Olympic Times – Sports Daily

Wade leads U.S. past Australia

The U.S. men’s basketball team wrapped up its exhibition schedule with its toughest test, pulling away and beating Australia 87-76 Tuesday night in Shanghai, China, in its final game before heading to Beijing.

The United States led by only four points nearly halfway through the third quarter and was up by seven midway through the fourth against an Australian team that was resting its best player, Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut.

Dwyane Wade scored 22 points and LeBron James had 16 for the Americans, who finished three of 18 from behind the arc and 20 of 33 (61 percent) at the foul line.

Kobe Bryant scored 13 points, and Carmelo Anthony had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the United States, which faces host China on Sunday in its Olympic opener.

Bogut, the No. 1 pick in the 2005 NBA draft, wanted more time to rest a sore right ankle that has been bothering him, but said he expects to be ready by the opener against Croatia on Sunday.

U.S. women win tournament

Lisa Leslie scored 14 points, and the United States held off Australia 71-67 in the FIBA Diamond Ball tournament title game at Haining, China.

This was the first meeting between these two rivals with both teams at full strength since the 2004 Olympics gold-medal game, won by the Americans 74-63.

Penny Taylor led Australia with 19 points. Lauren Jackson added 16 and was chosen the tournament’s MVP.

Candace Parker had 12 points, and Sue Bird added 11 for the United States.

Medical chief suspects doping

The leader of the International Olympic Committee’s medical commission said seven Russian female track and field athletes, accused of tampering with their urine samples, appeared to be involved in a case of “systematic doping.”

Seven Russian women were provisionally suspended last week by the International Association of Athletics Federations in the doping scandal. They included Yelena Soboleva, a world record holder and world champion middle-distance runner who was favored to win the 800 and 1,500 meters at the Beijing Olympics.

“I think it is just frustrating to find that such type of cheating — planned cheating — is still going on,” said Arne Ljungqvist, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s medical commission.

Country will pay medal winners

The Dominican Republic says it will pay its athletes who win gold, silver or bronze medals.

Sports Minister Felipe Payano said the awards will range from nearly $90,000 to $200,000. Winners could also get a car. It is the first time the Dominican government has made such an offer.

The Caribbean country has won only two medals in Olympic history.

Torch arrives in Beijing

Torch bearers carried the Olympic flame on the final relay of its long and sometimes contentious global tour today, greeted by rapturous crowds in Beijing two days before it officially launches the Summer Games.

The arrival of the torch in the capital marks one of the concluding steps in China’s seven years of preparations for the games that have cost billions of dollars, and one which Beijing hopes will serve as the country’s symbolic debut as a modern world power.

Apology for beating of journalists

The beating of two Japanese journalists by police in western China drew an official apology Tuesday, but Beijing also set new obstacles for news outlets wanting to report from Tiananmen Square in the latest sign of trouble for reporters covering the Olympics.

The IOC, which last week only partially succeeded in getting China to unblock some Internet sites after journalists raised a furor, said it would look into the new rules that require reporters to make appointments to do reports at Tiananmen.

The Japanese government and the Foreign Correspondents Club of China condemned the roughing up of the Japanese newsmen who were covering an attack by alleged Muslim separatists on police in Xinjiang province.

Indian weightlifter banned

India’s only weightlifting entry for the Games, Monica Devi, was stopped from boarding a flight to Beijing to compete in the Olympics after testing positive for a banned substance.

The Press Trust of India reported that Devi tested positive for an anabolic salt in a test conducted on June 29. It quoted unidentified officials as saying the report showing the positive result came just hours before Devi was to leave the Indian capital for Beijing. It said she has now been withdrawn from the games.

Devi’s failed doping test is the fourth by an Indian weightlifter since May.

source: kansascity.com

Officials moved immediately to reassure competitors and visitors to Beijing they would be safe when the Games get under way on Friday.

“We have strengthened security work in all Olympic venues and in the Olympic village. We are well-prepared in security for the upcoming Games,” said Sun Weide, spokesman for the Beijing organising committee.

The attack, a stunning embarrassment to the authorities whose intelligence had been warned of possible attacks this week, took place in Kashgar, a remote outpost of Chinese rule in the west of Xinjiang province not far from the border with Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Xinjiang’s Muslim, ethnic Uighur, population have a history of clashes with the authorities, but there have been no major confirmed terrorist incidents since a wave of bombings in the 1990s.

