Nearly 3,500 Chinese children have been named for the Olympics, according to the Beijing Daily.The paper says most of the children named Aoyun (Mandarin for Olympics) are males born around 2000, when China was fighting to host the international sporting event, according to the Associated Press. The report says another 4,000 children are named after the “Five Friendlies” that serve as mascots for the 2008 Summer Games.
Beijing Olympics organizers had no choice but to cancel a first-come, first-served ticket sales policy because overwhelming demand threw the process into chaos, a senior official said in an interview published Tuesday.Sales in China will revert to a lottery system, organizers said Monday, after so many people tried to buy tickets during first-come, first-served sales last week that the computer system crashed. Ticketing officials suspended sales after less than one day.
“First-come, first-served doesn’t fit China, we can’t follow the example of other countries,” Wei Jizhong, a member of the IOC Olympic program commission who is a senior adviser to Beijing organizers, was quoted as saying by the state-run Beijing News.
The policy works when demand is low, he said, but the Beijing Olympics has been hotly anticipated since the city won the bid in 2001. Excitement is so high that nearly 3,500 children in China have been named “Aoyun,” meaning Olympics, state media reported recently.
“China has 1.3 billion people but the number of tickets isn’t significantly greater. If we copy other countries’ sales policies, it will be a mistake,” Wei said.
China has four times more people than the United States and 65 times more than 2000 Olympics host Australia. The population of Beijing (17 million) is greater than the entire country of 2004 host Greece (11 million).
When the second phase of ticket sales kicked off Oct. 30, the official ticketing Web site had 8 million views in the first hour. The telephone hot line also overloaded after receiving 3.8 million calls in that hour.
The Beijing Olympics organizing committee, or BOCOG, said Monday that sales will revert to a lottery system similar to one used in the first phase of ticketing in April.
People who want to buy tickets can submit orders between Dec. 10 and Dec. 30. The date and details of the lottery would be announced at a later, unspecified time.
About 43,000 tickets were sold on Oct. 30, when 1.85 million tickets became available. A total of more than 7 million tickets will be sold for the Beijing Olympics.
“It is encouraging to see that so many people in China and around the world are very eager to attend the Beijing Games,” the International Olympic Committee said in a statement. “The new policy put in place by BOCOG … will undoubtedly continue to ensure a fair and convenient process for all of those sports fans in China that would like to attend the Games.”
Other than concerns about Beijing’s notorious air pollution, preparations for the Olympics that open Aug. 8 have gone well so far. The city has earned high praise from the International Olympic Committee for its venues, and athletes had few complaints during a series of test events over the last several months.
But the ticketing fiasco was a big frustration for Chinese, some of who feel their interests have been sidelined in the flurry of preparations for the event that is expected to attract an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 foreign visitors.
Wei could not be reached by The Associated Press. BOCOG’s media office asked for an e-mailed interview request, to which it did not immediately respond.
TOKYO — The International Federation de Volleyball (FIVB) on Monday presented to the media new balls which had been designed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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“Together with our sponsor Mikasa, we’ve studied a new type of ball for our sport,” FIVB President Ruben Acosta told reporters on Monday. “We will ask the teams to test the prototypes and report to us their feelings.”
“Volleyball was the first sport to use a colored ball and other sports followed us. Now it is time for new visions, with a new design and a different technological process that could affect positively not only the appeal of volleyball, but also the ball control by players. Our plan is to use this new ball as a major change for the next Olympic Games in Beijing,” he added.
Two different designs were showed to the press and will be presented to teams taking part in the World Cup to ask for their opinion. One is similar to the typical volleyball standard while the other one shows a more innovating look.
The FIVB was also considering limitation of foreign players on the court in club competitions.
“We will forward this proposal to our next board of administration in March ,but I would like to stress that our first goal is to protect the young players’ right to play,” Acosta said.
“National identity is reinforced through sports, and the last decision by the European Community in Porto seems to go in our same direction. We don’t want to stop the world’s top players to play in the best Leagues, but we will propose to the board of administration to have in each team a maximum of three players affiliated to another National federation, and a maximum of two on the court. In this way, younger players will have more opportunities to play at top level in their own countries side by side with the best players from any country.”
The FIVB president was expecting a great success of volleyball and beach volleyball in next summer’s Beijing Olympics.
“I’m looking forward to the next Olympic Games in Beijing. In Athens we had more than 3.5 Billion of TV viewers for volleyball and beach volleyball. I’d like to reach 4 billions next year,” he said.
“We’re also focused on London 2012. We managed to convince the organizing committee to have beach volleyball out of the Olympic park and bring it near Buckingham Palace, on the Royal Guards Parade. It will be a fantastic spot for beach volleyball.”
MADRID, Spain - Justin Henin might not defend her Olympic gold medal in Beijing because of concern the city’s air pollution will trigger her asthma.
Henin withdrew from the China Open in September because of her asthma and is worried she might be forced to skip the Beijing Games next August.
“I’ve had asthma for a few months now and I felt very bad in New York at the end of the (U.S. Open), so Beijing, I was really concerned about that,” Henin said Monday at the Sony Ericsson Championships. “I was pretty disappointed because I wanted to play the (China Open) and get used to the conditions.”
Henin said she has since controlled her asthma with the help of a specialist.
The air quality in Beijing is “a big problem” International Olympic Committee inspection team leader Hein Verbruggen said. His remarks came a week after the United Nations said air pollution was a major concern for athletes’ health ahead of the games.
“It’s true that Beijing is going to be tough with the Olympic Games with the problem I have, but now it seems that everything is under control, which is important because the Olympic Games remain a very important goal for me in 2008,” Henin said.
The Belgian begins her WTA championships defence Tuesday against Anna Chakvetadze of Russia.
