Fourth IOC & BOCOG press conference

Related story: Olympic attendance rate over ninety percent

Date/Time: 11:15 a.m., Tuesday, August 12

Venue: Main Press Conference (MPC)

Sun Weide

Good morning everyone. Welcome to our joint BOCOG/IOC press conference. With us this morning, Mr. Wang Wei, the executive vice president and secretary general of BOCOG; and also Giselle Davies, IOC director of Communications. First of all, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Wang Wei.

Wang Wei gives speech at the press conference.

Wang Wei

First is the general overview of the Games operation from August 11. Ladies and Gentlemen: good morning. On August 11, there are a total of 20 competition events staged in 16 venues or venue cluster, 14 of which are in Beijing while the remaining 2 are in the co-host cities. 13 gold medals were awarded during the day. The competition venues received 2975 athletes and 1853 team officials from the 888 participating teams, as well as 2087 technical officials, 186,037 spectators, 4750 VIPS and 6455 journalists. Competition organization and venue operations run smoothly all throughout the day. 2 of the 18 venues in Beijing has an attendance rate of over 90%, 6 of over 80%, 8 over 70% and the remaining 2 over 60%. The Olympic Green common domain received approximately 40,000 visitors.

We can see that for the common domain, there were not enough people. So today, we are going to encourage more people into the common domain. The athlete village welcomed 540 more athletes yesterday, making the total of residence 13,575 for 204 countries and regions. Yesterday, 59 athletes left the village. The Olympic family hotels now have a total of 1,793 residents; will receive 25 more guests after 75 guests left yesterday. The number of media using Olympic Identity and Accreditation Cards stood at 23,936, and for your information, altogether 79 dignitaries left Beijing up to yesterday.

Update for today, the fourth day after the Olympics will see 24 competition events staged in 24 venues, a total of 19 gold medals will be awarded today.

And the weather forecast. The weather is forecasted to have showers in the late afternoon, this would not affect the competitions. However, like winds, our spectators in Qingdao, which may affect the sailing events. Rain is forecasted for Shenyang, Hongkong, Tianjin and Qinhuangdao will see showers as was yesterday. Shanghai will remain hot and humid.

With regards to the questions of yesterday, I would like to make some follow-up. Regarding the footage of the fireworks of the Opening Ceremony, it was confirmed previously recorded footage was provided to the broadcasters, for convenience and theatrical effects, as in many other big events. On the day of the ceremony, there were actual footprints of fireworks from south to the north of the city. However, because of the poor visibility, some previously recorded footage may have been used.

Also the verification on the volleyball events of the media question raised yesterday, as for the question of the confiscation of notebooks, we called the venue staff and a number of Chinese media. All we found is that something resembles this was a BOCOG staff asked a friend, a Xinhua reporter to borrow his recorder because he arrived late to the briefing. The recorder was later returned. There is nothing. I also understand some media people from here also ask the concern the reporter to verify that as well.

With regards to the yellow shirts that were mentioned yesterday, I think there were volunteers for both sides of the competition in order to create a good atmosphere for the competition. That is pretty much for myself.

Sun Weide

Thank you, Mr. Wang Wei. Giselle, now the floor is yours.

Giselle Davies

Thank you, Weide. I have a small piece of information. President today will be enjoying wrestling. And you asked yesterday for statistics on the number of tests so far done by as part of IOC's effort against doping. Roughly speaking, we completed around 1500 tests. Those cover blood, and during pre and post competition, including competition of top 3 finished and top 5 finished plus further at random. So 1500 is the rough figure that we competed to date. Thank you.

Sun Weide

Now the floor is open for questions. I would like iterate since this press conference is broadcasted live by BOB. I would appreciate if you could stand up before you raise your questions.

Around the Rings

This morning an armed personnel carrier stationed in front of the Main Press Center which presents very threatening images returning to the Huiyuan Media Village, and I believe other media villages as well. There was a sign posted saying that as of August 11, due to increased security, there is a need for media to go through bag additionally to enter the media village. Clearly there is a increase in security around the media here, is there a real threat that you can tell us about, as a member of the media, if you feel that there is an increase in threat of my safety and the safety of my colleagues? Would you please explain what information you have and what we should be to look out for?