The authorities have repeatedly warned of the risk of attacks on the Olympics by Islamic and “separatist” groups based in the region, though they also insisted that security in the region was under control.

Chinese state media said that two men drove a dump-truck at a group of policemen out for early morning exercise, crashed to a halt and threw grenades or home-made explosive devices. They then began slashing at survivors with knives before being overwhelmed and arrested.

Fourteen policemen died at the scene, two more died on the way to hospital, and 16 others were injured. Debris from five explosive devices was also recovered, the reports added.

Tourists in Kashgar, a Silk Road city that was a central location of the “Great Game” played out 100 years ago between the Russian and British empires for control of central Asia, said they heard loud bangs, and then were kept in their hotels while searches were carried out.

Timothy O’Rourke, an American, said the authorities had cleaned the site but the damage remained visible. “You can see there are windows that are broken in a nearby building and a pole has been ripped out of the ground,” he said. “You can see some wires hanging from another pole nearby,” he said.

Although no group claimed responsibility, connections will be made with a video posted on a website 10 days ago by a group calling itself the “Turkestan Islamic Party” (TIP). East Turkestan is the name under which Xinjiang briefly declared independence in the 1940s before being reconquered by Chairman Mao’s People’s Liberation Army.

In the video, “Commander Seyfullah” claimed responsibility for a number of small but lethal bus bombings in China in recent months, and said “critical points” for the Olympics would be targeted with further attacks. China denied the group claims, and said there was still no evidence yesterday’s attacks had an Olympic connection.

The International Olympic Committee said it had confidence in Beijing’s security preparations for the Games.

Exile groups such as the World Uighur Congress previously accused the authorities of exaggerating and manufacturing the terrorist threat to justify indiscriminate arrests and repression in the region.

Last night, its European representative, Dilxat Raxit, said telephone reports from the region confirmed the incident. He said the Congress opposed violence, but he accused the Chinese of provoking a response.

“We do not wish to see such events, nor would we want a repeat,” he told The Telegraph last night. “But we cannot prevent Beijing’s systematic suppression of the Uighur people, nor are we able to control such acts as these. The Chinese authorities’ policies and behaviour force Uighurs down the road towards millitary action and attack.”

One Uighur terrorist group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which may be the same as the TIP, is accused by both the United States and China of links to al-Qaeda. Its numbers are unknown, and it was at one time thought to have disintegrated after its leader was killed in Pakistan in 2003.

Analysts say no Uighur group is thought to be sophisticated enough to penetrate the ring of steel which the Chinese authorities have thrown around Beijing for the Games, deploying more than 100,000 security personnel.

Nevertheless, in a separate incident in Beijing itself, a small group of protesters clashed with police near Tiananmen Square. They were local residents who had been evicted from their homes just south of the Square to make way for a new shopping district.

They were surrounded but not arrested by police, who are deeply sensitive about any form of demonstration on the Square. Eventually they were led away by members of the local neighbourhood committee, the lowest reaches of the Communist Party.

from: telegraph.co.uk

Competitors staying in the Beijing Olympics athletes village will be able to purchase a wide variety of soft pornography – but websites such as the BBC Chinese news page are still banned.

Readers can also choose between illustrated volumes of Chairman Mao’s poetry, the memoirs of pioneers of hybrid rice development, or from a large collection of Agatha Christie novels.

The Olympic village, where 16,000 competitors will stay when the Games get under way next week, opened to great fanfare at the weekend. Facilities, on the surface similar to those at previous host cities, nevertheless give an unexpected insight into the variety of modern Chinese life.

Athletes can enjoy a traditional tea ceremony, acupuncture and manicures, or enroll in a mandarin class where they will be offered the chance to have an official Chinese name based on their character.

That is if they are allowed in in the first place – security is overwhelmingly tight.

The village consists mainly of utilitarian-style, grey blocks of flats, which will be sold by developers after the Games. The only traditional building, a reconstructed courtyard mansion with elaborately tiled eaves, is not open to foreign residents.

It is the headquarters of the “mayor” or director of the village, Chen Zhili, a former state councillor and one of the most senior women in the Communist Party.

