Olympic Times – Sports Daily

The International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG) have concluded their five week investigation into the scrutinised ages of the Chinese gold medal-winning gymnastics team at the Beijing Games, however doubts continue to shroud their participation at Sydney in 2000.

Due to concerns about the wellbeing of young gymnasts, whose bodies are under huge stress when they reach the elite level, the FIG introduced a ruling in 1997 stating that athletes had to turn 16 during an Olympic year in order to compete at the Games.

Questions were raised throughout the Games about China’s squad of gymnasts with many critics suggesting some of the girls were as young as 14.

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This year’s Olympics Games attracted attention that went far beyond the sporting events themselves. Press coverage of China flourished: whether it was regarding political tensions, extravagant opening ceremonies, environmental reform, or underage gymnasts, the press could never get enough of China during the Games.

Now that the Olympics have passed and the hype has cooled, what remains of the nearly decade long process of massive publicity, construction, and preparation for the Games? The Chinese slogan for Beijing’s Olympic bid was xin Beijing, xin Aoyun or “New Beijing, New Olympics.”

While many may have hoped that these Games would catalyze reform in the Chinese government or provide incentives for real environmental improvements, most modifications to create the “new Beijing” seem to be only temporary.

For the first time in Olympic history, all aspects of the Olympic Games will be meticulously measured. Beijing will be the first host city to produce a full Olympic Games Impact report. It will focus largely on quantitative measures of economic and sports development. While this report won’t be concluded until two years from now, it will certainly lend a great deal of insight into the Games. Until that report is published, however, the world is left to wonder what kind of a mark these Olympics have left behind, both on China and the US.

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Hong Kong – Hong Kong saw its tourist numbers plunge by tens of thousands in August despite hosting the Olympic equestrian events, officials admitted Tuesday. Visitor arrivals to the former British colony in August were 2.67 million, or 2.9 per centm, less than in 2007, the Hong Kong Tourism Board announced.

The city of 6.9 million had originally hoped for a bumper summer thanks to overseas interest in the Olympic Games but months before the games hoteliers were reporting a dramatic fall-off in bookings.

Officials travelled around the world to promote Hong Kong as an Olympics destination but ironically the fall in tourist arrivals was steepest in areas where equestrian sports are strongest.

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The selected host city for the 31st Olympic Games in 2016 will be announced tomorrow (Thursday) at an IOC meeting in Copenhagen. There are currently four cities competing to host what is one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world.

Chicago (USA) is the favourite to win the rights to host the 2016 Games, followed by Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Madrid (Spain) and Tokyo (Japan).

The other cities on the shortlist were Prague (Czech Republic), Baku (Azerbaijan), and Doha (Qatar), however they have now been eliminated.

Hosting the Olympic Games is likely to have a positive impact on the winning nation’s property market. Average property prices in the run-up the Olympic Games in the last five host cities – Beijing (China), Athens (Greece), Barcelona (Spain), Atlanta (USA) and Sydney (Australia) – appreciated at a significant pace, outstripping average national property price growth.

source: homesoverseas.co.uk

China kicked off its National Day celebrations Monday by highlighting its hosting of the Beijing Olympics and the country’s first spacewalk, two hard-won successes in a tumultuous year marked by natural disasters, ethnic unrest and another food safety scandal.

The spacewalk on Saturday boosted a wave of Chinese pride and patriotism stemming from the Olympics, which is still a big news story in the domestic media one month after it ended. China’s Olympic heroes were honored in a three-hour ceremony at the Great Hall of the People that was broadcast live on national television.

State broadcaster CCTV showed the three returning astronauts, with flower garlands around their necks, waving and smiling as they were treated to a homecoming parade in Beijing. Their mission, including China’s first spacewalk, put the country closer to building a space station and landing a man on the moon.

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Beijing has announced a series of post-Olympics car restrictions, which will take effect next month and hopefully sustain the hard-won smooth traffic and good air quality during the Games.

Under the new traffic restrictions, 30 percent of government vehicles will be sealed off as of October 1, said a circular issued by the Beijing municipal government on Saturday.

The remaining 70 percent of government vehicles, as well as all corporate and private cars, will take turns off the roads one out of the five weekdays as of October 11, it said.

Cars whose number plates end with 1 or 6 will be taken off roads on Monday, while those ending with 2 or 7 will be banned on Tuesday, 3 or 8 on Wednesday, 4 or 9 on Thursday and 5 or 0 on Friday. The ban does not apply on weekends.

The ban will be applicable within the Fifth Ring Road inclusive, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. for private cars and round the clock for government and corporate vehicles.

The new restrictions will take effect on a trial basis on October 11 for six months until April 10, but does not apply to police wagons, ambulances, fire engines, buses, taxies and other public service vehicles.

