The Olympic Torch 2008 is lit

LooserLu

LooserLu
Hi all,
the Olympic flame is lit at Olympia, Greece just about 30 minutes ago (11:45:37 a.m. GMT) and will travel across Greece to end at the Panathinaiko Stadium, where the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896. On March 31, the torch will arrive in Beijing, where a ceremony will be held and the torch relay will commence.

With a 130 day, 137,000 kilometer (85,127 mile) route planned for the Beijing 2008 Olympics Torch Relay, the world will soon be witness to the Olympic Torch as it travels great distances spanning cities reaching 5 of the Earth’s continents. One of the highlights of the relay includes an attempt to reach the highest peak in the world, Mt. Qomolangma (Mt. Everest).

The “Lucky Cloud” design of the Olympic Torch features a traditional scroll design which captures the Chinese heritage as well as many technological advances and environmentally-friendly features. All of these features combined create a sophisticated torch capable of withstanding strong winds (up to a maximum of 65 km per hour), rain, discoloration, and corrosion. To top it off, the torch is made of recyclable material and the propane fuel even meets environmental requirements. The torch is about 28 inches in length and weighs a little over 2 pounds.
 
Re: The OlympicTroch 2008 is lit

I just forgot to add a photo.
 

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Hi,
today the Olympic Torch did arrive at Bejing, the capital of China. The ceremony there, to start the big run with the torch, has been hold at the "Place of Heavens Peace". etc. etc. etc. ...

Should we not see the reality, what's realy up there, and should we only see the world only with pink glasses, like the government of China or the IOC like to have it. I say for me: Today, March 31th 2008, it is also the "day of international solidarity for Tibet". At many public buildings at my country, they did hoist up the colour* of Tibet.

Laser Standard and Laser Radial do have an Omlypic competition at Quingdao, at the Olympic Games 2008. Should stay the competitors at home, forget all of the pain they had to get their ticket to Quingdao 2008, to show their solidarity to the much more pain a lot of people of Tibet now, just at this moment, have at Lasa or other towns around there, to fight for their freedom and to have an autonomous state at China?
Difficult question, for me. For a sportsman it's the crown to be allowed to start at the Games. From that aspect, I would understand each one of them to try to join the Games. BUT, what a bloody medal one there would get... I wouldn't have a good feeling, with joining such Games. Should one find an alternative area, to hold the 2008 Games somewhere else (f.e.: Athens or Sydney)?
Many qustions to discuss. What are your opinions?




Ciao
LooserLu

*:Today, March-31th, I changed my avatar at TLF for 24h. Swan Petra (my originally new avatar at TLF) returns soon.
 
I agree with Lu - the Olympics should not be held in China. The philosophy of the Chinese government is the polar opposite of what the Olympics stand for.

And, China is planning on taking over the world - but that is a discussion for another thread......
 
Broadcast Information

Here is some information on Television coverage of the 2008 Olympic games. Coverage varies by country; check your local listings for more information.

The Olympics will be held in August with the opening ceremonies taking place on 08-08-08. These games will be the first to be produced and broadcast entirely in high definition television, and will likely garner upwards of four billion viewers.

I personally am hoping to catch a glimps of some High Definition olympic sailing. Hopefully sailing won't be relegated to a channel like MSNBC or the internet that isn't available in HD. All the other major NBC Universal networks are available in High Definition on Directv and possibly your local cable provider.
  • In the United States the games will be covered by NBC Universal with more than 1400 hours of coverage spread between the NBC broadcast network and its sister cable nets.
  • In Canada the public broadcast network CBC and cable networks TSN and RDS will broadcast the games.
  • In the UK the games will be covered by the BBC.
  • In Australia the games will be covered by the Seven Network.
  • In Brazil the Games will be broadcast by TV Globo, Rede Bandeirantes (free-to-air) and Sportv, ESPN Brasil and BandSports (cable-tv networks).
  • Eurosport will carry the games within the the EU.
  • In Germany the games will be covered by ARD and ZDF.
I'm a TV/media junky so I will try to provide dates and times for sailing coverage in the US and other regions as I find it.

Also noticed this interesting story when looking up the broadcast information:
AP said:
BEIJING (AP) — Apparently unnerved by recent unrest among Tibetans and fearful of protests in the heart of the capital, China has told broadcast officials it will bar live television shots from Tiananmen Square during the Beijing Olympics.

A ban on live broadcasts at the square, where Chinese troops crushed pro-democracy protests nearly two decades ago, would disrupt the plans of NBC and other major international networks, which have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to broadcast the Games Aug. 8 to 24 and are counting on eye-pleasing live shots from the landmark site.

The rethinking of Beijing’s earlier promise to broadcasters comes as the government has poured troops into Tibetan areas wracked by antigovernment protests this month and stepped up security in cities, airports and entertainment locations far from the unrest.

In another sign of the government’s unease, a group of Cub Scouts who had been promised it could go onto the field in Beijing after a March 15 exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres was prevented from doing so by the police.

A person involved in the Major League Baseball event, who was given anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said that “it was never specifically mentioned to me it was because of Tibet that there were extra controls, but there were all these changes at the last minute.”

