Sri Lankan Olympians in Beijing

The world's greatest sporting extravaganza - the Olympic Games began in the Chinese capital of Beijing on Friday with a spectacular opening ceremony.

The Games will take place from August 8 to 24, 2008, in Beijing. The Games will play host to the 28 summer sports currently on the Olympic program.

Approximately 10,500 athletes are expected to participate in the Games, with around 20,000 accredited media bringing the Games to the world.

Sri Lanka will field a ten-member contingent for the latest edition of the summer Olympiad. Leading the Lankan contingent as the overall captain is sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe who is fresh after a stint in the United States.

It was exactly eight years ago that Jayasinghe won Sri Lanka's second medal in the Olympic history when she finished third in the women's 200m at the Sydney 2000 Games.

The track and field competition, which will be the showpiece of any Olympic Game, will commence at the Beijing National Stadium on Friday (15).

Beside Jayasinghe, the others who will compete under the Lion flag in Beijing will be swimmers Mayumi Raheem, Daniel Lee, boxer Anuruddha Ratnayake, athlete Nadeeka Lakmali, shooter E.M. Senanayake, weight lifter Chinthana Vidanage and young Thilini Jayasinghe, the first ever Sri Lankan woman shuttler to compete in Olympic Games.

Teenage sensation Mayumi Raheem was the Lankan queen when Colombo hosted the last South Asian Games where she bagged a record ten medals. Her medal haul included three gold medals. Weight lifter Vidanage too bagged a gold medal at that South Asian Games in 2006.

Champion boxer Ratnayake is another young prospect who could keep the Lion flag fluttering high in Beijing. Thanks to the untiring efforts of the energetic President of ABA of Sri Lanka Dian Gomes, Ratnakaye is in perfect shape after some vital overseas training and competition experience. Incidentally, Gomes is also the Chef-de-mission of the Lankan contingent.

The main Olympic Stadium in Beijing - the National Stadium is an exceptional creation. An aerial view would make it a real "Bird's Nest" - aesthetically pleasing, the sports venue was also designed with high-tech internal gear designed to keep in line with the concept of a "Green Olympics.

Engineer Liu Peng explained that behind the "Bird's Nest" is a comprehensive world-class rainwater recycling system that operates on a 24-hour schedule which can collect rainwater from the National Stadium and its surrounding areas, purify it, and then recycle it for use in the venue.

The recycled water has many uses, including irrigating the approximately 80,000 square meters of green ground surrounding the "Bird's Nest," cleaning cars and roads, cooling air conditioners, etc.

The immense water recycling system measures out to about the size of six soccer fields. An average of 67 thousand cubic meters of water can be recycled through the system each year. A maximum of 12,000 cubic meters of water may be stored in the 6 containers located underground.

The system's blueprint came from Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Worldwide Partner GE. Three levels of filters, including sand filtration, "ultrafiltration" and sodium filtration are used to process and clean out the water, removing dirt and bacteria.