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Beijing buzz (15 August)
Tuesday 8 August marked the beginning of the two year countdown to the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and the Chinese know how to celebrate. Over a million people attended events across Beijing, a city that is amid a mammoth construction and restoration project in the lead up to the games.
The main arena, colloquially known as the ‘bird’s nest’ for its chaotic steel exterior is nearly completed, a vast space that will seat 91,000 and hold the opening and closing ceremonies. Also well under way is the aquatic centre, as is a state of the art subway system and a new airport terminal.
Approximately 100 historically important sites in Beijing will be restored prior to the games, including parts of the Great Wall and the Tiananmen Rostrum, the gate to the Forbidden City. Combined with an effort to clear the skies and reduce pollution levels, Beijing is making a colossal effort in its role as host city for the 2008 games.
Beijing is expecting 260,000 foreign tourists to visit over the summer of 2008, along with well over a million Chinese who will travel from around the country to attend, and approximately 20,000 official media, who will capture the spirit of the games and broadcast to the world. 70,000 volunteers will be recruited to assist in the running of the event.
Across the 28 summer sports that will make up the games, 10,500 athletes will compete, including a Chinese team that is expected to be 4000 strong. The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) estimates the Australian team will include just over 500 athletes; however, this figure will not be definite until the final qualifiers finish in 2008.
The Beijing games will include a number of new events in response to the International Olympic Committee’s pressure to raise the relative number of women competing in the games. The 2004 Athens Olympics saw a ratio of 59 men to 41 women.
A 3000 metre women’s steeplechase has been introduced in addition to extra women’s teams in football, handball and hockey. The 10km open water swimming race for men and women will be introduced in Beijing. Four Australian athletes, including two women, will compete in the novel event.
John Coates, President of the AOC, believes the number of women in the Beijing Olympic squad will be raised from previous years, “We will definitely have more women on the team in 2008 but the exact number won’t be known until the selection process is completed.”
Australia ranked fourth at the 2004 Athens games, with a total of 49 medals, 17 of which were gold. China came second, close behind the United States who topped the medal tally with 35 gold medals. No doubt China will be looking to better their effort at the home games in 2008.
Australia’s current 2008 Olympic team is in a good position, “We are aiming to finish in the top five nations on the overall medal count,” and match the effort in Athens, “We are looking forward with anticipation to the battle ahead,” Coates said.
By Clare Chapman

See additional Olympic story, below.

Olympic corruption casts shadow (15 August)
While preparations are undoubtedly rolling ahead, local media has also found itself obliged to suppress too much discussion of the dark shadow which remains over the 2008 Beijing Olympics -- the discovery of a high-level corruption scandal consisting of bribes and sexual favours.
Liu Zhihua, now ex-vice mayor and Olympic official in charge of overseeing the extensive construction binge of new sporting venues, has been accused of accepting bribes amounting pass AU $1.5 million from developers, according to Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily.
Spokesman for the Beijing Olympic committee, Sun Weide, has been doing damage control since the scandal occurred by assuring the international public that the “Olympic construction is very much under control”, with the central government auditing offices now overseeing all projects from start to end.
This comes after the state-run Xinhua news agency first broke a report over the weekend of 11 June 2006, revealing the sacking of Liu by the standing committee of the Beijing municipal people’s congress for “corruption and dissoluteness”.
Over a dozen government officials and executives from high-profile property and construction sectors have since been interrogated in the investigation of Liu’s deception, calling into serious question the possible misuse of over AU$50 billion in funds allocated for the overhaul of stadiums, bridges, roads and various public works in preparation for the Olympics.
The large-scale construction involves the undertaking of 44 infrastructure projects this year alone, spanning the five Olympic cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qinhuangdao and Shenyang.
Host city Beijing is set to have 26 new constructions by the end of 2006, inclusive of the two main showcase venues of the National Stadium and the National Aquatic Centre; the former costs up to half a billion dollars and is expected to be the world’s largest enclosed space, with a seating capacity of 81,000.
The money set aside for the sporting complexes pales in comparison to the funds being poured into Beijing’s external supportive infrastructure, extending to forms of a new airport terminal, a doubled subway network, new freeways, and over AU $275 billion worth of new apartments, offices and shopping centres.
Such elaborate costs mirror the promise of Liu Qi, the Chairman of Beijing’s Olympic organizing committee and the city’s Communist Party chief, in ensuring “unrelenting efforts to try to realise the goal of running the most outstanding Olympic Games in history”.
Chinese authorities continue to publicly affirm that the corruption scandal will not affect the ongoing construction, in hope that China’s moment of international sporting glory suffers no further setback.
By Gail Ng