Showing posts with label beijing 2008. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beijing 2008. Show all posts
Monday, August 18, 2008
Another Set of Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos
Another Set of Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos:
Another Set of Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos
Another Set of Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos
Another Set of Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos
Another Set of Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos
Another Set of Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos
Another Set of Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos
Another Set of Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos
Another Set of Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos
Another Set of Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos
Another Set of Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Photos
Thursday, August 14, 2008
A general view during archery training
A general view during archery training ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympics at Olympic Green Archery Field on August 6, 2008 in Beijing, China. 
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Women's Individual Time Trial: Armstrong mines gold
(BEIJING, August 13) -- Kristin Armstrong of the United States carved the winning difference on a long downhill section to claim the gold medal in the Women's Individual Time Trial on Wednesday.
Emma Pooley of Great Britain set an early fast time, but was knocked down to the silver medal by Armstrong's powerful performance in the second half of the one-lap, 23.5km course up and down a steep climb along the Badaling section of the Great Wall.
Karin Thurig of Switzerland took bronze less than two seconds ahead of cycling legend Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli of France.
Armstrong was four seconds slower than Pooley at the top of the main climbing section, but the 2006 world Time Trial champion powered over the second half of the course to win in 34:51.72 (40.445kph).
The gold is Armstrong's first in Olympic competition and the first by the USA Cycling team in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Pooley, who had never previously won a medal in international competition and only began racing in 2005, was almost the surprise winner in 35:16.01. The trained engineer calculated it well enough to settle for silver at 24.29 seconds slower.
Thurig scored a second consecutive Olympic bronze medal by also riding well in the second half of the course to finish with 35:50.99 at 59.27 seconds off the winning time. The two-time world Time Trial champion also won bronze in the Time Trial in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
Longo-Ciprelli, 49, narrowly missed a career fifth Olympic medal by stopping the clock in fourth place in 35:52.62, nearly one second off the podium. The French veteran is racing in her seventh consecutive Olympic Games.
Cooler weather, light winds and cloudy skies welcomed 25 starters who raced one at a time in a race against the clock, but there was none of the heavy rainfall that drenched the Women's Cycling Road Race on Sunday.
Armstrong competes. (Photo credit: Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
Armstrong (C), Pooley (L) and Thurig (Photo credit: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Monday, July 28, 2008
Beijing sets up sex determination lab for Olympics
Beijing sets up sex determination lab for Olympics
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Beijing has set up a sex determination lab to test female Olympic athletes suspected to be males.
Suspected athletes will be evaluated from their external appearances by experts and undergo blood tests to examine their sex hormones, genes and chromosomes for sex determination, according to Prof. Tian Qinjie of Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
Initial test results would be available in three days, while an official result takes seven days, he said.
The test aims to maintain fairness of the Games, and to rule out inaccurate test results.
Experts say test results for about one in 500 to 600 athletes are abnormal.
The tests are to be conducted at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
Polish runner Ewar Kobukkowska, who won a gold medal in the women's 4 X 100 meter relay and the bronze in the women's 100 meter sprint at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, was the first athlete to be caught in a gender test after she failed the early form of a chromosome test in 1967.
She was found to have a rare genetic condition which gave her no advantage over other athletes, but was nonetheless banned from competing in the Olympics and professional sports.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, eight athletes failed the tests but were all cleared by subsequent examinations.
In another case, Indian middle distance runner Santhi Soundarajan who won the silver medal in the 800 meters track event at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, failed the sex determination test and was stripped of her medal.
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Beijing has set up a sex determination lab to test female Olympic athletes suspected to be males.
Suspected athletes will be evaluated from their external appearances by experts and undergo blood tests to examine their sex hormones, genes and chromosomes for sex determination, according to Prof. Tian Qinjie of Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
Initial test results would be available in three days, while an official result takes seven days, he said.
The test aims to maintain fairness of the Games, and to rule out inaccurate test results.
Experts say test results for about one in 500 to 600 athletes are abnormal.
