Olympic Times – Sports Daily

GE, a worldwide partner of the Olympic Games, is kicking off a number of new marketing and sales efforts in advance of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and London 2012 Olympic Games.
For the London 2012 Olympic Games, GE has launched a ground-breaking moving image campaign on the side of London taxi cabs featuring a technique known as ‘motion lenticular technology’, never before used on the exterior of a taxi cab. The campaign, which runs until February 2009, features 300 London cabs displaying the new Olympic Games designs as side panels. Two creative executions have been developed – one that depicts an Olympic hurdler, the other a cyclist. As a result of the printing technology used, as the cab moves along the streets, the images appear to be animated.

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In the wake of Beijing’s Olympics, London is preparing for what will be the most demanding multimedia Olympics ever in 2012.

The U.K.’s home broadcaster, the BBC, and operator BT are among the many stakeholders figuring out how to provide for a record amount of coverage for the Games as well as build a massive IP (Internet Protocol) network to support broadcasters and journalists from around the world.

The BBC has seen exponential growth in interest in Web-based Olympics coverage, said Ben Gallop, head of interactive for BBC Sport. Gallop was one of several presenters at a forum on Thursday discussing media technology for the 2012 Olympics.

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Cheating athletes who evaded detection during the Olympic Games in Beijing will only know if they got away with it in eight years’ time.
Jacques Rogge, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee, which has a statute of limitations on results of eight years, said that the urine and blood samples taken from competitors in Beijing can be repeatedly tested until 2016 as scientists develop new methods of analysis.
The process has already started, with 5,000 samples shipped from Beijing to Lausanne so that they can be tested for Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator, or Cera, a new generation of the blood-booster drug, EPO discovered recently in the urine of cyclists on this summer’s Tour de France.
Rogge said: “This is the first stage of retroactive testing.
“We are going to keep, to preserve the urine and the blood for eight years.

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday is to put one of his most trusted troubleshooters in charge of preparations to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, a project that could be hit by the global financial crisis.
Medvedev will soon sign a document promoting Dmitry Kozak, who until now has been minister for regional development, to the post of deputy prime minister overseeing the Games, the Kremlin press service said.
Kozak, 49, graduated from the same university as Medvedev and the two men have been close associates for years. Kozak’s previous jobs included that of the Kremlin envoy in the turbulent North Caucasus region.
Kozak warned last week that the global crisis might affect Moscow’s preparations to host the Olympics, which are to take place in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Russia has pledged to spend $12 billion on developing Sochi for the Games, of which $7 million will be public funding and the rest from private sources. Much of the infrastructure for the Olympics will have to be built from scratch.

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Mexico wants to host a small-scale version of the Olympic Summer Games in 2010 to celebrate the country’s bicentenary, a high-ranking official said.

Jaques Rogge, chairman of the International Olympic Committee, authorized the event on Sunday, said Mario Vasquez Rana, president of the Pan American Sports Organization.

Rana was speaking at a conference on American Olympic sports in the Mexican beach resort Acapulco.

Time and date of the Olympic events were to be fixed by the beginning of next year, he added.

Peter Ueberroth took a swipe at international officials critical of the money the U.S. Olympic Committee receives, setting up some possibly uncomfortable moments for the Chicago group trying to land the 2016 Games.
“Who pays the bill for the world Olympic movement?” Ueberroth said Saturday in his final speech as USOC chairman. “Make no mistake about it. Starting in 1988, U.S. corporations have paid 60 percent of all the money, period. Be sure you all understand that. The rest of the world pays 40 percent. It’s pretty simple math.”
It was Ueberroth’s first extensive response to comments made by European IOC members Denis Oswald and Hein Verbruggen, who said earlier this year that the amount of money the USOC received was not morally acceptable and called for the revenue-sharing deal to be revisited.
As part of a long-standing deal with the International Olympic Committee, the USOC receives about 13 percent of U.S. TV rights fees and 20 percent of global marketing revenues. That added up to about $300 million in the four-year period ending in 2008.

