Badminton crowned its women’s singles champion, Zhang Ning of China as well as its men’s doubles champions, Kido Markis and Setiawan Hendra of Indonesia, as Asia continued its domination of this relatively young Olympic sport.

 

Ever since it was introduced to the Olympic Games in 1992, only one gold medal has ended up outside Asia, with Denmark’s Paul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen winning the men’s singles in Atlanta in 1996. The remaining 19 gold medals prior to these Games were shared between just three countries: China, South Korea and Indonesia, whose five Olympic gold medals have all come in badminton.

 

The first of these was Susi Susanti’s victory in Barcelona in 1992, and just two hours later her fiancé, Allan Budi Kusuma, won the men's title. When Susanti and Kusuma returned to Indonesia the celebration in their honour included a two-hour parade through the streets of Jakarta that was led by a car carrying a gigantic shuttlecock. Susanti returned to win a bronze medal four years later in Atlanta, and in 1997 Susanti and Kusuma were married.

 

At the last two Olympic Games, in Sydney and Athens, China has been utterly dominant in women’s singles and doubles, as well as mixed doubles. The story of 2004 champion Zhang Ning is a model of dedication: she left her home in Liaonong Province at the age of 12 to train full-time, and when she and her fiancé received their marriage licence in 2001, they delayed their ceremony for three years until after the 2004 Games, during which time they never spent more than two months together at a stretch.

 

Ge Fei and Gu Jun from Jiangsu Province began playing badminton together when they were nine years old. Twelve years later, they ran through the field at the 1996 Olympic Games to win the women’s doubles gold medal, and four years later in Sydney they did the same, only once conceding more than seven points in a game. Ge, whose specialty was playing close to the net, also won a world championship in mixed doubles in 1997 while pairing with Liu Yong.

Right now, 372 pairs of eyes are eager not to miss any details of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. They look for the latest technology innovations used at the venues, they observe protocol finesses during the medal ceremonies, they check on energy saving solutions in the Olympic Village, and the functioning of the public transport system. The attentive eyes belong to 372 observers from future Organising Committees who are in Beijing to learn from success stories, but also to understand the challenges which naturally occur for such a huge and complex operation.

 

Over 21 days, the observers from the three Organising Committees of the future Olympic Games in Vancouver 2010, London 2012 and Sochi 2014, the first Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010, and from the four Bid Cities for the Games of 2016 will go on 44 visits to 15 competition venues and about 20 non-competition sites. The largest delegation comes from the host of the next Olympic Summer Games in London, with approximately 200 observers. The choice of the observation period between 5 and 26 August allows the participants to see the arrivals and departures period, as well as Games-time activities. The observers look into a wide range of functional areas which really determine the success of a Games. However, as each host and bidding city is different, it is essential to apply the insights and experiences to the local context.

The Beijing 2008 Observer’s Programme is a key knowledge-transfer process which offers participants the opportunity to live, learn and experience real Olympic Games operations. "What a great programme – what an opportunity" is thus the echo heard from many of the participants.

 

The IOC initiated the Olympic Games Knowledge Management (OGKM) programme as a learning platform after the Sydney Games. In Beijing, the IOC organises the Observer’s Programme in partnership with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Organising Committee (BOCOG), with key BOCOG personnel acting as the main presenters for each tour.

 

 

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Some of the world’s top athletes and stars of the IOC’s “Heroes” campaign met the IOC President Jacques Rogge today.

 

Hosting a breakfast in the Athletes’ restaurant in the Olympic Village, the President had the opportunity to thank some of the Olympic legends including Haile Gebrselelassie, Vanessa Ferrari and Carolina Kluft face to face.

 

The IOC President said: “We are indebted to you all for giving your time so generously and for your willingness to participate in this project, despite your busy training and competition schedules. As a result of your efforts, we have created the IOC’s most popular and talked-about spot to date.”

 Discover the video

Carolina Kluft, the renowned Swedish heptathelete, said “It was an honour to be asked by the IOC to participate in this advert. I think the film is really powerful, full of energy and I was happy to be a part of it.”