The tests are to be conducted at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
Polish runner Ewar Kobukkowska, who won a gold medal in the women's 4 X 100 meter relay and the bronze in the women's 100 meter sprint at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, was the first athlete to be caught in a gender test after she failed the early form of a chromosome test in 1967.
She was found to have a rare genetic condition which gave her no advantage over other athletes, but was nonetheless banned from competing in the Olympics and professional sports.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, eight athletes failed the tests but were all cleared by subsequent examinations.
In another case, Indian middle distance runner Santhi Soundarajan who won the silver medal in the 800 meters track event at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, failed the sex determination test and was stripped of her medal.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Olympic torch relay cut to one day in Tibet
Olympic torch relay cut to one day in Tibet
BEIJING (AFP) — China has scrapped its original plans for a three-day Olympic torch relay tour of Tibet and will send the flame there just for one day this weekend, a Beijing Olympic official said Wednesday.
Zhu Jing, a spokeswoman at the Beijing Games organising committee, said the decision to cut short the relay and run it through the Tibetan capital Lhasa on Saturday was taken following last month's earthquake in Sichuan province.
"Following the earthquake on May 12, BOCOG has announced adjustments to the domestic legs of the torch relay," Zhu said.
"The Tibet leg of the relay will be on June 21, with the relay taking place in Lhasa."
The torch was originally scheduled to tour Tibet for three days from June 19 to 21 as part of its long international journey to the Games being hosted by the Chinese capital in August.
The torch is currently travelling through Xinjiang, a largely Muslim region in China's northwest, on a three-day, four-city tour scheduled to end Thursday.
The stops in Xinjiang and the Tibetan regions of China are regarded as the most sensitive of the domestic relay route, which runs for thousands of miles (kilometres) over three months through every part of the country.
China accuses Muslim separatists in Xinjiang of plotting terrorist attacks on the Games and stepped up security in the region ahead of the relay.
Tibetans are also accused of targeting the Olympics, following a crackdown on anti-Chinese government unrest in Lhasa in March in which exiled Tibetan leaders say 203 people died.
China has reported killing one Tibetan "insurgent" and says "rioters" were responsible for 21 deaths.
Despite the unrest China stuck with its original plan to take the torch relay to the top of Mount Everest on May 8 using a separate flame from the one used on the relay route through the rest of the country.
The ascent took place under tight security and triggered protests from exiled Tibetan groups who said it was a provocation and politicised the torch relay.
China's rule over Tibet was a major rallying cry for protesters who dogged the torch's month-long global journey in April before it came here.
Pro-Tibet activists have argued that the leg in Lhasa should be cancelled due to the unrest.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Chinese authorities were using the relay as a propaganda tool and had been carrying out arbitrary arrests to prevent protests during the relay.
"It is irresponsible for the Chinese government to deliberately send a torch into a powder keg, and the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and Olympic sponsors should ask Beijing to cancel this part of the relay," the group said in a statement.
BOCOG said that 50 journalists from 31 news organisations would be allowed to cover the relay in Lhasa, which has been off limits to foreign reporters and tourists since the crackdown on unrest there three months ago.
"We will make proper arrangements for media coverage of the relay in Lhasa," said Zhu.
She declined to say whether scrapping the original three-day torch leg was connected to security fears in the Himalayan region following the unrest.
"The adjustment to the Tibet leg of the torch relay is because of the earthquake, which has caused us to make several changes to the original route," said Zhu.
According to the original torch relay schedule, the Tibetan leg was to be followed by a trip to neighbouring Qinghai and then Gansu province, which both have ethnic Tibetan communities.
Zhu said the future route had yet to be officially announced. Torch relay organisers in the Qinghai capital of Xining told AFP that they had no information and calls to the torch relay office in Gansu's capital Lanzhou went unanswered.
BEIJING (AFP) — China has scrapped its original plans for a three-day Olympic torch relay tour of Tibet and will send the flame there just for one day this weekend, a Beijing Olympic official said Wednesday.