When Beijing won the right to hold the Games, officials had to promise that journalists would be allowed the same freedom to report as in previous host cities.

For that reason, travel restrictions on foreign correspondents in the country were lifted last year, but the issue of press freedom has remained one of the most contentious.

There have been repeated cases of journalists detained or otherwise stopped from reporting while covering Olympic and political issues in recent weeks. Officials had to apologise after a Hong Kong photographer was detained for six hours after scuffling with police while trying to film fights among those queuing for the last Olympic tickets on Friday.

Chinese officials normally mention “technical problems” when asked in public why certain websites like the BBC’s are blocked. Sun Weijia , media operations director for the Games, said he did not know of any such problems when asked about why Olympic promises had not been kept.

“I am not clear if the question of those two websites is a technical one or not,” he said.

by: Richard Spencer in Beijing

source: telegraph.co.uk

Kenya’s athletic officials have unveiled tough measures to ensure that athletes are well prepared for this year’s Beijing Olympics which will be held in China in August this year.
Athletics Kenya (AK) chairman Isaiah Kiplagat said Wednesday the national team has performed dismally this year in international events particularly in the world cross country championships in Edinburgh.
Kiplagat who named a provisional team of 121 to train for the upcoming Olympic Games said the association would take tough measures on any selected athletes who fail to report to camp.
The association selected 119 athletes who will proceed to camp in Eldoret on May 20 for training ahead of the Olympic Games.
“Every athlete selected must report to camp on May 20 and if they are not there by the deadline then they will be left out of the Olympic trials. We are not going to favor anyone. Whether you are the best in the world today or a favorite in Beijing, you must attend the camp or be left out,” said Kiplagat.
He warned that agents who prevent their athletes from joining up the camp will also be dealt with accordingly. “If an agent, coach or manager stops an athlete from going to camp, then AK shall ban him from representing Kenyan athletes with immediate effect,” he warned.
Kiplagat added that all athletes and managers must submit their plans for the year to head coach Julius Kirwa. “We must have a unified program and Kirwa must know what programs athletes have. Both training and competition programs so that he is able to monitor which athlete has done enough for the season or which athlete needs a break,” he said.
He however clarified that the athletes will still be allowed to compete in grand prix meets but they will have to consult with Kirwa on their season’s plans. “We asked the managers and athletes to present their year’s plans in February and we shall use that as a guideline.”
Kiplagat said the decision to have the athletes in a training camp had been arrived at after a ten hour meeting with local coaches on Monday. The meeting, he said had been convened to help prepare for the games in China.
“In the past, we have been accused of having haphazard preparations and it is our goal to change that. Having a Kenyan athlete get lapped in Addis Ababa was a wake up call and we must heed it, ” he said.

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

Hundreds of Chinese students in Japan signed their names on three flags on Saturday to extend their support for the Beijing Olympic Games.
The campaign, initiated by the Chinese Students in Japan Friendship Association, plans to collect over 10,000 signatures of Chinese students and scholars in Japan.
At the opening ceremony of the campaign held in the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, the Chinese students set up banners promoting Olympic spirits and the Beijing Olympics slogans such as “One World, One Dream.”
“Through the campaign, we want to spread the Olympic spirits and the notion of peace, and to call on the people who support the Beijing Olympics to join together,” said Zhang Bi, secretary general of the Chinese Students Association in Japan.
“We also want to tell Japanese students that the Olympic Games is not only for China, but the whole world and the entire humankind,” Zhang told Xinhua.
During the Olympic torch relay in Japan’s Nagano city on April 26, the three flags, with the color of red, yellow and blue respectively, will be extended to spectators for their signatures.
The flags will then be presented to the Organizing Committee of the Beijing Olympic Games, said Li Guangzhe, chairman of the association.

