Olympic Times – Sports Daily

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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Tokyo made its mark in “enemy territory” with its presentation in the Mexican resort of Acapulco bidding to host the 2016 Olympic Games, delighting an audience of Olympic committees from the Americas.
The Japanese delegation generated applause and provoked laughter with its sense of humour, even though the participants of the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) were geographically nearer to bidders Chicago and Rio de Janeiro, and historically closer to Madrid.
“It was our first opportunity to make the official presentation to the members of PASO, and also to many members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). I enjoyed it very much,” Ichiro Kono, director of Tokyo 2016, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The Acapulco meeting brought together not only the presidents of 42 Olympic committees of the Americas and international federations, but also various members of the IOC, including its president Jacques Rogge.
For Kono, it was a unique opportunity that he did not consider a battle in hostile terrain. “This is a competition between friends,” he said. “Chicago, Madrid and Rio, they are all my friends.”

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A group of women ski jumpers who are suing to have their sport included in the 2010 Winter Olympics received a boost from a Canadian athlete on Wednesday.

Zoya Lynch, a 17-year-old member of Canada’s national team, joined the lawsuit that includes 10 female athletes, most from the United States and Europe, who want women’s ski jumping included at the 2010 Games in Vancouver. No other current members of the team are part of the lawsuit.

Marie-Pierre Morin, 26, a retired ski jumper, is the only other Canadian involved in the lawsuit against the Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee.

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“As a Canadian, I don’t want to stand on the sidelines watching the boys compete. The Olympics is where I want to be,” said Lynch, as she stood outside the Vancouver courthouse where her name was added to list of women ski jumpers suing VANOC.

“I just feel we’re being discriminated against because we’re girls,” Lynch said.

At issue is whether women ski jumpers are being discriminated against by being barred from competing at the Games. The plaintiffs argue that allowing men’s ski jumping but not women’s violates their equality rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The International Olympic Committee has said its decision to exclude women’s ski jumping at the Vancouver Games is based on “technical merit” and isn’t discriminatory. In 2006 the IOC voted not to allow women’s ski jumping into the 2010 Games, saying the sport has not developed enough and that it didn’t meet basic criteria for inclusion.

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The Mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, expressed his confidence Thursday that the Spanish capital would be chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

Gallardon chose the day, exactly one year before the 2016 host city will be announced, to make his statement at an informal meeting to discuss the progress of the Madrid 2016 bid.

“We are going to show the world a city that is modern, prepared and enthusiastic,” said Gallardon in a speech reported on the website of the Madrid local authority.

“Now we need the citizens to be united behind the bid. It should not be hard because all of the world knows Madrid as a city that is hospitable, open and close — a place that gives confidence and which earns it.”

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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

We got our full measure of Olympic moments in the just-completed Beijing Games, topped by Michael Phelps’s eight gold medals and Usain Bolt’s lightning sprints.

Nonetheless, some of the greatest feats took place in corporate suites, where the Olympics’ global sponsors calculated huge returns on their investments.

General Electric Co.’s NBC soared past its $1 billion ad revenue target by delivering the biggest TV audience for a non- U.S. Summer Games since Barcelona in 1992. Its industrial divisions sold $700 million of equipment to Olympics venues and other Beijing customers.

Coca-Cola’s Olympic-themed “Red Around The World” campaign yielded 17 percent and 18 percent volume gains in China the past two years. Coke not only cut into Pepsi’s market share lead, it also induced Yao Ming, China’s iconic basketball player, to leave Pepsi and endorse Coke.

I could go on and on about the Olympic sponsors as hustlers — perhaps McDonald’s super-sized ad campaign, “I’m loving it when China wins” or Adidas’s new four-story retail emporium in Beijing, the shoemaker’s biggest in the world. Yes I could, except I know my astute readers don’t need Kodak to get the picture. (If you did happen to need Kodak, Beijing is awash with this Olympic sponsor’s latest digital imaging products.)

Corporate Land Rush

Let me be blunt. What has unfolded in China the past two weeks is less a global sports festival than a corporate land rush into the world’s No. 1 growth market. In those terms, the Cha-Ching Games of Beijing have been a huge success.

In terms of the vision of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, Beijing represents a total bastardization. His credo was “The important thing is not to win but take part.” The Beijing Games’ motto was: “Do you take Visa?” (Of course they do, silly; Visa is another global sponsor which plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into the Games.)

