San Francisco braces for Olympic torch protestsStory Highlights
Police officers' vacations canceled as city prepares for protests
IOC's executive board will discuss torch relay later this week
Ending flame's global tour early not an option, IOC spokeswoman says
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SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- San Francisco authorities are getting ready for protests Wednesday when runners carry the Olympic torch through the city, hoping to avoid the chaos that disrupted the relay in London and Paris.
Tibetan monks protest in San Francisco along the Olympic torch's 85,000-mile route toward Beijing.
1 of 3more photos » Police officers' vacations have been canceled. Mayor Gavin Newsom has said that the route along the waterfront -- already cut from eight to six miles -- could be changed up to and even during the run itself.
"Things are still subject to change based on the information that we receive," San Francisco police Sgt. Neville Gittens said. "The goal is to have a safe event for everyone -- spectators and participants."
A spokesman for the group Students for a Free Tibet said he has heard of many people planning to protest in San Francisco.
"We want it to be peaceful. But it will be large," said spokesman Tenzin Dasang. "I heard from Tibetans that now live all over the U.S. and even abroad who are coming here." Watch protests as Olympic torch arrives »
San Francisco is the only U.S. stop for the torch relay, where it wraps up the first week of a 23-city international tour.
When the flame arrived in the city Tuesday, thousands of people -- chanting slogans and waving banners -- demonstrated against China's human rights record, including its treatment of Tibet.
A day earlier, three protesters scaled suspension cables on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled a large banner that read "One World. One Dream. Free Tibet." The demonstrators used baby carriages to sneak the banners and climbing equipment past police.
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The San Francisco protests followed demonstrations in London and Paris in which protesters tried to snuff out the torch's flame and dozens were arrested.
"The whole world seems to spontaneously react to the situation and know that it's a fraud what the Chinese are doing," said actor Richard Gere, who has been a consistent advocate of human rights in Tibet.
Gere belongs to the International Campaign for Tibet, one of several organizations that took part in Tuesday's protests.
"What the Chinese are doing, this is not an athletic game to them," he said. "This is putting a stamp of approval on repression and human rights abuses."
Fears of protests prompted one of the San Francisco torchbearers to drop out of Wednesday's relay. But two-time Olympian Marilyn King plans to run, despite some apprehensions.
King knows firsthand the worst-case scenario of the Olympic stage. She was at the 1972 Munich games when 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were killed by terrorists.
King also lost her chance to compete in the pentathlon in 1980 because of the U.S. boycott of the Moscow games.
"There are always people who are willing to step outside those boundaries," she said. "So I have some anxiety about that." Watch activist reveal why she's carrying torch »
The flame is on a 130-day journey that will take it through through 23 cities on five continents and then throughout China, culminating at the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing on August 8.
Beijing organizers have said the monthlong international relay will not be stopped despite the protests, but some International Olympic Committee members have suggested an early end should be considered.
The International Olympic Committee's executive board is scheduled to meet Wednesday, but a spokeswoman declined to say which members plan to discuss.
The board will take up the topic of the torch relay "in general" on Thursday or Friday, IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. But there is no proposal to end the global tour early, she added.
The president of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, is expected to meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. The meeting was pre-scheduled and will focus on the preparations for the Olympics, the IOC said.
On the torch's visit to France on Monday, protesters forced an abrupt halt to the flame's passage through Paris after just 10 miles of the 17-mile (28 km) route.
On Sunday, at least 36 people in London were arrested along the torch's route, according to London Metropolitan Police.
An Olympic committee member suggested Monday that the public relations nightmare that has followed the Olympic flame on its way to the Summer Games in Beijing may make 2008 the last time such an ambitious global torch relay is attempted.
IOC member Richard Kevan Gosper, who is also chairman of the IOC's press committee, told reporters he was always opposed to a global tour for the flame.
"I'm a firm believer that we had the right template in the first place, that the torch simply should go from Olympia, Greece, to the host country," he said.
Liu Jingmin, vice president of the Beijing organizing committee, said the Olympic torch has been "warmly welcomed by the local people" in each city.
He said the organizers "are confident that the Beijing Olympics torch relay in overseas cities will be carried out successfully."
China's foreign ministry reacted more forcefully.
"We express our strong condemnation to the deliberate disruption of the Olympic torch relay by Tibetan separatist forces regardless of the Olympic spirit and the law of Britain and France," China spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday. "Their despicable activities tarnish the lofty Olympic spirit and challenge all the people loving the Olympic Games around the world."
