China and Algeria both received double happiness in judo as they each wrapped up the two golds in women’s and men’s competition respectively at the Beijing Paralympics on Sunday.

Guo Huaping and Cui Na both surprised their coaches and themselves after winning the women’s -48kg and -52 kg divisions.

Guo overwhelmed Brazilian Karla Cardoso, silver medallist at the 2004 Athens Paralympics, by an ippon.

The 27-year-old from a farmer’s family in east China’s Jiangxi Province participated in the Athens Games where the women’s judo made its Paralympic debut and finished fifth.

Guo started strongly to throw Cardoso for yuko in the final while the Brazilian could hardly cope with the aggressive rival. A determined Guo ended the match after throwing Cardoso for ippon.

Earlier, Carmen Brussig from Germany and Russian Victotia Potapova conquered the bronze medals.

“I didn’t do well in Athens 2004, because I was too nervous since it was my first major competition. I worked very hard in the past four years, but I didn’t expect a gold medal. I was just thinking to make the top three,” said Guo. “I have no time to call my families so far, but I can’t wait to share my happiness with them.”

Less than six minutes after Guo’s inspiring triumph, her teammate Cui Na defeated Sandrine Aurieres-Martinet from France in women’s -52 division.

Cui, a Paralympic debutant, won over the stubborn French rival by waza-ari 30 seconds before the five-minute bout ended.

The 19-year-old, who plans to extend her golden trip to London in 2012, took the gold not only as a reward to her own effort, but a morale booster for all disabled people in China.

“I’ve been training for seven years. It’s very hard. This is the first gold medal for our country in the -52kg division. I think it’s a breakthrough,” she said. “I also want to say, although we are disabled, we have very strong minds.”

The bronze medals went to Russia’s Alesya Stepanyuk who beat the Japanese Minako Tsuchiya by awasete ippon, while Brazilian Michelle Ferreira overcame Sheila Hernandez from Spain by ippon.

While China dominated the judo mat in women’s event, Algerian judokas made a gold sweep in men’s competition.

Mouloud Noura captured the gold of men’s -60kg class after overcoming Iranian Saeed Rahmati, while Sidali Lamri beat three-time Paralympic champion Satoshi Fujimoto from Japan to win the gold in the men’s -66kg division in overtime.

Noura sailed into the final with two straight ippon victories and the 26-year-old showed even stronger determination in the final. The victory came less than 40 seconds into action and the Algerian threw his Iranian rival for ippon.

“There’s a loser and a winner in any competition and the only thing I’ve thought is to win the gold medal. I’ve made every preparation to win the Games,” said Noura.

China’s Li Xiaodong won his second Paralympic bronze medal after the Athens Games by overcoming the Russian Said Shakhmanov in less than one minute with an ippon, while Ramin Ibrahimov from Azerbaijan shared the third place with the Chinese by beating Britain’s Ben Quilter.

In the last match of the day, Algerian Lamri upset Japanese Fujimoto, the favorite for men’s -66kg division, in the golden score period. The Japanese had his right arm injured during the regular five-minute bout, but he was unremitting until Lamri finally threw him for waza-ari.

“In the name of God, I would first like to say that winning this medal was very and very difficult,” said Lamri. “I am very happy and proud winning this gold medal. I have known Fujimoto for a long time. I have defeated him before and he did too.”

Despite letting go a fourth Paralympic gold, Fujimoto was satisfied with his performance.

“A lot of people expected me to get the gold, but I’ve got the silver. But I’m still proud to return to Japan with it,” he said.

In the bronze medal matches, Victor Sanchez from Cuba defeated Ukrainian Sergii Karpeniuk Arpeniuk by waza-ari and Jani Kallunki beat Reza Golmohammadi Andarian from Iran by osaekomi ippon.

from: xinhuanet.com

Sport-by-sport guide

Archery
Archery has been a Paralympic sport since Rome 1960. At the Paralympic Games, archers shoot the Olympic round only (70 meters, qualification & finals): Men’s Individual Olympic Round; Men’s (Open) Team Olympic Round; Women’s Individual Olympic Round and Women’s (Open) Team Olympic Round. Archers compete both standing and in a wheelchair in women’s and men’s categories. The Paralympic program includes singles and team events, and the competition and scoring procedures are identical to those used in the Olympic Games. Team competition is an open competition for both men and women and includes three archers of any class (standing or sitting). Archery opened the first International Games for the Disabled at Stoke Mandeville in 1948. It reached a new pinnacle 44 years later when Paralympian Antonio Rebollo ignited both the Olympic and Paralympic flames in Barcelona with a fire arrow.

Athletics
Athletics became a Paralympic Games sport in Rome, 1960 and has more events and competitors than any other sport in the Paralympic Games. Track events include all Olympic distances (100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m, 10000m, marathon, 4 x 100m relay and 4 x 400m relay). Field comprises, shot put, discus, javelin, club throwing (for severely disabled athletes), pentathlon, long, high and triple jump. Wheelchair racing, 60m sprint was included in the Paralympic Games for the first time in Tokyo, 1964. This continued to be the standard racing distance until Toronto, 1976, when 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m events were introduced.

