Beijing Olympic - 2008

Lopezes reflect on medal haul at Beijing Olympics

2008-08-22T13:23:00.001-07:00

Steven, Mark and Diana, the fighting siblings of Sugar Land, spend their days practicing and competing in a sport, Olympic taekwondo, where the name of the game is to kick and be kicked.

So it's not surprised that they leave the Olympic Games of Beijing a little bruised and, in bronze medalist Diana Lopez's case, more than a little hoarse from two days of cheering for her older brothers.

They leave China a little broken, too. Silver medalist Mark Lopez suffered two broken bones in his right hand on the first exchange in his first of four matches and will face surgery when he returns home next week.

And, given the law of averages, it's no surprise they will leave a little downhearted, too, in the wake of a referee's controversial decision Friday that helped short-circuit Steven Lopez's path toward a third career gold medal and relegated him to bronze.

But for the siblings and their coach, oldest brother Jean Lopez, the hardware around their necks and their placement in the medal listings pale in comparison to the satisfaction of experiencing the Olympics as a family affair.

"This was the chance of a lifetime," Diana Lopez said. "We made history, and we're coming home with three medals. We enjoyed it all: the process, the journey. We're here and we're healthy, even though Marky has his little bumps and bruises, and we have to thank God for everything."

Jean Lopez said the absence of a gold medal in the family's carry-on bags does not reduce the magnitude of its accomplishments.

"It (three medals) represents success. It really does," he said.

"I can't say we're not highly disappointed with the way things turned out (in Steven Lopez's quest for a third gold), but, looking at everything, you can't dismiss the fact that we created even more history. It's not the color of medal we wanted, but we brought three Lopezes to Beijing. They came as Olympians, and they will leave as Olympic medalists."

Upon the family's return to Texas, the first order of business is Mark Lopez's left hand, which was broken in his opening match Thursday against Nesar Amhad Bahave of Afghanistan. Team doctors talked about sending him home Friday, but when Mark Lopez insisted on attending his older brother's matches, they wrapped it in gauze and Ace bandages from fingers to wrist.

"First exchange of the first fight," he said. "I said, `Ooh, I felt that. But I said to just keep fighting and hopefully it won't affect me the rest of the time. The doctor and trainer did an excellent job of treating me. I didn't feel much pain."

He said he suffered a compound fracture of the third and fourth metacarpal and will undergo surgery as early as next week.

Looming next year is the world championships in Copenhagen, which Steven Lopez anticipates with a vengeance. Beyond that, the 2012 Olympics beckon.

"This (his performance Friday) encourages me," he said. "I'm upset. Golly, you know, I mean, jeez, I'm upset. I love winning. I hate losing. It drives me. By no means does this take away from me wanting to go back in 2012 and show them that I'm a champion."

Once Mark Lopez recovers from surgery, he intends to continue his quest of match, or at least keeping up, with Steven's four world titles.

"This is fun. We're having fun," Mark Lopez said. "Why stop something you love and have a lot of fun doing together."

First, however, will come rest and recuperation, even if they literally don't know the meaning of the phrase.

"I think we can have some r-and-r now," Diana Lopez said.

"What the hell is that?" Mark Lopez said.

"Someone said it to me yesterday," she replied.

"Yeah, and I didn't know what it meant then, either," he said.

Now, perhaps, he'll have time to learn.

U.S. Olympic team facing disappointing second-place gold-medal finish in Beijing

2008-08-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

With just two days left before the end of the Olympic Games, some U.S. sports officials were fretting Friday about a likely U.S. second-place finish in the gold-medal count, far behind China, and wondering what went wrong this month.

U.S. athletes have suffered bitter disappointments in events such as track and field competitions and boxing, while top-ranked U.S. teams in softball, women's water polo and other sports have lost to upstart underdogs in gold medal matches.

Making matters worse, the beleaguered Americans have been powerless to stop Chinese athletes, who have pulled far ahead in the gold-medal tally, even in the games' second week when U.S. athletes were supposed to tighten the gap.

By the end of Friday, the U.S. team had won 31 gold medals behind the 47 earned by the Chinese delegation. U.S. athletes, however, were still leading in total medals at 102 to the 89 medals won by the Chinese.

Another 44 gold medals will be awarded in the last two days of the Olympics this weekend, including eight in track-and-field events where U.S. athletes have traditionally been strong. This year, however, U.S. track and fielders have struggled, and the chances of a come-from-behind win in total gold medals are slim.

A second-place U.S. gold-medal finish in Beijing would mark a first for the Americans since the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. The United States has won the gold-medal race in 16 of the 26 modern Olympic Games.

"There are more countries winning those medals," said Steve Roush, the U.S. Olympic Committee's chief of sport performance. "And there are only so many to win. If they're winning more, someone's winning less. And here in Beijing, we didn't step it up like they did."

Despite the disappointments, U.S. officials tried to paint a positive picture Friday, saying their athletes would likely top the U.S. performance in the 2004 Athens games when the Americans won a total of 102 medals. The Americans, in fact, crossed that mark around 10 p.m. Beijing time Friday.

The U.S. team will also likely win the total medal count this year, bittersweet consolation for a competition largely judged by its gold-medal tally.

The committee's chief executive officer, Jim Scherr, said U.S. athletes were doing well in team sports, although such competitions net only two medals - one for men and another for women - after days of play.

An historic performance by U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, who won eight gold medals this month, also grabbed headlines.

The problem, officials said, was U.S. athletes faced tougher competition in sports they usually dominated. Jamaican sprinters such as Usain Bolt, for example, dashed away the hopes of U.S. runners, while the Japanese softball team shocked the Americans by downing them in Thursday night's final game.

The losses continued when the Cuban baseball team beat the Americans in a Friday semifinals match.

"These games are significantly more competitive than in Athens," Scherr said. "We know some nations devoted significantly more resources in these games."

The Chinese government, in fact, spent at least $1 billion on athlete development in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, said U.S.-based Chinese athletics expert Xu Guoqui. By comparison, the U.S. Olympic Committee's annual budget is $150 million, with much of it coming from non-governmental sources.

"Chinese progress in sports has mirrored its economic growth," Xu said. "They have a lot more money to spend on sports now."

The Chinese reaped the rewards of that spending this year, especially in their targeting of medal-rich sports where their athletes haven't traditionally excelled. With the help of foreign coaches, the program led to Chinese gold medals in sports such as fencing and sailing.

Long and winding road for China' men to catch up with women at Olympics

2008-08-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Chinese men are still trekking on a long and winding road to narrow down the medal gap between themselves and the women's team at the Beijing Olympic Games, having reduced the difference in gold medals to 20-25 compared with a more drastic 4-12 at Barcelona in 1992.

By Wednesday, Chinese athletes have won 79 medals -- including 45 golds at the Beijing Olympic Games. Twenty of the golds went to men and 25 to women. While both have taken seven silvers, Chinese men also lag behind the women with a shortfall of nine bronzes.

"In my country, men and women are equal and we women are able to do everything as well as men," said gold winning weightlifter Chen Yanqing after retaining her 58kg title last week.

Nearly 60 years after Chinese women were put alongside men at production lines and other jobs outside home, it is the men who have been trying hard to catch up with women since Barcelona in 1992.

Chinese women took 12 golds at those Games, including four in swimming, two in diving, two in table tennis and one each in 10,000-meter walk, 72kg class judo, skeet and gymnastics. The men's team took four golds, one each in diving, gymnastics, shooting and table tennis.

The gap was reduced greatly at Atlanta, with the men/women gold tally standing at seven to nine, but rebounded to 11.5 to 16.5 in Sydney 2000, with one mixed gold in badminton, and staggered to 12.5 to 19.5 at Athens in 2004.

The outstanding performances of Chinese women are to a large extent attributed to their male teammates, who spent much time practicing with women in order to boost the latter's overall strength.

On the other hand, experts have interpreted the gap from anatomic perspective, saying Chinese women are rather similar to Western women in form and physical strength, while Chinese men are far behind their Western peers.

Despite their smaller build, Chinese men are eager to prove they can do as good as women, at least in sports where China enjoys traditional advantages, gymnastics and weightlifting, for example.

Four years after leaving Athens with only one gold, the Chinese gymnastics team have learned from their mistakes and carefully prepared themselves for revenge on home soil.

By Tuesday, Chinese men have won seven out of the country's nine golds in gymnastics, with Li Xiaopeng, 27, taking his 16th world title and fourth Olympic gold to surpass former gymnastic legend Li Ning as China's golden gymnast.

Twenty-year-old Zou Kai won his third Olympic gold on Tuesday in horizontal bars, following two earlier titles in floor exercise and men's team.

"Today's success is due to the hard work, confidence and excellent skills of our gymnasts," said Huang Yubin, one of the coaches for the men's team, after Tuesday's competitions. "After the failure in Athens, we put all the critical media reports up on the walls of our gyms.

It had the desired effect on the team, who dazzled the judges and fans at the Beijing Games with their stunning displays of strength, skills and determination to win a team title as well as individual golds in individual all-around, floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, parallel and horizontal bars.

"After four years of hard work, I think the gymnasts have made a very impressive comeback and are among the biggest highlights at these Games," said Xiao Tian, deputy chef de mission of the Chinese delegation and deputy head of the sports administration.

While playing on home soil did boost the Chinese players' confidence, Xiao said their failure in Athens was rather "accidental". "It's not that they were not good, but rather, they failed to bring their techniques into full play last time."

With four more days to go before China's almost certain top finish of the Beijing Games, Xiao said Chinese men have seemingly narrowed the gap with women.

Besides gymnastics, better scores in men's weightlifting have also helped Chinese men to hold up their half of the sky.

Chinese strongmen have seized four, or half, of all the weightlifting golds at the Beijing Games, compared with two out of three in Athens. "As far as weightlifting is concerned, our men and women have all demonstrated their best performances -- everything was perfect," said Xiao.

Cui Dalin, another deputy chef de mission, gave all athletes thumbs up at a press conference on Saturday, halfway into the competitions. "Our men and women have all been doing well at these Games. The young men, in particular, are on their way to reverse women's dominance on the medal tally."

Though Monday's sudden pullout of top Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang for foot injuries saddened all domestic fans and dashed one of the host country's most-coveted gold medal, the absolute majority of the public agreed it was not fair to crunch Liu alone with the high expectations of the 1.3 billion Chinese.

China decided to popularize athletics, swimming and other internationally dominant sports among its youngsters at the start of the century, but the campaign has been rather sluggish at schools given the lack of proper facilities in the countryside and overburden of schoolwork for city kids.

Yet despite the country's top position on the Olympic gold tally, China still needs to train more Liu Xiang, Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps type of athletes for future Olympics -- and more importantly, for the overall improvement of its people's health.

The country has also been training harder for the "big ball games" -- with the immediate effects being its men's volleyball and basketball teams entering top eight at the Olympics.

The men's volleyball team, long overshadowed by the glory of the women players who won five consecutive world championships since the early 1980s, have also made history at the Beijing Games by making top eight despite their loss to Italy on Monday. It failed to enter semifinals though, after Wednesday's loss 0-3 to defending champion Brazil.

Before Beijing, their sole Olympic show dated back to 1984, when China appeared at the Los Angeles Games as the replacement team and finished the last in the eight competitors.

The women's volleyball and basketball teams, meanwhile, have both entered semifinals.

With Wednesday's defeat to Lithuania 68-94 in the quarter-final, the men's basketball team repeated their eighth-place finishing in Athens and failed to live up to their commitments of making a breakthrough on home soil.

Despite their shattered dream, avid fans vowed continued support for the 7-foot-6 NBA star Yao Ming and his team. "I support you for ever. I'll never take your victory as a 'miracle', no matter how long I have to wait," said a netizen named "kiysan_dweb9" at sina.com.

While women's soccer team still won sympathy and support after being knocked out in the quarterfinal, many Chinese fans refuse even to talk about the men's team. All were infuriated by their 0-2 defeat on Aug. 10 to Belgium and even worse, by defender Tan Wangsong and midfielder Zheng Zhi's kicking and elbowing of their opponents. Both were sent off after the attacks.

"I really don't know where the men's soccer team is leading now, after decades of promises to 'take dominance in Asia and march into the world'", said Beijing soccer fan Zeng Tao. "I see no hope in them."

Olympic dreaming

2008-08-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

With all the excitement surrounding the Olympics in Beijing, you have to live in a cave if you haven't seen American Michael Phelps win one of his eight gold medals. Or catch a view of 40-something Dara Torres cruise by competitors more than 20 years her junior.

In a sport that gets less recognition than the predominant ones, the Indianola High School varsity swimmers are living in the moment - as is the sport itself.

Indianola senior Anna Aldridge was fortunate enough to get to Omaha to witness the Olympic trials and to see Phelps live.

Phelps secured eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, breaking the 36-year-old record. He reset seven new world records and has 13 career gold medals. His eight on one Olympiad broke the record of seven set my Mark Spitz in 1972.

"To see him live is pretty amazing," Aldridge said. "It's crazy to see him on (television), breaking all these records. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Witnessing history aside, the swimmers are learning a few new things from watching the Olympics. They all see what the benefits of hard work can accomplish.

"It shows that getting up early to practice and all the hard work they put in," said Indianola senior Hillary Criswell. "That's cool, because that is what we all have to do."

Watching the swimmers style has changed routines for the swimmers.

Aldridge learned a little something from watching the American swimmers, including the sideways dolphin kick from off the wall.

"I watched the style and how they move their feet. I have been doing a lot of stretching to my ankle to help with my kick," Aldridge said

Will the current popularity of the sport parlay into bigger roster numbers for high school swimming? The answer is yes and no said Indianola coach Kurt Lickiss.

"Every Olympic year, we'll have 20 more kids out the following year an extra five then the year after that we're back to normal," Lickiss said. "I can't think of a swimmer that is out because of the Olympics.

"But the kids that are out, it really motivates them. They get fired up."

The Jiang family's 70-year Olympic bondage

2008-08-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

This year's Olympic Games is being held for the first time on Chinese soil.

But for one family in Shanghai, their link with the games goes back more than 70 years.

For 50-year-old Jiang Shi-wei, the Beijing Olympic Games carries special meaning - his family has a 76-year-old Olympic legacy.

Jiang, a businessman, said: "It was 1932 when China first participated in the modern Olympic Games. Back then, there was only one athlete, Liu Chang Chun, who competed at the games.

"The leader of the team was my father's uncle, Shen Si Liang. When it came to the 1984 Olympics, my father was a journalist with the China Daily and he reported on the games."

For the past 20 years, Jiang has been collecting Olympic memorabilia from all over the world. He owns the first article written about the Olympics in 1896 by Pierre de Coubertin, who founded the International Olympic Committee.

Most of the medals he owns have been in his family for years. The rest of the collection was obtained by exchanging Olympic items with other enthusiasts in the US. And he has been invited numerous times to show his collection to the public.

But 2008 has a special meaning for him - not just because China is hosting the games, but - because it means fulfilling the four dreams of his granduncle.

Jiang said: "The first dream is that China would compete in the Olympics, which he himself fulfilled in 1932. He also realised his second dream, which was to lead a dozen athletes to compete at the 1936 Games.

"The third dream was witnessed by my father who saw the Chinese athletes win our first medal. My granduncle's last dream is that China could one day host the Olympic Games."

With China winning 32 golds at the last Olympic Games, hopes are high that the Chinese will manage a bigger haul of the medals, given home advantage and heavy investment in training.

With 639 athletes, this is the largest contingent China has fielded so far for the Olympics.

In Medals Contest, U.S. And China Are Tops

2008-08-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

Crystl Bustos of the United States hits a three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to give the U.S. a 4-0 lead against Japan in the women's semifinal softball game.

Usain Bolt of Jamaica reacts after breaking the 200-meter world record with a time of 19.3 seconds to win the gold medal. Churandy Martina (left) of Netherlands Antilles and Brian Dzingai of Zimbabwe come in after him

Like two sprinters leaving the rest of the field behind, the United States and China are neck-and-neck in total medals at the Summer Olympics in Beijing. The U.S. leads the host country 82-79 in total medals. But China leads the U.S. in gold medals, 45-26. Russia is running a distant third with 45 total medals.

Speaking of swift runners: Usain Bolt of Jamaica won the 200-meter race — and a gold medal — in a world-record 19.3 seconds Wednesday night. He finished 0.52 seconds in front of Churandy Martin of Netherlands Antilles. Bolt is the first sprinter to win gold in the 200- and 100-meter races in the same Olympics since American Carl Lewis in 1984. Bolt is also the only racer to date to smash world records in both races at the same Olympics.

Softball star Crystl Bustos swatted a three-run, ninth-inning home run against Japan to send the U.S. softball team into the gold medal game. The final score was 4-1. The Americans have a 22-game winning streak. Also in softball, Australia beat Canada 5-3.

In men's beach volleyball, Americans Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser advanced to the gold medal round by beating Georgia 21-11, 21-13 in the semifinals Wednesday.

In women's field hockey, China beat Germany 3-2 to advance to the finals. And China's Wu Jingyu won a gold medal in tae kwon do.

But the host country has run into a few athletic obstacles on Day 12. In baseball, China lost to Cuba, 17-1. Meantime, South Korea cleaned the Netherlands' clock, 10-0.

USA Softball Team Advances to Gold Medal Game

2008-08-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

The U.S. women's softball advanced to the gold medal finals after defeating Japan 4-1 in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

Crystal Bustos hit a three-run home run in the ninth inning as the Americans extended their Olympic winning streak to 22.

The game was tied at zero until the ninth inning when Caitlin Lowe hit an RBI single, followed by Bustos' homer. The USA team will advance to the last finals until at least the 2016 Olympic Games.

Tied after seven innings, the teams went to the international tiebreaker in the eighth as both began their at-bats with a runner at second base. Neither could score in the eighth.

Monica Abbott pitched eight shutout innings for the U.S., which will face Japan again for gold Thursday. The Japanese team defeated Australia, 4-3, later Wednesday, with the winner meeting the Americans and the loser getting bronze.

The U.S. will battle Japan for the gold medal on Thursday at 6:30 a.m.

China turns the Games into its own gold factory

2008-08-19T07:01:00.002-07:00

Take a left out of the Main Press Center, walk down the street and watch the gold flow to China.

Walk into the National Indoor Stadium two blocks away and see the tiniest, youngest-looking group of Olympic athletes ever beat the more-experienced Americans in the women's team-gymnastics final.

Stroll next door to the Water Cube, during the non-Michael Phelps portion of the program, and see the phenomenal Chinese men's 3-meter springboard synchronized-diving pair of Wang Feng and Qin Kai rout the field.
They could have done matching cannonballs on their sixth and final dives and still won easily.

China is winning.

Its athletes are following the script written seven years ago, as if this were Broadway, not Beijing.

China is hoarding gold. It had won 17 gold medals entering the late men's individual gymnastics, almost halfway to its golden goal of 40.

Seven years ago, when it was awarded the Games, China targeted sports such as weightlifting, shooting, diving and gymnastics, sports where mining gold might be easier. It found the athletes and began intensive training.

Four years ago, the plan already was working. China won the second-most golds at the 2004 Athens Games, finishing ahead of Russia.

I've never been a fan of medal counts. The Games, to me, are as much about the journey of Tacoma breaststroker Megan Jendrick, finding a way to qualify for another final in 2008 after missing the Olympics in 2004.

The Games are about an Iraqi sprinter, Dana Hussein Abdul-Razzaq, earning the opportunity to escape the horror in her country, crouch into the starting blocks and run one race against the world.

But China has staked its honor on these Games. It seems as if so much of its self-esteem is tied up in gold.

Not silver. Not bronze. Just gold.

The Chinese government will pay its athletes bonuses for gold medals. It has been reported that gold-medal winners on the table-tennis team will make $25,000 in bonuses.

Still, you have to wonder about the price China is paying."The Chinese women's gymnastic team made history today," coach Lu Shanzhen said, "showing the world that China's women's gymnastics is the greatest."

It's also the youngest and the tiniest. The average size of the Chinese gymnasts is 4 foot 9 and 77 pounds. The average American women's gymnast is 3 ½ inches taller and 30 pounds heavier.

"We have no proof," U.S. coach Martha Karolyi said sarcastically of the Chinese gymnasts, "but one of the little girls has a missing tooth."

There is almost a Cold War feel to China's pursuit of gold. For this country, these are the turn-back-the-clock Games, reminiscent of the big Soviet bear of the 1960s and '70s. There are the same successes and the same suspicions, the same factorylike sports-training institutes.

To answer critics who say their gymnasts are too young, China has produced passports proving each is at least 16, the required minimum age.

But the secretive nature of Chinese sports makes coaches like Karolyi justifiably suspicious.

It has been raining gold for China. Take away the amazing Phelps' five, and China has a 12-gold-medal lead over the United States after five-plus days of competition.
At the Water Cube, Wang and Qin were spectacular. Except for the different hairstyles, it was like watching one man diving alongside a mirror. They were that perfect. After their final dive, they wrapped each other in a long embrace on the pool deck as another sellout crowd screamed its appreciation.

