beijing

Sergey Bubka, IOC Member and Olympian, made sure an official Beijing 2008 Olympic torch found a new home today amid the extensive Olympic memorabilia on display at the World of  Coca-Cola in Atlanta, USA.

The Beijing Olympic torch joins a collection of Olympic memorabilia that includes seven other Olympic torches, thousands of Olympic-themed pins and artefacts dating as far back as the 1928 Olympic Games, all commemorating the 80-year partnership between Worldwide TOP Partner Coca-Cola and the Olympic Games.

Sergey Bubka, President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, also holds the world record (6.15 metres) in pole vaulting and is a six-time World Champion and Olympic gold medal winner in the event. He attended the ceremony which was directed by Philip Mooney, Director of Heritage Communications, The Coca-Cola Company, who serves as the official archivist of the company.

“Coca-Cola has always embodied the shared optimism and inspiration that is so central to the Olympic Movement,” said Bubka.  “Thank you to Coca-Cola for playing such a critical role as a sponsor and representing the spirit of the Games and its enduring traditions so well for the past 80 years.”

The Coca-Cola Company has been involved in eight Olympic Torch Relays over the years”, said Mooney. “These Torch Relays bring the excitement of the Olympic Games to people directly, and we continue to share that spirit today by giving visitors to the World of Coca-Cola an opportunity to see a real Olympic torch up close. This is also part of our vision of continually refreshing the attraction so that our guests have a unique experience every time they visit.”

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The IOC intends to further analyse the samples collected this summer during the Olympic Games in Beijing. Substances that will be analysed across all sports include EPO CERA.
All samples are currently being repatriated to the WADA-accredited laboratory in Lausanne where Olympic samples are usually stored after the Games. The details of the procedure, such as the number of samples to be further analysed and the timeline, are currently being discussed with WADA.
 
As part of its zero-tolerance policy against doping, the IOC is storing samples collected during the Olympic Games for eight years. This allows the IOC to analyse samples retroactively should fully validated tests to detect new substances/methods become available.
 
"Our message is very clear. The IOC will not miss any opportunity to further analyse samples retroactively. We hope that this will work as a strong deterrent and make athletes think twice before cheating," said IOC President Jacques Rogge.
 
Some 4,770 doping tests were carried out in Beijing in the framework of the largest ever testing programme for an Olympic Games. The tests included 3,801 urine and 969 blood tests. Urine tests included 817 EPO tests, and blood tests covered 471 human Growth Hormone (hGH) tests. All the tests covered the 29-day period from 27 July until 24 August 2008. Athletes qualified for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were tested by the World Anti-Doping Agency and BOCOG under the authority of the IOC. As a general rule, all top five finishers, plus a further two, were tested.

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The IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed of Thomas Bach (Chairman), Denis Oswald and Gerhard Heiberg, met today in Lausanne (Switzerland) on three pending doping cases from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
 
The meeting was convened to deal with adverse analytical findings for Vadim DEVIATOVSKIY, Belarus, silver medallist in the men’s hammer throw competition; Ivan TSIKHAN, Belarus, bronze medallist in the men’s hammer throw competition; and Adam SEROCZYNSKI, Poland, who placed fourth in the men’s kayak double (K2) 1000m event.
 
The IOC Disciplinary Commission gave the two Belarusian hammer throwers the opportunity to provide further information until 17 October 2008. The decision by the IOC Disciplinary Commission will be taken once this information has been analysed.
 
The decision concerning the Polish canoeist will be issued by the IOC Disciplinary Commission on 8 October 2008.  
   
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For further information, please contact the IOC Communications Department on +41 21 621 60 00 or e-mail: pressoffice@olympic.org.

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After 12 days of competition, the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games on 17 September 2008 officially ended a period of record-breaking competition and events.
 
279 world records  
Almost 4,000 athletes from a total of 147 different countries around the world came to Beijing to compete in their respective sports. Some athletes competed in more than one event, but they all participated at an elite level. Of these 147 countries, five competed in the Paralympic Games for the first time, including Burundi, Gabon, Georgia, Haiti and Montenegro. The Games saw a total of 279 new world records set and a total of 339 new Paralympic records broken.
 
