Sarkozy is simply skipping the opening ceremonies. Nothing more.......of interest though is that Mr. Brown is also skipping the opening ceremonies according to officals at No. 10 Downing Street.
Of course, he's now saying that he never intended on going to the opening ceremonies. He is only going to the closing ceremonies when he and GB are to recieve the Olympic flame from China.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7339580.stm
So, now the leaders of UK, France and Germany are all skipping the opening. I guess they must all be crazy and or racist according to the logic on other threads. Or maybe they all just never intended on going to the opening ceremonies after all.