Olympics-2008

    RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Pedro Solberg and Harley beat current Olympic champions Ricardo and Emanuel 2-1 in the Maceio stage of the Brazilian Circuit of beach volleyball on Sunday.

    Solberg and Harley beat Ricardo and Emanuel 18-15, 14-18 and 15-11, after having lost to Ricardo and Emanuel four times in a row.

    "We have worked hard to beat them throughout the year. However, we were never quite able to put everything together. Finally, we were able to piece everything together today. It is great to be able to finish the year on a high note. Now, we will focus on the next stage of the World Circuit in Bahrain," said Pedro.

    CHANGCHUN, Northeast China, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- As the 2008 Chinese Invitational Games for special Olympic sports concluded in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun on Sunday, China determines to raise the number of athletes with intellectual disabilities to 1 million by 2010.

    The Changchun Games featured speed skating, figure skating, floor hockey, skiing and snow shoeing.

    Wang Zhijun, chairman of Special Olympics China (SOC), said that the Special Olympics could improve the athlete's physical function and IQ, and help them join in social activities and live a happier life.

    Fan Hong, another leading official with SOC, told Xinhua that in recent years China has made great efforts to expand the number of participants in the Special Olympics.

    According to Fan, China's special Olympic history could date back to the 1960s. In 1985, China started to popularize the Special Olympics and has taken part in both summer and winter Special Olympics since 1987.

    "Up to now, China has held four countrywide Special Olympic Games and there are more than 730,000 active athletes with intellectual disabilities," Fan said.

    GENEVA, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- The International Olympic Committee(IOC) announced on Tuesday an agreement with SKY Italia for the broadcast rights within Italy for the 2014 Winter Games and 2016 Summer Games.

    SKY Italia will also be the IOC's broadcast partner for the Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympic Games.

    SKY Italia, Italy's leading digital satellite television network, acquired the rights across all broadcast platforms, including free-to-air television, subscription television, internet and mobile phone.

    SKY Italia will be responsible for ensuring that the broadest possible audience is able to access the Olympic Games across all of these platforms, including a guaranteed continuation of free-to-air television coverage.

    "Our aim is to ensure that as many people as possible are able to enjoy the sporting action on all broadcast platforms and we look forward to working closely with SKY Italia to make this possible across Italy for the next four editions of the Olympic Games", said the IOC president Jacques Rogge.

    IOC Vice-President Thomas Bach was satisfied with the agreement.

    "Sports fans in Italy will be able to enjoy cutting-edge Olympic coverage across a variety of platforms, including satellite, free-to-air television and digital platforms." he said.

    Andrea Zappia, the Head of SKY Italia Sport and Vice-President of SKY Italia, said, "We will guarantee our subscribers unprecedented coverage, offering live broadcasting of all the events with Italian athletes, as well as the opportunity to watch all events."

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has opted against surgery on his little finger in order to take part in pre-season training.

Kobe Bryant of the U.S. dunks the ball during Men's Gold Medal Game- Game 76 between Spain and the United States of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games basketball event at Olympic Basketball Gymnasium in Beijing, China, Aug. 24, 2008. [Xinhua]

Bryant picked up the injury in February and decided not to undergo surgery in order to finish the NBA season and to go to the Olympics with the US team.

After winning a gold medal in Beijing it was expected that the NBA's Most Valuable Player would deal with the injury before the start of the new season.

"I have always felt that I can still focus and play at a high level even through various injuries," Bryant told his own website (http://wwww.kb24.com) yesterday.

"That's really just part of the game. When the doctors told me recovery from a procedure could be 12 weeks, I just decided now was not the time to have surgery.

"What it really came down to for me is that I just didn't want to miss any time 'punching the clock' for the Lakers, given all we are trying to accomplish as a team this NBA season.

"I am just really excited and looking forward to being there with the guys when camp opens in a few weeks. That is a real bonding process and if I can avoid being on the sidelines for that, God willing, I will," Bryant said.

Chinese diver Zhou Luxin, silver medalist of Men's 10m Platform diving of the Beijing Olympic Games, presents a bunch of flowers to his teacher at Huanchengxilu Primary School in Wuhu City, east China's Anhui Province, Sept. 8, 2008. As the Chinese Teacher's day approaches, Zhou Luxin went to the school where he graduated to visit his teachers.


