2008 Summer Olympics Beijing -Must Know

1.The 2008 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad will be celebrated in Beijing, People’s Republic of China from August 8 to August 24, 2008.

2.Ten thousand, five hundred athletes are expected to compete in 302 events in 28 sports.

3.The Olympic games were awarded to Beijing after an exhaustive ballot of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on July 13, 2001.

4.The official logo of the games, titled “Dancing Beijing,” features a stylised calligraphic character jīng (京, meaning capital), referencing the host city.

5.The mascots of Beijing 2008 are the five Fuwa, each representing both a colour of the Olympic rings and a symbol of Chinese culture.The five Fuwa are named Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini.

6.The Olympic slogan,

One World, One Dream

, calls upon the world to unite in the Olympic spirit.It was chosen from over 210,000 entries submitted from around the world.

7.A total of 37 venues will be used to host the events including 12 newly constructed venues.

8.Its largest architectural pieces will be the Beijing National Stadium, Beijing National Indoor Stadium, Beijing National Aquatics Centre, Olympic Green Convention Centre, Olympic Green, and Beijing Wukesong Culture & Sports Center.

9.The centrepiece of the 2008 Summer Olympics will be the Beijing National Stadium, nicknamed the “Bird nest” because of its nest-like skeletal structure.

10.During the games, 2,500 large-size buses and 4,500 minibuses will be operated by a total of 8,000 drivers to transport people across various venues.

11.The design of the Olympic Torch is based on traditional scrolls and uses a traditional Chinese design known as the “Propitious Clouds” (祥云). The torch is designed to remain lit in 65 kilometer per hour winds, and in rain of up to 50 millimeters per hour.

12.The relay, with the theme Journey of Harmony, is expected to last 130 days and carry the torch 137,000 km (85,000 mi)—the longest distance of any Olympic torch relay since the tradition began at the 1936 Berlin Games.

13.A total of 21,880 torchbearers have been selected from around the world by various organizations and entities.

14.The flame was carried to the top of Mount Everest on a 108 km (67 mi) long “highway” scaling the Tibetan side of the mountain especially built for the relay.

15.The opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing will be held in the Beijing National Stadium, and begin at 8:08pm CST (12:08 UTC) on 8 August 2008.

16.United States will bring about 600 competitors to the games, their largest Olympic team thus far. On the Other hand Afghanistan will be represented by just four competitors.

17.South African swimmer Natalie du Toit, five time gold medalist at the Athens Paralympics in 2004, has qualified to compete at the Beijing Olympics,thus making history by becoming the first amputee to qualify for the Olympic Games since Olivér Halassy in 1936. Natalia Partyka (who was born without a right forearm) will compete in Table Tennis for Poland.

18.The 2008 Olympics will see the return of 28 sports, and will hold 302 events (165 men’s events, 127 women’s events, and 10 mixed events), one event more in total than in Athens.

19.The Olympic motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius” is Latin for “Faster, Higher, Braver,” but is universally accepted to mean “Swifter, Higher, Stronger.”

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Beijing National Stadium -Technical View

