The torch relay for the Beijing Olympic Games will last seven days on Greek territory, after the Lighting of the Flame in Ancient Olympia on March 24.
According to a press release from the Hellenic Olympic Committee, the Olympic Flame will cover in Greece 1.528 kilometers by the hands of 605 bearers.
The torch relay will pass through 16 prefectures, 43 municipalities, 4 communities and there will be organized 29 ceremonies in specific cities along the route of the torch relay.
The Olympic Flame will be lit in Ancient Olympia at 12.00 o’clock March 24 and will be handed over to the Organizing Committee of Beijing on the March 30 at 15.00 at the Panathenaikon Stadium in Athens, the venue where the first Modern Olympics Games began in 1896.
The “Bird’s Nest“, as the Beijing National Stadium is also known because of its very distinct structure, has its 80,000 seats been installed on the stands.
The National Stadium will host the main track and field competitions for the 2008 Summer Olympics as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. It is located right next to the Beijing National Aquatics Centre.
In 2002, Government officials engaged architects worldwide in a design competition. Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron collaborated with ArupSport and China Architecture Design & Research Group to win the competition.
Made of modified polypropylene, the seats have shown excellent performance in flexural strength and impact strength tests, and the colors of the seats will remain fade-resistant for three years under ultraviolet radiation, according to the construction company.
Russia is to send a 900-strong team to the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China, head of Russian sports bureau Vyacheslav Fetisov said here on Tuesday.
“The Russian Olympic delegation has 900 members, including 400 athletes, coaches and medical staffs,” Fetisov said.
More than 1,000 athletes from 72 regions of Russia are currently preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he said.
The Russian team has now won licenses for the participation in 23 individual sports at the upcoming Olympics, he said.
“The athlete lists have already been decided for such events as basketball, volleyball, free wrestling, gymnastics, eurythmics and track-and-field,” Fetisov said.
Fetisov said earlier that Russia is expected to win 38 to 40 gold medals during the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Russia won 27 gold medals and ranked third at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Australian cyclist Anna Meares, winner of the 2004 Olympic 500-meter gold medal in track cycling, could miss a chance to defend her title due to a serious race accident.
Meares suffered a fractured neck vertebrae and dislocated shoulder in a crash during a track cycling World Cup meet in Los Angeles nine days ago.
The crash has put her Beijing Olympic selection in jeopardy and forced her out of Australian and world championship meets.
“I realize that I’m pretty lucky with the injuries that I have come away with,” Meares said Tuesday. “The C2 vertebrae, so I have been told, is the one that controls all your breathing and if that goes, so too does your life.”
Meares, who will be sidelined for about six weeks, sits fourth on the World Cup points table, with the top nine granted an Olympic berth.
With two Olympic qualification meetings to come, Meares, 24, could be surpassed by other riders _ meaning she would need an exemption from world cycling’s governing body, the UCI.
The UCI can award wild cards to riders, but only if a pre-qualified cyclist withdraws from the Olympics.
“If I miss out on points, I will have to continue training through and hope the UCI gives me that wild card,” she said.
Australian track cycling head coach Martin Barras said Meares’ Olympic selection “has been taken out of our hands”.
“Where we had control of the selection process, now we don’t anymore,” Barras said.
“Considering the severity of the injuries, we don’t want to mingle with her recovery with any sort of pressure with regards to qualifying or getting back into racing before she is fully ready _ the severity of the neck injury dictates that.”
Meares also suffered torn neck muscles, torn shoulder tendons and bruising in her fall in the kierin final in Los Angeles.
“I remember hitting my head and being in a lot of pain straight away, and the next thing that I remember was being on the bottom of the track being tended to,” she said.
“When it’s explained to you how severe the injury could have been, (I feel) fortunate to walk away with as little as I have got.”
Mark Spitz‘s record haul of seven gold medals at a single Olympics will not be threatened by compatriot Michael Phelps at the Beijing Games in August, according to retired Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe.
Five-times Olympic gold medalist Thorpe, who retired at the age of 24, said tough competition for Phelps will mean Spitz’s haul at the 1972 Games in Munich will remain the benchmark.
“I wish him all the very best. I don’t think he will do it, but I’d love to see it,” the 25-year-old told reporters in Beijing on Monday.
“There’s a thing called competition. It won’t just be one athlete that will be competing, and in a lot of events he has a lot of strong competition,” Thorpe said.