(Wheelchair) Basketball
Wheelchair Basketball was developed by Sir Ludwig Guttmann at Stoke Mandeville Hospital following WWII as a form of rehabilitation for injured war veterans. Basketball became a Paralympic Games sport at the first Games in Rome in 1960. Wheelchair Basketball is open to male or female athletes and is played by two teams of five players each. Players are allocated points from 1 to 4.5 depending on their functional ability. Five players out of 12 from each team are on the court at any one time and throughout the game the total point value of each team on court must not exceed 14 points.

Boccia
Boccia is unique to the Paralympic Games and was refined from an ancient Greek ball tossing game by the Italians in the 16th century. Men and women compete together in team, pairs and individual events. It is a game of precision with leather balls thrown as close as possible to a white target ball (the jack) on a long, narrow field of play. Boccia became a Paralympic Games sport in Barcelona, 1992.

Cycling
Cycling competitions are relatively new for athletes with disabilities. In the early Eighties, the visually impaired were the first group of athletes to compete, and athletes with cerebral palsy and amputees began racing at the International Games for the Disabled in 1984. Up until the 1992 Paralympics, the competitons for each of these different groups were held separately. Then, at the Barcelona Games, spectators witnessed intense competitions in both track and road races between athletes in all three disability groups. The cycling events are divided into individual and team (a group of three cyclists from one nation) events. Athletes with cerebral palsy compete using standard racing bikes and, in some classes, tricycles. Athletes who are blind or visually impaired compete on tandem bicycles with a sighted team-mate, and they participate in the road race and the time trial events. Finally, amputees and cyclists with permanent locomotor deficiencies compete in individual road race events using cycles specifically constructed for their needs. Handcycling was included for the first time at the Athens Paralympic Games. Handcycling is for athletes who normally require a wheelchair for general mobility, or athletes not able to use a conventional bicycle or tricycle because of severe lower limb disability.

Equestrian
Riders compete only in individual and team dressage and develop creative ways to communicate with their horses if they are unable to give signals with their legs, such as utilising a dressage whip or other aids. In dressage competition, riders perform individually and they must ride a pattern which includes various changes in pace and direction. At the Paralympics, all riders are grouped according to their functional profiles and they are judged on their ability to control and maneuver the horses. Prior to Athens, athletes competed on borrowed horses. Own horses were used in Athens. Equestrian became a Paralympic Games sport in Atlanta 1996.

(Wheelchair) Fencing
Fencing became a Paralympic Games sport in Rome in 1960. There are team and individual events for men and women in foil and epee and for men only in sabre. Athletes are connected electronically to a scoring box that records hits on their opponent. In the initial rounds of the competition the first fencer to score five hits wins but in the latter stages it is the first to 15 hits.

Football
Seven-a-side football, for players with Cerebral Palsy, became a Paralympic Sport in New York in 1984 when the Games were split – for financial reasons -between Stoke Mandeville, England and New York. Five-a-side football for visually impaired athletes was introduced at the Summer Paralympic Games in Athens 2004. Goalkeepers can be visually impaired (B2/B3) or fully sighted in five-a-side football. GB has two sighted goalkeepers. The goalkeepers are not permitted to leave their area.

Goalball
Goalball was invented in Europe in 1946 and was used for sport and rehabilitation for the post WWII blind veterans. The game was introduced to the world in 1976 at the Paralympic Games in Toronto and the first world championships were held in Austria in 1978. Women first competed in goalball at the 1984 Paralympic Games in New York. All players wear masks and bells in the ball enable players to pick up its movement. Taped lines on the court enable players to ‘feel’ their way around the court. Audience/spectators are asked for silence while watching, as players listen to the bells. Goalball is a team sport for men and women. A team is comprised of six players with no more than three players per team on the court at any one time. The object is to roll the ball past the opposition defence and into the opponent’s goal. A bell inside the competition ball enables defending players to hear it and try to prevent its passage. Matches are played on a court 18m x 9m in two, seven-minute halves, with three players on each side. No GB team competing.

Judo
Originating in the late nineteenth century, judo developed from a diverse range of Japanese combative arts and was funded by Professor Jigoro Kano who studied the principles of the jujitsu schools of Japan’s Samurai warriors when developing the sport. Judo’s inherent qualities of touch, balance and sensitivity complement the highly developed skills of visually impaired athletes. Visually-impaired judo became a Paralympic sport at the 1988 Paralympics in Seoul. Women competed for the first time at the Athens Paralympic Games in 2004. Unlike sighted judo, visually-impaired judo fighters begin bouts holding each other’s judogis (suits).

Powerlifting
The benchpress competition widely known as “weightlifting ” was among one of the original Paralympic sports dating back to its inclusion in the second Paralympic Games in 1964 and was offered exclusively to Spinal Cord Injured lifters. The sport undertook a major transition with the incorporation of identical rules as those of the able-bodied “powerlifting” competitions and with the inclusion of other disability groups. At the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona, 25 countries participated in the Powerlifting competitions. That number more than doubled in 1996 at the Atlanta Paralympic Games with 58 countries in participation. Since 1996 that number has risen to a total worldwide membership of 109 countries on five continents. Women competed for the first time at the Sydney Games in 2000.

