If the Olympic Games were being held anywhere other than China this year there would be no doubting which event would be top of the bill when it comes to the track and field programme. Surely there can be nothing to match a 100 metres race featuring three of the only four men to have run under 9.80sec?

 

 

 

But mention the name Liu Xiang, China’s first-ever male Olympic athletics champion, and strange things happen in the People’s Republic. He is quite possibly the most famous man in the country and the mere sight of him in public can cause a commotion. The Shanghai-born 25-year-old won the 110m hurdles in Athens in 2004, but he will be under pressure this time from Cuba’s Dayron Robles, who snatched the world record from Liu this summer.

 

Meanwhile Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay of the United States will be seeking sprinting’s equivalent of the holy grail. Down the years the 100 metres title has been taken by some of the most legendary names in sport, including Jesse Owens in Berlin in 1936 and, in Mexico City in 1968, Jim Hines, the first man to break the 10-second barrier. More recently Carl Lewis won it twice on his way to his record-equalling nine gold medals.

 

 Carl LEWIS

 

 Jesse OWENS

Along with Croatia’s world high jump champion Blanka Vlasic, Kenya’s Pamela Jelimo will be the focus of attention on the women’s side after her astonishing 800 metres performances this season. The slightly built 18-year-old has run only a few 800m races, but her time of 1min 54.99sec is a long way ahead of anyone else this season and the fastest in the event for almost 11 years.

 

Jelimo’s time is more than 20 seconds faster than that of Lina Radke when the German won the gold medal in 1928, the first time women were part of the Olympic track and field programme. Unfortunately the sight of several women dropping to the ground in exhaustion after the race in Amsterdam convinced the faint-hearted anti-feminist movement that races of more than 200m were not suitable for the fairer sex, and the women’s 800m did not return to the Olympic arena until 1960 in Rome.

Although the countdown to the Summer Games continues to be the big story, something should be said about Omega, the company whose clock is ticking down those seconds, especially since this was the first company ever chosen to provide all of the timing devices and technology for the Games.

 

Beijing 2008 marks the 23rd time that Omega will be at the Olympic Games.  More than 450 professional timekeepers and 1,000 volunteers will use more than 420 tons of equipment and 175 metres of cabling to ensure that the timing, scoring, display and distribution of the results are flawlessly executed. 

 

OMEGA President Stephen Urquhart explains why their job is so vital: "We all know that every athlete wants to win a medal for their country. And to win a medal in most disciplines, you have to be faster than your opponents. So I think the timer of the Games is responsible for the difference between a gold medal, a silver medal, a bronze medal or no medal at all, so it's a very, very important role to play."

 

OMEGA held the grand opening of their Pavilion on Monday afternoon. The event took place on the Olympic Green and was attended by everyone from former Olympic athletes to the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge.

 

 

VIPs get the lowdown
After receiving a tour of the facility and trying his hand at watch making, Rogge spoke about the IOC’s 76-year relationship with the Swiss watchmaker saying:“Our partnership began in 1932 with the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and the IOC has since come to rely on the unquestionable competence, enduring commitment and assured performance of its official timekeeper.” Other big names in attendance included two gold medal swimmers, Australian Ian Thorpe and Russia’s Alexander Popov.

 

A place for everyone
The impressive two-storey Pavilion, which is open every day to the public from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., includes an array of exhibits, a shop and an area for special events. It is also within walking distance of both the National Stadium (a.k.a. “Bird’s Nest”) and the Aquatic Center, two places where OMEGA will play a crucial role. For all of these reasons it’s hard not to believe Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek when he says he thinks the Beijing Games will be among the best ever!

 

 Learn more on Omega

With the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Games only a few days away, Liu Qi, the President of the Beijing 2008 Organising Committee (BOCOG), made his final pre-Games presentation to the IOC Session at its meeting in the Chinese capital. Seven years after presiding over the Chinese delegation that won the bid for Beijing, on 13th July 2001 in Moscow, Liu Qi presented to the IOC Members the fruits of BOCOG’s hard work.

 

The message from President Liu Qi was clear – we are ready! As those in Beijing or watching from afar on TV will have been able to observe, the athletes are arriving, the stadiums are ready to go and the fans are excited – let the Games begin. With several thousand staff and about 70’000 volunteers, trained, motivated and ready to go, the Beijing Games are gearing-up to be a truly spectacular event, where smiling and enthusiastic faces will be a common sight at each Olympic venue.