American Phelps, 22, who will choose an event programme in Beijing that will give him every chance to beat Spitz’s record, won six golds in Athens in 2004.
Thorpe won three golds as a 17-year-old at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and did the 200 and 400 meters freestyle double in Athens.
He announced his retirement in November 2006, citing a lack of motivation. Thorpe said he was content with life after competition and had no desire to return to the pool competitively.
“I have had inklings of getting back in and swimming, not competitively, but they last for like five seconds, and then I’m over it again,” he said.
“For those brief five seconds it’s a wonderful thought, but it’s not going to happen until I can think about it for at least five minutes.”
In November, swimming’s world governing body FINA said it had abandoned its investigation into Thorpe after Australian doping authorities cleared him of any wrongdoing. The case came to light in March after test results were leaked to a French newspaper.
Thorpe, who has always maintained his innocence and vowed to take legal action once the case was closed, said he was still scarred from the controversy.
“I feel exactly the same way as before… I don’t know the words to be able to explain my grief in dealing with this and how I felt during that time and how I continue to feel to this day, being accused of something I was opposed to throughout my career,” Thorpe said.
“I’m still working through that and there will be a resolution, I can tell you that, and it will happen in the next couple of years.”
Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar shattered the world indoor record for the women’s two-mile race at the Boston Indoor Games on Saturday, while Australian Craig Mottram clocked the fastest 3,000m time in the United States. MeseretDefar, the 5,000m Olympic and world champion and outdoor world record holder, clocked 9:10.50 to blitz the previous two-mile mark of 9:23.38 by American Regina Jacobs here in 2002.
New Zealander Kim Smith, who trains in nearby Rhode Island, finished second in 9:13.94.
Defar, the 2007 IAAF female athlete of the year, said there was still room for improvement.
“I’m not running today 100 percent,” Defar told reporters. “I could have run faster.”
Mottram, aiming to make up for the disappointment of last year’s world championships, cruised to an impressive 7:34.50 in the men’s 3,000m — the fastest time recorded over the distance in the United States, indoors or out, and an Australian national record.
Mottram bettered Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie’s 2004 indoor U.S. all-comers record of 7:35.24 and topped the outdoor best of 7:35.44 run in 2005 by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge. He also eclipsed his national record of 7:39.24 set at the same meet last year.
Markos Geneti of Ethiopia was a distant second in 7:41.81.
“Had I known it was Haile’s I would have tried a little bit harder,” Mottram said with a chuckle. “He’s definitely the greatest distance runner of all time. That’s one record I’ll be proud of.”
Mottram will face double world champion Bernard Lagat in the mile at next week’s Millrose Games in New York.
World 10,000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia shook off recurring cramp to win the women’s 3,000m with a 2008 world-leading time of 8:33.37. Her sister, Ejegayehu Dibaba, was second in 8:36.59.
There was disappointment for Olympic and world heptathlon gold medallist Carolina Kluft of Sweden, who could finish no better than third in the long jump with a best of 6.34m.
“I’m very disappointed today,” Kluft said. “It was just one of those bad days where everything goes wrong. I had no feeling. No rhythm,” she added.
American outdoor record holder Jenn Stuczynski returned from Achilles and back problems to win the women’s pole vault at 4.60 metres but failed in three attempts at a U.S. indoor record of 4.82.
A English-Chinese edition of first aid guidance has been issued to help athletes and tourists at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
The pamphlet translates medical expressions on different types of allergies, diarrhea and fever, and contains a map of hospitals and first aid centers in the Chinese capital.
In case of emergency, the brochure can also be used as an SOS sign, as the bright red color of its cover is easily seen.
Sources claim other seven-foreign-language versions of the pamphlet will be released during the Beijing Olympic Games in this summer.
Beijing has launched a series of campaigns to ensure food safety and the health and personal security of foreign athletes and tourists for the Games.
From January to May this year, local police will beef up campaigns against organized crime, robbery, murder and other severe criminal offenses as well as collect illegally-held explosives, guns and ammunition, and strengthen control over bows and crossbows.
The police will also step up surveillance of entertainment venues to fight pornography and gambling, and remove safety hazards within 200 meters of Olympic venues.
The city expects to welcome more than 500,000 visitors from overseas during the games, with the largest daily visitor-inflow estimated at 300,000. It has 806 star-ranking tourist hotels offering 130,000 guest-rooms or 220,000 beds. Other public lodging houses and inns will serve another 646,000 beds.