"We performed very well today," Wang said. "We've coordinated for more than 20 months. That's all for this event. This gold is so important to my life."
It's now a world where silver is considered failure.

Chinese swimmer Zhang Li won a silver earlier this week in an impressive race in the 400-meter freestyle, but reacted without joy. He never smiled during the medal ceremony.

And when the winner, Korean Taehwan Park, pulled him into the pictures that the photographers demanded after the medal ceremony, Zhang sadly stared at their lenses with his disappointment.

Silver doesn't spend.

What happens to Zhang after the Games?
China has staked its reputation on success in these Olympics. This is its chance to slake the insecurities built during the isolationist years of the Cultural Revolution.

Instead of wilting under this enormous pressure, many of the Chinese have embraced it, and made it their home-court advantage.

In the National Indoor Stadium Wednesday morning, the fans chanted, "Chi-na. Chi-na. Chi-na." When veteran Cheng Fei fell off the balance beam, the crowd gasped as if it were watching a Wallenda walk across a canyon.

It erupted lustily on every Chinese dismount.

Finally, after American Alicia Sacramone's second tragic mistake — falling at the end of a tumbling run — practically assured the Chinese the gold, Deng Linlin, Jiang Yuyuan and Cheng put on a tumbling show for the home folks that had fans shrieking their approval. Their floor exercises almost felt like an end-zone dance.
China is chasing gold in Beijing and celebrating like it's the arrival of a great new era.

U.S. rematch vs. Brazil is new chance for Hope Solo

2008-08-19T07:01:00.001-07:00

Goalkeeper Hope Solo, center, has reconnected with teammates since a falling-out at the World Cup last year.
Hope Solo was in doping control when she heard the news. Brazil had thumped Germany 4-1 and would be playing the United States in the Olympic gold-medal game.
She let out a cheer that echoed off the walls like a gun shot.
Solo was back.
This was the match she had waited 11 months to play. The match her coach had taken from her at the World Cup. This was the opponent she wanted to face. Eleven months ago her soccer career had fallen apart in China. Now everything was falling back into place in China.
After midnight, Solo, the former Washington star from Richland, patiently answered questions for almost 15 minutes after her team's 4-2 win over Japan in the semifinals. Then after most of the reporters left, she relaxed briefly and opened herself up just a little more.
"I didn't see myself back here months and months ago," Solo said barely above a whisper. "I don't know. I talked to my family about it. I can't believe I made it back.
"I was in no shape to go forward months ago, but it feels good after everything that's happened. It's amazing to get this chance to play against Brazil again."
Solo will get the chance that former U.S. coach Greg Ryan denied her in the 2007 when he benched her in favor of veteran Brianna Scurry in the World Cup semifinal against Brazil. The U.S. lost that game 4-0 and an angry Solo said she would have made the saves Scurry didn't, if she had been the keeper.
After those comments, Solo was ostracized. She wasn't allowed to sit on the bench for the team's third-place win. She wasn't allowed to eat meals with the team. She practically was under house arrest in China.
But Ryan was fired, and Pia Sundhage replaced him and returned the job of goalkeeping to Solo.
Truth, justice and talent have won out. Solo has faced down her fears and her critics. She has found something deep within herself that has allowed her to overcome.
"I feel great right now," she said. "I feel great with my teammates. I've never been that player that's been overly close with my teammates, just because we're all so busy.
"And I'm 27 years old. We have our lives at home. I have my good support system back at home. You come in here and you're as close as you need to be to get the job done. But I feel great right now. And I feel great with my teammates."
Maybe she still hasn't found that soccer sisterhood that was so much a part of previous women's Olympic teams, but Solo has found peace.
There is a mutual respect. An understanding that everything that happened in this country 11 months ago is ancient history. All that matters is the gold-medal game against the Brazilians on Thursday.
"It will be nice to get some revenge, I guess," Solo said. "It has nothing to do with those shots [that Scurry allowed]. That was 11 months ago. I don't think it's a personal thing any more. I think it's our team wanting to reclaim what we could have gotten at the World Cup. It has nothing to do with anything personal right now."
Solo was playing some of the best soccer of her life when she was yanked out of the lineup by Ryan. She was undefeated and hadn't allowed a goal in almost 300 minutes.
That Brazilian game should have been hers, and even though she says this gold-medal game won't be personal, it will be.
"I think it would be nice to play Brazil because you always want to reclaim what you could have had," she said. "But if they hadn't made it to the final, I still would have been happy, because we did what we needed to do to get here."
After an opening-game loss to Norway, the U.S. has blown through the field. This team doesn't have the glitter or the names of the past U.S. team — no Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy or Brandi Chastain.
With scorer Abby Wambach out with a broken leg, Solo is its only recognizable player.
"I think one of the most amazing things with our team is that we don't have that big-name player," she said. "People don't really know us, and I think our team is finding so much energy with that.
"We have numerous people scoring goals. We have numerous people stepping up. But for us, we like it that we don't have a big-name player. We have new faces. Everything feels fresh. It's like we're making our own statement. Writing our own script."
Brazil has been a metaphor for all of the injustice Solo has faced in the past 11 months. Brazil has meant despair. Now, in Thursday's gold-medal game, she will be given the chance to change the meaning of that metaphor.
Brazil can mean hope for Solo.

Johnson silver in floor exercise by a sliver

2008-08-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

Doug and Teri Johnson scooted from their seats down to the front row and leaned over the rail to snap photos as their daughter, Shawn, marched to the podium Sunday to collect her third silver medal of the Beijing Olympics.She spotted them among the 18,000 at National Indoor Stadium, and parents and child exchanged heartfelt looks.It was a magic moment for the West Des Moines family, not diminished by the fact that Johnson, 16, missed gold again, finishing behind Romania's Sandra Izbasa in the women's gymnastics floor exercise final.

"It's a win," Teri Johnson said. "She came out and gave the fight of her life. I've never seen her do better."

Johnson, who also has team and all-around silver medals, is now one of the most decorated U.S. gymnasts in Olympic history, and has a chance to add a medal in the balance beam final Tuesday. Only two U.S. gymnasts have won more than three total Olympic medals. Shannon Miller won seven in two Olympics, and Mary Lou Retton won five in one.

"Oh my God, I can't believe we're here, much less on the medal stand," Teri Johnson said. "I'm just numb."

Doug Johnson was caught up in the moment, helping lead a "Way to go, Shawn!" cheer along with her agent, Sheryl Shade, and her family, and a friend from Iowa.

"She's given everything she had," Doug Johnson said.

Johnson was upbeat about her latest silver medal but craves more.

"I really want to go for gold on beam," she said.

She gets a day off today and will spend it showing her parents around the Olympic Village.

She also will watch her roommate, all-around champion Nastia Liukin, compete in the uneven bars final. Liukin took the floor exercise bronze.

Johnson said she doesn't know how she could have improved her score of 15.550, to Izbasa's 15.650. Liukin scored 15.425.

But she said Izbasa deserved the gold.

"Sandra had an amazing routine," Johnson said. "She stuck her landings, and she has amazing flexibility."

Johnson was first to take the floor with her routine, which includes a difficult tuck double-double on her first tumbling pass.

Then the wait while the seven others performed was excruciating. Liukin and Izbasa were the last to go.

"It was very tough," Johnson said. "I'm definitely not used to that. I'm usually last. Sitting and watching the seven other girls was the most nerve-wracking thing. I wasn't sure how my score was going to hold up."

The U.S. was looking for its first gold medal in floor exercise.

Every previous champion was from the Soviet Union, Russia or one of the former Eastern Bloc countries.

Izbasa was the sixth Romanian champion.

The Americans had won only four medals ever in the floor exercise. Julianne McNamara won silver and Retton bronze in 1984 in Los Angeles, Miller bronze in 1992 in Barcelona and Dominique Dawes bronze in 1996 in Atlanta.

Johnson had scored 15.525 on floor exercise while taking silver in Friday's all-around competition, scored 15.100 in team competition after a penalty for stepping out of bounds and was third in qualifying with 15.425.

"This is a lot more of a struggle than we ever thought it would be," Teri Johnson said.

Alicia Sacramone, 20, of Winchester, Mass., just missed a medal in the vault earlier Sunday with a score of 15.537.

North Korea's Un Jong Hong won with 15.650.

Germany's Oksana Chusovitina, a 33-year-old, eight-time world medalist in vault who has previously competed for the Soviet Union and Uzbekistan, took silver at 15.575. China's favored Cheng Fei landed on her knees on her second vault and scored 15.562.

A Russian perspective

2008-08-18T10:06:00.003-07:00

The Olympic spirit is everywhere in Beijing. Even far from the sports venues, you can still feel that the city is hosting the Games.

I'm not just talking about clean streets, new buildings, good roads and sparkling hotels. The Games add another dimension to Beijing, making it more energetic than I can ever remember and giving people here a fresh view of life. I'm sure that the same thing will happen in my native city of Sochi in 2014.

I have been looking closely at Beijing life and want to share my impressions with you.

Chinese people are very friendly. This more than makes up for the occasional lack of strong English speakers. But some of the communication difficulties result in funny moments. For example, I spent 15 minutes explaining to a taxi driver that I wanted to go to the Great Wall where the cycling competitions are taking place. After getting nowhere in English, I started to speak Russian and it rescued me. The driver actually understood Russian better than English!

It is quite easy to get around Beijing during the Games. You can use buses and the underground. Moreover, it is free for members of the Olympic family. The Chinese have constructed a special underground line to Olympic venues. It's a great way to ensure you're on time and not held up in traffic, even with the dedicated Olympic lanes on roads set up for cars.

Right now in Beijing they are enforcing a traffic reduction rule: cars with an even registration number can go out on the even dates of the month and vice versa with the odd numbers. The result is simple: half the cars on the roads during the Games. But even so there are occasions when the traffic is heavy - especially when everyone heads for the Olympic Green at night, such as after Usain Bolt won that incredible 100m gold.

Recently I went with some colleagues to see one of the women's field hockey matches. Although I found the sport quite unusual, the most incredible thing about the day was seeing a group of people in the stadium wearing matching T-shirts. We found out that these people had helped to build the Olympic venues in Beijing.

I was very touched by the attitude of our Chinese hosts towards these people who had played a very important, but often overlooked role in the staging of the Olympics. We too must not forget the people who help make our Winter Games in Sochi come to life.

I also believe that the Games are reflecting Chinese culture well. The country's style and tradition is everywhere, from the opening ceremony through to the competition venues themselves. A few days ago I found a cultural showcase in the middle of the Olympic Green called "China Story", where you can learn about the history of China, local life and even try to write Chinese characters. Of course, it's difficult to learn, but it's interesting to see your name written out in Mandarin.

Naturally, I'm following the performance of Russian athletes closely and was very proud of the performance of our female tennis players, who managed a clean sweep of gold, silver and bronze in the individual competition. I was really impressed by the Russian fans who had travelled from all over our country to watch the matches in Beijing. Some guys from Novosibirsk even stretched out a big 'Russia-Novosibirsk' flag along the whole stand!

Most didn't know who to support in the final - Elena Dementieva or Dinara Safina! In the end they supported both, calling to Safina when she was losing: "Stand firm!" and when Dementieva lost form: "Lena, we are with you!" So to be at the Olympic final with that kind of atmosphere and watching two Russian athletes, was a real privilege.

Games of energy and brilliance

2008-08-18T10:06:00.001-07:00

In this EFE photo, Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates winning the gold medal in the men's tennis singles event. Nadal is now officially the No. 1 tennis player in the world starting today

Olympic Games are usually unforgettable for the athletes, for the countries, for the glory and sometimes even for the shame. However, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games could be the subject of a book all by itself. New world records and history unraveling before spectators' eyes are happening almost every day. The Games have not even ended, yet a more than impressive cadre of the world's super athletes have given organisers, fans and the media more than enough of what they came here for, not to mention the Olympic spirit.

Sport is the activity in which ordinary people made of flesh and bones accomplish extraordinary feats, thanks to practice, practice and more practice. Sport becomes mythical and God gets the thanks He deserves when athletes surpass their own expectations or acts of fortune and misfortune appear out of nowhere. One of these could be swimming 17 races in nine days, medaling in 14 of them, pocketing 8 gold and all this of course, against the best on the planet. The athletic feat was so great and the legend created so young, that his name need not even be mentioned for the world to know about whom this author refers. As he would tell you himself, he is not the new Spitz, he is Phelps. Still, Phelps has only one date on the world calendar and it comes only every four years. This does not mean that the 23-year-old figure is less than Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods. In fact, if Michael Phelps were the name of a country, it would be fifth on the overall standings, behind the United States, China, the United Kingdom and Germany.

On the other end, Jamaica's Usain "Lightning" Bolt cannot seem to find a worthy opponent, so much so that he could afford to jog into the finish line and still break the world record - which happened to be his own - with his closest rival from Trinidad and Tobago Richard Thompson at least two full lengths behind. After three Jamaicans took gold, silver and bronze in the 100 meter dash, some international press hail Jamaica as the fastest country in the world.

Meanwhile Spain's Rafael Nadal - a phenomenon of his own - is scooping up massive support as his extraordinary successes unfold everywhere he goes. Apart from André Agassi in the Atlanta Olympic Games of 1996, no tennis player of the "great elite" had won gold at the Olympic Games. Nadal did it with the energy and brilliance that have characterized his career and indeed, energy and brilliance seem to be what are characterizing the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games too.

In this EFE photo Michael Phelps raises his hands amidst a crowd of swimmers.

Argentina says adios to Russia with 91-79 win

2008-08-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

Argentina fought off a fourth quarter surge by Russia to win 91-79 in the last game of the Men's Basketball preliminary round on Monday, August 18.

Argentina seemed to be on course for a swift victory when it closed the first quarter 27-16 and the half 45-39 without losing its lead more than once. Luis Scola and Andres Nocioni each scored 14 points in the first half, and Nocioni was on fire with 100 percent shooting including three three-pointers. Russia's Andrey Kirilenko also shot with perfect accuracy for 12 points in the first half, and he pulled five boards to help his team out-rebound Argentina 17-11.

Coming back from the break the Russian team came within five points when Sergey Bykov hit a foul shot after his made basket to bring the score 49-44, but Argentina charged forward 72-64.

In keeping with Russia's trend of opening each quarter strong, the fourth period saw a final push from Russia that even resulted in the team's second lead of the game, 73-72 after Kirilenko went to the foul line. Russia lost the lead, but J.R. Holden hit a three-pointer in response to two-points from Scola to narrow the gap 76-75 still in Argentina's favor. In the end, Russia couldn't surpass the defending Olympic champion and Argentina was able to regroup and pull out a win.

Scola racked up a staggering 37 points and eight rebounds without touching the bench once all game. Nocioni contributed 19 points and nine rebounds by the end, and Ginobili shot for 12 points with four assists. Russian captain Kirilenko led his team with 23 points, followed by Holden with 19 points and nine rebounds. Bykov and Andrey Vorontsevich tied with 10 points netted.

Argentina enters the quarterfinal as the second seed from group A, while Russia now exits the tournament.

Ukraine's Ruban wins men's individual archery gold

2008-08-15T05:27:00.000-07:00

Viktor Ruban of Ukraine releases the arrow during the men's individual final of archery against Park Kyung-Mo of the Republic of Korea at Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, Aug. 15, 2008. Ruban defeated Park and claimed the title in this event.

Ukraine's Viktor Ruban scored 113 points to win the men's individual archery gold medal at the Olympic Games here on Friday.

The losing finalist, South Korea's Park Kyung-Mo took the silver medal on 112 points.

Russia's Bair Badenov took the bronze medal by beating Mexico's Juan Rene Serrano 115-110.

Gold medalist Viktor Ruban (C) of Ukraine, silver medalist Park Kyung-Mo (L) of the Republic of Korea and bronze medalist Bair Badenov of Russia stand on the podium at the awarding ceremony of the men's individual competition of archery at Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, Aug. 15, 2008. (Xinhua/Gesang Dawa)

U.S. Soni wins women's 200m breaststroke gold, shatters world record

2008-08-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

Rebecca Soni of the United States competes during the final of women's 200m breaststroke at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in the National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube in Beijing, China, Aug. 15, 2008. Rebecca Soni won the gold medal with a new world record of 2 minutes 20.22 seconds.

Rebecca Soni of the United States won the Olympic gold medal by shattering the world record 0.32 second in the women's 200m breaststroke final here on Friday.

Closely tailed by the world record holder Leisel Jones from Australia, Soni finished the first 150m at 1:43.70 and then fired a power charge in the final leg by touching home at 2:20.22, beating Jones in a body length advantage, and bettering her record 0.32 second.

Jones, who already bagged a silver for the event in the Athen Games, took her second in 2:22.05, and the bronze went to Norway's Sara Nordenstam who was timed 2:23.02.

"It feels great. I can't believe what just happened. I've won a gold medal. It has been a long road to get here," said Soni, who was only substituted to the event after Jessica Hardy withdrew due to a failed drug test.

"I turned (at the 150m mark) and realised I was first. I knew I had a little bit left in me, so I tried to stay relaxed and strong," the breaststroker added.

Soni, who swims in her strongest event, already blistered through her heat with an Olympic record 2:22.17, and cruised into the final on top of the namelist, leaving little doubt she was the swimmer to win.

Although the 21-year-old said she was nervous all day yesterday and this morning, the pressure is acturally off for her since the Southern California University swimming star already shined by presenting an unexpected silver medal performance in 100 breast Tuesday.

"It just flowed. I tried to keep my stroke strong. It's something I've been working on through the trials," Soni said.

Jones explained the failure of her second bid for the 200m breast to some breathing problem in the final 50m.

"I just cannot breathe in the last 50 (metes), so it happened in the past. I did my best," said Jones, who already snatch the title for women's 100m breaststroke race on Tuesday morning.

"I'm definitely not disappointed. It is probably more relief than anything," Jones said after the race, adding that a silver medal is enough for her to feel happy.

" I gave it everything I had, I couldn't have given it any more," the 23-year-old Aussie said.

Breakaway gold for American swimmer Lochte at Beijing Olympics

2008-08-15T05:14:00.000-07:00

American swimmer Ryan Lochte has for years been sandwiched between routine winners Michael Phelps and Aaron Peirsol, and he finally freed himself with an Olympic gold medal here on Friday.

The 24-year-old swimmer defeated world record holder Peirsol in the men's 200-meter backstroke here in Beijing, clocking one minute and 53.94 seconds to wipe 0.38 seconds off the previous world record which he shared with Peirsol.

"I can't even put it into words," said Lochte on winning his first individual Olympic gold, "I touched the wall and was like 'thank you, finally.'"

In the pool, Lochte has been a challenger, to Phelps in the individual medley and to Peirsol in the backstroke. He was part of the team that won the 4x200m freestyle gold in Athens, but seemed to have always as runner-up in individual events. At the U.S. Olympic trials in July, Lochte finished second three times, each time beaten by a world record set by Phelps and Peirsol.

"I've been racing Peirsol and Phelps for 5 or 6 years now, and I think I'm used to getting up and racing them," said Lochte.

In the 200 backstroke, before he edged Peirsol to the second in the 2007 World Championships, the latter has dominated the backstroke for five straight years. At the Olympic trials, Peirsol staged a comeback to equal the record, but it was Lochte who finally stood out in the Beijing rematch.

"In the 200 backstroke, I swam as fast as possible, but tried not to use my legs as much, basically I (began) racing in the last 50 meters," he said.

Lochte's swimsuit didn't fit well before he jumped into the water, but it didn't hamper him from flashing for the gold. "Before I jumped in, I didn't have the suit as tight as I wanted. But as soon as I dove in, I got bubbled up, and I didn't really focus on my suit," he said.

Compared with his rivals, Lochte seemed less aggressive and more laid-back. He has sustained careless injuries from falling off trees and landing into bushes on a scooter, but he managed to regroup himself before major swim meets.

Responding to how he prepared for the events, he cited sleeping tight and feeding on Big Macs.

"I slept really well and I went to bed like at nine last night," he said.

"Nutrition is probably the last thing I worry about. I eats whatever tastes good. I've been eating Mcdonald's pretty much every meal here. I think it helped though."

After winning the 200 backstroke, Lochte hurried off to another face-off with Phelps in the 200 individual medley race, in which he again was the underdog, but still believed himself in winning.

"I wanted to beat Michael Phelps. Every time I got into water and raced him, I always feel like I can win. That's the way I've been training my mind," he said.

Lochte finished third like he did in the 400 IM, in which Phelps claimed the title with a sixth world record at the Games.

"I wanted to (defeat Phelps), but it didn't happen. I just got up, go back, look at the video, see what I did wrong and hopefully get better," Lochte said.

