Behind the spectacle and fanfare that will mark the opening of the Beijing Games in 51 days, a leading state environmentalist will witness the realisation of his dead father's long-time dream of an Olympics being held in China.
The environmentalist is Liu Hongliang , an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and his late father is Liu Changchun , China's first Olympian and the country's only athlete to compete in the 10th Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932.
'Participating in the Olympics was my father's proudest [moment],' Mr Liu said. But having the Games on the mainland was his dream, the 76-year-old son added.
The Liu Changchun story is one of a young athlete's single-mindedness to overcome all odds to reach the Olympics, and has been turned into a mainland-produced film The One, which debuted this year in Beijing. The only difference was that Liu's life story did not have the typical Hollywood ending.
Liu emerged as a celebrated sprinter during the war-torn years when China's northeast was ruled by the Japanese, who turned it into a puppet state called Manchukuo. The invaders wanted Liu, a native of Dalian in northeast Liaoning province , to represent Manchukuo in the 10th Olympic Games and announced the move through Japanese-controlled media. Liu refused, declaring his opposition in the Ta Ka Pao newspaper: 'I am a Chinese; I definitely won't represent Manchukuo ... I only represent China.'
His defiance caused tensions between him and the Japanese authorities that would lead to serious repercussions.