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Asia is a rising continent with so much to exhibit for the future so it should not get involved in scandals and allegations.
Even in a historic sport like Sumo, there are match-fixing allegations.
Each time when winter comes along, there are many who enjoy this ancient Japanese cultural sport. There are many who are crazy about the discipline.
Therefore it is shocking that this historic sport which is the pride of Japan has been tarnished with match-fixing allegations.
A keen Korean follower of sumo, Maj Wong Bok Lee, who is also the secretary of the Korean Boxing Federation, told me in a long-distance call yesterday that he would never believe the allegations because of sumo wrestlers’ pride in their performances, and the fact every sumo wrestler wants to get to the top of the sport.
Hence he believes it is unfair to make such an allegation.
While this unfortunate sumo scandal has broken out and has tarnished the discipline, it was shocking to hear that two Indian weightlifters have been banned for life for their second doping offences.
I thought, doping in weightlifting was a scandal of the past and weightlifters today shone through their own physical abiliy and talent.

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Lawrence (Larry) F. Probst, an internationally respected business leader known for his expertise in interactive media, entertainment and marketing, was elected on Thursday as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC).

Probst was unanimously elected to the position for a four year term during a USOC Board of Directors conference call earlier Thursday, the USOC said.

Probst, 58, will assume duties as Chairman during the 2008 U.S. Olympic Assembly in Orlando, Florida Oct. 8-12.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to serve an organization and a movement that makes such a significant difference in our world today,” Probst said. “This is a movement built upon the spirit and dedication of athletes, and the selfless commitment of volunteers. By working closely with my fellow Board members, the USOC staff and the greater Olympic family in our country, my goal as Chairman is to preserve and strengthen opportunities for all those who wish to participate in this important endeavor.”

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London’s Olympic chiefs yesterday warned that contributions from the private sector to the costs of two of the biggest 2012 projects were likely to be much smaller than originally expected as a result of the credit crunch.
The Olympic Delivery Authority, which oversees the London 2012 venues, said the economic conditions were undermining the development partners’ ability to borrow sums on favourable terms.
The upshot is that the ODA will have to draw on the £2bn of contingency funds made available within the overall budget of £9.3bn.
Lend Lease, the Australian developer of the £1bn athletes’ village, has already talked about its difficulties in raising money to fund half the cost of the 3,000-room complex, leaving the ODA with a shortfall understood to be about £250m.
But John Armitt, chairman of the ODA, said the same problem was affecting the £400m media centre, whose developer is the Carillion Igloo consortium.
“Fundamentally, we originally expected to have quite big sums of private sector funding for the Olympic village and for the media centre,” Mr Armitt told reporters.
“The consequence of what is happening in the markets means that the availability of funding is more difficult – that is not to say that it is not available but, if it is available, it is available on harsh terms.”
Both Carillion Igloo and the ODA are working on a package to help finance the build in a structure resembling the private finance initiatives used in public sector infrastructure projects.

from: ft.com

Beijing hosted a fantastic Paralympic Games, said Chairman of the London 2012 Organizing Committee at the press conference held Monday in Beijing.
“The Beijing Paralympic Games will be remembered for wonderful elite sport, superb organization, stunning venues and spectacular opening and closing ceremonies,” said Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London 2012 Organizing Committee.
He extended his sincere thanks to Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (BOCOG), adding that London had learned vital and essential experiences and lessons from Beijing.
“London is proud to be the next summer Paralympic host city and we look forward to welcoming the world in 2012,” he said.
He also noted that after Beijing Games, London 2012 organizers would carry on Beijing’s work in terms of level of service to athletes, examine spectator experience, further develop the presentation of Paralympic sport and athletes, and build on the extensive volunteer programme.
He especially emphasized the importance of volunteers. “The difference between a good and a great games is the volunteers. Volunteers are the face of the Games, and we will take the volunteer programme extensively seriously.”
The London organizers also confirmed that the journey to the London 2012 Games will continue to be told on a double decker bus in London’s eight minute segment at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Paralympic Games on Wednesday.
The presentation would showcase the next generation of young performers, and the power of the Games to inspire change as reflected in the transformation of the bus from Olympic to Paralympic mode, said Bill Morris, director of Culture, Ceremonies and Education at London 2012.
“If the handover show during the Olympic Games represented the journey from London to Beijing, and the show tomorrow represents a journey to take Paralympics back to London,” he said.
The London 2012 Paralympic Games will be slated for August 29 – September 9.