“It’s expected to reduce Beijing’s average road traffic flow by6.5 percent and speed up traffic within the Fifth Ring by 8 percent at least,” said Wang Zhaorong, an official with the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications, at a press conference on Sunday.

In compensation, the restricted vehicles will be exempt from one month of vehicle tax and road maintenance fee a year. Drivers who are caught to have breached the new rule will not enjoy the exemption, according to Wang.

While most people applaud the ban on government and corporate vehicles, the ban on private cars, however, has sparked an outcry from car owners, many of whom complain it is “unfair”.

“I need to take my daughter home from boarding school on Friday night,” said Beijing bank clerk Zhang Min, whose number plate ends with “0″ and will be banned on Friday. “Probably we need to buy another car.”

More than 2,400 people posted online comments on China’s leading portal website sina.com within two hours after it published the ban. Very few postings were supportive of the ban on private cars.

“To ban should not be the ultimate way to ease Beijing’s traffic woes,” reads one of the postings. “Instead, our city should be better planned and the road network better designed.”

While most people were tolerant of the two-month ban on vehicles on alternate days during the Olympics and Paralympics, many are now fed up with the idea to take public transport just once every week.

But to like it or not, the Olympic traffic ban, which took nearly 2 million cars off the roads, was not only successful in easing congestion but also cleared the skies.

During the ban, traffic flow within the Fifth Ring was reduced by an average 21.2 percent and the average speed at rush hours increased by 25.8 percent to 30.2 km per hour, according to the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications.

The city returned to its normal congestion after the ban was lifted on Sept. 21. Urban streets are unbearably jammed in the rush before the week-long National Day holiday set to start on Monday.

The debate over whether the ban should stay after the Games has lasted for weeks and Beijing authorities, apparently hard to find a solution that is effective and acceptable to all, are rather late in announcing the new ban.

Alongside the ban, city authorities have also encouraged employers to adopt more elastic working hours — even to work at home, if possible — in order to ease congestion.

Downtown department stores have been advised to open at 10 a.m. instead of 9 a.m., as of Oct. 11 and close one hour later than before.

Except for schools, governments and the public service sector, many Beijing organizations will be advised to readjust their office hours to avoid the rush hour.

The government is also considering raising downtown parking fees to ease congestion but no details are available yet.

To improve the city’s air quality, Beijing plans to ban a total of 357,000 “yellow label” vehicles from entering the Fifth Ring starting on Jan. 1, said Du Shaozhong, deputy chief of the municipal environment protection bureau.

By October next year, all the yellow label vehicles, mostly tippers and heavy-duty trucks, will be banned across Beijing, he said.

Beijing’s vehicles were issued green or yellow labels according to their emission levels and cars with a yellow label were banned from entering the city center during the day since two years ago.

Exhaust emission from a yellow label vehicle is equal to that from 28 low-emission vehicles of Euro-IV standards, said Du.

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mayumi

China’s food and drug watchdog said on Friday that 523 drug licences were revoked for illegally producing or selling stimulants during the Beijing Olympic Games.
China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) began a nationwide campaign against illegal stimulants by the country’s drug makers and retailers before the Games to keep a clean Olympics.
The administration and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce had inspected all the authorized stimulant makers and revoked one producing licence for stimulants, said Shao Mingli, SFDA’s director, at a tele-conference in Beijing on Friday.
The authorities checked 13,000 stimulant wholesalers and 341,000 retailers as well as 63,000 chemical plants and withdrew 522 selling licences, the director said.
The two administrations also dug out 45 chemical plants and 334 website operators for other illegalities, he said, adding that there had been no stimulant scandal during the Olympics.
However, the two authorities have not revealed any cases in which suspects or companies were arrested or fined for the illegalities.
Shao asked local food and drug administrations to learn a lesson from the recent milk scandal throughout the country, and to strengthen supervision work on various food and drugs.
China’s domestic dairy firm Sanlu Group was exposed as having produce a toxic baby formula which has so far killed at least three babies and has sickened about 53,000 children in the country and put 11,000 in hospital.

