The Beij ing Olympic
Games and the Olympic
Volunteering
Chapter 3
69Chapter 3 The Beijing Olympic Games and the Olympic Volunteering
Section I Glory and Dream
At 10:08 P.M. on July 13th, 2001, Mr. Samaranch, the former President of the
International Olympic Committee, announced in Moscow that the sponsoring city of the
29th Olympiad will be Beijing. At the moment in China excitement rippled through the
Olympic conference room in Beijing, into the city, and throughout the entire nation.
Modern China, a product of 5,000 years of civilization and history, with her spirit
of hard work and perseverance, finally shook hands with the Olympic Games on this
day, fulfilling the great dream of the Chinese people.
I. Olympic Dream of the Ancient Oriental Country
The development of friendship between China an he Olympics has been rocky. At
the beginning of the 20th Century, Chinese people began dreaming of their participation
in the Olympic Games. First they learned of xistence of the
Olympics, then they worked hard to know more about them,
and finally they are fully participating in the Games. It has
been a long road for China, but the day is coming soon when
this dream will be fully realized.
1. Start of the Dream—First Contact with Olym-
pics
It is said that in 1894 the Court of Qing Dynasty
received invitations from the royal family of Greece and
from Pierre Coubertin (the founding father of modern Olym-
pic Movement) who represented the International Olympic
Committee (IOC). However, the Qing Court at that time had
no real understanding of the significance of the Games, so
they did not reply.
In 1911, the Far East Amateur Sports Association was Old Dream Realized-Beijing Hosting OlympicGames
70 Manual for Beijing Olympic Volunteers
co-sponsored and established by the Philippines, China and Japan. It was a regional
sports organization which had earlier contact with the IOC. Every other year the Far East
Olympic Games rotated their location for this Asian sports competition. While taking
part in the Far East Olympic Games, China established her first contact with the IOC.
In 1922, WANG Zhengting, became the first Chinese member of the Olympic
Committee.He was an influential sports leader in China and the founding father of the
Far East Sports Association when he became a member of IOC.
Two years later, the China National Sports Cooperation and Promotion Associa-
tion was established, thereby becoming the first Chinese national sports organization.
Then in 1931 the China National Sports Cooperation and Promotion Association was
officially admitted by the IOC and became a member of the international Olympic family.
In the following year, Liu Changchun, a college student from Northeastern China,
represented China and attended the 10th Olympic Games
held in Los Angeles. Liu Changchun competed in the 100m
and the 200m dash, failing however in the preliminary
rounds because of jet lag and a failure to properly prepare for
such competition.
In 1936, China dispatched her first delegation of 140
members to attend the 11th Olympic Games in Germany.
Sixty-nine members competed in seven sports: basketball,
football, swimming, track and field, weightlifting, boxing
and cycling. A martial artsteam of 11 members and a team
of 34 sports observers also attended the Games. Fu Baolu,
a Chinese vaulting champion, won in the preliminary rounds.
Yang Chuanguang, a Chinese athlete from Taipei won
the silver medal in the decathlon at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games, becoming the first
Chinese athlete to bring home an Olympic medal.
In the 1968 Olympic Games held in New Mexico, Ji Zheng, a female athlete from
Taipei won China’s next Olympic medal.
2. Dreams Keep Rising— The Olympic Road of New China
In 1952, The People’s Republic of China sent out the first delegation to the 15th
The First Olympic Athlete of China-LIU
Changchun
71Chapter 3 The Beijing Olympic Games and the Olympic Volunteering
Olympiad in Helsinki.
Is the PROC eligible to participate in the Olympic Games? Serious controversies
broke out in international commentary and among the officials in the IOC. PROC was
not a full member of the international Olympic family yet. Then, finally on the eve of
the Games, IOC sent out its invitations.
Should China go or not? Premier Zhou Enlai decisively gave the instruction:
“Go!” He also met with the delegation before they departed. Premier Zhou said it would
be a national victory if we raised China’s flag in the arena of the Olympic Games.
This delegation had 40 members and they were ready to compete in football,
basketball and swimming. Unfortunately, the delegation arrived too late to join most of
the events. Only Wu Chuanyu participated in the 100m backstroke.
(1) Return to the Olympic family.
Though China sent represen-
tatives to the Helsinki Games, the
“issue of two Chinas” (the People’
s Republic of China and Taiwan)
was still an issue. The PRC gov-
ernment was originally intended
to take part in the 16th Olympiad
in Melbourne. Some international
powers, however, played the game
of “two Chinas,” so the PROC
seceded from the Melbourne Games.
