tagged w/ Beijing Olympics
-
Beijing -- an ancient city developing into a modern metropolis at breakneck speed. As the economic tide turns against the west, more and more young, foreign talents are taking their entrepreneurial ambitions into China.
How have these 20-something year-old entrepreneurs been affected by the economic crisis? As China moves towards 60 years of communist rule, what is the future for the country's market economy?
Meet these creative young minds as they venture into a new China.
p/s: Check out our other pods to for a more in-depth feature of the businesses featured.Beijing -- an ancient city developing into a modern metropolis at breakneck speed. As... more
-
-
Beijing -- an ancient city developing into a modern metropolis at breakneck speed. As the economic tide turns against the west, more and more young, foreign talents are taking their entrepreneurial ambitions into China.
How have these 20-something year-old entrepreneurs been affected by the economic crisis? As China moves towards 60 years of communist rule, what is the future for the country's market economy?
Meet these creative young minds as they venture into a new China.
p/s: Check out our other pods to for a more in-depth feature of the businesses featured.Beijing -- an ancient city developing into a modern metropolis at breakneck speed. As... more
-
-
Sarah Palin topped Google's list of 'fastest-rising' searches in 2008, followed by the Beijing Olympics. Obama came in at number five, after Heath Ledger. Palin was number one globally, but only number seven in the US. She also topped Google Image's list.Sarah Palin topped Google's list of 'fastest-rising' searches in 2008,... more
-
-
It's a slow week when it comes to mixed sports. The Cal Bears Cross Country team won't be back in action until October 18, and there were very few news items that made it on to my radar. With the changing seasons and the cold weather upon us, it is the perfect time to start swimming. Swimming? Yeah, that's what I thought too. The men's and women's swim teams begin action this weekend...It's a slow week when it comes to mixed sports. The Cal Bears Cross Country team... more
-
-
What happens when sperm from the three greatest swimmers in the world find themselves in one woman's uterus?
An epic race through the filopian tubes, battling to see who can reach the ovary first.What happens when sperm from the three greatest swimmers in the world find themselves... more
-
-
Beijing boasts some of the best nightlife in Asia and in this pod, we will meet up with a group of scene-sters out on the town to tour some of Beijing's most happening spots, discussing the Olympic phenomenon with some of the city's more fascinating and irreverent characters.Beijing boasts some of the best nightlife in Asia and in this pod, we will meet up... more
-
-
raskin
-
added this
-
4 years ago
- |
-
Usain's Beijing bolt in the 100m and 200m, Michael's phelp-nomenal eight Golds in the swimming pool and weightlifter Steiner's emotional win dedicated to his late wife won hearts around the world.
But questions over China's committments to human rights and free press coverage remain. Should the games be judged by politics? Or by sport alone?Usain's Beijing bolt in the 100m and 200m, Michael's phelp-nomenal eight... more
-
-
A nation that felt cheated in the WBC when they beat the eventual winner Japan twice before losing to them in the overall semifinal, got redemption by beating Japan twice and amazingly, beating Cuba twice to win gold in the Olympics...
But baseball is getting booted from the Olympics primarily because the very best players aren't involved because of the MLB season...
The United States team might be very much different if they had David Wright and Alex Rodriguez leading the way...
As would Japan if they had Ichiro, Matsuzaka, Fukudome, and Iwamura like they did when they won the WBC 2 years ago.
And team Dominican Republic, not participating in the Olympics this year (since they didn't quite qualify) A nation that felt cheated in the WBC when they beat the eventual winner Japan twice... more
-
-
kozeki
-
added this
-
4 years ago
- |
-
German showjumper Christian Ahlmann (33) has been suspended from the Beijing Olympics after his horse Coster tested positive for illegal substances.
An initial test on August 17 revealed that the performance enhancer Capsaicin was present in the animal’s blood. According to new International Federation of Equestrian Sports (FEI) regulations, riders must be banned from competition after a single positive doping test. The results of a second test will be announced on Friday.
Four other riders have withdrawn from the finals at the Games: Tony Andre Hansen (Norway), Will Simpson (USA), Denis Lynch (Ireland) and Bernardo Alves (Brazil). It is suspected that the riders withdrew to avoid being caught doping.
Poor horses...German showjumper Christian Ahlmann (33) has been suspended from the Beijing Olympics... more
-
-
Jaeger
-
added this
-
4 years ago
- |
-
German sprinter Tobias Unger called the Olympic 100m men’s final a “farce” and cast doubt on the legitimacy of superstar Usain Bolt’s win.
