Beijing 2008 Olympic Youth Campers bid farewell at closing ceremony
August 26, 2008
(BEIJING, August 17) — The 12-day Beijing 2008 Olympic Youth Camp closed on August 17. All 479 memb…
OYC members plant trees of friendship at the Great Wall
August 26, 2008
Campers tie cards with their best wishes on the trees they plant.Photo Gallery(BEIJING, August 16) -…
OYC members enjoy Beijing Happy Valley
August 26, 2008
OYC members watch a competition.Photo Gallery(BEIJING, August 13) — On August 13, 481 Beijing 2008 …
Sticking their oars in to supreme effect
August 19, 2008
The 2008 Olympic rowing competition has reached its climax over the past two days with a total of 14 gold medals awarded - eight to the men and six to the women.
Most decorated rower
Looking back to the Olympic history of rowing, seven was the magic number as far as Romania’s Elisabeta Lipa was concerned. The most decorated of all Olympic rowers, Lipa won seven medals in total at five different Olympic Games, with at least one medal at each Games. In 2000 in Sydney, Lipa, who made her living working for the Romanian equivalent of the CIA, became the oldest oarswoman to win a gold medal in the eight with coxswain event at the Games.
Single sculls masters
Having won the double sculls in 1984, Lipa shares the record for most years between gold medals (16) with Britain’s Steve Redgrave, the only rower to earn gold medals at five consecutive Games. Redgrave’s victories came in fours and pairs between 1984 and 2000. Meanwhile, Vyacheslav Ivanov of the Soviet Union (1956-1964) and Pertti Karppinen (1976-1984), a two-metre tall fireman from Finland, share the distinction of being the only men to win the single sculls on three separate occasions.
Inauspicious start
Rowing made an inauspicious start to its Olympic career – included in the programme for the first Games in 1896, it was cancelled owing to bad weather. Four years later a boy was plucked from the streets of Paris to act as cox for the Dutch team in the paired-oar event and, after steering them to the gold medal, joining in the victory ceremony and having his photograph taken, he disappeared back into obscurity, his name unknown to this day. He was quite possibly the youngest champion in Olympic history.
Closest final in history
Certainly the youngest since then was 11-year-old Carlos Front, coxswain for the Spanish eight in 1992, the final of which was the closest rowing final in Olympic history, Canada beating Romania by less than 30 centimetres. Finally, back in Paris but this time in 1924, a member of the Yale University crew that won the coxed eights for the USA was Ben Spock, who 20 years later wrote The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care which went on to sell more than 35 million copies.
World-wide readers love “Olympic Express”
August 19, 2008
The e-journal “Olympic Express” the IOC is running on www.olympic.org in collaboration with the French number one sports newspaper “L’Équipe”, and its special outlet “L’Équipe junior” for a younger audience, is reaching out to a large world-wide audience that obviously appreciates this special initiative for the Beijing Games. Here are some quotes from the very generous feedback “Olympic Express” receives.
From Brazil:
“Olympic Express shows everything that is important in a sport! I think Olympic Express should be published on more sports websites or something like this!”
“Olympic Express deserves the gold medal in Olympic communication.”
From China:
“This is very good; it provides all the information indeed to be able to follow the planet’s biggest sporting event.”
“We want to know more about the news of the Olympics. How do people prepare? I think e-books are very interesting and convenient.”
Belgium:
« Bonjour, quelle bonne idée cette brochure. Je suis instituteur primaire et je me base sur celle-ci pour mes leçons.” (“Hello. This brochure is a great idea. I am a junior school teacher and use it for my lessons.”)
USA:
“I just love this website because it gives you all the latest info on the Olympics and facts on each sport, and I am very thankful that I found this website because I have a report in school on the Olympics and I’m doing ice-skating. So everyone out there who’s interested in the Olympics should go there.”
“I love all your articles! They are very informative and fun to read!”
England:
“I really like Olympic Express and so do all of my friends.”
Australia:
“Hi, my children and I love reading your magazine. I am also a teacher and my class is also enjoying the magazine. Thank you very much!”