Beijing is also expected to solicit around 1,000 local households as “Olympic Family Hotels” to receive foreign visitors in effort to increase the city’s guest room supply.
Also, it is estimated that 450,000 tickets for this summer’s Olympic Games have been allocated, accounting for about a quarter of the tickets available for sale in the second phase.
More than 700,000 orders for 4.2 million tickets were received, but only 123,000 bookings were confirmed after a computerized random draw.
BEIJING - The “Water Cube“, one of the two iconic venues for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was unveiled on Monday.
Known officially as the National Aquatics Center, the Water Cube has been dubbed the “cool” building of the Games. The building’s design and its translucent, blue-toned outside skin make it look like a cube of bubbles - like “bubble wrap.”
Forty-two gold medals well be handed out at the Water Cube during the Olympics, which start August 8.
It was the publics first look at the building after a little more than three years of construction.
The venue has 6,000 permanent and 11,000 temporary seats. Like the 91,000-seat National Stadium - the “Bird’s Nest,” which will be completed in March - both are seen as works of art and will anchor the Olympic Green area.
The Water Cube has been built to be converted to a shopping area and leisure center with tennis courts, retail outlets, nightclubs and restaurants.
“This building was designed for use after the games,” said John Pauline of PTW Architects, one of the lead architects on the Water Cube. “We were looking at 30 or 40 years from now.”
The outside skin is made of a Teflon-like material, ETFE (ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene). Composed of two layers, it’s separated by an interior passage that allows the building to breathe like a greenhouse.
The Water Cube was built at a cost of more than US$200 million (euro136 million), with donations of US$110 million (euro75 million) from people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Province.
There will be 37 venues for the Olympics. Beijing is the site of 31, 12 new, 11 renovated, and eight temporary structures. Most are located in four clusters in the north of the city. Five more venues for soccer and sailing are located outside Beijing, and equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong.
Organizers will stage a swim meet in the Water Cube on Friday to test the facilities.
Football designed for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was launched in Beijing on Sunday by adidas, an official partner of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Featuring Chinese characters ‘China‘ written by Former president of the Football Association of China Nian Weisi, the ball will be used in Olympic football preliminaries in Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao, and the Olympic finals in the Olympic City of Beijing.
Nian Weisi introduces the football. (Photo credit: Sportsphoto.cn)
Only 450,000 tickets for this summer’s Olympic Games have been successfully allocated, accounting for about a quarter of the tickets available for sale in the second phase, the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee (BOCOG) said on Sunday.
More than 700,000 orders for 4.2 million tickets were received by BOCOG, but only 123,000 bookings were confirmed after a computerized random draw, BOCOG said in a notice posted on its website.
Though BOCOG didn’t give a reason why about 75 percent of the tickets remain unsold, it is believed that it resulted from the fact that some popular events were extremely over-subscribed while the rest events had much less bookings.
Rong Jun, deputy head of BOCOG’s ticketing center, said earlier that the demand was “extremely high but too centralized on several hot events”.
A total of 1.8 million tickets to the sports events of the Aug. 8 - 24 Games, together with 21,000 tickets for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games and 26,000 tickets for the closing ceremony, were put on sale in December.
More than 1.5 million tickets were allocated in the first stage of ticket sales last year.
A series of injuries derailed Stacy Dragila’s pole vaulting career, but the 36-year-old is back in Idaho with her focus on Beijing.
The 2000 Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion is on the comeback trail from her second Achilles surgery in two years, and her journey brings her to the Treasure Valley on Saturday.
The Blue & Orange Classic begins at 9 a.m. at the Jacksons Track at the Idaho Sports Center in Nampa and will feature college athletes from Boise State, Arizona, California and Stanford among others. The women’s pole vault is scheduled for 1 p.m.
“I’m kind of just getting the rust and the cobwebs out,” said Dragila, a 1995 Idaho State graduate who hopes to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. “I think it’s feasible to jump 14 feet this weekend, maybe a little higher. I would be really happy with that.”
This coming from a two-time Olympian, the pioneer who once dominated the sport and still holds the American indoor record of 15 feet, 9 1/2 inches.
Dragila was the gold-medal favorite for the 2004 Athens Olympics, but failed to qualify for the finals when Achilles’ tendinitis in both heels grounded her. It happened again at the 2005 world championships in Finland.
