Well-known Namibian sprinter Mr Frank Fredericks has yesterday been elected the new Chairman of the Athletes' Commission of the International Olympic Committee, for a two-year term.

 

Mr Fredericks succeeds Mr Sergey Bubka as the head of the Commission, which was meeting in Beijing ahead of the 120th Session of the IOC and, of course, ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games.

 

"I've really enjoyed my time leading the Athletes' Commission," said Mr Bubka today, "it's the best job in the IOC, because you have the honour to represent the voice of the athlete. I think Frankie will take the Athletes' Commission to the next level. He's a perfect fit for the role." Both Sergey Bubka and his Vice-Chairperson HSH Prince Albert of Monaco have been appointed Honorary Members of the Athletes Commission.

 

Mr Fredericks won two silver medals (100m & 200m), at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, during a long and distinguished athletic career.

 

 Learn more about the athletes commission

Athletes participating in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games are currently gathering not only in their competition venues, but also around ballot boxes. Concretely, they are voting for four out of 29 candidates from different countries and sports who will represent their interests in the IOC Athletes’ Commission. The Commission is the link between active athletes and the IOC. It upholds the rights, expertise and obligations of the athletes, and meets regularly – also with the IOC Executive Board, to which it issues recommendations. Furthermore, the Commission ensures that athletes' needs are met early on in the Games' planning through collaboration with the Organising Committees in the host cities.

The IOC Athletes’ Commission consists of 19 members, including active and retired athletes. Twelve athletes are elected for eight years by the athletes competing in the Olympic Games, and up to seven athletes are appointed by the IOC President to ensure a balance between regions, genders and sports. The Commission also includes one representative of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and one representative of the World Olympians Association (WOA). The athletes' representatives work on important topics where their expertise makes a huge difference - to name only a few: education for athletes and their professional lives after their sporting career, how to increase women's participation in sport, and ways of contributing to the best possible integration of sports facilities into the environment.

"The athletes really are at the heart of the Olympic Movement and, through the Athletes’ Commission, they have an important voice within the IOC. All four of the new members will become IOC members," explains former Commission Chairman Sergey Bubka, whose term of office has just expired. "It is vital that all the athletes competing in the Beijing Olympic Games go to the ballot boxes and use the opportunity to have their interests defended – the Commission is really for them. My appeal is: don’t stay outside the arena," he concludes.

The results of the IOC Athletes’ Commission elections will be revealed on 21 August, and the new members will be officially introduced during the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games.

 Learn more about the IOC Athletes’ Commission

In his report to the 120th IOC Session today, President Jacques Rogge delivered a strong and clean bill of health for the Olympic Movement.  Speaking on the Games in Beijing, Vancouver, London and Sochi, the promotion of Olympic values throughout the world and the financial resources of the IOC, the President thanked the Olympic Family members for their support and hard work.

The Beijing Games’ legacy 

President Rogge established the Beijing Olympic Games as the focus of the Session and expressed his confidence in them, saying, “The Beijing Games are well-organised and will be successful.”  He went on to echo his belief that the Games “will also have important added value. The Beijing Games will bring the values of Olympism to one-fifth of humanity and allow the world to discover a country with a unique history and culture. They will leave a great legacy for China.”

Continuing the fight against doping 

Noting that the Olympic values transcend elite sport and the Games, President Rogge went on to detail the activities that the IOC continues to undertake to promote these values. In this field, the fight against doping can be seen through increased out-of-competition testing, stricter sanctions and stronger cooperation with local law enforcement bodies.  Calling it the organisation’s “top priority,” the President reiterated a strong stance against doping, saying, “The IOC will continue to enforce its zero-tolerance policy.”

Reaching young people with the Olympic values 

President Rogge again emphasised the IOC’s commitment to reaching the youth of the world through sport, saying “Our promotion of the Olympic values must be aimed above all at young people.” Realising that the Olympic Movement’s success lies with them, he said, “the IOC must communicate better and in a different way with young people whose tastes are changing.” At this point, the new “Heroes” video for the promotional campaign “The Best of Us” was officially unveiled.

