IOC & BOCOG press conference on August 10

Sydney Morning Herald

This morning, the Australian shift coach adviced all the Australian athletes when they are traveling or visiting outside the Olympic Village to be clearly identifiable as Australian athletes, and wear Australian team card as a security measure in response to the incident that happened yesterday. I am just wondering would you advice the teams to be clearly identifiable by their nation when they go outside the Village?

Wang Wei

Of course not. I think I need to iterate. This was an isolated act. We were actually surprised. Beijing has been a safe city for a long time. We have reason to believe that during the Olympics, the security measures are sufficient. We are planning to increase security on the scenic spots and other areas. Of course at the sometime we are not going to damage the access to the ordinary people. There is also no reason to believe, as I said before, the one act was targeted to any specific nation. On one hand, we should take more safe measures, because we are living in the world where surprises do happened. On the other hand, we of course reassure you that nothing like this is going to happen. We are not going to negative the impact of access of visitors, of athletes of anyone who are going to participate in the Games.

Reporter from Japan

I just want to ask about another incident happened this morning in Xinjiang Province. Do you think it is something related to the Olympic Games? Is there some implication? Can I have your opinion to this incident? Do you think it would have some influence on this Olympic Games?

Wang Wei

Some information. According to the website of Xinhuanet.com, it is early morning at 2:30 a.m., some criminal rode a cab and they began to attack a public security bureau. They destroyed two police cars and 5 criminals were killed. 2 police men and one security person were injured. I don't believe this will have any impact on the Olympics that we are stating right now. Of course we are going to strengthen the security measures on the area. Thank you.

Foreign reporter

In response to the incident yesterday, other than increasing the security measures, would you consider some other approach to prevent any incidents like this, such as understanding the state of mind of people, or allow people more freedom of expression?

Wang Wei

China is in the process of opening up in any form. As you can see, it is clearly witnessed that after 30 years of reforms and opening up, everything has been improved in terms of social progress and economic development. I don't think this would impact that. I think people will continue to have freedom of express themselves. There is not going be a problem in this regard. Thank you.

Swedish TV

I am from Swedish TV. Just a follow up on Xinjiang incident this morning. Do you think it is related to the Olympics in any way? Please comment on that.

Wang Wei

I don't think so. That is my answer. As you know, there is a terrorist activities in Xinjiang area for some time already. Thank you.

New York Times

Have any of the athletes from Georgia decided to go home on their own?

Giselle Davies

No. The information given today was regard to the entire National Olympic Committee, the athletes, officials, the President, the secretary general. That is the information we received this morning just before I came over to the MPC.

AP

About pollution again. Although we know that air quality has been improved dramatically, as you claimed, it is not so perfect at this moment. Does the IOC at the moment have any plan to postpone any Games, any events at all?

Giselle Davies

Thank you for your question. No, not at all. Currently the readings that we've been looking at with our colleagues indicate we have no course to be concerned. Today, we have full course that goes 72 hours ahead. At this stage, we have no worries.

AP

Just for Mr. Wang. If you say the violent in Xinjiang is not related to the Olympics, as to the strike and violence happened during the next few months, what do you think it is related to? Thank you.

Wang Wei

I'd rather speak in Chinese. Would you mind putting up your earphone? I think I need to put it in a more accurate way. The attacks by Eastern Turkistan terrorists have never stopped in Xinjiang. The very purpose is all about separating their region from China. Such behavior will not be tolerated by any country in the world. Of course I imagine that they want to use the Olympic as a platform to magnify their impact. I believe their very purpose of doing this is about separation.

BBC

My question is about the ticketing here is sell-out. There are about 7 million tickets, or 6 million and 800 thousand tickets. Seats were pretty empty yesterday. I don't know what the picture will be today. Is it sponsors' tickets? Sponsors not show up? Or local people with tickets weren't showing? What is your feeling about that?

Wang Wei

Thank you for your question. It is a challenge for us. We are in the process of trying to manage that. As a tradition, sponsors, VIPs and media, they have reserved seats at preliminaries. At sometimes they may come up. Sponsors may give their tickets to their friends and important customers, and they may not appreciate as much as to come to the preliminaries as well. Also, for some sports, they have one ticket for the whole morning or the whole evening. For example, tonight, we have basketball; the first part is Australia versus another team; the second part is Chinese versus the United States. So people having tickets may be interested in the competition of China verus America. They may not show up for the first half.

We are trying to persuade people to respect their rights to watch the Games. For the beach volleyball, the situation was like that, but quite unexpected. We are doing our effort. The demand for tickets remains high. A lot of people asked their friends to buy tickets for them. They buy tickets to give to their friends. But their friends may not come over. We are trying to arrange that.

Around the Rings

It is the day 2 of the Games, actually day 3 if you count the Opening Ceremony. Much has been said over the years about the blue skies in Beijing. I know you have no control over the skies. Do you have some expectation for the image in Beijing for the good feelings about cleaning the air? That blue skies might come to this Olympics one day?

Wang Wei

I think the blue sky will come especially after today's rain. I am having my fingers crossed. Hopefully, it will be good and better. It seems that we are stuck in the weather pattern, which brings us higher humidity and higher temperatures. As Giselle just mentioned, the air quality is going to remain within the satisfactory range. That doesn't pose any threats to the athletes. We would like to urge anyone to prepare for the heat for the humidity. I want to emphasize that after 10 years of effort, Beijing's air quality has been continuously improved. Everybody who has been to Beijing can see that. We are going to make more effort in this regard. Hopefully, they will have good effect.

Sun Weide

I think this brings us to the end of this press conference. I would like to thank Wang Wei and Giselle Davies. Thank you all for coming to the press conference. Hope to see you all tomorrow.