Dragila didn’t throw in the towel, and in the summer of 2006, had surgery on her right Achilles. But after a strong comeback season last spring, Dragila again struggled with injuries and couldn’t compete at the U.S. outdoor championships.
In June, she had surgery on her left Achilles and spent the summer and fall rehabbing the injury. Dragila, who moved to Phoenix in 2003, moved back to her house in Pocatello earlier this month, where she’s training under Idaho State head track and field coach Dave Nielsen.
“I got the OK from my doctor to go full steam ahead and decided to come back to Idaho,” Dragila said. “Judging by the weather, I picked a bad time, but it’s nice to see the snow again.”
Dragila will compete against American outdoor record-holder Jenn Stuczynski, 25, at the Millrose Games in New York next week. Stuczynski bettered Dragila’s U.S. outdoor record by half an inch last May with a vault of 15-10› and later became the first American to clear 16-0.
“I think (qualifying for Beijing) is quite realistic for Stacy,” Nielsen said. “Not to say it’s easy, but frankly, watching what she does and what other gals have been doing, (Stuczynski) is the only one who can hold a candle to her in the U.S. She’s still very strong and athletic.”
Dragila vaulted 12-11 using a short approach at a meet in Pocatello last week.
“I wasn’t trying to make a huge height. I just wanted to make sure I was ready before I came up to Boise,” Dragila said. “I feel like (the Blue & Orange Classic) is a good, low-key way to prep for Millrose.”
After her trip to New York, Dragila said she plans to come back to Idaho for two meets. She’ll compete in Pocatello’s Mountain States Invitational on Feb. 8-9 and will do some exhibition vaults at the Simplot Games the following week.
The U.S. indoor championships, where Dragila is an eight-time champion, are Feb. 23-24 in Boston. To qualify for Beijing, the nine-time U.S. outdoor champion must finish in the top three at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., on June 27-July 6.
Kenyan-born American Bernard Lagat hopes to repeat his world championship 1,500-5,000 double at the Beijing Olympics this year.
Lagat, 33, became the first man to complete the world double in Osaka, Japan, last year and now wants to emulate Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj, who won both events at the 2004 Athens Games.
“It is do-able,” Lagat told a news conference in Glasgow on Thursday. “If I keep the same mental focus I will be able to do both. After the first round of the 5,000 it hurt. After I did the 1,500 I was feeling fresh but then when I went to my first race in the 5,000 I realised I was tired. Thankfully, we had two days off.”
Lagat, who won silver in the 1,500 in Athens 0.12 of a second behind El Guerrouj, is competing in an international indoor meeting in the Scottish city on Saturday.
He said he did not plan to run at the world indoor championships in Valencia, Spain, in March. “I thought about doing the world indoors but decided not to do it because I want to concentrate on good training for the Olympics,” he said.
“I have to qualify in both so I will continue in my season for now and then around July or August I can make my decision. I do not have to make my decision now.
“When I ran the 1,500 and 5,000 in Osaka (Japan) it gave me a different look on how things are. It is not easy doing the double. “People may have thought that ‘it seems like he is winning so easy’ but the burn was hurting on the third day of competition.
“It is also a great challenge that I have come through and have to keep trying it again. Hopefully, I will not be tired.”
The Presidents of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, and of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the Hon. John Fahey, met today at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, to discuss cooperation between the two organizations and enhanced strategies in the fight against doping in sport. This was the first official meeting between the two leaders since the commencement of Mr Fahey’s term as WADA President on 1 January 2008. The meeting took place in the presence of the Presidents of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and of the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) as well as the Chairmen of the IOC Athletes’ and Medical Commissions.
“The IOC has been wholeheartedly supporting WADA and will continue to do so in the future. Mr Fahey can count on the total commitment of the Olympic Movement in the fight against doping,” said the IOC President. “WADA has come a long way with the establishment of the WADA Anti-Doping Code, for example, but challenges remain. Efforts are still needed to allow the full implementation of the Code by the Olympic Movement by 1 January 2009 and the adhesion by governments to the UNESCO Convention. I am confident that Mr Fahey will significantly help to move things forward”, he continued.
“The IOC itself continues to enforce its zero-tolerance policy against doping through a comprehensive program of testing during each edition of the Olympic Games — 4,500 in- and out-of-competition tests will be carried out next summer in Beijing — by calling upon the cooperation of governments, by imposing financial penalties on NOCs and athletes, and by denying participation in the next Olympic Games for athletes and their entourage who have been sanctioned for more than six months”, Rogge added.