I’m no naif. Sure it’s been many an Olympiad since there were pure amateurs. Sure the Games have been big business ever since the Los Angeles Games of 1984, when Peter Ueberroth showed how lucrative they could be.

What Beijing did was remove the last fig leaf from the Olympic ideal. Put it right up there among the laurel leaves on the winners’ heads and that was that.

The International Olympic Committee sold out the Games’ soul — even if at a handsome price — to accommodate a host that didn’t subscribe to basic Olympics values and sponsors that didn’t seem to care.

Berlin Games

Not since the worst moments of Avery Brundage, the longtime Olympics autocrat who appeased Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Games by pulling American Jewish runners from a track event, has there been such pitiful leadership.

IOC President Jacques Rogge and his cohorts repeatedly let the Chinese play them for patsies. In part, the suits from Lausanne, Switzerland — IOC headquarters — were victims of their own egos.

They awarded Beijing the Games in 2001 under a dearly held conceit: that the Olympics are a great geopolitical force for good. It’s why they prefer to call this a Movement, not a sports property. That’s why Juan Antonio Samaranch, the longtime imperious president of the IOC, liked to be called “Your Excellency.”

Beijing represented both a grand commercial opportunity for sponsors and a grandiose gesture for the Movement. The Olympics were supposed to be, at once, a welcoming of China into the international community and a means of changing China’s uglier practices. The Beijing delegation pledged human-rights reforms if awarded the Games.

Business China’s Way

Alas, this proved to be less the stuff of a Nobel Peace Prize than of a Faustian bargain. The closer the 2008 Games grew, the less sway Lausanne held over Beijing. In the seven years between bid and Games, China had become a fast-emerging economic power, which did business the way it did government: in its own didactic way.

By the time it was clear China had its own ideas about what constituted human rights, media access, peaceful dissent and other such western values, it was too late. A predictable, recurring pattern developed.

NBC and other broadcasters would scream about China’s severe restrictions on where they’d allow cameras outside athletic venues. IOC officials would “tsk, tsk.” China would do as it bloody well pleased.

Internet Access

Journalists would scream about China’s restrictions on their Internet access during the Games. IOC officials would “tsk, tsk.” China would do as it pleased.

The IOC was at its most feeble when it refused to stand up for Joey Cheek, the gold-medal speed skater at Turin. He’s become a prominent advocate for Darfur and wanted to come to Beijing to enlist other Olympians in the cause.

China, which is Sudan’s biggest oil customer and has been accused of complicity in that country’s Darfur slaughters, could see no good in that. Cheek was refused a visitor visa and the IOC declined to stand up for him.

In the same non-Olympic spirit, IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies repeatedly deflected reporters’ increasingly hostile questions about why no permits had been issued for protests that were supposed to be allowed in designated areas.

The Chinese government finally provided an answer of sorts. It threatened two elderly women who’d submitted repeated protest applications with a sentence to re-education camp if they persisted. With such hosts, the Olympics were about as much fun as the cultural revolution.

Rogge’s Status

Thus did Beijing wind up being less a coming-out party for China than a shakedown of its many visitors. Olympic sponsors may nonetheless have done very well by the Games, but the IOC has not. Rogge’s alpha status in the Olympic movement has been weakened.
And even sponsors who did great business in Beijing should worry about the way these Games played out. The Olympic rings are the world’s most recognized brand, but they have been dinged.

source: bloomberg.com

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

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

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

source: businessweek.com

The Beijing Olympics have been declared a sporting success. Attention is now turning to the Paralympics, which many hope will improve the situation for the disabled in China. Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing.

The Beijing Olympics ended Sunday night with a grand closing ceremony.

Beijing’s organization, infrastructure, and iconic sports venues for the games drew widely praised during two weeks of competition.

Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, declared the Beijing games a success that would leave a lasting, positive legacy.

“Through these Games the world learnt more about China and China learned more about the world,” Rogge said.

Beijing is now gearing up to host the Paralympics – the world’s biggest sporting event for those with physical disabilities.

Disabled people have long been discriminated against in Chinese society. Many advocates for China’s disabled hope the Paralympics will help millions of people be able to better integrate into society here.

Tang Xiaoquan is president of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation and vice president of the Beijing Olympic committee.

She says they will take the opportunity of the Paralympics games in Beijing to greatly improve accessible facilities. She says this will help the 999,000 people with disabilities in Beijing better integrate into society.

