Cuban swimmers Heisy Villarreal and Pedro Medel received invitation from the International Federation of Swimming (FINA) to participate in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The best ever Cuban swimmers are Rodolfo Falcon and Neisert Bent, who won silver and bronze medals in the 100 meters backstroke in the 1996 Olympics.
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The blue-colored National Aquatics Center (NAC), nicknamed the “Water Cube” and located by Beijing’s North Fourth Ring Road, was inaugurated and delivered for use on the morning of January 28, 2008.
It took over four years to construct the Olympic venue, which is a new landmark in Beijing.
The project’s ETFE air cushion structures are the first of their kind to be used in China and the largest and most complicated membrane system in any single project in the world.
With the efforts of various participants, many scientific and technical difficulties were overcome. Among the achievements, nine important self-dependent innovations resolved world-class difficult topics related to the project’s steel structures, membrane structures and inner layout, formulated related work procedures and technical regulations, and filled in the gap in China’s field of architecture.
Also, the NAC is the only Olympic venue to be funded by donations from compatriots. It reflects the great unity of the Chinese at home and abroad to stage the Olympic Games through joint efforts.
Located on the southern part of the central area of the Olympic Green in Beijing, the NAC has a planned construction area of 6.95 hectares. Being adjacent to the central axis of the city, the NAC is situated on par with the National Stadium, at an equal distance to the axis.
The NAC’s Games-time construction area is close to 80,000 square meters, containing 17,000 standard seats, including 6,000 permanent seats and 11,000 temporary ones. During the 2008 Olympic Games, it will produce 42 gold medals in swimming, diving and synchronized swimming.
After the Olympics, it will be converted into a multi-functional facility for sports, culture and recreation, featuring a “water setting” for members of society.
On January 31, the NAC will host its first Good Luck Beijing sport event — the 2008 Swimming China Open.
Stephen Park, Britain’s sailing team manager, said here Monday his team was trying to be as competitive as they could in all the classes when the Olympic sailing events were to be held here in the coming August.
Park made this remark during the ongoing 2008 IFDS (International Association for Disabled Sailing) Qingdao International Regatta here, the only test event for Paralympic sailing events.
“We are looking forward to the starting of the Olympics and it is nice to come back to visit all of friends,” said Park, adding that his team had fantastic Olympic test events here last year when they won five gold medals.
According to Qingdao Olympic Committee, Britain, with China and a few other countries, has been qualified for all 11 events in nine classes of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games sailing competition.
“We are expecting an exciting summer here in Qingdao and try as competitive as we can in every class. We have been training very hard and think we have a good chance to finish among the top six every time,” he said.
Though Park had been to Olympic sailing venue since the opening of the Olympic sailing center, this was his first time to visit the Qingdao Olympic sub-village here.
“During the test event last year, things are still in the building stages, so Qingdao has been making a lot of progress. It has fantastic facilities and all the athletes will be very well looked after. I think the athletes in Beijing would want to live here.”
Park came to Qingdao a couple of days before the commencement of 2008 IFDS Qingdao International Regatta. During his stay in Qingdao, he met the sailing competition manager and took the responsibility to look after the Britain paralympic team as well.
The ongoing 2008 IFDS Qingdao International Regatta, the only test event for the 2008 Paralympic sailing competition involved teams from sixteen countries and regions, would run from May 8 to 16.
Qingdao, a port city in east China’s Shandong province, will be the city for the sailing competition of the 2008 Olympic Games from August 8 to 24.
from: xinhuanet.com
With 100 days to go from Wednesday before the curtain rises on the 2008 Olympic Games, the organizers are busy fine-tuning for perfect staging of the world’s sporting spectacle.
Construction of venues, easing the city’s traffic congestion and efforts to clean up the air are all on target for the August 8-24 event, and International Olympic Committee officials have repeatedly voiced confidence that the athletes were going to experience a top class Games here this summer.