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Oscar Pistorius completed his gold-medal haul at the Paralympics on Tuesday, winning the 400 meters to go with sprint victories in the 100 and 200.

The South African double amputee known as “The Blade Runner” finished in 47.49 seconds, a world record for his disability class.

Jim Bob Bizzell of the United States won the silver medal at the Bird’s Nest National Stadium, the venue for Olympic track and field. Ian Jones of Britain took the bronze.

Pistorius was cleared in May to run in the Beijing Olympics by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. This followed a decision by track and field’s governing body that said he was ineligible.

He then failed to make the Olympic qualifying standard in the 400. He needed to run 45.55, and his best time was 46.25 run against able-bodied athletes.

Pistorius’ next goal is to qualify for the world championships next year in Berlin, where he would face able-bodied runners. He also is looking toward the London 2012 Olympics.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do before that,” he said. “I have five or six able-bodied meets in Europe next year and those are all stepping stones to get to the bigger meets and perform there. I’m looking forward to next year’s calendar and next four years.”

Pistorius, who won gold in the 200 in the Athens Paralympics, runs on carbon-fiber blades. He was born without a fibula, a bone in the lower leg, and both legs were amputated below the knees when he was 11 months old.

Away from the Bird’s Nest, Ukraine defeated Russia 2-1 in seven-per-team soccer to win the gold medal. Volodymyr Antonyuk scored twice for Ukraine and Lasha Murvanadze had Russia’s only goal. Iran defeated Brazil 4-0 in the bronze-medal game.

In the wheelchair rugby final, the U.S. defeated Australia 53-44. Canada took the bronze-medal game, beating Britain 47-41.

In the men’s wheelchair basketball final, Australia beat Canada 72-60. Britain defeated the U.S. 85-77 for the bronze.

Speaking in Beijing on Tuesday, Sebastian Coe said London is ready to match — or surpass — the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics.

“It is a massive responsibility,” said Coe, chairman of the organizing committee for the 2012 London Games. “We don’t find it daunting. … Beijing has delivered a spectacular games and we will also deliver a spectacular games.”

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from: ap.google.com

After he hosts NBC’s Saturday Night Live this weekend, there might not be much more the network can squeeze out of Michael Phelps.
For now, anyway. Phelps’ historic eight gold medals in the Beijing Olympics were the driving force behind NBC’s prime-time Olympic ratings, just as Phelps’ six golds in Athens were the key to NBC’s 2004 Olympic ratings. NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol told The New York Times that after NBC gained Olympic officials’ support in its bid to have swimming finals moved from evenings to mornings so they could be shown live in prime time on the East Coast, the “first outsider” he consulted was Phelps, who was agreeable. After Phelps worked his way through various NBC outlets — this week giving Jay Leno his best rating in nearly three months — it was inevitable he’d end up on SNL.
But even though rehearsals have left Phelps “completely confident” about hosting SNL, he also says he’s “more nervous doing this than swimming in Beijing, I’ll tell you that.” Not to worry, says SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels: “No matter what happens, they can’t take those medals away.”
Phelps says he enjoys watching SNL when he can stay up to watch, adding he grew up as a “huge, huge fan” of the late SNL comic Chris Farley — who skated with Olympian Nancy Kerrigan when she hosted SNL— and that Farley’s Tommy Boy is his favorite movie.
Phelps says he has a funny side the public hasn’t seen: “In my group of friends, I’m one of the most sarcastic. … I’m actually a really, really sarcastic guy.” (And he didn’t sound sarcastic saying that.)
In hosting SNL, whose stage was used for NBC’s coverage of some Beijing Olympics action as announcers called events off TV monitors, Phelps joins a long line of athlete-hosts, including LeBron James and Peyton Manning in 2007. Charles Barkley mauled Barney the purple dinosaur on a basketball court. Tom Brady appeared in his underwear for a mock sexual harassment training video. Michael Jordan danced in a hula skirt. Says Phelps: “I’m just looking forward to having fun.”
Michaels says Amy Poehler played Phelps’ mother in rehearsals, although it’s still unclear which skits will appear on the show. Michaels added it’s possible Tina Fey will play GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. But don’t expect Phelps to perform anything that suggests his political preferences: “I’ve tried to stay away from jumping on political bandwagons. That’s something I try to keep to myself.”
Asked if future SNL shows might include Beijing Olympians, Michaels says probably not. Instead, “we’ll start thinking about 2010″ — meaning the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.
Think NBC is asking Phelps if he snowboards?

