Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

INFORMATION
The Beijing Olympics has been one of the greatest Olympic Games in history, with a total of approximately 10,500 athletes from 204 different nations. It has also been one of the greatest Olympic Games for New Zealand. There was a total of 28 summer sports and 302events. The athletes who competed in these events and placed 1st, 2ND and 3rd were awarded with a Gold, Silver or Bronze medals. Beijing had 958 of these medals to offer to the best of the athletes, 11 of those athletes were Kiwis. The Beijing Olympics were to become one of the most well-known Olympics in History, but not just for the good but also the bad.

SIGNIFICANT FACTORS
There were many significant factors to which this Olympic Games would be known for, but here are some of the major ones.

The Environment in Beijing was one of the worst aspects of the Olympics. They said that the air was so polluted, when you breathed it in, it was like inhaling 70 cigarettes. So once they knew it wasn't far from the Olympic Games, they started an instant clean up of Beijing. They even got so serious, that they brought in the army to clear the water of pollution. Also the temperature in Beijing was very hot and humid, so the athletes had to stay cool.

Another factor in Beijing was its image. Beijing was so conscious of their image that they made many changes to the city. They even built a 3 meter high brick wall around a poor block, so that the public couldn't see what was behind. There was an interview with an old man, who said that his neighbours houses were torn down just so that Beijing could have more green grass. Most or all of the people who got there houses torn down lived in the slums(very very poor neighbourhoods).

Waldi, a long haired dachshund (dog), was the first mascot to appear in a Olympic Summer Games in the 1972 Olympics. His vertical stripes can have any 3 of the 5 Olympic Colours. The Beijing Mascots are named: Beibei the fish,Jingjing the panda,Huanhuan the torch, Yingying the Tibetan antelope, and Nini the bird. Their colours are the colours of the Olympic Rings. If you say the first syllable of each name it says Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni means Welcome to Beijing.

Now one of the saddest factors of the Beijing Olympics. I am sure many of us watched the Olympic opening ceremony. If you did you would remember the little girl singing in the beginning. Well, behind that little girl was the sad truth. The truth was that she was lip-syncing over another little girl voice. Yang Peiyi was the little girl who was actually singing. The reason she was not seen was that Beijing thought she was not pretty enough. The little girl who was lip-syncing is Lin Miaoke, Beijing obviously thought she was the face of Beijing. So they made Yang Peiyi sing and all Lin Miaoke had to do was lip-sync and look pretty.

But here was also the one factor that was very important and that was the feel good facto. The feel good factor, was the factor that made every-one in China fell good about their country. They felt good because of all the medals they won in the Olympics. And this is what I think one of the most important factors.