London: London is all set to dazzle the world with a grand opening ceremony

London: London is all set to dazzle the world with a grand opening ceremony to launch the greatest show on earth featuring over 10,000 athletes over the next fortnight, a spectacle that has seen the cost escalating to £9.3 billion ($14.5 billion).

The British capital will set itself apart, as it has so often down the centuries, by being different. Beijing`s curtain raiser featured 2,008 pounding drummers and a cauldron-lighter who seemed to float in the air of the Bird`s Nest stadium. London will have 70 sheep, 12 horses, 10 chickens and nine geese - recruited by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle along with a cast and crew of 10,000 to present a quirky, humorous and vibrant vision of quintessential Britain, its history and future to an expected global television audience of 1 billion.

London is not the same as it was when the games were awarded seven years ago. Its serenity and confidence were shaken by riots last year and by terror bombings on the transport network that killed 56 people the day after the International Olympic Committee picked London over Paris in 2005. In London, the Olympic Games have come to a sprawling, historic metropolis that lives and breathes sports, with a population more global and diverse than perhaps any other, but which still feels it needs the Olympic spotlight to help secure its future as one of the world`s great cities.