• As the exclusive official video game, Beijing 2008 offers over 30 official events and national teams
• Create the atmosphere of the Olympic Host City in your own home
• Sports include: Track & Field, Aquatics, Gymnastics, Cycling, Judo, Table Tennis and Canoe-Kayak
• Online features including exhibition events and leaderboards
• New gameplay mechanics including time, rhythm, and targeting based systems

In Beijing 2008: The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games, players will embrace the competitive spirit of the world’s most prestigious sporting event and represent their country as they compete for the highest honor–the Gold Medal. Appearing on next generation consoles, the game promises to deliver a far more entertaining and immersive Olympic experience with superior graphics capturing the detail of each event where a fraction of a second means the difference between winning and losing.

Rating: (out of 6 reviews)

List Price: $ 19.99

Price: $ 16.91

• 2-volume set
• Witness the most memorable Opening Ceremony in Olympic history
• The complete 4-hour extravaganza from beginning to end
• Special index allows you to easily navigate throughout the entire ceremony.

This 2-volume set is your opportunity to once again witness the most memorable Opening Ceremony in Olympic history…the complete 4-hour extravaganza from beginning to end. A special index allows you to easily navigate throughout the entire ceremony. Own the celebration that people will be talking about forever!

Rating: (out of 49 reviews)

List Price: $ 29.99

Price: $ 6.85

• Sizing and Fit: Kids (4-16) Sizing , with a Regular Fit
• Material: 60 % Cotton, 40 % Polyester
• Care and Cleaning: Machine Wash Cold, Tumble Dry Low
• Garment Length: Below Waist
• Neckline Style: Hooded Neckline
• Long Sleeves , Ribbed, Banded Cuff(s)
• Closure Style: Zipper
• Hem Style: Ribbed Hem(s)

List Price: $ 16.99

Price: $ 16.99

• Spectacular Torch Lighting from Opening Ceremony
• Selected performances from Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson
• Gold medal beach volleyball victory for Kerri Walsh/Misty May-Treanor
• Gold medal racies of Usain Bolt at 100 and 200 meters
• All U.S. Gold medal perforamances from Track & Field

4 Discs include Beijing 2008 Highlights, Michael Phelps Inside Story of the Beijing Olympics, and Beijing 2008 Complete Opening Ceremony

Rating: (out of 3 reviews)

Price: $ 14.99

Special Olympics soccer team receives Golden Scarf before Seattle Sounders game
Members of a local Special Olympics soccer team received the coveted Golden Scarf before the Aug. 8 Seattle Sounders FC game. Team members include, back row, from left to right: Keith Stamper, Tyler Bjork, Jon Emmett, Sounder James Riley, Cory Dempsey and Cody Peterson.
Read more on Federal Way Mirror

Youth Olympics siver medalist aiming for gold in London 2012
New Delhi, Aug 28 : He missed out on the gold at inaugural Youth Olympics at Singapore despite being favourite, but Arjun, who won silver in discuss, is determined to go for glory at the 2012 London Olympics.
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The Olympics provide a stage for the entire world to, not only watch sports, but also fight for beliefs.  Yet in recent Olympic history, the world has ignored the true calling of the Olympics.

The 2008 Olympics comes at a time when the first African American is running for the U.S. Presidency, Tibet is fighting for freedom from China, and Iraq is searching for its identity from the coalition, among many other world issues.  Why then has the Olympic Committee decided to hold the Olympics in China?

Given the current state of international affairs, many human beings do not respect the decision to hold the Olympics in China. 

On the other hand, China may be the perfect place to make a political statement. 

Often times, athletes in the Olympics are fighting for rights or freedoms in their home countries.  If the world believes that China has violated human rights and freedoms, then what better place is there to bring the world’s eyes to the attention of human injustice?  And who better to protest than the athletes themselves?

The 1968 Olympics is a perfect example of how a controversial location and an unstable international climate could lead to an everlasting memory of the human spirit and a symbol of rights and freedom for oppressed people across the globe.

Mexico City was a turbulant place when the Olympics moved in.  And 1968 was a time of wars and international unrest—America itself was fighting an internal freedom struggle. 

The Vietnam war was in full swing entering its ninth year and Martin Luther King Jr. died shortly before the Olympics in April of 1968. The world, alongside of America, would mourn.

Mexico City was plagued with violence.  Many young citizens of Mexico believed the Olympics was a waste of social funding and authority.  Mexican student protesters were massacred a few days before the Olympics and nearly 300 died. 

The world’s eyes were on the 1968 Olympics not only for the joy and fuffilment of watching the athletes and believing in passion but also because of the international and political climate of the time.

San Jose University African American track runners, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, understood then that this was an opportunity for them to peacefully protest the injustices of the U.S. racial system and the hopelessness of human rights injustices around the world.

Smith took the gold with an impressive 19.5 second 200 meter run.  Carlos finished with a bronze.

