Jamaica’s world record holder Usain Bolt has a lot more weighing on his shoulders than just trying to become his country’s first Olympic 100m champion
From the nation which brought you the 12 000km Long March in 1934, you would anticipate nothing less than a spectacle.
The hopes of strife-torn Sudan for an elusive Olympic medal lie squarely on the teenaged shoulders of 800m runner Abubaker Kaki Khamis.
The Czech Republic took first honours at the Olympics on Saturday, and China also won an early gold to cap a dazzling opening ceremony.
Resurgent China opened the Olympics on Friday with a burst of fireworks at a spectacular ceremony that celebrated ancient Chinese history.
Lucky Sindane assesses which South Africans have the potential to bring medals home.
Teams will soon line up for the event in which South Africa won their sole gold medal of the previous Olympics — the 4x100m freestyle relay.
Hundreds of thousands of the migrant workers who built Olympic venues and beautified the city have already been sent home.
Inspirational amputee swimmer Natalie du Toit will carry South Africa’s flag at the Olympic Games opening ceremony.
These are the first Olympic Games in which anticipation of the athletes’ feats has been overshadowed by speculation about the nature of the event.
The most lavish Olympic Games of the modern era will get under way on Friday in the spectacular Bird’s Nest stadium, with more than 80 heads of state.
Olympic football champions Argentina began the defence of their title on Thursday ahead of the Games’ opening ceremony on Friday.
Football is in danger of losing its prominent position at the Olympics after a ruling allowing clubs to deny them a place at the Games.
African athletes are accustomed to Beijing’s steamy temperatures and count themselves among the few who are unconcerned about the weather.
While many Olympians meditate or listen to music to calm their nerves, several weightlifters in Beijing on Tuesday tried to lighten up by lighting up.
Most people in Given Maduma’s community didn’t know what fencing was when news spread that the young South African had qualified for the Olympics.
Flag-waving crowds cheered the torch relay through Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Wednesday as Olympic fever mounted.
Norway produced an opening 2-0 upset win over defending champions the United States as women’s football launched the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday.
China evacuated nearly 400 000 people as its southern coast braced on Wednesday for an approaching tropical storm.
”It’s the easiest arrival into China ever.” That was the comment of Team South Africa’s chef de mission, Hajeera Kajee, on Wednesday in Beijing.
Like countless other Beijing sex workers, ”Kelly” had viewed the Olympic rings as akin to dollar signs, expecting a big pay-day.
Haze settled over Beijing on Wednesday, two days before the start of the Olympic Games that have been beset by worries over pollution
Sun Dingguo rewarded himself with his 36th Olympic-themed tattoo after completing a nearly year-long journey across China.
China’s confidence is the subject of anxious debate in the European Union and the United States.
A strong earthquake rocked the western Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Gansu on Tuesday, near the site of May’s devastating quake.
Olympic organisers move to reassure the public and athletes after China’s deadliest suspected terrorist attack in more than a decade.
Attackers killed 16 police in a restive western region of China on Monday, in just the sort of violence Beijing had hoped to avoid.
Michael Phelps’s quest for gold and glory is just one bid for Olympic history that will unfold in Beijing’s futuristic Olympic aquatic centre.
Sports fans around the world have been swindled by an international internet scam which offered thousands of bogus tickets for the Beijing Games.
As thousands of visitors begin to arrive in China’s capital, large numbers of Beijing’s residents are disappearing from view.
Websites on sensitive subjects are accessible in the Chinese capital as the authorities lifted more internet restrictions ahead of the Olympic Games.
China’s Olympic security operation makes the country look like a police state, according to the artist behind Beijing’s spectacular new stadium.