Minority sports

Technological advances also mean minority sports will get a greater share of the spotlight via streaming video on websites and digital television.

In the US, broadcaster NBC will offer 3,600 hours of coverage of the Aug 8-24 Games, triple its offering from the Athens Games, and about a third of this will be streamed over the Internet.

3G mobile phone technology could also have a huge impact on the Olympics, allowing athletes and visitors in Beijing to communicate their experiences to those back home.

"People taking photos and video with their cell phones will change the way we watch the Games," said The NewsMarket's Purushothaman.

"For the first time, digital technology will liberate how we all, sitting outside, see the Games."

But the IOC will not allow spectators to publish on the Internet photos and video taken inside Olympic venues.

"As the iPhone's capabilities are growing by the day, I can probably see myself using my iPhone to view Olympic clips on the go, maybe on my way to work or when out with my friends," said Richard Woods, 20, a public relations executive.

The long-term goal of the IOC in embracing modern technology is to try to get young people away from their video consoles and out into the fresh air to play sport and stay healthy.

One reason London was chosen to stage the 2012 Games was its pledge to engage young people in the Olympic project and to encourage them to participate actively in sport.

Jon Tibbs, whose public relations company has several Olympic clients, said the "digital marketplace has the potential to re-engage hundreds of millions of people with sport" and, as an added benefit to the Olympic movement, re-energize the interest of consumer companies in sponsoring the Games.

Rogge said that once youngsters have been persuaded to play sport, they will realize digital competition - even the active interactivity of Nintendo's Wii console - is no match for the cut and thrust of sporting competition.