Olympics News and Info

Chinese Going Nuts Over Commemorative Olympic Bank Note

Filed under: China

The Chinese Government has issued new bank notes featuring an image of the newly built National Stadium, better known as the “Bird’s Nest.” As it turns out, the new cash is quite a hit with the locals and is fetching close to seven times its face value. I had written previously about the special notes and how they are the first notes lacking an image of Chairman Mao Zedong in roughly a decade.

New Tang Dynasty Television, my favorite source for Leave It To Beaver reruns, has a quick news clip on just how excited many in China are for the new cash. While many media outlets in the U.S. couldn’t quite understand the hype regarding waiting in line for an iPhone (”It’s just a phone!“), I feel kind of similarly about going gaga for some cash with a pretty picture on it.

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Amputee Sprinter Fails to Qualify for Beijing

Filed under: Africa, Beijing

The Olympic dreams of double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius were put on hold after he failed to make the South African roster for the 1600 meter relay. While Pistorius will not be competing against the world’s best in Beijing in August, he does plan on competing in the Paralympic Games held there in September.

Oscar admits that a long legal battle which he was fighting for the right to compete against able-bodied athletes took much of his focus away from training for the games. But failing to make the South African team for Beijing hasn’t crushed Pistorius’ Olympic dreams completely as he hopes to try again to make the team for the 2012 Games in London.

Pistorius is featured in the end of this Nike Courage ad that will be seen during Olympic telecasts next month.There was much debate in the sports world as to whether Oscar should have been allowed to compete due many people’s belief that his artificial legs gave him an advantage. He ended up winning the right to compete but couldn’t make the team.

Pistorius, who recently won the right to compete against able-bodied athletes in an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, failed to meet the qualifying standard in the 400 meters. He had hoped to be chosen as an alternate for the 1,600 relay, but his name was not on the roster announced Friday.

Surely we haven’t heard the last of the speedy South African.

Previously at FanHouse:
Pistorius Fails To Qualify In 400 meters.

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Former Gold Medalist Talks About ‘Dark Side’ to Olympic Gymnastics on HBO

Filed under: USA

Bryant Gumble plans to spend part of Tuesday night’s Real Sports on HBO engaging in an Olympic related discussion with former gymnasts Dominique Moceanu, a former gold medalist gymnast, and Jennifer Sey, a former “all around national champion” and author of Chalked Up.

Just as with the aforementioned novel and many topics on Real Sports, this discussion will not focus on the lighter side of gymnastics in the Olympics.

Instead, Moceanu will allege that there are many concerns facing young gymnasts in their world of competitive sport

Moceanu, who said there is a “dark side of the elite gymnastics scene,” described diet restrictions she said she had to follow as a young gymnast and physical stresses that led to leg, wrist and shoulder injuries. She said one way to change the sport’s culture would be to remove Martha Karolyi, the women’s national team coordinator, and Bela Karolyi, who operates the national training center, from their roles.

“People are hoping that there’ll be change,” Moceanu said. ” … If it was up to the athletes, it would have happened a long time ago.”

Despite the Zoolanderian way in which these particular allegations sound, they are pretty serious. Moceanu and Sey are essentially stating that the organization structure inherent with the USA gymnastics teams encourages poor psychological and physical development within these young women.

It should come as no shock that there is an immense amount of pressure put on these young women. This is an athletic event that is set on a worldwide stage, occurs only every four years and slammed inside a vacuum of intensity.

But all of that, and even the patriotic mantra of “Win at all Costs!” doesn’t excuse physically and psychologically scarring generation after generation of young women.

It should be noted that Moceanu had a messy divorce with the Olympic team and that Sey, with her novel, has obviously burned some bridges.

However, if their allegations are true, it seems pretty imperative that someone objectively weigh the cost that achieving success is having on these womens’ psyches.