(Wheelchair) Rugby
Wheelchair rugby, formally known as ‘murderball’, is unique to the Paralympic Games. It was invented in the 1970′s in Winnipeg by persons who had become quadriplegics as a result of spinal cord injuries to the neck. The purpose of the game is for players to score goals by touching or crossing the opponent’s goal-line while maintaining possession of the ball. Using a volleyball, players carry, dribble or pass the ball while moving toward the opponent’s goal area. The player in possession of the ball must dribble or pass at least once every ten seconds. A goal is scored when a player in control of the ball touches the goal-line with two wheels. It is believed to be the fastest growing wheelchair sport in the world. After being a demonstration event at the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, wheelchair rugby became a full medal sport at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney. Full contact sport. The athletes’ village has a welding workshop for repair to chairs after collisions.

(Adaptive) Rowing
Rowing was introduced to the Paralympic Programme in 2005 and will make it’s debut to the Games in Beijing in 2008. Rowers compete in four Paralympic boat classes – men’s arms only single scull (AM1x), women’s arms only single scull (AW1x), trunk and arms mixed double (TA2x) and legs, trunk and arms mixed coxed four (LTA4+) and each class race over a distance of 1000m. Rowing is open to athletes with spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, lower-limb amputations and visual impairments.

Sailing
Sailing was introduced as a demonstration sport at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games and became a full-medal sport at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney. Crews of three athletes compete aboard the 23-foot keelboats in the Sonar event. The 2.4mR is a single-handed keelboat. Both events are open to male and female competitors. There are slight modifications in equipment and a scoring system assigns points based on a level of disability, which allows athletes from different disability groups to compete together. Sailing is open to amputee, cerebral palsy, visually impaired, wheelchair and les autres athletes

Shooting
Shooting became a Paralympic Games sport in 1980 during the sixth Paralympic Games in Arnhem. The shooting competition is divided into rifle and pistol events, air and .22 calibre. Athletes shoot from three positions: standing or sitting, kneeling and prone. The programme includes men’s, women’s, mixed and team events, although team events are not held at the Paralympic Games.

Swimming
Swimming has been a Paralympic Games event since the first games were held in Rome in 1960. It is one of the largest and most popular competitive events in the Paralympic Games. Athletes compete in freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, individual medley and relay ranging from 50m to 400m. Swimming is open to all disability groups, including swimmers with spinal cord injuries, swimmers with cerebral palsy, swimmers with amputations and others swimmers including those with progressive diseases such a muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis, dwarfs, swimmers with joint disabilities including stiffness, spina bifida, swimmers with a combinations of different disabilities, etc; blind and partially-sighted swimmers.

Table Tennis
Table tennis has been a Paralympic sport since the first Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960. Table tennis is played in over 50 countries and in terms of the number of participating athletes is the fourth largest Paralympic Games sport behind athletics, swimming and powerlifting. Table tennis competitions take two forms at the Paralympic Games: standing and wheelchair events (sitting). Individual and team, men’s and women’s events are included in the program.

Wheelchair Tennis
Wheelchair tennis was a demonstration sport at the 1988 Seoul Paralympic Games and became a full-medal sport at the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona, with men’s and women’s singles and doubles events being a part of every Paralympic Tennis event since then. The Quad division (for players affected in three or more limbs) made its Paralympic Games debut in Athens in 2004, where Peter Norfolk MBE became Great Britain’s first-ever Paralympic Games gold medallist in tennis, winning the quad singles title before partnering Mark Eccleston to silver in the quad doubles.

Volleyball
Volleyball was introduced to the Paralympic Games in Arnhem in 1980. Originally both standing and sitting competitions were included in the Games, however, standing volleyball was removed from the programme following the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney. In sitting volleyball the court is smaller than standard (6x10m) and has a lower net, so the game is a considerable faster than the standing equivalent. The game lasts up to five sets and the winning team is the first to win three sets. The team winning the set is the one to reach 25 points with at least a two-point lead.

source: telegraph.co.uk

Saeed Rahmati of Iran lost to Algeria’s Mouloud Noura in the final of the Men’s -60Kg Judo competitions for the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games held in Beijing Sunday, but won silver medal in this category.
Iranian judoka triumphed in his first encounter against Uruguayan competitor on Sunday morning and then went on to defeat Cuba’s Sergio Perez during the Men’s -60kg preliminary judo match at the Paralympics.
Earlier, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad participated in the opening ceremony of Paralympic Games at the “Bird’s Nest” on Saturday night.
Ahmadinejad met with the Iranian Paralympians on Saturday morning in the Paralympic village and encouraged them to perform to their full potential in the prestigious competitions.

source: tehrantimes.com

Italy hopes the country’s largest-ever Paralympic team will deliver an outstanding performance in Beijing.

Italy has sent 84 athletes to compete in 12 sports, including athletics, cycling, fencing and swimming, at the Beijing Paralympics, hoping to bring back home at least 15 medals, said Luca Pancalli, president of Italy’s Paralympic Committee.

Pancalli had once represented Italy in modern pentathlon at junior level before a fall from horse back left him in a wheelchair.

