It was interesting yet unfortunate to find that www.Olympics.com was nothing more than a spam site. I have compiled some 2008 Summer Olympic information in hopes that the power of Hubpages would allow people around the world to find some interesting information on the 2008 Olympics. Often people will "google" www.Olympics.com or www.Olympics.org (which is the official Olympic website. Please enjoy the Olympic information which I have provided @ hubpages.com/www.olympics.com

www.Olympics.com - List of Events

Opening Ceremony August 8th

Closing Ceremony August 24th

Rowing

Badminton

Baseball

Basketball

Boxing

Canoe/Kayak -- Flatwater Canoe/Kayak -- Slalom

Cycling -- Track

Cycling -- Road

Cycling -- Mountain Bike

Cycling -- BMX

Equestrian -- Jumping

Equestrian -- Dressage

Equestrian -- Eventing

Fencing

Football

Artistic Gymnastics

Gymnastics -- Trampoline

Rhythmic Gymnastics

Weightlifting

Handball

Hockey

Judo

Wrestling -- Greco-Roman

Wrestling -- Freestyle

Aquatics -- Swimming

Aquatics -- Syn. swimming

Aquatics -- Diving

Aquatics -- Water-polo

Modern Pentathlon

Softball

Taekwondo

Tennis

Table Tennis

Shooting

Archery

Triathlon

Sailing

Volleyball

Beach Volleyball

www.olympics.com - schedule of events

Date Games Medals August 6&7 Football Preliminary August 8 Opening Ceremony August 9 Rowing, Badminton, Basketball, Boxing, Cycling (Road) Final, Equestrian (Eventing), Fencing Final, Football, Gymnastics (Artistic), Weightlifting Final, Handball, Judo Final, Aquatics (Swimming), Shooting Final, Sailing, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) 7 August 10 Rowing, Badminton, Basketball, Boxing, Cycling (Road) Final, Equestrian (Eventing), Fencing Final, Football, Gymnastics (Artistic), Weightlifting Final, Handball, Hockey, Judo Final, Aquatics (Swimming) Final, Aquatics (Water Polo), Tennis, Shooting Final, Archery Final, Sailing, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) 14 August 11 Rowing, Badminton, Basketball, Boxing, Canoe/Kayak (Slalom), Equestrian (Eventing), Fencing Final, Weightlifting Final, Handball, Hockey, Judo Final, Aquatics (Swimming) Final, Aquatics (Diving) Final, Aquatics (Water Polo), Tennis, Shooting Final, Archery Final, Sailing, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) 13 August 12 Rowing, Badminton, Basketball, Boxing, Canoe/Kayak (Slalom) Final, Equestrian (Eventing) Final, Fencing Final, Football, Gymnastics (Artistic) Final, Weightlifting Final, Handball, Hockey, Judo Final, Wrestling (Greco-Roman) Final, Aquatics (Swimming) Final, Aquatics (Diving) Final, Aquatics (Water Polo), Softball, Tennis, Shooting Final, Archery, Sailing, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) 19 August 13 Rowing, Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Canoe/Kayak (Slalom), Cycling (Road) Final, Equestrian (Eventing), Fencing Final, Football, Gymnastics (Artistic) Final, Weightlifting Final, Handball, Hockey, Judo Final, Wrestling (Greco-Roman) Final, Aquatics (Swimming) Final, Aquatics (Diving) Final, Aquatics (Water Polo), Softball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Shooting Final, Archery Final, Sailing, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) 17 August 14 Rowing, Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Canoe/Kayak (Slalom) Final, Equestrian (Dressage), Fencing Final, Gymnastics (Artistic) Final, Handball, Hockey, Judo Final, Wrestling (Greco-Roman) Final, Aquatics (Swimming) Final, Aquatics (Water Polo), Softball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Shooting Final, Archery Final, Sailing, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) 17 August 15 Athletics Final, Badminton Final, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Cycling (Track) Final, Equestrian (Jumping) Final, Fencing Final, Football, Gymnastics (Artistic) Final, Weightlifting Final, Handball, Hockey, Judo Final, Aquatics (Swimming) Final, Aquatics (Water Polo), Softball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Shooting Final, Archery Final, Sailing, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) 16 August 16 Athletics Final, Rowing Final, Badminton Final, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Cycling (Track) Final, Equestrian (Dressage), Fencing