A gold medal to anyone who can name all 28 sports on the programme at the Beijing Olympics.

Struggling? The list runs from A for Aquatics to W for Wrestling. (Although ”aquatics” to my untrained eye seems to span a series of water sports - swimming, diving and water polo).

For baseball and softball, Beijing will be bittersweet — they will not feature in London in 2012 when the programme will be cut to 26 sports. They are the first sports to be axed from the Olympics since polo in 1936.     

Both are relatively recent additions - baseball made its debut as a medal sport in Barcelona in 1992 and softball in Atlanta four years later. As quintessential American games they struggled to muster the international backing needed to keep them on the programme.

The American women have swept softball golds in all three Olympics, but Cuba leads the United States 3-1 in baseball golds. The USA  baseball team, which does not include heavyhitters from the major leagues, will at least be represented in Beijing after failing to qualify for the Athens Olympics.   
 
 The IOC plans to cut the programme to 25 sports by the 2020 Olympics, leaving a number of federations in fear of losing the unique exposure offered by the Games.

 There is much talk of getting golf back on the programme after an absence of more than a century. Rugby union sevens too is a candidate and Twenty20 cricket might be fun. 

What do you think should be in the Olympics and what should be dropped?
 
 

While a Michael Jordan sculpture stands majestically outside Chicago’s United Center and a similar one of Magic Johnson sits  elegantly outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles, it is perhaps fitting that Iowa, a farm state in the largely rural Midwest, honours its athletic heroes in butter. 

At the same time gymnast Shawn Johnson competes in the Beijing Olympics next month, she will appear as a butter sculpture at the Iowa State Fair, along with the life-size butter cow, a display that dates from 1911.

Butter sculptor Sarah Pratt plans to incorporate a balance beam into Johnson’s pose, said State Fair officials. Both sculptures will be displayed in a glass-windowed cooler, kept at 40 degrees F (4 degrees C), in the Agriculture Building  during the fair in Des Moines from Aug. 7-17. The Olympics are Aug. 8-24.

Johnson, 16, from West Des Moines, will be the latest of a string of butter sculptures that have included golfer Tiger Woods, movie actor John Wayne and singer Elvis Presley. The fictional wizard Harry Potter was displayed last year.

The butter statue will be the second in Des Moines of the petite Johnson, who is 4 feet, 8 inches (1.4 meters) tall. Plans call for a bronze statue of her to be installed in late July at the Iowa Hall of Pride, which honors notable Iowans.

Picture of Shawn Johnson in action at June’s U.S. championships by Brian Snyder. Butter bust of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama in Iowa last December by Jim Young.   

A German water polo player who had earlier this year floated the idea of his team wearing orange robes a symbolic protest at the Olympics against China’s Tibet has changed his mind, saying the Tibet issue is far too complex and that he knows too little about China to organise such a demonstration.

Soeren Mackeben, 29, told Der Spiegel news magazine this week:  “I’ve become more sceptical towards all sides in the meantime.” Mackeben had first proposed wearing the orange robes — the same colour as the Tibetan monks — in an interview in March.   

“I was asking during an interview about the events in Tibet what sort of protest I could envision and that’s when I mentioned the robes,” Mackeben said. “That naturally had quite an echo in the media. In the meantime, I’ve learned that the issue is too complex to take a clear position on it.”

Mackeben said he did not know enough about China, even after studying the issue and paying a visit to China’s ambassador to Germany in Berlin.

“I spent an hour asking the ambassador questions,” Mackeben said. “Afterwards they gave me two bags filled with books. I’ve become too sceptical to put an orange robe one. I want to concenrate on water polo. It’s going to be very difficult to get a glimpse into how China really is.”

Picture of Soeren Mackeben (R) celebrating a goal at the FINA Men’s Water Polo Olympic Games Qualification Tournament by Sergio Moraes.  

Dirk Nowitzki says he’s been dreaming about going to the Olympics since he saw the 1988 Games on TV as a 10-year-old boy.

He’s spent the last 10 summers in the NBA off-season working hard to help Germany qualify for the Olympics again for the first time since 1992 — and the Dallas Mavericks’ all-star from Germany looked completely shattered when his team came up heartbreakingly short in the 2003 European Championships, the qualifier for the 2004 Olympics. 

Nowitzki and Germany again failed to qualify directly for the Olympics at last year’s European Championships as well — but they still could get tickets to Beijing if they finish in the top three at a 12-team tournament set for mid-July.  

It’s not like I really know how Nowitzki feels because I don’t. I’ve never been in the NBA nor have I played for Germany or any other country.

But in a way, I think I do understand.  

Ever since I first saw the 1968 Olympics on TV as an eight-year-old in Connecticut, I too started dreaming about going.

As Nowitzki said: ”The whole thing just fascinates me”.

My never-really-that promising high school basketball career ended at 18 and despite some modest success later on in local triathlons, I knew I didn’t have a prayer there either — and it wasn’t even yet an Olympic sport. 