“There is every reason to believe that we will see here a gold-medal performance in August, also superb organization of the Olympic Games,” Hein Verbruggen, chairman of the IOC’s coordination commission for the Beijing Games, told reporters this month after his last inspection visit to the Chinese capital.
IOC president Jacques Rogge also predicted the Beijing Games to be a “great success”.
“Here and there are small details to be fine-tuned but I am saying that the level of preparedness … is really excellent and … I am optimistic that the Games will be a great success,” said Rogge.
The smooth construction of Olympic venues is a major source of confidence.
The National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest for its giant latticework structure of metal girders, opened and hosted its first official event on April 18 – a race-walking meet, putting an end to the city’s massive construction campaign that kicked off in December 2003.
Organizers said that the final touches on the 91,000-seat National Stadium won’t be complete until next month due to the extra work needed to prepare it for the August 8 opening ceremony. The iconic Olympic venue will also stage the closing ceremony and the athletics competitions.
The nearby National Aquatics Center, known as the Water Cube, was completed in January and hosted its first test event in February – the China Open swimming competition. The box-like venue with three pools below ground level is made up of a steel skeleton sheathed in a Teflon-like plastic membrance that mimics bubbling water.
Fears about risks of competing outdoors in Beijing are dwindling amid the continual improvement of the air quality. According to the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, the city notched up 67 “blue sky days” from January to the end of March, 12 more than the same period a year earlier and the highest in nine years.
Since being awarded the 2008 Games seven years ago, Beijing has engaged in an aggressive effort to clean up its toxic haze. The city has spent nearly more than 15 billion U.S. dollars on anti-pollution measures such as moving factories, adding subway lines, upgrading boilers and converting coal-heated homes to electric.
The authorities plan to close factories and force 19 heavy polluters to reduce emissions by 30 percent for the two months around the Olympics and Paralympics, and measures to limit factory emission are also in place for areas surrounding the capital, including the city of Tianjin, the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong, and the Inner Mongolia region.
Based on a study released last month by IOC’s medical commission, Rogge said that the health of the athletes is “absolutely not in any danger” during Games time.
Officials are also confident about bringing traffic congestion under control with a ban on some cars during the Olympics and a plan to set up special lanes on key roads that link competition sites with the athletes’ village, the media village and training venues.
“Private vehicles, excluding taxis, will be ordered to stay off roads every other day in accordance with the even and odd numbers on the licence plates,” Beijing’s vice mayor Ji Lin said last month.
“The government is working on a compensation scheme for car owners and we will announce it later,” he added.
Highlighting the public’s enthusiasm for the greatest show on Earth, more than one million people were in the hunt for an Olympics volunteer’s post and training programs are well under way.
Third phase of the domestic ticket sales will start on May 5, with large crowds expected to chase the remaining 1.38 million tickets for 16 sports including volleyball, athletics, boxing and football.
Zhu Yan, director of the Olympic ticketing center, promised that there will be no repeat of the meltdown of the booking system that marred the previous round of sales.
“We have confidence in the system because our ticketing sponsor has increased the system’s capacity by folds,” he said. “Nonetheless, I hope that the public won’t be hasty to buy tickets.”
Demand is excessive outside the Chinese mainland, too. “The main pressure at the moment is that many National Olympic Committees continue to ask for more tickets,” said Zhu. “We are trying to dig out resources for tickets to satisfy the demand worldwide.”
Of the 6.8 million Olympic tickets available for sale, about 75 percent are reserved for the domestic public, with the rest going overseas.
The organizers are closer to selecting an official theme song with 30 candidate songs expected to be released at a gala show later on Wednesday.
“The final choice (of the theme song) is up to the BOCOG executive board,” said Zhao Dongming, head of the BOCOG’s cultural activities department.
Last, but not least, various campaigns aimed at improving the behavior of local citizens finally bore fruits. More and more people are getting to abandon old habits like spitting in public, jumping ahead in line and littering.