The ability to put himself at ease, coupled with a strong belief in winning, has not only propelled Lochte to be the second fastest swimmer at 1:55.22 in the 200 IM, but also spurred the ace Phelps on.

"I wouldn't have bettered the mark if Ryan and others didn't push so hard," said Phelps.

When the two stepped onto the podium, Lochte was still panting, but he found time for small talk and joke-sharing with teammate Phelps.

Review: Beijing 2008

2008-08-14T11:09:00.005-07:00

GOING FOR GOLD: Beijing 2008 is a game for Olympics fans who like their virtual events to be as challenging as the real thing.
Beijing 2008 is the official game for this year's Olympics and carries on the traditional button mashing madness that started back in the 80s with other related titles.

However, unlike the early days, Beijing 2008 is definitely aimed at being more of a serious sports simulation than a furious arcade time-waster. This game features 32 countries (unfortunately only a fraction of the 204 total competing in the Olympics) and 35 events across a range of disciplines, each with their own techniques to master.

The immediate problem with this "serious sporting" slant is that Beijing 2008 becomes a lot of hard work. Although the numerous events feature similar elements to their controls, very few gamers will be able to sit down and get a medal on their first attempt. Or even on their fourteenth attempt.

It is obvious why Sega have made this game difficult to master, as it really does portray the amazing skill and dexterity required by the athletes who take part in the Olympics. But sadly, this has also removed some of the fun from the game as well.

Although the difficulty may deter plenty of casual players, it does open the doors to those people out there looking for a detailed sporting simulator.

Plenty of events, like the 100m sprint or shot-put simply require tapping two buttons as fast as you can (the PS3 version also allows you to waggle your analogue sticks if you prefer). But the more technically complex sports demand near-perfect timing and literally hours of practice.

For example, the diving event requires you to gently move your analogue sticks to guide your player through the diving motions - twisting and turning with the right timing to avoid a nasty belly-flop. There is a similar element to the gymnastic events where you must time the pressing of various buttons with on-screen directions to try and nab that perfect score.

Other events like the long jump use the typical button tapping for speed but then a quick change of controls to use the shoulder buttons for the final jump, where your timing indicates the angle and distance you travel. Press the shoulder buttons too early or for too long and your distance will suffer dramatically. Worse yet is pressing the buttons too late, resulting in an instant disqualification as you place a foot over the jumping line.

This leads onto the other issue with Beijing 2008. The game is very non user-friendly and although each event has the option of viewing a tutorial first, they are often too quick to fully comprehend. This doesn't help the fact that most of the events have very steep learning curves and that the AI opponents seldom screw up. The end result is an extremely frustrating experience that reminds you that not only could you not do these events in real life - you now also completely suck at video games as well.

After coming dead last in judo, cycling, hurdles, 100m butterfly stroke, high jump, long jump, table tennis and gymnastics, I was beginning to lose hope. Luckily though there are some events that are easier to pick up and play and therefore more fun.

Archery featured a surprisingly natural and fluid control system that doesn't appear to feature in any other of the events. By pulling back on the right analogue stick, your player pulls back the bow and with the left stick you aim your crosshair. The longer you try and aim the shot, the smaller the target becomes to indicate strain on your archer's hand.

Flicking the right stick forwards launches the arrow, and hitting near the bullseye was satisfyingly rewarding. Especially after half an hour of clay pigeon shooting where I managed to hit a whopping 1 out of 25 targets (Sweden won gold with 24 targets).

There is only a small amount of time that any one man can continue to look like a complete muppet while playing a game by himself. This amount of time is around 53 minutes, so after nearly an hour of seeing myself come dead-last in every event I decided to get three mates around. Beijing 2008 allows for up to 4 players to compete on the same console and up to 8 players online.

Truth be told, multiplayer does make this game more entertaining. This is mainly because your shame is now shared between the four of you, all fighting to avoid being the wooden spoon champion.

Some of the highlights were the long distance running events such as the 1500m where the controls were simple and the need to pace your runners for the three laps proved to be a fun challenge. Kenya was doing brilliantly until he suffered heart failure after full-on sprinting from the starting block.

The PS3 version of the game features some excellent graphics and sound that all help immerse you into the Olympic extravagance. Despite the unusually pixilated opening menu screen, the in-game visuals are extremely life-like. The animations of the human form across all events are stunning and often it feels like you are watching the real thing on TV.

The only short-fall lies in the similarity of the models getting recycled across a few of the different nationalities. Undoubtedly though, Beijing 2008 features some very detailed athletes and this obviously helps add to the realistic presentation of the game.

One thing that's clear about Beijing 2008 though, is that the game is extremely unforgiving to both your controllers... and your hands. With all the repetitive controls and button bashing, sometimes you are in so much pain you felt like you just ran 1500m... on your thumbs. Thankfully though, the game has a great range of events so splitting the running or swimming events with slower paced ones can help reduce the strain on your thumbs.

For those players who don't want their thumbs to resemble pork sausages, we discovered an excellent method that we came to call the "no-fingered-palm technique." As many of the events allow you to waggle your analogue stick to gain speed, you can simply place your palm on top of the stick and rotate your whole hand. Trust us, you'll thank this review later when you out-run your opponents when they stop for an RSI break.

Beijing 2008 isn't an easy game to nail down into an overall score. On one hand, the people considering purchasing Beijing 2008 are likely to be serious Olympic fans wanting to get a full-on experience in the events they watch on TV.

In this case, Beijing 2008 is sure to please and the challenging learning curve is more likely to spur players on to perfect their technique and claim gold. The game even allows players to train their own team of athletes and customise their perfect team.

Even breaking virtual World and Olympic records and having them displayed online for eternal glory is possible. But for others wanting a fun arcade-like game, Beijing 2008 is likely to just end up being too much work.

NBC hails multimedia 'phenomenon' in games coverage

2008-08-14T11:09:00.004-07:00

US broadcaster NBC has claimed "phenomenal" ratings for its multimedia coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with viewing figures bolstered by on-demand, web and mobile content.

In the first four days of the event, the official broadcaster for the Olympics across the US saw viewing peak on Sunday with Michael Phelps' second gold of the games during the 4x100 mens' relay.

NBC, which has been using a new measurement system to combine viewing figures across all media outlets, saw TV viewing peak at 107.3 million across the US that night, up from 70.1 million on Friday.

Though TV still accounts for the vast majority of Olympic viewing, its share dropped the following Monday from 95% to 92% as the volume of online viewing of NBC's Beijing coverage grew.

The NBC website saw unique user numbers increase from 4.2 million last Friday, August 8, the first day of the games, to 7.8 million on Monday, August 11, when viewers wanted to replay Phelps' US swimming victory. NBC recorded 1.7 million downloads of the final 4x100 relay final.

In the UK, BBC Sport Interactive head Ben Gallop said bbc.co.uk recorded more traffic in the first two days of the games than in the entire two weeks of the 2004 Athens games.

Commenting on the record traffic, Gallop described Beijing as "a stepping stone for London - we want try things out and see how they work to learn for four years' time".

Alan Wurtzel, research president for NBC Universal, said the ratings are well ahead of the Athens games in 2004 and confirmed that the 2008 Beijing Olympics are the most viewed ever, with 114 million US viewers compared with 110 million for Athens.

Wurtzel also said the broadcaster has been "stunned" by the popularity of mobile content. On August 8 just 210,333 people accessed the NBC service, but by Monday this had more than doubled to 476,062.

More than half these people are accessing mobile content for the first time, NBC research found.

"These Olympics are influencing how people are using new technology," Wurtzel said. "Half of the people viewing on mobile are using it for the first time. After the Olympics, it will be interesting if these habits become part of their behaviour."

On top of TV coverage, NBC is offering an unprecedented 2,200 hours of live Olympic webcasts and 700 hours of additional, exclusive content distributed through cable TV, although some commentators have criticised NBC's decision not to post any events online until they have been aired on TV.

Wurtzel also admitted that NBC had feared that online content would cannibalise the TV audience, which is the most lucrative for advertising - but said this has not been the case. NBC's research showed that just 0.2% of its audience used the web exclusively.

Sport of eating to Award Cash Prize of Olympic Proportions

2008-08-14T11:09:00.003-07:00

2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- When the very best from the sport of eating descend upon Chattanooga for the Krystal Square Off V World Hamburger Eating Championship on Sept. 28, 2008, it will be more than just the title on the line. Top-ranked eaters such as Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi will also battle for some serious money as The Krystal Company announced today that it will award an unprecedented $50,000 in cash prizes, making it the largest cash purse in competitive eating history.
"Victory will be as good as gold at the Krystal Square Off V finals this year as we give away the largest cash purse in competitive eating history," said Brad Wahl, vice president of marketing, The Krystal Company. "As elite, world-class athletes, these competitors are focused on the title first and foremost, but winning some cold, hard cash will make victory taste even sweeter."
The winner this year will receive $20,000 in cash, twice the amount Chestnut took home in 2007 when he shocked a live audience of 10,000 by eating an unfathomable 103 Krystal Hamburgers in eight minutes. Chestnut's mark last year shattered Takeru Kobayashi's previous world record of 97.
The runner-up at Krystal Square Off V will take home a paycheck of $10,000, while third place will leave Chattanooga $5,000 richer. On the line for the remaining finalists are the following payouts: 4th - $3,000; 5th - $2,500; 6th - $2,000; 7th - $1,850; 8th - $1,500; 9th - $1,400; 10th - $1,250; 11th - $1,000; 12th - $500.
A seven-city qualifying circuit for Krystal Square Off V kicks off in Chattanooga with an opening ceremony on Aug. 22 followed by an eight-minute contest on Aug. 23. From there, the circuit journeys through six more cities with the winner of each regional qualifier awarded a seat to the World Championship in Chattanooga. Three wild card spots to the final will also be awarded based on performances in the regional qualifiers.
At the Krystal Square Off V final, the seven regional winners and three wild cards will face off against the world's number one ranked eater Joey Chestnut, who receives an automatic seat to this year's championship as the defending champion.
The Krystal Square Off is one of the two majors in the sport of competitive eating and the only world hamburger-eating championship sanctioned by Major League Eating, the world governing body of all stomach-centric sports.
For complete details on Krystal Square Off V, visit krystalsquareoff.com .
SOURCE The Krystal Company

Reviews mixed for Olympic gender equity

2008-08-14T11:09:00.002-07:00

Women are competing at the 2008 Games in record numbers, yet the Olympic movement remains under fire on the gender front — accused of failing to reduce male dominance in its own ranks and tolerating countries which exclude women from their teams.

Of more than 11,000 athletes assembled in Beijing, 42 per cent are women. That’s up from less than 26 per cent in 1988, and illustrates the success of an aggressive campaign since then by the International Olympic Committee to move toward gender equity.

The IOC itself, and its affiliates, haven’t done nearly as well, falling short of their own goals.

Of the IOC’s 110 members, 16 are women — and only one serves on the powerful 15-member executive board. A sizable majority of the 205 national Olympic committees have executive bodies that are at least 80 per cent male, and only two of the 35 Olympic sports federations have women as presidents.

"I’m deeply disappointed," said Anita DeFrantz, the senior U.S. member of the IOC and chair of its Women and Sport Commission.

"I don’t understand why we haven’t been successful," she said. "I’m reviewing everything to determine what it is that’s blocking us."

One fundamental problem is that sports administration in many nations remains an old boys club. DeFrantz said change will be too slow unless the men in power commit themselves to grooming women as leaders.

DeFrantz also is among many advocates of women’s sports who have run out of patience with Saudi Arabia, the last major nation that bars women from its Olympic teams. She wants the Saudis — who have fielded a 17-man squad in Beijing — to be excluded from the 2012 Games in London unless they end their males-only policy.

"Perhaps after these games it will be clear they will be the only outliers and have to allow women to compete," DeFrantz said. "The women in that country deserve the opportunity."

Critics contend the IOC is failing to adhere to its own charter, which says discrimination on the basis of sex is "incompatible with belonging to the Olympic movement." They suggest that a double-standard is at work, with the IOC more tolerant of gender bias than it was of the institutionalized racial segregation that triggered South Africa’s exclusion from the Olympics during the apartheid era.

However, many IOC members may be reluctant to bar the Saudis from London.

"I’d be surprised and disappointed if we took such draconian action," said senior IOC member Kevan Gosper. "All that would do is have the athletes of that country suffer."

Apartheid "was considered a crime against humanity," Gosper said. "I don’t think that can be considered parallel to the effort to bring women into absolutely equal gender balance."

Whether Saudi Arabia changes on its own remains to be seen. The government is generally wary of angering conservative Islamic clergy, yet the issue of women in sports has been raised recently in the Saudi media and reportedly has been debated by a high-level government advisory council.

Saudi Arabia currently bans sports and physical education classes in state-run girls’ schools. Women have discreetly formed a few sports teams on their own, but the level of competition is considered a world away from Olympic calibre.

Thursday events cancelled

2008-08-14T11:09:00.001-07:00

Ben Ainslie and Britain's Yngling team have been forced to halt their medal pursuits as inclement weather conditions forced organisers to postpone all of Thursday's sailing events.

Defending Olympic champion Ainslee is leading the Finn class as he seeks a third successive gold medal, extending a narrow six-point advantage over the USA's Zach Railey on Wednesday.

However, thunder and lightning have joined heavy rain in forcing a postponement of proceedings, seeing organisers put all sailing and rowing events back to Friday.

The news also causes a delay for the British Yngling team's bid for gold, with two-time world champions Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson now having to race on their postponed day-off.

Seven out of 10 races in each category have been held, but light breezes on Wednesday had already caused a time delay leading up to the beginning of Saturday's medal races.

Britain have been impressive in both disciplines, with eight finalists in rowing already doubling the total number of athletes that reached the same stage in Athens four years ago.

Welcome to the Stretchy Pants Olympics

2008-08-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

And now, live from Las Vegas, NBC Live Sports is proud to present: Saturday Night Badminton!

No? How about Saturday Night Fencing? Or maybe: Welcome to The Kayak Bowl!

The big U.S. broadcaster is paying a fortune to televise minority sports such as these from the Beijing Olympics, but don’t expect it to remake its fall TV sports schedule, no matter how many Golds Americans win at them.

We would have asked NBC why they go to the trouble of showing things like judo and rowing, but our top researcher, Keanu, already had a response: “They’d give you a boring answer, dude.” Then he went back to talking to his girlfriend on his mobile.

“So I was like…so he was like…so I was like….”

But, it’s no secret anyway. As everyone knows, track and swim and bike and gym have the lion’s share of gold medals, celebrity, television close-ups and cool stuff at the Olympic Games.

Athletics (47 Golds) has slick shades and gold chains, painted fingernails, cornrows and bad shoes. Swimming (34) already had slinky Speedos, now it has hydrodynamic artificial shark skin suits.

Gymnastics (18) has nymphs in glittery leotards and husky dudes in wife-beaters doing turns on dangerous gear. Cycling (18) has shaved legs and spectacular pileups. And check out the paint jobs on those bikes!

So far, so good. We know why we’re watching. In addition, that is, to the display of skill, strength and endurance from long years of selfless commitment by the athletes.

It’s okay then if, every four years, folks like NBC and the other big media help shine a light on the furthest corners of the world of sport, and even provide commentators to can explain it.

But are the interests of the great masses being sacrificed in the name of elitist sports for the middle classes, who can afford to buy specialist clothing and high-tech gear? Are the world’s most popular bat, stick and ball games being short-changed?

You judge: basketball and football get only two gold medals each. Baseball gets just one. But there are 14 for judo and 14 for rowing and 11 for shooting.

Okay, football and basketball and baseball have their own separate World Cup and NBA playoffs and World Series. But it’s still not clear whose perfect Saturday afternoon sports lineup the Olympic Games is supposed to reflect.

When was the last time you called in sick to sneak off to a fencing match (10 Golds)? Or try to bribe a client with a couple of tickets to the kayaking (12 Golds)?

“Thanks, I already got ringside at synchronised swimming (2 Golds) and after that we’re on standby for tickets to the archery (4 Golds)…”

Olympic wrestling (18 Golds) has come a long way from the jaggedy-assed wool combination suits the guys used to wear. But no amount of lycra can make up for the lack of lace-up leather facemasks, Indian headdresses, silk capes, oiled locks, weird tights and horrible fouls we’re used to seeing on Worldwide Professional Wrestling Federation night. There are no tag teams and no hair-pulling.

Jack Black knows that shunning showmanship won’t work. As he secretly transforms himself from monastery cook into successful wrestling pro in his movie ‘Nacho Libre’, Black explains the exigencies of pro sport to a puzzled orphan.

“When you are a man,” he says, “sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room. It’s for fun.”

PHOTO: Daigoro Timoncini of Italy (in red) fights Kenzo Kato of Japan during their 96kg men’s Greco-Roman wrestling qualification match at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 14, 2008. REUTERS/Oleg Popov

Photo Coverage - Just a click

2008-08-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

Yamamura of Japan attempts a block during their men's preliminary pool A volleyball match at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 12, 2008. REUTERS/Alexander Demianchuk (CHINA)

Britain's Louisa Reeve and Olivia Whitlam (R) power in the women's pair at the Shunyi Rowing and Canoeing Park during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing on August 12, 2008. The rowing heats and finals will all be staged in mid-afternoon with the temperature topping 30 Celsius, combined with 75 percent humidity. AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOUR (Photo credit should read FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images)

Kobe Bryant #10 of the U.S. Men's Senior National Team dunks against Angola during a men's preliminary basketball game on day 4 of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the Beijing Olympic Basketball gymnasium on August 12, 2008 in Beijing, China. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
Boyan Yordanov (R) of Bulgaria plays a shot as Kota

Stanley, Priddy power Americans past Italy

2008-08-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

BEIJING (TICKER) —Clayton Stanley had 19 kills and William Priddy added 18 to pace the United States men’s volleyball team to a 3-1 triumph over Italy in a Pool A match on Tuesday.

David Lee had five blocks, and Ryan Millar and Stanley had three apiece for the United States, which recorded a 24-26, 25-22, 25-15, 25-21 victory.

“I think today’s match had a lot to do with our serving and Italy’s receiving,” coach Ron Larsen said. “That helped us play a good block and defense. I think we did a pretty good job.”

The Americans were still without head coach Hugh McCutcheon, whose in-laws were attacked over the weekend. Todd Bachman was killed and wife Barbara remains in stable condition after they were attacked by a Chinese man with a knife while visiting the 13th-century Drum Tower in Beijing on Saturday.

The attacker, later identified as Tang Yongming, 47, then committed suicide, throwing himself from the ancient monument.

“Hugh had not been involved in the game planning since what happened,” Larsen said. “He doesn’t have to worry about the game. We have spent four years approaching this game and preparing for it. We would not even ask him to worry about the games.

“He knows his priority - his family, first and foremost.”

Hristo Zlatanov had 16 kills and three blocks for the Italians.

In Group B matches, Russia rallied for a 3-2 (25-27, 25-21, 21-25, 25-23, 16-14) victory over Germany and Poland breezed past Egypt with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 21-10) triumph. Brazil also was victorious, posting a 25-27, 25-20, 25-17, 25-21 win over Serbia.

China rallied for a 3-2 (25-21, 21-25, 16-25, 25-21, 16-14) victory over Venezuela in Pool A. Also in Pool A, Bulgaria defeated Japan, 29-27, 23-25, 25-21, 25-19.

In beach volleyball, Americans Sean Rosenthal and Jacob Gibb won their second straight game with a 21-15, 21-13 triumph over Julius Brink and Christoph Dieckmann of Germany in Group F.

The United States duo looked very impressive with a variety of attacks that kept the German team off-balance.

Rosenthal had 13 successful attacks, while the 6-7 Gibb had 11 and five blocks. The pair converted on 71 percent (24-of-34) of their attacks.

The Chinese men’s beach volleyball duo of Linyin Xu and Penggen Wu rallied to a three-set triumph over Kristjan Kais and Rivo Vesik of Estonia in a Group A match.

The Chinese pair rallied after dropping the first set to post a 15-21, 21-11, 15-13 triumph.

Wu was successful on 24 of 45 attacks and had 23 digs, while Xu had seven blocks for China.

In a Group A match, Clemens Doppler and Peter Gartmayer of Austria recorded a 2-1 (20-22, 21-19, 15-11) victory over Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes of Brazil. Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Raul Mesa were also triumphant in Group A, defeating Florian Gosch and Alexander Horst of Austria in straight sets.

Japan’s Kentaro Asahi and Katsuhiro Shiratori were victorious over Emiel Boersma and Bram Ronnes of the Netherlands in Group F, while Russian duo Igor Kolodinskiy and Dmitry Barsuk defeated Italy’s Eugenio Amore and Riccardo Lione in straight sets in Group D.

Beach Volleyball-Spaniards thunder on

2008-08-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

By Jane Barrett

BEIJING, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Spain’s Pablo Herrera showed the same form that won him a surprise silver in Athens at the Olympic beach volleyball on Tuesday, thundering the ball across the net to beat Austria 2-0 in their group match.