from: usatoday.com

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

Games leave behind sleeker, greener Beijing

Huge investment for the Olympics will cement Beijing’s place as a world-class city and business centre, and leave a legacy of improvements for its residents.
Unlike Athens and some other past host cities, where the Games led to a mountain of debt and many of the venues now sit unused, Beijing and the Chinese government can comfortably afford the roughly $40 billion they have spent on the Games.
More importantly, less than a quarter of that bill has gone on purpose-built venues such as the Bird’s Nest stadium. The rest has been spent on infrastructure such as new subway lines and projects like upgrading buses and boilers to cleaner technology.
“Many of the changes were necessary for Beijing’s continued, brisk development, and the Olympics served to substantially accelerate their implementation,” said Denis Ma, associate director of research in the Beijing office of property consultants Jones Lang LaSalle.
Ma pointed to the transformation the ever-expanding subway lines will bring about, as they help reduce vehicle emissions and allow the development of residential hubs in the suburbs.
Jing Ulrich, chairman of China equities at JPMorgan Securities, noted a range of other benefits that would help with the city’s long-term development.
“With an improved transport system, financial services infrastructure, communications network and hospitality industry, post-Olympics Beijing will be better positioned to fulfill its potential as a world-class metropolis,” Ulrich said in a report.
The state-of-the-art venues are also a legacy in themselves.
The new operators of the Bird’s Nest, a consortium led by state investment group CITIC, plan to sell naming rights and make it home to one of Beijing’s professional soccer clubs, building a complex of hotels, restaurants and shops around it.

COST VS BENEFIT
AEG Worldwide, a U.S. sports and entertainment management firm hoping to tap into a post-Olympics boom, has already teamed up with the National Basketball Association’s NBA China to win the right to manage the Wukesong indoor stadium, which staged the Olympics basketball competition.

AEG is also looking at staging events in the Bird’s Nest.
“We’re interested in the Bird’s Nest. We do have content that can fill the Bird’s Nest occasionally,” President and Chief Executive Officer Tim Leiweke told Reuters, citing a few European soccer clubs, including some from the English Premier League.
Leiweke said that Beijing was unlikely to eclipse Shanghai as a destination for major sporting and entertainment events.
“Shanghai is probably the most important and attractive market in the world for us right now,” he said.
With many venues slated to be converted for use by the general public and several located inside universities, they are poised to benefit the broader community in a city of 17 million.
Equally important is the way the Games sparked the construction of new public spaces throughout the city, said Zou Huan, an urban planning expert at the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Not only would the Olympic Green likely rival Tiananmen Square as a prime destination for tourists in the future, but the many new parks and green spaces will give ordinary Beijingers a break from often cramped living conditions.
“They resemble European city squares in the sense of how they give people a space outdoors to chat, to meet up. That’s very useful, and it is really changing the city life here,” said Zou.
Ideally, city officials would have had the time to carry out their plans with more attention to detail, so as to avoid sacrificing some buildings of historical value, he said.
Thousands of people were also forced to move to make way for the venues, parks and light rail lines.
“But you have to look at the costs and benefits,” Zou said. “Overall, I think the gains for Beijing’s urban landscape are more important.”

source: reuters.com

China launches Paralympic torch relay

China launched a 10-day torch relay for the Paralympic games on Thursday, four days after the closing of the Olympics.
Premier Wen Jiabao announced the start of the relay as he lit a cauldron at Beijing’s Temple of Heaven.
“The flame will symbolize over the next 10 days the unique sporting spirit displayed by Paralympic athletes,” Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee, said in a speech at the launch ceremony.
A total of 850 bearers will carry the Paralympic torch along two “ancient” and “modern” routes through 11 Chinese regions before the opening of the 13th Paralympic Games in Beijing on September 6.
Deng Pufang, the disabled son of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, also spoke at the ceremony in his capacity as chairman of the China Disabled Persons Federation.
Deng’s legs were paralysed after he was thrown from a window during the chaotic fighting within China’s ruling Communist Party in the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.
About 4,000 disabled athletes are scheduled to compete in the September 6-17 Paralympics.
Organizers said all tickets were sold for events in the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium and the “Water Cube” aquatics centre, but about half of those available for all events remained unsold. Evidently there is not such interest from media as for the Olympics?
Some 350,000 members of cheering squads will help to improve the atmosphere at less popular events.
Even at the Olympics many seats remained free and unsold.

