Olympic Times – Sports Daily

THE high command of the Olympic movement is to meet in London to discuss what lessons can be learned from the Beijing Games.

Up to 70 VIPs will attend the “Beijing debrief” this month in a week-long summit which will begin with a lecture by Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee.

Mr Rogge is expected to tackle the issue of how the scale of the Olympic Games can be adapted to cope with a worldwide recession. Last month he sparked a row when he said that to avoid the main 2012 stadium becoming a “white elephant” after the Games, the athletics track could be removed. Officials from the Beijing Games organising committee, Bocog, will brief their London counterparts on issues ranging from transport, catering and security. Bocog earned praise for the organisation of the Games and the sports venues, especially the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube.

However, the London organising committee, Locog, will be keen to improve on public catering at venues and the poor atmosphere in the Beijing Olympic Green.

Meetings will be led by Hein Verbruggen, head of the IOC’s team overseeing the Beijing Games, and IOC chief technocrat Gilbert Felli.

Future Winter Olympics hosts Vancouver and Sochi will also attend, as will cities bidding to host the 2016 Games – Rio, Madrid, Chicago and Tokyo – who will also be given a tour of the Olympic Park. They will be discreetly trying to lobby the dozen IOC members in attendance, ahead of the 2016 vote next year in Copenhagen.

?BORIS Johnson has rejected claims that Olympic chiefs will struggle to put on the 2012 Games because of the financial downturn.

“Not only can we cope, but we can do a fantastic job,” he insisted, adding that this would be done within the £9.3 billion budget.

However, the Mayor admitted that Games organisers may have to attract more foreign investment, particularly from China, as a result.

The Standard reported last month that he was holding talks with some of China’s leading universities to establish a new campus in the Olympic Park.

Mr Johnson’s remarks on Channel 4 News come after Olympics minister Tessa Jowell said the Government would not have bid for the Games if it had known a recession was on its way.

source: thisislondon.co.uk

The IOC are growing increasingly frustrated at Britain’s refusal to introduce legislation to outlaw the possession, supply and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.

Their stance leaves them out of step with other European countries such as Sweden, France, Italy, Greece and Germany where anti-doping laws mean athletes and their suppliers can go to jail.

Arne Ljungqvist, the chairman of the IOC’s medical commission, said he would be pressing for a change in the British law, which would be an important legacy of the 2012 Olympics.

The subject will be raised by the IOC when Olympic host and bidding cities gather in London later this month for a post-Beijing debrief.

The IOC are considering making it a condition of bidding for future Olympic Games that candidate countries have anti-doping laws. In the meantime, just as the Chinese authorities were persuaded to introduce new legislation in the run-up to this summer’s Games, Britain will be under pressure to fall into line.

Ljungqvist, who is also a board member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said: “I think legislation is very important that criminalises certain offences as detailed in the WADA code because it allows public authorities to intervene where we cannot.

“We as sports authorities have our limited possibilities regulated by our code. We can do testing but we cannot do searches.”

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In a highly unusual show of discord between Olympic leaders, IAAF chief Lamine Diack sharply criticized IOC president Jacques Rogge on Friday for displaying “a lack of respect” for track and field.

Diack, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, issued a strongly worded statement vowing to fight for the “rightful place of athletics at the summer Olympic Games.”

He assailed the International Olympic Committee president for criticizing Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s celebrations in Beijing and for suggesting the Olympic track in London could be ripped up after the 2012 Games.

“Destroying the track would be totally unacceptable,” Diack said.

Diack is scheduled to meet with Rogge in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Nov. 17.

Diack took issue with Rogge for accusing Bolt of excessive showboating and showing a lack of respect to other sprinters after his world-record performances in the 100 and 200 meters.

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As sports fans across the nation ponder the implications of having a dedicated pick-up basketball player and known sports fanatic as our Commander-in-Chief, it’s worth noting today that Obama’s geographical and not athletic affiliation may prove to have the greatest impact on the future of sports in America.