“That was such a fun game,” said Herrera, who changed partners after the last Olympics to team up again with Raul Mesa.

“If we keep playing like that we can really aspire to something,” the 26-year-old said.

The pair, who won the under-21 world championships in 2001 and the European championships in 2005, now face their biggest challenge in more ways than one.

Top-seeded duo Chinese Wu Penggen and Xu “Tiny” Linyin have stormed through their first two matches with 2.02-metre Tiny blocking almost everything that comes his way at the net.

At the other end of the rankings, bottom-seeded Japan put their first win on the board against the Netherlands in a three-set game of daredevil leaps and powerful overarm smashes.

“What we did today is so important for beach volleyball in Japan. Not that many people play there, so hopefully now they’ll see how fun it is,” said Katsuhiro Shiratori.

U.S. second men’s pair Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal also found their rhythm to beat Germany 2-0.

In the women’s draw, U.S. duo Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh lengthened their winning streak to 103 matches by beating Cuba 2-0 and the second-ranked teams from Brazil and China both won comfortably.

The third pool matches start on Wednesday, at which point the first teams will start to be eliminated.

Bulgaria’s captain out on doping suspicion

2008-08-12T09:15:00.001-07:00

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP)—The captain of Bulgaria’s Olympic volleyball team, Plamen Konstantinov, has been temporarily removed over a doping allegation, a sporting official said Tuesday.

Bulgaria’s Volleyball Federation chief Dancho Lazarov told private Darik radio that Konstantinov’s test has showed “illegal substances that were in the upper range of the permissible levels.”

He did not name the banned substance.

“Plamen himself wanted to get retested and that is why he left for Bulgaria. If the new results are negative he may return to Beijing,” Lazarov said.

The chairman of Bulgaria’s National Anti-Doping Commission said Konstantinov had not failed any doping test.

“His blood showed high levels of testosterone and although they were below the maximum admissible levels, the Volleyball Federation decided to take an extra precaution and remove him from the match,” Kamen Plochev told National TV.

“In their panic, the federation made a hasty decision.”

IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said she had no information about any case.

Bulgaria’s captain out on doping suspicion

2008-08-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

India's Bindra wins gold in the Men's 10m Air Rifle

2008-08-11T11:24:00.007-07:00

India's Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the Men's 10m Air Rifle in Beijing on August 11 with an incredible performance in the final. Bindra shot a total score of 700.5.

China's Zhu Qinan, gold medalist at Athens 2004, won the silver medal with a total score of 699.7.

The bronze medal was won by Finland's Henri Hakkinen, who was leading the field after the qualification round, but was unable to hold off Bindra and Zhu in the final. The Finnish shooter shot a total of 699.4.

Hakkinen shot 598 in the qualification round, giving him a one point lead over Zhu. Bindra was one point further back with 596.

Bindra signaled his intentions early in the final, with a 10.7 on his first shot. None of Bindra's shots in the final dropped below 10.0.

Hakkinen's performance in the final was solid, but it needed to be better. He averaged 10.14 per shot in the final, compared to Bindra's 10.45.

Makela-Nummela wins gold in the Women's Trap

2008-08-11T11:24:00.006-07:00

(L-R) Zuzana Stefecekova, Satu Makela-Nummela and Corey Cogdell.
Despite missing four targets in the final, Satu Makela-Nummela of Finland did enough to win a gold medal in the Women's Trap in Beijing on August 11. Makela-Nummela finished with a final score of 91.

Makela-Nummela started strongly in the final to hit her first 11 targets. Her major opponent was Slovakia's Zuzana Stefecekova, who was tied in first place with Makela-Nummela after the qualification round on 70 points and missed three targets in her first 11 shots and fell behind Makela-Nummela in the opening stages of the final.

Though Makela-Nummela missed four of her last 14 targets, Stefecekova missed three targets herself and lost the opportunity to win the gold medal. Stefecekova finally finished with a silver medal after hitting a total of 89 targets.

The other four shooters in the final were tied on 86 hits, so a four-way shoot-off was held. The United States' Corey Cogdell won the bronze medal after being the only shooter to hit the target on her first shot in the shoot-off.

Shooting Day 4 Preview: A swag of stars to grace the shooting range

2008-08-11T11:24:00.005-07:00

Tomorrow's Olympic Shooting competition will see gold medals handed out to the winners of the Men's 50m Pistol and the Men's Double Trap.

Athens 2004 gold medalist Mikhail Nestruev of Russia will be looking for another gold medal in the Men's 50m Pistol, but will need to once again confront the Athens 2004 silver and bronze medalists, Jin Jong-oh of the Republic of Korea and Kim Jong-su of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The field actually has another couple of shooters who have won Olympic gold medals in the event - Sydney 2000 gold medalist Tanyu Kiriakov of Bulgaria and Barcelona 1992 gold medalist Kanstantsin Lukashyk of Belarus.

Possible challengers to the Olympic medalists include Joao Costa of Portugal, Matsuda Tomoyuki of Japan and Lin Zhongzai of China.

The United Arab Emirates' Ahmed Al Maktoum will look to defend the gold medal that he won in Men's Double Trap at Athens 2004. Al Maktoum won his country's first Olympic medal by setting an Olympic record in the qualification round and equaling Russell Mark of Australia's Olympic record for the final.

Al Maktoum's main competition will come from Great Britain's Richard Faulds. Faulds won a gold medal in the event at Sydney 2000 and is currently World No. 1.

Mark will also be competing tomorrow, representing Australia for the fifth time at the Olympic Games. Mark won the gold medal in the event at Atlanta 1996 and a silver medal at Sydney 2000. The experienced campaigner may cause an upset and defeat Al Maktoum and Faulds.

Shooting Day 3 Review: Indian and Finnish surprises rule the day

2008-08-11T11:24:00.004-07:00

India's Abhinav Bindra surprised all by winning the gold medal in the Men's 10m Air Rifle. Bindra shot a total of 700.5 to defeat favorite Zhu Qinan of China and Henri Hakkinen of Finland, who won the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Bindra's gold medal is the first time that an Indian athlete has won an individual Olympic gold medal. India's previous eight gold medals were all won in Hockey.

Athens 2004 gold medalist Zhu will be disappointed at not winning his second Olympic gold medal, but he has a lot more Olympic competition ahead of him -- Zhu is only 23 years old.

At 25, Bindra is not much older than Zhu, so today's event could be the start of a promising rivalry between the shooters from the world's most populous countries.

Bindra, who secured the gold medal with a 10.8 on his last shot, managed to block out the pressure of being India's first individual gold medalist.

"I was trying to concentrate on shooting. I wasn't thinking about making history. I mean I was two points behind at one stage. I was just trying to concentrate. I just wanted to shoot well, I just wanted to shoot aggressively, and that's what I did," said Bindra.

Zhu on the other hand, shot well below his best and was probably affected by the huge expectations placed on him to win gold.

"My desire for getting another gold medal for my motherland was so strong that I was under so much stress before the Games," said Zhu.

Finland's Satu Makela-Nummela won the gold medal in the Women's Trap, making her only the third Finnish woman to win an Olympic gold medal.

To win gold, Makela-Nummela was forced to defeat Slovakia's Zuzana Stefecekova, who is a world recorder in the event.

Makela-Nummela shot a final score of 91, two more than Stefecekova. The United States' Corey Cogdell won the bronze medal after winning a shoot-off.

The gold medal was an open race after the two favorites, San Marino's Daniela Del Din and China's Liu Yingzi failed to make the final.

Tom Daley finishes eighth in synchronised diving

2008-08-11T11:24:00.003-07:00

Synchronised diving: Tom Daley and Blake Aldridge finished eighth overall
Tom Daley's dreams of an Olympic medal in his first ever Games were shattered as China produced an awesome display to claim gold in the mens 10 metre synchronised diving.
Daley, who at 14 is Britain's second youngest ever Olympian, and his partner Blake Aldridge showed no signs of being overawed and produced a respectable display but were outclassed by a field including strong pairs from Russia, America and Germany.

Daley, who has become one of the stars of these Games and woke up to find himself on the front page of the China Daily's Olympic supplement, and Aldridge finished eighth and last in a contest won by China's Yue Lin and Liang Huo.

Although they tired towards the end of the six round final here at the Water Cube, their first three juimps had given them sufficient breathing space.

They were also aided by a major mistake by the Russian pair Gleb Galperin and Dmitry Dobrosok.

In the end the Germans snatched the silver with their last dive leaving the Russians to settle for Bronze.

Daley will return in the individual 10m platform later in these Games and will be better for the experience as he looks ahead to the London Olympics in 2012.

But the British pair, who scored 408.48 points for their six dives, seemingly paid the price for the differences in their physique and height.

Daley said: “We didn’t dive our best, actually this is probably our worst result in a competition.

“Naturally I’d love to do the whole competition over again. But it’s been my dream to go to the Olympics and now I can say after today that I’m an Olympian so I can’t be disappointed.”

“It was really fun, I was excited, I had an awesome time.”

And on being in China, he said: “I have a lot of Chinese women and girls that follow me around a lot. I don’t know why but it’s nice, they’re very nice."

Doubles victory consolation for Andy Murray

2008-08-11T11:24:00.002-07:00

Feeling the heat: Andy Murray made an unexpected early exit in the men's singles in Beijing
Andy Murray won through to the second round of the Olympic men's doubles tournament with his brother Jamie after crushing disappointment earlier in the singles.

Murray, the world number six, crashed out of the singles at the first hurdle as he lost his opening match 7-6, 6-4 to the unheralded Lu Yen-Hsu of Taipei, in 2 hours 10 minutes.

It was a contest which Murray should never have been troubled in, against an opponent ranked only 77th in the world, who prepared for playing in Beijing by competing on the lower tier challenger tour.

In contrast, Murray’s last match was the final of the ATP Masters Series event in Cincinnati against Novak Djokovic eight days earlier, which gave him his biggest tournament success to date and lifted him to a career-high ranking.

But, on his Olympic debut, the British number one never appeared entirely happy with an opponent playing well above expectations and supported vociferously by the Chinese spectators gathered around Court Number One at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre.

Having begun unspectacularly but reasonably comfortably, Murray allowed himself to be upset at a key moment of the first set by a close line call which went uncorrected as the Hawk-Eye system failed to function.

It meant he had double-faulted at set point down in the tie-break, which he lost 7-5. And, though he had further chances come his way in the second set, Murray was again unable to take advantage.

Playing in cool, overcast, early evening conditions, the Briton could not complain about the weather, though his arrival from Cincinnati only last Thursday left him less time to acclimatise to Beijing than most of the other players.

He performed knee stretches repeatedly and moved poorly around the court, while giving the impression of being irritated even by his Team GB shirt, which he kept pulling at to loosen time and again.

Lu admitted that he did not think beforehand that he had any hope of beating Murray, treating the match as just a good opportunity for a high-quality practice session, but he was surprised how tired the Scot looked.

Things looked like going from bad to worse as Murray, together with brother Jamie, dropped the opening set to Canada's Daniel Nestor and Frederic Niemeyer in the doubles event.

But three consecutive breaks of the Niemeyer serve proved enough to take the second set 6-3 and swung the momentum of the match for the start of the decider.

When the Murrays broke Nestor in the fourth game of the deciding set they looked on their way to an extended stay in the Chinese capital after all, only for Jamie to fail to serve out for the match and drag the set back to 5-4.

But the Britons were not to be denied, finally fashioning their somewhat tortuous victory when they broke Niemeyer again as the clock reached midnight Chinese time, for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.

Olympics 2008 (BBC1 & BBC2)

2008-08-11T11:24:00.001-07:00

By Michael Deacon

Such a colossal challenge demands deep reserves of strength, stamina and willpower. Physically and mentally you’ll be pushed to the limits of endurance. You’ll flag. You’ll curse. At times you’ll feel like giving up. But something in your psyche pushes you to struggle on to the finish.

Yes, watching an entire day of the BBC’s Olympics coverage is tough. I slogged my way through Saturday, the first day of competition, from 6.00am (the start of BBC1’s Olympic Breakfast) to 4.30pm (when Final Score blessedly took over). After a few hours I started to envy the athletes. They may have been busting their guts in punishing heat and noxious smog, but at least they couldn’t hear the commentary.

The BBC team warmed up with their finest impressions of Alan Partridge. Rob Walker, reporter for the sailing events, was interviewing the British women’s Yngling trio, all of whom were blonde. “You’re changing the perception of sailing – because you’re young, fun, and also pretty sexy!” he gurgled. “I’d like to go out with those three blondes,” sighed Adrian Chiles in the studio. “In the nicest possible way – just out for a sail.”

Great Britain’s competitors were having an erratic first day, but our commentators were going strong in a number of events. There was early success in the Mixed Metaphor: “Hang on to the coat-tails of the Romanian boat and that could give you a good springboard,” said Garry Herbert during the women’s coxless pairs. There was a fine effort in the Bizarre Neologism, when Jacqui Oatley described the captain of the North Korean women’s football team as its “taliswoman”. And there was glory in the Irresistible If Not Strictly Apposite Pun: “Checkmate to the Czech Republic!” yelped an unnamed commentator, during the women’s 10m air rifle.

But the field in which the BBC’s plucky correspondents excelled was the Repeated Cliché. This year’s most common commonplace, employed time and again in expert analysis and interviews, appears to be “under your belt”. Medals, races, experience – according to the BBC team, you can cram just about anything under there. Let’s just hope that our athletes don’t find their movement restricted by their belts, or the accumulation of objects, events and abstractions they’ve got under them.

The first day’s most intense BBC competition, though, concerned the name of one of Great Britain’s representatives in the men’s double scull, Stephen Rowbotham. Commentator Garry Herbert kept giving his surname the long “o” you get in Ian Botham, whereas presenter Sue Barker, speaking later, doggedly insisted on the short “o” you get in “broth”. The writer of BBC1’s on-screen captions tried a compromise by identifying him as Steve Rowbottom. Perhaps the next time someone interviews him they could resist asking what he’s got under his belt and instead ask him what his name is.

Surrendering hope of hearing an answer, I reached for the red button. There were six sports on offer, but the trouble is, once you’ve watched five minutes of one sport, you start to worry that you’re missing some more exciting action elsewhere. So you end up flicking between them at neurotic speed – thus missing all the excitement at once.

The best bet was to stick with the men’s swimming, specifically to gape at America’s star competitor Michael Phelps. In Athens in 2004 he won six golds. This time he’s aiming for eight. According to BBC pundit Sharron Davies, the chief factor in Phelps’s success is his physique: very long body, very short legs. Apparently this is the ideal combination for a swimmer.

If it’s true, Phelps will be unstoppable, as he is essentially a torso with feet. The footage of him taken from beneath by the underwater camera gave us the most mesmerising, and the most unsettling, sight of the Games so far. He wriggled though the pool like a gigantic eel.

It was an exhausting first day. But things only got harder for the BBC yesterday morning, when torrential rain caused the ceiling of its Beijing studio to leak, leaving the floor drenched and presenter Hazel Irvine surrounded by buckets. At one point I swear I caught a glimpse of Phelps swimming past her sofa. But everyone forgot the downpour when cyclist Nicole Cooke streaked through the sodden streets to win the women’s road race. Commentator Hugh Porter shouted himself into such a frenzy you’d have thought he’d won it himself. “Waaaargh!” he bellowed, “Cooke takes it!”

Great Britain’s first gold of the Games. Good to get it under our belts.

Michael Phelps makes a golden start as records tumble - Beijing Olympics 2008

2008-08-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

Magnificent, outstanding and unbelievable are just a few of the words that describe Michael Phelps’ performance in the opening final of the swimming events here in Beijing.

He did not just lower his own world mark for the 400m medley - he shattered it.

His time of 4min 03.84sec was 1.41sec inside the figures he established at the US trials last month. His challengers lived with him for nearly three quarters of the race then faded on the final freestyle where his narrow lead of one second over team mate Ryan Lochte stretched and stretched until it finally snapped and away he went to finish 2.32 ahead.

Even a flag-waving American President George Bush could not inspire a one-two by his country men as Lochte faded and had to settle for bronze when he was passed by the European champion and record holder Laszio Cseh of Hungary, whose time of 4min 06;16sec was a personal best.

Lochte praised Phelps’ performance saying: “He had a great race all the way and I’m proud of him.”

Phelps, normally laid back and cool, could not hid his delight with his time and had a broad grin on his face as he looked at the scoreboard at the end of his race. On the rostrum there was a hint of emotion but the grin was soon back when his country's national anthem was suddenly cut short.

Phelps claims, “I told Bob (Bowman his coach) that this would be my last 400m medley, so I’ve got to go out there and get a good time. And this was a good time.”

His aim was a 4min 3sec swim but he didn’t feel good claiming that in the call room he “got like these cold chills.” But did admit, “I’m emotional, excited. It’s a really good way to start.” One down, seven to go.

A second world record came in the women’s 400m medley where the first two were inside the previous mark. Stephanie Rice the former world record holder from Australia, and Kirsty Coventry the reigning Olympic 200m backstroke champion were chasing the top spot.

Rice led at the end of the butterfly, Coventry at the half way stage. But from then on it was Rice although the gap was never more than a quarter of a second. She made her move on the first length of the freestyle and was almost a second up at the final turn. Coventry came back hard just failing to catch her rival. Rice’s time of 4min 29.45 was 0.44sec ahead and 1.67sec inside the previous world best held by Katie Hoff of the US who had to settle for bronze.

Hannah Miley finished in sixth spot but the experience the nineteen year old gained should be invaluable for the future.

History was made when Taehwan Park the world champion gave South Korea her first Olympic swimming gold medal when winning the 400m freestyle in 3min 41.86sec.

The eighteen year old produced a personal best of 3min 41.86 sec 0.58 ahead of a fast finishing Lin Zhang who won China’s first swimming medal of the games.

The British girls quartet ended the first session of finals with a British record of 3min 38:18sec slicing one second of the figures they established last night. Fran Halsall got the team off to a good start with a British mark dipping under the 54sec for the first time. Her split of 53:81. shaved 0.46sec off the time she recorded in Rome six weeks ago. She was followed by Caithlin McClatchey (54:48), Jessica Sylvester (55:34) and Mel Marshall (54;45.). The gold went to the flying Dutch squad who set a games record of 3min 33;76sec.

Jemma Lowe was disappointed with he heat swim which gave her sixteenth and final place into the semi-finals of the 100m butterfly after which she said, “I’ve been 57 so I can do it.”

But this morning the nerves were gone and she did just that equalling her British record of 57.78 to move forward to the final .

Alexander Dale Olen of Norway established a games record of 59.16sec just 0.03 outside the world record, to qualify in pole position for the 100m breaststroke. Britain’s Chris Cook finished seventh in his heat with a time of 1min 00.81, placing him fifteenth.

2008-08-10T00:04:00.000-07:00

Germany's Patrick Femerling (R) goes for a lay up against Angola's Sven Schultze during the men's preliminary basketball match at the Olympic basketball gymnasium of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 10, 2008. AFP PHOTO/GABRIEL BOUYS (Photo credit should read GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

US swimmer Christine Magnuson reacts after the women's 100m butterfly swimming semi-final at the National Aquatics Center during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 10, 2008 in Beijing. AFP PHOTO / GREG WOOD (Photo credit should read GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images)

China's Shanshan Li (C) looks on as her teammate Yuyuan Jiang stretches during the women's qualification of the artistic gymnastics event of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on August 10, 2008. AFP PHOTO / FRANCK FIFE (Photo credit should read FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images)

Greek sprinter barred from Olympics

2008-08-10T00:02:00.000-07:00

BEIJING (AP)—Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou was barred from the Beijing Olympics on Sunday for her role in a drug-testing scandal at the Athens Games four years ago.

The International Olympic Committee’s executive board made the decision after its disciplinary panel investigated Thanou’s selection for the 100 meters for the Greek team, IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said.

Thanou still has the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The women’s 100-meter heats are Aug. 16.

“What happens next with regards to CAS, that’s speculative,” Davies said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

Thanou and fellow Greek sprinter Kostas Kenteris missed doping tests on the eve of the 2004 opening ceremony, contending they were injured in a motorcycle accident.

The pair eventually withdrew from the games and returned their Olympic accreditations. The IOC did not sanction them at the time but they were later suspended for two years by track and field’s ruling body.

Thanou returned to competition in 2007 and was selected in the Greek team.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said earlier the committee had reserved the right in Athens to open disciplinary procedures against Thanou and Kenteris if they sought accreditation for future games.

A three-man panel started meeting Thursday to consider the case and made its recommendations to the executive board on Sunday morning.

Davies said the executive board accepted the findings that Thanou was ineligible to compete at the Beijing Games under rule 23.2.1 of the Olympic charter.

She said the board took an independent decision, “to send a firm message” to bar Thanou for bringing the Olympic movement into disrepute.