Chinese diver Zhou Luxin, silver medalist of Men's 10m Platform diving of the Beijing Olympic Games, attends a class at Huanchengxilu Primary School in Wuhu City, east China's Anhui Province, Sept. 8, 2008. As the Chinese Teacher's day approaches, Zhou Luxin went to the school where he graduated to visit his teachers.


Chinese diver Zhou Luxin, silver medalist of Men's 10m Platform diving of the Beijing Olympic Games, signs for the students at Huanchengxilu Primary School in Wuhu City, east China's Anhui Province, Sept. 8, 2008. As the Chinese Teacher's day approaches, Zhou Luxin went to the school where he graduated to visit his teachers.

The biggest characteristic of the Olympic Games in the 21st century is the "globalization of the main stadium of the Games". The wide availability of digital television broadcasts via satellites, the popularization of the Internet all over the world and the ubiquitous mobile phones are all play their part in bringing live coverage of the Olympics to the whole world. None of the past eras was able to make the Olympiad a universal festival of peoples all over the world like today.

In this colorful era, Beijing showcased to the rest of the world a "civilized and disciplined China" through the 29th Olympiad. The Chinese capital became the center of ordinary people's attention throughout the world.

The Chinese culture and civilization, perfectly blending tradition and reality, and a host of new world records set in so many sporting events at the spectacular venues throughout Beijing stoked many an average TV viewer's urge to go to China and see it with his or her own eyes. This urge will bring the city of Beijing another huge tide of tourists. And this alone will again put the Chinese capital under the spotlight, while China will again become a gas station for the deepening globalization.

Many people habitually refer to past experiences when they think of the post-Olympics Chinese economy, but they must not ignore the changes brought by the Games. During the 29th Olympiad more than 80 foreign heads of state attended the opening ceremony and many more business people were in Beijing to "size up" China's domestic market as well as watch the Games.

Since the transitional period following China's accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO) ended, the country's market of services such as logistics, circulation, telecom and finance has been opening up and many well-known foreign companies cannot wait to take a bite off the juicy pie they have been drooling over for years.

If China's accession into WTO turned the country into a vast reservoir for direct investment by manufacturers around the world, then the Beijing Olympics will usher in another influx of foreign investment by services such as commerce, finance and travel from around the world. It is a powerful trend that cannot be stopped.

The reason for this development is very simple: investment is first and foremost for profits. Places with the least risks and highest return rate for investors always attract the most capital and become gathering grounds for various industries.

Reform and opening-up have given China three decades of sustained economic boom so far and one of the driving forces behind this explosive development has been foreign investment. Naturally, what has been so irresistible to foreign investors can only be China's unmatched room for making profit.

If the slogan "Liberate the mind for reform and opening" that China made 30 years ago can be seen as a "political insurance policy" the Chinese government bought for foreign investors, the successful hosting of the Beijing Olympic Games today is a "full insurance package" that China as a responsible, civilized and rule-abiding major power is offering to investors around the world.

A "China risk theory" has been circulating in the world since 2004, giving rise to a "China+1" format, where major countries engaged in investment talks with China insisted on diverting investment risks by adding another investment destination. The reality is, however, the Chinese economy has amazed the world with a double-digit growth rate five years in a run, letting the "China risk theory" prove itself wrong and the world know that China is still the most attractive market around.

Currently, faced with rising inflation, appreciation of the Chinese currency and cost of labor, some enterprises from developed countries seem to have started worrying about a new risk in China characterized by "macro overheating and micro tightening". But President of the International Olympic Committee Jacque Rogge undoubtedly dismissed the "China risk theory" with a standard commonly accepted around the world when he described the Beijing Olympic Games as "truly exceptional" upon its conclusion.

By successfully hosting a great Olympiad in Beijing China has sent a message to the rest of the world: the post-Olympics China will be an open, transparent, fair, just and dynamic market where the Olympic Spirit thrives and universal rules govern fair competition.

This means foreign investment from around the world led by developed countries will unavoidably flow to the "rules-minded Chinese market". The effective combination of a fully open Chinese market with healthy foreign investment and local capital filled with the spirit of all-round participation will no doubt bring about a milestone upgrade of China's market economy system to suit the new era.