Final, Gymnastics (Trampoline) Final, Weightlifting Final, Handball, Hockey, Wrestling (Freestyle) Final, Aquatics (Swimming) Final, Equestrian (Dressage), Aquatics (Water Polo), Softball, Tennis Final, Table Tennis, Shooting Final, Archery Final, Sailing, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) 30 August 17 Athletics Final, Rowing Final, Badminton Final, Basketball, Boxing, Cycling (Track) Final, Equestrian (Jumping), Fencing Final, Football, Gymnastics (Artistic) Final, Weightlifting Final, Handball, Hockey, Wrestling (Freestyle) Final, Aquatics (Swimming) Final, Aquatics (Synchronized Swimming), Aquatics (Diving) Final, Aquatics (Water Polo), Softball, Tennis Final, Table Tennis Final, Shooting Final, Sailing Final, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) 34 August 18 Athletics Final, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Canoe/Kayak (Flat water), Cycling (Track) Final, Equestrian (Jumping) Final, Football, Gymnastics (Artistic) Final, Gymnastics (Trampoline) Final, Weightlifting Final, Handball, Hockey, Aquatics (Synchronized Swimming), Aquatics (Diving), Aquatics (Water Polo), Softball, Table Tennis Final, Triathlon Final, Sailing Final, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) 18 August 19 Athletics Final, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Canoe/Kayak (Flat water), Cycling (Track) Final, Equestrian (Dressage) Final, Football, Gymnastics (Artistic) Final, Gymnastics (Trampoline) Final, Weightlifting Final, Handball, Hockey, Wrestling (Freestyle), Aquatics (Synchronized Swimming), Aquatics (Diving) Final, Aquatics (Water Polo), Table Tennis, Triathlon Final, Sailing, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) 20 August 20 Athletics Final, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Canoe/Kayak (Flat water), Cycling (Mountain bike),Handball, Hockey, Wrestling (Freestyle) Final, Aquatics (Swimming), Aquatics (Synchronized Swimming) Final, Aquatics (Diving), Aquatics (Water Polo), Softball, Taekwondo Final, Table Tennis, Sailing Final, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) Final 11 August 21 Athletics Final, Basketball, Canoe/Kayak (Flat water), Cycling (Mountain bike) Final, Equestrian (Jumping) Final, Football Final, Gymnastics (Rhythmic), Handball, Hockey, Wrestling (Freestyle) Final, Aquatics (Swimming) Final, Aquatics (Diving) Final, Aquatics (Water Polo) Final, Modern Pentathlon Final, Softball Final, Taekwondo Final, Table Tennis, Sailing Final, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) Final 23 August 22 Athletics Final, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Canoe/Kayak (Flat water) Final, Cycling (BMX) Final, Football, Gymnastics (Rhythmic), Handball, Hockey Final, Aquatics (Synchronized Swimming), Aquatics (Diving), Aquatics (Water Polo), Modern Pentathlon Final, Taekwondo Final, Table Tennis Final, Volleyball, Volleyball (Beach) Final 20 August 23 Athletics Final, Baseball Final, Basketball Final, Boxing Final, Canoe/Kayak (Flat water) Final, Cycling (BMX) Final, Football Final, Gymnastics (Rhythmic) Final, Handball Final, Hockey Final, Aquatics (Synchronized Swimming) Final, Aquatics (Diving) Final, Taekwondo Final, Table Tennis Final, Volleyball Final 31 August 24 Closing Ceremony, Athletics Final, Basketball Final, Boxing Final, Gymnastics (Rhythmic) Final, Handball Final, Aquatics (Water Polo) Final, Volleyball Final

We’re just one week away from the start of the 2008 summer games! Excited?! The opening ceremonies will be airing next Friday evening, with plenty of events starting the following day. I need to take the time and figure out what needs to be watched and recorded, and on what channels. The olympics always provide a nice diversion from the norm, it should be fun.

This year in particular, there are a few side-stories that I’m interested in seeing play out:

Pollution in Beijing

Ever since Beijing was awarded the 2008 summer games way back in 2001, they have been working on plans for curbing the pollution for the games. They have spent a fortune. According to this article out of China, they were planning on spending $3 Billion on pollution control in Beijing - last year alone. They’ve even employed a Research Center for Weather Modification (that’s a little scary, isn’t it?).