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Li Weiyi, spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on Wednesday that “we will be happy to see the Taiwan athletes and audience come to join the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games by charter flights.”
“We are willing to provide any possible help,” he added at a regular press conference here.
When mentioning the issues of the weekend cross-Straits charter flight and the travel of mainlanders to Taiwan, Li said “we believe that under the new circumstances and through consultation, the weekend cross-Straits charter flight and mainland tourist’s travel to Taiwan could be realized at an early date, as long as the two sides make mutual endeavors.”
When Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, met with Vincent C. Siew, chairman of the Taiwan-based Cross-Straits Common Market Foundation, at the Boao Forum for Asia on Saturday, he said the economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan were facing a historical opportunity and needed joint efforts from both sides for further progress.
The mainland would also make efforts to push forward negotiations on weekend charter flights and mainland tourists’ travels to Taiwan.
Hu said the mainland would continue being concerned about Taiwan compatriots’ welfare and protecting their legal rights and interests, and would step up efforts to restore cross-Straits negotiations and talks.

from: xinhuanet.com

The Olympic torch relay in San Francisco was concluded Wednesday afternoon, without major incidents.
The relay ran for two and half hours along the San Francisco area with the closing ceremony held at the airport.
Chinese Olympic swimming champion Lin Li, who was the first runner of the San Francisco relay, began her run by holding the torch high and waving to a cheering crowd. Nearly 80 torch-bearers, including some world-record holding athletes, participated in the relay.
San Francisco police announced the route had been changed due to threats by Tibetan separatists and their supporters to storm the relay, according to local TV KRON4.
At one point, Tibetan separatists tried to disrupt the torch relay. They tried to grab the torch, but were pushed back by police escorting the torch relay, a Xinhua correspondent witnessed.
Thousands of people gathered along the route of the relay under a sunny sky to show their support for the torch run in the U.S. city, which is the sixth leg of the torch’s global journey.
Supporters of China’s role as host of the Games were upholding Chinese national flags and displaying the Beijing Olympic mascot Fuwa on the city’s waterfront.
Dozens of women dressed in red performed a drum dance to entertain people, drawing applauses from spectators. One dancer, Li Hua, told Xinhua that they traveled about 500 miles from Los Angeles to witness the historic torch relay.
Siu Yuen Chung, Chairman of the Chinese American Association of Commerce (CAAC), said before the start of the torch relay that, to give the Olympic flame a spectacular reception, tens of thousands of Chinese Americans will come out to cheer the torch relay.
While anxiously expecting the torch relay, many San Francisco citizens expressed dismay at attempts to link the Olympic Games with politics.
Shirley Olivo, a 75-year-old San Francisco native and grandmother of a Special Olympian, said carrying the torch and the Olympics should not really be about politics.
Chinese Ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong said on Wednesday that the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco was “successful” under enthusiastic reception of the American public, including the Chinese Americans and overseas Chinese.
“The Olympics belongs to all, and the Olympic torch carries and passes around the Olympic spirit and advocates peace, friendship, harmony and cooperation,” the ambassador said in a statement.
In disregard of the spirit of the Olympic Charter, a handful of forces attempted to disrupt the Olympic Games in Beijing, undermine China-U.S. relationship and denigrate China’s image. Such unpopular action is doomed to fail, he said.
Zhou expressed the belief that the sacred flames of the Olympics will continue to burn brighter, the Olympic Games in Beijing will be a complete success and the Olympic spirit will be carried forward
The global torch relay started on April 1 in Almaty and stopped over in London and Paris before came to San Francisco on Tuesday.
The relatively smooth run of the San Francisco relay stood in striking contrast with those in London and Paris where Tibetan separatists repeatedly disrupted the torch relay to the indignation of locals and Chinese communities.

from: xinhuanet.com

A declaration to give full support to the upcoming Beijing Games was approved by the heads of 205 national and regional Olympic committees Monday at the morning session of their general assembly in the capital.
Announced by Gunilla Lindberg, secretary-general of the Association of the National Olympic Committees (ANOC), the declaration includes the following:
Athletes worldwide are willing to participate in the Beijing Games;
Any activities using the Olympic Games for political purposes will be rejected;
China has the confidence to seek solutions to its internal affairs.