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Asafa Powell Beats Usain Bolt, Olympic 100m Looks Like 3-Man Race

Filed under: Americas

Jamaica’s Asafa Powell beat his countryman, world-record holder Usain Bolt, in a head-to-head match-up in Stockholm. Here’s the video:

Once considered the favorite to win gold in Beijing, Powell was becoming a little bit overlooked recently after Bolt broke the world record and American Tyson Gay put on a tremendous performance at the U.S. Olympic trials.

But by beating Bolt, Powell re-established himself as one of the favorites in Beijing. The Bolt-Powell-Gay 100-meter race will be one of the top events at the Summer Olympics; it’s anyone’s guess who will win the gold, but it would be a big upset if they don’t all come home with medals.

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Beijing’s Olympic Broadcasting Center Evacuated After Apparent Gas Leak

Filed under: Beijing, China

A Beijing building which will be used to house the television setup for the Olympics was evacuated after an apparent gas leak.

John Barton, the director of sport for the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, said he was in his office at the International Broadcast Center on Wednesday evening when people began running down the halls telling everyone to get out.

Barton said there was apparently a gas leak in the basement near the food service area. He said no alarms sounded.

People at the scene said there was a strong gas smell. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The building is located near the Olympic Stadium and will be used as the hub for TV broadcasts around the world.

Later, it was claimed to be a false alarm and that the smell came from “building materials or chemicals”. Um, what?

Of course, the scene itself has to worry you. Just the fact that no alarm was sounded and people were running everywhere shows how tense the people working there are about something happening at the building. Maybe that paranoia is what caused this incident today, but it does show the mindset of the people sent there to cover these Games.

(Hat tip: Awful Announcing)

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FIFA Boss: Clubs Must Release Players 23 and Under for Olympics

Filed under: Americas, Europe

FIFA president Sepp Blatter should not have to remind clubs that they are obligated to release all players aged 23 and under for the Olympics. That’s what he did today, though, after several European clubs attempted to hold back big name players from the competition.

Barcelona, for example, insists that it will not allow Lionel Messi to go to Beijing, because the Olympic soccer competition not a FIFA-sanctioned event. They reportedly have the backing of La Liga on this matter. Likewise, Werder Bremen is attempting to hold back world-class striker Diego from Brazil, and Schalke 04 has no plans to release Brazilian right back Rafinha. Both those players, however, are with the Brazilian national team in defiance of their clubs’ wishes.

Blatter’s statement comes just days after Real Madrid pulled Robinho from the Brazilian squad after discovering he had a groin pull. Robinho, however, is 24, so Madrid is under no obligation to release him, though the move didn’t make the Brazilian Football Confederation any less angry.

This saber-rattling could continue right up until the opening ceremonies, though I suspect the clubs will eventually relent. What’s Barca going to do, bench their biggest young star in retaliation? Argentina and Brazil are serious about winning gold, and they’re not about to let any Europeans stand in their way.

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Grandmother of Sprinter Simeon Williamson Runs Down Thief Who Stole Her Purse

Filed under: Europe

The guy in the picture to the right is Simeon Williamson, a British runner who is England’s best chance of winning an Olympic sprint medal next month in Beijing.

If there was any question of where Williamson gets his speed, this article provides the answer: He gets it from his grandmother, 78-year-old Pearline Williamson, who had her purse stolen by a young woman recently, only to run her down and get the purse back. Pearline explains:

“The thief must have thought I was an easy touch because I’m elderly. …

“When she took my purse I had to do something so I ran after her and grabbed her as hard as I could.

“She said she hadn’t taken it at first, so I shook the life out of her until she finally gave it back. …

“It makes me so mad when people try to take your things,” she said. “Back in my day you had to work so hard for every penny.”

I think Pearline just earned her grandson a lot of older fans.

Hat tip: Steady Burn.

