A LITTLE girl skips into the limelight, blonde ringlets falling around her tiny shoulders, a beach towel in hand. Exaggerating her movements in a theatrical fashion she throws down the towel and pretends to put sunscreen on her smiley Australian face. Stretching, yawning and rubbing her eyes, the small drama continues as she seems to fall into a dreamy sleep.

Giant jellyfish appear from nowhere and the arena becomes an oceanic world of magic and mystery.

A succession of surreal swimmers and fish then join the youngster in an aquatic dance, the child suddenly whisked into the air on barely visible wires.

She shows no fear of the height, nor the fact that she plays to a worldwide audience of three billion, their eyes transfixed on the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games.

The Olympiad is the most watched event on Earth but, for many, the opening and closing ceremonies are as important as the sports which pack the two-week hunt for gold.

A blustery chill and overcast skies do little to sway the eager crowd, which fills the Olympic Stadium's 110,000 seats in Sydney as soon as the doors open, more than two hours before the opening ceremony. That's 25,000 more than packed the opening of the Atlanta games four years ago, making the Sydney games the biggest Olympics in its 104-year modern history.

And it's well worth the wait as they are treated to a whimsical rendition of Australia's history, from the early days of the indigenous Aborigines to a future in which all ethnic groups unite.

Red and brown dirt covers the ground, except for the outer track lanes where runners like Marion Jones and Ato Bolden will be sprinting soon, creating a tableau similar to Australia's arid Red Centre. Captain Cook even cycles on stage in a caricature of his ship.

Following a prelude with clips of the late John Lennon and Stevie Wonder singing Imagine, a stirring performance of Australia's unofficial anthem Waltzing Matilda has many in the crowd swaying and singing along. Then, 120 horses gallop in, their riders dressed in brown oilcloth overcoats, standard gear for Australia's vast outback.

The horses form a tableau of the five interlocking Olympic rings as the riders carry Olympic flags and a huge G'Day banner unfurls from the edge of the open roof. There's even a welcoming rap song, Say G'Day in Your Own Way. Organisers keep the identity of the final Olympic torchbearer a secret until the last minute of a four-and-a-half hour extravaganza involving a cast and crew of 18,000.

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was the surprise choice four years ago in Atlanta. This time it's left to a woman to perform the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron; Cathy Freeman, the brightest hope of Australian athletics with an Aboriginal background and perhaps a golden 400m future at these games.

It may not provide as famous a global image as when the stricken boxer, his right arm trembling from the effects of Parkinson's Disease, emerged from the Atlanta night to light the Olympic flame. But it is no less poignant for the Australian nation on a night when it celebrates its people as a whole while emphasising respect for its indigenous population.

The biggest games ever sees the largest security operation in Australia's history with about 20,000 police officers, security guards and army personnel on duty for two weeks, policing an event which has cost £1bn to stage. More than 100 navy divers have been brought in to search the city's harbours, where events such as the triathlon and sailing will take place.

The games will generate £2.5bn in sponsorship and 3.7 billion people around the world will watch 11,600 athletes compete across 28 different sports for Olympic glory.

Huge figures, and even the night before the start, 100,000 people gathered to watch a giant set of Olympic rings light up Sydney Harbour Bridge as fireworks burst over the famous Opera House.

Sydney's population will swell by half a million overseas tourists and there will be 5,000 officials present. Thousands of journalists and television crews will be on hand to record every moment of sporting triumph.

Sydney's new Olympic Stadium took more than 30 months to build at a cost of 690 million Australian dollars (£270m), making Stadium Australia the biggest Olympic venue in games history.

The preparations have been immense. As well as the new stadium, events will be held at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre, the International Regatta Centre and the SuperDome.

There is an International Shooting Centre, a State Sports Centre for table tennis and taekwondo, the Dome and Pavilions which will feature badminton, basketball, handball, shooting and fencing events in the modern pentathlon, as well as rhythmic gymnastics and volleyball.

There is also the harbour, the equestrian centre, the velodrome, the temporary arena on Bondi Beach and the new basketball stadium.

Trains to Olympic Park will run 24-hours a day and 3,500 buses will be dedicated to Olympic duty. There were worries that the transport system would not be able to cope with ferrying the 500,000 spectators and workers on any day travelling to the Olympic Park.

Many of the preparations this year have centred on making sure the Olympic effort is environmentally friendly. The 650 homes in the athletes' village rely on solar power for heating and electricity, making it the world's largest solar village.

Furniture is made of recycled cardboard, the cutlery for meals is made from potato starch and only biodegradable packaging is allowed on the site.

The food for such a vast army of spectators and athletes provides problems of its own. Over the two weeks, 10 million meals will be eaten and McDonald's expects to sell 1.5 million burgers.

That symbol of the Olympics, the flame, has been carried by 11,000 people on its trip through Australia. It has even travelled on a surfboard and underwater at the Great Barrier Reef.

And sporting enthusiasts will be able to enjoy two new events added this year. The triathlon, a lung-busting event, is being held on the first day. It is a test of endurance, with athletes racing through a 1.5km swim, a 40km bike ride and a 10km run in succession. Taekwondo, an ancient martial art which dates back 2000 years, is the other new sport.

Medals are what the athletes are about and the US is the country to beat. It comes top of the list of gold medal winners in the history of the modern games with 723, while the former Soviet Union comes second by a long way with 377. Third is the former West Germany, with a total of 148 golds. Britain is in seventh place with 115 golds in its history.

After years of physical training and mental preparation the competitors will spend the next fortnight striving to achieve their dreams and the ultimate prize - a Olympic gold medal from the greatest sporting show on earth.

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