The United States’ economic woes show the bankruptcy of Western-style democracy while China’s Olympic Games triumph shows the growing “superiority” of its Communist Party rule, China’s top newspaper said on Friday.
The commentary in the People’s Daily appeared a day after China launched its third manned space flight, which state media also celebrated as a display of the ruling Party’s power to marshal economic growth for greater national purposes.
The strikingly long essay dwelt on the Beijing Olympic Games in August as proving that China should stick to Party control and avoid the temptations of Western democracy.
“China’s unprecedented success in presenting the world with an extraordinary Olympic Games has stunned the West,” says the essay by Mei Ninghua, the chief publisher of another major Party newspaper, the Beijing Daily.
“Throughout the Olympics, the Chinese government and people demonstrated their powerful organisational strength and unsurpassed ability to mobilise society … fully embodying the superiority of China’s political system.”
Chinese officials repeatedly said the Olympics should have nothing to do with politics, and should not be used as a platform to criticise their restrictions on political life.
But there was no such modesty in this latest survey of the Olympics’ lessons, which made no mention of a milk-powder scandal that has made thousands of infants ill and killed at least four, and was covered up for months up until the end of the Games.
Late this year, the Communist Party will mark 30 years since China launched market-driven economic reforms under Deng Xiaoping. Some Party scholars have said the anniversary should be the starting point for liberalising political reforms.
But the republishing of the lengthy comment in Chinese by the Party’s top paper — it first appeared in the Beijing Daily — suggested China’s leaders have no appetite for big political experiments.
Instead, the Party paper argues that the contrast between China in the Games and the United States in its financial mess offers a lesson for the world on what political system works best.
“Western countries are mired in low growth, and the United States’ recent severe financial crisis is a manifestation of the dead-end of liberalism and the destruction of the myth of American institutions,” it says.
Western electoral democracy fosters corrupt, divisive and inept policy-making, it says. “Hitler came to power through an election, but that did not make the Third Reich a modern state,” it adds.
On the other hand, China’s ability to foster economic growth and channel the benefits into Olympic Games and other nation-building feats shows it is “superior to the capitalist political system … and its advantages are increasingly evident.”

source: guardian.co.uk

Australian media are reporting today that doubts have been raised about the ages of Chinese medal-winning athletes as long ago as the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.
Age-falsification has become a burning issue since the Beijing Games last month, where it was alleged that Chinese gymnast He Kexin, who won two gold medals, was underage and therefore should have been ineligible to compete in the event.
Rules introduced in 1997 to prevent the exploitation of under-aged gymnasts stipulate that competitors are required to be at least 16-years-old in the year the Olympics are held.
Separate investigators were able to report that they found at least nine articles published in state-run Chinese media in the past 12 months that list He’s birth date as January 1 1994, not 1992 as the Chinese authorities now claim.
The International Olympics Committee (IOC) was forced into the awkward position of having to order a probe into the ages of He and four other gymnasts from the Beijing Games whose ages were under scrutiny.




That probe is currently underway.
Today’s report in the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) says the Google hacker who unearthed a trove of damning evidence about alleged age fakers in China’s Olympic gymnastics team has now forced the sport’s world governing body to extend its investigations to Chinese team members from as far back as the 2000 Sydney Games.
American hacker Mike Walker – writing under the pseudonym Stryde Hax – was the first to publish details of official documents revealing He Kexin’s true age.
Now Walker claims to have unearthed a China Central Television (CCTV) documentary in which Yang Yun – a dual bronze medalist at the Sydney Olympics – refers to herself as being aged 14 at the time of the 2000 Games.
“At that time, I was only 14-years-old,” she allegedly tells the interviewer. “I thought, if I didn’t do well this time, there is still a next time. I thought, ‘there is still hope’.”

source: nzherald.co.nz

The Beijing Olympics have given sportswear firm Nike a windfall, with orders surging 50 per cent after the Games.
The company today unveiled surprisingly strong results, with robust sales in the US despite the financial meltdown and recession fears, and a weak dollar adding to its international bottom line.
Revenue from Nike’s Asia businesses grew 36 per cent to $861million (£465.3million), boosted by sales in China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
Nike gets more than half its sales outside the US and so was helped by the decline of the dollar against foreign currencies. European sales grew 20 per cent to $1.8billion while in the US they also rose to $1.8billion.
Nike said advance orders were up 3 per cent in the US, with gross profit margins at 47.2 per cent in the first quarter, up from 44.8 per cent a year earlier, helped by higher prices in its home market.
Net profits fell to $510.5million on revenue up 17 per cent at $5.4billion in the quarter. Last year’s result was boosted by a $105.4million tax credit.
In Europe, 15 per cent of the 20 per cent growth came from the weaker dollar and Forex accounted for 10 per cent of the Asian growth.
Global orders for delivery of shoes and apparel from now until January rose 10 per cent, with gains of 4 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, in europe and Asia.