 

Since Beijing’s election, BOCOG and its local partners have had some truly impressive achievements. The construction of 30 venues and 44 training centres has been completed, public transport in the city has been improved with the addition of new subway lines and express bus routes, polluting factories have been removed from the city, green spaces for the public have increased, and 42 sports events have been successfully held to test the Olympic sites.

 

The big question that remains though is will all this preparation pay off? Following Liu Qi’s presentation, no one can be left in any doubt that BOCOG and its partners have done everything in their power to prepare for an outstanding 16 days of competition. When the Opening Ceremony starts on the eighth of the eighth 2008 at eight o’clock, it will be the culmination of a dream, not just for Liu Qi and the staff of BOCOG but for an entire nation - a spectacular feast for the eyes and ears.

The last time Haiti won an Olympic medal was in 1928 when Silvio Cator took silver in the menВ’s long jump. Nadine Faustin-Parker knows her chances of ending that drought in Beijing are slim; her goal is to go one better than she did in Athens and reach the final of the 100-metre hurdles. But she has an ulterior motive for wanting to shine at the Olympic Games.

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Faustin-Parker was born in Brussels in 1976 to Haitian parents and has lived most of her life in New York. Running was always a big part of that life, but when the time came to choose which country to represent, she never had much doubt. В“My parents have always kept me close to my Haitian roots, so I never felt just because I was outside the country that I wasnВ’t a part of it,В” she explained.

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Faustin-Parker is already HaitiВ’s most successful ever female track athlete. В“Competing for Haiti gave me a purpose,В” she said. В“I enjoy the challenge of trying to put a country on the map. Some Haitian youths are ashamed of their roots, and thatВ’s something I never was so I try to make them understand they have a lot to be happy about.В”

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Faustin-ParkerВ’s first Olympic Games were in 2000, when injury restricted her to the quarter-finals, and although she ran a personal best four years later it was not enough to make the final. Now, however, she is convinced her time has come. В“I would not be competing right now if I didnВ’t believe it,В” says Faustin-Parker. According to her website, the В“NADВ” in Nadine stands for Never Accept Defeat.

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Working part-time at the University of North Carolina as Director of Track and Field Operations, Faustin-Parker hopes one day to become a sports ambassador for Haiti. В“The better I perform at the Games, the easier it will be to make contacts and gain sponsors,В” she explains. В“I really want to build a track in Haiti. I see what track and field has done all over the world for the youth. It can really help somebody move forward in life.В”

В Olympic Solidarity



В Solidarity
В www.beijing2008.com

Even before the Games of the XXIX Olympiad are declared officially open at 8.08p.m. on 08.08.2008 the footballers will have kicked off today in one of three stadiums in Beijing and four more around China. Ronaldinho, twice FIFA World Player of the Year, will light up the men’s tournament with Brazil, but the women are the first to go, and the USA will be looking to defend their title.

 

The task will be that much tougher without star striker Abby Wambach, the scorer of the winning goal in the final against Brazil four years ago, who broke her leg in the team's last warm-up match for these Games, ironically against Brazil. Norway, who beat the US in the final four years earlier in Sydney, will again feature prominently, while a repeat of the first women’s final in 1996 between the US and China would be popular - as long as China can reverse their 2-1 defeat.

 

Men’s football at the Games goes back much further than 1996, all the way to the second Olympic Games in 1900. Like all Olympic sports, for many years it was open only to amateurs, and eastern Eurpean countries enjoyed great success. The 1950s were a particularly golden period, and Hungary, starring Ferenc Puskas, and the Soviet Union, with Lev Yashin in goal, were both victorious. Later on Poland, with several members of the team that finished third at the 1974 World Cup, won Olympic gold in 1972 and silver four years later.

 

Nowadays the men’s teams essentially comprise players under 23 years of age, with three over-age players per team allowed. This system has been to the liking of African nations, with Nigeria, led by Nwankwo Kanu, and Cameroon, featuring Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o, winning in 1996 and 2000 respectively. Now it is up to Ronaldinho and Co to follow in their footsteps.

 

Brazil, coached by 1994 World Cup-winning skipper Dunga, will be favourites to win for the first time. Apart from Ronaldinho, they will be able to call on the likes of AC Milan’s 18-year-old phenomenon Alexandre Pato and Manchester United's Anderson. Argentina, the defending champions, can look to Boca Juniors midfielder Juan Riquelme, Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano and Inter Milan defender Nicolas Burdisso.