I’ve tried to find updated figures, but haven’t been able to really track any down. Probably because it isn’t working. They have shut down factories in something like 5 provinces and mandated a 50% drop in car traffic (you can only drive every other day, based on license plate), but the smog persists (note: that article puts the pollution control cost at $17 billion). It’s so bad that it’s nearly triple the World Health Organization’s acceptable levels, and at least one athlete has pulled out, guarding his health. The US Olympic Committee has apparently been developing a top secret mask to fight the pollution, and some teams are going to be wearing red contact lenses to help see through the haze.

So, it’s going to be interesting to see how many events will be impacted by this - both in delays and just poor performances by the athletes.

Censorship and criticism in Beijing

Related to the pollution topic, I’m curious as to how Chinese officials are going to react when they start hearing public/broadcast criticism of the poor air quality. Or will the broadcasters keep mum until they’re out of China?

The censorship issue is rearing its head again. China is known for its notorious censorship, in recent years for their stranglehold on the internet with the Great Firewall of China. When they were given the Olympics, they agreed to allow free access for visitors, but as of today that is a lie (can’t have a reporter looking up Amnesty International or reading about the monks’ plight!).

New Speedo Swimming Suit

With the help of NASA engineers, Speedo came out with a controversial new suit last year called the LZR (pronounced Laser). It’s controversial because of its amazing ability to reduce drag on a swimmer. Those countries that don’t have it are protesting its use, and those that do are breaking records at a dramatic pace. Only time will tell how many Olympic records are going to fall.

Local Diver

The Springfield area is seeing a local athlete in the competition. Kelci Bryant of Chatham, IL is competing in synchronized diving - definitely an event I normally wouldn’t watch, but will now. Good luck Kelci!

Algae Bloom

There’s an enormous algae bloom overtaking the water where the worlds best are supposed to compete. Thousands and thousands of citizens and fishermen are trying to clean it up - will it be enough???

It’s going to be a fun couple of weeks!

www.Olympics.com - Olympic Sponsorship by BusinessWeek

With the opening ceremonies for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games just days away, corporate sponsors are getting ready to do victory laps of their own. This year's Olympics have been hyped as a blockbuster for marketers, a chance to ride the wave of Chinese national pride that may translate into billions of dollars in sales of Adidas sneakers, McDonald's (MCD) Big Macs, or General Electric (GE) wind turbines.

But Beijing 2008 is likely to go down as the high-water mark of the Olympic sponsorship program. While the Games offer unique attractions to sponsors, multinationals are already looking more critically at whether the payback will be worth it for future Games. Of the 12 global sponsors for the Beijing Olympics, only eight have signed on for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and 2012 Summer Games in London. (The International Olympic Committee sells sponsorships in four-year increments to cover both Winter and Summer Games.)

Among the high-profile sponsors deciding to back away is Lenovo. Its sponsorship of the 2006 Winter Games in Turin and the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing will be a one-time shot for the Chinese PC maker. Other current sponsors not ponying up for the next pair of Games will be Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Manulife Financial (MFC). Even longtime Olympic supporter Eastman Kodak (EK), a sponsor since the IOC first established its global partnership program in 1986, has pulled the plug. "It's just not the best way for us to spend our money," says Kodak Chief Executive Antonio Perez.

Payback Is Elusive for Sponsors

The issue comes down to weighing the value of shelling out increasing amounts of money vs. the potential payback. Companies have paid $866 million, or an average of $72 million apiece, to sponsor the Turin and Beijing Games (BusinessWeek.com, 1/30/06). That's almost one-third more than the $663 million total paid to back the Salt Lake City and Athens Games in 2002 and 2004, and up from $579 million for the Nagano-Sydney cycle in 1998 and 2000. Rowland Jack, a senior bid consultant in the sports marketing and sponsorship team at Hill & Knowlton, says the attractiveness of the Beijing Games was probably a big factor accounting for the jump in sponsorship fees, as so many companies were interested in bidding.

Yet some research suggests few consumers even notice who is backing the Games. In a survey of 1,500 Chinese city dwellers earlier this year by London's Fournaise Marketing Group, only 15% could name two of the 12 global sponsors, and just 40% could name one sponsor: Coca-Cola (KO). Adding to the confusion for consumers are 21 additional national-level sponsors, including Adidas and Volkswagen (VOWG.DE). "If you are a traditional marketer, it's a big waste of money," says Fournaise CEO Jerome Fontaine.