China has 83 million disabled people. Most of them find it difficult to travel and hold jobs because cities have few facilities that are accessible for those using wheelchairs or crutches, or who have vision problems.

As part of its Olympics preparations, Beijing has made all of its subway stops accessible to wheelchairs. During the Paralympics, there will be 16 dedicated public bus lines for the disabled and 400 shuttle buses.

The Chinese government requires all new buildings to have accessible facilities, and older public buildings are to be renovated to provide access.

More than 4,000 athletes will compete in the Paralympics, which begin September 6 and last 12 days. The athletes will compete in and stay in the same facilities used for Olympics, including the popular Water Cube and Bird’s Nest stadium.

from: edition.cnn.com

The close of China’s Beijing Olympics last night was spectacular like the beginning, but with less spectacle.

To be sure, the joy written on the faces of the Chinese was palpable, but so too was the relief over an event that marked their coming-out party as a First-World power.

The latter, the Chinese confirmed emphatically in Olympic competition, grabbing 51 gold medals, eclipsing the 36 won by world superpower, the United States, who finished second.

With its golden haul, China became the first Asian nation since the modern Olympics began in 1896, to win the unofficial crown as the world’s greatest Olympic power.

‘These were truly exceptional Games,’ International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said last night as he announced the official end of the 29th Summer Olympiad.

Mr Liu Qi, Beijing’s top Olympic official, praised the athletes for breaking 43 world records. Singapore also broke a record of sorts in Beijing, clinching their first Olympic medal in 48 years after their women’s table tennis team came in second.

Relieved organisers could also claim credit for what was largely a glitch-free and efficiently-run festival of sport, watched by more than a billion viewers in China and around the world.

Though it was harried for Internet censorship and disallowing protests, Beijing scored where it mattered – as warm and friendly hosts to the visitors who had come to enjoy the Games.

Though the Chinese capital isn’t done with the Games, as it will host the Paralympics from Sept 6 to 17, the mood at the closing ceremony yesterday was as relaxed as the beginning some two weeks ago, was fraught with anxiety.

While the opening wowed the world with a stunning showcase of Chinese culture and history, the close was comparatively plainer. Still, there was enough to thrill the audience: drummers hanging upside down nearly 20 metres in the air, banging on two giant ‘heavenly drums’ to signal the end of the Games; and more than 1,000 dancers suited in golden ethnic costumes studded with silver shimmering bells emerging to craft graceful, hypnotic patterns.

The 91,000 spectators were entertained by more than 200 acrobats somersaulting across the stage on spring-heeled stilts, and specially designed bicycles that resembled the shape of the iconic Bird’s Nest Stadium.

The visual spectacle was, however, deliberately kept short to about 25 minutes, perhaps in deference to an eight-minute prelude by London, the next Olympic city.

The British performers made their entry on a red double-decker bus that wowed the audience by opening up to reveal the world’s best known soccer superstar David Beckham, as well as 70s rock guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, and pop star Leona Lewis.

The crowd roared when Beckham raised a football in his hand and kicked it over towards the participants on the field.

The simple Beijing-London handover ceremony was completed when London mayor Boris Johnson took over the Olympic flag from his Beijing counterpart Guo Jinlong and waved it proudly.

The final act of the evening, the extinguishing of the Olympic flame, however failed to fire up the crowd the way the imaginative lighting ceremony did two weeks ago. Then, former gymnast Li Ning was hoisted nearly 50m into the air as he ran a lap along the crown of the stadium before finally lighting the flame.

There was no individual act of bravado yesterday, with director Zhang Yimou opting instead for 396 daredevil climbers forming elaborate designs on an elevated tower that symbolically marked the Olympic athlete’s goal to go ‘faster, stronger, higher’.

Ordinary Chinese across the country marked the occasion in more humble ways. Secretary Miao Lili said she celebrated with some home-cooked dishes and a bottle of beer as she watched the closing ceremony live on televison.

‘This Olympics have been very successful, and this shows that China can no longer be seen in the same light anymore,’ she enthused.

source: straitstimes.com

China’s gold medal-winning women’s gymnastics team denied any of its members were underage after winning an epic battle with the United States for the Olympic team title. The Chinese continue to face questions about the age of three of its six women’s gymnasts, despite repeated assurances from Beijing Olympics officials that they turn 16 this year, as required under Olympic rules.

The New York Times reported last month that online records showed two members of China’s women’s team, He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan, may be only 14. The age of a third athlete, Yang Yilin, then came into question when the state-run China Central Television website posted a profile indicating she too was 14.

