Olympic News
International Olympic Committee : Olympic News Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games: three days to go! Three days to go for the
2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing . The Games will kick off with another spectacular ceremony in the National Stadium – the Bird’s Nest - in Beijing. Over 13 days, 4,000 athletes from 148 countries will compete in 20 sports. The Paralympics will be staged in the same iconic venues as the Olympic Games in August, including the sailing competitions in Qingdao and the equestrian competitions in Hong Kong.
Paralympic firsts Burundi, Gabon, Georgia, Haiti and Timor-Leste will participate for the first time in the Paralympic
Games; Serbia and Montenegro will participate for the first time as two delegations. The Chinese delegation, with 332 athletes and 215 officials, is the country's largest at the Paralympics. Rowing is on the sports programme for the first time.Torch relay under way The Games will be preceded by a torch relay that includes 850 torch bearers who are
carrying the torch over 10 days in different provinces of the country. Some 30,000 volunteers will
welcome and assist the athletes.Paralympic Village opened
The Paralympic Village was opened formally on Saturday, with the Chinese squad hoisting its flag and moving in. The Paralympic Village, transformed from the Olympic Village, will play host to the athletes and officials. Special accessories and facilities have been added to the Village to meet the needs of physically challenged athletes. Spread over 66 hectares, the Village has 42 apartment buildings, a hospital, a bank, places of worship and many shops.
A commemorative wall with the inscription of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in Chinese and English, was also unveiled on Saturday. The Convention was unanimously approved by delegates of the 192 UN members two years ago, and became effective from 3 May this year. All athletes, officials and visitors to the Village can sign their names on the wall, which will be retained as a legacy of
the Beijing Paralympic Games.
Discover Paralympic Games through the Olympic Express
Learn more about the Paralympic Games Pernilla Wiberg heads IOC Evaluation Commission for 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games Following the decision of the IOC Executive Board to shortlist the four Candidate Cities of Harbin (China), Innsbruck (Austria), Kuopio (Finland) and Lillehammer (Norway), the IOC President has appointed an Evaluation Commission to further analyse the projects put forward for the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2012.
The IOC Evaluation Commission will be chaired by Ms Pernilla Wiberg, IOC member and IOC Athletes’ Commission member, and is composed of the following persons:
As part of the candidature procedure, the Candidate Cities will have the opportunity in September to present their bid to the Evaluation Commission through a video conference call. The video conference calls will take place for one hour and will be structured in two parts: a 15-20-minute verbal presentation by the city to present its bid, followed by questions and answers.
The Evaluation Commission will submit a report to the IOC Executive Board. On the basis of this report, the IOC Executive Board will decide which shortlisted YOG Candidate Cities will be selected to be submitted to a postal vote by all IOC members. The announcement of the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games host city will take place in December 2008.
Learn more about the YOG
###
For further information, please contact Emmanuelle Moreau on +41 79 637 30 17 or e-mail:
pressoffice@olympic.org .
A Hero's Welcome Afghanistan's first Olympic medallist received a hero's welcome on Thursday from hundreds of beaming fans. Rohullah Nikpai, who won a bronze medal in the under 58kg taekwondo competition, was greeted along with his three teammates in Kabul, the Afghan capital. Taekwondo is the most practised combat sport in Afghanistan. The country's previous best Olympic finish was a fifth place in wrestling at the Tokyo Games in 1964.An Olympic Solidarity scholarship holder
Rohullah Nikpai is an Olympic Solidarity scholarship holder. Olympic Solidarity has worked closely with the Afghan NOC and its 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. In Beijing, there were a total of 586 athletes from 150 different nations who benefited from an Olympic Solidarity scholarship, among them several gold medallists including Abhinav Bindra, winner of the 10m air rifle competition and the first Indian ever to win an individual Olympic gold medal.
Learn more about The Olympic Solidarity Commission IOC Virtual Congress: win a trip to Copenhagen Win a trip to Copenhagen and attend the 13th Olympic Congress in October 2009: this is the prize for 20 participants of the current virtual Congress. Each member of the general public who submits a written electronic contribution to the virtual Congress is automatically eligible to participate in the prize draw. The 20 invitations include economy airfare and local accommodation and meals. Submissions will be accepted until 31 December 2008.The quality counts
The contributions to the virtual Congress will be numerous. Today more than 1,000 people have already registered or contributed. It will be up to the IOC, through its Olympic Congress Editorial Committee, to select 20 contributions and award their authors one prize each. When making its decision, the Committee will in particular take into account the quality of the contribution. The competition rules can be accessed on the virtual Congress page.
What do I have to do?
Making a contribution to the
virtual Olympic Congress is easy! Access
www.2009congress.olympic.org , register and contribute online to a maximum of two of the five Congress themes.
The themes are as follows:
Theme 1: The athletes
- Relationship between the athletes, the clubs, federations and the NOCs
- Health protection in training and competition
- The social and professional life of athletes during and after elite competition
Theme 2: The Olympic Games
- How to keep the Games as a premier event
- The Olympic values
- Universality and developing countries
Theme 3: The structure of the Olympic Movement - The autonomy of the Olympic Movement
- Good governance and ethics
- The relationships between the Olympic Movement and its stakeholders
Theme 4: Olympism and Youth
- Moving towards an active society
- Is competitive sport still appealing?
- Youth sports events
Theme 5: The digital revolution
- A new management of sports rights
- How to increase the size of the sports audience
- Communication with stakeholders in the digital age
Basis of discussion The
virtual Olympic Congress is an important component of the preparatory process leading up to the 13th Olympic Congress in Copenhagen. The information gathered through the virtual Congress will form the basis of discussions at the 13th Olympic Congress held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in October 2009.
More information on the Congress Regulations, the Call for Contributions and the competition rules can be found at
www.2009congress.olympic.org
Podcasts
Visa encouraged kids to draw on their imaginations Visa “Olympics of the Imagination” programme launched four years ago and, since that time, millions of kids have taken part in the competition. Even more impressive is the 255 children from 44 countries aged 10 to 14 who have gotten to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing thanks to Visa.Olympic spirit Scot Smythe, Senior Vice President of Visa International, says, "We believe that the unifying nature of the Olympic Games brings together people and communities in a way so as to enhance their lives. The Visa “Olympics of the Imagination” embodied that spirit, bringing together the young people from 18 nations to demonstrate through art the Olympic spirit."Use your imagination
The programme challenged school children to use their imaginations to create a piece of art based on the theme of global unity: “Show how the Olympic Games connect different cultures and capture the Beijing theme – One World, One Dream.” The winners were given the opportunity to come to Beijing as a guest of Visa Inc.
Thirty winners were chosen based on their various themes: “Dare to Dream”, “Games for Peace”, and “Unified World” were just a few of the innovative ideas thought up by kids from across the globe. The programme began in March of last year and the 30 winners were selected from Brazil, Canada, Caribbean, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Hong Kong, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Poland, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.Each country funnels into China
One of the winners, Brianna Hartness of Canada, drew a picture of the Earth with all the countries’ flags channelling into China. The caption read, “Each country funnels into Beijing for the Olympic Games, bringing with them a whirlwind of excitement, energy and competitive spirit.”
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, April 24, 2008.- Cristobal Marte Hoffiz, President of NORCECA and Technical Delegate for Volleyball and Beach Volleyball of the the 2009 Caribbean Games’ tournaments, conducted the first inspection on the venues for those competitions.