However, the 44-year-old lawyer did not quit from his athletic career, winning four gold and six silver medals at the 1984 and 1996 Paralympic Games.

Pancalli said he hoped that the increase of the Italian Paralympians at the Beijing Games will encourage more disabled people to go out to take part in sports in the country.

Italy stood 31st on the medal table of the 2004 Athens Paralympics with four golds, eight silvers and seven bronzes.

Italy’s National Olympic Committee has announced that the gold, silver and bronze medal winner at the Beijing Paralympics would be awarded a prize of 75,000 euros, 40,000 euros and 25,000 euros respectively.

from: xinhuanet.com

Australia’s Paralympic team says it has been disappointed with the support it has received from the corporate sector.
The Beijing Paralympics start this weekend, with the opening ceremony taking place Saturday night.
The head of the Australian team Darren Peters says it’s been difficult to find corporate sponsorship.
“Very disappointed in the banking/finance sector – we’ve got so many letters of rejection from them, even for any approaches,” he said.
“None of the top sponsors have partnered with us and so we’ve had to go about that the hard way.
“And there’s certainly been a shift away from sport since Athens and it’s something we’re going to have a look at between now and London to try to sort that out.”

source: radioaustralia.net.au

Inspired by the golden exploits of their Olympic compatriots, Great Britain’s Paralympians are in bullish mood at their holding camps in Macau and Hong Kong ahead of the thirteenth Paralympic Games in Beijing, that opens on Saturday.
“The Olympics were an inspiration to us,” Phil Lane, the chief executive and chef de mission of the Britain Paralympic team, said. “We come just after so that is always likely, but this one has been so fantastic for us that it would be difficult not to be inspired. Everyone is so confident here.”
But rather than fighting to move up the medals table, Britain’s challenge is to repeat the success of finishing in second place in Sydney in 2000 and Athens four years later. For Lane, who has been a reassuringly strong leader since taking over in 2001, it has been about managing expectation. For much of this year UK Sport and the British Paralympic Association (BPA) have been in disagreement about what the medal target should be for Beijing.
UK Sport, after the increase in lottery funding for the BPA, said that it was 40 golds and 110 medals and finishing second in the table, while the BPA said that it was 35 golds, 95 medals and the top five. Part of the BPA’s caution is based on the result that one key injury, for example to David Roberts, the swimmer, could take away 10 per cent of their golds. UK Sport’s is partly because the team of 206 athletes contesting eighteen of the 20 sports are the best-prepared and best-funded to leave Britain.
“The difference between Athens and now is that, given the increase in lottery funding that the athletes have enjoyed over the last four years, they are preparing in an increasingly professional way and training alongside the Olympians in the same training environment,” Lane said.
The rise in Paralympic funding has not been as dramatic as the increase from £70 million to £235.1 million for the Olympic team, but it has more than doubled from £14.8million for the four-year cycles up to Athens to £29.5 million for Beijing.
Lane plays peacemaker and spread-better. “We are hoping for between 35 and 40 gold medals based on performances in the last 12 months,” he said. “You would hope that would get us in the top five, but we’re not going to be No1.
“I’ll have a wager that you will be able to come back whistling the Chinese national anthem.” The host nation are expected to be even more dominant in the Paralympics than they were in the Olympics.
The Paralympics have again expanded from 3,806 athletes from 136 countries at Athens in 2004 to 4,099 athletes from 145 nations in Beijing. China will be represented by 332 athletes. The hosts have the numbers and have prepared and targeted events backed by enormous funding. While many countries struggle to build Olympic high-performance centres, China constructed a £55 million National Paralympic centre in the Shunyi district of Beijing. Teams who have visited have been staggered by its size.
At Athens in 2004, China leapt ahead and were more dominant than any country in the modern era of the Paralympics since 1988. China won 63 golds and 141 medals. Britain were second with 35 and 94 respectively. In Beijing, China are expected to win between 70 and 75 golds.
“We all need targets, but I think everyone recognises what is feasible and they know it is no longer a case of just two or three countries dominating the medal table,” Lane said.
Lane is right that Paralympic Games are increasingly competitive as more nations take them more seriously and the United States Paralympic team are talking tough again after slipping down the table in Sydney and Athens. In Seoul in 1988, 49 countries won medals. In Athens in 2004, that increased to 75 countries, although 600 more medals were awarded that year.
“The number of medals being won, notwithstanding the Chinese, is gradually starting to even out,” Lane said. “We’re expecting big challenges from people from countries like the Ukraine, who I spoke to this week. They’ve been encamped in China for a month at one of their specialist high-performance Paralympic centres. We would hope to win more medals than them, but the issue is that they may well challenge in areas where traditionally we’ve been strong.
“Brazil were garnering medals at World Championships at a rate of knots. The Americans are very confident that they have put Athens behind them and are back where they should be.
“I think there is going to be a bigger spread of medals than ever before.”