The NOCs, under the International Olympic Committee (IOC), are responsible for organizing their respective countries’ participation in the Games.
The special statement comes amid disruptions by Tibetan separatists and is expected to be issued after a joint meeting of the ANOC and the IOC Executive Board on Thursday.
The three-day biennial meeting of the ANOC in Beijing, which has attracted more than 700 representatives this time, will last till tomorrow, with the heads of national and regional Olympic committees worldwide coming together to discuss issues related to the Olympics.
Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, attended the opening ceremony Monday morning, reiterating that China will fulfill its commitment to hold a successful Olympic Games this August.
“Holding the Olympic Games is the longtime expectation of Chinese people and hosting a high-level Olympic Games and a high-level Paralympic Games is the solemn commitment we have made to the whole world,” Wu said.
“In the lead-up to the Games the Chinese government and Chinese people will fulfill our commitment to ensure the success of the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games. We warmly welcome athletes, coaches and guests from all over the world to participate, witness and report the Beijing Games.”
“The ANOC has supported very resolutely and firmly the organization of the Beijing Olympic Games and it will make all efforts so that the Games may achieve the greatest success for the benefit of the young athletes, and as a contribution towards friendship, solidarity and peace among the youth and all peoples from around the world,” ANOC president Mario Vazquez Rana added in his opening speech.
“Organizing an Olympic Games is an extremely arduous and complex task. Only the closest cooperation between all members of the Olympic movement as well as the political will of China’s government will make it possible to reach the high objectives sought with the Beijing Olympic Games,” he said.
The issue of calls to boycott the Games also drew the attention of IOC President Jacques Rogge.
Some politicians have played with the idea of boycotts, but there is “no momentum for a generalized boycott”, Rogge said.
“We need the unity of the Olympic movement to help us overcome the difficulties. Our major responsibility is to offer good games to the athletes who deserve them,” Rogge said.
The ANOC assembly will be followed by an executive board meeting of the IOC in Beijing from April 10-11. It will include updates on preparations for the Beijing Games, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and 2012 London Summer Games.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

The International Olympic Committee said on Thursday that Beijing is right on track to deliver a superb Olympic Games in August.
“We can again report that the commission has seen that BOCOG’s operations are absolutely right on track,” Hein Verbruggen, chairman of the IOC coordination commission, told reporters as the commission wrapped its last inspection tour of the Chinese capital.
“We believe that the coming August will be able to give a superb organization to the athletes.
“All the organizations have been progressing according to the plan,” he added.
Verbruggen said the IOC coordination commission had examined Beijing’s preparatory work in 44 areas and received satisfactory feedbacks.
“We were very satisfied with the assurance we received in a number of areas … media services, internet access and live broadcast, where some concerns exist,” he said.
“There is every reason to believe that we will see here a gold-medal performance in August, also superb organization of the Olympic Games.”
Verbruggen reiterated that the IOC was a sporting organization and not a political one, and would not get involved in political issues.
“The games have been drawn into issues that do not necessarily have a link with the operations of the games. It’s the truth. We are all aware that the international community is discussing these topics,” he said.
Verbruggen also rejected the conclusions by an Amnesty International report this week that awarding the Olympic Games to China had made human rights worse.
“To go that far to say the Games contributed to a worsening situation in human rights, I would call blatantly untrue,” said Verbruggen.
“It is something very difficult to prove for them but we can easily prove that bringing the Games here has let to improvements.”
Wang Wei, executive vice president of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee (BOCOG), echoed these remarks.
“The Chinese people now enjoy great freedom of speech, and people can comment on and criticize the government’s work,” he said. “The Olympic Games is an opportunity for china to further open up and develop… and also will contribute to the improvement of human rights courses.”
Commenting on threats by some EU politicians recently of boycotting the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games, Verbruggen said that decision to boycott the opening ceremony or the Olympics should be made by athletes and not by politicians.
“I have very little admiration for politicians that come here to sign big business contracts and three or four months later say ‘ perhaps I won’t come to the opening ceremony’,” he said.
“The athletes have more than enough information to make up their own minds. It’s not up to some politicians making cheap use of the sport at the same time as signing big business contracts.”

from: xinhuanet.com 

Chinese President Hu Jintao lit a cauldron at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square with the Olympic torch Monday morning, marking the official start of the round-the-world relay.
The ceremony kicked off on the square at the heart of Beijing two hours after a specially chartered Air China plane carrying the flame from Greece touched down at about 9 a.m.
Vice President Xi Jinping, member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), addressed the ceremony.
Zhou Yongkang, member of the nine-man Political Bureau Standing Committee, and other CPC and state leaders attended the ceremony.
Also present was International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission chairman Hein Verbruggen, who addressed the ceremony on behalf of IOC president Jacques Rogge.
The flame is scheduled to depart from Beijing on Tuesday for the Kazakh city of Almaty, the first stop in its global tour of 135 cities.
The relay will cover 137,000 kilometers in 130 days before the flame finally arrives at the National Stadium in Beijing on Aug 8,2008 for the opening ceremony.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (1st R) shakes hands with Hein Verbruggen, chairman of the Coordination Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), during a welcome ceremony for the Olympic flame and launching of the Beijing Olympic torch relay at the Tian’anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China, on March 31, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)

