IOC & BOCOG press conference

Date/Time: 11:00 a.m., Saturday, August 9

Venue: Main Press Conference (MPC)

Sun Weide

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first briefing IOC and BOCOG. With us today is Mr. Wang Wei, the executive vice president and secretary general of BOCOG; and also Giselle Davis, IOC director of Communications.

First of all, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Wang Wei to give a brief remark.

Wang Wei gives the speech.

Wang Wei

Good morning everybody, I hope you enjoy your time for the last night's Opening Ceremony. As a matter of fact, the site of the National Stadium and the city has been celebrating. In the venues, we have big screens to share what happened in side. A lot of people were on the street celebrating.

Now it seems that everything is ready. Finally, we have come to the sport.

Today will be 18 sports on schedule. I think there will be 7 gold medals be produced today. Everything is on track. Hopefully the Games will be as enjoyable as the Opening Ceremony.

Giselle Davis gives the speech.

Giselle Davis

Good morning everyone. Last night was one of the fantastic evening ceremony, one that we will remember for the rest of our lives. The first coordination commission held this morning between the IOC and BOCOG started with President Rogge expressing to President of BOCOG Mr. Liu Qi, his sentiments on what he saw last night. He said it was really a remarkable event which combines the creativity and cultural history which managed to bring 5,000 years of history to the world through modern technology in modern means.

It is very much demonstrated that the organization of the Games is ready, and how ready Beijing is to host the sport that starts today. Mr.Rogge's words have set the stage for the 16 days for the competition. As most of you are aware that Rogge also met with several world leaders discussing the Olympic Games, present and future and the issues that the IOC looks to partner with the government on namely, doping. Doping is not just for elite sports but for all the wider society, the importance of the sport in addressing health issues and on the education curriculum.

Allow me just confirm and clarify regarding the information given to you yesterday about Brunei, why they are not there at the Opening Ceremony. Originally there were 205 delegations in the Opening Ceremony but sadly yesterday Brunei failed to register any athletes for the competitions. So their accreditation will be withdrawn. It is a shame for the athletes and it involved a great disappointment that they lose out because their National Olympic Committee didn't registered them. The IOC tried up until the last minute to have them register the athletes but unfortunately it was to no avail.

Just a couple more things before I hand the floor regarding broadcasting.

We are waiting for the figures and statistics to come through regarding the Opening Ceremony. We still don't have it today. As soon as we have them we will communicate them to you. But the first indication are that it will be quite stunning figures in terms of leadership around the world. It is going to be stunning figures in terms of the viewership. In any case this Olympics Games are said to be the most televised in history with the biggest broadcast event to date that the unprecedented amount of sports that will be covered in the next few coming days with thousands of cameras making some 5,000 hours of coverage. That is a record after the 3,500 hours for the Athens Games.

Broadcast is around the world, with 220 countries and territories. It will be very much digitally Olympics with live broadband broadcast and mobile phone clips available freely across the world. As Mr. Wang Wei said, the gold medals are 7 in the 18 sports. Very much looking forward to the competition getting on the way. Thank you very much.

CanWest News Service

I am from CanWest News Service in Canada. In the previous press conference, Mr. Steiner said that the air quality in Beijing has deteriorated over the last few days but it is likely to stabilize. However, both IOC and BOCOG are monitoring it and you've said at some point whether the event has to be cancelled and postponed. Is there concern among the two organizations about the way the numbers are going?

Wang Wei

Thank you for the question. We decided to have the competition today. I think the air quality has been assessed by the relevant institution of air quality. I also want to refer the United Nations experts. They are satisfied with the measures and facilities we have. The data provided are all true. We are quite confident that the air quality will not affect the Games. So that is why we have all the 18 sports today. I want to re-assure that their health will not be harmed.

Giselle Davis

I would like to endorse some confirm of what Mr. Wang said. From the IOC side, for figures we looked last night, we have 17 projections, thanks to the Beijing Environment Protection Bureau. And figures were with our comfortable, with everything that we progress today without any risk.

Reporter from France

During the ceremony yesterday, there was a war between two participants of the Games, Russian and Georgia. What is your reaction and what are the consequences of the confrontation between the two countries with sports athletes?

Wang Wei

We are sorry for what happened between the two countries. From our side, I think all the problems can be resolved through peaceful means, through dialogues, but not by confrontation. That is our position.

Giselle Davis

It is clearly conflict breaking out at any point is not the world. It is contrary to what Olympic stands for. But we can try to show what it can be when sports bring people together to show what they have in common. And you we saw them yesterday in the stadium with 204 countries and territories parading together.

Around the Rings

I would like to follow up on that for Giselle Davies. The situation between Russian and Georgia that is very closing to Sochi. IOC president Jacques Rogge met with Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin. Was the tension on the border discussed? Does IOC have a practical concern about the safety of Sochi? There was a bombing there on the beach last week. How is the security situation in Sochi being monitored and the raise concern about the preparation about the Sochi Games?

Giselle Davis

Thank you. The meeting yesterday very much focused on the sporting agenda, as I mentioned earlier. The meeting discussed Sochi from the perspective of thanks and appreciation the shift that made on venues locations, considerations, so there was not discussion what I call global political incident in the discussions yesterday. Clearly, the news came through in the course of last night. I think it would be wrong to make any assessment here and now with regards to the Games taken place some years from now.

That is what I can say at this stage.