My Olympic Story: 100 days, 100 stories

(BEIJING, April 16) - Were you born on August 8, the date the Beijing Olympics begin? Are you full of knowledge about Olympic events? Then you're already playing a role in the Beijing Olympics.

If you think you have an Olympic destiny, don't keep it to yourself; tell your story and inspire others! Allow us to share your Olympic experience with the rest of the world today.

The official website of the Olympic Games is asking for stories that reflect your support for the Olympics and the contributions you are making towards the preparations for the Games. We welcome stories from all perspectives. You can also send pictures!

Entries will be accepted until August 6. Beginning April 29, on the occasion of the 100-day countdown to the start of the Games, we will select and post one story every day until August 6, for a total of 100 stories.

The star of every selected story will receive a special certificate and commemorative Olympic souvenir, and the 100 selected stories will be published as an anthology and become a part of the Olympic Museum collection as a cultural legacy of the Beijing Olympics.

Please log on to http://en.beijing2008.cn/story/ for more information.

Source: http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/dynamics/headlines/n214309769.shtml

Beijing in final sprint for Olympic preparations

BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Taxi driver Wang Xiancheng thought his English language level urgently needed improving, as the summer Olympics in his home city of Beijing is just one month away as of Tuesday.

"My English is still not good enough for a chat," said Wang, who learnt the language mainly from tape recordings, while driving.

However, he considered the best way to learn is to speak face-to-face with English-speaking passengers.

Beijing authorities launched an English learning campaign for the 90,000 taxi drivers in the city in 2005. With this effort, many drivers now have enough English for a small chat with their passengers.

After three years of construction, the Main Press Center (MPC) and International Broadcasting Center (IBC) of the Olympic Games were opened on Tuesday, kicking off the media service for the event, which is expected to draw 30,000 foreign media people.

In the one month run-up to the Games, the Olympic host city is gearing up security forces to sweep 90 sports venues, 110 Olympic contracted hotels, 700-km sports tracks, the Olympic athlete village as well as 2,000 sites for Olympic-themed activities, to eliminate any security loopholes in the city.

The city has built an anti-terrorist force of nearly 100,000 commandos, police and troops on high alert for attempted terrorist attacks.

National-level anti-terrorist drills have been launched to test the reactions against chemical attacks, hijacking and other possible contingencies.

Security forces in Beijing's co-host cities of Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shenyang, Qinhuangdao and Hong Kong have been patrolling the ground and skies of all venues and the maritime safety of coastal venues.

Beijing metro passengers have been subjected to security checks since June 29. Locals have got used to the frequent presence of explosives sniffer dogs in metro stations and at the airport.
Paper metro tickets, which had been used for more than 30 years, disappeared from Beijingers' lives in early June, to be replaced by travel cards. And now commuters have bilingual direction boards with lively cartoon images showing the areas around the metro stations.

"Beijing's metro network is no different from that of Paris and is newer. It is convenient and safe, and the best part, no litter at metro entrances," said Hamath Sali, a Senegalese tourist.
Beijing and its citizens have taken the Games as a chance to upgrade the city's etiquette. To make sure that everyone knows how to behave, brochures were sent to 4.3 million families and training provided for 870,000 drivers, hotel service staff and booking clerks.

Authorities have been determined to change the city's bad hygiene image. More than 5,300 new public toilets have been newly built or refurbished, so that a visitor is never further than 10 minutes walk from a toilet in the downtown area.

In addressing the dog problem, Beijing introduced a "one family, one dog" policy in 2006, when it also joined a nationwide campaign against unregistered dogs. So far, the city's 700,000 dogs have been vaccinated.

Beijing authorities have also set up dog-raising discipline supervision committees in 95 percent of communities in urban areas and 85 percent of villages, where residents volunteer to check bad behavior by dogs and owners.

Beginning from June, the country's postal service has suspended mailing parcels containing liquids until Oct. 31, following a previous liquid ban introduced in April on carry-on baggage in domestic flights. The ban was brought in for fear of terrorist attack following a failed attempt to blow up a Southern Airlines flight from Urumqi, Xinjiang to Beijing in March.

The city took 300,000 high-emission cars permanently off its roads last week, as part of measures to clean up the capital's airand ease traffic on the clogged highways.

The organizers announced its Olympic vehicle control plan earlier last month, which bans private cars on alternate days from July 20, depending on whether their number plates end in odd or even numbers. Half of local and central government vehicles will be off the roads during the event as well.

The measures could help reduce 63 percent of traffic pollution emissions in the city.

Source: http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/olympiccities/beijing/n214442169.shtml

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.