from: xinhuanet.com

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

Kenya’s Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai has been selected to participate in the Olympic torch relay in Tanzania next month.
Maathai was selected along with former multiple Olympic gold medallist Kipchoge Keino and will be among 80 people who will carry the torch in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on April 13 which is the only African city that will host the Olympic flame.
The two were unveiled to participate in the torch relay which will be held in Dar es Salaam Tanzania next month. The two will be among six other African torch bearers who will participate in the Olympic torch relay on April 13 in Dar es Salaam.
The Nobel laureate who will be carrying the flame for the second time after last year’s Winter Olympics in Italy, expressed happiness that the theme for this year’s Olympics will have an environmental theme “Green Olympics”.
Prof. Maathai urged Kenyans to uphold peace and work together to lift the nation to greater glory.
“I am very excited about the fact that theme is going to be a green Olympics. An Olympic that will focus on the environment and a clean environment at that,” said Maathai.
Other torch bearers selected by sponsors Coca Cola include United Nations Under Secretary Anna Tibaijuka, Uganda’s Dorcas Inzikuru, Pierre Kakure and Coca Cola’s President of East African region Newton Kalubu.
Keino who is also the chairman of National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) said that the torch relay plays a significant role in the world.
“The main goal of the Olympic torch is to unite youths around the world. Win or lose we shake hands and maintain peace and friendship. The games in Beijing will be important for Kenya in promoting peace in the country and we should ensure we are ready,” said Keino.
It will be Keino’s seventh time to carry the torch having performed similar duties in 1974, 1976, 1984, 1996, 2000 and 2004.
A former Olympiad, Keino burst into world fame when he defied doctor’s instructions at the 1968 games going on to win the 1,500 meters gold in Mexico City.
Inzikuru won Uganda’s first ever gold medal at any global athletics event when she won the 3, 000 meters world title in Helsinki in 2005 while Kakure has been involved in wildlife protection especially of baboons in DR Congo.
Coca Cola are the oldest sponsors of the Olympic Games having started their partnership in 1928 and East Africa Corporate Relations manager Nelson Githinji said the giant soft drinks company was delighted to be part of the showpiece.
“We do believe that the Olympic torch relay does provide an opportunity for people to come together and inspires even more people along the route to take positive action that can make a difference in their community,” said Githinji.
Former world marathon record holder Paul Tergat who is also an Olympics ambassador pledged his support for the national team which he said has the potential to perform better at the Beijing Olympics than in the past.

from: torchrelay.beijing2008.cn 

Olympics service was added to criterion rating China’s State-owned enterprises (SOE) performance to impress the world with a better China with improved infrastructure and service.

The State enterprise watchdog urged 14 central SOEs, wholly in the power, telecom, aviation and tourism sectors, to provide reliable services for the Olympics, and ensure working safety during the Games.

As the backbone of the national economy, central SOEs should play a special role during this period, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) chairman Li Rongrong noted on Thursday.

He said the commission will send inspection groups to those companies, allying with ministries concerned to step up scrutiny on their performances.

He asked the companies to work out emergency plans in a bid to better deal with contingencies during the Games.

from: chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-03/21/content_6556128.htm