source: dailymail.co.uk

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China’s gold medal gymnasts aren’t the only ones whose ages are getting a closer look.
The investigation into the eligibility of the Chinese women’s team in Beijing has been expanded to include members of the 2000 squad, which won the bronze medal in Sydney, The Associated Press has learned.
International gymnastics officials are examining whether Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao, in particular, were old enough to compete.
“If we had a look at all the articles that came before, during and after the games, there were always rumors about the ages of China’s athletes in Sydney,” Andre Gueisbuhler, secretary general of the International Gymnastics Federation, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
“We did not have another choice,” he said. “If we want to remain credible, then we have to look into things.”
No other Chinese teams are being looked at, Gueisbuhler said.
“At this moment in time, we just have concerns about 2000 and 2008,” he said.
The investigation is ongoing, a month after the Beijing Games ended, and there is no timetable for when it will be finished.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Emmanuelle Moreau, spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee. “Until the work has been completed, there is nothing we can say.”
Yang’s age has long been an issue for debate.
In a June 2007 interview that aired on state broadcaster China Central Television, Yang said she was 14 at the Sydney Games.
Gymnastics rules require athletes to be 16 during an Olympic year in order to compete.
“At the time I was only 14,” she said in the interview, done in Chinese. “I thought that if I failed this time, I’ll do it again next time. There’s still hope.”
That interview, which has been widely reported, contradicts her official birthdate, which is listed as Dec. 2, 1984 and made her eligible for Sydney.
Dong’s birthdate is listed as Jan. 20, 1983, making her 17 at the time of the Sydney Games. Her blog, however, includes a reference to being born in 1985.
Yang is now engaged to Olympic all-around champion Yang Wei. Dong was a national technical official at the Beijing Olympics, serving as the secretary on vault. She was not part of any judging panel.
Kui Yuanyuan, Ling Jie, Liu Xuan and Huang Mandan were the other members of China’s 2000 squad.
Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s, after the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 in an effort to protect young athletes, whose bodies are still developing, from serious injuries. Younger gymnasts are also thought to have an advantage because they are more flexible and are likely to have an easier time doing the tough skills the sport requires. They also aren’t as likely to have a fear of failure.
The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997.
There were questions about the ages of China’s Beijing squad months before the games, with media reports and online records suggesting several of the gymnasts on the six-woman squad might be as young as 14.
In August, The Associated Press found registration lists previously posted on the Web site of the General Administration of Sport of China that showed He Kexin and Yang Yilin were too young to compete. A Nov. 3 story by the Chinese government’s news agency, Xinhua, suggested He was only 14.
But Chinese officials insisted — repeatedly and heatedly — that all of its gymnasts were old enough, and they had not cheated their way to their first Olympic team gold. The FIG and IOC hoped the matter had been put to rest before the games, when the IOC said it had checked all of the girls’ passports and found them to be valid.
The controversy never went away, though, and the IOC announced three days before the games ended that it had asked the FIG to investigate one more time.
China turned over birth certificates, passports, ID cards and family residence permits for He, Yang, Jiang Yuyuan, Deng Linlin and Li Shanshan.
“The international federation has required the delivery of birth certificates and all the documents like family books, entries in schools and things like that,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said on the final day of the games. “They have received the documents, and at first sight it seems to be OK.”
If evidence of cheating is found, it could affect as many as four of the six medals the Chinese women won in Beijing. In addition to the team gold, He won gold on uneven bars and Yang got bronze medals on bars and in the all-around.
“We are waiting to hear the outcome of the IOC investigation just like everyone else,” said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics.

from: ap.google.com

The Pakistani Paralympics athletes will now focus on the next year’s sports competitions in Japan, said the Chef De Mission of Pakistani contingent that took part in Beijing 2008 Paralympics Games in an interview.

“Our next target is Tokyo Games in September 2009 that would follow by 2010 Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou, China”, Imran Jamil Shami told APP in an interview here on Tuesday.

“In both these games, our athletes would get opportunities to qualify for the 2010 London Paralympics Games”, he noted.

Besides these games, he pointed out that we will also send our athletes to participate in various international competitions including New Zealand.

To a question regarding small number of participation of Pakistani athletes in Beijing Paralympics Games, Shami, who is also the Secretary General of National Paralympics Committee of Pakistan, said that in the last Asian Games we carried 34 players for the qualifications round for the Paralympics Games.

He said that on the performance of these players, the International Paralympics Committee awarded two slots to Pakistan to take part in the Beijing 6-17 Games.

He continued that under the formula, top four athletes were accommodated in one slot, as our eight athletes qualified for the top-4, therefore Pakistan was given two slots.

In the same way, Shami said that in Power Lifting competition Pakistan got two slots, on the basis of IPC qualifying formula.

“If we send maximum number of players to take part in international competitions, we would certainly get more athletes to qualify for Paralympics Games”, he maintained.

“Honestly speaking, we have to do a lot to uplift the game”, he observed.

He said that there is need to improve sporting facilities, we need man power, no doubt require finance to spread the Paralympics movement and to encourage the disabled athletes in whole of Pakistan.

Pakistan has wrapped up its campaign in Beijing Paralympics Games by winning a silver medal in the Long Jump competition.

