Posts Tagged ‘Olympic games’

Last week we wrote about mountain biking and the varieties of mountain biking that have developed – including downhill, freeride, trial/street and finally XC. Undoubtedly extreme but our question today is whether BMX eclipses the freeride and trial/street riding of mountain bikes as the most extreme form of the sport.

We will let you decide for yourselves but there is no doubt about it – BMX has become very extreme.

The development of BMX bikes came from kids on the west coast in the 1970s wanting to emulate what their older brothers were doing on their motor cross bikes when they only had a Sting Ray to use. The sport blossomed and its development is best described in the video below from RiChArDOsZ

Times have moved on and the old Sting Ray has been replaced by purpose built BMX bikes.  In 2008, for the first time, there was BMX bike racing at the Olympic games held in Beijing, China.

Marathons – a subject close to the hearts of many people – those who have pitted themselves over distances from as short as 13.1 miles, a half marathon, to a full marathon of 26.2 miles and beyond to much greater distances. We give the history and will then present some of the more extreme marathons – just in case you feel so inclined.

History: The marathon race commemorates the run of the Athenian soldier Pheidippides who legend tells us ran from a battlefield near Marathon, Greece, to Athens in 490 B.C., a distance of approximately 25 miles, bringing news of a Greek victory over the Persians. Pheidippides collapsed and died at the end of his historic run.

However there has long been debate about the accuracy of this story which we will not discuss here – save it to say that when the modern Olympic games were started in 1896 the marathon was the last event of the games and was fittingly won by a Greek named Spiridos ‘Spiros’ Louis in a time of 2:58:50 hours. The distance was not standardised until the 1924 games when atletes ran 26.22 miles, or 42.196 kms.

Extreme marathons: with over 800 marathons run every year there are a number of extreme versions. Most marathons come under the jurisdiction of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Runners. We will over the next few days give some examples of some of the more extreme marathons.

The Addo Elephant Trail runs: not strictly a marathon in the sense of distance as you can run a 100 mile, 50 mile or 25 mile route. The fifth running of this race will be held on Saturday 2nd May 2009. The 100 miler is run through the Addo Elephant Park, about 50 miles from Port Elizabeth, South Africa and winds its way over the mountains into the Sundays River Valley before crossing the escarpment of the Zuurberg Mountains to finish at the Addo Elephant Park main rest camp.You have to complete the race in 30 hours. The 50 miler and 25 miler routes are run in the same location.

The cost of entering the races varies – the 100 miler is 950 rand, the 50 miler is 550 rand and the 25 miler is 350 rand. For further details go to the website www.extrememarathons.com

Below is the schedule and we have included a vdeo from bradke – not of the race but of some of the ‘traffic’ you might meet as you run!

Well the big wait is over, as you wake up and read this the games will have begun, with a spectacular opening ceremony. Like them or loathe them the games are big business and this year it is China’s chance to show the world that they have emerged from a past locked away in secrecy and communism and have emerged as a major force in the world. Good luck China, we hope the games are a great success for the nation of China and for the athletes of the world. Below is an interesting view point from Bill Schiller, the Toronto Star’s Asian correspondent.

In the darkness before dawn they come in their thousands, flowing into Tiananmen Square beneath the iconic portrait of Mao Zedong as early as 4 a.m.

They’ve come for the flag-raising ceremony, a ritual that takes place each morning here, with the faithful arriving from all across China: from Henan and Hunan and Yunnan provinces, even far-flung Xinjiang.

They’ve come on a kind of pilgrimage, fulfilling a dream.

The ceremony takes two minutes. But it’s an important ritual for Chinese.

“Everyone in China dreams of coming to Beijing,” says 71-year-old Wang Qing Fu, a retired, white-haired civil servant and native Beijinger. “It’s the capital. It’s the political and cultural centre of the country.”

For the next few weeks as many as 16,000 athletes will fulfill a dream as well, coming to compete in a city that still remains a mystery for most.

An estimated 500,000 foreign fans will follow.

And what they’ll see is sure to surprise them, for on the surface at least, Beijing is a booming modern metropolis of 17.4 million people with smoothly paved highways, skyscrapers and shopping malls, and luxury goods that only the world’s major capitals can offer.

From the moment they touch down at the new $3.6 billion Terminal 3 at Capital International Airport – designed by British architect Norman Foster – they’re sure to be shocked and awed by Beijing’s new monumentalism.

After all, that’s the point of the city’s massive seven-year, $40 billion makeover: This is Beijing’s showcase moment.

The Bird’s Nest National Stadium with its 10 tonnes of steel-woven lattice work; the Water Cube National Aquatics Centre with its tactile blue geometry that resembles bubble wrap – these alone would be signature pieces of architecture in any major city in the world.

