BRITISH viewers may have to stay up all night to watch some of the most glamorous events in the Beijing Olympics because of plans to stage them at times suitable for US television.

In a controversial move, NBC, the American network, has requested that the swimming and gymnastics finals should be staged in the morning in China.

Such a decision would upset both the competitors, who usually are at their physical peak in the evening, and also European TV companies, angered that the proposed timing would mean that they would be forced to screen the events live in the early morning.

A meeting in Beijing in August between the International Olympic Committee (IOC), sports officials, television executives and the Beijing organisers will hammer out details of the scheduling of events. Some athletics finals could be added to the list of requests for the morning, if NBC is not satisfied it is getting sufficient value for its outlay of $894 million (about £490 million) for the Games.

The meeting will be overseen by Dr Jacques Rogge, the IOC President and chairman of its TV rights and New Media Commission. The Beijing organisers have proposed to hold the swimming finals in the morning, with the heats for those events the previous night. Usually at world and European championships, the heats are in the morning and the finals of those events that evening.

An IOC spokeswoman said: “The competition schedule is in draft form. We are now going to have a dialogue with the stakeholders and we will finalise the schedule two years out from the Games.”

NBC has screened all the Summer Olympics since 1988 and is the biggest paymaster of the Games. However, its proportion of the booming global television rights has gradually diminished. In the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, the previous time the Summer Games were staged in the Far East, NBC paid $300 million and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) just $30.2 million. For Beijing, NBC will pay $894 million and the EBU $443.4 million.

Britain is seven hours behind Beijing, and a BBC spokeswoman said yesterday: “The EBU, of which the BBC is a member, and other broadcasters, including Channel 7 from Australia, have made representations to the IOC regarding the timing of events. We are aware that no final decision about the timing has been made.”

The EBU’s case will be strengthened by the fact that all the Oriental countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand, will also not want the finals in Beijing in the morning but at their peak viewing time of the evening.

NBC bid for the 2008 Games without knowing where they would be staged but has become increasingly frustrated that only once since 1984 — Atlanta in 1996 — have the Summer Games been held on the American continent, which allows the network to command higher audiences and more advertising.

In 1988, some of the swimming and athletics finals were held in the morning or early afternoon, such as the notorious men’s 100 metres in which Ben Johnson, of Canada, defeated Carl Lewis of the United States, only to be stripped of his title after testing positive for drugs. The IAAF was given extra money to agree to the change to the regular schedule.

A spokesman for the British Olympic Association said: “We have alerted the BBC and the Amateur Swimming Association [ASA] to the proposition and obviously we will discuss with the ASA the impact of the change on the competitors whose welfare is always paramount.”

Bill Sweetenham, Britain’s national performance director, is know to be against the proposals but has circulated coaches and swimmers for their opinions and these will be forwarded to the International Swimming Federation. The French coaches and swimmers are incensed that they may have to take part in morning finals. Laure Manaudou, the Olympic 400 metres champion, said: “Everyone in sport knows that we do our best times in the afternoon.”

MORNING GLORY OR AFTERNOON DELIGHT

Performances at the Beijing Olympics could be affected if the finals were held in the morning.

Dr Craig Williams, the exercise physiologist with the English Institute of Sport, said yesterday that “because of the diurnal variations in the hormones of an athlete, it is usually an advantage to compete later in the day. However, all individuals are different so there are exceptions to this.

“If the finals were in the morning, athletes would have to get used to being at their peak at that time, given the fact that for many of them, such as those from this country, they will have to overcome the time difference.”

Williams pointed out that having finals in the morning would be the same for all of the competitors taking part in the Beijing Games. However, he added: “You could postulate that the level of performance will drop off slightly, although by how much is not established.”