Without GE there wouldn’t be much of an Olympic Games. That is of course unless the athletes have been practising in the dark! The company has been working around the clock to make sure all 37 official Beijing Olympic venues have a variety of essentials, power and lighting being key among them.

 

But this isn’t the company’s first time around the block. Director of PR for GE, Deirdre Latour, says the reason GE has once again teamed up with the Olympic Games is because “it’s a great opportunity for us to build our brand around the world in key cities like Beijing, Vancouver and London. And the values of the Games align with the values of GE.”

 

Leading by example
One of GE’s strategies is to provide environmentally advanced technologies to the Games from cleaner energy generation and water purification to efficient lighting technology. And they are doing that by providing water recycling technologies to the National Stadium as well as supplying more than 100 wind turbines to wind farms north of Beijing, which will supply energy to the Olympic central area.

 

A hands-on approach
On-site GE is showcasing its innovative technology via its Imagination Center. The 1,500 square-metre pavilion allows visitors to see first-hand the pioneering solutions GE created in order to help Beijing host the largest, most technologically advanced Olympic Games to date. Latour adds, “The Imagination Center brings to life GE’s sponsorship of the Beijing Games. It showcases our innovative technologies like wind, water and lighting that have contributed to building the infrastructure of all 37 venues and 168 commercial buildings around Beijing.”

 

The two-storey building features an outdoor waterfall and interactive tour and is located in the Sponsor Village on the Olympic Green. It is open daily to the public from 4 to 24 August between the hours of 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. After the Games, the Center will be moved and installed in the lobby of the new GE-China headquarters in Shanghai.

Olympexpo - the biggest exhibition of pins, stamps, coins memorabilia and art objects related to the Olympic Games ever – has opened its doors in the Beijing Exhibition Centre yesterday. This event jointly sponsored by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Organizing Committee (BOCOG), the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) and China Post Group is a premium cultural event of the Beijing Games.

"Olympex is already a success with a record number of exhibitors – a truly new dimension in the cultural artistic exposure of the IOC" said IOC President Jacques Rogge before the ribbon cutting. He was also joined by Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC Honorary President, Zhenliang He IOC member and Chairman of the IOC's Commission for Culture and Olympic Education and by Liu Andong, President of the China Post Group.

Exihibitors include Olympic philatelists, postal administrations, mints, dealers and Olympic sponsors from the world. The exhibition also displays several items from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, such as the works of the winners of the IOC's latest "Sport and Art" contest.  Rogge, Samaranch and He were among the participants of the first guided tour where they admired the extensive China Post stand, unveiled a 100kg gold coin at the Royal Canadian Mint stand as well as Coca Cola's first Pin of the Day for the Games.

In the coming days Olympex will offer many special events:

- 9 August: media day

- 11 August: youth day

- 13 August: philately day

- 15 August: culture day

- 17 August: volunteer day

 

Learn more on www.2008expo.org and join in Olympexpo!

The Beijing Olympic will be the most photographed Games ever. Thousands of photographers, from all over the world, will focus on the athletes, the venues and many colorful Beijing sites.

Elite team of two dozen  

The International Olympic Committee is employing an elite team of two dozen photographers who will take 70,000 pictures.  Among them are world renowned characters, including British photographer Ian Jones.  The 42-year-old from Windsor, England, who has served as the official photographer to the British and Jordanian families, is working his first Games.

“I’ve always dreamed of covering an Olympic Games, “ said Jones.  “If I can’t take part as an athlete, the next best thing is to take pictures.”

Challenging work 

IOC photographers consider the Games are challenging to work, even for the most experienced professional.

“We’re shooting spontaneously, trying to catch the athlete in action,” American John Huet, says.  “An entire event can last only a few seconds.  There’s no time to pose the athletes or to adjust the lighting.  You better be prepared or you could miss the shot of the day, maybe the photograph of the Games.”

Jones, who began taking pictures with his parent’s camera at age six, said there is friendly competition among his colleagues to take the day’s best picture.

“There’s a deep pride in producing, what I believe, will be a memorable record of one of the most historic Games ever.”

 

Creating a record 

All of the IOC photographers and technicians work under the direction of Philippe Blanchard.  The IOC’s Director of Information Management is responsible for creating the official photographic record of the Games.

“Our team is passionate about this work,” said Blanchard.  “We have as much energy as the flash of a camera.”

By year’s end the IOC team will edit down to the best 25,000 photographs and create a permanent record for the Olympic data base.”

Today, Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic  won the first gold medal of the Beijing Olympic Games in the10  m air rifle shooting event. IOC President Jacques Rogge handed over the medal, with the silver being awarded to Lioubov Galkina of Russia  and the bronze medal to Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia  . Shooting has enriched Olympic history with many extraordinary athletes and stories.

 

Shooting is one of the original sports of the modern Olympic Games. In the early days, the rapid-fire pistol event was contested with duelling pistols, the target was the silhouette of a human dummy dressed in a frock-coat and the bull’s eye was the middle of the thorax. In 1908, Ireland’s Colonel Joshua “Jerry” Millner won the free rifle event at the age of 61, and he is still the oldest winner of an individual Olympic event in any sport. Twelve years later in Antwerp, in the Running Deer double shot team event, 72-year-old Oscar Swahn of Sweden became not only the oldest ever Olympic competitor but also, with a silver, the oldest medallist.

 

Moving on to 1948 in London. and the remarkable story of Károly Takács. Takács was a member of the Hungarian world champion pistol shooting team in 1938 when, while serving as a sergeant in the army, a grenade exploded in his right hand – his pistol hand – and shattered it completely. Undaunted, Takács taught himself to shoot with his left hand, and ten years later he not only qualified for the rapid-fire pistol event, he won it and beat the world record by ten points.

 

Four years later in the small-bore rifle, prone, Iosif Sârbu became Romania’s first Olympic champion. In 1968, Eulalia Roliñska of Poland and Gladys de Seminario of Peru were the first women to compete in Olympic shooting, and, 16 years later in the free pistol event, Xu Haifeng, a former “barefoot doctor” and chemical fertilizer salesman, became not only the first winner at the 1984 Olympic Games, but also the first representative of China to win an Olympic medal. In 1992, his compatriot Zhang Shan, a 24-year-old from Nanchong in Sichuan province, became the first female shooter to win a mixed competition at the Games.

 

 Learn more about shooting

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is deeply saddened to learn of a tragic incident which occurred earlier today involving two relatives of a coach for the United States Olympic Men's Indoor Volleyball Team.

 

The United States Olympic Committee has confirmed that while visiting the Drum Tower tourist site in Beijing, near the Forbidden City, two family members were subjected to a violent attack. One person was killed and the other seriously injured. It is understood at this time that a lone assailant was responsible, who shortly afterwards committed suicide.

The IOC would like to extend sincere condolences to the family and teammates of those involved, and to all members of the US delegation.

The IOC will provide whatever assistance is required, and is in close contact with the US Olympic Committee.  The IOC is also working closely with  the  Chinese authorities to obtain information on this incident as soon as possible.

 

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Emmanuelle Moreau - Media Relations Manager -   +86 158 1155 1830

Sandrine Tonge - Media Relations Coordinator -    +86 135 5217 5720