This is one of the final posts on the Beijing Olympics Blog – the experiment is coming to an end, and to be honest, since getting back from China Bob has found it hard to summon up the time and enthusiasm to keep posting. To sign off it’s time to review the Beijing Olympics and [...]
Archive for the ‘Legacy’ Category
Lessons for London from the Beijing Olympics
Posted in Beijing, Censorship, Culture, Legacy, London 2012, Preparation, Public expectation, Tickets, tagged 2012, 2012 olympics, Beijing, Beijing Olympics, London 2012, london olympics on 1 November 2008 | 1 Comment »
Relaxed Press Freedoms Pass With The Beijing Games
Posted in Censorship, Legacy, Protests, tagged Beijing Olympics, beijing paralympics, press freedom, press restrictions on 22 September 2008 | 1 Comment »
Put in place prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and due to end roughly a month after the Paralympics, the measures to afford greater independence to foreign reporters in China are about three weeks from ending. Now there is speculation about whether these freedoms will continue at all, or whether the rules will return to [...]
Beijing Bids Goodbye To The Paralympians
Posted in Beijing, Culture, Legacy, London 2012, Media, Paralympics, tagged beijing 2008, beijing paralympics, british athletics, closing ceremony, London 2012, paralympic games on 18 September 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Beijing Paralympics wrapped up yesterday with yet another spectacular ceremony at the wonderful Bird’s Nest stadium giving delirious athletes a chance to say goodbye after an extremely successful Games. Sounds like a similar story to four weeks ago when the Olympics ended on a high – we were even treated to another show of [...]
Opening Ceremony – Top 10 moments
Posted in Beijing, Culture, Legacy, London 2012, Preparation, Public expectation, tagged 2008 opening ceremony, beijing olympcis, beijing opening ceremony, drums, li ning, olympic opening ceremony, olympic pictures, opening ceremony on 11 August 2008 | 2 Comments »
The general concensus appears to be that it was a truely spectacular opening ceremony (and no need to any fears of upset). Bob watched the whole ceremony with friends, and here are out selection of the top 10 moments: 10 – The sea of printing blocks – representing the creation of printing in China – [...]
Gaming for Change – Guest Post
Posted in Censorship, Guest Posts, Legacy, Media, Protests, tagged 1988 olympics, 2008 Olympics, Beijing, china, olympics and politics, south korea on 6 August 2008 | 1 Comment »
Guest post by Jordan Hirsch In mid–March, several days of peaceful demonstrations against Chinese rule exploded into violent rioting in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. On March 17th, as China engaged in the bloodiest period of its crackdown against the protestors, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge circulated an internal memo to IOC officials, outlining [...]
Will Security Suffocate The Olympic Spirit? – Guest Post
Posted in Beijing, Guest Posts, Legacy, Media, olympic torch, Protests, tagged Beijing, beijing 2008, Beijing Olympics, beijing security, chinese security, olympic protests, olympic security, Tibet, Tibetan protests on 21 July 2008 | 7 Comments »
Few people would argue that China is controversial choice of host country for the 2008 Olympics – something the Chinese government are only too aware of. With high profile protests greeting the Olympic torch’s global relay and rioting in various western provinces by ethnic Tibetans there is a very real threat of unrest spoiling the [...]
Beijing’s New Face – Olympic Architecture
Posted in Architecture, Beijing, Culture, Legacy, tagged Architecture, beijing architecture, bird's nest, national aquatics center, national stadium, olympic architecture, water cube on 14 July 2008 | 4 Comments »
Beijing is a city reshaped, and the 2008 Olympic Games will leave a lasting impact on the landscape of one of the most historic cities in the world. Coming at a time of huge economic growth and large-scale rural-urban migration (legitimate and unofficial) the Olympics has come as a spur for adventurous architecture on an [...]
Beijing Olympic Anti-Terrorism Exercises
Posted in Legacy, olympic torch, Preparation, Protests, Public expectation, tagged anti-terrorism, Beijing Olympics, beijing terrorism, chinese military, chinese police, olympic preparations, olympic terrorism, olympic torch on 10 July 2008 | 3 Comments »
This week the Boston Globe has a collection of photos from various anti-terrorism exercises and demonstrations (thanks to Rachel for pointing this out). A number of these come from “a week-long series of anti-terrorist drills called “Great Wall 5″, in preparation for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games”, so the Globe claims. Although this may just [...]
Will Dwain Chambers Make Beijing?
Posted in Athletes, Drugs, Legacy, Protests, The Games, Track and Field, tagged 100m, athletics, Drugs, dwain chambers, olympic ban, olympic drugs, olympic qualifiers, olympics, performance enhancing drugs, thg on 8 June 2008 | 4 Comments »
In the BBC Olympic blog Adrian Warner revealed on Friday that key figures in Athens “think Dwain Chambers has a good chance of winning his drugs appeal against the British Olympic Association and making it to the Beijing Games”. Drugs is an issue that has come to overshadow track and field athletics (amongst other sports [...]
Oscar Pistorius – The Blade Runner Rides Again
Posted in Athletes, Legacy, London 2012, Paralympics, tagged 400m, Athletes, balde runner, Beijing Olympics, beijing paralympics, cheetah, oscar pistorius, ossur, Paralympics, paralympics athletes, prosthetics on 17 May 2008 | 3 Comments »
The international news and the blogosphere this week has rightfully been dominated by coverage of the dreadful events in Sichuan, and the relief efforts. It’s difficult to concentrate on other news. However this Friday saw ground-breaking news that will reflect strongly on the Olympics, if not in Beijing then certainly in future events. After months [...]