The British capital can’t match China for spending or flash. It aims instead to emphasize fun at the 2012 Summer Olympics
The over-the-top pageantry of the 2008 Beijing Olympics has left many Londoners wondering how Britain’s capital can live up to expectations when it hosts the next summer Olympiad in 2012. The city’s mayor, Boris Johnson, summed up the mood: “We’ve been dazzled, impressed, and blown away by these Beijing Games,” he says, adding, “but we’ve not been intimidated.”
Brave words, but the London mayor knows he’s got his work cut out to match what International Olympic Committee Chairman Jacques Rogge rightfully called an “extraordinary Games.” The British capital has a budget of just over $17 billion to deliver London 2012, compared with the $44 billion that Chinese authorities spent on the Beijing Games. China bulldozed neighborhoods to make way for the Games and throttled factories and driving in a scramble to clean up Beijing’s polluted air, but British officials enjoy no such impunity. Indeed, they’re already coming up against taxpayer outcry over plans for the Olympic site in East London.
All the more reason for London to pay close attention to where Beijing succeeded—and a few areas where it could have done better. For instance, although Beijing’s operations worked with clockwork precision, many events were surprisingly short on spectators (BusinessWeek.com, 8/15/08). London has already said it aims to avoid that by making more seats available to Londoners at discount prices.
Party-Loving Britain
“London definitely could take lessons from how the [Beijing] Games were run,” says James Kennell, senior lecturer in tourism and urban renewal at the University of Greenwich east of London, who figures investments made in the runup to London 2012 will add more than $3 billion to the country’s gross domestic product over the next four years.
Perhaps the most important difference, London officials say, will be the overall atmosphere and attitude of the event. Beijing 2008 was a statement from Chinese authorities about the country’s rising global stature and economic power. But many visitors felt that the tight security and prickly, protest-wary officials made Beijing the “no fun” Games. Leaders in party-loving Britain already are talking of a more laid-back approach for 2012.
“The best parties aren’t always the ones that cost the most money,” says Tim Parr, head of capital programs and major events for Deloitte’s consulting practice, who was part of a team sent by the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games to learn from Beijing. “The challenge for London is to create a party atmosphere with a great sporting experience.”

History of Project Delays
Of course, that means pulling off the planning and construction on time. Unfortunately, the British capital doesn’t have the best track record for managing multibillion-dollar projects. Most recently, the new Wembley Stadium—the country’s national soccer arena—was completed a year late and roughly $200 million over budget. The so-called Millennium Dome similarly cost $1.3 billion to build in the late 1990s, but after a brief series of events around the turn of the millennium, it sat unused for years before American billionaire Philip Anschutz bought the tent-like structure at a huge discount and turned it into a successful concert venue (BusinessWeek.com, 7/20/07).
Ahead of London 2012, experts figure Britain also must match China’s success in transport and security. An estimated $1.3 billion of London’s $17 billion budget will be spent on upgrading the city’s 100-year-old underground and rail system. A further $407 million is earmarked for Olympic policing, a 15% budget increase since the city won the right to host the Games back in 2005.
Where London really could make its mark, though, is in offering a quirkier and more intimate Games compared to Beijing’s flashy facilities and choreographed mega-spectaculars. That spirit was on show during the Beijing closing ceremonies, when beloved Led Zeppelin rocker Jimmy Page and soccer superstar David Beckham were featured in the handover from Beijing to London. In sharp contrast to China’s big-budget productions, British officials said they had wanted to put on a more understated and casual show.