The Paralympics contingent is scheduled to leave for Pakistan on September 19.

from: app.com.pk

Beijing capped its six-week run as the center of world sports, ushering out the Paralympic Games on Wednesday with a lavish closing ceremony.
The ceremony marked the end of seven intensive years of preparations and $40 billion in spending on venues and infrastructure — all meant to symbolize China’s emergence as a leading nation in the 21st century.
A 91,000 sellout crowd in the Bird’s Nest National Stadium saw the ceremonial flame extinguished and the event formally handed over to London, which will host the next Olympics and Paralympics in 2012.
As with the Olympics, officials praised their Chinese hosts for the striking venues, tight organization and stadiums that were mostly filled for 11 days of competition.
The games were held in nearly perfect weather with blue skies and light traffic, leaving Beijing’s chronic air pollution a distant memory.
However, traffic control measures are slated to end Saturday, with 2 million vehicles expected to return to the roads. In addition, heavy industry — shuttered for two months — and building construction is expected to return to pre-games levels, along with accompanying pollution.
“These games have been great games,” said Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee. “Everybody realizes that. These are the greatest Paralympic Games ever.”
The symbolic hand over came as London Mayor Boris Johnson and Beijing counterpart Guo Jinlong gathered on the infield. The London handover segment featured a red London double-decker bus, London landmarks like Nelson’s Column and a moment when a “tea lady” arrived and the show stopped.
Because if one thing unites China and Britain, it is the agreement that all things — even an Olympic ceremony — must stop for tea.
China led the gold-medal table in the Olympics and did the same in the Paralympics, winning 89 gold and 211 overall. Britain was No. 2 with 42 gold and 102 overall. The United States was No. 3 with 36 and 99.
South African swimmer Natalie Du Toit, who also competed in the Olympics, won five gold medals. She lost her left leg after a 2001 motorcycle crash.
Compatriot Oscar Pistroius, a double-amputee sprinter who runs on carbon-fiber legs, won three golds in 100, 200 and 400 meters.
He is hoping to run against able-bodied athletes in next year’s world championships in Berlin, and the London Games. Du Toit also plans to compete in the regular Olympics in London, in the 800-meter freestyle and the 10-kilometer open-water swim.
Four athletes were sent home for failing pre-competition doping tests — a German wheelchair basketballer, and powerlifters from Pakistan, Ukraine and Mali.
In a lunch Wednesday for foreign dignitaries, China president Hu Jintao said the Paralympics would push the government to improve care for the disabled, who historically have received little help or visibility in Chinese society.
“The Chinese government and people will build on the success of the Beijing Paralympic Games to carry forward the humanitarian spirit and advance in an all-round way the well-being of people with a disability in China,” the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Hu saying.
Four thousand athletes from 147 regions and countries took part. That number is expected to reach 4,200 in Britain, which gave birth to the modern-day Paralympic Games. The genesis of the games came in 1948, when German neurologist Ludwig Guttman organized an athletic event in Buckinghamshire — northwest of central London — for soldiers wounded in World War II.
Unlike the tight security at the Olympics, security was much looser during the Paralympics, with the Olympic Green area filled nightly with people lingering on strolls between venues.
That area was often nearly empty during the Olympics, as ordinary citizens were not given access.
It also ends a special run for 100,000 games volunteers, who staffed every nook and cranny at the venues. Their friendly efforts were credited with softening the image of China’s authoritarian government, which before and during the Olympics cracked down on security, visas and battled with journalists over blocked Internet access and freedom-of-the press issues.
“It’s no use to be sad, it’s all ending anyway,” said Jiang Wei, a 19-year-old university student who worked since July 8 in the main press center. “We can take memories and get on with our lives.”

from: ap.google.com

There has never been a Paralympics that has not been hailed the best ever.

The first time I heard the phrase delivered “live” in the stadium was at Atlanta, which was almost certainly the worst ever.
On Wednesday evening in Beijing, President of the International Paralympic Committee Sir Phillip Craven did not let me down, delivering the mantra word for word.
So how does it stand up to the claim?
Let us do the pluses first, and there are plenty of them.
My own personal abiding memory of the Beijing games, the fourth I have attended, was the crowds.
Disabled athletes over the years have been used to performing at most of their meets to sparse crowds made of friends, family and other team members.
Even at the best of the games – Sydney – there was still an element of “rent-a-crowd” about the attendances.
Many of the audiences were almost entirely made up of children, allocated tickets en bloc as an educational exercise.
They were reminiscent of those schoolboy and schoolgirl hockey internationals that used to be staged at Wembley, where the pitch and decibel level of the cheering were excruciating.
Nothing like that in Beijing but many of the events were total, or almost total, sell-outs.
The Bird’s Nest stadium several times had its full complement of 91,000 spectators. The swimming events were full every night. Great attendances too at the basketball.
And when GB quadriplegic wheelchair tennis star Peter Norfolk was winning his gold in the singles, there were more people watching him than turned up to see Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the Olympics.
Perhaps people were benefiting from the fact that the Paralympic tickets were considerably cheaper than at the Olympics, and also yielding to a huge curiosity to get inside stadiums like the Bird’s Nest?
Another major plus was access. I am guided by the athletes here. I talked to many of them, and they all said the same – that facilities in the village, the stadiums and around the Olympic complex were second to none.
Libby Kosmala, a Paralympian attending her 11th games, said she thought that Beijing’s access was “faultless”.