Frank Fredericks, who will become the Athletes’ Commission Chairman after the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, said “This film will mean a lot to the youth of the world because there are so many sporting icons involved. It will be a great motivational tool and help get across the Olympic Values”.

 

“Heroes” leverages the determination and performance of Olympic athletes to communicate the key Olympic values. The campaign also stars Roger Federer, Yao Ming, Laure Manaudou, Liu Xiang, Kenenisa Bekele, and Yelena Isinbayeva  who, along with those mentioned above, star as superheroes seeking to achieve the seemingly impossible.

 

 The International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s latest TV public service announcement “Heroes” is also being shown to thousands of Olympic fans during the Olympic Games on the giant Panasonic ASTROVISION screens in the Olympic stadiums and venues.

Heroes forms part of 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 will continue to run beyond the Beijing Games.

 

 

The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee, meeting today in Beijing, has reached a decision, based upon the recommendations of the IOC Disciplinary Commission, in the case of Mr Ara Abrahamian.

 

Mr Abrahamian is a Swedish athlete who stepped down from the podium and laid his medal on the floor during the awards ceremony for the men’s Greco-Roman wrestling 84kg event. He had received one of two bronze medals awarded.

 

The IOC Disciplinary Commission consisted of three persons: Dr Thomas Bach (Chairman), Denis Oswald and Sergey Bubka. All three are Olympians with extensive experience of elite sport etiquette.

 

The IOC Executive Board decided that Mr Abrahamian, Sweden:

1. Is disqualified from the event of men’s Greco-Roman wrestling, 84kg.
2. Is excluded from the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing in 2008.
3. Shall have his Olympic identity and accreditation card immediately cancelled and withdrawn.

 

The full text of the decision is available here:

 IOC EB Decision regarding Mr Ara Abrahamian

 

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 nullLiu Chunhong, China, set five world records on her way to the gold medal in the women’s 69kg weighlifting event yesterday in Beijing. Liu lifted a snatch world record of 128kg on her third attempt. She then set a world record with a total of 286kg with a world record clean and jerk of 158kg.

 

Women lifters started competing at the Olympic Games only in Sydney in 2000, when Papua New Guinea’s 16-year-old Dika Toua, a competitor in Beijing, had the honour of making the first lift. Unnerved by the excitement of the moment she dropped her first snatch attempt at 45kg, but returned to lift the bar with ease.

 

Men have been weightlifting at the modern Olympic Games ever since they began in 1896 in Athens when Launceston Elliot became Great Britain’s first Olympic champion by winning the one-handed super-heavyweight lift. At the same Games, Germany’s Carl Schuhmann managed to win medals in gymnastics and wrestling, as well as finishing third at weightlifting and fifth in the triple jump.

 

In 1956 the American bantamweight Charles Vinci found himself seven ounces, or 200 grammes, over the weight limit just 15 minutes before the weigh-in, and that after an hour of running and sweating. Fortunately a severe last-minute haircut did the trick and Vinci went on to win the gold medal and set a world record!

 

Undoubtedly one of the greatest names in modern weightlifting is Naim Süleymanoðlu. Born to Turkish parents living in Bulgaria and only 1.47m tall, he set set his first adult world record when he was 15 years old. In 1996, representing Turkey, he became the first weightlifter to win a third Olympic gold medal and, considering he was world champion in 1984, it probably would have been his fourth but he was competing for Bulgaria in those days and they did not take part in Los Angeles. In 2001 he received the Olympic Order.

 

 Naim SULEYMANOGLU
Weightlifting (Turkey)

 

But even Süleymanoðlu cannot claim to be the most successful Olympic weightlifter. That honour now goes to Pyrros Dimas, an Albanian-born Greek who in 1992 won Greece’s first weightlifting gold medal since 1904 in the 82.5kg weight class. He followed it up with gold at the next two Olympic Games and returned in 2004 in Athens to win a bronze. He signalled his retirement by leaving his shoes on the platform while the appreciative Greek crowd gave him a standing ovation.

 

 Pyrros DIMAS
Weightlifting (Greece)