Obama already has been active in Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics, and given his newfound stature in the world right now, it’s not hard to imagine that his full-fledged support as President would bring the Summer Games to the Windy City for the first time in history.

Japanese officials behind Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Games are all but conceding today, admitting that one of Obama’s trademark speeches as part of a Chicago presentation to the IOC would be tough to beat.

The other two cities that are finalists for the 2016 Olympics are Rio de Janeiro and Madrid. When the four finalists were announced this summer, a widening rift between the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee over television revenues was reported to be a serious threat to Chicago’s chances, with the American city viewed as the longshot of the four finalists to secure the eventual bid.

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Officials aiming to bring the 2016 Summer Olympics to Tokyo fear that Barack Obama’s victory in the U.S. presidential election will have a positive effect on the bid of his hometown of Chicago, one of the three rival cities competing with Tokyo to host the Games. ‘‘I wonder how IOC members will react when Mr Obama appears in a presentation for Chicago,’’ Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda said Wednesday.
Tokyo, Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro have moved to the final phase of the selection process after their bid plans were given the nod by the International Olympic Committee in June. The IOC will name the host city of the 2016 Olympics at its general assembly meeting in Copenhagen on Oct 2, 2009. ‘‘Mr Obama is popular and good at speeches, so things could get tough for Japan,’’ said Tomiaki Fukuda, a senior JOC executive board member.
But Ichiro Kono, the 2016 Tokyo Olympics campaign chief, showed a subdued reaction to Obama’s victory, saying, ‘‘It was within expectations. We will just do what we have to do no matter who becomes U.S. president.’’

source: japantoday.com

IOC president Jacques Rogge foresees no immediate threat to the Olympics from the global financial crisis and says the fight against doping will be a key priority for a second term in office.

Rogge, a 66-year-old Belgian who has led the International Olympic Committee since 2001, notified members last Friday that he will seek re-election next October for a final four-year term that will take him to 2013.

He spoke in a telephone interview with The Associated Press ahead of a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday where he publicly announced his candidacy for another term at the helm of the IOC.

No challengers are expected and Rogge’s re-election is considered a formality at the October 2009 assembly in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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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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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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The real He Kexin‘s age! two gold medal stolen by the cheating Chinese?
There has been a controversy as to He Kexin’s actual age. Her 2008 passport and the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) list her date of birth as January 1, 1992, which would make her 16 years, during the 2008 Olympic opening ceremonies and therefore old enough to compete. However, before the 2008 Olympics, He’s age was reported by the Chinese press, including the state news service, Xinhua, as 13 in 2007 and 14 in 2008 in news articles that were later taken off-line. Her birth date has also been given on several registration lists of the General Administration of Sport in China, the Chengdu Sports Bureau and other registration sources as “1994-1-1″ (January 1, 1994), which would make her 14 years old during the Opening ceremonies, and therefore too young to participate in the 2008 Summer Olympics.In addition, in a November 2007 speech in Wuhan, Chinese sporting official Liu Peng introduced He as a 13-year-old.
Chinese officials have denied the allegations, stating in August 2008 that Xinhua had not confirmed He’s age before filing their news reports. He herself, speaking to reporters after the Olympic team final, noted, “my real age is 16. I don’t pay any attention to what everyone says.” On August 2, the International Olympic Committee stated that they would not investigate the discrepancy in He’s reported age, stating that the FIG’s own verification system would be acceptable proof of eligibility. The FIG, in responding to the situation, stated that they would not ask for additional proof of age beyond the passport already supplied by Chinese officials.

How old are you He Kexin?