Avoidable glitches
Now for a couple of minuses. These reflect as much on the nature of the games themselves, and their management by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), as they do on Beijing.
There were a number of foul-ups in the running of events trackside and poolside.
It has been hard to get to the bottom of what led to them, but they need to be sorted if the Paralympics is to take its place as a major sporting event.
For instance, two events were ordered to be re-run. One actually took place, the other re-run was cancelled after the objection was withdrawn.
But the re-run is an odd concept in all but the most extreme cases. To be honest, it smacks of patronising attitudes. Olympic gold medallist Steve Cram said he could not remember a re-run ever being ordered.
In one case a re-run was deemed necessary because of a crash, which led to a disqualification.
The disqualification was fair enough, but ordering a re-run because someone screws up smacks too much of the sports day “oh give them another go” attitude, which has no place in the Paralympics.
The other was caused by an administrative error, a wrong lane allocation. The protest about that should have happened before the race was ever run.
Both of these re-run decisions were reached after the medal ceremonies had taken place – so that athletes who had publicly been cheered suddenly found themselves deprived of that medal.
Whether it was miscommunication between the IPC and local organisers is not clear.
What is clear is that in terms of rigorous organisation, these games must look as professional as the Olympic counterparts they seek to be compared to.
Which leads me to the other matter that must be sorted out before London 2012 – classification.

A job well done
There has to be classification in Paralympic sport. The principle of grading people on the basis of their severity of disability, so that like competes with like, is essential. But classification must be managed better.
In these games, there were a number of examples of people being thrown out of events because they were felt to be less disabled than their classification allowed.
Clearly, if there is a blatant example of cheating, it must be dealt with. But the answer to that is not expulsion during the games, but a proper, independent and transparent programme of classification before the games ever begin.
If a competitor performs above the level which appears to be consistent with their disability, it should be dealt with after the games.
We cannot have a situation where doing particularly well, is regarded as a reason for re-classification within the games.
Classification is confusing enough for spectators, and I think in London there should be more attempts to explain it to crowds.
What happened here is likely to lower the reputation of the games, which on the whole is rising exponentially.
The Beijing games have done plenty to continue that process, and they should be congratulated on that.
They should also be congratulated on changes to the environment which will provide a permanent legacy for disabled Beijingers for the future.
It seems impossible to think that the exposure of huge numbers of people to disabled athletes performing extraordinary feats would not change the perception of disability in China.
Though whether change will be sustained at the rate achieved by the needs of staging the Paralympics remains to be seen.
Was it the best ever? It is a subjective judgment, but I would say yes. I would put it on a par with Sydney, but with the added dimension of genuine, deeply enthusiastic crowds. Well done, Beijing!

source: bbc.co.uk

The high-spirit United States beat Australia 53-44 to win their third Paralympic gold in wheelchair rugby here on Tuesday.

The U.S. team won their first two gold medals since the wheelchair rugby was introduced to the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics as a demonstration sport. They took the bronze in Athens four year ago.

Having a redemption of Athens’ loss, the exciting Americans celebrated their fifth straight victory at the tournament with a “wheelchair dance”, spinning their “vehicles” at the court, while the Aussies, with obvious disappointment on the face, gave each other consoling hugs.

“Winning a gold medal compares only to when I was born and when I got married,” said Will Groulx, the American leading scorer.

“This feels so great. We set a goal four years ago, we promised to each other we were going to make it and it is great to see how all the hard work and determination became a gold medal.”

The Aussies, who won a silver at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, should be proud of their own performances as the Americans hardly took any advantage to end the second quarter 21-20.

However, the world’s No. 1 U.S. strengthened their defense at the second half of the game, when the Australian top scorer Ryley Batt often found himself blocked by two or three aggressive Americans.

Will Groulx, who scored 11 of his 16 goals, helped the U.S. to establish a five goal lead by the third quarter and extended the gap to seven in the end.

However, the 19-year-old Australian “Magic Boy” Batt remained the shiniest star of the game with 23 goals and 12 assists.

“I’m not disappointed at all. I would have liked to win gold of course but the U.S. played a better game. Both teams had such great defence, you couldn’t have asked for a better match,” said Batt.