“There is a whole string—a list of events—that took place over the course of this sorry tale,” Davies said. “This string of events really resulted in what the IOC sees as a scandalous saga that overshadowed the Athens Games and brought the IOC, the Olympic movement as a whole, into disrepute. Based on this, the board made its recommendation that she should be ineligible.”

The IOC can bar athletes from the Olympics if they are considered guilty of improper conduct or bringing the games into disrepute.

The hearing into Thanou’s eligibility is not connected to her claim to the 100-meter gold medal won by Marion Jones at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Thanou finished second in that race. Jones was stripped of all five of her Sydney medals after admitting this year that she was doping at the time.

The IOC has not made a decision on the reallocation of Jones’ medals.

Archery-Near perfect Park leads S.Korea to world record

2008-08-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

By Peter Rutherford

BEIJING, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Athens Olympic champion Park Sung-hyun came within a whisker of perfection on Sunday.

The South Korean missed the 10-point mark only once, with a nine, to guide South Korea to a world record and victory over Italy in the women’s Olympic team archery quarter-finals.

Park, Yun Ok-hee and Joo Hyun-jung shot 231 out of a possible 240, breaking the previous record of 228 they set two years ago. Park looked at her feet when she missed the 10, but denied she was disappointed.

“I looked unhappy but I was just trying to maintain my composure,” she said. “We are happy to break the world record but what matters most is to get the gold medal this afternoon.” (Editing by Alex Richardson)

2008 Summer Olympics: Standing guard during the opening ceremonies

2008-08-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

This photo, taken by Hans Deryk of Reuters, shows a Chinese police officer standing guard outside the National Aquatics Center during the opening ceremony today at Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing.

USA TODAY has a gallery of photos taken during the opening ceremony. Watch this "sights and sounds" gallery for more photographs from China.

Housekeeping: We're adding some special features to On Deadline for the 2008 Summer Games, including regular postings on pollution and other non-athletic aspects of the games in China. As part of this effort, we plan to publish an extra "today's photo" posting based on the competition and related activities.

Ni Hao from Beijing - Introducing Daily Olympics 2008 Your daily ticket to the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games http://dailyolympics2008.com

2008-08-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK, Aug 08, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Games, a spectacle that promises to be unrivaled in Olympic history, gets underway today, 8/8/08.

With a projected worldwide audience of 4 Billion viewers, the Beijing Olympics will begin to the cadence delivered by a fleet of drummers whose instruments are called "fo".

Prepare to be astonished. By any standard, the Opening Ceremony in Beijing will surpass any start to any Games in history. The most expensive opening ever was four years ago in Athens, when the Greeks spent a reported $30 million on their torch-lighting rite. The Chinese have surpassed them by a factor of 10. With an estimated $300 million budget, a seemingly never-ending cast of 15,000, and a fireworks display that's rumored to be the biggest in history, the Bird's Nest, home to the opening ceremonies, will redefine Olympic spectacle.

Viewers will be busy over the next two weeks watching their favorite events and tracking medal counts. NBC is delivering 3600 hours of event programming, including live streaming and video online.

Ni Hao from Beijing, Daily Olympics 2008 is bringing all the action from Beijing straight to your email inbox. Our Daily reports provide complete coverage of all the Events. Follow Michael Phelps on his splash into the record books. See if LeBron James and Kobe Bryant can bring back a Gold Medal from Yao Ming's home turf. Find out if the world can catch Tyson Gay.

From Swimming to Track and Field to Gymnastics, Daily Olympics 2008 gives you a behind the scenes view to the Beijing games, direct and free from the Chinese Government censors.

Daily Olympics 2008 features the games top stories, delivers the big picture and provides a programming guide for each day of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. With our insight, you will be on top of the games.

Daily Olympics 2008, the newest property of The Community Publishers, a network of web-based communities providing uniquely voiced content covering a wide spectrum of popular topics. To view some other TCP properties visit www.thecommunitypublishers.com.

Stay tuned ...

About The Community Publishers

The Community Publishers is a network of Web communities providing uniquely voiced content covering a wide spectrum of popular topics. From social activism and breaking news, to finance and entertainment, The Community Publishers represents the premier source for what's new and how-to penned by thought-leading editors and journalists from across the U.S. Each issue is delivered directly to the email inboxes of millions of like-minded, purchase-empowered U.S. adults.

Cheers, tears and empty streets as Olympics begin

2008-08-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

BEIJING - Arise, arise, begins the Chinese national anthem and millions of Chinese rose on Friday to celebrate their country and the Olympic Games.

But they weren't rising in the streets of Beijing. What is usually a bustling, jeering, noisy spectacle of a city simply came to a stop. Police, soldiers and security guards stood paces apart, scanning non-existent crowds and keeping hard watch on empty buildings.

Directions given by the official Olympic information service to a public party yielded only an empty park, the twinkling lights of Olympic mascot statues the only sign of celebration.

"People are just staying home," cab drivers suggested.

Nothing may have been planned for the streets of Beijing to avoid security risks, or perhaps the private celebrations just reflected the fact that large public gatherings in China aren't tolerated for fear of authorities losing control.

Access to Tiananmen Square - where they did once lose control in 1989 to disastrous results - was tightly restricted earlier Friday and large groups ringing the area hoping to watch the fireworks of the opening show were moved along by police.

The biggest group to be found was at an official party sponsored by Coca-Cola, at a space in a posh shopping mall known as "The Place."

While the opening ceremonies may have showcased much of Chinese traditional history, it was here the new China was fully on display.

Women stood clutching massive designer purses, while men matched Western high fashion shirts with Chinese traditional slippers.

A teenager videotaped the proceedings on a cellphone and many oohed-and-aahed over what was reportedly the world's largest television screen zooming overhead.

"This is opening the world's eyes to China," one man, who declined to give his name, said of the Olympics coming to Beijing.

He made the trip with his eight-year-old daughter to Beijing from Guangzhao, a major city in south China, to reward her for performing well on her exams.

"It is also to open her eyes to the world," he said.

For Chinese dissidents who have dared to challenge the Communist Party's monopoly on power, the start of the Olympics meant tighter surveillance and restrictions.

"It's not my Olympic Games," said Jiang Tianyong, a human rights lawyer. "It's not the Games for the ordinary people."

By all indications, however, most Chinese have embraced the Games, buying up tickets at a record pace, volunteering by the thousands for Olympic duties, nursing expectations of triumphs by their home team.

At the main press centre on the Olympic grounds, volunteer's chants of "Go China" echoed through the building. Some wiped away tears while others filmed each other watching the ceremonies on television.

At the party downtown, Si Jeung Tang, 49, sang every word of the national anthem, a massive smile on her face.

"Things have changed here since the Olympics have come," she said.

"People have learned to be more polite and that helps to improve the image to the rest of the world."

It was time for the Olympics to come to China, said Ghau Yu Yan, 24, who clutched a Chinese flag and wore a sticker on his cheek.

"The changes are also good for Beijing because it needed to be more open to the world," he said.

"We become part of the world and we can advance together."

(Canadian Press reporter Willis Fong provided translation for the interviews. With files from The Associated Press.)

Iraqis excited about Olympics, regret small team

2008-08-08T11:11:00.001-07:00

BAGHDAD (AP)—Iraqis powered their generators and gathered with friends Friday as excitement grew over the Olympics. But many were disappointed that their national team was represented by only four athletes after a dispute with the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC suspended the Iraqi team in May over alleged government interference in Iraq’s national committee.

The decision was reversed last month, allowing four—two rowers and two track and field athletes—of the original seven qualified athletes to compete. The three others missed deadlines for their sports because of the dispute.

“We are happy to share with the world in these joyful moments. But I am sad to see the big teams of many countries, while our country is left behind with one of the smallest teams in the Olympics,” said Saif Osama, a 22-year-old Christian college student in Baghdad.

Omar Ali, a 35-year-old teacher from the Sunni district of Azamiyah, also expressed regret that Iraq wasn’t better represented in the Beijing Games.

“We had hoped that our country will participate with a large team in order to get good results in the games. Our interest in the Olympics would have been greater,” he said. “Anyhow, I will try not to miss the events they are in.”

Many Iraqis said the games would provide a much-needed respite from security concerns and other problems that persist despite a steep decline in violence after more than five years of warfare.

“We have waiting eagerly for this world event. In Iraq, we are in desperate need for such issues in order to entertain ourselves and forget the miseries,” said Ahmed Khadum, a 21-year-old college student in the mainly Shiite neighborhood of Baladiyat.

He and five friends planned to watch the games every night and had collected enough money to run a generator throughout the competition to avoid the frequent power outages that plague Baghdad.

Many Iraqis said they would watch events with friends on TVs set up in cafes — a tradition that had been sharply curtailed during past sporting events because of fears of bombings.

Olympics fan Alaa Abbas, a 32-year-old student from Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, said he and his friends planned to gather in a cafe and stay up late to watch the competition.

“We are eager to watch the games,” Abbas said.

Akram Kamil, a 31-year-old engineer in the capital, however, said he feared the security situation was still too fragile so he planned to watch the games at home “rather than risking a trip to the cafe.”

Ali Muhsin, a 32-year-old education ministry employee, said he was hopeful the Iraqi athletes would perform well.

“I am happy that our athletes are participating in the Olympic games. I pray to God that our countrymen will win medals in their events,” he said.

From euphoria to harsh reality after ceremony

2008-08-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

BEIJING, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Euphoric spectators at the Olympics’ opening ceremony returned to the harsh reality of Beijing’s transport to get home, elbowing for a taxi or a spot on packed underground trains.

After the four-hour extravaganza ended at about midnight on Friday, tens of thousands strained the Chinese capital’s ability to move so many people in such a short time.

Making matters worse, taxis were in short supply in the immediate area around the Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium because Beijing officials had blocked off many of the surrounding streets as part of strict security measures. “We thought about taking a taxi but there aren’t any around here,” said Patricia Cooney, a visitor from Ireland. “We think we’ll try the subway instead,” she added, examining a map.

Escaping the area by underground train was not much easier.

Three new cavernous underground stations serve the main Olympic area, but entrances are poorly marked and even many Games’ volunteers were uncertain how to give directions to the nearest one.

Earlier in the day, the underground stations nearly burst at the seams as people with and without tickets to the opening ceremony surged towards the Bird’s Nest stadium.

Officials trying to control the crowds barked out instructions on megaphones, but local and foreign visitors paid little heed as they poured off escalators from the underground.

“I’m from Washington D.C. and he’s from New York City, so we’re used to crowds on the subway, but this is like the worst rush hour,” said Katie Konkel, breaking away from the throng with her friend Matt Pareti.

World media hails Beijing’s perfect night

2008-08-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

BEIJING, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Beijing’s Olympic opening extravaganza drew rave reviews on Friday from media around the world awed by rich displays of Chinese culture that eclipsed controversy that has surrounded the city’s hosting of the Games.

“An eight became a perfect 10 in Beijing tonight”, the website of the Sydney Morning Herald declared. With eight the luckiest number according to Chinese, it was no coincidence the Games started on Aug. 8 at exactly 8 p.m.

“The world may never witness a ceremony of the magnitude and ingenuity as that which opens the 2008 Olympics,” it said.

A spectacle of sight and sound, the ceremony featured colourful dances, tightly choreographed drumming and barrages of fireworks up and down city streets.

London’s widely read Evening Standard ran the headline: “China Magic”, and said the “most ambitious Olympics in history opens with most spectacular show”.

“For China, before a TV audience of 4 billion, this was the luckiest moment in a thousand years. It is, too, the start of something even bigger than an Olympic Games. It is, or at least is meant to be, the beginning of China’s new era of greatness, witnessed and implicitly approved, by much of the leadership of the planet,” wrote Andrew Gilligan from Beijing.

“Marvellous. Too marvellous,” gushed Italy’s Leonardo Coen on the website of the Rome-based daily La Repubblica (www.repubblica.it).

For some, the show drew attention to China’s strengths and the Olympic sports after a politically charged run-up to the Games that saw protests and accounts of human rights abuses grabbed headlines.

“‘Friends who come from far, how happy we are to have you here,’ was the message of greeting to the world, even the part of the world China has had harsh criticism from,” wrote Elio Girompini, a correspondent with Italy’s top daily Corriere della Sera (www.corriere.it).

“And in a stroke it made the latest polemics about Bush’s words on human rights slide away.”

German state broadcaster ARD said the Chinese organising committee had been trying to produce compelling pictures for television viewers.

“Because in the run-up it was often not the great sporting event that dominated the news flow but the political situation in the host nation,” ARD wrote on its website (www.ard.de).

Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said the ceremony celebrated “not the economic giant growing to threatening size but a nation with an ancient culture, fascinating sounds and traditional pictures.

“Not the shocking severity of the dictatorship but what a strictly organised country can achieve if it puts in infinite effort,” it said on the website www.faz.de.

To the Los Angeles Times, the show, directed by Chinese film maker Zhang Yimou, was not a welcoming ceremony for a resurgent China rejoining the world stage.

Rather, it was “about China for at least the next 17 days becoming the world stage. The Chinese, accustomed to humiliation, real and perceived, by foreigners for centuries, are secure enough these days that they were willing, even eager, to share the spotlight.” (Additional reporting by Paul Virgo in Rome, Robert Woodward in Beijing, Katherine Baldwin in London, Iain Rogers in Berlin; Editing by Jeremy Laurence) (For more Olympic stories visit our multimedia website “Road to Beijing” at http://www.reuters.com/news/sports/2008olympics; and see our blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/china)

Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics Gymnastics Schedule Released

2008-08-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) released the artistic gymnastics schedule for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

The U.S. will be without its best gymnast Paul Hamm, as well as his brother Morgan, adding doubt to their hope of winning a gold medal. The U.S. team won the bronze in the team final during the 2004 Olympics as Japan won the gold. Hamm won the gold in the all-around final.

In similar news, Carly Patterson, who won the gold in the women's all-around final, will not compete with the U.S. team in the 2008 Olympics. The team will rely on Shawn Johnson, who won three gold medals in the 2007 World Championships.

China won the men's gold medal in the 2007 World Championships, led by Yang Wei, who many consider to be the world's best gymnast. Japan won silver.

Pang Panpan and Feng Chei (China), Beth Twiddle (UK), and Vanessa Ferrari (Italy) are amongst the world's best gymnasts who will compete for the gold medal in the women's competition. Yang Wei and Marian Dragulescu (Romania) will lead the men's category.

The soccer schedule for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing is located below:

Artistic Gymnastics Schedule:

Aug 11 10:00 PM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Men's Team - Men's Team final

Aug 12 10:30 PM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Women's Team - Women's Team final

Aug 13 11:00 PM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Men's Individual All-Around - Men's All-Around final

Aug 14 11:15 PM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Women's Individual All-Around - Women's All-Around final

Aug 17 6:00 AM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Men's Floor Exercise - Men's Floor exercise final

Aug 17 6:43 AM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Women's Vault - Women's Vault final

Aug 17 7:29 AM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Men's Pommel Horse - Men's Pommel horse final

Aug 17 8:15 AM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Women's Floor Exercise - Women's Floor exercise final

Aug 18 6:00 AM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Men's Rings - Men's Rings final

Aug 18 6:43 AM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Women's Uneven Bars - Women's Uneven bars final

Aug 18 7:29 AM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Men's Vault - Men's Vault final

Aug 19 6:00 AM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Men's Parallel Bars - Men's Parallel Bars Final

Aug 19 6:43 AM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Women's Balance Beam - Women's Beam final

Aug 19 7:29 AM ET
Artistic Gymnastics - Men's Horizontal Bar - Men's Horizontal bar final

Olympics 2008 in 3D on Google Earth

2008-08-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

Google announced several services for the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing including detailed 3D models of the Olympic venues in China.
Google also recently updated satellite imagery in Beijing and have added detailed bilingual maps in China.

A special Google map shows the medals won for each country. To access all Google Olympics services you can visit the Google 2008 Summer Games page.

Below is a video of the 3D models of the cool Beijing Olympics venues.

Olympics opening ceremony underway

2008-08-08T10:04:00.000-07:00

A woman in traditional Chinese dress performs during a dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics at the National Stadium, called the Bird's Nest, in Beijing on August 5, 2008. The Summer Games begin with the Opening Ceremony on August 8, 2008, and will run through August 24, 2008. (UPI Photo/Pat Benic)

The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics officially took flight from the "Bird's Nest" Friday, with the Games' opening ceremonies kicking off at 8 p.m. local time.

Beijing's National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, was the scene of a formation of 2,008 young men playing fou, an ancient Chinese percussion instrument, to signal the beginning of the elaborate opening ceremonies, Xinhua, the state-run Chinese news agency, reported.

The formation of Fou beaters began the ceremonies with a chant of the Confucian saying, "How happy we are, to meet friends from afar!"

Chinese President Hu Jintao and International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge rose from their seats to wave to a cheering crowd of 91,000 in the packed stadium.

As sparkles fell into the stadium, a huge screen lit up showing the Olympic five rings, which were lifted in the air in a striking special effect, Xinhua reported.

29th Summer Olympics to open in Beijing

2008-08-08T10:01:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony will be held at the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest. The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. with a spectacular 90-minute show and fireworks, entrance of athletes from 205 competing nations. The show will be broadcast by almost all national TV stations.

More than 80 heads of state are expected to attend the opening ceremony, including the US President George Bush, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and French President Nicholas Sarkozy.

The Games will be declared open once the Olympic flame is lit at the Bird's Nest stadium.

The 2008 Olympics are marked with record high number of national teams and record high number of women athletes.

An Olympics of hope for earthquake victims

2008-08-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

DU JIANG YAN, China – There was a mother who lost her daughter. There was a daughter who lost her mother.

There was profound sadness in every direction, any and every bit of tragedy; yet gathered in the crowd in front of a couple televisions here at a sprawling refugee camp was the one thing the earthquake couldn’t shake … hope.

For themselves. For their city. For their China.

The run-up to the Olympic Opening Ceremony was being shown, and here, where the games should matter the least, where a massive May earthquake had caused everyone to lose something – family, friends, homes, jobs – it somehow meant so much.

Misery is measured on a sliding scale at one of the humble camps for the survivors of a disaster that killed 70,000 and devastated this region of Southwest China.

No matter the loss, no matter the hardship ahead, no matter the flattened villages in the mountains just above here, where the abandoned rubble still rumbles, for many the future is all that matters.

“Not only did members of my family die, but members of everyone’s family died,” 75-year-old Mo Wanshan said through a translator Friday. “This disaster was so big, we have no choice; we have to think in a positive way.”

The Opening Ceremony of these games, these beloved Chinese Games, was held almost 1,000 miles away in Beijing. There were fireworks and dancing dragons, and here, where you’d think something so trivial couldn’t possibly help, it produced a festive mood of anticipation.

It couldn’t raise the dead or repair the buildings or calm the shock or erase the nightmares. Nothing can. Nothing ever can.

Yet amid this outsized tragedy, the power of the idea these games represent couldn’t be understated.

“The earthquake hit and people died,” said Lin Hong Lun. “But we will not give up. We are very proud of this place; of all of China.”

So hundreds jammed around those two big-screen televisions to watch the ceremony like it was a moment of renewal. Others would find friends with a TV hook-up. Some would return to their old apartments, which aren’t fit for living but where electricity still flowed. Or maybe they’d gather around storefronts, standing in debris-filled streets.

Huang Hongying sleeps on a dirt floor, in a government-issued tent with two homemade beds, her son and a puppy. She has virtually nothing.

“I couldn’t miss it,” she said.

To convey the pride the Chinese people have in these games, look not to the pomp and circumstance broadcast from Beijing, but to this ruined region that watched every flicker of it.

It’s not just that their homeland has made so much progress that the Olympics could even be held here. It’s that it represents what is possible for the nation’s future if everyone continues to work, even with the heaviest of hearts.

“It was very hard to get the Olympics in Beijing,” Mo Wanshan said. “I feel the dreams come true.”

China is booming and it has not just enriched the people but emboldened them. There is a confidence now, they say, even among the elderly.

Mo is one of five people living in a 20-square-foot room without running water. Yet he smiles relentlessly.

“It’s better than the tent,” he said.

Huang Hongying is in the tent, but is thankful. Her in-laws have running water, so she can clean and cook there.

“I’ve been through life without water,” she said. “Three days without drinking water. Half a month without a bath.”

There is, of course, no way to replace the loved ones, especially the parents who cruelly lost the only child the government once limited them to having.

Yet some say there has to be a time to press forward if you can. And it is the individual who must do it.

It was part of a powerful message of individualism that was repeated all over town Friday. It is as telling as any about these changing times in China, where the government once did all.

They would not just rebuild their city and their lives bigger and better, they would do it on their own as soon as possible and not wait for the government to make it happen. They won’t just accept their plight as, perhaps, generations past may have.

“We have to help ourselves,” said Yuan Shiming, who reopened his small convenience store and is doing what he can to keep it running. “The government sends me 300 yuan (about $43 U.S.) every month. But that isn’t enough. So I have to run the business.”