Wang Wei

With regard to the previously happened attack incident, I think relevant authorities may increase the security level. The point is that they should not create a negative effect to the access. They should not present inconvenience from the media. If that is reassured, that is a good thing.

Washington Post

You said the statistics regarding the tickets and the number of spectators and the venues and percentages. Before the events, the tickets have been sold out. Why do you think that the venues are not completely full? We certainly noticed a lot of empty seats. Do you have any explanation for this or are you also concerned for this?

Wang Wei

I think we are also concerned about this not full stadium. I think due to the weather conditions as well, the hot and humid weather and the rains, as for the previous Olympic Games, the first couple of days, there were not many spectators that show up. As from today we will get more spectators into stadium. The tickets are sold out, that is right. Other reasons I explained the day before yesterday that we do have some reserved seats for the Olympic families. For the preliminaries, some people might not show up and that is understandable. For competitions like beach volleyball and basketball, we have one ticket for the whole afternoon, morning, evening. They may choose to go to one of them but not all them. Many factors are contributing to this but we are trying to manage that. Thank you.

Reporter from Canada

Why the armed personnel carrier was in front today. What is the specific explanation for that?

Wang Wei

I have not seen that myself. That's why I missed the part that was mentioned. That's the decision made by the relevant authorities. I don't think it is going to be a big threat.

Hong Kong Cable TV

There have been media reports from Chinese Taipei that there has been deliberate conspiracy against the baseball team as they have to compete against Japan on the 14th night and then they have to compete against China the next morning. Thus, putting them into a deliberate disadvantage for they will not have enough rest. How does IOC respond to these arrangements? Thank you.

Wang Wei

As for BOCOG, I think we are to provide a platform for all the athletes to have fair play in all the competitions. With regard to the schedules of the competition, I think it is the responsibility of the international federation. I don't think anybody else can manipulate in this regard.

Russian reporter

Could you please explain is there any reason why the journalists at the press seats can not use non professional cameras? Why should we be so different from any regular viewers? Why we don't have the right to use our personal cameras? Thank you.

Wang Wei

I think they can use it. Thank you.

Los Angeles Times

You have a beach volleyball schedules tomorrow morning between team Georgia and team Russia. Are there any security plans for that or any concern?

Wang Wei

I don't think there is a need for that. As far as we know, the Olympic athletes are all in Olympic spirit. The players are friendly to one another even though there are some exceptions. As far as I can see from the previous events, they were friendly to each other even with the medal stand. Thank you.

South China Morning Post

Mr Sun and Wang, first there are some reports that we understand that the officials from the propaganda department from around the mainland currently in town advising the respective reporters from those areas how to report on certain things. Can you confirm if they are here and are actually doing this? Also there is a report by the International Federation of Journalists that was released yesterday. A detailed complaints from some of the members about how they were being photographed by plain clothes or what appeared to be or alleged plain clothes security officials? Can you also confirm if this is true and why they are doing that? To Giselle, when you do received complains, when you go back to BOCOG, how these meetings are played out and what kind of response? Now are you satisfied that the IOC's integrity as to the ethics of media expression during the Olympics is being protected? Thanks a lot.

Wang Wei

With regards to the first question, I have no knowledge of that. I think the Chinese media same as the international ones are free to report and to cover the Games. With regard to the plain clothes, you need to have evidence for that. Thank you for your question for that.

Giselle Davies

Thanks. Certainly we would like to see all the accredited media have the access they need to report on the Games. When we have issues that have come directly up to the IOC, we worked with BOCOG. We've been satisfied as to how they address them. Sometimes, BOCOG needs to go to the government authorities and they are endeavored to work it through themselves as well. We want the access for all the accredited media to do their job.

