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« Good Luck Beijing », a preview of the Olympic games
It is only eight months before the start of the Olympic games. Since this summer, the capital has been carrying out "Good Luck Beijing," a set of pre-Olympic tournaments that gives a preview of the locations and the events before they actually take place.
The European judo competitors came away with three gold metals during "Good Luck Beijing". The Chinese capital has been going all out in preparing the 29th Olympiads. Along with the public education campaigns, the city has all interest to assure that the events go as planned and that the locations are ready. This is the goal of the pre-Olympic competitions that began this summer.
The Judo tournament finished on November 16th at the University of Science and Technology Gymnasium. This was the first event for the new 24,662 m², 12,000 person facility located in the North West part of Beijing. Over the course of six days, there were 114 athletes from 16 countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Uganda, France, and Brazil. In 2008, Judo and Tae Kwon Do competitions will be held at the same location along with the wheelchair basketball and rugby during the Special Olympics of 2008.
Along with hockey, beach-volleyball, biking, and boxing, judo is one of the 23 trial competitions taking place on similar Olympic locations throughout Beijing. Three other trials will take place at the six other co-hosting cities including Hong Kong, Shanghai, Qingdao and Tianjin. It is a chance to test the newly renovated or newly constructed facilities and the management teams, the volunteers, the technical system and the security.
Eight months of preparation
If « Good Luck Beijing » provides a chance for the athletes to practice in the new locations, it has also attracted many Chinese and a number of foreigners who see the event as a chance to visit the sacred places before they officially open and to see the competitions before it becomes difficult due to an unreliable ticketing system.It goes without saying that the most wanted pre-Olympic events are in high demand from the very moment the tickets are put on sale. The best example being the Table Tennis tournament that just came to an end at the Peking University Gymnasium which was completely sold out. "I work for the Beijing Olympic Comity (BOCOG) and even I wasn't able to enjoy free invitations for this tournament" says an employee.
Also, in China, a real national cult is reserved to table tennis as young and old play it, be it in parks, clubs or compounds. On the contrary, judo was somewhat sulked during the final round. Only a quarter of the 8 012 permanent Gymnasium seats were occupied. Nonetheless this absence of a crowd was completely made up for by the enthusiastic applauds of the public who put to good use the taping devices given out by Olympic sponsors. Nationalism sometimes seems quite a bit exacerbated. This has reached such a point that the Chinese government has decided to give its citizens -young and old - cheering classes.
China still has work to do to overcome its organizational difficulties, the lack of linguistic skills of its volunteers and the poor sign posting for the Olympic sites. But China is counting on the eight months left before the start of the Olympics and the dozen of pre-Olympic events to get everything right. The next "Good Luck Beijing" events are the Handball tournament scheduled from the 5th to the 12th of January at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium and the National Sports Center and the Weight Lifting contest scheduled at the Gymnasium of the University of Aeronautics from the 20th to the 24th of January.
Useful information :
For the preolympic competitions, you can check the calendar and the venues on the Olympics official website http://fr.beijing2008.cn/goodluckbj/
Text : Aurélie Palancher
Photos : Wang Zhuo
January 2008