from: timesonline.co.uk

Olympics inspire mandatory sports lessons in Beijing

Beijing schoolchildren, returning to school on Monday after China’s hugely successful showing in the city’s Summer Olympics, will have to take one period of physical education tuition every day, state media said.
The opening ceremonies on the first day of school across the city were marked by Beijing 2008-inspired themes placing an emphasis on Olympic education in the new school year. “Students had huge grins on their faces upon receiving the new schedules with volleyball, aerobics and co-ed sports courses added daily, compared to just sports activity time before,” the Beijing Youth Daily said.
China has in the past promoted more exercise to beat growing obesity in its children, blamed on a sedentary lifestyle and fondness for unhealthy Western-style fast food.
Figures show about a quarter of Chinese adults are obese or overweight, which is lower than many other countries but has jumped from 13 percent in 1991 with forecasts it could double by 2028.
Two years ago, the Education Ministry ordered compulsory dance exercises including waltzes at all primary and secondary schools to get children fit.

source: guardian.co.uk

Australia’s Paralympic team is aiming to take its all-time medal tally over 1000 at the Beijing Games starting on Saturday.
The team of 170 athletes – 96 men and 74 women – which flew out from Sydney today is the largest team Australia has sent overseas for a Paralympic Games.
And the Australian Paralympic Committee is confident it can collect the 92 medals it needs to take Australia’s tally to 1000 over the past 48 years.
“Its a hard task, but we’re in the running for that and we could win the 1000th medal in these Games,” committee CEO Darren Peters said. “It’s pretty exciting.”
No more specific medal projections would be made so as not to place extra pressure on athletes already feeling the weight of expectation, he said.
The athletes will have a few days to acclimatise to conditions in Beijing before the 13th Paralympic Games, which run from September 6 to 17.
At the Paralympics in Athens in 2004, Australia won 100 medals and came fifth overall with 26 gold, 38 silver and 36 bronze.
China topped the medal tally with 63 gold and 141 medals overall and is expected to considerably exceed their 2004 tally at their home Paralympics.
The team’s best-known athlete Kurt Fearnley, who won gold in the wheelchair marathon in Athens, was impatient to get started.
“It’s been four years in waiting,” Fearnley told AAP.
“I’m putting myself in for individual medals and hopefully I’m on the higher end of the medals.”
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s wife Therese Rein, an honorary member of the Paralympic team, was at the airport to wish them luck.
“The team is brilliant and the atmosphere and support between athletes is amazing,” she said.
“They’ve all trained really hard and I’m sure they’re going to do brilliantly.”
Ms Rein’s father was an Australian Paralympic athlete in the 1950s.
“He was an archer, he played wheelchair basketball, he played tennis and he swam,” said Ms Rein.
“Sports was really meaningful for him and helped him to be the best he could be.”
Australian Paralympic Committee chairman Greg Hartung said the team was the best away team Australia had ever assembled.
“They are big on talent and big on toughness and we will expect our athletes to perform at peak value for Australia,” he said.

source: smh.com.au

Police in China shoot dead 6 suspects in Xinjiang

Chinese police investigating a spate of attacks this month in western Xinjiang province shot dead six suspects and arrested three others, state media reported.
An exile group, meanwhile, accused police Saturday of gunning down the suspects, members of the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, after they surrendered.
Police encountered nine suspects in a corn field near the far western city of Kashgar on Friday evening, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The suspects had knives and tried to resist arrest, putting up a “desperate struggle,” it said late Friday.
A policeman and a local militia man were wounded in the clash, the report said.
Initial investigations linked the suspects to attacks on Aug. 12 and Aug. 27, Xinhua said. The report gave no other details.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, said armed police surrounded the corn field and asked the Uighur men through a loudspeaker to surrender themselves, promising to provide them with lawyers.
The suspects did not resist arrest and police with submachine guns opened fire after they had surrendered, Raxit said in a statement Saturday, citing accounts by local Uighurs.
An official from the Xinjiang government — speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media — said six suspects were shot dead. But he denied the men had been shot after surrendering and called the allegations “nonsense.”
The predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang saw three deadly attacks blamed on Uighur separatists before and during and the Beijing Olympics. Videos appeared online with self-professed Uighur militant groups threatening the games.
On Aug. 12, attackers jumped from a vehicle and stabbed civilian guards, killing three at a roadside checkpoint in Yamanya town, near Kashgar. The assailants escaped. Two Chinese policemen died and seven more were wounded after a clash Wednesday in a village in Jiashi county.
No one has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks. Government officials have blamed Uighur militants.
China has long said that insurgents among the region’s dominant ethnic Uighurs are leading an Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang — an oil and gas-rich region on the border with Afghanistan, Pakistan and six Central Asian nations.
The Uighurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims with a language and culture distinct from the majority of Chinese.
Critics accuse Beijing of using claims of terrorism as an excuse to crack down on peaceful, pro-independence sentiment and expressions of Uighur identity.

