The world record holder, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, said he still intended to participate in the 10,000 meters but could not run in the 26-mile, 385-yard (42.2km) marathon.

Gebrselassie, 34, who holds the world marathon record and two Olympic titles for the 10,000 meters, suffers from asthma.

He said, ‘The pollution in China is a threat to my health and it would be difficult for me to run 42km. But I am not pulling out of the Olympic event in Beijing altogether. I plan to participate in the 10,000-metre event.’

China has spent more than $16 billion on measures to improve air quality in Beijing with, so far, little tangible success. Factories have been closed or moved and millions of cars have been taken off the city’s notoriously congested roads in the past 12 months.

A report by the United Nations in October revealed that there still might not be enough time to clear pollutants for the Games, which begin in August.

Many athletes who suffer from asthma have won Olympic medals. The condition is no bar to sporting success.
The British marathon runner Paula Radcliffe was diagnosed with asthma at 14 and keeps the condition under control with medication. Paul Scholes, the England footballer, found out he had asthma at the age of 21. But gulping in large volumes of polluted air in Beijing will challenge even the healthiest lungs.

The International Olympic Committee is concerned at the rise in athletes claiming to be asthmatic — from 9% in the 1980s to 21% at the 2000 Olympics. It will insist the correct tests are carried out and the proper forms filled in before granting permission for athletes to use asthma drugs.
Source: Belfast Telegraph

A dozen multinationals such as Coca-Cola, Lenovo, McDonald’s, and Samsung have laid out as much as $100 million each to be global sponsors of the Beijing Olympics this summer. An additional 11 — including Volkswagen, Adidas, and Air China — have paid as much as $50 million each for the right to link ads within China to the Games.

Dozens of other companies have less extensive tie-ups, ranging from the ‘official wine supplier’ (Great Wall) to Guangzhou Liby Enterprise Group, which is an official provider of detergent for sheets, shorts, and other laundry.

The problem for sponsors is that plenty of other companies think the Olympics are just as attractive — and are finding unofficial ways to link their brands to the Games.

Nike has endorsement deals with Athens gold medal hurdler Liu Xiang and other Chinese athletes. Part of its campaign is in our illustration.
Sneaker-maker Li Ning (named after its founder, an Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics) runs TV spots featuring gymnasts and basketball players and is sponsoring the U.S. Olympic Ping-Pong team.
PepsiCo got 160 million online votes from mainlanders in a contest ranking mug shots sent in by fans; the winning entries will be printed on cans cheering on Team China. And Pepsi has replaced its traditional blue cans in the mainland with red ones ‘to show our respect to the year of China,’ says Harry Hui, Pepsi’s marketing chief in China.

It works.

Qantas did it to Ansett Airlines in the 2000 Olympics. Ansett died, Qantas went from strength to strength.

Most ambush marketers do what Qantas did and simply deploy images of athletes. Thousands of Chinese polled by research firm Ipsos say they believe Pepsi, Nokia, and Li Ning are linked to the games, though they aren’t. That’s important because roughly three-quarters of Chinese consumers say they would give preference to products they associate with the Olympics, Beijing consultancy R3 reports.

It doesn’t help that the Beijing organizing committee offers five levels of sponsorship, and a total of 49 companies have signed up.
Source: BusinessWeek

Baseball will be at the Olympics. It will be its swan song. There are now two exhibition games in Beijing between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers, the first MLB games in China. It’s the first test of the Olympic baseball venue and an attempt to attract Chinese fans, most of whom follow only basketball or soccer and know little of the game of ‘bangqiu.’

Baseball was played in China in 1863 when an American named Henry William Boone formed the Shanghai Baseball Club. Babe Ruth and Casey Stengel have played in China. Like other Western influences, it disappeared during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76.

Dodgers manager Joe Torre said, ‘It may be a slow process, but once it starts blossoming I think you are going to see a number of players from China making an impact. We all have to put in the time right now and be patient.’

The chances of baseball making it in China are about the same as cricket making it in the United States.

Some obstacles:

Although the game will be seen on TV in the U.S., there’s no coverage in China.
Baseball is expensive in China, and equipment is nearly impossible to find.
Ticket prices for the two exhibition games this weekend range between RMB50 and 1,280, or $7 for the cheap seats and $180 for boxes. Both games are expected to be sold out, but many fans will be foreigners living in China.

Zhang Yufeng, the captain of China’s national team, said baseball equipment in China was too expensive for most Chinese. A ball can cost $14 and a real wood bat about $140.

Zhang said, ‘Baseball is an elite sport. It requires special equipment and fields. You pay that much for a bat and you can break it so easy. And clothes and gloves are also expensive. So it’s difficult to get a team together.

‘China’s national sport is ping-pong, no doubt. All you need is a ball and a paddle.’

Now it has been dropped from the Olympics in 2012, baseball and is hoping to get back in. It could return in 2016, but only if the Europe-dominated IOC votes it back. Cricket has more chance and it has none.

Sandy Alderson of the Padres said, ‘It would be unfortunate if these facilities were not to remain because they are ideal for the further development of the game. Losing baseball in the Olympics and the funding was a real blow to baseball. Getting it going in China would help.’
Don’t hold your breath.
Source: AP

According to Vice Minister Cui Dalin of the State General Administration of Sport, the Chinese Olympic delegation will have around 570 members, the country’s largest ever for the world’s top sporting event.

The first time China took part in the Olympics was in 1984, when it sent only 225 members to Los Angeles. And in 2000 and 2004, China sent 311 and 407 people to the Sydney and Athens Olympics respectively.

According to the Associated Press, China’s deputy sports minister seems to have little hope that the home team can even qualify for the Olympics, let alone win anything.

Cui Dalin said, ‘We’ve got to take a pretty sober, objective view toward this. Overall, we’re not a big sporting nation.’

That was in response to Jim Scherr, head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, saying, ‘We have no illusions. This will be a very difficult competition.’

In 2004, the United States led the world with 102 medals, and China finished third with 63.

The writer comes from Wales which, in the Olympics, is not counted as a country and has therefore never won a medal. Winning a plethora, an inundation, of Olympic medals does not change the world, does not bring down the price of pork. But it does raise the spirits of a nation.
Source: CCTV.Com

Car owners forced off the road to reduce pollution during August’s Beijing Olympics will be compensated.

Beijing plans to take as many as half of its 3.3 million vehicles off the roads during the Games to help cut emissions.

Beijing vice mayor Ji Lin said, ‘Automobiles, excluding taxis, buses and emergency vehicles, are to stay off roads every other day in accordance with the even and odd numbers on the licence plates. The ban is aimed to ensure air quality during the sports events in Beijing.’

Ji Lin said there would be compensation but the exact levels were still being discussed.

Beijing, one of the most polluted cities in the world, held a four-day test of similar restrictions in August last year.

Despite huge efforts to improve the environment over the last decade, air quality remains one of the biggest problems facing organisers in the run-up to the Olympics.

Olympic chief Jacques Rogge said last year that some endurance events would have to be rescheduled if air quality could not be guaranteed.

Plans to reduce pollutants during the Olympics also involve cutting emissions at power plants and factories in Beijing and five surrounding provinces.

Full details of the contingency plans have yet to be announced, but another Beijing vice mayor, Liu Jingmin, said earlier this week that measures should not be too disruptive to the city’s economy of the lives of the people.
Source: The Guardian