An analysis of Beijing’s air quality indicates that the health of the vast majority of athletes competing in the summer Olympic Games will not be impaired, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Monday.
Over the past few weeks, the IOC has made an analysis of a set of air quality data – including temperature, wind, humidity and SO2, NO2, CO, Ozone and PM10 readings – which were taken by the Beijing Environment Protection Bureau in August 2007 and given to the IOC.
“The findings indicate that, at Games time one year out, the health of athletes was largely not impaired,” said the Lausanne-based IOC in a statement.
The findings are also supported by the fact that no health issues related to air quality were reported to the Beijing Organizing Committee or the IOC by any team physicians looking after athletes who competed in the August 2007 test events, the statement said.
Besides, no air quality-related problems were reported at the IAAF Junior World Championships that were held in Beijing in August 2006, it added.
“As with all Olympic Games, we want to ensure that air quality risks are mitigated and that measures are put into place to protect the health of the athletes,” said Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of the IOC’s Medical Commission.
“For a few sports where we do see a possible risk, we will monitor the situation daily during Games time, and take whatever decisions are needed at the time to ensure the athletes’ health is protected,” he said.
The official expressed confidence that measures already put in place, plus those planned by Beijing organizers and city authorities, will continue to improve the city’s air quality leading up to – and during- the Games.

from: chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-03/18/content_6543550.htm

British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman Colin Moynihan said on Wednesday he would oppose any attempt by sprinter Dwain Chambers to compete at the Beijing Games.
Chambers, 29, who has returned to competition after serving a two-year doping suspension, is considering a legal challenge to the BOA’s lifetime Olympic ban for any athlete failing a drugs test.

“There will be no room for cheats in the British team as long as I am involved with the BOA,” Moynihan told the BBC.

“There are absolutely no grounds whatsoever for compromise.”

Chambers won a silver medal in the 60 metres at the world indoor championships this month but his future is uncertain after leading European promoters said he would not be welcome at their meetings.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

Air passengers will be guaranteed safety during the upcoming Beijing Olympics, a senior civil aviation official said Monday.
Li Jiaxiang, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), was speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing NPC session in reference to the foiled attempt on Friday to crash a passenger jet bound for Beijing.
“China’s civil aviation industry adopts very tight security measures, which in recent years have been among the best in the world,” Li said.
“We have the capability to guarantee the safety of airline passengers.”
A China Southern Airlines flight that took off from Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, was forced to make an emergency landing on Friday at Lanzhou, capital of neighboring Gansu province, because “some people were attempting to create an air disaster“, Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, said on Sunday.
The Southern Metropolis News quoted an unnamed source yesterday as saying at least two people, including an 18- or 19-year-old girl, were involved in the attempt.
An air hostess smelled a faint odor of gasoline and traced it to the girl, who was put under restraint, the paper said. The suspect was trying to ignite the fuel to cause an explosion in the airplane, the newspaper quoted a CAAC circular as saying.
The paper also said loopholes in the safety procedures at Xinjiang airport were to blame.
Although declining to comment on the accusation, Li, the former head of Air China, the nation’s largest airline company, said “measures will be taken to strengthen the safety of air transportation” for the upcoming Beijing Games.

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Temporary religious venues will be set up for Protestants, Catholics, Buddhists and Muslims in the Olympic Village during the 2008 Beijing Games, a senior religious figure said on Wednesday.
“The Olympic organizers are earnestly preparing for religious services during the Games,” said Chen Guangyuan, president of the Islamic Association of China.
“Everything will be in accordance with Olympic conventions,” said Chen, also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
Chen told China Daily that 10 imams speaking either Arabic or English will be available for the Games.
The association is also helping the organizing committee prepare dishes tailor-made for Muslim athletes and delegation members.
Other religions in China have also prepared for religious services at the Games, said their leaders.
Liu Bainian, vice-president of the China Patriotic Catholic Association who is also a CPPCC member, said priests and nuns are being trained to speak English and French.
All Catholic churches in the 97 dioceses nationwide will celebrate a mass praying for a successful Games during the 100-day countdown, he said.
Liu, who suggested during last year’s CPPCC meeting that hotels in Beijing provide Bibles for foreign visitors during the Games, said yesterday that “the organizing committee is considering the proposal“.
He told China Daily earlier that all churches in Beijing would be open to Catholic tourists.
Beijing is expected to receive 500,000 to 550,000 overseas visitors during the Aug 8-24 Games.
The Chinese Christian society, besides training priests for the Games, has also called on all local churches outside Beijing to be prepared for overseas tourists and athletes.
“We know that some athletes will travel around the country after the Games, and our churches will cater to them,” said Fu Xianwei, a CPPCC member who is also the chairman of the National Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee of the Protestant Church in China.
Religious services and information will be available in Beijing and each of the six co-host cities, according to the organizing committee of the Beijing Games.

from:  chinadaily.com.cn