source: ap.google.com

The Paralympic Village in Beijing officially opened its doors yesterday to Paralympic delegations from all over the world. The village is expected to be the temporary home for 7,400 guests, around 4,000 of whom are athletes, during their stay in Beijing.
The colourful ceremony gave organizers and hosts the opportunity to welcome the athletes, officials, staff and volunteers. Various high-ranking officials were present at the official opening, including Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, BOCOG President Liu Qi, IPC President Sir Philip Craven and IPC Vice President Miguel Sagarra. The Chinese Paralympic delegation raised China’s national, signaling the official moving in of this year’s 547 member delegation, the largest in Chinese history.
Some of the facilities of the Paralympic Village, covering 66 hectares, have been adjusted to the needs of the Paralympic athletes. The entire complex meets specified accessibility standards to allow athletes independent living conditions. “Tactile and accessible pavements as well as other facilities for people with a disability have been installed in public areas,” said Chen Zhili, the Paralympic Village Mayor. “The serving tables were all lowered, the passageways were also enlarged and wheelchair-traction services by golf carts are also available,” she added.
The Paralympic Villages are equipped with relaxation areas, shops, gyms, restaurants and medical and massage rooms. The villages of the co-host cities Qingdao and Hong Kong also opened their doors yesterday.
After the Paralympic Games, the Village will become property of the city and will be used for housing.
In addition to the Village opening, a memorial wall dedicated to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was unveiled. Hui Liangyu said at the unveiling that the UN Convention was a guiding document for the international community to deal with affairs concerning persons with a disability and a milestone in the progress of human civilization.

from: paralympic.org

A shot for Olympic gold can be an opportunity of a lifetime for athletes. But for companies that spent heavily on advertising and marketing at the Olympics, the Beijing Games offered a different kind of golden opportunity: the chance to advertise their goods to a worldwide audience and for more exposure to consumer-rich China.
“Until China, never before has the market potential of the host country on its own been viewed as possibly worth the significant investment,” says Julius Roberge of branding company Siegel + Gale.
Twelve companies from a variety of industries acted as worldwide Olympic sponsors for the 2008 Games, while others sponsored individual teams or athletes.
Of the represented industries, three stood out as successes — sportswear, media and food and beverage — in their bids to seize worldwide recognition for their brands to boost sales and profit potential.
Every men’s swimming event was won by an athlete donning the Speedo LZR Racer suit, with 94 percent of all gold medals going to swimmers who wore one.
Speedo International is a unit of privately held Pentland Group, based in London.
Chinese sportswear brand Li Ning also got a boost after its founder lit the flame in the opening ceremony. Shares jumped as much as 13 percent during the Olympic Games.
“Li Ning might well have been the official sponsor for the games, in our opinion,” says Stifel Nicolaus analyst Thomas Shaw.
Audiences returned to watching broadcast TV to view their favorite events, even as Internet downloads of the competition surged.
General Electric (GE), the parent company of NBC, had the exclusive broadcast rights for the 17-day games. The network averaged 27.7 million viewers a night for its prime-time coverage, which was higher than the averages for both the 2004 and 2000 Olympics.
Food and beverage companies, meanwhile, were awarded with strong advertising and marketing relationships, including a Kellogg (K) deal with gold-medalist swimmer Michael Phelps and Coca-Cola’s (KO) unity-themed marketing campaign featuring Chinese basketball star Yao Ming.

source: seattletimes.nwsource.com

How to get your 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Tickets in BC

If you’ve ever dreamed of watching an Olympic event live and in person, here’s your chance. Between October 3 and November 7, 2008, Canadian residents can visit vancouver2010.com to request their choice of 2010 Olympic Winter Games tickets. Keep in mind, there’s no rush for Canadians to submit their request on day one, as ticket requests issued early have no advantage over those put forward closer to November 7.
Oversubscribed events, such as the ice hockey finals or the Opening Ceremony, will be allocated via lottery giving everyone who applies an equal chance to take in the action. Closer to Games time, remaining tickets will be available at box offices, through a call centre as well as online. Paralympic Winter Games tickets go on sale May 6, 2009. The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) will also be offering an Olympic Experience Package – a convenient way to see a variety of events while taking into account timing for transportation and early arrival at venues.

More good news? 2010 Olympic Winter Games admission prices start at $25, with half of the tickets available for $100 or less. In addition, US and all other international spectators can purchase their tickets through their respective National Olympic Committees.

source: travelvideo.tv

Michael Phelps 100M Butterfly Victory!!!
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Japan is well known for bribery in getting international events. If they can’t do it then they will try to bribe someone to get things going. For the Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing it wasn’t all that clear what was going on.
Keirin is a cycling sport popular in Japan. However, it is virually unknown outside that country. The organisers of keirin wanted to make it more popular. How to do that? By making it an Olympic sport. And how to persuade the Olympic Games to adopt the sport? Maybe a $3 million bribe helped:

Documents given to the BBC suggest that $3m (£1.5m) was paid by organizers of a Japanese cycling event to the UCI – the world cycling body. The payments were allegedly made in the 1990s. The sport, called the keirin, was supported for inclusion into the Games by the UCI, and admitted in 1996.

