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Article featured in Business Beijing, November 2004
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English 1000, Chinese 1000

Beijing Games to Feature Distinctive Personality

2004/11/15

In the wake of the great success of 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Beijing Olympic organizers are vowing to use what they learned in Athens to stage their own Games.

"We don't plan to copy those Games, but we've learned a lot from them," Wang Wei, vice-president and secretary-general of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), said at a news conference after a four-day Athens Olympic Games debriefing here.

Led by Athens 2004 Organizing Committee (ATHOC) President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, 25 experts and high-ranking officials from the Athens organizing committee came to Beijing in November.

The debriefing served as a forum for the exchange of Games experiences between Athens organizers and their counterparts from Beijing, Turin and Vancouver, and five cities who have bid for the 2012 Olympics.

In reviewing the Athens Games, the participants focused on issues such as the Olympics logo and its prospects, utilization of core resources, planning and progress of venue construction, competitions, the schedule of the Games and the Paralympic Games.

"We came here with great pleasure because we have served the Olympic movement with a successful Olympic Games. We have a duty to give all our knowledge to the next organizing committee," said Marton Simitsek, chief operating officer of ATHOC.

"We hope the Chinese side will benefit from those experiences to meet their needs."

The Athens success amounted to a challenge for Beijing organizers, who must find efficient but fresh ways to host a "high-level Games."

Gilbert Felli, an Olympic Games executive director, said the host city should "have strong and great vision, make plan after plan, start early and finish early, and mind the teamwork inside the organizing committee, the city and the country."



 
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