 

 See the video

Two American men go head to head in a race for Olympic swimming history in Beijing – one from the past and one from the present. Mark Spitz’s seven gold medals at the 1972 Games, one of the most famous of all Olympic achievements, is under threat from Michael Phelps, the 23-year-old who came close to Spitz’s record in Athens four years ago when he won six gold and two bronze medals.

 

Phelps will contest the 200 & 400 metres individual medleys, the 100 and 200m butterfly and the 200m freestyle as well as three relays. Spitz’s gold medals in Munich came in the 100 and 200m freestyle, the 100 and 200m butterfly and the three relays, with world record times set in every final. Even if Phelps fails to win the most gold medals at one Olympic Games, he seems set to smash the all-time record for most Olympic golds overall, currently held jointly by Spitz (who won two in Mexico City in 1968), fellow American Carl Lewis and Finland’s Paavo Nurmi with nine apiece.

 

 Michael PHELPS

 

 Mark SPITZ  

 

 

Amazingly, Phelps may not be the only American attempting to win eight swimming gold medals. Depending on relay selection, Katie Hoff, like Phelps a member of the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, will attempt the same feat and she is set to become the first woman since the legendary Australian Shane Gould in 1972 to compete in five individual events. Gould, incidentally, was just 15 years old at the time!

 

 Shane GOULD

 

Another woman in the spotlight will be 41-year-old Dara Torres, participating in her fifth Games, this time as a mother. Torres, who competes in the 50m freestyle, has already won nine Olympic medals, starting with a relay gold in 1984 in Los Angeles and most recently won four medals in at the 2000 Sydney Games… following a seven-year retirement.

 

Swimmers from outside the US with the best chances of gold include Australia’s Eamon Sullivan, the current world 50m freestyle record-holder and therefore the fastest swimmer in the world. Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry and France's Laure Manaudou, who both won gold, silver and bronze in Athens, will race in four and five events respectively while another gold medallist from Athens, Poland's Otylia Jedrzejczak, will also figure in the 100 and 200m butterfly.

 

Count down to Beijing 2008: today on the Olympic Games and infrastructure investment
The final countdown for the start of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad is almost complete. But while the Beijing Olympics themselves and the following Paralympics will only last a few weeks, the lasting impact they will have on the city and its people will be profound. Upwards of $40 billion has been invested in infrastructure in China’s capital, not only to construct the giant showpiece stadiums which will host the events but also to create a future-proof transportation system to serve the city’s population.

Beijing Airport’s new terminal wows visitors

Visitors get an immediate sense of the breathtaking scale of investment when they land at Beijing’s Capital International Airport and are ushered through the futuristic new Terminal 3. This engineering marvel, created by British architect Lord Foster, mimics China’s revered, mythical dragon in its design. The largest airport terminal in the world, and one of the world’s largest buildings, it will increase the airport’s capacity almost three-fold – from 35 million passengers per year to around 85 million.

Public transport in Beijing has not been overlooked either. Three new subway lines have just opened, adding another 58km of track to Beijing’s subway to take it to eight lines and 200km. Investment in those alone totalling some $3.3 billion. They include a dedicated Airport Express Line to speed passengers into the city and an Olympic Line servicing Olympic Park and its iconic stadiums. Five more lines are planned by 2015, by which time the network will exceed London’s.

The world’s fastest intercity rail line, linking Beijing with Olympic football competition host city Tianjin, enters service today (1 August), again in time for the Olympics. Running at speeds of up to 350kph, the trains will cut the 120km journey from 70 minutes to 30.. There are five stations on the route, culminating in the imposing new Beijing South Railway Station.

Other landmark architectural buildings are reshaping Beijing’s skyline. French architect Paul Andreu designed the controversial, ellipsoid city-centre National Grand Theatre, dubbed The Egg. Meanwhile the bizarrely-inclined CCTV Building is on schedule for completion in 2009. Then there are the Olympic sports arenas. Beijing alone has 31, led by the spectacular National Stadium, the Bird’s Nest, and the National Aquatics Centre, the Water Cube. These will be the focal points for the Olympics’ global audience. For Beijingers, however, they herald a brave new dawn, gifting them facilities to continue nurturing their sportsmen and women long into the future.