By resorting to heavy-handed measures, the Communist government runs the risk of undermining Beijing’s pledge to the International Olympic Committee that the Games would promote greater openness in what a generation ago was still an isolated country. If still in place by the Games, the steps could alienate the half-million foreigners expected to attend.
Like the Olympics, live broadcasts from Tiananmen Square were meant to showcase a friendly, confident China — one that had put behind it the deadly 1989 military assault on democracy demonstrators in the vast plaza that remains a defining image for many foreigners.

“Tiananmen is the face of China, the face of Beijing, so many broadcasters would like to do live or recorded coverage of the square,” said Yosuke Fujiwara, the head of broadcast relations for Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, a joint venture between Beijing Olympic organizers and an Olympic committee subsidiary. The broadcasting company coordinates and provides technical services for TV networks, like NBC, that have rights to broadcast the Olympics.

Last week, however, officials with the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee told Beijing Olympic Broadcasting executives that the live shots were canceled, according to three people familiar with the matter who were given anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.

“We learned that stand-up positions would be canceled,” one of these people said. “No explanation was given for the change.”
Sun Weijia, the organizing committee’s official in charge of dealing with Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, declined to comment, referring the matter to press officers, three of whom also declined to comment.

The organizing committee’s decision may not be final. The International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge, and other leading officials of the committee who are expected in Beijing next month for regularly scheduled meetings could persuade the Beijing Organizing Committee to change its mind.

Coverage of the marathon, which starts in Tiananmen, is also likely to be unaffected, the people said. An early indicator will be a marathon test event scheduled for April.

If the decision stands, it would be a blow to the TV networks whose payments for the right to broadcast the Games account for more than half the International Olympic Committee’s revenue. The biggest spender is NBC, a property of the General Electric-Vivendi partnership NBC Universal. It paid $2.3 billion for the rights for three Olympics from 2004 to 2008 — Athens, Turin and Beijing.

Officials at NBC declined to comment.

The unrest broke out March 10 in the Tibetan city of Lhasa and has since spread across western China. The government’s harsh response underscores the Communist leaders’ unease as the Olympics approach.
Activist groups have said for months that they planned to use the Olympics to promote their causes. But the challenge faced by China’s leadership seems to grow more pressing.

The government said it had foiled a plot this month by Muslim separatists in western China to blow up a China Southern Airlines plane. Foreign activists angry about China’s support for Sudan in the civil war in Darfur said last week that they would demonstrate in Beijing during the Games.
After the Icelandic singer Bjork shouted “Tibet!” at the finale of a Shanghai concert this month, officials ordered tighter scrutiny of all performances.
The Cub Scouts seem to have been caught in a response to both the Tibet protests and the Bjork concert. The police canceled all on-field entertainment for the exhibition baseball games, including the national anthems.

Officials of the Beijing Organizing Committee began signaling their discomfort with live broadcasts in Tiananmen Square to the International Olympic Committee a year ago, but discussions went back and forth, according to people involved.

The square — featuring a large portrait of Mao Zedong — has been a magnet for protests for decades.
 
At GER now exsists a movement of active athletes, that try to organize a sort of quiet protest. -> Spend one Euro and get your protest-bracelet -> for more infos view this Homepage: http://www.netzathleten.de/ . (You may use any onlinetranslator like that of the google-toolbar to translate the informations into your native language.)

One point to discuss is the Olympic Charter § 51.3.

{Quote §51.3 of the Olympic Charter}

"...No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olmpic sites venues or areas. ..."

{End of Quote}

If an Olympic athlete not follow this, the sanctions, in easy words for sailors, will perhaps be: "BFS"/Black-Flag (or in better words: Disqualification from the Games or losing the Olympic-Accreditation).

The dilemma is:

How much is permitted to say or to do, if one is Olympic athlete and has the ticket for the Games at China?

Mr. Jacques Rogge (IOC-President) says: ... its the Basic right of all, to not say something, but no Olymic Athlete will be not permitted to say what he/she thinks. ...

Okay, the discussion at GER at the Olympic discipline "sailing, open sailing class, single handed, male" is easy, related to "§ 51.3": No German male Laserite, up to now, is allowed to start at Quingdao (perhaps one gets a permition in future to start, but in the moment, no male one is nominated to start for the discipline "Laser").
Our very hopeful female olympic athlete for the discipline "Laser-Radial" ("sailing, open sailing class, single handed, female" is Petra Niemann. I don't know her opinion.

However, at the country where I live, active sportswomen and sportsmen discuss the situation very intensive - in front of the curtains (f.e. GER female Judoka Yvonne Boenisch does not join the Olymic Opening Ceremony, but joins the Olympic Jodoka contests: -> " http://www.zeit.de/online/2008/16/boenisch-olympia-boykott?from=rss ") and behind the curtains, of course.


What activities of active athletes are to find at ohter countries? Would be interesting

Ciao
LooserLu*

*: LooserLu is not an "Olympic hopeful" (never has been...) and luckily not has to folllow the § 51.3 of the Olympic Charter. So, .... ;)
 

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