However, the matter continues to be a source of controversy among members of the gymnastics community and the media. The Times reported that a computer expert “Stryde” working for a New York based firm called the Intrepidus Group was able to access cached pages on the search engine Baidu showing He to be underage after websites concerning the athlete on the search engine Google were blocked.
On August 21, the IOC announced that, in light of the new evidence, they had asked the FIG to reopen the investigation into He and her teammates’ ages. On Friday August 22, 2008, the IOC said they had not uncovered any evidence of wrongdoing “so far” and expressed confidence that the Chinese Federation’s documents were correct. However, the FIG held an emergency meeting about the situation on August 23 and requested additional documentation for every gymnast on the Chinese team, with the sole exception of team captain Cheng Fei. On August 24, a Chinese official addressed the registration lists found online, stating that the discrepancy was due to an administrative error which took place when He was transferred between teams while participating in the InterCity Games in 2007.The FIG has not set any official timeline on closing the investigation, stating on August 23, “this process may take some time, but in due course, the FIG will make a full report of our findings to the International Olympic Committee.” The IOC confirmed on August 28 that the FIG investigation was still active and in progress.

How hacker found proof of He Kexin’s age

In his spare time Mike Walker likes to find things on web servers that were never meant to be found.

On Monday, after curiosity got the better of him, the 33-year-old computer security consultant toiled for hours without success, as he tried to dig up more information about the allegedly under-aged Chinese gymnast He Kexin.
On Tuesday, after redefining the parameters of his Google Hack, he hit the jackpot. Bingo! The mother lode.
On Google’s cache he found evidence of a record of He Kexin’s birth on a spreadsheet belonging to the General Administration of Sport of China – the country peak sports body.
But the data had been removed.
On the Chinese search engine Baidu, he went one better. He found two caches of Excel spreadsheet which had been published on the web and both of them showed He Kexin’s birthday as January 1, 1994.
The cache is the snapshot of web pages crawled by search engine spiders which map the web and database their findings.
The following day on Google’s Chinese search engine, google.com.cn, he found yet more cached spreadsheets from the General Administration of Sport of China also showing the birth date as January 1, 1994.
This would make the tiny gymnast – who won two gold medals at the Olympics – 14 years old. Her Olympic credentials list her birth date as January 1, 1992, which would make her 16.
Regulations that were introduced in 1997 by the world gymnastics federation require gymnasts to turn 16 in the year of the Games to be eligible to compete.
“I spent a large amount (of time) failing (to find anything) and a small amount succeeding,” Walker, who works for the Washington DC-based Intrepidus Group.
“It takes a little bit of faith to believe that you can find something out there and sometimes it pays off.
“I put it on Blogger (a free Google blog service) and went out to dinner and the world came calling.”
As a direct result of Walker’s findings and the resulting press coverage that it sparked, the International Olympic Committee yesterday announced that it had called for a review of the age falsification allegations surrounding China’s dual gold medal-winning gymnast.
“We have asked the gymnastics federation to look into what have been a number of questions and apparent discrepancies on this case. And they’ve been working with the [Chinese] national federation … to have a full clarification on this topic,” IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies told a news conference yesterday.
Late last night, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) issued a statement saying that it had widened its inquiry into the age falsification claims.
The federation said it had asked the Chinese Gymnastic Association to submit further documents testifying to the birth dates of He Kexin and four fellow gymnasts – Jiang Yuyuan, Li Shanshan, Deng Linlin and Yang Yilin.
“On receipt of these documents, the FIG will forward its conclusions to the International Olympic Committee. It is in the interests of all concerned, not least the athletes themselves, to resolve this issue once and for all,” the statement said.
Walker is still surprised by the reaction to his findings. “It’s become the centre of a maelstrom and international media attention,” he said.
“I never set out to change the course of the Olympics; I set out as I always do, a curious researcher, intent on the search for truth and the knowledge I could acquire along the way,” he said in a blog post.

The governing body of world gymnastics has demanded additional documentary evidence to prove that five gold medal-winning China gymnasts were old enough to compete in the Olympic Games.