The gymnasts were shielded from the media ahead of the Games but held a press conference after Wednesday’s win where they had to answer the allegations directly for the first time.

“My real age is 16, I don’t care about what other people say, it’s none of my business,” He said when asked about her age. “I want people to know that.” She was even asked to reveal her zodiac sign as it indicates in which year you were born under the 12-year cycle of the Chinese astrological system.

She replied monkey, meaning she was born in 1992, which would make her 16 this year and eligible for the Olympics. Journalists also asked her how she celebrated her 15th birthday, to which she replied she was at a training camp with her fellow gymnasts. Due to concerns about the well being of young gymnasts whose bodies are under huge stress when they reach the elite level, officials introduced a rule in 1997 saying they had to turn 16 during an Olympic year to compete at the Games.

According to their official biographies, the youngest gymnast on the Chinese team is Yang, who turns 16 on August 26.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge initially laid responsibility for enforcing the age limit on China’s national gymnastics federation.

However, as the controversy continued, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) issued a statement last Saturday saying the IOC had examined all Olympic gymnasts’ passports and determined none were underage.

“The FIG has received confirmation from the International Olympic Committee that all passports are valid for all gymnasts competing in the Beijing Olympic Games,” FIG said in a statement.

China runs huge state-funded athletics academies and has long faced criticism for the harsh regime it uses to prepare young gymnasts.

In a BBC report in 2005, British Olympic rowing great Matthew Pinsent described children in a Beijing gymnasium being pushed through the pain barrier and said one young boy had clearly been beaten by his coach.

from: timesofindia.indiatimes.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

Much of the world will watch the Olympic Games in Beijing with mixed feelings.
There will be awe for the athletes, of course. Splendid achievements are expected of many of them.
National pride — there will be plenty of that too.
But there also will be concern for the athletes’ health.
We’re not trying to minimize the excitement of the official opening of the Olympics today.

It’s a huge deal.
And the pageantry and glory of fine athletes from all over the world is always stirring. All are filled with national pride.
But with that said, there remains this pressing question for the International Olympic Committee: Why in the world did China get the nod when Beijing’s air is virtually poisonous?
Tri-Citians who dread the occasional dust storm would be appalled if they faced the equivalent of a termination wind every day.
But in Beijing, it’s not all that windy. In fact, Chinese officials are hoping for some wind and rain to help clear away some of the brown clouds that choke the city.
Blue skies are a rarity. Last week a couple of what the Chinese call blue sky days looked on TV like they were filmed in sepia tone. And they were achieved, at least in part, by an unprecedented governmental mandate barring 50 percent of civilian vehicles from Beijing and the promise of more restrictions to come.
The McClatchy news service reports that the city’s air-pollution index stood at levels Thursday that were more than six times what the World Health Organization recommends for long-term exposure.
“The problem was visible to anyone who cared to see it,” wrote reporters Tim Johnson and Jack Chang. “In many parts of the capital, one could barely see three or four city blocks Thursday. Relief, in the form of rain, wasn’t likely before Monday or Tuesday.”
The most bizarre event so far was the apology by four members of the U.S. cycling team who wore face masks as they deplaned on arrival.
There had been speculation for days as to which teams would be first to don the masks, and from which country. Many nations’ teams apparently issued them but no one was eager to be the first to show up wearing them.
So, because U.S. athletes did the prudent thing to protect their health, they were pressured to apologize.
Otherwise, the Chinese government’s feelings would be hurt.
It’s not like the IOC hadn’t foreseen this and other problems back in 2001 when the games were awarded.
China’s supporters said the country would clean up its air and that the games would help push it toward less repression of its people.
That’s not the way it worked with the Berlin Olympics in 1936, of course, but the two-decade Olympic snub of South Africa because of its apartheid laws perhaps was instrumental in their eventual repeal.
China has spent $20 billion on its infrastructure to prepare for the games.
But it has not noticeably lessened the repression of its citizens — from banning protests to suppressing speech to censoring the Internet.
IOC President Jacques Rogge was quoted Thursday praising China for doing everything “feasible and humanly possible” to combat air pollution and saying conditions would be safe for athletes to compete.
He said even major outdoor events, such as the marathon, could be postponed or rescheduled if smog levels are too high.
Fortunately for TV viewers, many of the events will be held inside filtered and climate-controlled venues.
It will make for good color and, more importantly, healthier lungs for the participants.
It’s pretty clear, however, that Beijing’s visiting athletes will breathe easier when these games are over.

source: tri-cityherald.com

China has been declared safe for athletes by the head of the International Olympic Committee, following weeks of speculation over the dangers posed by high levels of pollution in Beijing.