Zhu Jing, a spokeswoman at the Beijing Games organising committee, said the decision to cut short the relay and run it through the Tibetan capital Lhasa on Saturday was taken following last month's earthquake in Sichuan province.
"Following the earthquake on May 12, BOCOG has announced adjustments to the domestic legs of the torch relay," Zhu said.
"The Tibet leg of the relay will be on June 21, with the relay taking place in Lhasa."
The torch was originally scheduled to tour Tibet for three days from June 19 to 21 as part of its long international journey to the Games being hosted by the Chinese capital in August.
The torch is currently travelling through Xinjiang, a largely Muslim region in China's northwest, on a three-day, four-city tour scheduled to end Thursday.
The stops in Xinjiang and the Tibetan regions of China are regarded as the most sensitive of the domestic relay route, which runs for thousands of miles (kilometres) over three months through every part of the country.
China accuses Muslim separatists in Xinjiang of plotting terrorist attacks on the Games and stepped up security in the region ahead of the relay.
Tibetans are also accused of targeting the Olympics, following a crackdown on anti-Chinese government unrest in Lhasa in March in which exiled Tibetan leaders say 203 people died.
China has reported killing one Tibetan "insurgent" and says "rioters" were responsible for 21 deaths.
Despite the unrest China stuck with its original plan to take the torch relay to the top of Mount Everest on May 8 using a separate flame from the one used on the relay route through the rest of the country.
The ascent took place under tight security and triggered protests from exiled Tibetan groups who said it was a provocation and politicised the torch relay.
China's rule over Tibet was a major rallying cry for protesters who dogged the torch's month-long global journey in April before it came here.
Pro-Tibet activists have argued that the leg in Lhasa should be cancelled due to the unrest.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Chinese authorities were using the relay as a propaganda tool and had been carrying out arbitrary arrests to prevent protests during the relay.
"It is irresponsible for the Chinese government to deliberately send a torch into a powder keg, and the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and Olympic sponsors should ask Beijing to cancel this part of the relay," the group said in a statement.
BOCOG said that 50 journalists from 31 news organisations would be allowed to cover the relay in Lhasa, which has been off limits to foreign reporters and tourists since the crackdown on unrest there three months ago.
"We will make proper arrangements for media coverage of the relay in Lhasa," said Zhu.
She declined to say whether scrapping the original three-day torch leg was connected to security fears in the Himalayan region following the unrest.
"The adjustment to the Tibet leg of the torch relay is because of the earthquake, which has caused us to make several changes to the original route," said Zhu.
According to the original torch relay schedule, the Tibetan leg was to be followed by a trip to neighbouring Qinghai and then Gansu province, which both have ethnic Tibetan communities.
Zhu said the future route had yet to be officially announced. Torch relay organisers in the Qinghai capital of Xining told AFP that they had no information and calls to the torch relay office in Gansu's capital Lanzhou went unanswered.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Chinese Company Gains Olympic Webcast Rights
June 17, 2008, 12:49 am
Chinese Company Gains Olympic Webcast Rights
By Azadeh Ensha
The Chinese Web portal Sohu.com Inc. announced Monday that it has signed an agreement with the Internet arm of CCTV, the Chinese state television network, granting it official rights to webcast the Beijing Olympic Games, including the opening and closing ceremonies as well as all athletic competitions.
Under the contract, Sohu.com will offer live webcasts and video on demand of Olympic events, relying on its 700-person-plus staff to manage pictures, videos, blogs and forums. The company will “provide total coverage of Chinese representatives, athletes, teams, and Olympic champions at least 60 seconds ahead of any other website,” according to the Beijing Games official site.
The amount of the deal was unspecified.
In 2005, the Beijing-based portal reportedly paid $30 million for the rights to host the Games’ Web site for the Beijing Olympics and to use its logo. Sohu also moved to claim exclusive rights to host all advertising by Beijing Games sponsors who use the Olympics logo, a move that spurred other Chinese sites, including Sohu competitor Sina, to form an alliance against Sohu.
