The Beijing Olympic Games begin on August 8, and if the build-up is anything
to go by they will be the most controversial in decades: from Tibet and
human rights to the expensive “bird’s nest” stadium, not to mention the
small matter of 203 nations competing for gold.
From live streaming of events to specialist sites for fans of niche sports and
the rich history of the Games, there is something for everyone online. And
that’s before we even get to the teach-yourself Mandarin websites.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
For the first time, the BBC (bbc.co.uk/olympics)
will be showing online exactly what it broadcasts on television. While the
picture quality will be more YouTube than Planet Earth it will have the same
“red button” choice of six different events to watch as there is on digital
TV. The Games will be broadcast in high-definition for those able to receive
the BBC’s HD channel via cable or satellite.
In the United States, NBC (www.nbcolympics.com)
will be putting live coverage online, but like the BBC, the service is
available only domestically. Even so, British sports fans can do worse than
check out the NBC website: slick and content rich, it makes the BBC look
like a poor relation.
Athletics fans chasing unbiased authoritative live event coverage should visit
the IAAF’s (International Association of Athletics Federations) website at www.iaaf.org/Oly08.
Britain has a proud tradition in sailing yet, like many sports, it often
suffers limited coverage. Thankfully, www.sailing.org/olympics
will post live updates of every Olympic race.
IN THE MOOD
Relive the great moments in modern Olympics at the International Olympics
Committee’s official website, www.olympic.org.
Its multimedia gallery has an archive, searchable by athlete, team, event or
date that goes back to the silent footage of the 1904 St Louis Games.
For a pub-quiz-winning sprint through the trivia of the modern Games, the
mapsoftheworld.com guide at tinyurl.com/4bc4m
is priceless. Starting with Athens 1896,
it gives a highlight-by-highlight history, from the terrorism at Munich to the
triumph of Jesse Owens in 1936.
The Games have a far more ancient history. The Perseus digital library at
Tuft’s University near Boston, Massachusetts, lacks design glamour but
brings a populist touch to this classical heritage with tales of ancient
Olympians at www.perseus.tufts.edu.
THE GOLD HUNTERS
There are more than 300 gold medals to be won in 28 sports and UK Sport, the
body responsible for British athletics, wants Team GB to come at least
eighth overall. Finding out who might be on the podium is a challenge,
though, because the Team GB website (www.olympics.org.uk/beijing2008)
is a model of dullness. It does at least highlight 24 hopefuls from
Britain’s team, including Ben Ainslie, the single-handed dinghy sailing star
who took gold in Athens.
Thankfully, Sport magazine (www.myfreesport.co.uk)
has interviews with several British hopefuls including Mo Farah, the
5,000-metre European championship silver medallist, who says the
all-conquering Africans in his event “have taught me to be more selfish as
an athlete — all they do is sleep, eat and train, and that’s why they’ve
been virtually unbeatable for so long”.
Among its extensive pre-Olympics coverage, Times Online profiles Tom Daley,
Britain’s 14-year-old diving wunderkind (see tinyurl.com/4qfj66).
Your best bet for finding unusual angles on the Games at this early
stage are the blogs of the big news outlets. For example, Reuters (blogs.reuters.com/china)
tells of the determination of Oxana Chusovitina, a 32-year-old gymnast.
Though twice the age of some rivals, Chusovitina (who has already
represented Russia and Uzbekistan) moved to Germany, which she now
represents, to get treatment for her leukaemia-stricken son. A lesson in
Olympic idealism or pragmatic exploitation of the ever-weakening rules on
nationality? You decide.
BEIJING OR BUST
If you want to go the Games, then www.sportsworld-group.com
is the only organisation allowed to sell tickets in the UK. A four-night
“supporter package” starts at £850 per person for twin/double occupancy.
Given that www.skyscanner.net (the
flights price-comparison engine) reckons air tickets alone will cost from
£750 return, this looks like a bargain.
The web is festooned with sites that will inform you about landmarks such as
the Great Wall. More interesting is an article by Travel+Leisure magazine (tinyurl.com/5gedo4)
that recommends the 798 art district in the city’s eastern Dashanzi
neighbourhood instead. It is, apparently, “a bohemian oasis with galleries,
cafes, and graffiti splashed on old factory walls”.
For the real insider’s guide to the city, visit www.thebeijinger.com
— home to Beijing’s primary English-language magazine, until recently known
as That’s Beijing.
SET THE SCENE
Teaching yourself Mandarin Chinese from scratch is the decathlon of linguistic
challenges but Chinese Tools (www.chinese-tools.com)
reckons its daily 10-minute plan “is adequate for those who want to gain
fluency in everyday speaking and grammar use”, which sounds optimistic.
Already grabbing attention is the striking-looking swimming venue. This is
officially called the National Aquatics Centre, but better known as “the
Water Cube”. Its Australian designers explain how the building plays on the
geometry of water bubbles within a square form in a masterclass of
architectural mumbo-jumbo at tinyurl.com/3hwx2m.
Even more impressive is the “bird’s nest”, or national stadium, built with
45,000 tons of steel and a facade that inclines 13 degrees to the vertical.
Watch the intriguing trailer of a documentary about its construction at www.herzogdemeuron-film.com
and hope the building remains visible amid the smog.
IN PROTEST
When it won the Olympics bid, China promised to improve its human rights
record. Instead things appear to have got worse. As the summary of a recent
Channel 4 report outlines at tinyurl.com/5cbplm,
those who refused to be moved to make way for the £19 billion of construction
have suffered terrible consequences.
Olympic Watch, the human rights monitor, has attempted to publicise the
situation at www.olympicwatch.org
for several years, though its most recent news release was in April.
A more comprehensive and up-to-date resource is Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org),
which has profiles of Chinese human rights activists in jail, under house
arrest or under surveillance. Should you feel compelled to take
(non-violent) action, the Students for a Free Tibet network (www.studentsforafreetibet.org)
has an activists’ toolbox that explains how to set up a DIY protest group.
THE FUN FACTOR
Ready for some light relief? Enjoy an animated, cartoon caper through various
Olympics events at tinyurl.com/34n45.
It’s nicely done, even if “swifter, higher, stronger”, the Olympic motto, was
never meant to include being run through with a competitor’s javelin.
If you can’t win an Olympic medal yourself, the next best thing is to buy one.
Olympics memorabilia has become highly collectable, but be warned, dealers
predict a post-Games glut of relay torches because so many (more than
20,000) were made this year. The Olympics memorabilia specialist
www.ioneil.com indicates how collectable various items are.
