The Road to Beijing 2008

Last Updated: 6 August 2008

Beijing National Stadium, also known as the 'Bird's Nest' will play host to the Opening and Closing ceremonies, as well as the main track and field events.[Getty Images]

Beijing National Stadium, also known as the 'Bird's Nest' will play host to the Opening and Closing ceremonies, as well as the main track and field events.[Getty Images]

Beijing hosts the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, from August 8-24.

The Olympic games were awarded to Beijing by the International Olympic Committee in 2001.

Collected here are highlights of Radio Australia's News and Current Affairs coverage of the lead-up to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

For the latest coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympics Games from Radio Australia, visit our Olympics Site.

The Games

The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will feature 302 events in 28 sports, across 37 venues, including 12 newly constructed venues.

The City

The host city, Beijing, has faced concerns about everything from air quality to transportation to displacement of its citizens in the lead-up to the Games.

The Teams

10,500 athletes from up to 205 nations are expected to compete at the Beijing Games, with teams ranging in size from more than 600 to fewer than 5.

The Torch

After a controversial start, the 2008 torch relay travelled 137,000km over 129 days, taking the torch across six continents.