A survey released by Renmin University of China in February found that in 2007, 2.54 percent of people still spat, roughly a half of the figure for 2006, and the occurrence of littering in public dropped from 5.3 percent in 2006 to 2.86 percent in 2007 and queue-jumping from 6 percent to 1.5 percent.
from: chinadaily.com.cn
A ticketing staff displays sample tickets for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing April 23, 2008. The tickets, with the “lucky cloud” and the Bird’s Nest designs will go on sale for the third round starting from May 5.
A total of 1.38 million tickets will be put on sale for 16 sports, including athletics, boxing, basketball, and soccer. Each individual buyer is allowed to purchase no more than six tickets – three tickets each for two sports sessions.
Chinese residents also have the possibility of buying six more tickets.
“If you order six tickets on the first day of this (third) round, you can buy more tickets several days later as long as you have paid the former six tickets,” explained Zhu Yan, the ticketing director of BOCOG.
Ticket will be sold on a “first come, first served” basis at Bank of China outlets and on the official ticketing website.
“There are roughly 100 days to go before the Games open. We don’t have enough time for a lottery draw,” said Zhu.
He promised the meltdown of the booking system, which disrupted the earlier round of ticket sales would not happen again.
“I have confidence in the system because the ticketing sponsors have made a lot of improvements,” he said.
The design for the tickets was also unveiled on Wednesday. It has drawn on the National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, and the lucky cloud as the main visual elements, said Zhu.
“We have adopted a series of anti-counterfeiting technologies in the process of designing the tickets. It is almost impossible to create fake tickets,” he said.
from:
Most people in France believe their country should attend the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, according to a poll by Ifop published in L’Equipe. 60 per cent of respondents think France should not boycott the games to protest China’s human rights record and recent events in Tibet.
In 1949, the People’s Republic of China was established as a one-party state. In the 1980s, the ruling Communist Party of China (ZGD) loosened a series of authoritarian restrictions and allowed private enterprise for the first time in decades. The country currently has one of the world’s fastest growing economies, becoming a global exporter and a very attractive venue for foreign investors.
China’s human rights record has remained a concern. Several campaigners claim the communist regime continues to torture and execute people. The country’s rule over Tibet has also been a point of contention.
Earlier this month, Reporters Without Borders called on heads of state and governments to boycott the opening ceremonies of this year’s Olympic Games as a way to underline China’s poor treatment of human rights. Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin agrees with the idea, and has called on French president Nicolas Sarkozy to second it. 54 per cent of respondents would agree with French leaders boycotting the opening ceremony of the games.
On Mar. 25, French swimmer Alain Bernard discussed his views, saying, “Boycott the opening ceremony, why not? It would be a huge message from the politicians. Boycotting is a very delicate question. As a sportsman, we will have an important role to play because what we are going to produce there, our results, will attract the eyes of the world. After that side of things, boycotting becomes a political decision. It is very delicate for us.”
Also on Mar. 25, Daniel Bilalian, director of sports at France Televisions, said the network may boycott coverage of the Beijing Olympics if China bans the broadcast of footage from demonstrations against the games.
Polling Data
Due to China’s human rights record and recent events in Tibet, there have been some discussions about boycotting the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Should France boycott the Beijing 2008 Olympics?
Yes 39%
No 60%
Not sure 1%
If France takes part in the Beijing 2008 Olympics, do you think French leaders should boycott the opening ceremony?
Yes 54%
No 45%
Not sure 1%
Source: Ifop / L’Equipe
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,007 French adults, conducted on Mar. 20 and Mar. 21, 2008. No margin of error was provided.
from: angus-reid.com
President Hu Jintao took part in the televised event at Tiananmen Square, holding the torch aloft before passing it to Chinese sporting icon Liu Xiang.
Security was tight amid concerns of possible anti-government protests.
Last week protesters opposed to Chinese actions in Tibet clashed with police at the torch lighting ceremony in Greece.
On Tuesday the torch goes to Almaty in Kazakhstan, its next stop on a tour of 20 countries.