1.9 million tickets sold  
A record number of 1.9 million tickets were sold, with an additional 600,000 tickets provided to children, educational institutes and community groups. The Opening and Closing Ceremonies were sold out, as were all the swimming events and most of the athletics events.
 
One thousand doping tests conducted
Out of more than 1,000 doping tests conducted, there were three anti-doping rule violations. The doping tests performed included urine (Erythropoietin, EPO) and blood tests (Human Growth Hormone (hGH), synthetic haemoglobin (HBOC), blood transfusions (BT) and other substances.
 

 The Beijing Paralympic Games (official website) 
 Learn more about the Paralympic Games


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For the man who won 13 Grand Slam singles titles, Roger Federer, winning an Olympic gold medal in Beijing helped him to forget a difficult first part of the year. On 16 August 2008, the Swiss tennis player added an Olympic gold medal to his collection by winning the men’s doubles with Stanislas Wawrinka. “It’s a magical moment. Something incredible in my career," said Federer. “It has definitively inspired me. It helped me to stay positive and be motivated for the US Open and not maybe be too disappointed.” Which turned out to be exactly right as, a few weeks later, Federer won his fifth consecutive US Open title.
 
A dream-come-true-moment
In 1992, at the age of 11, Federer watched Marc Rosset win a tennis gold medal at the Barcelona Games. This victory perhaps brought out this desire to take part in the Olympic tournament, which brought together the best players of the time. At his first Games, in Sydney in 2000, he missed the Olympic podium by one step, but met his girlfriend of eight years. Four years later, in Athens, he was the flag-bearer of the Swiss delegation, but exited the tournament prematurely. In 2008 in Beijing, he carried the Swiss flag for the second time while celebrating his 27th birthday. “To carry the flag is one of the achievements you only dream about. It was one of the great moments in my career,” said the man considered as the greatest player of all time, before adding, “The Olympic Games is like Wimbledon to me. It’s really a dream come true to be part of it, walking into the stadium at the Opening Ceremony”.
 

 
One of the “Heroes” campaign
Roger Federer is among the stars of the IOC campaign entitled “Heroes”, along with other legendary Olympic athletes including Yao Ming, Laure Manaudou, Liu Xiang, Yelena Isinbayeva, Kenenisa Bekele, Vanessa Ferrari and Carolina Kluft. All these athletes are superheroes seeking to achieve the seemingly impossible. “Heroes” leverages the determination and performance of Olympic athletes to communicate the key Olympic values. “Heroes” forms part of the IOC’s promotional campaign entitled “The Best of Us” - a simple, powerful idea that transcends cultures and borders, motivating young people around the world to participate in sport by proving that sport can bring out the best in them. The campaign was launched in 2007 and continues to run after the Beijing Games.
 
All of the elements of the campaign are now available to view at: http://www.olympic.org/uk/bestofus/index_uk.asp
 

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Thousands of readers followed the Beijing Olympic Games with the “Olympic Express” e-journal on www.olympic.org. Feedback from young people, parents and teachers has been overwhelming. The project proved to be adequate for these target groups. The platform of the Olympic Games allowed us to reach out to people often difficult to attain. Another educational project, the so-called “A quote a day” interviews with IOC President Rogge, was followed on www.olympic.org and on TV as part of the daily 30-minute highlights issued by the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting unit. President Rogge explained in each one of the modules the meaning of Olympic symbols, the importance of the different players in the Olympic Movement and his own role and responsibilities.
 
Review the Olympic Express
Olympic Express will be an integral part of www.olympic.org until the end of September. The content of the 49 different editions – each with eight pages of interactive content- allows readers to get acquainted with all Olympic summer sports and to relive the Beijing Games in a very special way. Adapted to 8 to 12 year-olds, Olympic Express also enables them to get acquainted with Chinese culture and to discover how the Chinese experienced the Games. 
 
