Beijing isn 't the only Chinese city that's grasped the power of sports as a way to enhance its own profile. Duncan Hewitt reports on the spectacle of the Special Olympics' star-studded opening ceremony in Shanghai:

     It was the day the glamour of Hollywood came to the suburbs of southern Shanghai.  Was that really Arnold Schwarzenegger striding up the stairs in the middle of an 80,000-seat concrete football stadium;  film star Ziyi Zhang pouting beautifully; Colin Farrell emoting sympathetically about the situation of the world's intellectually disabled; Yo-yo Ma playing a jaunty tune on his cello?

    For a few hours on Tuesday evening, the drab high-rises and home-decoration superstores which surround the Shanghai Stadium seemed to vanish into the night sky, as it played host to the opening ceremony of the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games, the movement set up by JFK's sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968 to bring sport - and love - into the lives of people once dismissed as 'mentally handicapped'.  The biggest contest ever, with some ten thousand athletes, this is the first time the games have been held in Asia, the first time in a developing country.

    And China -- Shanghai in particular -- is determined to ensure they leave an indelible mark. Thanks to Don Mischer and his production team - veterans of the Emmys, the Superbowl and the 1996 Olympics - the opening delivered, with a stunning light show, dramatic fireworks and slick choreography: athletes with intellectual disabilities performed tai-chi routines against a backdrop of swaying bamboo, dancers formed a giant yin-and-yang symbol, and 170 teams of participants from around the world marched into the stadium in a record-breaking time of just one hour.

     Quincy Jones, who wrote the theme tune for the games, 'I know I can', was there. Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun conducted his own choral work. Jackie Chan, Olympic gold medallist Liu Xiang, a host of Chinese movie stars and celebrities and a smattering of international politicians added to the glitz.  Shanghai's own Yao Ming missed his pre-NBA season media day at the Houston Rockets - and incurred a fine as a result - to attend Shanghai's opening ceremony.  Schwarzenegger, who skipped several days of a special session of California's legislature to fly in, made a tear-jerking speech, describing Special Olympics athletes as true heroes. His mother-in-law, 86-year old Eunice Kennedy Shriver herself, sat on the VIP stand, weeping with emotion.  The plight of the world's intellectually disabled has probably never had quite such a glamorous moment in the spotlight...

     And in the midst of it all, China's President Hu Jintao sat smiling slightly nervously.  A man famous for his reserved, unemotional manner, the cautious Mr Hu can rarely have had an introduction such as that given him by Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver: "Wow!  What a show! President Hu Jintao!..." he whooped as he bounded onstage, like a Superbowl cheerleader. 

  

During the recent Pan American Games, where athletes from 42 nations gathered in Rio de Janeiro for a fortnight of topnotch competition, one contest that wasn’t on the official calendar caught the public’s eye. Call it the defection game.Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara managed to elude their official minders and slip through a hole in the fence surrounding the athletes’ villa. From there, the story gets fuzzy. Apparently Rigondeaux and Lara were to meet up with a German agent, who reportedly promised them passports, air tickets, and contracts to fight in Europe. In a word: freedom. Somehow, though, the plan collapsed. A few days later, they were arrested by the Brazilian police and bundled off in a plane back to the Antilles, where their fate is uncertain. (A third deserter, from the Cuban handball team, hailed a cab to a suburb of São Paulo, where he evaded capture and filed for asylum.) And that was that.

Or was it?