The Chinese Gymnastics Association has been asked to supply further evidence to prove the birthdates of Jiang Yuyuan, Li Shanshan, Deng Linlin, Yang Yilin and He Kexin, after more questions emerged over the stated ages of He and Yang.
The five competitors won gold medals in the team gymnastics event, while He became the darling of the host nation after she won gold on the uneven bars and Yang picked up two bronze medals in individual events.
A US computer expert told The Times on Thursday that he had uncovered Chinese government documents proving that He and Yang were only 14. Both appeared to have been registered as two years younger in previous years.
The online documents were the latest pieces of evidence to have emerged in recent months suggesting that the two athletes were two years beneath the minimum age of 16, in a sport where younger gymnasts are thought to have an advantage, being more flexible and thus better able to perform more difficult routines.
In a statement issued last night, the International Gymnastics Federation said that it was demanding additional evidence from the Chinese association “to resolve this issue once and for all”.
The federation did not specify precisely what documents it would require to satisfy itself that the two gymnasts were eligible. However, Lu Shanzan, China’s coach, said that the documents that had now been passed to the federation included He’s present and former passport, her ID card and family residence permit.
Lu said that all of these documents showed her to have been born in 1992 and complained that coaching staff and the girl’s parents were indignant and upset at the investigation. “Surely it’s not possible that these documents are still not sufficient proof of her birth date,” he said. “The passports were issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The identity card was issued by China’s Ministry of Public Security. If these valid documents are not enough to clarify this problem, then what will you believe?”
The investigation has not been reported in the state newspapers. Leading Chinese news websites also failed to cover the story, and yesterday sites running reports of the inquiry appeared to have been closed down. Even the debates of the issue in Internet chat rooms, which raged yesterday morning, disappeared in the afternoon as site-hosting companies moved to censor what could be a sensitive topic.
Some web commentators blamed the Americans for the inquiry and called for a retaliatory investigation of Michael Phelps, the US swimmer, who won eight gold medals at the Water Cube. Others were not surprised by the controversy. One wrote: “They will certainly now say that reports that she was 13 in 2007 were incorrect – so that she keeps her gold medal” – an apparent reference to a theory that He might previously have registered as younger than she was, in order to compete in a Chinese competition.
“Plank of Wood” commented: “Changing one’s age in China, especially in the past, is very common. When I was at school I changed my age to get into the class I wanted. Later I changed it back.” All of these comments had vanished from the web by the afternoon.
The latter point was repeated by a former Chinese sportsman yesterday. He told The Times that in his youth he had once changed his age to participate in competition with younger players. “It used to be very common, but it is getting less and less so,” he said.

How would you strip athlete of a medal?
Under statute of limitations rules, the IOC and other sports bodies can go back eight years to request the return of medals and nullify competition results. This means that even if the He Kexin case becomes a protracted affair, as is likely, the Committee has until 2016 to decide if it wishes to act on the findings of the investigation by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique.
However, once a decision has been reached, action is usually swift. When last year Marion Jones, the American five-time 2000 Olympic champion, admitted using steroids, she was officially stripped of her medals within weeks.
Given that the IOC is based in Lausanne, on the banks of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, the usual method of return once the Games have ended is by postal courier. Two athletes have handed their medals straight back in Beijing – Ara Abrahamian, the bronze-medal winning Greco-Roman wrestler from Sweden, and Jong Su Kim, the North Korean shooter who won bronze and silver.
After disqualification, standings are normally readjusted, with the second-place finisher moving up to gold, third to silver and fourth to bronze.

The International Olympic Committee asked the gymnastics ruling body to re-examine whether some members of the Chinese women’s team were too young to compete at the Beijing Games.

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said the committee told the International Gymnastics Federation to check with China’s national gymnastics association after “questions that were raised regarding discrepancies,” without elaborating. The international gymnastics agency has received birth certificates and other documents and will “likely” get back to the IOC today, she said.

“The IOC is keen that the federation looks at this and can put the matter to rest,” Davies said at a news conference in the Chinese capital today.
Doubts over the ages of He Kexin and other members of China’s team arose following the emergence of Chinese media reports from last year that, if accurate, indicated the athletes were younger than the 16-year-old minimum for Olympic gymnastics. He was listed as 13 in a Nov. 3, 2007, report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

from: canada.com

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will not yield to “political pressure” from US lawmakers to strip Russia of the 2014 Winter Games, says a top Russian official.

