Posted on 08/07/2007 6:06:07 PM PDT by blam
Beijing smog endangers Olympic countdown
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 1:56am BST 08/08/2007
Athletes competing at next year's Olympic Games in Beijing were told yesterday to avoid the city until the last moment because of its notorious smog, and once there to eat only in the Olympic village.
The IOC's John Coates said that Beijing's pollution was a 'prevailing worry'
The warning, from the head of Australia's Olympic Committee, is an unwelcome shock to the organisers of the Games, which begin a year today.
John Coates, who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee, said that Beijing's pollution was a "prevailing worry".
"We will be not recommending a long period in China before the Games," he said. "That is only going to increase the possibility of -respiratory or gastric illness, particularly if you are not -living in the village."
The new stadiums and transport infrastructure that Beijing has built for the 2008 Games have received plaudits from around the world. But it is facing a wave of criticism on matters less directly related to sport, including human rights, Tibet, a series of scandals over food safety, from poisoned fish to contaminated bottled water, and air pollution.
Britain's swimming team is to train in Osaka, Japan, until three days before their events in Beijing, instead of arriving 10 days in advance as usual. The Canadian team is said to be considering providing athletes with asthma inhalers, and Mr Coates said Australian athletes would be arriving four or five days before their events.
He was meeting other IOC members including Jacques Rogge, its president, who will take part in a one-year countdown ceremony in Tiananmen Square tonight. They have been met by some of the worst smog for years, accompanied by unusually severe storms.
The government has pledged to restrict the number of cars on the road during the Games, and to close down polluting factories.
Mr Coates said food safety was less of a concern. But he added: "We will still be advising our athletes to eat in the village, not local food stores." Precautions announced this week include satellite tracking of lorries bringing food to the Olympic village.
At the press conference, the officials ducked questions about human rights. Yesterday six overseas protesters abseiled down the Great Wall waving a banner saying "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008" in English and Chinese. "One World, One Dream" is the Games' official motto.
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch released critical reports marking the one-year countdown, while the press freedom groups Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists said moves to allow foreign correspondents to report more freely were "window dressing".
Reporters Without Borders staged a protest outside the Beijing organising committee's headquarters on Monday night. Seven foreign journalists reporting on the demonstration were detained briefly.
A group of 40 dissidents issued a letter demanding the release of political prisoners and saying that the "fanfare" for the Games made a mockery of the Olympic spirit.
"We know too well how these glories are built on the ruins of the lives of ordinary people," the letter said.
I was in China a couple of weeks back and could not believe how bad the pollution was while I was there. I grew up in Southern California in the 60’s and 70’s. I never saw the air as bad as I saw it in China.
The Olympics kept going through my mind while I was touring Beijing. How were the athletes going to deal with the smog? I mean, I could feel how bad it was when I went to the Great Wall how is someone going to run a marathon?
One other thing we noticed was the lack of birds around the city (both in Beijing and Shanghai). Even in the countryside we had a hard time seeing any birds. Bird Flu?
The pollution and lack of quality checks with their food (I am still suffering from “Mao’s Revenge”) will hamper the 2008 games.
I remember when they were originally trying to get this event in Beijing.. for the 2000 olympics they blocked the streets from Vehicles for the 2 weeks before aaaaaaaaand the most polluting factories were closed and gave everyone a paid 2 week vacation to get the air clear for the Olympic committee visit.
Now they have air quality Problems? what a shock..
Call Al Gore
He will get them straightened out
They could introduce new events:
The 100 meter dash to the restroom
The 440 wheeze relay
The long puke
The chronic hack marathon
They ate them all. Really.
I was there a couple weeks ago. I’ve never seen anything like Bejing’s pollution. The sky simply does not exist even on clear days and the haze just envelops buildings a few hundred feet away. Its horrific and i’m far from an environmental wacko. It isn’t healthy to live their and I can’t imagine its healthy for elite athletes to compete there. I can’t imagine running an olympic marathon in that.
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