After a slew of apologies from the 23 year-old bong-ripper, Michael Phelps has made a formal apology to his Chinese fans via home-video (below). Definitely a good PR move, the Chinese media has not hammered Phelps too hard, and in some cases indirectly praised him:

Chinese sports stars are still in the habit of thanking leaders and giving self-criticisms to their coaches. Many of these sports stars think that their wealth and their fans have absolutely no relationship. Thinking about that, the Chinese sports market has a long way to go (from Guangzhou Daily).

It seems China is not used to sports stars apologizing to their fans. But Phelps definitely had a motive in his apology. Apparently, the video had been sent directly from Mazda, the Japanese car manufacturer, to various Chinese websites and news outlets. Just last month, Phelps signed an endorsement with Mazda worth over $1 million to promote Mazda cars after his eight-gold-medal performance at the Beijing Olympics last summer. The New York Times writes that “Phelps’s deal with Mazda is said to be the most lucrative sponsorship deal for a foreigner in China.”

But it’s sad that Phelps has to bend to will of Mazda and Kellogg. I have a feeling that if Phelps could say what he really felt to his fans and critics, he would take another route. He would tell people that though he engaged in an illegal activity and will accept the legal consequences, his country is a hypocrite when it comes to drugs. The drug policies in America are totally out of touch with reality. That, if anything, his use of marijuana is another fine example of how an illegal drug like marijuana is not dangerous and had no ill-effects on a world class athlete and all-around good guy. But the world is not ready for a successful, well-adjusted athlete to be a poster boy for pot. Selling cars will always trump the truth.

Links & Sources:

• Boston Herald
• Guangzhou Daily
• New York Times

For those of you Olympic fans who shirked the sky-rocketing ticket prices and, consequently, could not attend events in the Water Cube or the Bird’s nest, or maybe any events at all, here comes good news:

Starting the upcoming holiday week, you will be able, for a symbolic price of 100 yuan, to re-live the Olympic glory and walk through the stadiums (and cubes) where history was made. 100 yuan is the price of the “all-through” ticket, which will grant you access to the following locations: Bird’s Nest, Water Cube, National Indoor Stadium and the so-called Olympic Village International Zone. The individual ticket prices range from 50 yuan for admission to the Bird’s Nest, 30 yuan for the Water Cube and 20 yuan for each the Indoor Stadium and the International Zone.

Another piece of good news is that apparently the Olympic Green itself is to be open for public access. The ‘Beijing Legal Times‘ (”Fa Zhi Wan Bao”) mentions that the park and its venues are to be open from 9 in the morning to 9 pm. The security measures will be considerably less strict, being reduced to ‘general’ checking and occasional ‘random’ picks.

However, there will be restrictions put in place regarding the number of visitors admitted daily. A limited number of 120 thousand tickets ONLY will be issued and sold each day for the 4 above-mentioned venues altogether, and ONLY 250 thousand visitors per day will be allowed into the Olympic Green itself.

Apparently, China is fully intending to keep its promise when it comes to post-Olympic venue operation and maintenance. And I believe that - even though a staggering total of 250 thousand daily does sound like a bit of an overestimation at this point - Beijing halls of Olympic fame have all the chances to avoid what the Athens venues have turned into. Because the fact is: China loves its history, and for a fascinating chapter like this one - what’s not to love?

So the struggle for the top spot on the medal list has already been claimed. The Chinese have hit a gold rush this Olympics with little chance of falling behind, leading the USA 45 to 26. Perhaps no one could have predicted such a blowout. A tie, maybe. But what has made the difference in this Olympics as compared with the last? Is it home field advantage? Harder working athletes? A stroke of luck? Perhaps a bit of all of these have turned the tides of the medal count. But a recent Guardian article, True Sport is About Much More That Counting Medals, has a more cynical view of Olympic success. Ed Smith writes:

To the win-at-all-costs lobby, sport is a glorified branch of the manufacturing industry. It is about how many units of victory we can produce, how many gleaming medals and trophies emerge at the end of the conveyor belt. The means of production matters less than the quality of the output. Sport, it is argued, is central to national self-esteem. This demands not only talent, hard work and organisation, but also serious cash. The success of the British cycling team, which benefits from huge government-sponsored investment in the latest technology, proves that the state can give sports a helping hand. Sport is too precious to be left alone by the state.

This is perhaps a truth that we all knew, but don’t want to admit or think about, especially when all we see on the field are individual athletes that have worked their whole lives for a chance at a medal. But with billions of dollars being invested into the most expensive Olympics ever and national pride on the line, there is little doubt that state cash has played a huge role in the outcome of these Games. Indeed, Smith says:

The Chinese Olympic team has been similarly criticised for ruthlessly targeting funds towards only those events where they have realistic medal chances. Where is the romance in sport, China has prompted people to ask, when sporting triumphs are predestined on the accounting spreadsheet?

You be the judge.