“We cannot just wait for the government alone, this is about us,” Lin Hong Yun said from the camp.

As she spoke, her 4-year-old daughter, Mo Nica, danced to music playing from her mother’s cell phone. For weeks in the tent city it was the only entertainment that kept the energetic child occupied.

On Friday, Nica wouldn’t need the phone. She’d stay up late to dance to the songs from the television, the ones way up in Beijing, the ones about hope and history and a fresh new day for an old, old country.

Back here in the quake zone, it was joy enough that after all the misery, a mother still danced with her daughter and a daughter danced with her mother.

Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics Kick Off

2008-08-08T09:57:00.001-07:00

BEIJING - With fireworks and fanfare, the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games began in the so-called "Bird's Nest" National Stadium in Beijing earlier today with over 91,000 spectators and millions more worldwide watching it on television later this evening.

Although the information could not be found on NBC's Olympic games website, according to USAToday, the opening ceremonies will be broadcast in their entirety here in the United States from 8pm until midnight on NBC. The local NBC affiliate in the Raleigh area is NBC17. According to CNN, the broadcast of the opening ceremonies will most likely be the most watched single television event in history.

The opening ceremonies in Beijing featured music, fireworks, impressive displays of light, dancing, tributes to China's accomplishments and history, and of course, the parade of the Olympic athletes into the stadium. At this time, the opening ceremonies are still underway and the traditional end to the ceremonies, the lighting of the Olympic cauldron to start the Olympic games, had not yet been done. There is still an air of mystery over who will light the cauldron and there is speculation that it will be a survivor of the recent earthquake that devasted parts of China.

According to Xinhua, the national press agency for China, the event began with 2,008 young men playing 2,008 fou musical instruments with LED's, to "flash out" the last seconds of the seven-year countdown to the start of the Olympics.

The opening ceremony also included a successive progression of 29 large fireworks in the shape of footsteps representing past Olympic games from the ancient city gate of Yongdingmen in the southern part of the city to the Bird's Nest stadium in the northern part, said Xinhua.

Xinhua says that five giant Olympic rings made up of shining LED lights were "embraced by "flying fairies" in shining costumes...[and were] lifted in the air before the unbelieving eyes of some 91,000 spectators."

Also present during the ceremony were tributes to China's history including musicial references to Confucius, a tribute to China's invention of movable type, fireworks, China's space program, and more.

Representatives of China's 56 different ethnic groups helped carry in the Chinese national flag as many in the crowd sang the Chinese national anthem.

Over 10,000 athletes from 205 different countries and regions marched into the unique "Bird's Nest" stadium, which included in the audience such dignitaries as Chinese President Hu Jintao, President of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge, and President George W. Bush.

Some sports in the Olympic games have already started including women's soccer, but most of the games start in earnest today and will continue over the next 17 days. NBC will be broadcasting coverage of the games across its networks 24 hours a day and will also feature coverage on its website. See links below for TV listings, more pictures, and news links.

ON THE WEB:

::OFFICIAL SITE: Beijing 2008 Olympics
::OPENING CEREMONIES: 11 PAGES OF PHOTOS: Xinhua
::OPENING CEREMONIES: PHOTOS: Beijing 2008 Olympics Site
::OPENING CEREMONIES: LIVE: Beijing 2008 Olympics Site
::NBC TV OLYMPIC LISTINGS: USAToday
::NBC OLYMPICS VIDEO, NEWS: NBC
::NC OLMPIANS IN THE GAMES: Charlotte Observer

Beijing Olympic Games opens

2008-08-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

Photo taken on Aug. 8, 2008 shows the fireworks of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games held in the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, in north Beijing, China.(Xinhua/Li Ga)

Spectators watch performance at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in the National Stadium in Beijing, capital of China on Aug. 8, 2008. The 29th summer Olympic Games opened at 20:00 Beijing time here Friday. (Xinhua/Guo Dayue)

Photo taken on Aug. 8, 2008 shows the fireworks of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games held in the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, in north Beijing, China. (Xinhua/Chen Kai)

Olympic Photo Coverage

2008-08-08T08:25:00.000-07:00

The Olympic flame is lit by Li Ning, former Olympic gymnast for China, during the Opening Ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics at the National Stadium on August 8, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

The Olympic flame is seen during the Opening Ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics at the National Stadium on August 8, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

(CHINA OUT) USA supporters celebrate the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic games on Wanggujing Avenue August 8, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Summer Olympics countdown in Beijing

2008-08-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

Laps

Swimmers practice in the warm-up pool at the National Aquatics Center as training continues for Saturday's start of competition.

The big stretch:

Jakob Schioett Andkjaer (top) and Mads Glaesner, both of Denmark, stretch on the pool deck at the National Aquatics Center during training in advance of the opening of competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

Forbidden City:

Dancers in the Forbidden City get ready for the Olympic Torch Relay to start its trip through Beijing, two days ahead of the start of the Summer Games.

Bush arrives in Beijing for Summer Olympics

2008-08-07T12:45:00.000-07:00

BEIJING (AP) - President Bush is in China, setting the stage for him to become the first U.S. president to attend Olympic Games on foreign soil.

The president, first lady Laura Bush and their daughter Barbara arrived in Beijing on the final stop of a three-country tour of Asia. They received a red-carpet greeting from China's foreign minister and others.

Before leaving Thailand, Bush declared that it's time for China to grant more freedom to its people, prompting a terse statement from China's Foreign Ministry saying no one should interfere with Beijing's internal affairs.

Bush plans to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics tomorrow night and attend a series of sporting events through Monday, including U.S. basketball and baseball games against China.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Bookmaker.com Offers Incredible 2008 Summer Olympics Betting Slate

2008-08-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

In anticipation of some substantial betting on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, online gambling website Bookmaker.com has made things incredibly easy for their customers.

The website has included an easy to find tab at the top right of their page entitled "Beijing 2008". Click on that tab and to the right you will find every event being offered at this year's summer Olympics.

Not all events featured lines but the majority do.

Each link takes the customer to a breakdown of the event and from there one can view the Olympics betting page, which is clearly linked from that section.

Olympic outright winners bets are found listed on the left hand side of the website along with all other lines on the home page as well.

So which country was likely to take home the most gold medals?

China had -350 odds; USA had +140 odds and Russia had odds of +1500. All other countries would pay out $2500 for every $100 bet.

Bookmaker.com was also offering odds on the most silver and bronze medals as well.

China and the USA were pretty even to take home the most silvers. Russia had odds of +575. All other countries were listed with +900 odds.

Near even odds on the bronze for China and the USA as well with Russia having betting odds of +400 and all other countries listed with odds of +650.

Summer Olympics

2008-08-07T12:36:00.001-07:00

Things to make you smarter and more interesting

• The Beijing Olympics have been dubbed the “first ever Web 2.0 Games” because of the amount of athlete blogging expected, but the International Olympic Committee plans to restrict what athletes can post on their blogs during the Olympiad.

• Olympic authorities have forbidden dog meat from all 112 official Olympic restaurants and urged others to take canine options off their menus for the duration of the Olympics and Paralympics.

• Chinese authorities have set up “cloud seeding” rockets designed to break up clouds that threaten the opening ceremonies in Beijing on Aug. 8. Scientists debate the effectiveness of the technique.

• In an effort to clean up Beijing taxis before the Games, drivers have been asked not to eat, spit, smoke, wear earrings, shave their heads, or sport beards in their cabs during the Games.

• In an effort to ease traffic during the Games, officials have implemented a system to alternate even and odd licence plates to keep half of all Beijing vehicles off the roads on any given day between July 20 and Sept. 20.

• Chinese authorities expect 9,000 marriage license applications allowing couples to be wed on Aug. 8, 2008, the day of the Olympic opening ceremonies. In Chinese tradition, the number eight is said to bring good fortune.

• More than 4,000 Chinese babies have been named “Aoyun” or “Olympic Games” over the past 15 years, with the greatest surge coming after China's 1992 unsuccessful bid for the 2000 Games.

• The five Olympic mascots are Bei Bei, a fish; Jing Jing, a panda; Huan Huan, a flame; Ying Ying, a Tibetan antelope; and Ni Ni, a swallow.

• When translated in succession, the names of the five mascots, Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying and Ni Ni, mean “Beijing welcomes you!”

• At the 1900 Games in Paris, the Dutch rowing team scouted a French boy as a last-minute replacement coxswain and won the regatta. The boy disappeared after the race and his identity remains a mystery.

• U.S. marathon runner Fred Lorz was disqualified after a record-breaking win at the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Games. After crossing the finish line in just three hours and 13 minutes, officials discovered he rode in a car for nearly 18 kilometers of the race.

• Henri de Baillet-Latour, former Olympic Committee president, banned all women's races longer than 200 meters after the 1928 Amsterdam Games. In the 1930's, Olympic doctors warned women who ran the 800-meters would "become old too soon." The women's marathon finally became an Olympic event in 1984.

• Los Angeles was the first host city to turn a profit at the 1984 Summer Games after making $238 million.

Medals - Monday 11 August

2008-08-07T12:10:00.000-07:00

There are 10 gold medals to be won today. All times BST.

Diving (1)

0730-0825: Men's 10m synchro final

Fencing (1)

1200-1430: Women's individual foil final

Judo (2)

1100-1230: Women's -57kg finals, men's -73kg finals

Swimming (4)

0321-0325: Women's 100 fly 0327-0331: Men's 100 breast 0414-0420: Women's 400 free 0423-0429: Men's 4x100 free

Weightlifting (2)

0800-1010: Women's 58kg event 1200-1340: Men's 62kg event

Medals - Sunday 10 August

2008-08-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

There are 14 gold medals to be won today. All times BST.

Archery (1)

0900-1050: Women's team final

Cycling (1)

0700-1030: Women's road race

Diving (1)

0730-0820: Women's 3m synchro final

Fencing (1)

1200-1430: Men's individual epee final

Judo (2)

1100-1230: Women's -52kg final, men's -66kg final

Shooting (2)

0500-0520: Women's 10m air pistol final, men's trap final

Swimming (4)

0300-0307: Men's 400 IM 0321-0327: Men's 400 free 0339-0346: Women's 400 IM 0418-0424: Women's 4x100 free

Weightlifting (2)

0830-1010: Women's 53kg event 1200-1340: Men's 56kg event

Medals - Saturday 9 August 10 Jul 2008 17:06 BST There are SEVEN gold medals to be won today. All times BST. Cycling (1) 0400-1030: Men's road race

2008-08-07T11:56:00.000-07:00

Medals - Saturday 9 August
10 Jul 2008 17:06 BST
There are SEVEN gold medals to be won today. All times BST.

Cycling (1)

0400-1030: Men's road race

Fencing (1)

1200-1350: Women's individual sabre final

Judo (2)

1100-1230: Women's 48kg final, men's 60kg final

Shooting (2)

0330-0350: Women's 10m air rifle 3 positions final 0800-0820: Men's 10m air pistol final

Weightlifting (1)

0300-0440: Women's 48kg final

Proud nation plays host and tourist in transformed capital

2008-08-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

A young girl takes a photograph on the Olympic Green in Beijing after a rehearsal for opening ceremonies for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games on Tuesday.

BEIJING — They stroll through the vast expanse of Tiananmen Square, sipping from bottles of water, licking ice-cream treats, holding parasols to get the slightest relief from the withering temperatures.

Men and women, young and old, large family groups and hand-holding couples from all over China have come to Beijing just to say they were at ground zero for their nation's official coming-out party to the world.

Perhaps as many as a half-million citizens of the world's most populous nation will say they attended the 2008 Olympics even though they don't have tickets to get into any of the events.

"This is a time to feel the pride of China and to welcome the world to our home," said Jenny Wei, 29, a part-time interpreter from about 80 miles away in the Hebei province that surrounds the capital city. "There has for years now been interaction between China and the rest of the world. But this is the time for us to show all that we can offer, all that we can be."

At a time when so much of the lead-up talk to the Games has been about human rights conditions, the upheaval and crackdown in Tibet, the lockdown on the Internet and the hazy gloom of the heavy air pollution, many Chinese citizens are excited to see for themselves and to show off the giant strides their country has made, especially in the seven years since the Games were awarded to Beijing by the International Olympic Committee.

Taking the tour
They come first to Tiananmen, in the heart of the city, standing in long lines to enter the mammoth Mao Zedong Memorial, where the body of the late chairman of the Community Party is on display under a glass case 32 years after his death.

They take the pedestrian subway beneath the wide Chang'an Dajie to stroll through the grandeur of the Forbidden City.

Throngs jockey for position to take family photographs in front of the official Countdown to the Olympics clock that stands outside the National Museum of China.

Several miles away inside the Olympic Green, they point with pride and nod their heads in admiration at the Bird's Nest, the Water Cube and all of the other gleaming new structures that have been built for this occasion.

Tan Xiang is watching his 2-year-old son run in circles with a handful of other children while their parents stand patiently, waiting for the fireworks display that will culminate the final dress rehearsal for Friday's opening ceremonies and nodding their heads in awe at everything they see.

"This is a dream come true for the Chinese people," said Tan, 35, a software programmer from Shanghai. "To have the Olympic Games means China stands on the stage with all of the great powers of the world. This is the first Olympics for China and the hope can be that China will some day be host for as many Olympics as the United States. This year we are introducing Beijing to the world. But we have many other great cities that maybe you do not know."

At the Olympic Superstore on the Wangfujing shopping street, the building can barely squeeze in any more bodies as the racks of souvenirs, the shelves of T-shirts, jackets and hats are devoured as if by a cloud of locusts.

Alice Xijun, 32, who is a hostess at a hotel, has no tickets to any Olympic events, but holds an armload of official authorized paraphernalia to take home to her daughter, husband and assorted family members.

"We will wear our Olympic costumes when we watch the events on television and feel like we are a part of the celebration," she said. "On some nights, our family will go to a restaurant or a public place and watch the sports with our neighbors and know that seven long years of preparation has paid off."

The other view of Beijing
There are some areas of the city, some segments of the population that have been negatively affected. The government has wiped out entire hutongs, the narrow-laned neighborhoods of old Beijing. Many small businesses have been forced to close temporarily. In some cases, work crews simply arrived one day and erected fences that prevent some of the small, ramshackle structures from being viewed from the busy streets.

However, at the small, traditional market off Wangfujing, where longtime merchants haggle over prices with tourists for happy teapots, chopsticks and Chairman Mao wristwatches, and food vendors sell deep-fried seahorse and octopus on a stick, there is no Olympic merchandise, but a buzz in the air nonetheless.

"Come, my friend," said one vendor, reaching out from his stall to fill a passing visitor's arms with a large, round, brass statue. "A happy Buddha in your home is a memory of a happy China Olympics."

Olympic table tennis tourney gears up

2008-08-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

Preparations for the Olympic table tennis competitions have geared up as the draws for the men's and women's team events are set to be made here on Thursday.

According to a press release by the Beijing Games organizers, the draws will take place on Thursday afternoon at Beijing Science Park Plaza, rather than inside the Peking University Gymnasium, the competition venue.

Both China's men and women paddlers have been seeded top in the 16-team events respectively, according to the standings authorized by the sport's world governing body. Germany, South Korea and Hong Kong followed the hosts China in the men's team seedings, while Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea are the rest among the top four women's teams.

A special team ranking list, taking into consideration only the players qualified from each team, has been produced on the basis of the July 2008 world rankings, released by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) earlier last month, to establish the seeds for the round robin stage.

The Olympic table tennis tournament, slated for Aug. 13-23, introduced a team format for the first time in the history on the cost of the doubles events, following a decision made by the sport's world governing body four years ago in the Athens Olympic Games.

Playing a best-of-five format both in the games and in the team matches, each of the team events' contests consists of two singles followed by a doubles game, followed, if necessary, by one or two singles matches.

In each event, the teams initially compete in four groups with four teams in each; those finishing first and second in each group go on to determine the medal places on an elimination basis. That means the top four seeded teams will not meet each other until the semifinals.

Following the specific rules for the Olympic Games table tennis competitions, a team consists of three players and each team can nominate one alternate player that can replace another one in case of injury or sickness.

James Lawton at the 2008 Olympics: Megastars devalue the gold standard

2008-08-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

Any diversion triggered by Lionel Messi is bound to be spectacular – he is, after all, football's most mesmerising talent – but whatever he does in Shanghai tomorrow when Argentina open the defence of their football crown against Ivory Coast cannot be more than a rustle in the Olympic bushes.

It is the fate of every extraordinary deed by a Messi, or a Roger Federer, who has dreams of a laurel garland to ease his Wimbledon pain and even a Tiger Woods if golf gets its way and becomes an Olympic sport after a gap of more than a hundred years.

The point of the Olympics, however obscured it can become in the teeth of a drugs controversy, is that they have the power to bestow a supreme accolade. They take an athlete or a swimmer or a rower to their version of Mount Olympus.

They are simply moving too sharply from their classically designated role when they offer a consolation prize to a Messi, so poorly handled by his Argentina coach Jose Pekerman in the World Cup of 2006, or a Federer engulfed by Rafael Nadal – or still another, albeit lesser, prize to the Tiger. Both the superstars and the Olympics are diminished – the superstars by becoming marginal figures in the show, whose formal opening at the stunning Bird's Nest stadium here on Friday is expected to draw an audience of at least a billion television viewers, the Olympics by becoming fatter and more obviously intent on dragging in every penny and dime that can be squeezed out of already mega-earning sports.

If you continue to accept the validity of the Olympics, if you choose to walk on the high wire between hope of stupendous performance and dread that it will sooner rather than later be announced as another fraud, you do want achievement that announces itself as the peak of any sportsman or woman's life.

That is what makes the American swimmer Michael Phelps and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt such compelling figures here over the next few weeks. It is why Carl Lewis and Steve Redgrave and Sebastian Coe will for ever stand larger in the mystique of the Olympics than a Messi or a Federer or a Woods, if he should ever get to play with the lip-smacking approval of television.

In this sense you could understand the reluctance of Barcelona to see Messi playing Olympic football at a time when they face a huge fight to re-establish themselves as a significant force in the Champions League. Messi is playing, for huge profit, in a game which has its own peaks quite divorced from the extravaganza which begins to unfold here this week.

Two years ago Messi was a key member of an Argentina team which promised to restore the World Cup to artistic heights untouched since Brazil's beautiful triumph in Mexico in 1970. But the striker was critically, some would say criminally, underused and Barça could reasonably question the legitimacy of any redemption here.

Perhaps, though, it was Woods who carried us to the heart of this matter, as is his tendency on most issues that affect his life and the sport he has come to dominate so profoundly, when he was asked his opinion on the Olympic initiative.

"Heck, it would be great to have an Olympic medal," he said, "but would it mean more to any golfer than getting his hands on the Claret Jug or the Green Jacket?" No, of course it wouldn't, and there we have the diminishing of the Olympics whenever they open their doors to sports which have their own historically established marks of excellence.

The greatest festival of sport inevitably proclaims an over-arching ambition that is quite separate from the call to go faster, higher and stronger. It is one to go ever more profitably.

No doubt there will be few complaints in Shanghai tomorrow night if Messi produces the kind of compelling, intricate skill that so overshadowed Cristiano Ronaldo at Old Trafford last season. Or if Federer serves up the exquisite tennis of which he is still capable to win Olympic gold at his third attempt. Messi and Federer bring their own rewards in any circumstances, yet the latter is as candid as the Tiger when it comes to assessing Olympic gold against the silver of Wimbledon or the US Open.

"Winning Olympic gold would be great for both me and my country," he said recently. "It would be something always to have with pride, but no, not as important as winning a Slam event. For a tennis player that always has to be the supreme achievement."

If anything can be certain at the Olympics, it is that when the golds begin to tumble next week, when Phelps reaches out to go beyond the seven Mark Spitz achieved in Munich 36 years ago, when the most compelling stories will be to do with young men and women occupying the highest ground they will ever tread, Lionel Messi and Roger Federer might indeed be buried in the bushes.

Wish you weren't here? Five big-name footballers in Beijing

*LIONEL MESSI (Argentina) The 21-year-old midfield maestro has already lifted two La Liga titles, and a Champions League with Barcelona. Finished second to Kaka in the 2007 World Player of the Year awards.

*RONALDINHO (Brazil) Has much to prove in Beijing, his inclusion in a side usually consisting of lesser known players an indication of recent poor form. The former World Player of the Year, was frequently sidelined at Barcelona last season, prompting a move to Milan.

*ALEXANDRE PATO (Brazil) The 18-year-old Milan forward, who scored on his national debut against Sweden in March, has been tipped for great things with the South Americans.

*RYAN BABEL (Netherlands) Enjoyed an impressive debut season at Liverpool following a £11.5m switch from Ajax.

*JUAN RIQUELME (Argentina) The three-time World Player of the Year nominee is the only overage player in Argentina's squad at 30. Currently plying his trade for Boca Juniors.