The 130-day relay – the longest ever, and with the most torch-bearers – underlines the importance China is giving to the Games, which it hopes to use as a showcase of its rapid economic and political rise.
But activists say they intend to use the torch relay to highlight concerns over violence in Tibet, China’s role in Sudan and domestic human rights issues.
Lavish welcome
The flame arrived from Greece early on Monday, aboard a chartered Air China plane, and was greeted at Beijing airport by hundreds of flag-waving schoolchildren.
Students and workers sang the Olympic slogan “One World, One Dream”.
President Hu Jintao lit a cauldron on a red-carpeted rostrum, and then handed the torch to Olympic champion hurdler Liu Xiang, who ran the first leg of the relay.
“I declare the torch relay of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games begun,” said Mr Hu.
‘Timeless symbol’
Sunday’s formal torch handover was held in the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, where the first modern Olympics took place in 1896.
Minos Kyriakou, president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, passed the flame to the chief organiser of the Beijing Games, Liu Qi.
“The Olympic flame is the timeless symbol which stirs admiration, pride and faith [in] the Olympic ideals and values,” said Mr Kyriakou. “I hope the world community welcomes the flame and honours it”.
But there are fears the torch relay will be a magnet for anti-China protests, and activists have already been planning demonstrations in London, Paris and San Francisco – where the torch is heading in the next 10 days.
At last week’s flame-lighting ceremony in Greece, campaigners broke through police lines and unfurled a Tibetan flag before being dragged away.
On Sunday, as the torch was handed over to the Chinese, a small group of protesters tried to unfurl a banner which said “Stop genocide in Tibet”, but failed to enter the stadium.
A further flashpoint for protests could be Tibet itself. The torch passes through Tibet in May, en route to Mount Everest, and then again when it goes through the city of Lhasa in June.
Despite the massive security presence in Lhasa, there was a fresh protest there over the weekend, according to Tibetan activist groups.
from: bbc.co.uk
With the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay now underway and anticipation building for the Games themselves in August, the IOC’s Coordination Commission for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be in the host city of Beijing this week for its final review of the Beijing 2008 project. Led by Commission Chairman Hein Verbruggen, the members of the Commission will meet with their Beijing Organising Committee (BOCOG) counterparts to fully understand the state of BOCOG’s progress as the Games approach and also to help guide BOCOG as they finalise their preparations and operations.
Highest Standard
This will be the tenth visit of the full Commission to Beijing and marks the closing chapter of seven years of close collaboration between BOCOG and this expert IOC group. During that time, the members of the Commission have been able to assist and monitor BOCOG, as they collaborated towards putting on top-class Games for the athletes of the world in August 2008. And this visit will be no different as the Commission works with BOCOG down to the wire to ensure that the services that the athletes, media, spectators and National Olympic Committees (NOC) receive will be up to the highest standard possible.
ANOC and Executive Board
Following closely on the heels of the Coordination Commission, Beijing will also host the final General Assembly of the Association of National Olympic Commitees (ANOC) before the Games, as well as a meeting of the IOC’s Executive Board. The ANOC meeting will give the NOCs the opportunity to learn directly from BOCOG what has been planned for Games time and also to ask BOCOG any outstanding questions that they may still have ahead of the opening of the Olympic Village in July.
Beijing 2008
The Games of the XXIX Olympiad – Beijing 2008 will take place from 8 to 24 August 2008. The Games in Beijing will play host to the 28 summer sports currently on the Olympic programme. Approximately 10,500 athletes are expected to participate in the Games with around 20,000 accredited media bringing the Games to the world.
from: olympic.org
Foreign visitors troubled by language problems during Olympic sailing events will be provided with information and translation services in their mother tongues simply by dialing a specific telephone number in Qingdao, source with Qingdao Olympics Sailing Committee said Wednesday.
Considering the language problem visitors may encounter, Qingdao Olympics Sailing Committee was setting up a call center, where volunteers speaking fluent foreign languages will answer the calls made by language-troubled foreigners, giving directions or acquired information about traveling routes, weather forecast and sailing events schedule.