In 1979, the PROC National Olympic Committee submitted to the IOC a proposal
to resume her legal seat. In November of the same year, the IOC issued the Nagoya
Decision resuming the seat of the PROC in the International Olympic Committee, with
62 votes, 17 blackballs and 2 waivers.
The Nagoya decision clearly pointed out that the NOC of the People’s Republic
of China, when taking part in Olympic Games, uses her national flag and the national
anthem. However, Taiwan, as a regional organization of China, is allowed to have a seat
in the IOC with the name “Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee”. This decision paved
the way for the PROC to return to the Olympic family, and since then the NOC of the
The“ssue of two Chinas”— PRC National Olympic Com-
mittee had protested for many times, the IOC, however, provided
no reply. To maintain the sovereignty of PRC, China NOC on
August 19, 1958 severed the relationship with IOC and seceded
from 15 international sports federations from June to August,
1958. DONG Shouyi, member of the IOC, resigned his position in
the IOC.
72 Manual for Beijing Olympic Volunteers
PROC has established a cooperative relationship.
(2) Start from the beginning
In February of 1980, the delegation of China which resumed her legal seat in the
IOC attended the 13th Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid.
In June 1984, China sent out her
first delegation to the 7th Paralympic
Games in New York. And in the same
year, she sent out a large delegation to
the 23rd Olympic Games in Los
Angeles.
In 1989, at the meeting of the
95th Executive Board of the IOC, He
Zhenliang was elected Vice-President
with full votes and became the first
Chinese who won the vice-presidency
of IOC.
(3) The Breakthrough
In 1984 at the Olympic Games
in Los Angeles, Chinese athlete Xu Haifeng won the gold medal in the 50m pistol
shooting (60 shots) and obtained the first gold medal for China, which truly can be called
a breakthrough.
In the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Yang Yang won two gold medals in
Short Track Speed Skating 1,000m and 500m and made another new breakthrough for
China in the Winter Games.
(4) The Glory
Since her return to the Olympic family, China has attended 6 Olympic Summer
Games and won 112 gold medals, 96 silver medals and 78 bronze medals; 8 Winter
Games and won 4 gold medals, 16 silvers and 13 bronzes; 6 Paralympic Games and won
143 gold medals, 118 silvers and 85 bronze medals.
China has suffered a long history of tragedy and challenge. From being isolated and
displaced, to becoming a powerful nation that brings home Olympic gold, the dream has
been realized by the Chinese people. Naturally, the next question was “When can we
The Breakthrough -XU Haifeng
73Chapter 3 The Beijing Olympic Games and the Olympic Volunteering
host the Olympic Games?”
3. Dream Comes True - Beijing & Olympics
(1) Monte Carlo - Beijing missed it
In February of 1991, Beijing formally submitted its application to host the 2000
Olympic Games. In March, the Committee of Applying for Hosting the 2000 Olympic
Games was established. Then in December of the same year the Committee expedited
its delegation to Lausanne, Switzerland, and presented the application to the President
of IOC, according to international regulations.
The competition for hosting the 2000 Olym-
pics turned very intense because of the special
number of year “2000”. The competing five
cities of Beijing, Sydney, Berlin, Manchester and
Istanbul each had their own advantages and
ascendancies.
The final vote was held in the wee hours of
September 24th, 1993. Beijing finally lost her
chance with 43 votes to Sydney (45 votes) in the
last round, though she was leading in the first 2
rounds.
(2) The Night in Moscow - The world se-
lected Beijing
In November of 1998, the City of Beijing,
which has been silent for 5 years, submitted her
second application to host the 2008 Olympics
under the support of the Chinese Central Commit-
tee of the Communist Party. During those 5 years,
the political and economic situations in China
greatly improved. With this gradually increasing
national power, China became more confident.
Formal presentation of the application report—On April 7th, 1999, Liu Qi, mayor
of Beijing and Wu Shaozu, President of China’s NOC, submitted the formal applica-
Dream Comes True -Hosting Olympic Games
74 Manual for Beijing Olympic Volunteers
tion report to Sarmaranch, the President of the IOC in Lausanne.
Overall initiation of the grand project—On September 6, 1999, approved by the
Chinese Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council, China
National Sports Administration, Beijing
Municipal government and related
agencies of the State Council formed a
Committee to Apply for Hosting the
2008 Olympic Games (CAH), and this
grand project was formally initiated.
Six reasons Beijing applies to host
the Olympics— On February 1, 2000,
Liu Qi, the President of the CAH, stated six reasons Beijing was applying to host the
Olympic Games:
• To promote world peace;
• To fulfill the desires of Chinese people with strong support from the government;
• To speed up environment construction and
promote development of economics;
• To facilitate development of sports in China
and improve popularity of Olympics;
• To take the opportunity and present a new
Beijing to the world.
