Beijing, a happy hunting venue for Olympians
Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from china
The Chinese capital Beijing has been a happy hunting venue for many
World Class sportsmen and women. The latest edition of the World
sporting extravaganza - the XX1Xth Olympic Games here has dished out
high standard of performance as 36 world records have been established
so far during the first 12 days of competition up to today.
In addition to the 36 new world marks, 74 Olympic records too have
been shattered during the above period with four more days to go for the
conclusion of the Beijing Games. As of last evening, 14 events out of
the 38 disciplines of the Beijing 2008 Olympic sports have been
completed, including archery, tennis, shooting, weightlifting, judo and
badminton.
A total of 205 gold medals, 206 silver medals and 232 bronze medals
have been awarded up to last evening. The 205 gold medals have been
shared by top performers from 41 countries. Out of the 204 countries
taking part at the Beijing Olympics, 75 countries have won at least a
single medal.
Unfortunately, Sri Lanka is not amongst them. The participation of
women competitors too have been encouraging, accounting for more than 42
percent of total number of competitors at the Olympic Village. Beijing
Gems sets a new record for women’s participation in the 112-year-old
modern Olympic history.
Out of a total of 11,196 competitors at Beijing Olympics, 4,746 are
women who have been excelling in various Olympic disciplines. Women’s
participation in the Olympic Games has shown a significant increase
during the past two decades - since the 1988 Seoul Games - the last
occasion the Asian continent hosted Olympic Games before Beijing.
Taking about gender equity, a major topic for women’s activists, the
Beijing Olympic Games kicked off with 63 female flag bearers leading
their delegations into the Olympic stadium - including Sri Lanka’s
overall captain Susanthika Jayasinghe. On the very next day, rifle
shooter Katerina Emmons from the Czech Republic accounted for the first
gold medal in the 2008 Olympic Games when she came first in women’s 10m
air rifle event. Among the female competitors in Beijing, the female
athletes from Europe have won most of the medals so far, followed by
Asian sportswomen.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has expressed satisfaction
over the Beijing Games time operations. IOC’s Director of
Communications, Giselle Davies said the IOC is satisfied with the smooth
operation of the Games. “In Athens, we had fewer coordination
commissions that were run on a daily basis,” reflecting that “the Games
are going on very well and we can get out and enjoy the sports,” said
Davies.
“Transport is working smoothly, people are getting to the venues
without any problems, and athletes have competition and give us very
positive feedback,” the official said.
Hosts China is making the best use of home conditions to enjoy a rich
harvest and is well set to shatter the US dominance in the final medals
standings. Unlike the USA, which won ten out of their 26 gold medals in
swimming, China has shown an all-round performance winning medals almost
equally in different disciplines.
The eight gold medals earned by the Chinese weightlifters represent
the hard work of an entire nation. Head coach of China’s female
weightlifting team, Ma Wenhui coined this effort as the “whole nation
system”.
“Very few countries would attach this much importance to sports as
China does,” said Ma adding that the efforts made to discover
weightlifting talents were enormous during the years when he was serving
as the director of Shandong Sports Bureau.
A three-level selection system - from counties to cities to
provinces, helps to uncover talents from every corner. The potential
athletes found were then put into schools concentrating on sports and
later began training with assistance from the national team.
In Ma’s visits to various countries, he has yet to discover any
nation that would concentrate this much energy in cultivating athletes
and the development of sports.
BEIJING, Wednesday
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