The rivalry underscores the growing business of Internet marketing in China. As of June 2007, there were more than 160 million Internet users in China, placing it second behind the U.S., and online ads were expected to generate an estimated 8.3 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) for the year, according to an article in China Daily.
This week Reuters reported that broadcasters had yet to learn whether their applications for licenses to transmit live from major landmarks — an integral part of coverage at past Olympics — had been approved for the Beijing Games, despite previous promises by China to grant access.
“The line we’re getting from various authorities is that policies on live transmissions from outside Olympic venues and iconic sites have not been decided yet,” Kevin Fleck of Global Vision, which provides services to Olympic sponsors, rights holders and non-rights holders, told Reuters. “Broadcasters needed the decision to be made months ago because they have to commit budgets and allocate air-time for Olympic slots,” he added.
Following a Monday meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, International Olympic Committee member Kevan Gosper told The Associated Press: “There has been some progress in the last two weeks, I can tell you that. But I can’t say we are there yet.”
At a meeting among TV executives, IOC officials and top Chinese leadership in Beijing on May 29, broadcasters were told it was unlikely they would be allowed to transmit live from outside venues, the AP reports. Chinese officials may be motivated to limit access in order to prevent foreign cameras from sighting protests by groups opposing the government.
The IOC estimates that about 30,000 accredited and non-accredited journalists will cover the games.
This year also marks the first time the IOC has allowed athletes to blog at the Games.
News courtesy:NY TIMES FOR MORE OLYMPIC RELATED NEWS
Chinese Company Gains Olympic Webcast Rights
By Azadeh Ensha
The Chinese Web portal Sohu.com Inc. announced Monday that it has signed an agreement with the Internet arm of CCTV, the Chinese state television network, granting it official rights to webcast the Beijing Olympic Games, including the opening and closing ceremonies as well as all athletic competitions.
Under the contract, Sohu.com will offer live webcasts and video on demand of Olympic events, relying on its 700-person-plus staff to manage pictures, videos, blogs and forums. The company will “provide total coverage of Chinese representatives, athletes, teams, and Olympic champions at least 60 seconds ahead of any other website,” according to the Beijing Games official site.
The amount of the deal was unspecified.
In 2005, the Beijing-based portal reportedly paid $30 million for the rights to host the Games’ Web site for the Beijing Olympics and to use its logo. Sohu also moved to claim exclusive rights to host all advertising by Beijing Games sponsors who use the Olympics logo, a move that spurred other Chinese sites, including Sohu competitor Sina, to form an alliance against Sohu.
The rivalry underscores the growing business of Internet marketing in China. As of June 2007, there were more than 160 million Internet users in China, placing it second behind the U.S., and online ads were expected to generate an estimated 8.3 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) for the year, according to an article in China Daily.
This week Reuters reported that broadcasters had yet to learn whether their applications for licenses to transmit live from major landmarks — an integral part of coverage at past Olympics — had been approved for the Beijing Games, despite previous promises by China to grant access.
“The line we’re getting from various authorities is that policies on live transmissions from outside Olympic venues and iconic sites have not been decided yet,” Kevin Fleck of Global Vision, which provides services to Olympic sponsors, rights holders and non-rights holders, told Reuters. “Broadcasters needed the decision to be made months ago because they have to commit budgets and allocate air-time for Olympic slots,” he added.
Following a Monday meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, International Olympic Committee member Kevan Gosper told The Associated Press: “There has been some progress in the last two weeks, I can tell you that. But I can’t say we are there yet.”
At a meeting among TV executives, IOC officials and top Chinese leadership in Beijing on May 29, broadcasters were told it was unlikely they would be allowed to transmit live from outside venues, the AP reports. Chinese officials may be motivated to limit access in order to prevent foreign cameras from sighting protests by groups opposing the government.
The IOC estimates that about 30,000 accredited and non-accredited journalists will cover the games.
This year also marks the first time the IOC has allowed athletes to blog at the Games.
News courtesy:NY TIMES FOR MORE OLYMPIC RELATED NEWS
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
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