Identify the slogan— On February 1, 2000,
the second conference of all members of CAH
approved the logo of CAH and the slogan is:
“New Beijing, Great Olympics”.
Beijing is one of the candidates—On Au-
gust 28, 2000, Beijing was selected to be one of the
candidate cities. Other candidates include: Istanbul
of Turkey, Osaka of Japan, Paris, France and
Toronto, Canada. The final round finally came.
Raised Beijing’s concepts—On Decem-
ber 13, 2000, CAH presented its reportto the IOC,
We admire those who never tumbled, but
we much more admire those who tumbled and
stood up.
—— Quoted from the video advertising
Beijing’s application for hosting Olympics
75Chapter 3 The Beijing Olympic Games and the Olympic Volunteering
and raised the unique concepts of Beijing, “Green Olympics, High-Tech Olympics,
People’s Olympics”.
Fly to Moscow—On the afternoon of July 7th, 2001, the CAH delegation, headed
by Liu Qi, the President of CAH and Mayor of Beijing, left for Moscow for the 112th
conference of the IOC.
Dreams come true — July 13, 2001, the final voting started.
At 8:59 P.M. the result of the first round came out. None of the cities won more than
half of the votes. Beijing won 44 votes, Toronto 20, Istanbul 17, Paris 15 and Osaka 6.
Osaka was the first one voted out of the competition.
At 9:05 P.M., statistics of the second round of votes were calculated. Then at 10:
08, Mr. Sarmaranch, the President of IOC, declared, “The hosting city for the 2008
Olympic Games will be Beijing!”
The dream of this ancient oriental country finally came true!
Success in Moscow-Excitement Rippled Through China!
II. Unforgettable Memories
The first gold medal won by Xu Haifeng at the 23rd Olympics in Los Angeles made the new
breakthrough in her sports history. Many diligent Chinese athletes went on to win 112 Summer
76 Manual for Beijing Olympic Volunteers
Games gold medals, 4 Winter Games gold medals and 143 Paralympic gold meals.
Highlights of Chinese Winners of Gold Medals:
• The first gold medal winner — Ping Yali
In 1984, a Chinese girl named Ping Yali succeeded in the long jump contest at the
7th Paralympic Games and became the first Chinese athlete to win a gold medal in the
Paralympics.
• The Prince of Gymnastics — Li Ning
In the 23rd Olympiad, Li Ning won 3 gold medals: free exercise, flying rings and
vaulting horse; 1 silver in jumping-over and 1 bronze in al-round. He was the athlete who
won the most medals in Los Angeles.
• The first team who won five crowns - Chinese women volleyball
This team won the championship
at the 23rd Olympic Games, succeeded
in the 3rd World Cup in 1981, and
continued the legend ‘til 1986 at the
10th World Championship. The
women’s volleyball team became the
first one in history to win 5 crowns in
succession.
• “The Amazing Deer from the
East”— Wang Junxia
Wang Junxia won a gold medal in
the 5,000m marathon and a silver in the
10,000m in the 26th Olympic Games.
Both victories broke world records.
• The first winner of gold in Track
and Field — Chen Yueling
She won the championship at
10,000m in the 25th Olympic Games.
• The youngest champion in Olym-
pic history — Fu Mingxia
When Fu Mingxia was crowned in“The Amazing Deer from the East” -Wang Junxia
77Chapter 3 The Beijing Olympic Games and the Olympic Volunteering
the event of platform diving at the 25th Olympics, she was only 14. Then she
successively won 3 gold medals in the 26th and the 27th Olympiads, becoming one of
the Chinese athletes who won the most gold medals.
• The “Patriarch” in 6 Games —Wang Yifu
Wang Yifu is the only Chinese athlete who attended 6 Olympic Games. He won
a bronze medal at 23rd Games, continued his success at the 25th Games: one gold and
one silver, then won another silver at the 26th Games, again a silver medal at the 27th
Olympic Games, finally got his second Olympic gold medal in Barcelona (28th
Olympics).
• Great Ping Pong player — Deng Yaping
DENG Yaping Won!
Deng Yaping is the only one who won 2 championships in table tennis contestsat
the 25th and 26th Olympic Games. She is also the winner of 4 Olympic gold medals,
proving to be the greatest Olympic champion in the history of ping pong.
