While workers in Beijing work flat out to have the facilities ready for the 2008 summer games, athletes the world over will be battling it out in pre-Olympic qualifying competitions. Although popular favourites have been named in many sports, official qualifying is still several weeks away for many.

While it may be a bit premature to issue any definitive predictions on medal counts, there’s one prediction you can take to the bookie, the weather in Beijing come August is going to be stiflingly hot and humid with pollution counts that could cause problems for some outdoor athletes.

Beijing organisers have enlisted the support of an IBM supercomputer to provide hourly forecasts on a square kilometre basis, making it easier to plan for weather disruptions at specific venues. The 80-node p575, as it is known, is worthy of Olympic Gold, performing 9.8 trillion operations per second.

While the super computer will be able to predict the weather, a cloud-size question mark hangs over pollution levels. So how serious is the pollution? On a normal day, Beijing’s pollution exceeds by nearly five times the safety benchmark set by the World Health Organization.

At least one marquee athlete, world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie (pictured) is considering skipping the marathon. The Ethiopian distance great could still try to compete in the shorter 10,000 meters, an event in which he has won two Olympic gold medals already. Gebrselassie would be a favourite in the marathon , but his manager is worried about heat stroke, which can leave lasting damage for an athlete.

The management team looked into the hottest marathon races over the past 20 years and found that many of the top finishers never really recovered for the rest of their careers. Gebrselassie dropped out of the London Marathon last April because of breathing problems related to his pollen allergy.

In an effort to cut pollution, Chinese authorities plan to shut down factories and take cars off Beijing’s streets during the Olympics. Beijing’s coal-burning factories, power plants and vehicles regularly spew enough fumes to shroud the city in a brown, pungent haze. Residents have become accustomed to the soot that coats their clothes. Some wear surgical masks when outdoors.

In other pre-Olympic news, American sprint champion Justin Gatlin recently launched an appeal of his four-year doping suspension in an attempt to return to the track for the August games. The notice was filed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the international body that has the final say in such matters. 

In January a U.S. arbitration panel reduced the 25-year-old sprinter’s potential eight-year ban to four, but Gatlin wants a further reduction. He tested positive for excessive levels of testosterone at the Kansas Relays in 2006, his second doping offence. The first came in 2001 when Gatlin tested positive for amphetamines, part of a prescribed medication he was taking for attention deficit disorder.

On the political side of the games The International Olympic Committee has rejected an attempt by Tibet to field its own team in Beijing. In January delegates from the unofficial Tibetan National Olympic Committee met with Olympic at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, as more than 100 supporters, including some Buddhist monks, waved banners and Tibetan flags outside. 

A rule change in 1996 means only national committees from countries recognized by the international community can take part in the Olympics. A special exemption is granted only to those territories whose national committees were recognized before 1996, such as those for the Palestinian territories, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which competes as Chinese Taipei.

While athletes fight to qualify and backroom brawls take place over legal and political issues, what’s in store for Olympic tourists? The capital’s long-stated goal of having English-speaking taxi drivers in time for the event seems no more than a pipe dream. Beijing’s cabbies are among the rudest and most ignorant in China, a situation that has seen little progress in the last 10 years. Barring a raid on local universities’ English departments and a fast course in driving and Beijing geography, would-be Olympic visitors should bring phrase books and stick to public transportation as much as possible.

Olympic merchandise is everywhere, and China’s media buzzes with mentions of the games. China’s medal hopefuls, like hurdler Liu Xiang and diver Guo Jingjing, were snapped up by sponsors long ago, and their images adorn Coke cans, tissue boxes andjust about everything else. One can’t help but wonder if the Olympic ideal will be lost in the smog and the hype.