The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
Related story: Heavy rain showers cause changes in the competition schedule
Date/Time: 11:45 a.m., Friday, August 15
Venue: Main Press Center (MPC)
Sun Weide
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome again to today's BOCOG/IOC joint press conference. With us today, Mr. Wang Wei, the executive vice president and secretary general of BOCOG; and also Giselle Davies, IOC director of Communications. This morning we are also very glad to have Professor Arne Ljungqvist. First of all I would like to give the floor to Wang Wei.
Wang Wei
Good morning everybody. Daily operation during the day. On the sixth day of the Olympic Games, there were a total of 23 competition events staged in 24 venues, including 17 in Beijing and seven in two co-host cities. Chinese athletes won five of the 17 gold medals awarded on the day. The Ukrainian Paralympic delegation arrived in Beijing and became the first delegation for the Beijing Paralympic Games.
The competition venues received 5,256 athletes and 3,510 team officials from 1,270 participating teams, as well as 3,666 technical officials, 501,188 spectators, 11,366 VIPs and 14,588 journalists. In addition, the venues received 562 training teams consisting of 3,202 athletes and 396 team officials. The stand-alone training venues received 1,091 athletes, 443 team officials, 41 technical officials, 37 journalists and two VIPs. The Olympic Green Common Domain received 98,889 visitors.
The information on competition schedule has been rescheduled because of rain showers.
Rowing:
The competitions have been rescheduled for August 15, but the start time remains unchanged.
Baseball:
The matches during the daytime were suspended. The match between China and the Republic of Korea has been rescheduled for August 17 at 18:00.
Softball:
The matches during the day were suspended. The match between the USA and Canada has been rescheduled for August 15. It will begin 30 minutes after the end of the 14th match (USA - Japan).
Canoe/Kayak-Slalom:
Unfinished competitions have been rescheduled for August 15 at 15:00. These competitions include Kayak (K1) Women Semifinals, Canoe Double (C2) Men Final and Kayak (K1) Women Final.
Beach Volleyball:
The Beach Volleyball events of the Men's 1/16 round and the Women's 1/16 round were originally scheduled for August 15 and 16. The new schedule is that the Women's 1/16 round will be staged on August 15, and the Men's will be staged on August 16.
Tennis:
The Women's Double Semifinal has been rescheduled for August 16, with the start time unchanged. The Women's Double Bronze-Medal match has been rescheduled for August 17 at 14:30, instead of 16:00 as was listed on the original schedule.
Update on August 15:
The seventh day of the Olympic Games will see 27 competition events staged in 29 venues. A total of 18 gold medals will be produced.
Weather forecast for toady:
Beijing will experience sunny intervals today. All the co-host cities are forecast to be overcast or clear, except for Shanghai, where thundershowers are expected in the late afternoon. Winds with a speed of 5-6m/s are forecast for Qingdao; such winds are suitable for the competitions. Shanghai will have another hot and humid day.
Thank you.
Sun Weide
Thank you, Mr. Wang Wei. I would like to give the floor to Giselle Davies.
Giselle Davies
Thank you Weide. Good morning everyone. An apology for the lateness of start that is forced on the IOC side. We had another executive board meeting this morning with a couple of decisions coming up from the IOC offices downtown. So apologies for that.
There were decisions taken today on two cases of anti-doping rule violation. That is why Professor Ljungqvist joining me today, in case you have any question on these two following announcements.
Decision taken on the case of Mr. Kim Jong Su from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, he competed in air pistol events on the 9 and 12 of August. He finished 3 in the 10-meter and second in 50-meter. In testing, he came forward the positive for propranolol and as a result of this he has been excluded from the Games, disqualified for the result achieved in the 10-meter and 50-meter events. Diplomas will be withdrawn, and his Olympic reputation and identity also immediately withdrawn and cancelled. Of course the IOC now asks the shooting sports federation to modify the results and so you know who now is bumped up as a result of this disqualification.
In the 10-meter pistol events, the 3rd place will now go to Jason Turner from the US. In the 50-meter event, the second place will go to Tan Zongliang from China, and bronze to Vladimir Isakov from Russia. That was decision NO. 1 taken by the executive board. For those of you following details that matter on this case, the disciplinary commission put a proposal forward, and the decision was made up of Doctor Bach, Mr. Oswald.
The second case is in artistic gymnastics. Thi Ngan Thuong Do from the Vietnam she is also disqualified from the Games. She finished 59 in her competition and was tested positive for furosemide. She is also excluded from the Games as a result of the doping procedure. The disciplinary commission that proposed decisions on this was made up of Thomas Bach, Gerhard Heiberg and Mr. Denis Oswald. So there are two cases today turned to the executive board for decisions making on the disqualification of the two athletes in Beijing.
In terms of the testing competed to today, the number is 2,203 of which 1,250 are pre-competition tests, 1,720 in urine and 483 in blood. So those are the decisions for today. Other than that, more sports focused, the president will be at the gymnastic and archery and in the evening at athletics. I would like to hand this floor back to Weide and of course would like to take questions. Thank you.