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Attractive Olympian Final Foursome: Blond Against Blond

Olympic athletes often don’t get paid to do anything other than look good. In that vein, Attractive Olympians handicaps which athletes may rake in endorsement deals after the Olympics

The good news: last week’s voting FINALLY produced some upsets. The bad news: it was merely because FanHouse and AOL Sports readers continued their trend of voting for whichever athlete was blonder and younger. I swear, I could put a corn-silk wig on a pineapple and it would beat Megan Fox by a 65-35 margin.

We’ll get to our Final Foursome (sneak peek in the in the image above) and the voting in just a moment. First, let’s look at the three upsets that gave us these Four Non-Non-Blondes.

In theory, these should be the closest matchups yet, because voters are finally forced to choose between blonds. But I’m not counting on it. I’m guessing that name recognition will be the deciding factor when voters realize they can’t go by their tried and true method of looking at hair color.

Be sure to tune in next week, when Jennie Finch and Natalie Coughlin square off before Jennie Finch wins the Title of Most Attractive Olympian. Rock the vote with your predictability!

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Iraqi Olympic Athletes Not Welcome in Beijing

Filed under: USA

The International Olympic Committee ruled today that Iraq will not be able to participate in the Summer Olympics after Iraq’s government replaced elected Olympic Committee members with officials not recognized by the IOC.

That means the two Iraqi rowers, two Iraqi sprinters, one Iraqi archer, one Iraqi weightlifter and one Iraqi judo competitor who had qualified for the Summer Games cannot attend.

“The IOC very sadly has now to acknowledge that it is likely there will be no Iraqi presence at the Beijing Olympic Games, despite our best efforts,” IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. “Clearly, we’d very much like to have seen Iraq’s athletes in Beijing. We are very disappointed that the athletes have been so ill-served by their own government’s actions.”

The Getty Images photo shows an Iraqi Olympic swimming coach giving instructions to team members from a row boat in the Tigris river.

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Tens Of Thousands of Chinese Wait Days for Olympic Tickets

Filed under: Beijing, China

Tickets are a hot commodity for the Summer Olympics in China next month. On Friday morning the final round of tickets went on sale on location at many of the venues in Beijing and other cities hosting events. With a final chance to be a part of the games in their home nation, tens of thousands of Chinese waited days for the chance to purchase tickets. Organizers were not prepared for the crowds.

The AFP reported that more than 50,000 people were in line in Beijing on Friday and at times the crowds became impatient.

“The police didn’t have a clue how many people would come here and there was no organisation at all, it was chaos,” said Wang Zhongliang, a delivery worker for UPS.

Police chief Xiong acknowledged it was “chaotic and difficult” to maintain order.

“Once the newspapers released the news about the ticket sale, too many people came at once so we had a security problem,” he said.

If selling tickets to events causes such a stir, one has to wonder what kind of chaos could occur when the real crowds show up in August.

The BBC reported that police had to call in reinforcements at a select few ticketing booths.

Obtaining tickets to many of the events has not been an easy task. There has also been lawsuits brought by the USOC and IOC against a number of fraudulent ticketing sites operated out of the UK.

Face value on tickets to events in China ranges from roughly $4.50 to $145.

I actually purchased a pair of tickets to the much anticipated USA vs. China men’s basketball game on August 10th through one of the fraudulent sites, Beijingticketing.com. After realizing the relatively affordable tickets seemed too good to be true, I contacted my credit card company hours later to try and cancel the transaction. Whether or not I get my few hundred dollars back remains to be seen.

Regardless of high demand for tickets it is clear that excitement for the highly anticipated games in China is growing and it’s only going to get more interesting as 08/08/08 moves closer.

BEIJING, CHINA - JULY 24: (CHINA OUT) Residents wait overnight to buy Olympic tickets at a ticket booth at the Olympic Green on July 24, 2008 in Beijing, China. Starting on July 25, the remaining 820,000 Olympic tickets, of which 250,000 are for competitions held in the capital city, will be available for purchase by individuals at ticket booths of the Olympic venues. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

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