This is the logical future of the post-Olympics Chinese economy and what makes China's different from past "post-Olympics economies".

Admittedly, the current international economic climate worries people everywhere. One concern is about the uncertain direction of developed economies, which adds to risks the world economy is faced with. Another rises from a new trend of unbalanced development in world economy. Still another comes from the fact that global oil price has reached an unprecedented altitude and become a new variant in the world economy.

In a long-term look ahead, there is a strong uncertainty about how the world economic system, the international political order and the international currency system will change; while the short-term direction of the supply and demand situation of strategic resources such as oil, of the volume and direction of global capital flow and of the exchange rate of the US dollar looks uncertain, too.

Right now, while people are still unsure whether the US economy will get over its financial mess and back on the track of healthy growth, the Japanese and European economies are showing signs of going downhill, making the emerging market economies' prospects just as uncertain.

Particularly worrisome is that the Doha round of WTO talks and the East Asia Free Trade Area process both ran into protectionist obstruction rarely seen these days. The world economy seems to be entering another round of structural readjustment.

There are many complex and shifty risks hidden in the external environment around China's post-Olympics economic development. They constitute a problem for the Chinese economy that must not be overlooked as well as an issue that must be taken into account when we analyze China's post-Olympics economic development.

The author is a researcher with China Institute of Contemporary International Relations

(China Daily 09/04/2008 page8)

 

BEIJING - The organizers of the Beijing Paralympics would set a good model for future hosts, the president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said here on Wednesday.

The Paralympics, the world's premier sporting event for elite disabled athletes, will open in Beijing on Saturday, nearly two weeks after the Chinese capital successfully hosting the Olympic Games.

Philip Craven, who has been in Beijing over the past five weeks, said he was impressed by the preparation work done by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) when addressing a meeting of IPC executive board.

"I would like to, on behalf of the whole Paralympic family, thank BOCOG and China for the incredible transition that have taken place here in Beijing and also in (co-host city) Qingdao," said the IPC chief.

"No doubt, we have seen equal splendor here as you promised to us. We've seen it and we're feeling it," he added.

In line with China's motto for the Paralympics, comparing it with the Olympics, - "Two Games with Equal Splendor", the Chinese government has endeavored to make Beijing and co-host cities of Qingdao and Hong Kong as accessible as possible for Pralympians and spectators as well, for example, setting up the country's first fleet of easy-access taxis and making tourist spots such as the Great Wall accessible to wheelchairs.

Craven, who himself is wheelchair bound, said he was confident that the Beijing Paralympics would be a complete success and "highly copyable for the future".

"We all expect that this games will open a new chapter in the history and progression of the Paralympic Movement," he said.

More than 4,000 athletes from 148 countries and regions will compete in 20 sports at the Beijing Paralympics, which will run from September 6 to17.

 

As Beijing gears up for the Paralympics, its second sports extravaganza of the summer, a senior local official has said the promise of a "New Beijing, Great Olympics" is as yet only half complete, the Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.

Tan Zhimin, deputy chief of the Beijing City Building Headquarters Office for 2008, said that right from the time the city won its bid to host the two Games, it was always intended that a "Great Olympics" would pave the way for a "New Beijing".

"The Olympics have driven up people's expectations for further social and economic development," Tan said.

In 2005, the municipal government entrusted Tan's office to orchestrate the city's facelift. This involved coordinating more than 20 government departments in time for the sporting spectaculars being hosted by China for the first time.

Calling people "the source of the city's vitality", he said the goal of a more livable Beijing could not be realized without respecting public opinion.

From subsistence and entertainment to recreation and transport, a host of issues still needs to be tackled, he said.

Air quality, garbage and sewage disposal, the development of green spaces, and the building of emergency shelters for use in the event of natural disasters are all things that need to be looked at, he said.

"We know this is a long-term task. That's why we are seeking a permanent cure rather than symptomatic relief," he said.

Lin Zhiwei deputy manager of the environmental construction coordination department at the headquarters office, said governments at both the central and municipal level have summoned all resources available to honor the promise of a "Great Olympics".

"And this has turned the Olympics into a giant impetus to end the buck-passing culture and curb bureaucracy."