Volunteers make up a large part of the Summer Games. Not just in help, but also in mass. The National Stadium holds 91,000 people. The Olympic volunteers consist of 70,000 people, the Paralympic volunteers another 30,000. There are more volunteers than seats in the “Bird’s Nest”. The majority of the volunteers (who must be 18 or older) are stationed in and around the venues, and offer services to just about every department (e.g. guest reception, translation, transport, medical services, security, etc.). We met Zhang Jiayu at the Information Desk at The North Garden Hotel, and asked her a few questions about herself.

I took an examination that tested our English and I passed. Because we have to communicate a lot with foreigners, they were looking for students with language skills and knowledge about different countries and cultures. And I wanted to volunteer because I wanted to work for the Olympics. This is the first time for China to host the Olympics and I thought I had to do something for the Games, so I became a volunteer.

What does your day consist of as a volunteer?

I work about 8 hours, and my shift is 2.30 to 10 p.m. Mostly we explain many, many questions to all our guests. For example, where is the accreditation centre? Where is the subway? Can you write down the Chinese name of a place? But the most common question is, “How do I get to the Beijing Hotel?”, which is right across the street.

What do you like most about being a volunteer?

Because Beijing is such a big city there are many places that I don’t know, so I cannot guarantee I will know the answer to every question without getting on the Internet or calling someone. But every time I help a guest solve a problem I learn a new place and how to go there, and maybe next time I won’t have to check and can tell them the exact information. I think it is helpful for me to do all these things.

What will you do once the Olympics are over?

In September I will go back for my last year at Beijing Foreign Studies University. After that, I want to take a job.

Without GE there wouldn’t be much of an Olympic Games. That is of course unless the athletes have been practising in the dark! The company has been working around the clock to make sure all 37 official Beijing Olympic venues have a variety of essentials, power and lighting being key among them.

But this isn’t the company’s first time around the block. Director of PR for GE, Deirdre Latour, says the reason GE has once again teamed up with the Olympic Games is because “it’s a great opportunity for us to build our brand around the world in key cities like Beijing, Vancouver and London. And the values of the Games align with the values of GE.”

Leading by example

One of GE’s strategies is to provide environmentally advanced technologies to the Games from cleaner energy generation and water purification to efficient lighting technology. And they are doing that by providing water recycling technologies to the National Stadium as well as supplying more than 100 wind turbines to wind farms north of Beijing, which will supply energy to the Olympic central area.

A hands-on approach

On-site GE is showcasing its innovative technology via its Imagination Center. The 1,500 square-metre pavilion allows visitors to see first-hand the pioneering solutions GE created in order to help Beijing host the largest, most technologically advanced Olympic Games to date. Latour adds, “The Imagination Center brings to life GE’s sponsorship of the Beijing Games. It showcases our innovative technologies like wind, water and lighting that have contributed to building the infrastructure of all 37 venues and 168 commercial buildings around Beijing.”

The two-storey building features an outdoor waterfall and interactive tour and is located in the Sponsor Village on the Olympic Green. It is open daily to the public from 4 to 24 August between the hours of 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. After the Games, the Center will be moved and installed in the lobby of the new GE-China headquarters in Shanghai.

When Chinese President Hu Jintao declared the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing open, these simple words - long-awaited by 20 per cent of the world’s population and some 10,500 athletes from the five continents – also appeared in French on the giant screens inside the Olympic Stadium.

This presence of the language of Olympic Games reviver Pierre de Coubertin at the first Games organised in the People’s Republic of China marked the kick-off of a Francophone event which took place in the Chinese capital the day after the Games Opening Ceremony. At the initiative of the Secretary General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), Abdou Diouf, this meeting brought together several heads of state and of government, sports ministers, Olympic family members – both French-speaking and international – around a message to promote the French language and the values that the French-speaking family and the sports movement share.

French, an official language of the Olympic Movement, along with English, is of fundamental importance for the Olympic Games. That is why the OIF signed a convention with the Beijing Games Organising Committee (BOCOG) proposing a series of measures to accompany BOCOG’s efforts to encourage the use of French. These include translating the Games web site and the official information platform, INFO2008; signage in French at the Olympic venues; translating the main publications by BOCOG, including the Spectator Guide; recruiting 40 translators and French-speaking journalists for the period of the Games for written and oral announcements and the ceremonies; not forgetting providing French training for several hundreds of Chinese; and finally, organising French-speaking cultural events.

