Beijing Olympic Games 2008

BEIJING (Reuters) - The Beijing Games opening ceremony set a very high standard and Vancouver, hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics, has its work cut out to follow it, its Games chief said on Saturday.
Speaking a day after the Games opened in Beijing with a four-hour extravaganza that won rave reviews around the world, Vancouver chief John Furlong said his ceremonies’ team had already started thinking of ways to rise to the challenge.
“I was mesmerized. I could have stayed in the stadium all night,” Furlong told Reuters in an interview.
“I had the time of my life and I had said before that people would have great difficulty to find the words and that was a pretty accurate assessment.”
A spectacle of sight and sound, the Beijing Games ceremony featured colorful dances, tightly choreographed drumming and barrages of fireworks captivating 91,000 spectators in the Bird’s Nest stadium and TV viewers around the world alike.
“It was remarkable. I think we saw a new horizon,” said Furlong who will not have the $100 million to spend, which the Chinese dished out, on his Games’ opening event.
The Vancouver Olympics come with a novelty though. It will be the first time the opening and closing ceremonies will be held indoors, at the BC Place stadium in downtown Vancouver.
“We have a controlled environment,” Furlong said. “It is a stadium that has been tested and our team is great and dreaming has already started.”
Winter Games are a much smaller affair than the Summer Olympics but Canada is one of the natural homes for winter sports.
Gone is the international torch relay that caused Beijing considerable headaches in the run-up to the Games, as human rights protests peppered the flame’s trip across the world.
Canada will hold only a domestic relay to “bring the Games to every Canadian”.
“The opening ceremony will be a truly Canadian story told by Canadians,” Furlong said.

from: reuters.com

Planning for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver has reached a major milestone with the release of hourly event schedules of both the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

The Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee announced Saturday that the Olympic schedule has been approved by the executive board of the International Olympic Committee, which is currently in Beijing preparing for the upcoming 2008 Summer Games.

The hourly Paralympic Winter Games schedule was approved by the International Paralympic Committee in 2007.

Detailed schedules for both events are available at www.vancouver2010.com.

“This is a major milestone we can share with our sport and broadcast partners who worked closely with us to develop a balanced Games schedule that satisfies the respective International Sport Federations, television audiences around the world and spectators who will attend the Games,” Vanoc executive vice-president Cathy Priestner Allinger said in a statement.

The opening ceremony will take place at B.C. Place on February 12, 2010 at 9:00 p.m. ET.

The final event of the Games will be the high profile men’s gold-medal hockey game, which goes February 28 at 3:15 p.m. at General Motors Place.

source: canadianpress.google.com

The Vision
The vision of the Youth Olympic Games is to inspire young people around the world to participate in sport and adopt and live by the Olympic values. It was during its session in Guatemala in July 2007 that the IOC decided to create a nw sporting event to educate, engage and influence young athletes inspiring them to play an active role in their communities.

What are the YOG?
The Youth Olympic Games are a sporting event for young people, balancing sport, education and culture. These Games work as a catalyst in these fields throughout the Olympic Movement.

The YOG’s objectives are:
1. to bring together the world’s best young athletes and celebrate them
2. to offer a unique and powerful introduction to Olympism
3. to innovate in educating and debating Olympic values and challenges of society
4. to share and celebrate the cultures of the world in a festive atmosphere
5. to reach youth communities throughout the world to promote Olympic values
6. to raise sports awareness and participation among young people
7. to act as a platform for initiatives within the Olympic Movement
8. to be an event of the highest international sporting standard.

Who? What? When?
The Youth Olympic Games aim to bring together talented athletes – aged from 14 to 18 - from around the world to participate in high-level competitions, but also, alongside the sports element of the event, to run educational programmes on the Olympic values, the benefits of sport for a healthy lifestyle, the social values sport can deliver and the dangers of doping and of training to excess and/or of inactivity.

The first ever Summer Youth Olympic Games will bring together approximately 3,200 athletes and 800 officials in 2010. The sports programme will encompass all 26 sports on the programme of the 2012 Summer Games, with a limited number of disciplines and events. The first Winter Olympic Youth Games will bring together around 1,000 athletes and 500 officials. The athletes will compete – for the first time in 2012 - in all seven Olympic Winter Sports. The YOG follow the traditional cycle of four years, with Summer Games in 2010, 2014, 2018, etc and Winter Games in 2012, 2016, 2020, etc.
Moscow and Singapore finalists for 1st ever Summer Youth Olympic Games
Out of a list of nine candidates, Moscow and Singapore have been chosen as the finalists for the election of the Host City of the 1st ever Summer Youth Olympic Games to be held in 2010. Their names, together with the evaluation report, have been be submitted to the IOC members for a postal vote. The winning city will be announced by IOC President Jacques Rogge in a live web cast on www.olympic.org on Friday 21 February 2008 from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

After the 1st Summer YOG in 2010 come the 1st Winter YOG in 2012
The IOC has already launched the bidding process for the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2012. A letter was sent out to all National Olympic Committees (NOCs) informing them of the procedure and documentation available for cities interested in bidding for the Games.

Source and for further informations: olympic.org 

The IOC opened the bidding process Wednesday for the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2012.
Letters were sent to all national Olympic committees inviting them to consider entering a candidate for the event, which will feature about 1,000 athletes aged 14-18. The deadline is March 6, with bid files to be submitted by June 19.
A panel of experts will propose a short list of candidates in August, and the International Olympic Committee will vote on the host city by postal ballot in November. The winner will be announced in December.
The games will feature the seven sports on the Winter Olympic program, as well as a limited number of events and disciplines “of particular interest to the younger generation,” the IOC said.
On Monday, the IOC chose Moscow and Singapore as the finalists for the inaugural Summer Youth Olympics in 2010. The winner will be announced Feb. 21.
The summer and winter Youth Olympics are designed to encourage youngsters to get involved in sports and spend less time in front of computer and television screens.

from: usatoday.com