China‘s medal sweep has so far marked the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. However, other countries also managed a breakthrough – not as impressive as the Chinese domination - but still important for their respective countries.

 

Afghanistan,Togo, Tajikistan and Mauritius on the map
Afghanistan,Togo, Tajikistan and Mauritius made it onto the Olympic medal tally for the first time. Rohullah Nikpai, a taekwondo athlete from Afghanistan and Olympic Solidarity scholarship holder, won his countries first ever Olympic medal in any sport by winning bronze in the men’s under 58kg competition yesterday..Tajik Boqiev Rasul won the bonze medal in the men’s 73kg judo competition. Benjamin Boukpeti was the first canoeist to represent Africa at the Olympic Games. In Beijing, he planned on becoming the first to win a medal and he made it. Boukpeti, an Olympic Solidarity scholarship holder, won the bronze medal. Mauritius’ Bruni Julie won the quarter-final in the bantam boxing competition and is assured at least a bronze medal for his home country, becoming the first ever Mauritian medallist.

 

First gold medal
Panama made it for the first time onto the highest step of the podium. With his jump to 8.34m, Saladino Aranda joined the only other medallist of his county, Lloyd Lebeach, who took the bronze in the 100m and 200m at the 1948 London Games. 

India’s Abhinav Bindra, an other Olympic Scholarship holder, was received as a hero in his home country as India’s first gold medallist in an individual Olympic event. Bindra won the 10m air rifle shooting event. So far India had won gold medals in Olympic field hockey, with a record strike of six gold medals in a row between the Amsterdam Games in 1928 and the Melbourne 1956 Games. 

 

Tunisian swimmer Mellouli Oussama caused a sensation in Beijing by winning the first medal in swimming for his country. It has been the first gold medal for Tunisia since legendary runner Mohamed Gammoudi’s win of gold in Mexico City in 1968, when he beat Kip Keino in the 5,000m distance run.

 

Other firsts
Kyrgyzstan has so far doubled its overall medal wins in Beijing. The so far only medallist of the country – Aldyn Smagulov, bronze in judo at the Sydney 2000 Games – has been joined by two wrestlers, Begaliev Kanatbek, silver medallist in men’s Greco-Roman 66kg, and Tiumenbaev Ruslan, bronze medallist in the men’s Greco Roman 60kg event.

Slovakia has won a medal in a non water discipline for the first time ever. So far all medals had been won in canoeing and swimming. Shooter Zuzana Stefeckova changed this fact by winning a silver medal in the women’s trap shooting event.

 

Singapore won its second medal at the Beijing Games, the first in a team event. The women’s table tennis team composed of Tianwei Feng, Jia Wei Li, Yue Gu Wang and Bei Bei Sun won the silver medal.

 

For the first time, a male Vietnamese athlete managed to win a medal joining the so far only female medallist, Tran Hieu Ngan, who won silver in the final of the women’s taekwondo featherweight event at the 2000 Sydney Games. Anh Tuan Hoang won the silver medal in the 56kg weightlifting event.

 

Japan, the inventor of the Keirin cycling discipline, succeeded for the first time since the Sydney Games, when Keirin was introduced to the programme, to win a medal. Kiyofumi Nagai won the men’s bronze medal.

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.

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.

 

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.

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;

Olympic Solidarity is there to ensure that athletes with talent, regardless of their financial status, have an even chance of reaching the Olympic Games, or even winning an Olympic medal. Working with the most needy National Olympic Committees, Olympic Solidarity develops assistance programmes and offers scholarships to athletes. Over the past four years the total amount allocated by Olympic Solidarity to global sport development programmes has been just under a quarter of a billion dollars.

 

The Olympic scholarships cover the costs for an athlete to attend specialist training centres for anything up to 24 months leading up to the Games. Four years ago in Athens Olympic Solidarity athletes won a total of 57 medals, including 17 gold. To date, in Beijing the Olympic scholarship holders have already won 58 medals and this number is likely to increase over the last few days of competition.

 

In Beijing there are a total of 586 athletes from 150 different nations who have benefited from an Olympic Solidarity Scholarship, among them several gold medalists including Abhinav Bindra, winner of the 10m Air Rifle competition and the first Indian ever to win an individual Olympic gold medal and who was able to use the scholarship to train for two years at the USA’s national training centre in Colorado Springs; and Usain Bolt, the new 100m and 200m Olympic champion and world record holder from Jamaica who benefitted from Olympic Solidarity’s assistance since the age of 17 when he was identified after having won the World Junior 200m title.

 

Alina Dumitru won Romania’s first ever Olympic judo gold medal in the 48kg category. The 25-year-old, who finished fifth four years ago in Athens, destroyed Yanet Bermoy of Cuba in the final, winning with ippon after only 80 seconds. She also caused a huge upset in the semi-final when she beat Japan’s Ryoko Tani, who was aiming to win a record third successive Olympic title.

 

Swimmer Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, winner of gold, silver and bronze in Athens, did even better this time with three silver medals to add to the gold she won with a new world record in the 200m backstroke. Coventry is still Zimbabwe’s only individual Olympic medalist.

 

A taekwondo athlete from Kabul, Rohullah Nikpai, won his countries first ever Olympic medal in any sport by winning bronze in the men’s under 58kg competition yesterday. Olympic Solidarity has work closely with the Afghan NOC and their taekwondo athletes since 2004 by placing them in a number of training camps across the world to perfect their skills in view of their participation in Beijing.

 

Giving new meaning to the phrase “the bigger the better,” twelve-time Olympic sponsor Panasonic has been supporting the Olympic Movement since the Calgary 1988 Olympic Winter Games. It is providing more equipment than ever in Beijing, beating the Athens 2004 Olympic Games record by more than one-and-a- half times more devices. 

 

The state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment Panasonic is contributing includes: large-screen display systems, surveillance cameras, broadcast equipment and professional audio systems.  RAMSA LA-3 large array-type speakers were unveiled at the Opening Ceremony. Gary Hardesty, Panasonic’s Audio System Consultant says: “This new speaker system features improvements that were designed especially for the Olympic Games, and draws on technology that was developed for our previous, large-venue audio systems.”

 

A truly large large-screen
Also on show during the Opening and Closing Ceremonies will be the company’s ASTROVISION large-screen display systems. And according to Panasonic’s Technology Director for the Olympic Project, Yoshiyuki Goto, ASTROVISION displays were first used at the Los Angeles Games in 1984 and have been used in the last 12 consecutive Games. He adds: “As you can imagine, they’ve brought some truly spectacular images to viewers over the years.”advanced, practical HD solutions as the industry transitions to high definition,” says Tadao Shimozuru, Director of Matsushita Electric’s Professional System AV Business Unit.