More Tickets for Locals
How will that translate into the London 2012 Olympics? According to Deloitte’s Parr, the next Summer Games will be a more social event, with big TV screens and food vendors spread throughout the Olympic site. That will allow spectators to continue the party even after the sports have stopped—as well as letting those without tickets to get into the Olympic spirit. “The key is to create atmosphere at the venues,” Parr says.
London aims to eliminate Beijing’s problem with empty seats by making more tickets available to locals. Running legend Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London Organizing Committee, has suggested that unused tickets held by sponsors—a source of many of the Beijing no-shows—could be resold to the public if they’re not allocated by a certain date.
All that should help create more of a carnival atmosphere than the Beijing Games provided. Formerly imperial Britain—now more laid-back than ambitious, upwardly mobile China—will be hosting its third Olympics and has less to prove to the world. As long as security is effective but not heavy-handed, London should manage to provide Olympians and guests a great time.
As for attitude, the famously dry British humor was on display when reporters asked Boris Johnson if he had any criticism of the 2008 Games. No, the mayor responded, and then added jokingly in reference to the controversial dubbing of a young singer in Beijing’s opening ceremonies: “Had it been us, I don’t think we would have necessarily done the switcheroo with the girl.”

source: businessweek.com

After watching the spectacular fireworks (and fake fireworks) and dazzling choreography of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony, many are wondering whether or not it will be possible for future Olympic committees to recreate an equivalently breathtaking show. But 2012 Olympic host London believes they are ready to take on the challenge. All they need is not faking fireworks or using children singing with voices of others.

In an interview with the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph released Saturday, chairman of the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) Sebastian Coe said London is prepared to match the spectacle and charm of the Beijing Opening Ceremony.

Coe and fellow organizers “weren’t cowed at all” after watching the Beijing ceremony, he insisted. At one point in the interview Coe even went as far to say that the London Games can “go further on so many fronts.”

But that does not mean the London committee was not duly awed in Beijing; they were impressed. Speaking for his colleagues Coe stressed, “They were more pumped up because it was so good. I think they were quite excited by the challenge.” He continued, “But we can do something as good, set in a different context” — a British one.

Coe kept mentioning two words — creativity and fun. Both, he claimed, are representations of Britain’s unique culture. Creativity, he insisted, is “Britishness in the very best sense of the word.”

As far as the fun part goes, London knows how to throw a good party, and that is what they plan to do, Coe beamed. “We’re actually quite good at partying,” he said. “Let’s turn it into a giant party.”

Citing the famous string of British pop music and West End stars that are part of the planning team, Coe seemed quite certain that the organizing committee will be able to put on a great super-fun show.

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics last Friday drew 34.2 million TV viewers in the US.

The show became the largest TV event in the US since the Super Bowl football game, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) has said.
NBC also cited statistics released by global provider of television audience measurement Nielsen Media Research, saying the show had the biggest audience ever for an Olympic opening ceremony not held in the US, and even eclipsed this year’s Academy Awards and the finale of “American Idol.”

Domestically, the ceremony on seven China Central Television channels and more than 30 provincial satellite TV channels averaged 842 million people, or 68.8 percent of China’s total TV viewers, according to statistics released by CSM Media Research, a leading market research company in China.

More than 40 percent of Chinese viewers watched over two hours of the four-hour live broadcast, and nearly 10 percent watched the entire ceremony.

The Olympics in Athens four years ago averaged 25.4 million viewers for its first night, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The 2000 Sydney Games had 27.3 million viewers.

“It was a magical and memorable spectacle and a great way to start the Beijing Olympics,” said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics.

Zhang Yimou, director in charge of the opening ceremony on Friday, has been highly praised.

Netizen Rao Jin believed the idea of producing 29 huge footprints by fireworks was “really stunning”.

Yin Yanyan, a college student and a volunteer, said she has been through the previous three rehearsals, but still felt excited at the opening ceremony.

“The torch-lighting was a surprise,” she said.

“It was really unexpected that Li Ning would run in the air around the stadium.

“And it was amazing that the main torch could be designed so beautifully with Chinese characteristics.”

Many others were moved by the 9-year-old girl in a red dress who sang Singing a Song of Praise for the Motherland.

An overseas Chinese student in Australia, surnamed Li, said the song by the girl was so touching she could not hold back her tears when watching the opening ceremony on TV with friends.

source: chinadaily.com.cn