“Many foreigners worry about the communication barrier when they are traveling to a new place or having emergencies,” said Sun Yanli, chief of the OTG (On The Go), a volunteer group responsible for setting up the call center with the support from the Communist Youth League Qingdao Committee.
“However, things will get easier if they seek help from the call center after it is put into operation soon,” Sun said.
Qingdao, a harbor city of east China’s Shandong province, also co-host city of the Beijing Olympic Games, is expected to attract as many as 200,000 visitors when Olympic sailing events kicks off here between August 9-21.
“We have by far selected more than 60 volunteers from teachers, college students or citizens returning from overseas. Volunteers who speak English, Korean, Japanese and German are sufficient and we wants more Italian, Czech and Hungarian speakers,” said Xia Zhengqi, deputy secretary of the Communist Youth League Qingdao Committee.
According to Qingdao Olympics Sailing Committee, the dialing number of the call center will be announced around 100 days ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Besides giving information to foreign visitors, the call center also prepares a special hotline, offering translation services to journalists.
The call center will remain to function after the Olympics period and foreigners working and living in Qingdao are expected to enjoy more conveniences.
from: chinadaily.com.cn
The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) confirmed here on Thursday that the Olympic Flame for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be lit in Ancient Olympia at 12 o’clock at noon on March 24 and will be handed over to the Beijing Organizing Committee at 3 p.m. on March 30 at the Panathenian Stadium in Athens.
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.
The Olympic Flame will cover in Greece 1,528 kilometers by the hands of 605 bearers and 14 vehicles will follow them.
The Torch Relay will pass through 16 Prefectures, 43 Municipalities, 12 Municipal Districts, 4 Communities and there will be organized 29 ceremonies in specific cities along the route of the Torch Relay and in 5 archaeological sites.
from: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/13/content_7785042.htm
Countless numbers of envelopes and parcels exploded into the office for the Campaign to Solicit Songs for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on Monday. BOCOG has set up an Olympic Songfest, in which submitted songs will vie for a place of honor within Olympic history. With the March 10 deadline of this fourth and final round, songwriters all over the world wanted to get their submissions in before the doors closed. Among the clutter of return addresses, some familiar names stand out: Jay Chow, Lin Xi, Vincent Fang, and Xiao Ke, along with many other well-known musicians, have also joined in the fun.
The Jay Chow-Vincent Fang duo has been quite prominent in introducing popular songs to the world. In October of last year, Chow announced that he wanted to be a part of the creation of the Olympic song, attaching great importance to the role he wants to play. The song he composed and submitted for the Olympics, with the help of lyricist Vincent Fang, was the first song he created in 2008, differing in style with his previous songs, with an easily understood melody and simple lyrics. The song arrived at the office at 10 PM the night before, and from initial reactions, seems to be a hit.
Arriving on Monday afternoon was Lin Xi and Xiao Ke’s submission for the Olympic Songfest. Their song incited excited reaction from listeners, who believe the lyrics and melody allow people to feel the great power and deep spirit of the Olympics.
Although Monday is the official deadline for the fourth round of submissions for the Olympic Songfest, the office will continue to accept outstanding songs for the activity. Interested parties may still send songs in, which will, according to a representative of the office, still be judged using the same criteria. If a song passes the test, it may be used by BOCOG.
An unprecedented number of people took part in this last round of the Songfest. All submissions had to be postmarked by Monday, so there are still envelopes in the mail. Even so, the number of packages already in the office is impressive. The next step is for workers to ensure that copyright forms have been filed, before the selection process begins. By the end of April, the winners will be notified.
from: beijing2008.cn
Traffic ban shall be imposed during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, with the vehicles affected compensated by the government, said Ji Lin, vice mayor of Beijing on Friday.
“Automobiles, excluding taxis, buses and emergency vehicles, are to stay off roads every other day in accordance with the even and odd numbers on the license plates,” said Ji, a deputy to the 11th National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature.
