts agreeing not to describe the contents to anyone.