• The first Asian who crowned in track and fields — Liu Xiang
Liu Xiang, with a record of 12′91″, tasted sweet victory in the 110m hurdles at
78 Manual for Beijing Olympic Volunteers
the28th Olympic Games. He is the first Asian to win this event, leaving a historic legacy
behind.
• The first gold medal in Winter Games — Yang Yang
Yang Yang won 2 gold medals in women’s Short Track Speed Skating - both 1,
000m and 500m in Salt Lake City and achieved a breakthrough for China in the Winter
Games.
• The first gold medal winner from Hong Kong — Li Lishan
Li Lishan was crowned in the sail boarding at the 26th Olympic Games.
• The first gold medal winner from Taiwan — Chen Shixin
Chen won the championship in Taekwondo at the 28th Olympic Games.
There were many highlights and exciting moments in achieving the medals won by
China. Those athletes who fought hard to bring honor to their country will forever be
remembered. The number of medals won by Chinese athletes can be seen from the
following charts:
Chart 3-2 Medals Won in Summer Paralympics
金牌
银牌
铜牌
第7届
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
第 8届 第9届 第10届 第11届 第12届
2
13 9
1717
10 11 7 7
161310
34
22
17
32
46
63
Chart 3-1 Medals Won in Summer Games
23届 24届 25届 26届 27届 28届
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
金牌
银牌
铜牌
15
8 9
5
1112
16
22 2 22 22 22 22 2
16 16
12
28
32
1615 1714
79Chapter 3 The Beijing Olympic Games and the Olympic Volunteering
Section II“One World, One Dream”—
2008 Games of Beijing Olympiad
I. General Goal and Concepts
1. Goal of the Beijing Olympiad
On January 14, 2005, the Beijing Organizing Com-
mittee made a decision at its 2nd general conference that
the general goal of the Games of Beijing Olympiad will be
“High Quality & Distinction”.
Distinction refers to: Chinese style, cultural splendor,
contemporary spirit and mass participation.
The Beijing Olympic Games will be a perfect occa-
sion to fully display China's 5,000-year history and its
resplendent culture and also present a grand ceremony that
will gather athletes from all over the world and present
diverse and brilliant cultures. The Beijing Olympic Games
will fully express the common aspiration of the Chinese
people to jointly seek peace, development and common
progress together with the peoples of the world, and it will highlight the fact that the 1.
Chart 3-3 Medals Won in Winter Games
金牌
银牌
铜牌
第16届
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
第 17届 第18届 第19届 第20届
3
1
2
6
2 2 2
4 4
5
2
80 Manual for Beijing Olympic Volunteers
3 billion Chinese people of 56 ethnic groups, along with 50 million overseas Chinese,
are all most enthusiastic participants in the Beijing Olympic Games.
High quality performances include:
• high-level sporting venues, facilities and competition organizations;
• high-level opening ceremonies and cultural events;
• high-level media services and favorable press commentary;
• high-level security work;
• high-level volunteers and services;
• high-level transportation and logistics;
• high-level urban civility and friendliness;
• high-level performances by Chinese athletes.
2. Concepts
Three concepts have been adopted for the Beijing Olympic Games, namely, the
Green Olympics, the High-tech Olympics and the People's Olympics. On December 13,
2000, in the headquarters of IOC in Lausanne, CAH presented these concepts in their
reports:
Green Olympics:
� Environmental protection is a key prerequisite for designing and constructing
the Olympic Games' facilities, while strict ecological standards and systematic guaran-
tee systems will be established.
� Environmentally friendly technologies and measures
will be widely applied in environmental treatment to structures
and venues. Urban and rural afforestation and environmental
protection will be widely enhanced in an all-round manner.
� Environmental awareness will be promoted among the
general public, with citizens greatly encouraged to make "green"
consumption choices.
� Active participation in various environmental improve-
ment activities will help better the capital's ecological standards
and build a city better fit for all to enjoy.
Environment Logo of Beijing Olympic
Games
81Chapter 3 The Beijing Olympic Games and the Olympic Volunteering
High-tech Olympics:
� A grand sporting event featuring high technology will be held by incorporating
the latest domestic and international scientific and technological achievements.
� Upgrading Beijing scientific innovative capabilities and boosting the industri-
alization of high-tech achievements will popularize their use in daily life. The Beijing
Olympic Games is to serve as a window to showcase the city's high-tech achievements
and its innovative strength.
People's Olympics:The goal is to…
� Spread modern Olympic ideas;
� Display splendid Chinese culture;
� Exhibit Beijing's historical and cultural heritage, and its
residents’ positive attitudes;
� Advance cultural exchanges, to deepen understanding
and friendship between the peoples of the world;
� Promote harmonious development between mankind
and nature. To promote