“The ban is aimed to ensure air quality during the sport events in Beijing,” he said.
Drivers whose vehicles are stopped according to the rule will get compensation, Ji noted, adding that the compensation plan is being drafted and the amount is yet to be published.
Some vehicles belonging to government departments and state-owned enterprises are to be sealed, said the official.
To facilitate people’s travel, some buses will have their operation time prolonged or even run around the clock, while intervals between subway trains are to be shortened, he said.
Beijing tested a traffic ban from August 17 to 20 last year, removing 1.3 million or one third of automobiles from its gridlocked streets, which, according to an earlier report, reduced exhaust emissions by 40 percent each day.
The air quality seemed improved during the four-day trial, with the pollution index standing between 93 and 95, down from 116 on the day prior to the test.
During the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation from November 1 to 5, 2006, half of the vehicles from central government departments and army vehicles and 80 percent of the automobiles from the Beijing municipal government departments and the provincial bureaus located in the capital were ordered to stay off the roads. The move was also seen as a pre-Olympics rehearsal.
Beijing is going all out to clear its sky and remedy its clogging traffic for the Olympic Games this coming August, with boosting public traffic a major resort. The city slashed prices of public traffic and opened 27.6-km subway lines last year.
“Keeping public traffic at low price is not a makeshift, but a long-term policy to encourage more citizens to leave behind their cars,” said Ji.
The vice mayor also told Xinhua that Beijing would extend its rails to 561 km by 2015.
from: chinadaily.com.cn
More than 1 million people had applied to be volunteers at the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games as of Tuesday, less than one month before recruitment ends, the largest response in the history of the Games, official statistics showed.
More than 1.2 million have filed applications to be “City Volunteers”, who will work at designated spots across Beijing, mainly to help overseas visitors overcome the language barrier, according to the latest statistics from the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG).
As many as 400,000 “City Volunteers” will be selected.
Many people have applied to be Games-time volunteers as well as “City Volunteers”, BOCOG officials said.
A total of 100,000 Games-time volunteers will be chosen for the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics — about 70,000 for the Olympics and about 30,000 for the Paralympics — both exceeding the figures from the Athens Olympics, whose applicant and volunteer numbers set the previous records.
Around 160,000 volunteer applications were received before the 2004 Athens Olympics and 60,000 people were chosen.
The application period for the Beijing games started in August 2006 and is to end on March 31.
Applicants will be trained in the fields of Olympic-related knowledge, basic regulations and skills before qualifying as volunteers, according to the head of the Volunteer Department.
from: chinadaily.com.cn
Foreign journalists are “very welcome” in the capital and they have nothing to worry about regarding their work in the country, a top official from the Beijing Olympic Games organizing committee told China Daily on Tuesday.
“Overseas media are very welcome in Beijing and their working conditions in China during the Games are guaranteed by the State Council Decree No 477 and several media guides,” Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice-president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) and a newly elected CPPCC member, said during a group discussion.
“These regulations are the basis for our media services during the Games and they will be implemented strictly around the country, not just in Beijing and the co-host cities,” Jiang said.
To meet promises Beijing made during the bid for the 2008 Olympic Games to provide foreign media good working conditions in China, the central government has issued several regulations and media guides to facilitate foreign journalists’ activities for Olympic coverage.
Last July, a “One Stop Service” for news coverage of the Olympics and its preparatory period was also launched at the Beijing Olympic Media Center.
Preparations for this summer’s Olympics are one of the hot topics at the ongoing CPPCC and 11th NPC, which have attracted 843 foreign journalists, 20 percent more than last year.
The number is likely to rise because press registration will continue until today.
“If any problem occurs, foreign journalists can turn to relevant departments, such as the local foreign affairs offices and the Main Press Center or the International Broadcast Center,” Jiang said.
Jiang also offered reassurance to visitors and the public over concerns about heavy traffic during the Games.
The organizers have taken the needs of local people into account, he said.
By the time the Games begin, there will be about 3.3 million vehicles on the streets of Beijing.
