2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Olympics I Paralympics

Overview:

The Olympic movement uses many symbols, most of them representing IOC founder Pierre de Coubertin's ideas and ideals. The best known symbol is probably that of the Olympic Rings. These five intertwined rings represent the unity of five continents. They appear in five colours on a white field on the Olympic Flag.

These colours, white (for the field), red, blue, green, yellow, and black were chosen such that each nation had at least one of these colours in its national flag. The flag was adopted in 1914, but the first Games at which it was flown were Antwerp, 1920. It is hoisted at each celebration of the Games.

The official Olympic Motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius", a Latin phrase meaning "Swifter, Higher, Stronger". Coubertin's ideals are probably best illustrated by the Olympic Creed:

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

The Olympic Flame is lit in Olympia and brought to the host city by runners carrying the torch in relay. There it plays an important role in the opening ceremonies. Though torches have played a part historically, the relay was introduced in 1936.

Olympics:

Present:

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, will be held in Beijing, China from August 8, 2008 to August 24, 2008, with the opening ceremony to take place at 8 p.m. on August 8, 2008 (08-08-08; the number 8 is associated with prosperity in Chinese culture). Some events, like beach volleyball, sailing, and open water swimming, will be held in the coastal city of Qingdao.

On July 8, 2005, the International Olympic Committee announced that Hong Kong will hold the equestrian events at the site of the Hong Kong Sports Institute in Fo Tan, Sha Tin. The facilities of the Sports Institute may be moved to Wu Kai Sha. This will be the second time the same season of Olympic Games has been hosted by two National Olympic Committees. (A similar arrangement was in place between Melbourne, Australia, and Stockholm, Sweden, for the 1956 Summer Olympics).

The events programme for the Beijing 2008 Games is quite similar to that of the Athens Games held in 2004. The 2008 Olympics will see the return of 28 sports, and will hold 302 events, one more than in Athens.

Nine new events are to be held, including the new cycling discipline of BMX (composed of individual events for men and women). Women will compete in 3000m steeplechase. Marathon swimming events for men and women, over the distance of 10 kilometres, will be added to the swimming discipline. Team events (men and women) in table tennis will replace the doubles events. In fencing, women's team foil and women's team sabre will replace men's team foil and women's team epee.

Dancing Beijing:

The 2008 Summer Olympics emblem entitled "Dancing Beijing" was unveiled in August 2003 in a ceremony attended by 2,008 people at the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in Beijing's Temple of Heaven.

The emblem combines elements of traditional Chinese society - a red seal and a calligraphic word for jing ("national capital") with athletic features. According to the International Olympic Committee, the emblem is the first of the modern Olympics to use red as the dominant colour, an important colour for the Chinese people throughout its history. The open arms of the calligraphic word symbolizes the invitation of China to the world to share in its culture.

From the 245 participants representing 15 nations in 1896, the Games grew to nearly 11,100 competitors from 202 countries at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The number of competitors at the Winter Olympics is much smaller than at the Summer Games; at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, 2,400 athletes from 77 countries competed in 78 events.

The Olympics are one of the largest media events. In Sydney in 2000 there were over 16,000 broadcasters and journalists, and an estimated 3.8 billion viewers watched the games on television. The growth of the Olympics is one of the largest problems the Olympics face today.

Although allowing professional athletes and attracting sponsorships from major international companies solved financial problems in the 1980s, the large number of athletes, media and spectators makes it difficult and expensive for host cities to organize the Olympics. The Summer Olympics (Games of the Olympiad) have been held every fourth year starting in 1896, except in 1916, 1940, and 1944 due to the World Wars.

A special edition for winter sports, the Olympic Winter Games, was first held in 1924. The first winter Olympics competitions were originally held as a non-Olympic sports festival, but were declared to be official Games by the International Olympic Committee in 1925. Originally these were held in the same year as the Summer Olympics, but from 1994 on the Winter Games and the Summer Games have been held two years apart.

Origins:

According to legend, Kind Ifitos of Elis, seeking to establish peace among warring Greeks, visited the Oracle of Delphi. There, he was advised to break the cycle of conflict every four years by replacing war with friendly athletic competition. Ifitos sought the cooperation of Kings Lycourgos of Sparta and Cleosthenes of Pisa. They agreed to a truce called "Ekeheiria" and organized the first Olympic Games at Olympia. Fighting ceased from seven days before until seven days after the Games, allowing athletes, artists, and spectators to travel to Olympia, participate in the Olympic Games and return to their homelands in peace.

