The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
(BEIJING, January 28) -- The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) signed an agreement on Monday with Atos Origin, which is to become an IPC Worldwide IT Partner. The signing ceremony took place at the Sports Training Centre for Disabled Chinese Athletes in Beijing.
Under the agreement between Atos Origin and the IPC, Atos Origin will contribute to the development of the Paralympic Movement through the creation of a system that is designed to manage athletes' data, including results and biographical and classification specific information. Prior to this agreement, Atos Origin had signed an agreement directly with the Beijing 2008 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (BOCOG). The agreement with the IPC enables Atos Origin to expand its Paralympic marketing rights worldwide.
IPC President Sir Philip Craven; Wang Xinxian, President of the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) of China and Vice Chairperson of the China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF); Lu Shiming, Executive Vice President of CDPF; Patrick Adiba, Executive Vice President of Olympics and Major Events of Atos Origin; and Herbert Leung, Chief Executive Officer of Atos Origin Asia, attended the signing ceremony.
"We heartily welcome Atos Origin to become the Worldwide Partner of the IPC. The Paralympic Games provide a stage for all athletes with a disability to demonstrate their strong spirit of meeting challenges as well as inspire and excite the world with their performances. We hope the Paralympic Games can further promote such a spirit and attract more companies like Atos Origin and individuals to support the Paralympic Movement," said Sir Philip.
The solutions to be provided by Atos Origin will greatly improve the development of the IPC and offer better services to its members -- the National Paralympic Committees, athletes and competition organizers.
During the signing ceremony, Atos Origin also signed an agreement with the NPC of China to sponsor two Chinese Paralympic athletes, Li Duan and Bian Jianxin, in defending their titles at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.
Li won the Men's Long Jump of F11 class gold medal at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, and Bian Jianxin is a two-time Olympic gold medalist of women's -48kg weightlifting at the Athens 2004 and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
The two athletes have been invited to become image ambassadors of Atos Origin.
Atos Origin, as an international IT services company and Worldwide IT Partner for the Olympic Games, has primary responsibility for Information Technology relating to IT consulting, systems integration, operations management, information security and software applications development for the Olympic Games. The company has been the IT Partner of the 2002, 2004 and 2006 Paralympic Games and is currently working on the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. It has started preparing for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games and will soon start the first steps for 2012 in London.