Reporter from Japan

I have 2 questions, it's about the fireworks. You mentioned that it's an old graphic but some report said it is a computer graphics. But is it true that the former graphic is anything remake or not? Can I have an opinion; is it ok that the former Olympic Games is also using that kind of techniques? The second is about some human life activist offered the protesting in Beijing. Three of them were already rejected. Some from Fujian Province and from Hunan province.

Wang Wei

I think we have to make ourselves clear that we are BOCOG focusing on the organization of the Olympic Games. We are not expected to all the things happening around the world. With regard to the footages I mentioned at the beginning that some footage has been produced before the Opening Ceremony just in case to provide theatrical effects and to make it satisfactory. But on the night of the Opening Ceremony, there were footprints of fireworks all over the city, from south to north, 29 footprints. I think most of them are genuinely produced by the TV and live broadcasting. Some maybe used from the previous recording, that my speculation because when I asked them they have not yet provided the broadcasters. But most of them are from the night of the Opening Ceremony. Thank you.

7 network, Australia

Mr, Wang, you mentioned at the start that there are not enough people in the Olympic Green. It is a wonderful venue. I just want you to expand on that on the problems that you have on how many is too many and how many is not enough?

Wang Wei

For the Olympic Green, we have a plan of how many people should be in the stadium to prevent overcrowded or prevent accidental things to happen. Yesterday, we saw that not many people are inside so we are going to encourage more people to come over to the Olympic Green. As for the number it is hard to say. Thank you.

Beijing Youth Daily

Just to follow up the question about the Olympic Green. I have for Mr Wang. For ordinary Beijing citizens, do they have any chance or opportunity to enter Olympic Green? If yes, what are the channels and where can they get the channels to get into the Olympic Green?

Wang Wei

According to my knowledge, the organization of the people going to the Olympic Green are the communities and travel agencies. So people from outside China can apply from the travel agencies and domestic people are through the communities. They are encouraged to apply and the community will organize. Thank you.

London reporter

You mentioned the cheerleaders in yellow shirts, can you tell us how they get the tickets or are given the tickets? Will you be employing cheerleaders at every venue to help cover the fact that the seats are not being used by the ticket holders?

Wang Wei

The responsibility rests with the local authorities and the venue manager. If they find that there are not enough people or if they find that there are too many empty seats, they will organize some cheerleaders who are volunteers. But if the people will come over for these empty seats, then they will stand up and go and let the ticket holders have their seats. Thank you.

French reporter

Following on the ticket question. Outside gate 25, you can buy tickets last night for volleyball, fencing, swimming, many events going on. For hugely inflated prices, there are foreign and Chinese tickets tilts, apparently completely freely, I am just wondering if you can comment on titling. Whether there is green light given to tilting? If not, creating some of the problems we talked about, where you have to get cheer leaders to get in to fill in empty seats?

Wang Wei

Scalping is prohibited by the Chinese law. We will look into this to see whether this is true or not. Actually from the test events, we implemented fixed measures to prevent scalping so that is all I can say, thank you.

Reuters

A question for Giselle. Yesterday there was a drug announcement concerning the Spanish cyclist. She arrived on the 31 and she was tested on the 31, the IOC has long been saying that there will be random testing as long as targeted testing. Was that the case of targeted testing?

Giselle Davies

I am sure you can understand that our aim is to stand against doping and keep the Games as clean as possible. We want athletes to compete on a level plain field. In order to achieve that, we put in place the most comprehensive program possible. We will not give you exactly the final details of the targeting elements of that but there is a whole gamut of efforts done by the IOC medical team and the BOCOG staffs, that put that in place in consult with other doping teams. Sorry but I won't give you further details specifically on the case that you raised.

National Post, Canada

On the subject of armored personnel carrier, every media getting the cameras taking pictures, there are every TV camera shooting footages. Are you concerned at all of the image being projected as a military vehicle in front of the MPC?

Wang Wei

As BOCOG, I think this is a fact. Why we are afraid of that? It is meant to be protective.