Some sponsors feel otherwise. Longtime partner Coke has signed on through the 2020 Games. "Coke has not in the least reconsidered its Olympic sponsorship," says Kevin Tressler, director of Coke's Worldwide Sports & Entertainment Marketing. Neither has GE, which has landed $700 million in revenues from 400 Olympics-related projects such as rainwater recycling at Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium. GE is a partner in London 2012, too.

2008 Olympic Censorship - National Post

The political tension surrounding the Beijing Olympics grew more pointed on Thursday, with China issuing a sharp rebuke to Washington for interfering in its domestic affairs and governments and media organizations around the world stepping up criticism of Internet censorship for foreign reporters covering the Games.

Reacting to a storm of publicity surrounding their decision to renege on a pledge to allow unfettered Internet access to the foreign press, China's communist rulers responded with a rhetorical storm of their own.

They appeared particularly incensed with a 419-1 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday urging China to improve its human rights record and end the repression of ethnic minorities, and with a meeting on Tuesday between President George W. Bush and five prominent Chinese dissidents.

The U.S. behaviour "exposes the malicious intention to politicize the Olympics and interfere with and ruin the Beijing Games," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement on the ministry's Web site.

During a news conference, Mr. Liu described the House measure as "odious conduct" and said the United States should stop "making use of so-called religious and human rights" issues to score political points.

The Chinese authorities meanwhile remained resolute about their decision to maintain a firewall on the Internet and limit access for journalists covering the Olympics, which begin one week from today.

Senior officials with the International Olympic Committee, or IOC, have said they were stunned to learn on Wednesday that Beijing's longstanding pledge to provide foreign reporters with unfettered Internet access would not be honoured. IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said he believed that China had reached "an understanding" with Olympic officials that would allow the Internet censorship. He did not say who had made the deal with China.

Condemning China as "the world's biggest jailer of journalists," the World Association of Newspapers yesterday called on the IOC to make China keep its commitment. Reporters Without Borders said it was "yet another broken promise" by China since it was awarded the Games.

Amnesty International, whose Web site is among those barred in China, condemned Internet restrictions during the Games as "betraying Olympic values."

"This blatant media censorship adds one more broken promise that undermines the claim that the Games would help improve human rights in China," Amnesty East Asia researcher Mark Allison said.

Fromer Czech president Vaclav Havel and Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu and other campaigners urged athletes to speak out on human rights during the Games.

"We are concerned that the Beijing Olympics might simply become a giant spectacle to distract the attention of the international public from the violations of human and civil rights in China," stated the letter, signed by 17 politicians and rights activists and issued in Prague.

The group said each country represented in Beijing should adopt a "Chinese prisoner of conscience" and "take action in their support."

A spokesman for the Beijing Games organizing committee said censorship would not prevent journalists from reporting the Games, though he acknowledged there would be no access to some Web sites.

"A small number of Internet sites are blocked, mainly because they violate Chinese law," Sun Weide said. "We hope that foreign media will respect Chinese law in this matter."

Mr. Sun identified sites linked to the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is outlawed in China, as ones that would remain censored for the foreign press at Olympic venues.

He and Mr. Liu refused to identify any others but reporters trying to surf the Internet at the main press centre for the Games have found a wide array of sites deemed sensitive by China's rulers to be out-of-bounds.

Sites that are blocked include those for Amnesty International, the Tibetan government-in-exile, Reporters Without Borders and various Chinese dissident organizations.

Another irritant for Olympic organizers was the airing by a South Korean TV station of rehearsals for the Games opening ceremony -- an event whose 10,000 performers have been sworn to silence.

The network said Thursday it had taken the footage legitimately. "We went, and nobody stopped us. So we just shot," a staff reporter at the private SBS network sports desk said in Seoul.

The White House announced on Thursday that President Bush plans to attend church while in China for the opening of the Games, and will issue a statement afterward discussing his views on religious freedom in China.

Mr. Bush, a devout Christian, will attend the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies, having rejected human rights activists' appeals for him to boycott the gala in protest of China's rights record.

www.olypics.com is not the official website.

www.olympics.org is official

or

www.NBColympics.com