Olympics Fever Ends In Style - Botswana Gazette

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Olympics Fever Ends In Style

New World Records and More
BEIJING: The 29th Olympic Games came to an end on Sunday with a colorful closing ceremony at the National Stadium known as Bird’s Nest in Beijing. Fireworks lit up Beijing as the Olympic flame was extinguished and the Olympic flag was passed to the mayor of London, host of the 2012 Olympic Games.
China put up a good show at the Beijing Olympic with 132 Olympic records and 43 world records in different categories. China set individual and country level records.
In the medals ranking china came first with 51 gold 21 Silver and 28 Bronze followed by USA with 36 Gold 38 Silver , 36 Bronze. Russia third with 23 Gold 21 Silver , 28 bronze. Britain, Germany, Australia followed them respectively.
On the African front, Kenya managed position 15 with 5 Gold 5 silver and 4 Bronze medals. Ethiopia is positioned 18th with 4 gold 1 silver 2 Bronze while Zimbabwe is placed at 38th position with 1 Gold and 3 Silver medals. Nigeria, Morocco and South Africa follow at positions 61, 65 and 71 respectively in the Beijing Olympic medals ranking.
Beijing bid goodbye to the ceremony with a record 204 National Organizing Committee (NOC)s participation, as well as a record number of women participation
The Beijing Olympics saw first-ever medals for Afghanistan, Mauritius, Tajikistan and Togo; first-ever gold medals for Bahrain, Mongolia and Panama; and a first individual gold for India
This Olympics were the first Olympic Games in history to have global digital coverage. It had a record number of traffic to Games -related Web sites indicate 16.5 million views on IOC’s digital channel (YouTube), across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Michael Phelps of USA won eight gold medals breaking the Mark Spitz's 36-year record of seven gold at the same Olympics. Jamaican Usain Bolt stole the Olympic show with his speed.
From the opening ceremony to the closing, China put everything in a impressive manner.
Arrivals at airport, reception, medical, transportation, accommodation, going around, security, air quality were described as perfect. Although there was bit language problem the Chinese people were always willing to help visitors overcome the language barrier. A record half a million enthusiastic Chinese volunteers were on call to make the Beijing Olympics a success.
Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, called the 2008 Olympics "truly exceptional Games” in his closing ceremony speech.
BY MONIRUL I B

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