(BEIJING, August 8) -- The preparation for the Beijing Olympic Games,
scheduled to take place from August 8 to 24, 2008, is progressing as planned,
with the goals set for each stage achieved as scheduled, said Wang Wei,
executive vice president and secretary-general of the Beijing Organizing
Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).
Wang Wei, executive
vice-president of BOCOG, at the briefing. August 8th, 2006. [Sina
photo] |
Updating the press on the preparatory work on Tuesday, he said Olympic venue
construction is proceeding smoothly, and all new venues are under construction.
Beijing will need 37 competition venues and 76 training venues for the 2008
Olympic Games. Thirty one out of the 37 competition venues are located in
Beijing and the other six are outside Beijing, namely the Sailing venue in
Qingdao, the Equestrian venue in Hong Kong and four venues for football
preliminaries in Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao.
Among the 31 competition venues in Beijing, 12 are new venues, 11 are
existing venues to be renovated and expanded, and the remaining eight are
temporary venues.
At present, construction of all the 12 new competition venues in Beijing has
started. Of the 11 existing venues, the renovation and expansion of nine venues,
including the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, are underway; work on the other two
venues, including the Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics
Gymnasium, will begin by the end of this year. Five out of the eight temporary
venues are under construction and the remaining three venues, including Urban
Cycling Road Course, are in the pre-construction preparatory stage.
In addition to the competition venues, construction of such facilities as the
National Conference Centre, Digital Beijing Building, Olympic Village, Media
Village and Olympic Forest Park is also moving ahead as planned. With the
completion of the work on Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, we are
pressing on with the construction and renovation of venues outside Beijing.
"All competition venues and Olympic-related facilities will be completed by
the end of 2007 to ensure the smooth operation of the test events and to meet
the needs of the Olympic Games." Wang noted.
He said progress has been made in competition organization, and preparation
in co-host cities are in full swing.
The 2008 Olympic Games has a total of 28 sports 38 disciplines and 302
events. There will be 18 competition days and 623 competition sessions. The
Competition Schedule by Day and the Competition Schedule by Session have been
approved by the IOC, and the Competition Managers for 28 sports have been
confirmed by the International Sports Federations. All competition venues for
the Beijing Olympic Games have been defined. The training venues for most sports
have also been identified.
As approved by the IOC, the equestrian competitions have been relocated from
Beijing to Hong Kong. On October 5, 2005, the Equestrian Committee (Hong Kong)
of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad was
officially established and preparation for equestrian competition initiated in
full scale. Organizations for the preparation of sailing competition in Qingdao
and football preliminaries in Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao have
also been set up. BOCOG has signed the principle agreement on relations between
BOCOG and the municipal governments of the five co-host cities. Games
preparation in those cities is now in full swing.