Unger: “Bolt didn’t even warm up for the semi final. He showed up in shorts and jogging shoes, did his pickups and practice starts, put on his spikes and then ran the 100m in 9.92 seconds.
“Bolt ran a time of 9.8 seconds in May and again at the end of September. He showed no tiredness during training,” an annoyed Unger added.
“They do whatever they want on their island. Nothing happens to them. I’m the only one here at the Olympics who is registering with the doping controllers.”
Bolt apparently didn’t even know how to fill out the doping forms. The American sprinters’ coaches actually laughed when they heard about German doping controls.
Unger, who was cut in the semi-finals, threatened to quit: “I just don’t have the desire anymore.”
Racism? Valid suspicion? Sore loser? German sprinter Tobias Unger called the Olympic 100m men’s final a... more
-
-
Go team GB! Truly putting the Great back in Great Britain!
Christine Ohuruogu has just smashed the women's 400m event in Beijing with a time of
49.62 seconds, officially making Beijing Britain's most successful Olympics for over 100 years!
She beat off stiff competition from Jamaica's Shericka Williams who took silver, and the favourite, America's Sanya Richards, who took bronze.Go team GB! Truly putting the Great back in Great Britain!
Christine Ohuruogu has... more
-
-
Natalie Coughlin is already Cal's most decorated female swimmer of all time, and after her medal in the women's 4x100 medley relay, she is now just one medal behind teammate Dara Torres and former Olympian Jenny Thompson for the most medals for an Olympic career of 12....Natalie Coughlin is already Cal's most decorated female swimmer of all time, and... more
-
-
United States' Michael Phelps shows the gold medal after the men's 100-meter butterfly final during the swimming competitions in the National Aquatics Center at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Share Print View Comments
BEIJING — Michael Phelps won his record eighth gold medal Sunday at the Beijing Olympics as a member of the victorious U.S. 400-meter medley relay team, breaking a tie with Mark Spitz for most golds in a single games.
Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Phelps and Jason Lezak won in a world-record of 3 minutes, 29.34 seconds, lowering the old mark of 3:30.68 set four years ago in Athens.
The U.S. swept the men's relays in Beijing, with Phelps leading off in the 400 and 800 free relays. Lezak anchored the 400 free to a narrow victory over France to preserve Phelps' historic bid.
Australia took the silver in 3:30.04.
Japan earned the bronze in 3:31.18.
United States' Michael Phelps shows the gold medal after the men's... more
-
-
Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou will sue the "totalitarian” International Olympic Committee following its decision to ban her from competing in Beijing.
The IOC has clearly had enough of Thanou but the decision by the disciplinary commission is not the end of the affair.
The fear is that it could lead to the case that began on the eve of the last Games in Athens stretching on and even beyond the next Olympics in London.
The IOC ban, using rule 45.2 of the Olympic Charter, came on the grounds that Thanou had brought the Olympic movement into disrepute before the Athen Games.
That was when she and her training partner, Kostas Kenteris, missed a drug test and claimed later that they had been admitted to hospital in Athens after suffering injuries in a motorbike accident as they tried to return to the Olympic village.
Both athletes were disciplined and surrendered their accreditation.
In a scathing report that accompanied the decision, the IOC maintained that Thanou’s behaviour included "pretending she had a traffic accident” and "causing six medical doctors to hospitalise her for five days in order to avoid IOC controls”.
It resulted in, the IOC said, "a scandalous saga which cast a most negative shadow over the 2004 Olympic Games at the time of their opening ceremony.”
As a result, the IOC took up the option of looking again at her eligibility that it highlighted back in 2004 and refused to ratify the sprinter’s accreditation to compete in Beijing, even though she had qualified and has been training with the Greek team.
According to the IOC, the prejudice caused by Thanou had been "most serious”.
The 33 year-old Thanou, who later accepted a two-year ban for missing drug tests, was invited to address the disciplinary commission in person last week but declined.
She called her ban a "prearranged mockery of a decision.”
She added: "It is these totalitarian practices and decisions that bring the sporting spirit and the Olympic ideal that my country gave birth to into disrepute."
The Court of Arbitration for Sport, which has a presence in Beijing, was poised to hear an appeal from the sprinter but that will not happen.