 Discover the Olympic Express
 
A quote a day as part of the educational section
A quote a day will be integrated in the educational section of www.olympic.org. The President’s explanations are an attractive pedagogical means to get young people in schools acquainted with Olympism. Olympic Express and the “Quote a day” project are part of an overall effort by the IOC to reach out to young people with well-adapted means and tools. The web site remains an excellent platform for this. 
 
 Discover the "A quote a day" interviews

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An astonishing Opening Ceremony in Beijing on Saturday welcomed the world to the Paralympic Games. The Ceremony, which took place in the "Bird’s Nest", was witnessed by a full house of spectators from all over the world. During the three-hour event, the show focused on the “harmony between man and nature”, with three different parts – space, time and life.  A total of 420 performers with a disability participated in the Opening Ceremony, marking one of the largest performances of this sort. The first three days of the Paralympic Games saw a large rang of high-level competitions in an excellent atmosphere. 

Eight hours per day live coverage
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC), in collaboration with the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Ltd. (BOB), offers eight hours per day of live commentated coverage of the Paralympic Games. It is broadcasted on the IPC’s internet TV channel www.ParalympicSport.TV. BOB - as the host broadcaster - provides live signals of 10 Paralympic sports including athletics, boccia, cycling (track), judo, table tennis, volleyball (sitting), wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair tennis.
 
Video on demand  
The official programme of ParalympicSport.TV will have an interesting mixture of the aforementioned sports, with additional daily highlights provided as video on-demand. The daily highlights will also include those sports that are not covered in the live stream. SIXTY Seconds™, the daily news show presented by Paralympian Ambassador Chris Waddell, will wrap up the latest Paralympic Games News. It will be available on the main channel at www.ParalympicSport.TV, as well as on the YouTube Channel of ParalympicSport.TV at www.youtube.com/paralympicsporttv.
 
 The Beijing Paralympic Games (official website) 
 Learn more about the Paralympic Games

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Three days to go for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. The Games will kick off with another spectacular ceremony in the National Stadium – the Bird’s Nest - in Beijing. Over 13 days, 4,000 athletes from 148 countries will compete in 20 sports. The Paralympics will be staged in the same iconic venues as the Olympic Games in August, including the sailing competitions in Qingdao and the equestrian competitions in Hong Kong.

Paralympic firsts
Burundi, Gabon, Georgia, Haiti and Timor-Leste will participate for the first time in the Paralympic
Games; Serbia and Montenegro will participate for the first time as two delegations. The Chinese delegation, with 332 athletes and 215 officials, is the country’s largest at the Paralympics. Rowing is on the sports programme for the first time.

Torch relay under way
The Games will be preceded by a torch relay that includes 850 torch bearers who are
carrying the torch over 10 days in different provinces of the country. Some 30,000 volunteers will
welcome and assist the athletes.

Paralympic Village opened
The Paralympic Village was opened formally on Saturday, with the Chinese squad hoisting its flag and moving in. The Paralympic Village, transformed from the Olympic Village, will play host to the athletes and officials. Special accessories and facilities have been added to the Village to meet the needs of physically challenged athletes. Spread over 66 hectares, the Village has 42 apartment buildings, a hospital, a bank, places of worship and many shops.

A commemorative wall with the inscription of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in Chinese and English, was also unveiled on Saturday. The Convention was unanimously approved by delegates of the 192 UN members two years ago, and became effective from 3 May this year. All athletes, officials and visitors to the Village can sign their names on the wall, which will be retained as a legacy of the Beijing Paralympic Games.

 Facts and Figures

 Discover Paralympic Games through the Olympic Express

 Learn more about the Paralympic Games

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We are nearing the end of the XXIX Olympiad and these remarkable Olympic Games. We have seen achievements over the past two weeks that we will remember for the rest of our lives.
 
It has been a long journey since our decision in July 2001 to bring the Olympic Games to China, but there can now be no doubt that we made the right choice. Thank you for your support and your help.
 
There are so many people to thank — the IOC Executive Board; Hein Verbruggen and his colleagues on the Coordination Commission; Gilbert Felli, our executive director of the Games, and the IOC staff; our partners at BOCOG; the Chinese government; and all of our Chinese friends who worked so hard to make these Games successful. Thanks also to the IOC members from China, Zhenliang He and Zaiqing Yu, for their invaluable assistance.
 
To hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic volunteers, we have heard you say it many times, now it is my turn to say: Thank you for your cooperation! We will leave China with warm memories of your smiles, your enthusiasm and your eager willingness to help.  You are the future of China. We wish you the best.
 
The list of accomplishments at these Games reflects the high level of competition and the universality of the Olympic Movement.
 
A record 204 National Olympic Committees participated the Games.
 
87 National Olympic Committees had medal winners;
 
Women athletes participated in record numbers — about 45 percent of the athletes were women.
 
The athletes set more than 40 world records and more than 120 Olympic records.
We had more broadcast coverage to more people, in more places than ever.
We had global digital coverage for the first time.
 
These are likely to be the most widely watched Games in Olympic history.
Of course, statistics tell only part of the story.
 
The Games are not just a showcase for the world’s best competitions and athletes. They help break barriers and overcome differences. These Games were historic because they were held in the world’s most populous nation for the first time. One-fifth of the world’s population was exposed to Olympic values in a way that they never had experienced before.
 
The world learned more about China, and China learned more about the rest of the world. And together, we shared the excitement and drama of the Games.
We are first and foremost an organization devoted to sport, but it is sport with a purpose. Placing sport at the service of mankind and leveraging Olympic values to promote better understanding between people, nations and religions stands at the core of our mission.
The IOC and the Olympic Games cannot force changes on sovereign nations or solve all the ills of the world. But we can — and we do — contribute to positive change through sport.
 
Some of the changes in China are obvious today. Others will become apparent with time.
The many improvements to mass transit and public infrastructure for the Games will improve the quality of life and environmental conditions in Beijing for years to come.
The Games have also significantly heightened awareness of environmental issues, leading to major advances in the areas of energy consumption, sustainable water consumption, waste management and air quality.
 
The legacy of these Games for China is ultimately up to the Chinese people. The changes that are transforming this remarkable nation did not start with the Olympic Games and they will not end with the closing ceremony.
 
The Games have been a dream fulfilled and a source of inspiration for a generation of young Chinese people. Some of the friendly volunteers we have met over the past two weeks will be tomorrow’s leaders. They have emerged from this experience with new confidence and a better understanding of Olympic values. That may ultimately the greatest legacy of these Games.
 
We will all leave China with our personal list of special moments. The spectacular performances of Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt were certainly unforgettable.
But there were many other moving scenes: the embrace of rival competitors from nations in conflict, the unfortunate injury of Liu Xiang, the tears of joy from athletes who have overcome personal tragedies and hardship.
 
We will cherish these moments, but we cannot simply file away our experiences. As we look to Vancouver 2010, London 2012 and Sochi 2014, we must always remember our responsibility to keep the Olympic dream alive for future generations in all parts of the world. Let us leave China with a renewed dedication to our task.
Thank you, colleagues;
Thank you, China.

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Having IOC Member on your business card is a privilege only a hundred or so people have, and for many that would be accomplishment enough. But not Anton Geesink. The Dutch IOC Member is most known for being the first non-Japanese to win a world championship in Judo. And if that wasn’t cool enough, the guy even has a street named after him in Holland! We visited him in his office at the IOC headquarters and asked him a couple questions about himself.

What is your role during the Games?
I lead a group of about 50-60 IOC Members who go to the venues to observe and report back on what they think is good and what they think can be improved upon. Even the smallest thing is important to the IOC, as they want to make sure every athlete has an equal playing field.
 
What has been special about the Games being in China?

For myself, I’ve never seen a more beautiful city; the city is built-up by the people. And the people are so friendly. It’s unbelievable.
 
As a former athlete, how do you think the Games are going?
My opinion is Beijing is perfect, in every aspect. So far I agree with all the positive comments. I have never seen athletes so happy during the Games. It’s wonderful. We have an open door and the athletes are always coming in to let us know how happy they are about everything.
 
Have you gotten to go to any events?
No events yet, except judo, where I’ve been four or five times. Plus, I did the medal presentation for it.

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