Financial Times
Would you tell me that is it true that 8,000 practitioners of Falungong were rounded up prior to the Games and detained. Further, is it also true that no practitioner of Falungong is allowed to attend or participate in the Games, in violation of Rule 6 of the Olympic Charter? Thank you.
Wang Wei
Falungong is illegal organization in China. So when you say 8,000 practitioners, I don't know anything about this.
The Beijing Olympic has welcomed athletes from all over the world to come and participate and enjoy the joy of the Olympics. Beijing and the Chinese people are friends of all athletes. I believe that all the athletes will abide by the Chinese law just as when they go to other hosting country. Thank you.
China Radio International
We reached halfway through the Games. I would like to ask you what are your comments on the first half of the Games. What were the elements that have the greatest effects of the Games after this point?
Wang Wei
Up until this point, the Games have been proceeding pretty smoothly. This morning BOCOG and IOC had the coordination meeting. We have announced that for the next few days, the normal coordination meetings will not be held. Small matters can be resolved right away. All in all things have been going smoothly. There have been no major incidents. However, for instance, there have a lot of dignitaries have come this time from 80 countries. This is actually been a huge pressure on us about how do we take care of them properly and make everybody happy and to enjoy the sports of the Olympics. So that is one of the problems we have faced, one of the difficulties. Of course you have also heard the first Paralympics delegations arrived. With one Olympic Organizing Committee organizing two separate Games, this is unprecedented and a huge challenge to BOCOG.
And so there is a certain amount of overlapping of two events. There are only 12 days of transition between the events. So we not only want to focus on the Olympics but we also must guarantee that the Paralympics is also as glorious. We need to continue to improve our work. I know that we are doing well but we want to do even better.
SportsBusiness Journal, USA
Before the Games started, it was announced that tickets of all of the events were sold out. I've been to many events over the last 5 or 6 days and there are many empty seats. Are the tickets of the Games actually sold out? Why are there so many available seats and if there are so many available seats, why can't people buy tickets anywhere?
Wang Wei
I think for this question I have explained many times. The demand for the tickets for Beijing Games is very high. Tickets to international and all the NOCs are exceeding the previous Games. For the previous Games, there were only 100 NOCs booking tickets. But for Beijing Games, there are 160 NOCs booking tickets. For Beijing and China, you know, we have a very big population. Why are there a lot of empty seats? I think there a lot of reasons behind it.
This is the traditional of the Olympic Games we have reserved seats for the Olympic family and different client groups. That is understandable. For those clients, they may also send tickets to their friends. They will come for one time and may not at the other time. But that is not mainly the reason. For Chinese audience, they all want to buy tickets. Some people buy tickets for themselves and some people buy ticket for their friends. Again, people who received tickets may come at one time and may not come on the other time. The schedule according to the Olympic tradition, for beach volleyball and basketball they have one ticket, and you can watch the whole evening for two matches, first match and second match, volleyball as well. The tickets are out and that's for sure except for emergency plans. Thank you.
German TV
I want to ask two questions. First of all, I just want to know what is your point of view about the doping cases. We are now on the day nine of the Games and we first see two doping cases, which is quite unusual. Everybody expected a little bit more. How does the system work and what do you think about it? Another question, I want to know how many times did you dope test Micheal Phelps, the swim star of the USA? Could you tell us something about the in and out competition testing of him?
Arne Ljungqvist
I don't know what you and the others have expected. I have not expected that many cases to occur during the Olympic Games. We usually have the dozens also under the IOC umbrella. In Athens, there were some additional which occurred as a consequence of the control programs instituted by the international federation actually also during the time of the Games. This time, many federations have conducted intensive competition testing in the months leading up to the Games. We have also seen the consequences that some athletes have been found doped before the Games but did not appear here.
So we will expect that we will end up with a fairly low figure but that is a speculation. We don't have more than two until now within the IOC program. This shows that hopefully the athletes who are here competing are clean. The two cases we had are consequences of the intake of the banned substances. If I take those sequence the shooting cases from Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a bit of a blocking agent as what was mentioned for the propranolol which is banned in only certain sports and sports position character, like shooting and archery. I cannot interpret the findings in any other way than on this deliberate intake because it's of importance in that particular sport and the consequences are obvious.
The second case as I understand, the young gymnast from Vietnam, not a highly ranked person who took furosemide, a fairly common drug amongst women in premenstrual tension and so forth. Accidents happen earlier with the athletes have been ill advised and badly informed. My interpretation of this particular cases is that this is the result of poor information for the young athlete who has not have the necessary knowledge what to avoid and what is allowed to take. Your question is on the individual athlete like Phelps, I still don't have the details of it. We will have it today. I can provide it later on once we have the full summing up of these samples taken during the Games.
As you know all the medalists and the athletes in addition to the medalist in the final heat will all be tested irrespective of how many tests they may have been subjected to in the course of the Olympic Games. I think that answers your question.
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