The IOC “adheres to the principle that ‘sport is separate from politics’ and will surely not yield to political pressure,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said in an interview with Russian daily Kommersant.

“The location of the Olympics is not determined by American laws,” Zhukov said in response to an initiative by two US lawmakers to ask the IOC to strip Russia of the Games as punishment for sending troops into neighboring Georgia.

“The Olympics will only be in 2014, and now it’s just 2008. Do you think this will still be a conflict zone by then? I don’t think so,” he said.

from: inquirer.net

Stupid Americans!Сувенири

The organizers of the Beijing Olympics have said that test samples from athletes competing at the Games will be kept for eight years for possible doping retests, national media reported on Monday.

Chen Zhiyu, head of the Beijing anti-doping division, said the samples could be reexamined as more advanced testing techniques are developed, the China Daily said.

Previously, samples that tested positive were stored for 90 days and those that tested negative for 30 days, according to the anti-doping rules of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The 29th Olympic Games in Beijing are due to see a record 4,500 doping tests, some 25 % more than at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and 50% more than in Sydney in 2000.

China opened the world’s biggest and most advanced anti-doping laboratory specifically for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Chinese authorities spent $10 million on the new laboratory, including $2.7 million on state-of-the-art testing equipment. The lab employs 100 experts from 10 countries.

Seven Russian female athletes, including five selected for the Beijing Olympics, were recently suspended for providing false urine samples and “tampering” with doping control procedures.

source: rian.ru

Communist China and the western media have been heading for a collision ever since the IOC’s daily press briefings began six days ago and unpleasant questions began to be asked about human rights, press freedoms, empty seats, armored personnel carriers parked outside the Main Press Centre, and assorted trickery and deception during the opening ceremonies.

On Thursday, they collided. East vs. West. Bang.

It began under the persistent questioning of Giselle Davies, director of communications of the IOC, who was repeatedly asked whether the IOC was embarrassed to be in Beijing considering the number of promises concerning press freedoms and human rights the organizers have broken since being awarded the Games seven years ago.
It ended with Wang Wei, chief spokesman for the Beijing Games and secretary general of Beijing 2008 bid committee, making an impassioned defence of the reforms China has made and will make because the Games are being staged here. The collision was inevitable. The world’s media has been itching for a fight every day during the briefings. The two sides are deeply suspicious and mistrustful of each other.

You have to wonder if China fully realized what it was getting into when it agreed to let 20,000 journalists in to cover the Games, considering what only a handful can do to the life of a NHL general manager in Canada.

For example, questioners in recent days have asked why no protests have yet been allowed so far in the three parks set aside for protests; why was a British journalist detained during an incident in downtown Beijing even though he was accredited; why hasn’t a Radio Free Asis correspondent of Tibetan descent been given accreditation for the Games; why was an armoured personnel carrier parked outside the Main Press Centre; why wasn’t the public told that certain elements of the opening ceremonies were faked; why hasn’t any information been provided about the dancer who was seriously injured during a rehearsal for the opening ceremonies; why are the stands empty when all the tickets were supposed to be sold.

It hasn’t made life easy for Wang and the Beijing organizers.

The Chinese have gone to enormous expense and trouble to stage a Summer Games that is unlikely to be equaled, in terms of venues and organization.

Yet, all they’re getting is criticism, which they had to be aware they would get in spades.

It will only get worse on Friday, because the Chinese can’t help shooting themselves in the feet.

Usually, the full transcript of the daily briefing is available on the publicly accessible Beijing Olympics site within hours.

On Thursday, six hours after the briefing ended, only half of the transcript – the one without the rancorous exchange over China’s broken promises – was available.

Highlights of it were available on the Games’ Info 2008 site, but that site is only available to journalists within the press centre and venues.

The Chinese version was also different from the English one and some of the questions were missing.

The trouble on Thursday started when Davies was asked whether the IOC was embarrassed because China hasn’t lived up to its pledges of media freedom and transparency during the Olympics.

