Concepts: Green Olympics, High-tech Olympics and People's Olympics

Three concepts have been adopted for the Beijing Olympic Games, namely, the Green Olympics, the High-tech Olympics and the People's Olympics.

Green Olympics

Environmental protection is a key prerequisite for designing and constructing the Olympic Games' facilities, while strict ecological standards and systematic guarantee systems will be established.

Environmentally friendly technologies and measures will be widely applied in environmental treatment to structures and venues. Urban and rural afforestation and environmental protection will be widely enhanced in an all-round manner. Environmental awareness will be promoted among the general public, with citizens greatly encouraged to make "green" consumption choices and urged to actively participate in various environmental improvement activities to help better the capital's ecological standards and build a city better fit for all to enjoy.

High-tech Olympics

A grand sporting event featuring high technology will be held by incorporating the latest domestic and international scientific and technological achievements. Beijing will upgrade its scientific innovative capabilities, boosting the industrialization of high-tech achievements and popularizing their use in daily life. The Beijing Olympic Games is to serve as a window to showcase the city's high-tech achievements and its innovative strength.

People's Olympics

The Beijing Olympic Games will be an occasion to spread modern Olympic ideas, while displaying splendid Chinese culture, Beijing's historical and cultural heritage, and its residents' positive attitudes. It will also be an opportunity to advance cultural exchanges, to deepen understanding and friendship between the peoples of the world, and to promote harmonious development between mankind and nature. It will be a time to promote healthy interaction between individuals and society and to foster mental and physical health. In line with the "people-oriented" and "athletes-centered" ideas, Beijing will spare no efforts to provide quality services and to build a natural and social environment that will satisfy all the Games' participants.

Source: http://en.beijing2008.cn/bocog/concepts/index.shtml

Four Chinese shuttlers, three Olympic tickets

(BEIJING, June 18) -- World No. 4 Zhang Ning of China hopes her performance at the ongoing Indonesia Super Series will help get her to the Beijing Olympics.

She will face some tough competition among her compatriots, as IOC rules stipulate that only three Chinese can compete in Beijing. World No.1 Xie Xingfang has already secured one of three badminton team, revealed that the shuttlers' performances in recent major world badminton tournaments could determine whether the players will have a chance to compete in the upcoming Olympic Games.

Source: http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/badminton/n214409994.shtml

FLASH: China and Russia earn Olympic tickets in Men's Double

(BEIJING, June 18) -- Crews from China and Russia have qualified for the 2008 Olympics in the Men's Double after finishing in the top two spots at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta on June 18, in Poznan, Poland.

Men's Double final results:

1. China -- 6:32.59
2. Russia -- 6:36.10
3. Bulgaria -- 6:36.39
4. Italy -- 6:38.87
5. Poland -- 6:39.98
6. Czech Republic -- 6:52.95

Source: http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/rowing/n214409697.shtml

Olympic tickets distributed to Olympic Education Schools

With the Beijing Olympic Games one month away, BOCOG and the Ministry of Education distributed Olympic tickets allotted for schools involved in the Olympic education program nationwide on Tuesday.

Following the practice of previous Olympics, BOCOG is offering elementary and secondary schools under the program up to one million tickets, or 14 percent of the total ticket pool, at low prices of five yuan to ten yuan per ticket. Opening and closing ceremony tickets are not included in the special ticketing program.

To ensure sound arrangement for students' accommodations and transportation, ten high schools in Beijing have been designated as hosts to offer affordable services.

BOCOG and the Education Ministry have also issued a special invitation to 65 teachers and students from earthquake-hit areas in Sichuan Province to attend the Olympics as a part of the program.

Source: http://en.beijing2008.cn/tickets/news/n214441784.shtml

Beijing 2008: top players head Olympic tennis tournament

With the participation of 17 of the top 20 men and 18 of the top 20 women, the 2008 Olympic tennis tournament will certainly be an event not to be missed from 10 to 17 August on the courts of the new Olympic Tennis Centre in Beijing. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has released the direct acceptance list for the Olympic tennis event in singles and doubles (document to be downloaded from the ITF website).
With the two world No.1sIn Beijing, the world No. 1s, Roger Federer (Switzerland) and Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) will lead the strongest field ever to enter the Olympic tennis event since tennis returned as a full medal sport in Seoul in 1988. All five of the top men will compete in Beijing, and seven of the top ten women. The number of competitors will be 172 maximum.
Who will succeed Massu and Henin?