 When I started working as a financial journalist at Reuters in 1990, I began looking into the “qualifiers” needed to get onto the Olympics reporting team. The competition was fierce. I nevertheless thought I might be getting close to a ticket to Sydney in 2000 but wasn’t nominated.

I felt even closer to making the squad in 2004 but again wasn’t picked, although I did make it on the “alternates” list.  I had pretty much given up hope when suddenly in mid July 2004 the phone rang. Someone on the team had become pregnant and couldn’t go. Was I still available?  

So I made it to Athens at the last minute and have been looking forward to Beijing ever since. I hope Nowitzki gets his mid-July invitation this time too.

Picture of Dallas Mavericks and Germany forward Dirk Nowitzki  by Mike Stone   

That security would be ramped up in China before the Beijing Olympics was to be expected and is entirely normal.

My abiding memory of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City – just a few months after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. — is of removing and putting back on my heavy winter boots several times a day at security checkpoints.

The experience of my wife and son at Qingdao airport yesterday, however, suggests that even security precautions can sometimes go a little too far.

After spending a couple of days at the seaside in the city that will host the sailing for the Beijing Games next month, three-year-old Max had packed his bucket and spade along with other favourite toys in a little plastic suitcase for the journey back to the Chinese capital.

Having successfully negotiated the metal detector, he was with his mother waiting for the bags to reappear from the X-ray machine.

“You have a weapon,” the female security guard said to my wife.

Sal, I must stress, is largely a law-abiding citizen of the People’s Republic and has no previous record of involvement with gun-running or hijacking. She adopted the internationally-understood facial expression for confusion.

“You have a weapon,” the security guard repeated and, as if to clarify, pointed at a poster on the wall that pictured an array of hand guns and an AK-47. “We have seen it.”

Still confused, Sal opened Max’s suitcase for inspection. 

Casting aside the Woody and Buzz Lightyear action figures, the Kung Fu Panda DVD and several Disney-themed colouring books, the guard seized upon Max’s bright red and orange plastic water pistol, raising it triumphantly into the air.

“You cannot have this,” she said with a certainty that brooked no argument.

Not wanting to upset Max before the flight, Sal gestured for the guard to quickly put the 10 yuan toy out of sight, which she did. 

The skies above China were safe once again. 

Picture of an unorthodox police drill in Taiyuan this week by REUTERS/stringer 

Photographer David Gray took his weekly trip down to the Bird’s Nest today and fortunately after couple of horribly polluted days, the skies were relatively clear. 

On top of the ’nest’ he captured this inflatable structure.

The stadium is now effectively shut down to visitors because of the secrecy surrounding the preparations for the opening ceremony, which everyone is expecting to be a spectacular affair.   

Could this could be something to do with that? Or a security tent? Or the mother of all bouncy castles? 

Picture by David Gray, who else?    

Wong How Man is one of China’s best known and most active explorers, whose accomplishments include an expedition that discovered a new source of the Yangtze, China’s longest river.   

More recently the Hong Kong native and his group, China Exploration & Research Society, have taken on a number of conservation projects in Tibetan areas of China — work that helped him land a spot as an Olympic torch runner last week.

Wong, one of Time magazine’s Asian heroes, carried the torch briefly on a section of the route in Qinghai province — home to many Tibetans — on June 23, opting for the lower-key destination to draw attention to his work rather than the more controversial leg in Tibet.

He wrote an e-mail about his experience to Reuters Taiwan bureau chief, Doug Young:

Q: Can you give some quick thoughts on the experience?   

A: Outside of Everest and Lhasa, this is highest relay site (Shangri-la is about same elevation as Qinghai Lake).  Again, not counting Everest, this is only site in a natural setting and synonymous with much of my work, dealing with nature, wildlife and culture.  

Q: What were some of the most enduring memories you took away from your participation?  

A: We had 162 torchbearers at this site, each running for 38 meters.  Took me exactly 38 steps and just under half a minute …. like to think that is the most important 38 meters I have run, but then my final approach to both the Yangtze and Mekong sources also count as important, if not more so. 

It was great to see that those 15 nominated by Coca-Cola came from all walks of life, including many many young people and students.  I at first thought most candidates would be gov’t officials monopolizing the few places, and that turned out to be not the case.  Met many wonderful people, from different parts of China …. but the best positions, at the starting point and finish line, were all kept for local Tibetans …. that is great arrangement.  There were also a couple of foreign runners.  

Q: Did you feel any political element in what you were doing, or did this seem like a purely non-political event? Do you think people will criticize you for taking part in such a controversial relay and, if so, what would you say to the critics?  

A: Too many police escorts and security measures, making an otherwise festive event into a high risk occurance. This I must blame on people who over-politicize the torch run.  I have conducted dozens of projects in Tibetan areas over almost 30 years if I care to count them. 

But I think if we were to take out all the noisemakers from those who have actually contributed definitively to betterment of Tibet and Tibetans, I am afraid we may be left with a decimal point of what all those involved in the Tibetan cause and movement.  This is the most political torch run I have seen in my adult life. 