Announcing the OpenOffice.org Annual Conference Beijing 2008

2008-08-06T07:36:00.001-07:00

OpenOffice.org has today opened registration for its biggest ever annual international conference. The Conference - to be held in Beijing, China between 5th.-7th. November - is the main event of the year for developers, supporters, and users of OpenOffice.org software, the leading free software alternative to Microsoft Office.

Edinburgh, UK (PRWEB) August 5, 2008 -- The OpenOffice.org Community - responsible for the leading free software alternative to Microsoft Office - has today opened registration for its annual international conference (OOoCon) in Beijing, China. This Conference is a double first - it's the first OOoCon to be held outside Europe, and it will also see the biggest concentration of OpenOffice.org developers ever assembled in one location on the planet.

OOoCon themes this year include technical presentations and workshops for developers, case histories from around the world, future product developments, how to get involved in the Community, and hints and tips for users. Topical sessions will focus on the about-to-be-released OpenOffice.org version 3, from how it was built, to what's new for users.

The draft Conference Programme, also published today, provides abstracts and speaker biographies for the conference sessions. People interested in attending are urged to visit the Conference web site, download the draft Programme, and register for the conference. Beijing in 2008 is a great place to visit, and the OpenOffice.org community are looking forward to their best ever OOoCon. Come and join them!

About OpenOffice.org

The OpenOffice.org Community is an international team of volunteer and sponsored contributors who develop, translate, support, and promote the OpenOffice.org software. The OpenOffice.org Community acknowledges generous sponsorship from a number of companies, including Sun Microsystems, the founding sponsor and primary contributor.

The OpenOffice.org software is the leading open-source office productivity suite, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentations package, graphics, and database. Available on all major computing platforms and supported in over seventy languages, it is a complete free software alternative to commercial packages like Microsoft Office.

For more information:

John McCreesh (UTC +01h00)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Lead
jpmcc @ openoffice.org
+44 (0)7 810 278 540

Florian Effenberger (UTC +02h00)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Co-Lead
floeff @ openoffice.org
+49 8341 9966 0880

Peter Junge (UTC -08h00)
Beijing Conference Team
pj @ openoffice.org

Announcing the OpenOffice.org Annual Conference Beijing 2008

2008-08-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

Beijing Olympics 2008 , Theme Song : Friends Forever

2008-08-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

American swimmers train at Water Cube

2008-08-05T12:14:00.000-07:00

American swimmer Cullen Jones(L) trains with his teammates at the National Aquatics Center, namely the Water Cube, in Beijing, China, Aug. 4, 2008. (Xinhua/Wang Dingchang)

American swimmer Peter Vanderkaay (R) and his teammate train at the National Aquatics Center, namely the Water Cube, in Beijing, China, Aug. 4, 2008. (Xinhua/Wang Dingchang)

American swimmer Margaret Hoelzer trains at the National Aquatics Center, namely the Water Cube, in Beijing, China, Aug. 4, 2008. (Xinhua/Wang Dingchang)

Top sailing teams making last-minute preparations

2008-08-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

A woman sailor adjusts the rigging at the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center in Olympic co-host city Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Aug. 4, 2008. Top sailing teams are all making last-minute preparations recently for the upcoming Olympic sailing competition. (Xinhua/Wang Song)
A woman sailor of Norway marks on the yacht at the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center in Olympic co-host city Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Aug. 4, 2008. Top sailing teams are all making last-minute preparations recently for the upcoming Olympic sailing competition. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

American star swimmer Michael Phelps (L) arrives at the National Aquatics Center, or the Water Cube, for a training in Beijing, China

2008-08-05T12:07:00.001-07:00

Australian head coach Alan Thompson said here Tuesday that U.S. swimming prodigy Michael Phelps' biggest obstacle in breaking Mark Spitz's record will be his own countrymen.

"I think the major competition that Michael has in a lot of his events will come from his own countrymen. He has to get through that first," Thompson said at a press conference.

Coming off a historic seven-win performance at last year's world championships, Phelps is highly expected to break Spitz's 36-year-long record -- having seven gold medals at one Olympics - in Beijing.

Phelps had the chance to break Spitz's record four years ago in Athens. However, with six gold medals and eight overall, he narrowly missed out. At the Beijing Games, Phelps is expected to swim eight events, including five individuals and three relays.

Thompson said Phelps is the only one that has the possibility to make history.

"I think Michael is a fantastic swimmer. I think if anyone in the world who could be possibly do it, it would be Michael."

"It would be a great story over the nine days of (swimming) competition. I think there would be a lot of people watching it. I'll be happy to see history...It would be a magnificent feat if he achieved it," Thompson said.

Commenting on the schedule change of swimming events in the Beijing Games, Thompson said he thought money has bought the tradition of the sport.

Heeding a request from its biggest TV partner and other broadcasters in the Americas, the International Olympic Committee shifted the swimming finals of the Beijing Games to the morning so they can be shown live in prime time in North America. Swimming finals were held in the night at previous Olympics.

"Whether the heats and the finals are in the morning or afternoon, it doesn't matter to us and our performance. We've done everything we need to do to be prepared for that," Thompson said.

"But I think in this time, loyalty is very lacking. In sport, often money talks too loudly. I think when it comes to issues like that, certain traditions that need to be followed in sports."

Asked to comment on Speedo's revolutionary swimsuit, Thompson said there is no need to make a fuss about the issue.

"The fact that Speedo has done such a good job that ensures they've signed up some of the world's greatest athletes to their brand probably ensures that they get the greatest exposure with the swimsuit," he said.

The head coach said that the amount of focus that has been placed on the swimsuit has shifted public attentions on performances of the athletes." Swimsuit technology advancement is something we've been doing since we wore full-length woolen suits in 1908. So...it's nothing new."

"If we didn't have advancement and we didn't have forward thinking people, I am sure we wouldn't be where we are now. I think the aim of the game is to break the world record. That's what our sport is about. We want to see people swim fast and we want to see what the boundaries are. We want to take them as fast as we can within the rules of the game."

Since its introduction in February, swimmers and others wearing the Speedo LZR Racer suits have set up more than 40 world records. The sponsor of the Australian swimming team is Speedo.

American star swimmer Michael Phelps (L) arrives at the National Aquatics Center, or the Water Cube, for a training in Beijing, China

2008-08-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

Paraguay has its first taste in Olympic sailing

2008-08-05T12:06:00.001-07:00

When Florencia Cerutti arrived at Qingdao Olympic Village on August 1, she made history for her country, as the first and only sailor to represent Paraguay for Olympic sailing.

"I am in the Olympics, that's excellent. If I win something, it will be the first medal for Paraguay in Olympic sailing regatta," said Cerutti of the Laser Radial class, after taking the welcome gift from the head of the Olympic Village in Qingdao, where the 2008 Olympic sailing tournament will be held.

Florencia Cerutti, 25, is among the seven athletes, who made up the Paraguayan Olympic team in Beijing 2008.

Paraguay sent 23 athletes to the Athens 2004 when it won its first medal in history, a silver medal in soccer after losing 1-0 to Argentina in the final.

Influenced by her parents who used to be sailors, Cerutti started sailing when she was seven. Having received little investment from the government, she had to work part time as a coach for amateur sailors to pay for her sailing equipment and expense of training in Argentina.

"I bought the boat myself for 5,000 Euros. The government only covered my flight tickets and accommodation here," said Cerutti, adding that it is difficult to find sponsorship, because sailing is not popular in Paraguay.

"Even back home in Paraguay, there are not many people knowing that I am here," she said. "But it doesn't matter. The qualification for Olympics itself is already a huge success for me."

Having participated in very few international sailing competitions, Cerutti said Olympics is quite a challenge for her. "I have to be careful of every one. I am now in a strict diet to be very thin to cope with the light wind here," she said.

"But everyone has the chance to win. My advantage is that I cansail in different situations and I don't have any pressure," she added.

Cerutti said what made her stick to sailing for so many years despite a small budget from the government, was simply because "I love sailing. It's my life."

"Two years ago when I broke my leg, I couldn't sail a lot. It was really boring. I realized then sailing is my life. If I don't do this, I don't know what is going to be. That's why I keep going against everything," she said.

"On the water, you are in another space. You can feel the speed and freedom. It's amazing," she explained.

"If I could give everything during the competition, that would be the best result for me," she smiled.

Shooters receive adaptability trainings

2008-08-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

Chinese shooter Zhao Yinghui has a rest during a training session in Beijing, China, Aug. 4, 2008. Lots of sharp shooters aiming for the Beijing Olympics had adaptability trainings here on Monday. The shooting events of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be held from Aug. 9 to 17 in Beijing.

Chinese shooter Du Li prepares to leave after the training in Beijing, China, Aug. 4, 2008. Lots of sharp shooters aiming for the Beijing Olympics had adaptability trainings here on Monday. The shooting events of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be held from Aug. 9 to 17 in Beijing.

Katerina Emmons of Czech receives interviews after the training in Beijing, China, Aug. 4, 2008. Lots of sharp shooters aiming for the Beijing Olympics had adaptability trainings here on Monday. The shooting events of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be held from Aug. 9 to 17 in Beijing.

Torchbearer He Shan runs the torch during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games torch relay in Leshan City, southwest China's Sichuan Province

2008-08-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

The slogan for this year's Olympic Torch Relay -- "Light the Passion, Share the Dream" took on a poignant, additional significance Monday, as the relay made its way through the earthquake ravaged Sichuan. Thousands of cheering people turned out amid a sea of flags, to celebrate the coming on the games -- in the place where tens of thousands died, in the earthquake, less than three months ago.

There was a minute of silence to remember those who lost their lives in the earthquake. Then the relay-- on its journey of hope and solace -- carried on from Leshan. Along the route deafening shouts of "Rebuild Sichuan! Go China!" were heard continuously.

The relay in Leshan started at Mingshan Pavilion. It went for one and a half hours. The first torch bearer was former Olympic diving champion Gao Min -- who participated in the 24th and 25th Olympics. 185 bearers in Leshan carried the torch over a distance of 7.5 km. The last torch bearer was Tan Guoqiang, one of the heroes of the Sichuan disaster. The primary school where he was headmaster was at the quake's epicenter in Wenchuan. Tan organized effective rescue efforts in the wake of the catastrophe. Monday, he ignited the cauldron in Yingbin Square on Emei Mountain.

The relay took on a special significance in Sichuan -- where so many lives were lost and so many towns devastated in the earthquake. As those lining the route responded with their shouts of "Go China! Go Olympics! Rebuild Sichuan", the torch helped re-ignite the spirt and courage of people who face the work of rebuilding their homes and communities.

Jiang Min, the 1st torchbearer in Guang'an said "I am so exited right now. Many thanks to those who cared so much. Many thanks to our dear motherland. It was your caring that gave us the confidence to rebuild our homes and our communities better than before."

The first torchbearer in Guang'an on Sunday, Jiang Min, is a policewoman in Pengzhou. In that city, near the earthquake's epicenter at Wenchuan, she lost 10 members of her family--including her two-year old daughter and her parents. In the face of her grief she went to work in the front line of relief efforts -- and moved the entire nation. As she finished her part in the torch relay, she commented -- "I will bring the Olympic spirit to my work. We can rebuild our homeland by working together".

Sichuan is the final stop for the Olympic flame before it heads to Beijing for the Games opening ceremony, Friday. The Sichuan tour had been scheduled, originally to take place in June. It was postponed because of the earthquake. In all -- 862 torchbearers, 29 of them rescue workers were nominated to take part in the relay.

Olympic flame arrives in Beijing for pre-Games relay

2008-08-05T11:26:00.001-07:00

The Olympic torch arrived in the host city Beijing on Tuesday afternoon, ready for the final leg of its global relay before the 29th Olympic Games open on Friday.

Following a simple reception at the Beijing Capital International Airport, the flame flown from Sichuan Province was sent to an undisclosed location until Wednesday morning, when the relay begins from the landmark Forbidden City in the heart of Beijing.

A total of 841 torch bearers will join the three-day relay across the city of 17 million people, including some big names, ranging from China's hero astronaut Yang Liwei to basketball superstar Yao Ming.

The relay organizers said on Tuesday that the flame, on its first day, will travel 16.4 km in just over four hours with 433 bearers.

HERO ASTRONAUT TO KICK OFF RELAY

The relay will start from the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City, Sun Xuecai, deputy director of the city sport department and deputy chairman of the organizing committee of the Olympic torch relay in Beijing, told a press conference.

Sun said the first bearer would be Yang Liwei, who became a national hero overnight after succeeding in China's first manned space mission in October 2003.

At the ceremony to be held at the Meridian Gate, Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 29th Olympic Games (BOCOG), will hand over the Olympic flame to Yang, marking the start of the relay.

The torch will travel through seven downtown districts, passing city landmarks such as Tian'anmen Square, the egg-shaped National Center for the Performing Arts and the newly refurbished commercial district in Qianmen. It will end at the Temple of Heaven.

A grand ceremony will be held there. About 1,320 dancers will perform at the ceremony to receive the torch.

YAO WON'T LIGHT CAULDRON

Olympic enthusiasts have been kept guessing who would be the last torch bearer to light the main Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony Friday, a top honor for Olympic athletes.

But it won't be China's basketball superstar Yao Ming. The Houston Rockets player will be the ninth torch bearer on Wednesday, Sun announced.

Under Olympic regulations, each bearer can touch the torch only once during the relay, leaving no opportunity for Yao to kindle the flame in the National Stadium, or the Bird's Nest.

Zhang Yimou, the famed film director and chief director of the Games' opening and closing ceremonies, will also bear the scroll-shaped torch on Wednesday.

On Thursday, 268 bearers will carry the torch along a route of 14.576 km in eight districts and counties over about three hours.

Friday's route will be 7.902 km long. The relay will last one hour and 34 minutes involving 140 carriers.

TORCH COMES BACK TO BEIJING

After being lit at the birthplace of the Olympic Games in Olympia, Greece on March 24, the 2008 Olympics torch traveled to Beijing on March 31 for a ceremonial kick-off of its global trip.

Under the theme "Journey of Harmony," the relay lasted 129 days and took the torch 137,000 km through six continents, the longest distance of any Olympic torch relay since the tradition started at the 1936 Berlin Games.

Chinese Taipei eyes on at least 2 gold medals

2008-08-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

Tsai Szu-Chuen (L front), head of the Chinese Taipei Olympic delegation, and Peng Tai-lin, the vice head, arrive at the Olympic Village in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 3, 2008. A 49-member team of the Chinese Taipei Olympic delegation arrived here on Sunday. (Xinhua/Zhang Guojun)

Chinese Taipei won two gold, two silver and one bronze medal four years ago. That marked the end of a long Olympic gold drought and moved the team to 31st on the medal tally.

The team from Chinese Taipei was one of many teams arriving at Capital City International Airport for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Sunday.

The athletes from across the Straits were the focus of a lot of the attention of local media.

The 133-member Olympic delegation was given a warm welcome at the Airport.

Peng Kunlang, rowing coach of Chinese Taipei Olympic Team said "It's very welcoming here. It's great. It feels like coming home."

The team is determined to match its tally of two gold medals in 2004 -and equally determined to win at least as many medals over all as it took home from the Athens Games.

The highly regarded Chinese Taipei baseball team is scheduled to arrive in Beijing, Aug. 10th.

Beijing 2008 - Idiots' Guide to the Olympics: part 1

2008-08-05T04:55:00.000-07:00

With the Beijing Games just days away, impress your mates with your knowledge via our idiots' guide to the Olympics. Click on the links under the photo for parts two and three.

We have listed a brief overview of all the sports below and for more information - but not too much - click on the respective links under the picture.

ARCHERY

There are both individual and team events in which archers battle in a seeded knockout tournament, firing arrows at a target from 70 metres.

ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS

Both men and women compete in gymnastics, although each discipline differs greatly with individual and team medals also competed for.

ATHLETICS

There are 47 different athletics events at the Olympics, 24 for men and 23 for women. There is no 50km road walk for women, who also compete in the heptathlon rather than the decathlon, but otherwise the men's and women's events mirror each other.

BADMINTON

There are five Olympic tournaments in the world's fastest racquet sport: men's singles and doubles, women's singles and doubles, as well as mixed doubles. All are straight elimination events.

BASEBALL

Two teams take turns batting and fielding and the object is to score the most runs in nine innings. Baseball will disappear from the Olympics in 2012.

BASKETBALL

Each game consists of four periods of 10 minutes with five minutes overtime allowed if a match is tied. Olympic basketball gold medals have ended up in American hands more often than not.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

The beach variety of volleyball takes place on a smaller court than the indoor game with teams of two players.

BOXING

There are 11 weight categories contested in Olympic boxing - from light-flyweight (under 48kg) to super heavyweight (over 91kg). Only amateur boxers between the ages of 17 and 34 are allowed to enter.

CANOE/KAYAK FLATWATER

Men race in both canoes and kayaks, while women compete only in the kayaks. Flatwater canoe and kayak racing was first seen at the Olympics with a demonstration competition in 1924, before it gained full medal status in 1936.

CANOE/KAYAK SLALOM

Slalom events see competitors go against the clock down twisty sections of the river, suffering time penalties if they strike obstacles in their path.

CYCLING

Men and women compete in all forms of cycling at the Olympics, although a handful of track events are only open to men. Road races take place in two forms - straight races and time trials.

Beijing 2008: No China crisis as Olympics reaches starting line

2008-08-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

I hate to disappoint all the purveyors of doom and gloom - actually that's not true I never totally believed them in the first place - but the weather in Beijing over the weekend was prefect if a little hot for some tastes, the welcome effusive and almost embarrassingly "red carpet" and the magnificent stadia are all glistening and in perfect working order. Not a harassed carpenter or electrician in sight.

The natives are extremely friendly, I haven't been knocked back on an internet site yet and as I write this in my pleasantly appointed accommodation block room I am watching a not entirely complementary BBC World report on the Games on my 64 channel TV and you can't move for BBC websties on the net. Strange. I thought they were banned here? If this is censorship "Big Brother" has gone to pot and lost his touch.

The swimming pool at the Media village was welcome and refreshing, the foot massage at the emporium next door invigorating, the air-con works, the rooms are absolutely fine barely 200 yards from the Birds Nest and the soldiers and policemen, with a little cajoling, are beginning to salute with a smile. Which is more than they do back home frankly. The food "on site" thus far is only average but you don't come to the Olympics for fine cusine although I do intend to broaden my culinary horizons as soon as.

Traditionally you can't have an Olympics without rubbishing the hosts in the immediate build-up, it comes with the territory and is part of an elaborate game of international one-upmanship and points scoring. "It's your turn now guys, lets see how you cope. Not easy is it?"

Like the Duck - Peking duck? - gliding over a tranquil pond, the Chinese are surely paddling furiously underneath and there are all sort of huge logistical problems and rows but it would be a bitter and twisted individual not to admit that, as promised, they have 'delivered' an extraordinary Olympic venue, capable of inspiring those who compete and enthralling those who watch. Made in China. Everything here is exactly as it says on the tin.

The only hiccough came on landing at Hong Kong en route to Beijing where, spotting my accreditation, I was swept up by the formidable Miss Angel Yap, one of the volunteers clad in a rather garish blue shirt, who informed me she would personally escourt my good self and Mr White Jim all the way to our connecting flight. Marvellous. VIP treatment all the way for the British media. Good for the soul.

Ten minutes later a rather dishevelled Jim White, my erstwhile colleague who in fact looked rather green, emerged from the bowels of Zoo class and Miss Yap strode forward purposefully only to abruptly stop after 50 yards by the Transfer Desk where a massive queue - which ten minutes earlier I had been right at the front of - had formed. "Thank you. My job is done. Now I leave you here at the Transfer desk. Have a wonderful Olympics." A frustrating hour later we finally made it through for our connecting fight.

Arriving in Beijing airport - the newest and biggest in the world - was like being Royalty for the day. We were swept through endless glistening corridors, red tape was kept to a minimum and in no time myself and White Jim were in our own 54 seater bus headed for the Media village. There was just the hint of traffic congestion as we closed on our destination so we switched to the empty Olympic lane and glided in to be greeted by an army of smiling teenage volunteers ready to carry your bags, check you in and thrust bottles of iced cold water into your sweaty hands. I've known worse arrivals in distant lands.

Over at the stadium a capacity 80,000 crowd was gathering for one of the many rehearsals for the Opening ceremony. A good natured, cheerful "free spirited" Saturday night crowd out to enjoy a free evening's entertainment. All they had to do was enjoy the show and fireworks for three hours. Hot dogs, coke, popcorn, screaming kids, courting couples, school parties, grizzly old veterans telling each other how they did it in their day.

Most confusing. I expected to see regimented order everywhere. Marching ranks of recruited spectators, baton wielding soldiers, blaring political style announcements. Instead up on the big screen there was a distinctly English sounding ham actor - White Jim thought Peter Hall but I think not - extolling the virtues of Olypmian ideals and breaking bread with the world.