But there’s more.

A new National Theatre know locally as “the egg,” designed by French architect Paul Andreu, and a massive, gravity-defying China Central Television centre designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and German partner Ole Scheeren, regarded by some as Beijing’s Eiffel Tower. The CCTV headquarters features two angular towers linked in mid-air by a cantilevered bridge of offices some 36 stories above the ground – with absolutely nothing beneath it.

Critics contend there hasn’t been such a makeover of a major metropolis since Baron Haussmann ripped up parts of Paris in the 19th century.

But Beijing’s makeover hasn’t pleased everyone. He Shuzhong worries that Beijing has become a city lost in transition.

“As an ancient city, Beijing ranks among the very few, very important cities in the world,” he says.

But where it is headed now, he is unsure.

“No one knows the direction,” says He, founder and director of the Beijing Cultural Heritage Centre. “There doesn’t seem to be any clear-cut plan.”

With rare interruption, Beijing has been the capital since 1403 when Ming Dynasty Emperor Yongle decided to move it here from Nanjing.

Beijing means “North Capital,” Nanjing, “South Capital.”

But He is concerned that the headlong drive into the future has placed much of what remains of the ancient city in peril.

His efforts have focused on trying to save its alleyways, known as hutongs, the narrow lanes that once filled the city’s ancient grid system, lined with homes whose front doors give way to hidden courtyards inside.

Today, many courtyard homes have been ground into dust.

In 1949 when Mao Zedong founded what the Chinese call “the new China,” there were as many as 6,000 hutongs in Beijing.

Beijing was then an architectural marvel, an ancient walled city with 16 magnificent gates.

Today the gates are gone, the walls have vanished and so have many of the hutongs. There are just 1,000 hutongs neighbourhoods left. But it is there and in the parks close by where China’s ancestral rhythms can be seen on display each morning.

People rustle out from their neighbourhoods into the city’s parks in early morning, passing bicycles and early morning traffic on the way, to perform qiqong, the slow-movement exercises people in the West call Tai Chi, and to meet and chat with neighbours.

And they might grab a jianbing, a Beijing pancake laced with egg and spices sold from street vendors all over the city.

Even their way of bidding goodbye – “man man zou,” or “go slowly” – speaks of a life different from the breakneck speed of development rippling across the city.

As he speaks, He Shuzhong is seated in his modest offices in Xilou hutong.

A few blocks away, the dust and din of traffic in a city with 3.3 million cars – 1,000 new ones roll on to the streets daily – rage at midday. But inside the Xilou hutong, all is cool and quiet: It’s one of the secrets of old Beijing.

What is not a secret, though, is the importance that these Games hold for the Chinese government – despite denials that there is a link between sports and politics.

According to Chinese cosmology, all important buildings are constructed on, or as close as possible to, the north-south power axis extending from the Royal Palace at the Forbidden City.

So it was when Tiananmen Square was built, again when the Monument to the Martyrs was constructed, and finally when Mao’s body was enshrined in its mausoleum.

And so it is for the Olympic Green and main venue. They too are located on, or next to, the power axis.

“This was intentional,” says He. “The planners emphasize the link … and everyone in China knows the importance of this axis.

“That importance is beyond words.”

Well they are now officially open and I have included some very cool video footage of the opening ceremony put together by mtvkriar91 – thank you – it is indeed spectacular – what a tremendous opening ceremony.

Bicycle motorcross (BMX) makes its Olympic debut next month in Beijing, bringing the high-jumping, hard-crashing thrills of the extreme sport into the medal quest and hoping to lure its fans as well.

“It’s a different type of athlete for the Olympics,” said three-time world champion Kyle Bennett. “It’s exciting. Guys jumping 40 feet in the air. Guys banging into each other. You are going to see crashes. It will be different.”

Rivals race each other over a curvy, hilly course with jostling for position common and plenty of speed, aerobatics and bumping to excite spectators.

“It’s similar to motocross or snowcross except the legs are the engine,” Bennett said. “The adrenaline of going down and the rush of crashing and still not getting hurt, it’s kind of cool.”

Thrill seekers such as Jill Kintner, Bennett’s US teammate, love the sport.

“It’s intense. It’s full contact for almost 40 seconds. You can go into a turn and never know what’s going to hit you,” Kintner said. “The way we live our lives is totally diffferent. The pressure is amped up.

“In extreme sports, it takes a certain type of person to want to do that and I think we’re finding more of them thanks to the Olympic medal being out there.