“The IOC President and I had a very productive meeting that focused on the next steps to be taken to further strengthen the fight against doping in sport,” said the WADA President. “The IOC was instrumental in WADA’s inception in 1999 and, under President Rogge’s leadership, has always shown tremendous support to WADA and an unwavering commitment to the fight against doping in sport. President Rogge assured me of his full and continued support to WADA’s work.”
“WADA is a unique partnership between the sports movement and governments of the world,” continued Fahey. “As the first government representative to serve at the helm of WADA, it is important for me to meet with the leader of the Olympic Movement to discuss several areas in which the fight against doping can be advanced. For one, I will be focusing much attention on maximizing the role of governments for enhanced cooperation and sharing of information between governmental and law enforcement agencies and sports authorities. High-profile doping cases and investigations underscore the fact that no sport and no country are immune to the threat of doping, as well as the critical need for strong collaborative sport-government efforts in confronting doping.”
WADA is funded by and composed in equal parts of the Olympic Movement and governments of the world. Under the Agency’s Statutes, the WADA Presidency and Vice-Presidency alternate between the sports movement and governments.
Tourism authorities here are looking for welcoming households to provide rooms for foreign visitors during the summer Olympics.
Xiong Yumei, deputy director of the Beijing Tourist Bureau, said that the bureau would recruit about 1,000 households as “Olympic Family Hotels” to increase the city’s guest room supply for the event. More than 500,000 overseas visitors are expected during the summer Games, with the largest daily inflow estimated at 300,000.
Xiong said that Beijing has 806 star-ranked hotels that have 130,000 rooms with 220,000 beds. Other lodging houses and inns have another 646,000 beds.
“The guest room supply may still fall short of demand, especially for hotels close to the sports venues,” said Xiong.
She said that the bureau would choose among households’ applications in March. “Families should own the apartments that they plan to offer and be able to provide foreign guests with spare rooms, good ventilation and sanitary conditions,” said Xiong. She added that at least one person in each household should be able to communicate in English.
Homestays are popular in Western countries but relatively new to China. Other requirements set by the Beijing Tourist Bureau include changing of bedding, appropriate dressing by household members and a willingness to help guests find their way around the city and the Games.
The charge for homestays will be US$50 to 80 per day, less than most hotels. Xiong said that the price might be adjusted to reflect market fluctuations.
The cost of a five-star hotel room during the Games is forecast to be about 2,960 yuan (US$411) per night. For four-star hotels, it is forecast at 2,320 yuan; for three-star rooms, 1,600 yuan and for two-star accommodations, 1,200 yuan.
Suspended Olympic 100 meters champion Justin Gatlin has appealed his four-year doping ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), his attorney said on Tuesday.
“With these filings, Mr. Gatlin is taking the next steps in recovering his right to defend his gold medal in the 100 meters, silver medal in the 400 meters relay and bronze in the 200 meters at the Beijing Olympics,” Maurice Suh said in a statement.
The appeal was filed on Monday to Lausanne-based CAS.
“While there are many possible avenues that we are currently exploring, the appeal of the arbitration panel decisions are a critical component of his defense,” Suh’s statement added.
A three-member American Arbitration Association (AAA) panel banned Gatlin for a 2006 positive test for the banned male sex hormone testosterone and its precursors, ruling it was Gatlin’s second positive.
Gatlin tested positive in 2001 for an amphetamine contained in a medication he took for 10 years for Attention Deficit Disorder. He was suspended for two years but the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) later found Gatlin had not intentionally committed a doping violation and reinstated him after one year.
The IAAF also said any repetition of Gatlin’s 2001 positive test would result in a life ban.
But Suh, who also represents banned cyclist Floyd Landis, said in his appeal the 2001 case should not be considered a first offense.
If CAS were to agree, Gatlin’s 2006 positive test would be considered his first and he would be eligible for a two-year ban. That would allow him to return to competition in May, a month ahead of the U.S. Olympic trials.
“To use this (2001) sanction to bar him from participating in the Olympics is a prime example of unfairness to an athlete, and a grossly inappropriate balance of anti-doping efforts against the right of individuals to pursue their careers and their dreams,” Suh said.
“Most troubling, it constitutes a discrimination against a person with a diagnosed disability.”
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