Specific complaints in recent days have been over complete Internet access and the inability or unwillingness of officials to reveal how many requests have been made to stage protests and how many have been rejected.

Davies initially offered a roundabout response.

“There was certainly some hope and aspirations made in 2001 to have the Games have a positive impact on the wider social framework and I think we have to note that there have been enormous steps forward in numbers of areas,” she said.

“You’re here to report on the Games. The world is watching, and there will be commentaries made appraising how the Games have had an impact to bring sports, athletes and the world’s attention.

“We are very proud of the fact that these Games are progressing with spectacular sports, spectacular sports venues, operationally running smoothly, and that’s what we’re here for.”

Her questioner, a TV reporter from Great Britain, wasn’t buying the answer and wouldn’t let go, but that’s all he was going to get from her.

“We’re very pleased with how the organizers are putting on a good sports event,” she said.

“That’s what this is. This is an event first and foremost for the athlete and the athletes are giving extremely positive feedback about how they see these Games being held.”

Davies continued to be harangued by her questioner, but Sun Weide, chair of the briefing, seized control of the floor and tried to move on to the next questioner.

Before that could happen, though, the Rutgers-educated Wang, who began his professional career as an English teacher, signaled he wanted to speak.

His message was that for the last 30 years China has been making reforms step-by-step, but it was naive to think that one of the world’s oldest civilizations, with a history of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia, could or would make all the remaining changes in the three-week period of the Olympics.

“I was secretary general of the bidding committee,” said Wang.

“I was confronted with many questions about the opening up and the reform of China, and I did say that the Olympic Games coming to China would help China open up and reform better. And the effects show.

“After 30 years of reform, China is developing quickly. People enjoy more freedom and they have a lot to say and the welfare of people has improved a lot.

“Everybody can see that. The Olympic Games are a great platform. Everybody I see who comes to China for the first time will say to me, ‘China is so different,’ from what they read, what they saw in films, and in newspapers. “People are so friendly. People are living a good life. Everybody is happy. People are optimistic about their future.”

He noted that there are of course exceptions. Not everyone is doing better and some people have been disenfranchised. But it’s important to handle those grievances through the legal process because the country can’t be allowed to fall into “chaos.”

China welcomes the world, he said, and China also welcomes suggestions and constructive criticism.

It’s irritating, he suggested, that some journalists have come only to “peek and be critical, to dig into details and find fault with that.”

But finding flaws, he said, doesn’t mean that China is not trying to fulfill its promises.
“I did not say that China would promise to do whatever with the Games in China,” he said.
“I did not say that.
“But I said that the Games will open up the horizon about China.
“People will see better for themselves what China is like.
“You cannot underestimate the wisdom of the Chinese people.
“If you want to come over here and you want to be critical, it’s alright.
“But you have to believe the majority of the people, otherwise I think you are quite misled.”

from: canada.com

International Olympic Committee chief calls Michael Phelps ‘icon of the Games’

Michael Phelps has a new accolade.

“He is the icon of the Games,” International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said Thursday.

The American swimmer has won five gold medals, setting five world records in the process, so far at the Beijing Olympics. He picked up his 10th and 11th career gold medals Wednesday to become the most decorated Olympian of all time.

Phelps is on course to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals at a single Olympics.

“The quest to have more medals than Spitz will be something very important,” Rogge told The Associated Press. “And he’s keeping the attention of the public. He is a great athlete.”

Rogge put Phelps in a select pantheon of Olympic idols.

“The Olympic Games live around superheroes,” he said. “You had Jesse Owens, you had Paavo Nurmi, Carl Lewis and now you have Phelps. And that’s what we need to have.”

On a separate topic, Rogge downplayed the flap over lip-synching at the opening ceremony as “rather insignificant.”

Beijing organizers have faced tough criticism after it was revealed that the nine-year-old girl who performed a song during the ceremony was lip-synching to another girl’s vocal track.