For the Nagano olympics:

Meanwhile, the mayor of Nagano said that the city’s Olympic bidding committee’s decision to destroy its expense books had been proper and merely “the Japanese way of doing things.” Mayor Tasuku Tsukada said he left the decision on how to destroy the expense books to other officials. He explained that the expenses were approved at the committee’s general meeting and that meant, as a matter of course, that the records could be destroyed. “In Japan, that means it’s all done and finished,” he said. Some IOC officials inspecting Nagano as a possible site for the 1998 Winter Games were entertained by geisha, an official admitted yesterday. But he denied they were prostitutes. “We couldn’t very well have had the governor pour drinks,” Sumikazu Yamaguchi, a member of the bidding committee, said. “All they did was pour drinks and dance.”

from Wikipedia:

the 1998 Games went to Nagano, Japan in a 46-to-42 vote. Many felt the reason was because the US had recently been awarded the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Others, including Welch, believed it was because Nagano had better wined and dined the officials.

In 2006, a report ordered by the Nagano region’s governor said the Japanese city provided millions of dollars in an “illegitimate and excessive level of hospitality” to IOC members, including $4.4 million spent on entertainment alone.

And read this one: (source: findarticles.com)

A new report on Nagano’s successful bid for the 1998 Winter Games, ordered by the regional government, found that an “illegitimate and excessive level of hospitality” was handed out by the Japanese city.
The Nagano Prefecture Investigation Group Report comes more than 14 years after the International Olympic Committee chose Nagano over Salt Lake City in a close vote, even though the Utah capital was widely seen as better qualified to host the Olympics.
Salt Lake City went on to be awarded the 2002 Winter Games but sparked a worldwide scandal eight years ago when Utah bidders were accused of buying IOC votes with more than $1 million in cash, gifts, trips, scholarships and even medical treatments.
There were always similar concerns about Nagano’s bid but no proof because records had been burned. Now, according to an abstract in English of the investigation group’s report, dated Nov. 22, 2005, new problems with the Nagano bid have been documented, including:
– Nearly $544,000 (all dollar figures are calculated at current conversion rates from Japanese yen) in souvenirs were given out during the bid, an average of about $5,700 per IOC member. The gift limit at the time under IOC rules was $200.
– More than $4.4 million was spent to entertain IOC members during the bid, an average of about $46,500 per IOC member.
– There was no accounting of how approximately $776,000 was used during the 1991 IOC session in Birmingham, England, where the host city for the 1998 WinterGames was selected.

One government official told the investigation group that the money was used for “lobbying and promotional activities, and simply there were no receipts. Therefore, a phrase like ‘unaccounted for’ is not right, because it sounds like somebody stole it.”

– The total price tag for promoting Nagano’s Olympic bid was more than $24 million, almost five times as much as Salt Lake City’s bid for the 1998 Winter Games reportedly cost.
– The previously revealed destruction of 90 boxes of bid records — possibly, the report stated, at the request of the then- prefectural governor — “should still be viewed as a criminal act,” because the records were supposed to have been maintained for five years.

A bid committee member told the investigation group that the records “probably included a great deal of IOC-related secrets and personal information — it might lead to trouble if the documents were kept.”

The investigation group concluded the reason was because during the bid “illegitimate and excessive levels of hospitality were offered” that had to be hidden from Nagano citizens.

– A signature was forged on a document required to take a ceremonial sword, reportedly valued at $13,000, out of Japan to be presented to then-IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. The report suggests whoever forged the signature might be guilty of a criminal offense.

The report appears to confirm the suspicions many had after Salt Lake City became the subject of local, national and international investigations. Rumors had started shortly after Nagano’s victory about IOC members having been provided with geishas and expensive artwork and electronics.
One story frequently told was that the Nagano bid committee reportedly gave members of the IOC expensive video cameras just before the IOC vote, while Salt Lake City’s bid team handed out disposable cameras.
Among the critics was Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who blamed Salt Lake City’s loss to Nagano on “corruption,” later claiming “Japanese leadership just basically bought the Olympics. . . . We were swindled out of it.”
But soon after the Salt Lake scandal surfaced, it was revealed that Nagano had set fire to its bid records. That appeared to make it impossible to verify allegations that theJapanese city violated IOC rules.
The Nagano investigation group, however, was able to piece together information at least about how much money was spent, by combing through a pile of documents that weren’t destroyed and interviewingJapanese bid and Olympic officials. Their report does not include details of what the Nagano bid actually purchased for IOC members.
But even though the report “revealed new findings, including how much public money has been misused,” there has been little reaction to it, according to journalist Tatsuya Iwase, one of five members appointed to the group created by Nagano Gov. Yasuo Tanaka in February 2004.
Despite the lack of interest, though, Iwase said in an e-mail that the advisory group is continuing to look at the impact of the Olympics on the finances of Nagano, a relatively rural mountain region known as the “Roof of Japan.”
Anti-Olympic activists in Nagano have long questioned the amount of money invested in the 1998 Winter Games, complaining that residents have been left with little more than debt.
Tanaka’s successful campaign to lead the prefecture, an entity similar to a state, focused on the need to investigate the Olympic bid further.
Repeated attempts by the Deseret Morning News to contact Tanaka about the report were unsuccessful.
Canadian IOC member Dick Pound, who headed the Switzerland-based organization’s investigation in the Salt Lake scandal that resulted in the ouster of some members, said Friday he had not even heard about the Nagano report.
“It might be of interest,” Pound said, even though the IOC investigative commission he led has long been “out of business.” He was surprised at the size of some of the expenditures listed in the Nagano report.
“That sounds high to me,” Pound said of the amounts the Nagano report said was spent on IOC members for gifts and entertainment. “But then some of my colleagues are higher maintenance than I am.”
It was Salt Lake City’s meticulous record-keeping that helped land its bid in trouble. The scandal started with a letter from an IOC member’s daughter about the financial assistance she was receiving from bid officials.
The records even led to the two top leaders of the Salt Lake bid, Tom Welch and Dave Johnson, being prosecuted by the federal government on numerous felony charges related to the scandal, but the case was thrown out midtrial by a Utah judge in 2003.
Welch could not immediately be reached for comment about the Nagano report.