Like in Athens in 2004 and Turin in 2006, a Grand Témoin [Great Witness] – in this instance former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin – will visit the sports venues, Olympic enclosures and other public places and attend the competitions and official events in Beijing. To date, like its predecessors, Beijing in 2008 is taking the same approach to being loyal to the French culture and language and taking it beyond the promotion and development of cultural diversity, values shared by Olympism and the OIF. Expect to go further and stronger in Vancouver in 2010, London in 2012 and Sochi in 2014….

Official site of the OIF

Official site of the Beijing Games

The first fencing medals of the 2008 Olympic Games were won in the men’s épée when Matteo Tagliariol from Italy beat French Fabrice Jeannet 15-9 in the final to take gold. It was the first gold medal for Italy in Men’ Individual Epee since 1960, the Rome Games. Tagliariol was overwhelmed: “I have lost my voice, I am so excited right now and I have no way of expresing myself.”

Fencing is one of only four sports to have featured at every modern Olympic Games, and was the first to allow professionals to take part. The men’s épée, the traditional sword of duels, was not among the disciplines at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 but was introduced four years later in Paris, when Cuba’s Ramón Fonst Segundono took gold at the age of just 16. He successfully defended his title at the next Games in St Louis, and is still the only man to have done so in the individual épée. He also won the foil for good measure.

However, Fonst’s versatility could not compare with Italy’s Nedo Nadi, the only man to have won with each of the three main weapons at the same Games. In 1912, when only 18, he won the foil. Then, after being decorated by his government for bravery in World War I, he won an unprecedented and unequalled five gold medals in Antwerp in 1920: the individual foil and sabre, plus the team foil, épée and sabre. His brother, Aldo, also won gold in each of the three team events.

Mighty Magyars

No account of Olympic fencing would be complete without mention of Hungary’s astonishing run of gold medal winners in the men’s individual sabre from 1908 all the way through to 1964, missing out only in 1920 when they did not compete. Meanwhile, the fencing prowess of Italy’s men has continued to this day. In Athens four years ago, Aldo Montano won the sabre, and became the third generation of his family to win an Olympic medal in the competition.

On the women’s side, Ilona Elek was already 29 when she competed in the Berlin Games, her first. In the foil she defeated the winners of the two previous Games, Helene Mayer of Germany and Ellen Preis of Austria, to take the gold medal. When the Games resumed after the war in London in 1948, Elek became one of only two champions from 1936 to successfully defend her title. Many years later, Elek’s fellow Hungarian Timea Nagy, who began fencing at the age of 14 to impress a boyfriend, also managed to defend her Olympic title by winning the épée in 2000 and 2004.

Learn more on Fencing

The International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Coordination Commission for the London 2012 Games has delivered a positive endorsement of the work being carried out by the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) and its partners. Led by its Chairman Denis Oswald, the Commission had spent three days (20-22 May) visiting some of the 2012 venues and hearing updates from LOCOG, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and the other organisations involved in preparing for the Games.









Deliver Great Games

Speaking at the end of the visit, Denis Oswald said, “The Commission has been greatly impressed by the quality and speed with which LOCOG and its partners have been able to progress since our last visit. The most visible element is obviously venue construction, and the progress made on the Olympic Park, in particular, is truly astounding. In all the areas of preparation, we have been able to see marked progress by the London 2012 team, and this puts LOCOG on track to deliver great Games in 2012 and a great legacy beyond.”











Political Support

The Commission was also able to meet this week with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, leader of the opposition David Cameron, Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster, Olympic Minister Tessa Jowell and the newly elected Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Oswald said, “The cross party support for the Games and the backing from the highest levels of Government in Great Britain is extremely reassuring. This strong basis of support for the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be crucial to London 2012 achieving its objectives. It is also pleasing to see that all levels of Government are working hard to engender a legacy of sports participation from the Games.”









Focus On The Athletes

With many former top level athletes on the Commission, along with highly experienced sports administrators, the group was pleased to see how LOCOG, in association with the British Olympic Association (BOA), was focusing on the athletes’ needs for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Chairman Oswald noted, “The athletes are central to the Games, and our Commission members know exactly what it takes to perform at your best on the field of play, as we have a number of Olympians and Paralympians around the table. We have all been very pleased to see that LOCOG has recognised the important place that the athletes hold in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and this is reflected throughout their planning.”











LONDON 2012London was elected as the Host City for the Games of the XXX Olympiad on 6 July 2005 at the 117th IOC Session in Singapore. London eventually succeeded in the fourth round of voting taking 54 votes from a possible 104. London faced stiff opposition during the vote from the other four candidate cities: Paris, New York, Moscow and Madrid. There will be 26 sports on the Olympic Programme in London in 2012 and around 10,500 athletes.