Instead, her British-based lawyer, Dr Gregory Ioannidis said she will take legal action against the IOC at a time and place still to be decided.
Dr Ioannidis said: "The IOC decision is completely unfair. They do not respect the law.
"This is the wrong message to send to society. This decision has been taken with no legal basis and with no legal merits.”
In a statement, he added: “It is simply unfair and discriminatory to allow specific athletes with admission and bans for the use of prohibited substances to participate in the Olympics, but not Ms Thanou.”
Dr Ioannidis ended his statement by saying: "This situation must now come to an end and those responsible for such a decision must come to the understanding that there are rules and laws that need to be followed.
“We have accepted and respected decisions by courts and they have to do the same.
“The time has now come where the public opinion must discover all the facts and the whole truth.”
That is set to be in court and the saga will continue. Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou will sue the "totalitarian” International... more
-
-
After tonight Michael Phelps stands alone and for the matter the US swimming team, defending their gold medal, 12th total and never have lost this, and in Michael Phelps case he hoped would stand up, and it did.....the 30 year records goes down, and more important, a compelling win for the Americans.
The US lead most of the way, and Russia was a challange, and here comes the Australians, but here comes Phelps, superman with the great start, but with 4 swimmers bunched up it wasn't looking good, and then turbo boost from Phelps and then comes Lezak, and then the adrenaline just kicks in, and he just smoked them, and the single greatest performance gets etched in history!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
WOW!!!
Phelps' group is in the water for the 4x100 medley relay. At the first exchange, Aaron Peirson is first. Brendan Hansen is in the water for the breaststroke and has a narrow lead at the turn. Hansen is going head to head with breast stroke gold medalist Kosuke Kitajima and loses some time at the 100 meter mark. The butterfly group is in the water and Australia takes over the lead with Andrew Lauterstein at the helm. But Phelps takes over the lead again at the close of the butterfly leg and Jason Lezak is in the water for the 100 freestyle leg. He has the lead at the turn. The Australians push him to the wall, but it looks like he's going to hold the gap and he does - 3:29.34 is a world record. Phelps gets his record gold medal haul!
He's got soul but he's not a solider, what a all around performance.
...so the question begs.
Do dreams really come true?After tonight Michael Phelps stands alone and for the matter the US swimming team,... more
-
-
Fani Halkia, the reigning Olympic champion in the women's 400-meter hurdles, told reporters she was "shocked" to learn she had tested positive for the banned substance methyltrienolone and would be unable to defend her gold medal.
Halkia spoke to Greek journalists early Sunday morning at a central Beijing hotel. She said she was summoned by the head of Greece's Olympic delegation and told of the results of the first sample she gave to World Anti-Doping Agency doctors.
"I am shocked," she said, according to Greek media reports. "I have undergone more testing than anyone else."
Halkia was tested a few days before the Beijing Olympics in Japan, where Greece's track and field team had been training. She said she had volunteered to take part in WADA's pilot program in which athletes submit themselves voluntarily to regular testing.
Halkia, who has moved out of the Olympic Village, said she was sorry she could not take part in the games and that she had expected to make the 400-meter hurdles final.
Preliminaries in that event were scheduled to begin Sunday afternoon.
Halkia said she did not know how the banned substance was found in her sample.
A total of 15 Greek athletes, including Halkia, have tested positive for methyltrienolone. They include 11 weightlifters, swimmer Yannis Drymonakos, 400-meter runner Dimitrios Regas, and sprinter Tassos Gousis, who was sent home a few days before the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee has also barred sprinter Katerina Thanou from the games for her role in a drug-testing scandal at the Athens Games four years ago.
Halkia was a relative unknown before she won the gold medal in the women's 400-meter hurdles at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Her semifinal time of 52.77 established an Olympic record.Fani Halkia, the reigning Olympic champion in the women's 400-meter hurdles, told... more
-
-
Michael Phelps has the most gold medals won by one person in Olympic history with 11 in his war chest. He is five for five in Beijing, setting a world record in each event. And he is going for number six.
But soon after his first Olympic appearance, a family from Morton had the opportunity to meet the amazing athlete.
It is the same smile we've seen a lot during these Beijing games.
But here, it's in Ann Arbor, Michigan with the Koch family from Morton.
"It was cool," said Kristin Koch.
Cool about sums it up for Kristin Koch.
"She had so much fun. She just laughed the whole time in the pool and you could just tell that she was having the time of her life," said Tonya Koch, Kristin's mother.