“I am not a producer, so I definitely know nothing about singing and songs,” Rogge said. “I believe that playback (lip-synching) is something that is used in the music industry and the entertainment and show industry on a regular basis. But frankly speaking, this is rather insignificant in relation to the complexity of the Games and the magnitude of the Games.”

from:canadianpress.google.com

At least swimmers Kosuke Kitajima and Liu Zige accomplished something while getting wet Thursday at the Beijing Olympics.

Heavy rain delayed the start of Roger Federer‘s quarter-final match against James Blake, and the Swiss star may have wished it hadn’t gone ahead at all – he lost to the American 6-4, 7-6 (2).

The upset was a shock in that Blake had won only a single set in their previous eight matches. But the top-seeded Federer is battling a yearlong slump that has left him stalled at 12 Grand Slam titles, two shy of Pete Sampras’ record.

The rain also washed out rowing, canoeing and kayak whitewater events at Beixiaoying Town near Beijing and affected baseball and softball, with games suspended or called off by thunderstorms and lightning.

Only soggy beach volleyballers played through the heavy showers, watched by pockets of loyal fans in rain gear.

There was a different weather problem in Qingdao, site of the sailing competition. For the second day in a row, lack of wind in southern China forced all racing to be called off.

Inside the Water Cube, Kitajima became the first man to sweep the breaststroke events for the second straight Olympics by winning the 200 in two minutes 7.64 seconds.

“I was so calm that I think I could have seen each face in this venue,” the Japanese swimmer said. “I enjoyed my race.”

The host country celebrated when Liu won the 200 butterfly for China’s first swimming gold medal of the Games, setting the world mark of 2:04.18. Jiao Liuyang also went under the previous best to give the teammates a 1-2 finish and send the crowd into a frenzy.

“I didn’t expect that I could swim so fast,” Liu said. “I’ve only improved in the last year.”

Australia, led by Stephanie Rice, set the 18th world swimming record of the Beijing Games in the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay, obliterating the previous mark by nearly six seconds to upset the Americans.

Michael Phelps took care of a routine matter, advancing to the final of the 200-meter individual medley. With five golds and five world records, Phelps merely had to get by the semifinal of the 200 IM.

He won his heat and moved on to Friday with the second-best qualifying time, 1:57.70. He needs three more golds in Beijing to surpass Mark Spitz’s record total of eight at Munich in 1972.

Later Thursday, Phelps advanced out of the 100 butterfly preliminaries, keeping him on track to win his sixth gold medal.

On Thursday, IOC president Jacques Rogge called Phelps an “icon” of the Beijing Games.

“The quest to have more medals than Spitz will be something very important,” Rogge said. “And he’s keeping the attention of the public. He is a great athlete.”

China continued its domination of gymnastics. After winning both men’s and women’s team events, Yang Wei took the men’s all-around title that had eluded him for eight years.

Yang, the two-time defending world champion, finished with 94.575 points Thursday, nearly three points ahead of Kohei Uchimura of Japan. Yang had finished second to Alexei Nemov in 2000 and fell apart at the Athens Olympics.

“Today was perfect,” Yang said. “I felt tired before the competition, but after it I feel relaxed.”

Germany continued its domination of the equestrian competition in Hong Kong, capturing its third gold with a win in the team dressage.

Du Li of China rebounded from an earlier defeat, winning gold in the women’s 50-meter, three-position rifle event. Chiara Cainero of Italy won gold in women’s skeet shooting, beating Kim Rhode of the United States and Christine Brinker of Germany in a shoot-off.

Andrea Minguzzi of Italy was the surprise winner of the Greco-Roman wrestling 84-kilogram gold medal, defeating Zoltan Fodor of Hungary.

Minguzzi, who upset 2004 gold medallist Aleksey Mishin of Russia in the quarter-final, was 45th in last year’s world championships and has never finished higher than 18th in four world championship appearances.

Mijain Lopez of Cuba, the dominant big man in Greco-Roman wrestling since the Athens Olympics, beat rival Khasan Baroev of Russia to win the 120-kg gold medal. Another Russian, Aslanbek Khushtov, took gold in the 96-kg class.