From then on, the Games quickly became much more important throughout ancient Greece, reaching their zenith in the sixth and fifth centuries BC. The Olympics were of fundamental religious importance, contests alternating with sacrifices and ceremonies honouring both Zeus (whose colossal statue stood at Olympia), and Pelops, divine hero and mythical king of Olympia famous for his legendary chariot race, in whose honour the games were held. The number of events increased to twenty, and the celebration was spread over several days. Winners of the events were greatly admired and were immortalised in poems and statues. The Games were held every four years, and the period between two celebrations became known as an 'Olympiad'. The Greeks used Olympiads as one of their methods to count years. The most famous Olympic athlete lived in these times: the sixth century BC wrestler Milo of Croton is the only athlete in history to win a victory in six Olympics.

The Games gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power in Greece. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Olympic Games were seen as a pagan festival and in discord with Christian ethics, and in 393 CE the emperor Theodosius I outlawed the Olympics, ending a thousand-year tradition.

Competitors:

During the ancient times normally only young men competed. Performers were usually naked, not only as the weather was appropriate but also as the festival was meant to be, in part, a celebration of the achievements of the human body. Upon winning the games, the victor would have not only the prestige of being in first place but would also be presented with a crown of olive leaves. The olive branch is a sign of hope and peace.

During competition for some of the events, many of the participants would use oils to keep their skin smooth, as well as provide an appealing lustre to anyone who saw them.

Even though the bearing of a torch formed an integral aspect of Greek ceremonies, the ancient Olympic Games did not include it, nor was there a symbol formed by interconnecting rings. These Olympic symbols were introduced as part of the modern Olympic Games.

Revival:

The interest in reviving the Olympics grew when the ruins of ancient Olympia were uncovered by German archaeologists in the mid-19th century. At the same time, Baron Pierre de Coubertin was searching for a reason for the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870 - 1871).

He thought the reason was that the French had not received proper physical education, and sought to improve this. In 1890 he attended the Wenlock Olympian Society in Shropshire.

Coubertin also thought of a way to bring nations closer together, to have the youth of the world compete in sports, rather than fight in war. In his eyes, the recovery of the Olympic Games would achieve both of these goals.

In a congress at the Sorbonne University, in Paris, held from June 16 to June 23, 1894 he presented his ideas to an international audience. On the last day of the congress, it was decided that the first modern Olympic Games would take place in 1896 in Athens, in the country of their birth.

To organise the Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was established, with the Greek Demetrius Vikelas as its first president.

The total number of athletes at the the first modern Olympic Games, less than 250, seems small by modern standards, but the games were the largest international sports event ever held until that time.

The Greek officials and public were also very enthusiastic, and they even proposed to have the monopoly of organising the Olympics. The IOC decided differently, however, and the second Olympic Games took place in Paris, France. Paris was also the first Olympic Games where women were allowed to compete. 

Paralympics

Present:

The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the thirteenth Paralympics, will be held in Beijing, China from September 6 - 17, 2008. Mainland China is expected to field the most athletes. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao.

On June 26, 2005, The Beijing Olympic Committee announced that the slogan for the 2008 Olympics will be "One World, One Dream," which will be the same slogan for the two events.

Twenty sports are on the programme, including the following: archery, athletics, boccia, cycling, equestrian, five-a-side and seven-a-side football, goalball, judo, powerlifting, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, volleyball, wheelchair bastketball, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair rugby, and wheelchair tennis.

Rowing will make its first appearance in the Paralympics at these games. 

Past:

Sir Ludwig Guttmann organized a sports competition in 1948 which became known as the Stoke Mandeville Games, involving World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries; in 1952 competitors from the Netherlands took part in the competition, giving an international notion to the movement. The first Olympic-style games for athletes with a disability were held in Rome in 1960; officially called the 9th Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games, these are considered to be the first Paralympic Games. The first Winter Paralympics were held in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden in 1976.

Since 1988, the Summer Paralympics have been held in the conjunction with the Olympic Games in the same host city. This practice was adopted in 1992 for the Winter Paralympics, and became an official policy of the International Olympic Committee and the IPC following a June 19, 2001 agreement. The Games take place three weeks after the closing of the Olympics, in the same host city and using the same facilities. Cities bidding to host the Olympic Games must include the Paralympic Games in their bid, and typically both Games are now run by a single organizing committee.

In the 1996 Atlanta Games athletes with intellectual disabilities were allowed to participate for the first time. However following cheating in the 2000 Sydney Games, in which non-disabled athletes were entered in the Spanish Basketball ID team, such athletes were banned by the IPC. Following an anti-corruption drive, the International Sports Federation for Persons with an Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID) lobbied to have these athletes reinstated. Beginning in 2004, athletes with an intellectual disability began to be re-integrated into Paralympic sport competitions, although they remain excluded from the Paralympic Games. The IPC has stated that it will re-evaluate their participation following the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

The name derives from the Greek "para" ("beside" or "alongside") and thus refers to a competition held in parallel with the Olympic Games. No relation with paralysis or paraplegia is intended.

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