China has improved a great deal since my first visit 34 years ago.  Though there are still much room for improvements, I have seen tremendous changes, especially over the last ten years.  But outsiders who knew little are not only impatient, but at times down right ignorant! 

I have a center run all by Tibetan staff, except one staff who belongs to another minority group.  We have great trust and respect for each other, so I feel a bit more entitled to speaking up, ready to be in the crossfire.  The few who made complaints or disturbances have compromised all other Tibetans, and put us backward in progress and peace for the entire Tibetan region.  

Q: Was there any media at the event? Do you think this will help draw attention to some of the causes that you’ve been working with these last few years?   

A: I did not usually talk to media … this is one of the few exceptions … I get more done by doing it quietly … noisemakers have little time remaining to act …

Q: Why is it important for you to “discover” the sources of these major rivers in China? Do you think China minds the fact that a non-Chinese is leading these important discovery expeditions in China?  

A: I am Chinese, born and raised in Hong Kong, educated in the US, and hope to contribute to the advancement of China and betterment of all Chinese.  Almost all great rivers of Asia starts from the Tibetan plateau.  I believe we can all protect these sacred places together, as their drainage area affects hundreds of millions of people, maybe over a billion….  

Picture of schoolchildren with homemade torches in in Huzhou, Zhejiang province by China Daily, enthusiastic crowd in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province by Reuters stringer.

I caught up with IOC vice president Thomas Bach for an interview the other day in his Berlin office.

Bach has been one of the most eloquent opponents of any boycott of the Summer Olympics in Beijing — leading a lightning pro-Games campaign earlier this year when tensions in Tibet flared.

The man who won a gold medal in fencing for West Germany in 1976 in Montreal was more than happy to talk openly in his soft southern German accent about a wide range of issues.  

But the smile disappeared from Bach’s face when I asked about comments last week from Zhang Qingli, Tibet’s Chinese Communist party boss: “We will certainly be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama clique.”  

Bach had already seen the remarks made in conjunction with the Olympic torch relay through the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.  

“I don’t consider that to be an acceptable formulation, especially at the Olympic torch relay,” Bach said. “It’s essential that one carefully chooses the right words — there is after all a dialogue going on now with representatives of the Dalai Lama. And that evidently did not happen here. That is not the type of language that is appropriate for the dialogue and for the Olympic torch relay.”  

Bach said German Olympians would be free to express their opinions about any issues at all in China — but political demonstrations are forbidden.

“One has to respect the position of the athletes, and by that I mean any position they have.”  

Bach is certain the Olympics have already contributed to a great opening of China and believes the effects will be lasting.

“The Games are definitely contributing to an opening in China. There’s already been a considerable development and the Games will further that development. When 25,000 journalists, hundreds of thousands of overseas visitors and 10,000 athletes from 205 nations come into a country and communicate with the people, all that will leave an impact on Chinese society.  

But Bach acknowledges that the IOC has little say in what happens in China after the Olympics are over.  

“We’re not the supra-national government of any country or the world. What’s important is that the Games make a contribution to promote communication, understanding and dialogue — and on those counts to leave a lasting impact on Chinese society. That is the task at hand for the Games and that goal will be fulfilled.”

Picture of Bach (top) by Alex Grimm, Zhang (bottom, left) by Nir Elias

Former Olympic champion Cathy Freeman, the darling of the Sydney Games in 2000, was in Beijing at the weekend with a few words of advice for Liu Xiang.

I also asked her about pollution and, although she is now long-retired, I think her reply might still reflect the attitude of many of the top athletes coming to Beijing. 

“When you become that focused, you don’t really pay that much attention to elements that you can’t control like weather or pollution,” she said.

“In my career I ran in countries where it was 45 degree (Celsius) heat and incredibly polluted but you deal with what you have to deal with.

“The fact that it is an Olympic Games should help you rise to the occasion. Sure, it’s a concern but it’s an Olympic Games.”

Picture by David Gray

China has appealed to residents to take “green” transport ahead of the Olympics, casting the city’s pledge to provide clean air and unclogged roads as a civic “duty”.      

I used to take green transport to work, cycling a round trip of 14 miles five days a week in the cooler months, and three days a week in the summer.

And then, last week, my bike got nicked from inside the Central Academy of Fine Arts. I have lost count, but this was either the sixth or seventh bike my family has had stolen since arriving in Beijing in 2003.      

China is home to a world-record 470 million bicycles, but theft is widespread. A common topic of discussion among bike owners is the latest loss, despite chains and padlocks, either in the street or in the lobbies of high-rise apartment blocks.      

Selling stolen bicycles is big business in China, prompting buyers to turn to the second-hand market to minimise their loss should their bike be stolen.      

“In this vicious cycle, those who steal bicycles and sell them on the black market benefit while urban residents suffer,” the China Daily said in December.      

My bike was a red Giant and it got me to work in 35 minutes in peak hours, compared to sometimes double that by car. If anyone thinks they’ve seen it, I’d be grateful if you’d give me a call.

Photo by Reinhard Krause