Speaking on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Games, Jacques Rogge praised Beijing’s “extraordinary” efforts to improve air quality.

Mr Rogge praised the Chinese authorities for having done “everything that is feasible and humanly possible to address this situation”.

“What they have done is extraordinary,” Mr Rogge he said.

He also stressed there was no danger to the health of athletes, although if pollution levels worsened some events could be moved or delayed.

His comments come as one air quality reading judged the pollition levels in Beijing far below World Health Organization (WHO) standards.

But Mr Rogge said there was a difference between poor air quality and simple fog.

“The fog, you see, is based on the basis of humidity and heat. It does not mean that this fog is the same as pollution,” he said.

China is in its last hours of preparation for the start of the Games.

But the lead-up to the Games has been marred by controversy.

Several pro-Tibet protesters, including a British man and woman, have been arrested by Chinese police.

World leaders, including US President George W Bush, have also called on China’s Communist Party to improve its human rights record.

The interventions will embarrass the Chinese government who have been keen not to let the issue overshadow the games amid fears of mass protests.

Speaking in Bangkok on his way to Beijing, President Bush said that it was time “to allow the Chinese people” to express their views.

“America stands in firm opposition to China’s detention of political dissidents and human rights advocates and religious activists,” he said. “The United States believes the people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural right of all human beings.”

She said that while she hoped Beijing would “learn not to be afraid of protest”, westerners who staged demonstrations like the two Britons detained for unveiling Free Tibet posters on Wednesday should understand that China had a different political system.

”My experience of negotiating with China over years is that going for banner headlines and siren diplomacy is not the best way of achieving change,” she said.

The views were echoed by Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister, speaking to The Daily Telegraph in China but she urged protestors not to disrupt the games.

Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said the Games would “help the world to understand China, and it will also help China to understand the world.”

“China is a nation in transition, with a great future, tremendous potential and some challenges,” he said.

from: telegraph.co.uk

Japan hopes to match its excellent showing from Athens at the Beijing Olympics, with chef de mission Tomiaki Fukuda giving a competitive outlook on Wednesday.

“We are likely to win 10-20 gold medals in Beijing. (But) the results remain unknown until you try,” he said.

Japan have a 339-strong team at the August 8-24 Games, led by 200m breaststroke world record holder Kosuke Kitajima.

“He is very competitive and likely to win the gold medal. He is also likely to break the record again,” Fukuda said.

Apart from swimming, the official said that Japanese athletes can medal in synchronized swimming, baseball, judo, gymnastics, athletics and wrestling.

Japan came a strong fifth in the medal standings at the 2004 Games in Athens with 16 gold medals, nine silver and 12 bronze.

Olympic supremo Jacques Rogge mentioned the country as part of “an awakening of Asia” at the time along with China, South Korea and Thailand. Rogge said last week he expected a similar trend in Beijing.

But American magazine Sports Illustrated, in its famous forecast, saw Japan drop to 11th place with an 8-8-12 result.

from: bangkokpost.com

Japan’s Olympic delegation will carry 500 dust masks for industrial use to guard against the notorious air pollution in Beijing, a corporate official said Monday.

Koken, a major Japanese maker of respirators, gas masks and air purifiers, has provided the masks for free to the Japanese Olympic Committee for possible use in training at the Beijing Games.

“These are not the kind of masks that are sold at drug stores to protect yourself from flu or hay fever,” said Kohei Kubo, an official at Koken’s life safety division.

“They are used at dusty factories and other industrial sites, as well as hospitals, where they are used to prevent infections,” he said.

The masks can cut by more than 95 percent the number of small particles that the athletes would inhale, he said.

They are equipped with superlight filters, each weighing 11 grammes (one third of an ounce), and an exhaust valve.

The company recommended the products to the national Olympic committee last year as international concern grew about Beijing’s air pollution, Kubo said.

“We provided the products to the committee in mid-July and they are bringing them as a precaution,” he said.

Poor air quality in Beijing has prompted International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge to warn it could result in the suspension of some events, particularly endurance races such as the marathon.

Beijing has closed many of the most polluting factories around the city and banned more than one million cars from the roads every day.