Through the Make–a–Wish foundation Kristin and her family were flown to Michigan to spend the day with Phelps.
"She's had 14 surgeries and 48 hospital admissions throughout her life. She has a severe lung disease."
Four years later the family still talks about the experience like it was yesterday.
"It just brought tears to my eyes. To think that someone with that stature, such a celebrity status would take time out of his busy schedule to spend time with Kristin and my family," said Koch.
Phelps gave the kids all kinds of gifts including signed swim caps.
Plus the Koch girls had a sweet treat for Michael.
Unknown to the family at the time, Kristin was even an inspiration to an Olympian, who was having a tough time adjusting to life after the Olympics.
"In an article in ESPN Magazine, Michael talked about how two days before we flew to Ann Arbor to see him, he was in the car with all his belongings," said Koch.
He wanted to come home, but his mom convinced him to stick it out... and the Koch's say the article also said how Kristin was his inspiration.
"He talked about how he met this girl who had Down syndrome and health problems. He got to swim with her and her family. She had so much fun in the pool. He realized he needed to get back to swimming for himself. He talked about how Kristin got him back on track," said Koch.
That January 2005 trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan ended up being an inspiration for both Michael Phelps and Kristin Koch.
http://www.week.com/news/local/26978754.html
Michael Phelps has the most gold medals won by one person in Olympic history with 11... more
-
-
If you want an idea of how China is watching its Games, forget the live venues. Only 40% of the tickets were available to the domestic public, with the other 60% kept back in order that various relatives of IOC dignitaries might shop, or take long lunches, or whatever it is they are doing that is keeping them from occupying the vast swaths of empty seats in every arena.
Much better to settle down with a remote control and the fine state broadcast service that is China Central Television - somewhat unfortunately abbreviated to CCTV. How to give you a flavour of its news values? Yesterday five protesters abseiled down the side of CCTV's head office - that breathtaking, Mobius strip-like glass structure in Beijing's financial district - unfurling a vast Free Tibet banner. Police spent up to an hour getting them down, yet the incident was not referred to, much less shown, on any of CCTV's 18 channels. In fairness it is always difficult when a story breaks as far as two feet from your watercooler, so let us assume it was simply unable to get any reporters or cameramen outside in time.
Then again it seems that every day is a good day to bury bad news here, what with CCTV having to meet its obligations to play the official Olympic song, Beijing Welcomes You, at least 987 times in any news cycle.
Beijing Welcomes You comes complete with a video comparable to the BBC's Perfect Day promo, with 100 of China's best-known celebrities positioned either at famous cultural landmarks, or Olympic venues, or engaged in traditional crafts. Each of them sings a couple of the song's lines, every one of which seems to be "Beijing welcomes you".
"Beijing welcomes you!" bellows Jackie Chan, flinging open his arms atop the Great Wall. "We've opened up our world to you!" Cut to a shot of Peking duck spinning round on a lazy Susan. "Beijing welcomes you!" sing a boyband, as if they have never meant a lyric more.
In duration it is slightly longer than the sort of experimental album track a self-indulgent prog-rock band might lay down at their most narcotically addled. This lot have not welcomed you to Beijing until you are lying down and begging for mercy. Hear it twice and it will never leave your internal jukebox.
It does, however, contrive to be less irksome than Beijing I Love You, which also comes around at least once an hour on every channel and features a torch-bearing singer accompanied by a cast of thousands. The lyrics are subtitled, presumably so the Chinese can join in the rapture from the comfort of their own sofa. Often one of these follows the other, giving the viewer a glimpse of what it would be like to pass eternity in China's most on-message choral society.
But what of the sport? The thing that strikes you most is that the state broadcaster is interested in Olympics but not Olympians. Not for CCTV the looks at individual athletes' backstories which are commonplace to those who watch sport in the west. The focus is heavily Chinese, of course - but then all nations ladle on the patriotism at the Olympics. However, whereas Brits will by now know an awful lot more about Nicole Cooke than they did a fortnight ago, the Chinese are not presented with the athlete's journey to gold. It is as if the only narrative that matters is that of China's. Hence endless focus on the medal table.
The approach would appear to tally with one of 21 edicts on Olympic coverage, issued by China's propaganda bureau, which decrees "don't overhype gold medals". Chinese athletes are celebrated but, typically, all together, in one giant Team China montage.
