The thousands of journalists covering the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games have the fortune of having one of the world's largest and most modern media centers at their disposal. Radio86 interviewed Matti Varheenmaa from Lenovo about the work that goes on behind the scenes at the world's biggest sports event.

1956 was a tough year to be holding the Olympics. Political issues -- from the Suez Canal crisis to Russia's invasion of Hungary -- threatened to dwarf the biggest sporting event in the world. John Ian Wing, then 17, was apprehensively watching the developments from his home in Melbourne, host of the Games that year.

Last July, the organizing committee for the Beijing Olympics selected a composition by Swedish pianist and composer Robert Wells as the official overture for the Games. The opus was selected from among more than a hundred entries to the Official Olympic Overture Competition launched two years ahead of the Games.

What does it mean to sponsor the biggest sporting event in the world? In this series, Radio86 asked some of the biggest Olympic sponsors to take us into the practical side of sponsorship.

79-year-old He Zhenliang is one of the most highly regarded dignitaries in China, and quite certainly the most influential Chinese Olympic personality of his time, a status also reflected in his nickname “China's Mr. Olympics.” This seasoned veteran of the Olympic movement has something to be especially happy about this year, as China plays host to the world's single biggest sporting event.

There's more to China than just cheap goods and the Olympics are the perfect showcase for the changes that the country has gone through. Read about these and other insights that overseas Chinese shared with Radio86 about the Beijing Games.

Matti Varheenmaa has been preoccupied for the last few weeks with the preparations for the Olympic Games. Varheenmaa works as a project manager for the Chinese PC company Lenovo, one of the major commercial partners of the Beijing Olympics.

Manchester native Paul Coleman had everything going for him when he first came to the strong realization that not everything was going so well with the environment. In the space of only a few months, this avid nature lover and world traveler decided to give up the comforts of his former life and become a promoter of environmental sustainability.

Sure, everybody knows that the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics will take place on August 8. But how many know the number of volunteers or the amount spent to build the Olympic venues? Read on and learn these and other little-known facts about the Beijing Games.

It's literally a few hours to the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and expectations are rightly high. Here's a list of facts about the opening ceremony compiled by Radio86 from various media sources.