In Beijing, Nicolas Massu from Chile will be able to defend his 2004 Olympic titles (singles and doubles) as he has received one of the six ITF places. In the women’s singles, to find out who will succeed the Belgian Justine Hénin as Olympic champion, we will have to wait until 16 August 2008. For the men’s and women’s doubles, the Olympic winners will be crowned on 16 and 17 August.

Source; http://www.olympic.org/uk/news/olympic_news/full_story_uk.asp?id=2626

Level of preparations for Beijing 2008 have set a gold standard for future Games

Exactly one month out from the start of the 2008 Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today gave its assessment from the Chinese capital on how the organisers are faring.

At the close of a two-day meeting between the IOC and the Beijing Olympic Games Organising Committee (BOCOG), Hein Verbruggen, Chairman of the IOC’s Coordination Commission for Beijing 2008, heading up this week’s visiting 12-person IOC delegation said, “Here in the Chinese capital you can now really sense the excitement and anticipation. The city feels ready; it looks ready, with the stunning venues all completed. The quality of preparation, the readiness of the venues and the attention to operational detail for these Games have set a gold standard for the future. What our hosts have achieved is exceptional. For the Games to be an overriding success – and the IOC has an underlying confidence this will unquestionably be the case - the organisers need now to deliver the services pledged for, and therefore expected by, the various stakeholders who have begun to arrive for the Games. A very small number of open issues remain – such as some matters with broadcasters and our need to see how temporary measures in the city will make an impact on air quality. But across the board, for the number of areas we went through this week with BOCOG, we are satisfied. When athletes, sports officials, spectators and media arrive in this city over the coming weeks, I have no doubt they will be impressed when they see things with their own eyes; and they will be touched by the warmth of the welcome the Chinese people will show them.”

Source: http://www.olympic.org/uk/news/olympic_news/full_story_uk.asp?id=2628

Get Into The Olympics--The Easy Way

Wed, Jul 9 09:30 AM Peter Hoy, Forbes.com

Face it: You're not the perfect athlete.

You're no Michael Phelps, and you're no Carl Lewis; heck you probably didn't even make varsity in high school. So if you want a trip to the Olympics, and you didn't start training when you were 7 (Phelps did), you're probably going as a spectator. But don't despair--it's entirely possible that you can compete as an athlete in the London games in 2012 (it's far too late to qualify for Beijing). You are just going to have to take the road less traveled.

In Pictures: Five Strategies To Get Into The Olympics

If you just want to be able to call yourself an Olympian in the loosest sense of the word, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognizes 31 demonstration sports, from bandy to korfball. Never heard of those? Neither have most people, which is why you'll have a (relatively) good shot at getting on a national team. Korfball, by the way, is a derivation of basketball that stresses minimal physical contact, and bandy is a cousin of ice hockey.

For the real deal, however, and a spot in London 2012, you're going to have to choose from one of the events on the IOC's official program. Your best bet is to find an easy sport and a non-competitive country to send you.

Of the 28 official Olympic summer sports, rowing might be your best choice--specifically, the seldom considered and oft-ridiculed position of coxswain, or the guy that motivates the rowers and steers the boat. By Olympic standards, it's a pretty easy job. You spend most of your time sitting down.

So easy, in fact, that in lieu of trials, China's state-run television launched an American Idol-type reality show in 2006 to find a pair of navigators who will sit in the sterns of China's racing shells for the Beijing Games.

Coxing requires little in the way of conditioning, speed or strength. You will, however, have to watch your weight--the American who coxed his eight-man boat to the gold medal in 2004 weighed only 121 lbs, and the Romanian gold medalist who coxed the women's eight that year weighed in at a slight 110 lbs.

Too old or too fat for coxing? Target shooting might be the call.

The Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn was 60 years old when he took home gold in the 1908 Olympics. He picked up a silver medal 12 years later when he was 72--almost 20 years older than life expectancy at the time.

Now you need to find a country willing to send you. Think small. Think non-competitive.

Countries like Ecuador and Paraguay, which each have won a grand total of one medal in the summer games, might have room on their Olympic squads. In fact, there are 205 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) qualified to participate in the summer games, and many of these don't have enough athletes to compete in every event.

If you are an American, you might not even have to give up your U.S. citizenship. Included among the smallest NOCs are U.S. commonwealths and protectorates such as American Samoa (pop. 58,000), Guam (pop. 176,000) and the Marshall Islands (pop. 62,000). American Samoa only sent two athletes to the 2004 Olympics, Guam sent three and the Marshalls will send their first-ever Olympic squad to Beijing in 2008. You could be part of their future.

Good luck.