That said, they certainly get the airtime. Hell, they even get the dead airtime and so it is that the camera will focus on a Chinese gymnast waiting minutes for a score to come up, ignoring the competition continuing elsewhere.
If you want an idea of how China is watching its Games, forget the live venues. Only... more
-
-
NBC Universal's Beijing Olympics coverage is on pace to be the MOST WATCHED OLYMPICS IN HISTORY. Through two days NBCU has attracted a record 114 million total viewers - four million more than Atlanta in 1996 - the most watched Olympics in history and nearly 20 million more than Athens (95 million), according to data provided Nielsen Media Research.
Saturday's coverage on the Networks of NBC Universal reached 92 million total viewers, 14 million ahead of the comparable Saturday from Athens in 2004 (78 million).
NBC's Beijing Olympic two-day average viewership is 29.1 million and the national rating average of 16.2/30 is the best primetime rating through the first Saturday for a non-U.S. Summer Olympics since Montreal in 1976 (22.1/46) and a 22 percent jump from Athens in 2004 (13.3/25).
Saturday night's 24.1 million average viewers bested Athens by nearly 4.5 million viewers (19.8) and earned a rating of 13.9 rating/27 share, an 18 percent jump from Athens in 2004 (11.8/23).
NBC's LIVE primetime coverage, which included Michael Phelps collecting his first Beijing gold medal and seventh career Olympic gold medal in the 400m Individual Medley, and Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh winning their first match in Beach Volleyball, peaked with a 16.4/30 and 28.7 million average viewers in the 10 p.m. half hour.
MORE PHELPS IN PRIMETIME ON NBC:
"PHELPS IS TIGER [WOODS] IN A SPEEDO." - NBC's Dan Hicks:
Monday will be another busy day for Michael Phelps, and it's all LIVE in primetime on NBC. First, he'll swim for what could be his record-tying ninth career Olympic gold medal and third gold medal of the Beijing Games in an event he dominates, the 200m freestyle. Less than an hour later, the semifinal in another Phelps-dominated event, the 200m butterfly.
Then on Tuesday on NBC LIVE in primetime, Michael Phelps could become the greatest Olympian of all-time, swimming in two gold medal finals - the 200m butterfly and 4x200m freestyle relay. It is the only night where he could potentially win two gold medals - and he set world records and won both swims at the 2007 World Championships. This could be the night when Phelps breaks the all-time record for career gold medals, which is currently nine and shared by four athletes, including USA's Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz.
NBCOLYMPICS.COM ROLLS:
NBCOlympics.com followed up its record day on 8/8/08 with another enormous day of traffic. On Saturday (traditionally the lowest trafficked day of the week), the site garnered 62.7 million page views an increase of 475 percent from the opening day of competition of the Athens Games in 2006 (10.9 million).
Through two days NBCOlympics.com has totaled 132.6 million page views compared to 17.9 million page views for the first two days of the Athens Games an increase of 641 percent.
NBCOlympics.com registered 3.1 million video streams yesterday. By comparison, in Athens, the first day of competition received 115,014 video streams.
4.83 million unique users logged onto NBCOlympics.com yesterday an increase from the 4.21 million for 8/8/08 and nearly six times the unique users from the first day of competition in Athens (816,609 million).
NBC Universal, broadcasting its record 11th Olympics and surpassing ABC for the most Olympics broadcast by any network, will present an unprecedented 3,600 hours of Beijing Olympic Games coverage, the most ambitious single media project in history featuring the most live coverage (nearly 2,900 live hours in total), across the most platforms, of any Summer Olympics in history. NBC Universal's Beijing Olympics coverage is on pace to be the MOST WATCHED... more
-
-
Michael Phelps beat Milorad Cavic of Serbia to the wall to win the 100-meter butterfly Friday, tying Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at a single Olympics.
With his arms fully outstretched, the American touched in 50.58 seconds, breaking Cavic's Olympic record of 50.76 set in the semifinals.
Cavic, who was still in mid-stroke at the wall, took the silver in 50.59, a mere 0.01 seconds behind Phelps. Andrew Lauterstein of Australia earned the bronze in 51.12.
It was the first race of these games in which Phelps didn't set a world record.
Crocker, the world record-holder, was fourth in 51.13.
Phelps won the event four years ago in Athens, and Crocker finished second.Michael Phelps beat Milorad Cavic of Serbia to the wall to win the 100-meter butterfly... more
-