20.Participating countries in Beijing Olympics with no. of participants
• Afghanistan (4)
• Albania (11)
• Algeria ( 8)
• American Samoa (4)
• Andorra (5)
• Angola (26)
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina (13 8)
• Armenia (25)
• Aruba (2)
• Australia (433)
• Austria (72)
• Azerbaijan (39)
• Bahamas (19)
• Bahrain (11)
• Bangladesh (5)
• Barbados ( 8)
• Belarus (20 8)
• Belgium (94)
• Belize (3)
• Benin (3)
• Bermuda (6)
• Bhutan (2)
• Bolivia (6)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (5)
• Botswana (2)
• Brazil (277)
• British Virgin Islands (2)
• Brunei (2)
• Bulgaria (72)
• Burkina Faso (4)
• Burundi (3)
• Cambodia (6)
• Cameroon (3)
• Canada (331)
• Cape Verde (3)
• Cayman Islands (3)
• Central African Republic (3)
• Chad (2)
• Chile (27)
• China (639)
• Chinese Taipei (80)
• Colombia (64)
• Comoros (3)
• DR Congo (2)
• Congo (3)
• Cook Islands (4)
• Costa Rica (6)
• Côte d’Ivoire
• Croatia (106)
• Cuba (149)
• Cyprus (17)
• Czech Republic (130)
• Denmark (83)
• Djibouti (4)
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic (23)
• Ecuador (25)
• Egypt (103)
• El Salvador (11)
• Equatorial Guinea (3)
• Eritrea (11)
• Estonia (47)
• Ethiopia (36)
• Fiji (6)
• Finland (55)
• France (323)
• FS Micronesia
• FYR Macedonia (7)
• Gabon (4)
• Gambia (3)
• Georgia (35)
• Germany (439)
• Ghana (9)
• Great Britain (313)
• Greece (159)
• Grenada (1)
• Guam (5)
• Guatemala (12)
• Guinea (1)
• Guinea-Bissau (3)
• Guyana (4)
• Haiti (1)
• Honduras (25)
• Hong Kong, China (34)
• Hungary (171)
• Iceland (26)
• India (57)
• Indonesia (24)
• Iran (55)
• Iraq (2)
• Ireland (54)
• Israel (43)
• Italy (344)
• Jamaica (56)
• Japan (351)
• Jordan (7)
• Kazakhstan (132)
• Kenya (56)
• Kiribati (3)
• South Korea (267)
• North Korea (63)
• Kuwait (6)
• Kyrgyzstan (21)
• Laos (4)
• Latvia (49)
• Lebanon (5)
• Lesotho (4)
• Liberia (3)
• Libya (7)
• Liechtenstein (2)
• Lithuania (69)
• Luxembourg (12)
• Madagascar (4)
• Malawi (4)
• Malaysia (27)
• Maldives (4)
• Mali (12)
• Malta (6)
• Marshall Islands (5)
• Mauritania (2)
• Mauritius (3)
• Mexico (85)
• Moldova (31)
• Monaco (2)
• Mongolia (29)
• Montenegro (17)
• Morocco (49)
• Mozambique (6)
• Myanmar (6)
• Namibia (9)
• Nauru (1)
• Nepal (7)
• Netherlands (245)
• Netherlands Antilles (3)
• New Zealand (182)
• Nicaragua (6)
• Niger
• Nigeria (33)
• Norway (85)
• Oman (4)
• Pakistan (21)
• Palau (4)
• Palestine (4)
• Panama (3)
• Papua New Guinea (7)
• Paraguay (5)
• Peru (12)
• Philippines (15)
• Poland (26 8)
• Portugal (7 8)
• Puerto Rico (22)
• Qatar (22)
• Romania (102)
• Russia (467)
• Rwanda (4)
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• São Tomé and Príncipe (3)
• Samoa (6)
• San Marino (4)
• Saudi Arabia (16)
• Senegal ( 8)
• Serbia (92)
• Seychelles ( 8)
• Sierra Leone (2)
• Singapore (25)
• Slovakia (57)
• Slovenia (62)
• Solomon Islands (3)
• Somalia (2)
• South Africa (136)
• Spain (287)
• Sri Lanka ( 8)
• Sudan (9)
• Suriname (4)
• Swaziland (4)
• Sweden (97)
• Switzerland (84)
• Syria (7)
• Tajikistan (13)
• Tanzania
• Thailand (25)
• Timor-Leste (2)
• Togo (1)
• Tonga (3)
• Trinidad and Tobago (2 8)
• Tunisia (32)
• Turkey (6 8)
• Turkmenistan (10)
• Tuvalu (3)
• Uganda (11)
• Ukraine (54)
• United Arab Emirates (5)
• United States (596)
• Uruguay (12)
• Uzbekistan (5 8)
• Vanuatu (3)
• Venezuela (109)
• Vietnam (21)
• Virgin Islands (5)
• Yemen (5)
• Zambia (7)
• Zimbabwe (13)