“It’s cool how it started in a garage, kids trying to emulate motorcross, people putting together their own parts, wanting to race on dirt hills. It’s great how it has grown. It will be interesting to see where it is in 10 years.”

Americans built an exact replica of the Olympic course at a training center near San Diego, where Mike Day won the US trials to book a spot in Beijing.

“Our speeds are a bit ridiculous and kind of scary actually,” said Day, the 2005 world runner-up who was third in 2006. “A million hours are spent trying to improve our first 10 pedals. It’s not all fun and games.

“I don’t think this has sunk in what’s happening to us, where BMX has gone.”

The outsiders have gone mainstream.

“BMXers are a rare breed. A lot of people associated BMX with wild childs and kids who go their own way. BMX athletes are an anomaly in this scene,” said 2006 World Cup champion Donny Robinson, who won a tuneup last year at Beijing.

“We have a responsibility to perform well and be role models. This is our chance to bring BMX to the world.

Robinson, fourth at May’s world championship in China, recalls the first day of working on the Olympic replica course.

“It was deifnitely a shocker. We had hills as high as the building. We had a lot of anxiety,” he said. “Now it doesn’t seem to be such a big deal for us. We’re not worried so much about going from the start to 40mph in 1.5 seconds.”

Starts can be exciting but dangerous as well.

“Coming out of the gate is the most dangerous part. You want to come out hard. If that means bumping an elbow or moving a rider high so he won’t come around you, that’s what you have to do,” Robinson said.

“I don’t recall any crashes at the start areas. We want to live to the next race. We don’t just want to put ourselves in danger. There are risks.”

The preparation being made by the US team, as this YouTube video from Wavy.com clearly demonstrates, is nothing but thorough so hopefully they will bring home a sack full of medals.

The US men’s team will be represented by Donny Robinson, Mike Day and Kyle Bennett; and Jill Kintner will be the US women’s team sole representative. Good luck guys.

A BBC investigation has found that there are serious question marks over a key drug test just two weeks before the start of the Beijing Olympics.

The BBC has seen indications that labs are classing positive tests for the blood-boosting drug EPO as negatives.

Some samples have been described as suspicious – giving rise to fears that no action will be taken against cheats.

One sport drug expert told the BBC that many of the finalists in Olympic endurance events would be using EPO.

“Copycat” versions of the drug are available on the internet for as little as $50 – and according to experts are often undetectable.

Although a test was introduced to detect recombinant EPO (erythropoietin) at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, a growing number of athletes were soon challenging the results in the courts.

Several, like US sprinter Marion Jones, had their first sample test positive but were cleared on the second or B test.

…

So what has happened to the moral side of the Olympics? Is this sad state of affairs a result of the Olympics having changed from amateur to professional status? Can it be as simple as that?

Can one truly feel that one has legitamately won a race when one has knowingly and wittingly imbibed a performance enhancing drug?

As Beijing remains shrouded in thick grey smog less than 50 days before it hosts the Olympics, city authorities have now decided to take vehicles with odd or even license plates off the roads on alternate days from July to September.

The capital’s dangerous levels of air pollution that can trigger respiratory disorders like asthma, pose a potential health risk for almost 10,000 athletes who will participate in the summer games from August 8-24. The International Olympic Committee has indicated that certain events may be rescheduled if air quality is unsafe.

Australia has recently said that its athletes will remain in Hong Kong during the opening ceremony to limit their exposure to polluted air. British teams will wear specially designed masks, and Ethiopian athlete Haile Gebrselassie has said he won’t run the marathon for health safety reasons.

Beijing has spent nearly 17 billion dollars on cleaning up its environment for the Olympics and measured the improvement in air quality by ‘blue-sky days’. There were 115 blue-sky days this year from January to June, but a toxic blanket of smog continues to hide the city’s skyline.

Three foreign experts were included this week on a panel to monitor air quality during the Olympics. Air quality forecasts will be provided for venues even three days to a week in advance.

And in a desperate measure from July 20 to September 20, vehicle owners will be allowed to drive only on odd or even days based on whether the last number of their car registration is odd or even. The decision, announced on a government website, said owners will be compensated by not having to pay road and vehicle taxes for three months — at a cost of $186 million to the government. About 3.5 million vehicles ply on Beijing roads.

The ban will not apply to public transport, diplomatic cars and emergency vehicles. Only 70 per cent government-owned vehicles will be off the roads.

Major construction projects in Beijing are also racing for completion ahead of a two-month construction ban starting next month.

thanks to Reshma Patil of the Hindustan Times for this article – it certainly sounds as though the Chinese are doing everything in their powers to put on a good show.

I’ve included a video below of what the smog is like at the moment in Beijing and what the athletes might have to face – it sure looks a bit grim.