The two solemnly walked to the podium where they were adorned with flowers and medals. Both men wore black socks with no shoes and sported human rights badges.  They climbed the podium and their black socks clashed with the white boxes beneath their feet.

Slowly the national anthem began to play.  Both men bowed their heads and proudly raised a fist encased in a black glove into the air in the black power salute. 

These men were good enough to compete for their country but were not good enough to share the liberties that other Americans enjoyed. They understood that.

They used the controversial stage set at the Mexico City Olympics to their advantage.

While they were barred from further competition in the Olympics and were not heroically received in the U.S., Carlos and Smith are looked upon as heroes of the civil rights movements and heroes of human rights around the world.

China, much like Mexico City, is a controversial place to hold the Olympics.  The Iraq war, much like the Vietnam War, is a controversial war.  The Tibetan Freedom Fight, much like the African American Freedom Fight, is one that the world is watching.

If the actions of two men in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City can be a part of the reason why an African American man can run for the 2008 presidential seat, then China is the perfect stage to set the Olympics. 

The world should not boycott the Olympics for its location—instead the world should celebrate the athletes who made the games, and the athletes should use the Olympics to make a small, yet meaningful, difference.

http://www.ishoesclub.com/olympic/html/article_90.html

With news stories focusing on human rights abuse, terrorism, air pollution and doping, it seems that the Olympics are not what they once were. The long-awaited Beijing Olympic Games finally begin this Friday but can they transcend the politics? Can we still be touched by the Olympic spirit?

Growing up in the 1980s, my Olympic heroes were Coe, Ovett and Cram, Carl Lewis, Daley Thompson, and Torvill and Dean. I loved the story of Jesse Owens versus the Nazis and even our feeble Eddie the Eagle pulled at the heartstrings. Into the 1990s and beyond, Redgrave, Pinsent and Co were proper Olympians with Kelly Holmes and Amir Khan providing some inspirational Olympic stories in 2004.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be looking out for our men’s fours rowing team and little Tom Daley, diving for team GB at just 14 years old. But repression of political activists, detention without trial – featuring the scary Re-education Through Labour (RTL) scheme – and censorship in China are unfortunately overshadowing the competition for me and many others at the moment.

This is a great shame for the athletes involved but actually nothing new. Politics have been prominent in the Olympic Games since 1936 when Hitler hijacked them as a piece of Nazi propaganda. Happily, black athletes like the American Jesse Owens were there to dispel the myth of Aryan supremacy.

The 1956 Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia were boycotted by various nations for numerous reasons and 1968 saw the volatile Mexico City games. Two black American medallists, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gave the black power salute during the United States anthem and were subsequently expelled from the games. Student protesters also tried to use the Olympics to raise awareness of the authoritarian Mexican government.

Tragically, this ultimately culminated in the gunning down of more than 200 protesters by government forces in October 1968, just days before the games began. It emerged many years later that the US government had supported the Mexican authorities with weapons, ammunition, radios and riot control training in an attempt to prevent disruption to the Olympic Games.

The Munich games in 1972 were hijacked by Palestinian terrorists, with eleven Israeli athletes being kidnapped and eventually killed. Hard to imagine how the Olympics could recover from such a shocking event.

In 1976 the Olympics in Montreal were riddled with boycotts, drug allegations and debts. The 1980 Olympics saw the largest boycott ever with the United States and 61 other countries refusing to enter the games in protest against the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. In response, the USSR, East Germany, Cuba and 14 other nations boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. Incidentally, this was the first Olympic games for the People’s Republic of China.

Numerous countries around the world have been close to boycotting the Beijing Games, but so far it does not look like this will happen. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) granted Beijing the games in July 2001 under the proviso that human rights in China would improve. Many people believe that the Olympics can be used as a positive political force, citing the banning of South Africa between 1964 and 1992. They believe that this was instrumental in forcing the country to allow black and white athletes to participate together in national sport, a significant step towards equal rights and the end of the oppressive apartheid regime.

According to Amnesty International’s website, Liu Jingmin, Vice-President of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bid Committee said in April 2001:

“By allowing Beijing to host the Games you will help the development of human rights.”

Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC declared at the time:

“We are convinced that the Olympic Games will improve the human rights record in China.”

In April 2008 Rogge had to remind the Chinese government of their commitment to human rights and ask them to respect it. Only time will tell if they do so.

Over the last twenty years or so, scandals involving perfomance-enhancing drugs have probably eclipsed the political Olympic storms. This has added to the negativity surrounding the Olympic Games and perhaps means that the audience is now more cynical and less impressed than in the old days.

But the majority of the athletes participating in the Olympics have legitimately reached the pinnacle of their sport and deserve our respect. Why not put aside our concerns and cynicism once the opening ceremony starts and just enjoy the thing? Accept that politics are part and parcel of any event involving the nations of the world, and ignore it. Why not let the Chinese people be proud of their athletes and their culture? Why not celebrate outstanding human achievement? Why not let the Olympics bring us together, just for a few weeks?

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