Earlier, the Athens runner-up Canada defeated Britain 47-41 to win the bronze medal. The Britons, ranked No. 4 in the world, repeated their Athens 2004 fourth place.

Mike Whitehead scored 14 goals to become Canda’s best scorer, while Briton Troye Collins led his teammates with 16 goals.

In another two matches of the day, defending champion New Zealand beat Germany 28-25 to place fifth.

The New Zealanders were far from their tournament goals as they missed out on the semifinals by losing the first two preliminaries to Britain and Australia with identical 39-38. Germany, however, bettered their Athens position of seventh to stand on the sixth.

New Zealand captain David Klinkhamer took the fifth finish as a “complete heartbreak”, saying his team “has gone from hero (winning Athens gold) to zero”.

“We underperformed and there is no way to sugar coat it,” said Klinkhamer. “We failed in executing our game plan and we lacked basic rugby techniques. We don’t get to compete often and need to travel more.”

Asian powerhouse Japan, who are also set for a medal, suffered another major setback after they surprisingly lost to Germany at the first round of the fifth place playoffs.

However, the Japanese, most of whom got a haircut to show their determination to win after preliminaries, found no trouble to defeat inexperienced China, trouncing the host 58-32 to finish seventh.

China, who trained less than one year, finished their first Paralympics with five straight losses but showed no regret after the match.

“As rookies, we are here to learn from the world’s top-level teams and I’m proud that we have been improving match by match and my players have never given up on the court,” said China head coach Wen Yan.

“The losses have only inspired us to work harder to do better in London,” she said.

from: xinhuanet.com

Oscar Pistorius, the South African “Blade Runner,” won his second gold medal of the Beijing Paralympics with a victory in the 200-meter sprint on Saturday, but the day was marked by controversy as the Iran wheelchair basketball team pulled out of the Games ahead of a possible matchup against Israel.

The Iran team was scheduled to play the United States on Saturday in a quarterfinal-round match but withdrew before the game. The winner would go on to meet the winner of the Canada-Israel game.

A spokesman for the Iranian delegation denied that Iran pulled out because of the possibility of playing Israel. The country has had a longstanding no-contact policy with Israel, and Iranian athletes have pulled out of events rather than meet Israelis in sports events.

The spokesman said that the Iran wheelchair basketball team withdrew because the Beijing organizers had swapped the starting times of the US-Iran and Canada-Israel matches. That swap had been made without explanation.

“Each match should be done one after another,” Iran deputy chef de mission Iran Doust said. “But unfortunately, concerning our match they didn’t observe the order and that’s the reason” for the pullout.

As it happened, Canada defeated Israel. The Canadians will face the Americans on Sunday.

TRACK AND FIELD: Pistorius won his second gold at the Bird’s Nest before a crowd of more than 50,000, taking the 200 meters by nearly a full second over the silver medalist, Jim Bob Bizzell of the U.S.

“This race is definitely going down as one of my best ever races,” Pistorius said. “I’ve never run in front of a crowd this big and just the crowd, the athletes, it was an awesome race and I couldn’t have hoped for anything better.”

He has one race to go, the 400 meters on Sunday.

China won five gold medals at the stadium on Saturday. Eighteen-year-old Yang Sen won the men’s 100-meter T35 in a world record 12.29 seconds, while Wang Fang retained her crown in women’s 200-meter T36. Yu Shiranwon the men’s 200-meter T53, and Xia Dong (men’s shot put) and Jimisu Menggen (women’s discus throw) won gold medals with world-record performances.

Xinhua’s wrapup of the day’s action is at this link.

The International Paralympic Committee’s “Sixty Seconds” YouTube show for Friday/Saturday (see window below) begins its highlights package with Friday’s Canadian sweep of the women’s 200-meter medley (SM13). Chelsey Gotell of Antigonish, N.S., finished first in a world record 2 minutes 28.15 seconds, followed by Winnipeg’s Kirby Cote of Winnipeg and Valerie Grand’Maison of Montreal. That’s followed by early Saturday road racing action, including American Oz Sanchez’s gold medal in the 12.7-kilometer hand-pedaled cycle time trial with an average of 23.35 mph, and the victory by Heinz Frei of Switzerland in another HC category. There’s also football seven-a-side (S9) action, with Russia taking on Brazil:
Universalsports.com’s re-stream of its coverage of Saturday’s track and field events is available at this link. The site’s one-hour-20-minute highlight package from Saturday’s early events are at this link.

SWIMMING: At the Water Cube, Erin Popovich finally didn’t win a gold medal — she won a silver. Popovich finished second to Huang Min of China in the women’s 50-meter butterfly (S7). “She took it out fast and had a better race than me,” Popovich said. “Hats off to her. China is having a phenomenal meet.”

