Beijing 2008

From Olympic Wiki

Beijing 2008, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, will be celebrated in Beijing, People's Republic of China from August 8, through August 24. The opening ceremony will start at 08:08:08 pm CST (12:08:08 UTC) at the Beijing National Stadium in Beijing, People's Republic of China.

Contents 1 Venues 1.1 New competition venues 1.2 Existing competition venues 1.3 Temporary Competition Venues 1.4 Competition venues outside Beijing 2 Controversies, Embarrassments, and Scandals 2.1 Torch relay 2.2 Censorship 2.3 Opening ceremony 2.4 Human rights 2.5 Age falsification

[edit] Venues

[edit] New competition venues

Venue	Sports	Capacity
Beijing National Stadium	Athletics, Football	91,000
Beijing National Aquatics Centre	Swimming, Diving and Synchronized Swimming	17,000
Beijing National Indoor Stadium	Artistic Gymnastics, Trampoline, Handball	19,000
Beijing Shooting Range Hall	Qualifications and finals 10-, 25-, and 50-meter range shooting events	9,000
Wukesong Indoor Stadium	Basketball	18,000
Laoshan Velodrome	Cycling (track)	6,000
Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park	Rowing, Canoe/Kayak (flat-water racing and Slalom Racing)	37,000
China Agricultural University Gymnasium	Wrestling	8,000
Peking University Gymnasium	Table tennis	8,000
University of Science and Technology Beijing Gymnasium	Judo and Taekwondo	8,024
Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium	Badminton and Rhythmic Gymnastics	7,500
Olympic Green Tennis Center	Tennis	17,400

[edit] Existing competition venues

Venue	Sports
Olympic	Football, Modern Pentathlon (running and equestrian)
Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium	Handball
Workers Stadium	Football
Workers Indoor Arena	Boxing
Capital Indoor Stadium	Volleyball
Fengtai Softball Field	Softball
Ying Tung Natatorium	Water Polo, Modern Pentathlon (swimming)
Laoshan Mountain Bike Course	Cycling (Mountain Bike)
Beijing Shooting Range Clay Target Field	Shooting
Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium	Volleyball
Beihang University Gymnasium	Weightlifting

[edit] Temporary Competition Venues

Venue	Sports
Olympic Green Convention Centre	Fencing preliminaries and finals, and Modern Pentathlon (fencing and shooting)
Olympic Green Hockey Field	Hockey
Olympic Green Archery Field	Archery
Wukesong Baseball Field	Baseball
Beach Volleyball Ground	Beach volleyball
BMX Field	Cycling (BMX)
Triathlon Venue	Triathlon
Urban Road Cycling Course	Cycling (road race)

[edit] Competition venues outside Beijing

Venue	Sports
Quingdao International Sailing Centre	Sailing
Shanghai Stadium	Football Preliminary
Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Centre Stadium	Football Preliminary
Hong Kong Equestrian Venues	Equestrian
Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium	Football Preliminary
Shenyang Olympic Sports Centre Stadium	Football Preliminary

[edit] Controversies, Embarrassments, and Scandals

[edit] Torch relay

• Torch relay a 'public relations nightmare' (CNN)

[edit] Censorship

• IOC gave nod to website censorship (Toronto Star)
• Tessa Jowell condemns Chinese assault on ITN journalist as 'ugly breach' (Times Online UK; Tessa Jowell is a British MP and Minister of the Olympics for the UK)
  • Chinese police rough up British TV reporter (The Olympian, McClatchy Newspapers)

[edit] Opening ceremony

• Beijing Olympic 2008 opening ceremony giant firework footprints 'faked' (Telegraph UK)
• Blue Screen of Death Strikes Bird's Nest During Opening Ceremonies Torch Lighting (Gizmodo)
• Olympic girl seen but not heard (CNN)

[edit] Human rights

• China's un-Olympic human rights record (Calgary Herald)
• Crackdown continues for Chinese human rights activists, with no Olympic truce during games (Reporters sans frontieres aka Reporters without borders)
• Beijing Olympics 2008: Elderly evicted women given labour sentence (Guardian UK)

[edit] Age falsification

• Teeny-Tiny Matter of Age for China’s Gymnasts (NY Times)
• China accused of putting forward Olympic gymnasts who are too young to compete (Daily Mail UK)