To ensure smooth traffic during the event, and enhance air quality in the capital, local authorities plan to take more than 1.5 million cars off the roads.
The government will introduce a ban on government vehicles – similar to the one used during the Beijing Summit of Sino-African Cooperation Forum in 2006, and last August’s four-day test of alternating cars with license plate numbers ending in even and odd numbers.
“People won’t have to worry about transport problems during the Olympic Games,” he said. However, residents and visitors are encouraged to take public transport during the event.
Additional buses, more than 170 new shuttle routes and three new subway lines will be in use during the Games, Jiang said.
from: chinadaily.com.cn
All 3,030 jade pieces for the Olympic medals have been produced, reported the Liao Shen Evening Paper. The jade pieces, produced through a strictly controlled process, are on their way to the Shanghai Mint, where the jade pieces will be set into the Olympic medals.
The Beijing Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals — 1,010 of each — stand out against past Olympic medals, as they incorporate a traditional Chinese feature: jade. The jade will be set into the reverse side of the medals, with white jade for the gold, greenish-white jade for the silver and green jade for the bronze.
Using a precious-grade jade from Kunlun Mountain that is recognized by jewelry experts everywhere, the jade pieces were produced in Yangzhou, a place known for its exquisite carving craft. The Kunlun jade was donated from Qinghai Province.
Each sturdy jade piece is 7mm in diameter and 3.5-4mm in thickness and can withstand the impact of a drop from 20m.
The medals for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be produced using materials from three countries: jade from China and gold, silver, and bronze materials from Australia and Chile. The Shanghai Mint will complete the production of the Olympic medals in June.
from: beijing2008.cn
Steve Olarinoye, secretary of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation (NWF), is confident that the country’s weightlifters will be at the Beijing Olympics in August.
Olarinoye said here Wednesday that the morale of the lifters in the Abuja camp was high following the approval of the increase in their allowance by the National Sports Commission (NSC).
Nigeria will take part in the African Weightlifting Championships, which would also serve as the Olympic qualifiers scheduled to hold in South Africa in May, according to a report by the News Agency of Nigeria.
“The athletes are in high spirits in camp here in Abuja. They are training very hard and are quite happy over the increase in their camping allowance by the NSC,” Olarinoye said.
“The athletes are doing fine in camp in terms of accommodation, feeding, and transportation. They are well motivated,” he added.
NWF invited 10 men and 10 women lifters to camp in Abuja immediately after the two-day national open trials for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games qualifiers in January in Lagos.
from: chinadaily.com.cn
Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom Fu Ying and double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes will be amongst the 80 torchbearers passing the Olympic Flame across London on April 6.
Broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald and actress Amara Karan will also run the one-day leg, as part of the worldwide Beijing Olympic Torch Relay, as revealed by Greater London Authority, who organizes the London relay.
Fu Ying said that she was glad to be involved in the event, starting at Wembley Stadium, site of the 1948 Olympic Games, and finishing at the O2 Arena at North Greenwich, which is to be one of the venues for the 2012 Games.
Large crowds are expected, as stars of sports, stage, screen and music and young people recruited from London’s schools, will carry the Olympic torch through ten London boroughs.
“Following the outstanding success of the Athens Olympic Torch Relay in London in 2004,” said Mayor of London Ken Livingstone. “It is a great honour for our city to participate in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay and once again carry the Olympic spirit of friendship and cooperation between nations across the world.”
“In the year that will see the handover from Beijing to London, it is a unique opportunity to generate interest and excitement across the capital as London itself prepares for the Games in 2012.”
The London relay also marks the final day of the China in London season and a program of free events is planned at key points along the London route, which will take in Notting Hill, Marble Arch and Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square and the South Bank, the City and East London.
The day will culminate in a free, ticketed event at the O2 Arena.
The Olympic Flame will go to 19 cities on five continents before returning to China and arriving in Beijing for the start of the 2008 Olympic Games on August 8.
from: xinhuanet.com
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