We shouldn't have been there - we had joined the throng in the best tradition of British journalism by "blagging" it - and only got politely moved on by a venerable lady volunteer as the intrepid White reached for his camera once too often. It was a fair cop and she was too decent to argue with. In London 2012 they won't be welcoming us to Opening ceremony rehearsals with open arms either.

You can be endlessly cynical about China and the Olympics but by staging these Games they are playing with fire a little. Consciously so - for whatever reason this has been carefully planned - but playing with fire nonetheless. They are letting the 'genie' out of the box and for those Chinese citizens touched by the Games life will never quite be the same again. As Confuscious, he say: "The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." and China is taking the first step in a very long journey indeed over the coming weeks. It;s just that we don't knoww exactly where it will end.

Olympic-themed haircut popular among kids

2008-08-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

A pair of twins show their Olympic-themed haircuts in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, August 3, 2008.

A boy gets a haircut featuring an Olympic Fuwa mascot in Tianjin August 3, 2008. Wu Dasheng, a local Beijing barber, offers the boys in his neighborhood a free Olympic-themed haircut as part of his effort to cheer for the upcoming Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

Olympic rowing champion Tufte sees tough title defense in Beijing

2008-08-04T07:14:00.001-07:00

Olympic gold medalist Olaf Tufte said Monday in Beijing that he expects to have a tough title defense in the men's single sculls event at the Beijing Olympic Games.

"All the guys in the singles sculls have been the best in any Olympics before," the Norwegian, who won the men's single category in Athens in 2004.

Tufte acknowledged that his Olympic experience would not help much his title defense in Beijing. "There won't be anyone dropping out just because of being nervous," he said at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.

"Ondrej Synek and Alan Campbell will definitely be in the final," the 32-year-old said. "I don't know Marcel Hacker as he's been being up and down, but he is dangerous."

Triple world champion Marhe Drysdale of New Zealand is poised to be his toughest opponent.

"I have a chance of being everything between one and 32. It's up to me," Tufte said of his prospect at the Beijing Games.

Tufte, who started rowing at the age of 18, trained in Bulgaria for the Olympics and stayed two weeks in Norway before coming to China on Saturday.

He told Xinhua that the weather in Beijing, though hot and uncomfortable, wasn't a big problem for him. "I'll manage," he said.

Tufte won a silver in the men's doubles sculls in Sydney and took two world titles in the singles event in 2001 and 2003. He finished second in the singles event in the world championships in 2005, and posted fourth and third places in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

Even with the two world titles and an Olympic gold, Tufte said he was no big star back in his country.

"I don't like thinking so (being a star). I'm just a rower and rowing is a very small sport."

When asked if he would retire after the Games, he said: "I don't see that happening. I enjoy the sport."

U.S. President Bush sees sports, but politics abound at Olympics

2008-08-03T03:30:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Bush leaves Monday for an Asian trip that will make him the first U.S. president to attend an Olympic Games on foreign soil.

The heart of Bush's trip is in Beijing, where he'll spend four nights and days.

China is in the midst of international politics over human rights, security and trade. So the president will have to walk a tight line of calling for freedoms in China, while not offending the host country.

Bush's trip stops first in South Korea, where trade, North Korea's nuclear program and the touchy subject of U.S. beef imports will top the agenda.

He'll then head to Thailand to draw attention to the repressed people in neighbouring Myanmar.

The White House has also scheduled blocs of time for Bush, widely-known as a sports buff, to watch some of the Olympic competition in person.

For latest information visit at link building
More information about Chennai, India news visit here Hot Chennai News
Latest interesting news about transformers Latest Transformer News

Hot weather no bothers for Australian and Spanish archers in Beijing

2008-08-03T03:22:00.000-07:00

It's a sweltering day here in Sunday's afternoon at 35 degrees centigrade, but archers training at the Olympic archery venue said the heat did not affect them much at all.

All five archers from Australia, three male and two female, were taking training under the supervision of South Korean coach Kyomoon Oh.

They took turns to shoot and checked up the points. 38-year-old Michael Naray was the oldest one among the squad. To him, the hot weather was not a problem at all despite that now it's the winter season in his country.

"We were undergoing training in hot weather in the north of Australia during the last few weeks," said Naray.

"It's also very hot in Australia's summer and in the north part even in the winter, so the weather here won't be a hindrance for me and my teammates."

Naray had came to Beijing last year for the Olympic trial and the air quality to him has been much improved.

"The air quality here is much better now than last year when I was here for the Olympic test event of archery, though it's still smoggy sometimes," said Naray.

"Today's air is better than yesterday, and the day before yesterday, so I think it will be quite ok during the Games. I have no worry on that," added he.

Naray will be attending the men's team and individual events in the Beijing Olympics.

He finished 12th in team event at the 2007 Leipzig World Championships along with his teammates Mathew Gray and Kim Ha-Neul. In the individual, he was ranked 54th.

Naray and his teammates were also runners-up at the 2008 Santo Domingo World Cup and the 2007 Varese World Cup in Italy.

Daniel Morillo was the only archer for Spain. His team manager Lola Tello was in his company in the training field.

To Lola, the heat is not a problem, but the humidity in Beijing is something unadapted.

"The heat is not difficult for me and Daniel, you know, in Madrid it's also very scorching in the summer. In winter it'll be freezing. The weather in Spain goes in extreme as seasons decide," said Lola.

"But the humidity is something strange for us, in Madrid it's not quite wet like here," said she, adding the weather won't be barrier for Daniel.

"We've been here on July 31th, now we just get used to it already."

According to Lola, it's a tangible and approving goal for Daniel to reach the last 16 at the Games.

The 20-year-old got a couple of remarkable results in last Olympic cycle. He was top 8 at the 2005 World Championships, top 3 at the World Junior Championships, World Cup competitions and World Cup Final.

For latest news from Chennai, India visit at

Beijing Olympics 2008: In the name of game

2008-08-02T22:32:00.000-07:00

The Romans did it first. Now the Englishmen are at it. When the plans were revealed for London’s Olympics stadium, a “coliseum-style” setting in east London, skeptics raised eyebrows at the idea. But now, after China managed to break through the $20-billion barrier for this year’s Olympics, nothing seems impossible. As a matter of fact, it seems that hosting big-ticket games is the best way for a city to shed its old skin.

According to Chinese estimates, the total amount being spent on sports facilities in Beijing is not more than $2 billion. The number of Olympics facilities being built is also not big. Most of the money is going into renovating faulty infrastructure and creating new ones. So can it be safely assumed that the games are just a catalysts for fast-forward development?

Possibly Beijing is a glaring example of it. Similarly, India’s preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is a case in point. The buzz in the administrative circles is that compared to the approximately Rs 84,000 crore that China is spending for the Olympics, India might foot a bill of not less than Rs 65,000 crore for the Commonwealth Games. And in both cases, the funds are mainly being directed towards overhauling the infrastructure.

Actually, it’s not very difficult to decipher why both Delhi and Beijing require such big investments. Beijing’s new infrastructure includes some of the world’s most extraordinary structures. The brand new passenger terminal at the Beijing Capital International Airport, for instance, is touted to have a floor area larger than all five terminal buildings at London’s Heathrow Airport. The Beijing subway expansion plan is also impressive. And the number of the sports facilities constructed for the Olympics, including the National Stadium and the National Aquatics Centre, are also modern and radical structures that could have been only built by state-of-the-art technology. And all these require money.

India, too, is not very far from pulling off a similar feat. Says Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit: “Our officials will go to Beijing. We will definitely implement all good lessons learnt from the Beijing Olympics. However, let me say that we are very much on track for the Commonwealth Games. Thanks to the Asiad in 1982, Delhi already has a solid infrastructure for sports in place. These are being refurbished. Delhi’s overall infrastructure is also being upgraded with a deadline of 2010. In addition to better Metro connectivity, we will have 5,000 to 6,000 modern buses plying in the city by then.”

So how much is being spent only on sports facilities then? Not much, if official figures are anything to go by. Almost half of the total money being spent will be concentrated in developing new power plants. Sports facilities would not cost a bomb. For instance, for the Commonwealth Games in the capital, it’s only around Rs 2,300 crore that will be spent on developing sports facilities, of which Rs 1,000 crore will be spent for the construction of five stadiums. Delhi Development Authority (DDA) will spend Rs 465 crore for developing a Games village and another Rs 850 crore on a public private partnership (PPP) model for building residential complexes within the village.

Compare this to the mammoth Rs 20,000 crore that has been earmarked for the completion of the Metro in the capital. It might look coincidental but Beijing’s subway expansion plan also aims to make what was a two-line system into the world’s most far-reaching underground network in less than a decade. And it all started with the hosting the Olympics.

Closer home, Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman of Feedback Ventures, says that political and bureaucratic hurdles in the infrastructure sector get mitigated if mega sports events such as the Commonwealth Games are organised. “Today, most of Delhi’s infrastructure projects, whether it’s the modernisation of the airport, construction of Metro link to the airport, or the Games village — all are linked to the Games. It’s a global phenomenon. Such big sports events act as a stimulus for fast-track completion of mega infrastructure projects, overcoming routine political and bureaucratic hurdles,” he says.

Well, it’s difficult to say what the scenario would have been if India had not won the bid to host the Commonwealth Games. But Delhi, one of the largest cities in India, badly needed the infrastructure improvement. According to official estimates, the capital’s population in 2001 was 12.9 million and is estimated to go up to around 17 million this year. This is not taking into account contiguous suburban cities and towns such as Faridabad and Gurgaon in neighbouring Haryana, and Ghaziabad in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh that can push up the official figures to 21 million by this year. Compare this to China’s capital city, which is a fast-growing metropolis, where the population grew by almost 16% from 2000 to 2006, reaching around 15.8 million.

Hence, it’s no wonder that these two cities — dogged by lack of adequate urban infrastructure — are pulling out all stops to turn common perceptions about them on their heads. And in both cases, facilities are being built at break-neck speed.

Case in point: 2010 has been a deadline for Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC)’s key projects, which they took up in early 2007. In fact, the DMRC will construct around 125 km of Metro rail in Delhi and NCR (National Capital Region) in three-and-a-half years, keeping a strict deadline of August 2010. The lines include ones covering parts of Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon.

Also, the Commonwealth Games drove DMRC to place the 19-km-long airport express corridor — connecting Indira Gandhi international airport with New Delhi railway station — on a fast track. “Some of the lines will be completed by the end of 2009. And the rest of the key projects will be over by August 2010. By that time, Delhi Metro will connect all stadiums and most important pockets of Delhi,” says a DMRC official.

Though the cost of event management for 2010 Commonwealth Games has been earmarked at mere Rs 900 crore, Delhi will be a major beneficiary, thanks to the long-term infrastructure projects being undertaken in the city now. This is again similar to Beijing’s effort. The main venue for Beijing’s Olympic Games — the ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium — designed by award-winning Swiss firm Herzog and de Meuron and Chinese architect Li Xinggang, will be used for a range of sports and entertainment events and other commercial operations after the games.

Though most of the core sector projects currently being undertaken in Delhi are linked to the 2010 Games, the resources for those are organised from sources other than the Games budget. However, the organising committee of the Games has made a provision of Rs 770 crore towards projects such as flyovers, subways and water supply that are direct needs of the Games. What’s more, Delhi police will be given Rs 264 cr for beefing up security during the Games.

Adding to the gains list, thanks to the Olympics, Beijing will also join the most advanced traffic management cities in the world. Even in India, efficient traffic management during the Commonwealth Games could be the toughest job. In fact, the Indian city can draw a few lessons from the Chinese experience. An intelligent traffic management system will be available as a scientific instrument for Beijing’s urban traffic management and the traffic organisation during the Olympics.

Here’s how it works: A total of 126 intelligent road sensors have already been installed in Beijing. These sensors will transmit messages to the traffic signal control system once they detect vehicles waiting in the Olympics lane. Amitabh Bajpai, president of association for intelligent transport systems (AITS) India, says that all Indian cities must have traffic information management & control centre (TIMCC), which generates traffic data and coordinates the city’s road network.

“Such a system provides the architecture for the present and future integration of modes of transport and other sub-sets such as emergency management systems (EMS), parking and tolling. The Commonwealth Games could provide a platform for fast-track implementation of ITS,” he explains. Delhi is also getting an airport link express bus services soon.

Then, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) may spend about Rs 150 crore for developing air-conditioned luxury buses to ferry airline passengers from different parts of the city to the airport. It’s proposed that passengers will be able to check-in within the bus, and baggage will be taken care of directly. “We will have an MoU with Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) soon. We have set mid-2009 as our deadline so that we have a good trial before the Commonwealth Games,” says O P Agarwal, MD, Urban Mass Transit Company (UMTC), where both IL&FS and Central government have stakes.

In hindsight, in both cities, long time after the sports fans have gone home, the extensive renovations, which are taking place now, will form a large part of Beijing’s and Delhi’s sports legacy. They will not only give a whole new dimension to the sports facilities that these two cities sorely lacked, but might change the future — once and for all. For instance, the green technologies that are being showcased in many of Beijing’s new buildings could have an impact on how buildings around China are designed for a long time. This is important since China is one of the biggest polluters in the world.

In the same vein, Delhi’s multi-thousand crore rupees makeover might just change the way your kids reach school in the morning. All thanks to sports!

Chinese Fashion Police Crack Down on Style Horrors

2008-08-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

Fashion police at the Beijing Olympics have ordered men to steer clear of white socks with black shoes and advised women to shun leather skirts.

Residents of the city should also shirk embarrassing public displays of affection and fighting over who settles the bill after dinner and avoic garlic.

Rules produced by Chinese officials on what to wear and how to behave stretch out over 36 pages in official booklets and cover nine web pages. They go from general tips, like combing hair appropriately for age to minutiae details such as women with thick ankles wearing darker stockings to disguise their imperfections.

Women get specific fashion advice to avoid common fashion faux-pas, such as matching the length of their skirt to their age and not wearing more than three colours in their oufit. Men on the other hand seem to get more basic advice, including not sporting pyjamas in public, not going out with a bare chest and not rolling up their trouser legs.

While some style recommendations do not need explanations - fat people should avoid horizontal stripes - other tips have their reasoning spelt out: "Clothes should not be too small, otherwise this makes people feel you are unreliable" .

The how-to in the style stakes has been handed out by the Capital Spiritual Civilisation Construction Commission. Beijing will be under the spotlight during the Olympic Games and the Commission are keen that the city's 15 million residents dress and act impeccably.

Authorities say that campaigns in the past to improve the city's behaviour, including stopping people spitting in public and learning how to queue properly, have been successful.

Rules are also already in place to try to control taxi drivers' bad breath. They have been ordered to cut down on their garlic consumption and watch what they eat for breakfast.

Zheng Mojie, deputy director of the commission, said: "The level of civility of the whole city has improved and a sound cultural and social environment has been assured for the success of the Olympic Games."

The campaign involves nearly a million volunteers giving etiquette tips in schools, universities and government offices. Some university students have been encouraged to educate rural villagers about the new code of conduct.

Beijing Olympics: Government U-turn ends ban on human rights websites

2008-08-02T00:44:00.001-07:00

China has lifted blocks on several long-barred websites after criticism of their censorship.

The move, which followed overnight talks with the International Olympic Committee, means that sites including those of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the BBC Chinese language service are accessible in Beijing, Shanghai and possibly further afield.

The ban had been deeply embarrassing for the IOC, which had said that journalists would have the same internet access they had enjoyed at previous Olympics.

It was initially thought that only the Olympic media centre and hotels used by journalists would have access to such sites, but they are currently visible to internet users far outside those locations.

However, sites with information on the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong, Chinese dissidents, the Tibetan government in exile and the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests are still inaccessible.

The U-turn came as President Hu Jintao said his country would stand by the pledges it made in bidding for the games, in a rare interview with a select group of foreign reporters. "The Chinese government and the Chinese people have been working in real earnest to honour the commitments made to the international community," said Hu.

But he also warned critics against politicising the Olympics, saying it would not help to resolve contentious issues.

IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said earlier this week that some IOC officials had made a deal to let China block sensitive websites to the media, despite repeated promises of an unrestricted internet. He said the unannounced censorship had been embarrassing for him and that Beijing organisers "could have done better".

But yesterday he said that the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, had assured him that its stance had not changed.

"We met with Beijing organisers and the Chinese authorities yesterday and they have addressed these issues," said an IOC spokeswoman, Emmanuelle Moreau.

Beijing Olympic spokesman Sun Weide declined to confirm that restrictions had been eased, telling reporters only that internet access was "fully open". "Beijing organisers will honour the promise to the IOC to provide sufficient access," he said at a news conference. "At the moment the channel for reporters to use the internet is fully open."

A spokesman for Amnesty International said: "It's good news that our site has been unblocked in Olympic venues and perhaps elsewhere in Beijing, but it is still a long way from the 'complete media freedom' promised. It seems public outrage has succeeded where the IOC's 'quiet diplomacy' had failed."

Chinese engineers quoted in an article in the Atlantic Monthly said they had been told to prepare to unblock access for a list of specific internet protocol addresses to used by foreign visitors.

But Andrew Lih, a new media author in Beijing, said it seemed the authorities might have simply decided it was easier to lift blocks for everyone. "It's possible [to block individual locations] but would be very complicated," he said.

Beijing preserves cultural heritage while achieving modernization

2008-07-31T21:18:00.000-07:00

The Chinese government has succeeded in transforming Beijing into a modern, cosmopolitan city while protecting its 3,000-year cultural heritage, Kong Fanzhi, director, and Yu Ping, deputy director, of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage, told reporters at a press conference at 11:00 a.m. on July 30.

Beijing has long been faced with the complex responsibility of protecting the cultural heritage, relics and artifacts that have accumulated in the past 3,000 years. The task has been made all the more difficult for the central and municipal governments, as modernization of the urban environment in the city has been equally essential.

As it has in developing its economy, Beijing has also been attempting to take into account the experience of developed countries in preserving its heritage.

Kong introduced the government's approaches to preserving historical and cultural heritages in the city. By preserving the core essence of the city, it is preserving the sites of the Ming and Qing Dynasties that have existed for more than 500 years. The 7.8-kilometer Central Axis running from Yongdingmen, crossing through Zhengyangmen, the Forbidden City, Jingshan Park and then to the Bell and Drum Towers, still remains intact. The imperial city area (8.6 square meters), including the imperial garden, is well preserved, and its original pattern in a reversed capitalized T remains unchanged.

Moreover, Beijing spreads the scope of preservation to the cultural houses and hutong in a large area and the more than 1,000 heritage buildings within the ancient city.

For effective protection, a series of rules, regulations and laws have been passed to protect the famous historical and cultural city. Kong named the laws protecting the imperial city and the imperial palace as examples.

For modern buildings, high-rises in particular, a limit was in place on the height of new buildings built prior to 2004; now there is control on both the height and number of buildings.

Kong revealed that the government's investment in heritage protection reached 930 million yuan in 2000-2007 and it will increase to 1.2 billion yuan in 2008-2015. Before 1990, the total annual investment was only around one million yuan. In addition, society has invested five billion yuan into those protection projects. In the past eight years, 139 projects have been completed, of which 78 projects increased the number of areas open to the public. The Summer Palace, for example, after renovation, has opened up the western part to the public, with 20 hectares of accessible garden.

Moreover, the government has put in one billion yuan for the renovation of hutong and siheyuan to improve the living conditions of local residents.

Finally he introduced the protection efforts in the planning and construction of the Olympic venues and installations.

Beijing Olympic Torch Relay in Tangshan winds up

2008-07-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

(BEIJING, July 31) -- Chen Guoying, mayor of Tangshan, lit the cauldron at Caofeidian Island Hotel Square at 12:05 on Thursday, bringing the Tangshan leg of the Olympic Torch Relay to an end. This is also the last stop for the sacred flame in Hebei Province.

The torch relay in Tangshan was divided into two stages. 59 torchbearers participated in the first part, which spanned 2.7 kilometers. This section of the relay followed a theme of all-round relief efforts and goodwill for Wenchuan County of Sichuan Province, which was devastated by an earthquake on May 12. A few of these torchbearers were selected from the numerous model workers who had served at rescue operations in Sichuan and elsewhere.

The second part, covering 7.4 kilometers with 149 torch bearers, was carried out at Caofeidian Industrial Zone, a promising large-scale industrial area still under construction.

Another highlight of the Torch Relay in Tangshan was that many torchbearers were former Olympic or world champions. Among them were Qian Hong (Women's 100 meter Butterfly champion, 1992 Olympic Games), Niu Jianfeng (Women's Singles champion, 2003 ITTF Professional Tournament), Yun Yanhong (46kg champion, 1994 World Women's Weightlifting Tournament), and Wang Kenan (3m Springboard Men's Doubles champion, 2004 World Cup Diving).

Tianjin will host the next leg of the Torch Relay on August 1.