Ukraine’s fencers won the team gold medal in women’s saber and China’s Zhang Juan Juan defeated South Korea’s Park Sung-hyun 110-109 to win the gold medal in women’s individual archery.

Yang Xiuli of China flipped her first four judo opponents then won in an overtime decision over Yalennis Castillo of Cuba to take the gold medal in the women’s 78-kilogram division.

Mongolia’s Tuvshinbayar Naidan won the men’s 100-kg class, defeating Kazakhstan’s Askhat Zhitkeyev. It was the first gold medal ever in the Olympics for the sparsely populated and landlocked country in east-central Asia.

The United States beat the Netherlands 7-0 in a baseball game that was called off after eight innings following a second rain delay. The Dutch protested the decision because they had loaded the bases in the ninth inning with no outs, but the protest was denied.

Canada led the U.S. softball team 1-0 in the fourth inning when rain forced players from the field. They’ll resume the game Friday with the defending champion American’s 16-game Olympic winning streak on the line.

Houston Rockets centre Yao Ming scored 30 points to lead China to an 85-68 win over Angola, giving the Olympic hosts their first victory in the tournament.

from: canadianpress.google.com

Chinese security forces should smile more to stop terrifying foreign visitors, a Norwegian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Gerhard Heiberg, told the Aftenposten daily on Monday.

“The police and military … need to act differently. They have stony faces. They’re seriously scaring the foreigners in Beijing. Something has to be done,” he said.

“The fact that they’re armed and look sinister, just makes things worse,” he added.

Heiberg said he had talked to China’s political authorities and Olympics organisers about the issue.

“I’ve asked them to get people to smile more,” he said, noting that his request was met with … laughs.

source: afp.google.com

At the Main Press Center on Saturday, Jaques Rogge, IOC President, was on hand to answer reporters’ questions about the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Rogge remarked that the upcoming Games represented the increasing force Asian countries have become in the sports circle, pointing out that in the last Olympics, Japan, the Republic of Korea and China showed their athletic might quite impressively.

Rogge also spoke about his visit to the Olympic Village on Friday, saying that his high opinion of the site was echoed by all athletes he spoke to while he was there. I’ve never seen an Olympic Village like this, it’s fantastic, Rogge said.

A total of 10,200 athletes are participating in competitions during the Games, Rogge revealed. Between 7,000 and 9,000 of them will be involved in the opening ceremony.

All 205 IOC member states and regions are participating in these Games, he continued.

from: beijing2008.cn

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Saturday faced mounting questions over Internet censorship, days before the Beijing Games, despite earlier pledges that its use would be unfettered.
While China has allowed access to some websites that were blocked earlier in the week, many sites still remain inaccessible to reporters covering the Beijing Olympics that start on Aug. 8. On Friday the IOC had said the issue had been resolved.
“We would like to see the greatest degree of openness,” IOC communications director Giselle Davies told reporters.
“There has been no change in the IOC’s position. The IOC would like to see open access,” she said in response to several questions regarding the IOC’s determination to push through what it had promised.
Some questions led with quotes from IOC officials that the Internet would be free.
“When there were problems on Wednesday, the IOC’s team… met with the organising committee and asked if they could be resolved,” Davies said.
“We can only encourage moving towards that openness and transparency.”
That led to the unblocking of several sites, including human rights group Amnesty International, BBC China and Deutsche Welle news sites.
The issue had caused a major stir days before the start of the Aug. 8-24 Olympics with IOC officials insisting there would be no censorship and Beijing Games Organising Committee (BOCOG) saying sensitive sites would remain blocked by the Communist authorities.
Although Internet access will be relatively free for reporters for the period of the Games, it is still tightly controlled for the rest of the country.
Sites related to spiritual movement Falun Gong, and other issues that are frowned on, are regularly blocked. Some U.S. newspaper blogs were also blocked.
BOCOG is responsible for directly running the Beijing Games under the auspices of the IOC, which sets general policy.
Amnesty International has condemned Internet restrictions during the Games as “betraying the Olympic values”.

source: guardian.co.uk