BOCOG ceremonies center donates to quake sufferers
May 21, 2008
Staff members line up to make donations.Photo Gallery(BEIJING, May 20) — Staff members of the opera…
Phase Three Of Beijing 2008 Domestic Ticket Sales Announced
April 24, 2008
Beijing has announced the third phase of ticket sales will be from May 5th until June 9th. Again these tickets will only be available to individual buyers. Read more here at GamesBids.com
High speed link between Beijing and Tianjin is on track
April 20, 2008
The new high speed train will be in service in time for the Olympics in August. The train is capable of traveling 350 KPH (217 MPH) and will cut the time it takes to travel today by train nearly in half. This is just one of the first legs that will be opening soon. The entire project will take around 5 years to complete. Planning for the $36 B project started nearly a decade ago and is an overdue and welcome upgrade.
Beijing’s Olympics hospitality lost in translation
April 16, 2008
China ’s societal self-improvement in preparation for the 2008 Olympics continues. The Beijing Tourism Bureau ordered hotels to re-translate English signs, hoping to avoid such notorious past gaffes as “Racist Park,” which is now “Park of Ethnic Minorities,” and a cafe’s attempt to salute Western visitors with “Welcome, big nose friends.” And the Beijing Olympics Committee has been training hostesses for months to stand in military-like precision, straight enough to hold a sheet of paper between their knees, and to smile continuously, showing “six to eight teeth” (even if placing a chopstick in the mouth sideways is necessary for practice). There are height and weight requirements for the hostesses, and each must have an upper- to lower-body ratio of no more than 11-to-13, to eliminate, according to local newspapers, “big bottoms.” [Daily Telegraph (London), 3-20-08] [Daily Telegraph (London), 1-11-08]
Does new swimsuit give an unfair advantage?
April 15, 2008
There has been a lot of talk recently about the new Speedo LZR Racer bodysuit that a number of athletes are going to be wearing at the Olympics this year. This new space age suit is claimed to give up to a 2% advantage to the wearer by reducing drag in the water. Since it’s introduction 36 world records have been broken by people wearing it. This has stirred some controversy as to whether it is a rules complaint swimsuit and has posed a dilemma for competitors that may have contracts and agreements to wear suits made by other vendors. They now have to choose between honoring their agreements or attempting to post the best times possible. The suits also have some people saying they don’t believe in the claimed advantages. But 36 new records by people wearing this suit do pose a case for the merits of Speedo’s claims. More Information here:
2008 Olympics will have HD overload
April 11, 2008
NBC is primed to set a HD content record with the upcoming Olympic games in Beijing this Summer. They expect to broadcast 756 hours of HD content which is up from the 399 in 2004 during the Athens games. Additionally over 3,600 hours of coverage will also be available online. This is nearly three times the 1,210 hours from Athens. They will be providing coverage on NBC HD, Universal HD, and USA HD. Read more here in a recent Variety article .
Early 2008 Olympic Prognosticators
January 5, 2008
Jonathan and Ross at "The Science of Sport " have put in some of their early predictions for several track events at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Only time will tell how accurate their predictions are.