Medal Count

GDP

China is not only a name of Zhongguo (Middle Kingdom). China is the hottest term in 2008 and the future.

Many of China’s old stories and customs have been internationalized with Hollywood movies and, now, the Olympics.  The commercialization of these elements has been dug out. Everyone is familiar with Mulan, Shaolin Soccer, Kungfu Panda, and the Monkey King. But, let’s guess what’s the next?

BBC’s take on the Monkey King

The Olympics 08.08.08 http://www.bbc.co.uk/monkeyolympics
BBC Sport’s marketing campaign and titles for the forthcoming Olympic Games are based upon the traditional Chinese folklore ‘Journey to the West’. The animation and music were specially produced by Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn.

Also, check out BBC’s desktop monkey.

I thought it was common knowledge that referring to a Chinese person by pulling your eyes back was blatantly racist. But the Spanish basketball team apparently missed the memo. Posing for a team photo, the team thought it would be clever mimic their Chinese hosts by slanting their eyes in unison. But we can be sure that no one thinks it is clever and no one can fathom how this photo got taken without even one person considering its impact.

Spain, racism, and football have always gone together (i.e. Luis Aragones, Thierry Henry, and monkey chants). Now we can add basketball to the list. But, it isn’t just sports in Spain that has a problem. It seems the education system needs an overhaul.

Spain’s Sports, Education and Science Minister, Maria Jesus san Segundo, said of the football fans:

I think it’s unacceptable to behave like that in a football stadium but also in any other walk of life. It shows a lack of education. We’re now introducing equality lessons onto the national school curriculum. Young people have to realise that regardless of sex, colour or culture every human being is the same.

Maybe there is hope for the students back in Spain, but apparently not for the Basketball team.

A heavy-duty baozi steamer? Time machine for dwarves? Hu Jintao’s personal Palantír? None of the above.

It is the JBG series spherical anti-bomb storage tank. For about a month now, every subway station in Beijing has been equipped with a JBG bomb storage tank. Not only can they withstand a blast of 1.5kg of TNT, they are also portable and reusable.

Brought to you by the good people of 中国兵器.

Links and Sources:

(in Chinese) Xi’an Rui Bao Co.

There is no question that Beijing authorities know what is coming. Those pesky visitors that plan on staging protests during the Olympics will no doubt find a way to outsmart Big Brother…but, that’s where they’re wrong.

Beijing City Government and Beijing Police have teamed up and came up with a plan: designate 3 city parks for all of the protests (World Park, Zi Zhu Yuan Park, and Ritan Park). This way, any unexpected sidruption of the Games can be kept to a minimum.

According to the head of BOCOG’s (Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games) Security Department Mr. Liu Shaowu, all protesters must first register before they can protest. A Reuters reporter asked Mr. Liu:

In translation:

Have you received and applications from protesters? Where are they from? How many people know about the application procedure? Is there a website, or will the government supply application procedures?

To this, Mr. Liu Shao Wu responded:

The Beijing Municipal Government and Beijing City Police will have a special organization and special staff responsible for the demonstrations.

So it seems that keeping the application process a mystery is part of their strategy for keeping prostesers in the dark.

It is still to be seen whether protesters will use this avenue to stage demonstrations. But even more unclear is whether or not the applications will be approved by the Municipal Government. In any case, I will be there protesting the protesting zones, just for the sake of irony.

The Hong Kong Lego User Group has taken Olympic fanaticism to the extreme, with a Beijing-like replica that includes Olympic venues like the Bird’s Nest, Water Cube, and Olympic Village. The model has over 300,000 Lego blocks and 4,500 figurines (note the stormtroopers in the Greek Village).

More pictures here

Also, see the Olympic Games History in Lego (you wont regret it!)

Just when you thought your taxi commute was going to be a breeze because of the odd and even license plate restrictions, they had to go and open Olympic lanes 20 days before the Games even start. Don’t get me wrong, the lanes designated for officials, athletes and Olympic committee members are a good idea, especially in a city that is infamous for its horrendous traffic situation. But it’s the timing that gets to me.

Firstly, the games haven’t even begun yet. That means at least one of the the two groups of people (athletes, that is) wont be using the lanes until the games actually begin. Meanwhile, everyone that commutes on any of the 268 kilometers of road with the ‘Five-ring Logo’ painted on them will have one more reason to be less enthusiastic about the Olympics.

Also, opening the lanes so prematurely has even graver consequences.  The whole reason the odd and even restrictions were put in place was for reducing the tons of CO2 emissions that turn Beijing’s air into pea-soup. But emissions are closely related to the amount of time a car is on the road. The less cars are sitting idle, the less emissions we have to breathe.

So let’s open those lanes back up to the Laobaixing 老百姓 until the Olympics actually begins. We’ll have a more pleasant commute and breathe easier. The only problem will be that officials will have to wake up earlier to get to their plush offices and banquet lunches.