How much will they try to pay to each IOC member this time?
IOC: don’t be a fool again! Slap the japanese bribers!

read more articles about the bribes of the japanese:
- 1999: Olympic officials face bribery charges

Bribes in Japan are just normal practice to have things rolling.

Beijing has recruited 44,000 volunteers to provide services at venues of the Sept. 6-17 Paralympic Games, an organizer said Thursday.

The volunteers came from 27 countries and regions, and 90 percent of them had served at Beijing Olympic Games, said Liu Jian, director of the volunteers department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

All of them had received training over the past three years, especially on how to serve the disabled, Liu said.

“We dispatched them to rehabilitation centers in the city to offer services, to learn to better communicate with the disabled and improve their service skills,” he said.

Statistics with Liu’s department show more than 1.1 million people submitted applications to volunteer for the Olympics during the recruitment period from Aug. 28, 2006, to March 31 this year. More than 900,000 of them also applied to work for the Paralympics.

Beijing recruited more than 74,000 volunteers to provide services at venues, the Olympic Village and media centers of the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games, with the oldest aged 87. They came from 98 countries and regions.

BOCOG had also recruited 400,000 “city volunteers” to offer information services, translation and first aid at 550 temporary volunteer stations around the capital.

In addition to the Olympic volunteers directly serving the Games and the “city volunteers”, BOCOG organized 1 million “social volunteers” to offer services, such as maintaining traffic order and public order at communities and townships.

“During the Paralympics, the city volunteers and social volunteers will continue to offer services, as they have done during Olympics,” Liu said.

source: xinhuanet.com

The Beijing Paralympic Games, scheduled for September 6 to 17, will award a total of 471 gold medals for 20 sports.
To ensure fair and safe competition, athletes with similar degrees of disability will be grouped in the same class. The Beijing Paralympics have set up 20 sports, and as a result of classification, a total of 471 gold medals will be awarded.

Medical classification for athletes with disabilities is a complicated task. Classification is conducted through medical and functional assessment, mobility tests and field observation.

Traditionally, athletes belong to six different disability groups in the Paralympic Movement: amputees, cerebral palsy sufferers, the visually impaired, spinal cord injured athletes, those with intellectual disabilities and a group which includes those that do not fit into the aforementioned groups, Kazinform quotes The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.

from. inform.kz

Dubbed “Sky, Earth and Human Beings,” the emblem of the Beijing Paralympics is a stylized figure of an athlete in motion, implying the tremendous efforts a disabled person has to make in sports as well as in real life. With the unity and the harmony of “sky, earth and human beings,” the emblem incorporates Chinese characters, calligraphy and the Paralympic spirit. It embodies the Paralympic motto of “Spirit in Motion” and reflects the integration of heart, body and spirit in human beings — the core of the philosophy of Chinese culture. The three colours in the emblem represent the sun (red), the sky (blue) and the earth (green).

Attention is now turning to the Paralympics, which many hope will improve the situation for the disabled in China.

The pictograms will be widely used in the road signal system, in the symbols and decorations in and outside the venues, as well as in the guides for athletes and spectators. They will also be used in TV broadcasting, in promotion, in advertising and in marketing, to enrich the public experience of the Paralympic Games. Being important components of the image of the Paralympics, the pictograms must reflect the Paralympic sports clearly and in keeping with the other visual elements of the Beijing Paralympics such as the emblem and the color system, and act as carriers of the concepts of the Paralympic Games and of the culture of the host county.

The design of the medals for Paralympic Games is inspired by the ancient Chinese dragon-pattern jade disc: jade disc wedged on the obverse of the medal with the Emblem of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games in the center. The color of jade varies with the gold medal, silver medal and copper medal from white, gray-white to gray. The design of the medal hook derives from jade “huang”, a ceremonial jade piece with decoration of double dragon pattern and “Pu”, the reed mat pattern, classic and elegant.

The design concept and pattern of the medals for the Paralympic Games is similar to those of the medals for the Olympic Games, reflecting the fairness and mutual respect of all people. The medals for Paralympic Games have the same value and honor with those for Olympic Games and are the best symbol for the concept of “One World One Dream”.

Jade culture has lasted for over 8000 years in China. Jade disc used to be a ritual ware for grand ceremonies in ancient China. Besides, Chinese nationality has the tradition of regarding jade as the supreme symbol of prestigious morality. The jade on the Paralympic medals is an honorable recognition of winners and also a modern interpretation of the traditional values of Chinese people, representing the perfect match of the Chinese civilization and the Paralympic Spirit.