Despite the measures, visibility in the city remained poor on Monday, and officials have warned they may need to take more drastic steps to clear the skies ahead of the Games, which begin August 8.

source: afp.google.com

Amnesty International has accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of caving in to China’s demands on Internet censorship and urged the IOC and Beijing to provide unfettered Internet access as they had promised.

“The International Olympic Committee and the Organizing Committee of the Beijing Olympic Games should fulfil their commitment to full media freedom and provide immediate uncensored internet access at Olympic media venues,” said Mark Allison, East Asia researcher for the London-based rights group, in a statement issued late Wednesday.

“Censorship of the internet at the Games is compromising fundamental human rights and betraying the Olympic values,” Allison said.

The organization was reacting to statements by Kevin Gosper, chair of the IOC’s press committee that “some IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games related.” In Gosper’s statements to the South China Morning Post Wednesday, he also said the IOC could not tell China what to do.

Amnesty, however, noted that on July 17 Jacques Rogge, the IOC’s president, said “there will be no censorship of the internet.”

“This blatant media censorship adds one more broken promise that undermines the claim that the Games would help improve human rights in China,” said Allison.

Beijing authorities have blocked access to internet websites considered politically sensitive or critical of China, including sites for Amnesty and other human rights groups, as well as websites for exiled Tibetan groups and the banned Falungong spiritual group.

Some foreign media websites, such as the BBC’s Chinese-language service, the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, the Hong Kong-based Apple Daily and the Taiwan-based Liberty Time, also are blocked.

The IOC said late Wednesday its officials are meeting with Beijing Olympic organisers to try to resolve the problem.

“We’ve learned there are issues accessing some websites and the IOC is talking with the organizers to see what may need to be rectified,” Sandrine Tonge, the IOC’s media relations coordinator said in an email to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa late Wednesday.

“The IOC has always encouraged the Beijing 2008 organizers to provide media with the fullest access possible to report on the Olympic Games, including access to the internet. BOCOG has said ‘sufficient and convenient’ internet access will be provided for the media to cover the Games,” said Tonge.

The French press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday also condemned the Chinese authorities for restricting journalists’ access to the internet and slammed the inability of the IOC to stop them.

Freedom House, a nonprofit organization which promotes democracy, said earlier this month that China has also put more pressure on Chinese journalists in recent days, banning them from covering sensitive issues.

from: bangkokpost.com

The ban on Iraq competing at the Beijing Olympics next month has been lifted, the International Olympic Committee announced here on Tuesday.

Iraq’s compact Olympic contingent was cleared to take part in the 2008 Games after agreement was reached between the IOC and the Iraqi government at a crisis meeting at the IOC’s headquarters in Lausanne.

As the deadline for competitors at the Games for all events except athletics passed on July 23 the Iraqi contingent will now number only two athletes – Haidar Nasir in the discus and sprinter Danma Hussein.

The lifting of the ban came about after the Iraqi government agreed on a series of steps leading to a fully functioning independent National Olympic Committee (NOC) in Iraq.

IOC president Jacques Rogge hailed the eleventh hour deal, saying: “We look forward to seeing the Iraqi flag in Beijing.”

The Olympic chief added: “I commend the government of Iraq for reaching an agreement that serves the long-term interest of Iraqi athletes.

“We have said all along that we want to see Iraqi athletes in Beijing.”

Under the deal brokered Tuesday rather than being frustrated observers the two Iraqi athletes will compete in Beijing under the Iraqi flag, led by coaches and team leaders selected by the independent Iraqi NOC.

Five government representatives will be invited by the IOC as observers to the Games in Beijing.

The Lausanne agreement also calls for the transparent and fair election of a new, independent Iraqi National Olympic Committee, no later than the end of November.

This process will be overseen by the IOC and the Olympic Council of Asia and will be held in cooperation with the Government of Iraq, and in accordance with the Olympic Charter.

In June the IOC had suspended Iraq for “political interference” in its NOC which was sacked in May and replaced by a new panel headed by Iraqi Youth and Sports Minister Jassem Jaafar.

The Iraqi government had said that the previous Olympic committee was sacked because of “solid evidence of blatant corruption, lack of legitimate transparent electoral processes and accountability.”

It said the committee had an insufficient quorum and had failed to hold elections in more than five years.

The head of the committee, Ahmed Al-Samarrai, was kidnapped at gunpoint in Baghdad in July 2006 at the height of sectarian violence in Iraq along with several associates and he has not been heard of since.

from: afp.google.com