Popovich, who has won 4 golds at these Games and 14 in her Paralympic career, has one more race in Beijing: the 50-meter freestyle on Sunday.

Justin Zook of the U.S. won gold in the men’s 100-meter backstroke (S10) after setting a world record in the preliminary heat of the event.

Countryman Jarrett Perry also set a world record during a preliminary heat of his event, the 100-meter backstroke (S9), but the final was won by Australian Matthew Cowdrey, his third of the Beijing Games to go along with two more from Athens 2004. Perry took the bronze.

WHEELCHAIR RUGBY: The American team had its hands full with a tough Japan team, winning by 44-37. Will Groulx led the U.S. with 12 goals and four steals, while Bryan Kirkland pitched in 11 goals and four assists.

The murderballers’ final group-stage game is Sunday against Canada, the team that beat the Amerks in the semifinal at Athens four years ago.
WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL: While the U.S. men’s advanced through forfeit, the women’s team advanced to the gold medal game by beating Australia, 60-47, in the semifinal.

With less than five minutes to go, the U.S. was clinging to a 46-45 lead after fighting back after trailing for most of the third quarter. But the Americans pulled away at the end.

Christina Ripp and Stephanie Wheeler led the U.S. with 18 and 15 points, respectively.

The Amerkas will play Germany for the gold medal on Monday.
WHEELCHAIR TENNIS: Nick Taylor and David Wagner won the quad doubles gold with a three-set victory over Boaz Kramer and Shraga Weinberg of Israel. Taylor and Wagner overpowered the Israelis in the first set, 6-0, lost the second by 4-6, but won the third, 6-2, to defend their gold from Athens four years ago.

TABLE TENNIS: The U.S. duo of Mitch Seidenfeld and Tahl Leibovitz lost, 3-2, to Ukraine’s Yuriy Shchepanskyy and Vadym Kubov in the Class 9-10 teams tournament to end American participation in the table tennis competition at the 2008 Paralympics.

Seidenfeld, who won a gold and bronze in the 1992 Games and a silver and bronze in 1996, lost his singles match while Leibovitz, of Ozone Park, won his. But the Ukranians won the doubles match to prevail over all.

source:olympics.blogs.nytimes.com

Host nation China pulled away from its rivals at the Beijing Paralympics Friday as its medal tally soared over 100.
China has now won more medals in just over five days of competition than it did during the whole of last month’s Olympics, when it won exactly 100.
The Paralympic haul is made up of 34 golds, 40 silvers and 27 bronze. Second-placed Britain has 29 golds and an overall total of 61.
More than 4,000 competitors from nearly 150 countries and regions are battling for 472 gold medals in 20 sports at the eye-catching venues used for last month’s Olympics, such as the “Bird’s Nest” and the Water Cube.
China’s Olympic tally of 100 medals included 51 golds, meaning it finished atop the table ahead of the United States, with 36 golds.
The sports at the Paralympics, which end on September 17, include athletics, swimming, powerlifting, wheelchair fencing and five-a-side and seven-a-side football, as well as the lesser-known goalball and boccia.

source: thenews.com.pk

Natalie Du Toit of South Africa won her fourth gold medal in swimming at the Beijing Paralympics, taking the 400-meter freestyle on Friday in a world-record time for her disability group.

Du Toit, who lost a leg in a 2001 motorcycle crash, finished in 4 minutes, 43.81 seconds — 0.15 better than the mark she set three years ago in London.

One of two athletes in the Paralympics who also competed at the Beijing Olympics, Du Toit has set three disability group records in winning four golds. She also set records in the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley. Her other gold came in the 100 freestyle, where she already holds the record.

She will wrap up her Paralympic program Sunday in the 50 freestyle, where she also holds the disability group record.

Du Toit won five golds and a silver at the Athens Paralympics, but chose to compete in only five events in Beijing. She said she could have done even better Friday.

“I had a really bad turn and had to stop and start again, which wasted a lot of energy,” she said. “I didn’t think I would do a best time.”

Du Toit finished 16th at the Beijing Olympics in the 10-kilometer open-water swim. A promising Olympian until her injury, she’s hoping to qualify for the 2012 London Games.

Fifty-four medals were up for grabs Friday. In the major disciplines, there were 16 in swimming, 15 in cycling and 18 in track and field. Spain won three golds in swimming to lead all countries.

Britain dominated cycling with four gold medals and six overall. The United States won seven medals in cycling, including three gold. Spain also managed three gold medals in cycling and six overall.

In track, sprinter Oscar Pistorius is expected to win the 200 on Saturday, adding to the gold he won earlier in the week in the 100.

In the medal standings, China leads with 37 gold and 109 overall. Britain has 33 gold and 69 overall, followed by the United States with 23 and 56 overall.

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from: ap.google.com