England:
“I really like The Olympic Games and this great magazine ‘Olympic Express’. I can’t wait for 2012 as my host country will host the Games in London. I hope to be a spectator, watching the opening/closing ceremony and the athletics and aquatics events. My first Olympic memories are from Sydney 2000, seeing Sir Steve Redgrave winning his fifth gold medal. Of course in Athens 2004, I can remember Kelly Holmes winning two gold medals. She is an Olympic legend. I will try my best to share the Olympic spirit with everyone around the world and seek for peace.”
Record women’s participation
August 19, 2008
With more than 42 per cent female athletes, Beijing sets a new record for women’s participation in Olympic Games. Out of 11,196 total athletes, there are 4,746 women currently giving their best across various Olympic sports. Women’s participation in the Olympic Games has grown increasingly, particularly within the last two decades.
Women in the spotlight
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games kicked off with 63 female flag bearers leading their delegations into the Olympic stadium during the Opening Ceremony on 8 August. On 9 August, Katerina Emmons from the Czech Republic became the first woman to win a gold medal in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games by winning the women’s 10m air rifle event in shooting. Among the female competitors in Beijing, the female athletes from Europe have won most of the medals so far, followed by their Asian counterparts.
From Rome to Beijing
Whilst the 611 women who participated in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome represented just 11.5 per cent of the athletes, women’s participation had leaped to represent close to 22 per cent by the Olympic Games in 1980 in Moscow. At the Sydney Games in 2000, the number of female athletes reached more than 38 per cent, with 4,069 women of a total of 10,651 athletes. Athens, four years later, saw 4,306 female athletes competing out of a total of 10,568. In 2004, women were in the spotlight in no less than 135 events and in 26 of the 28 Olympic sports. In Beijing, women will compete in the same number of sports but in 137 events.
Badminton: Asia continues to dominate
August 19, 2008
Badminton crowned its women’s singles champion, Zhang Ning of China as well as its men’s doubles champions, Kido Markis and Setiawan Hendra of Indonesia, as Asia continued its domination of this relatively young Olympic sport.
Hoyer-Larsen out on his own
Ever since it was introduced to the Olympic Games in 1992, only one gold medal has ended up outside Asia, with Denmark’s Paul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen winning the men’s singles in Atlanta in 1996. The remaining 19 gold medals prior to these Games were shared between just three countries: China, South Korea and Indonesia, whose five Olympic gold medals have all come in badminton.
Gigantic shuttlecock
The first of these was Susi Susanti’s victory in Barcelona in 1992, and just two hours later her fiancé, Allan Budi Kusuma, won the men’s title. When Susanti and Kusuma returned to Indonesia the celebration in their honour included a two-hour parade through the streets of Jakarta that was led by a car carrying a gigantic shuttlecock. Susanti returned to win a bronze medal four years later in Atlanta, and in 1997 Susanti and Kusuma were married.
Model of dedication
At the last two Olympic Games, in Sydney and Athens, China has been utterly dominant in women’s singles and doubles, as well as mixed doubles. The story of 2004 champion Zhang Ning is a model of dedication: she left her home in Liaonong Province at the age of 12 to train full-time, and when she and her fiancé received their marriage licence in 2001, they delayed their ceremony for three years until after the 2004 Games, during which time they never spent more than two months together at a stretch.
Childhood team-mates
Ge Fei and Gu Jun from Jiangsu Province began playing badminton together when they were nine years old. Twelve years later, they ran through the field at the 1996 Olympic Games to win the women’s doubles gold medal, and four years later in Sydney they did the same, only once conceding more than seven points in a game. Ge, whose specialty was playing close to the net, also won a world championship in mixed doubles in 1997 while pairing with Liu Yong.
Participation is the most important thing
August 19, 2008
One camper is from China, the other from Sweden. They’re both trying to solve a Rubik’s cube challen…
Coca-Cola exhibits art bottles
August 19, 2008
34 Coca-Cola art bottles and their creators gathered at the Olympic Green complex. (Photo credit: Li…
Olympic Fine Arts 2008 opens in Beijing
August 19, 2008
IOC President Jacques Rogge gives a speech (Photo credit: Li Wei)Photo Gallery(BEIJING, August 11) -…