Traditional bows and Olympic archery events

Archery had its debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics and has been contested in 16 Olympiads. Eighty-four nations have competed in the Olympic archery events, with France appearing the most often at 31 times. The most noticeable trend has been the excellence of South Korean archers, who have won 23 out of 34 gold medals in events since 1984. It is governed by the World Archery Federation (WA; formerly FITA). Recurve archery is the only discipline of archery featured at the Olympic Games. Archery is also an event at the Summer Paralympics. Hunting bow “Leon” Photo by www.kadysbows.com

Guardian news: Future of Olympic Stadium must be settled by end of the year

Wrangles over who gets to use the Olympic Stadium after the London 2012 Games must finish by the end of this year, the Olympic legacy chief Baroness Ford said today.

Considering West Ham United's new and high-profile interest in moving in to the east London stadium after the Games amid other suggested would-be tenants, a public consultation process will be used to help make the decision, she told MPs.

Baroness Ford, chair of the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), which is in charge of planning, developing and managing the Olympic Park, said: "It seems the time is absolutely right now to go into a public process to get a set of settled uses for the stadium.

"This is a £540 million public asset so it goes without saying that we are not just going to have some conversation off stage left and someone is going to take over the stadium.

"It has to be a publicly managed process to demonstrate value for money and that we are keeping the bid commitments that were there."

It will start with three months of market testing, including publication of an OPLC prospectus in the next few weeks inviting people to make suggestions on what they can do in legacy. A formal procurement process will then take place.

Baroness Ford told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee: "We are really hoping we will get to an agreed position by the end of the year so we can say 'here are the uses for the stadium' and we can put that to one side and get on with other things.

"I am quite confident that we can get to a good decision on the stadium but we must do it this year because it can not be left to just drag on."

Rumours have been rife that rugby and Twenty20 cricket could also be interested in using the stadium but Baroness Ford insisted that the bid pledge of having a grand prix athletics track after the Games "have to be met".

She said: "We know that the amount of times that athletics will be used in the stadium will not be a huge amount of times, maybe a couple of dozen times a year, but for me premier athletics must be part of the mix because that was part of the bid commitment."

West Ham's new co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan took over the cash-strapped club this year and immediately confirmed their interest in relocating to the 80,000-capacity Olympic Stadium in Stratford, east London, as they try to improve the club finances.

The stadium is to be shrunk into a 25,000-seater venue after the Games complete with an athletics track. At the moment, there seems no reason why football and athletics could not exist together in the stadium, Baroness Ford pointed out.

She said: "Technically the pitch within the track is absolutely Fifa-compliant, from the point of view of size and sight lines, and evidently the stadium is IAAF-compliant.

"These things could technically co-exist, it is whether people would want to co-exist.

"Ed Warner [the UK Athletics chief executive] I know is quite happy to share with football and it is now for football to tell us, if they want to come in to the stadium, how they would want to keep their part of the bargain in terms of the bid."

Baroness Ford said West Ham are not "the only show in town" in terms of use of the stadium as the OPLC is in "lots of discussions with many other people".

She noted: "We need to get this settled once and for all this year. "The current planning status quo is for the stadium to be taken down and rebuilt into a 25,000- seater, the new Crystal Palace, and if that is what we decide to do, fine. We should not apologise for that. We have Twickenham, we have Wembley, and we would have a new athletics stadium – that is what is currently envisaged.

"If alongside that or complementary to that other things can happen in the stadium that make it more viable, more animated, give loads of access, that involve the community – that would be absolutely fantastic."

An Olympics Tradition?

Many were scandalized when the Beijing Olympic organizing committee revealed that Lin Miaoke, the girl who sang a patriotic song during the Olympics opening ceremony, was actually lip-synching over a recording by someone deemed less attractive by authorities. Some said it was indicative of the Chinese government’s reach of control.

But another revelation, this time by the Sydney Symphony, suggests that faking goes beyond the Chinese government and may even be an Olympic tradition.

The orchestra’s managing director told The Sydney Morning Herald that it not only mimed over a pre-recorded set for the opening of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, but that some of the pieces were recorded by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Both orchestras were quoted in the story saying the miming act was done purely as a safeguard in case anything went wrong during the performance. They also said it was done only to save time, not because one of the orchestras was better than the other — or because of acid reflux, a la Ashlee Simpson.

According to the report, mimed orchestra performances are not unheard of. Directors of both orchestras said this was the case at both the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the Rugby Union World Cup in 2003.

But miming at religious events is considered a strict no-no. As a spokesman for World Youth Day told the newspaper, music played during the Pope’s visit to the Sydney event did not permit faking because it was “an authentic expression of the prayer and song of those people at the time in that place.”

World's Biggest Airport - Beijing Airport! (part 5)

erminal 3
Terminal 3 opened in 2 stages: February 29, 2008 for trial operations and March 26, 2008 for business. It mainly houses Air China, Oneworld, Star Alliance, and other domestic and international flights. It is composed of three sections, C, D, and E (to avoid leading passengers to Terminal 1 or 2 when seeing the letters A and B). T3-C,D, and E are linked by an inter-terminal train.


[edit] Terminal 3C
Air China (Domestic) (Baotou, Changchun, Changde, Changsha, Changzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Daxian, Datong, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Guilin, Guiyang, Haikou, Hailar, Hangzhou, Harbin, Hefei, Hohhot, Jinggangshan, Kunming, Lanzhou, Lhasa, Mianyang, Nanchang, Nanjing, Nanning, Nantong, Ningbo, Ordos, Qingdao, Sanya, Shanghai-Hongqiao, Shanghai-Pudong, Shantou, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Taiyuan, Tongliao, Urumqi, Weihai, Wenzhou, Wuhan, Xiamen, Xi'an, Xiangfan, Xilinhot, Xining, Xuzhou, Yancheng, Yanji, Yantai, Yinchuan, Yuncheng, Zhangjiajie, Zhengzhou, Zhuhai)
Shandong Airlines (Jinan, Qingdao, Yantai)
Shanghai Airlines (Hangzhou, Shanghai-Hongqiao, Shanghai-Pudong)
Sichuan Airlines (Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Wanzhou)


Terminal 3D
This will be used for charter flights during the Beijing Olympics, then will be used for international flights.

Terminal 3E

Terminal 3 waiting area with Air China lounge on the rightAir China (International) (Athens, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Busan, Daegu, Delhi, Dubai, Frankfurt, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jakarta, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, London-Heathrow, Los Angeles, Madrid, Malé [seasonal], Manchester [begins March 2009], Melbourne, Milan-Malpensa [begins October 2009], Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Munich, Nagoya-Centrair, New York-JFK, Osaka-Kansai, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Pyongyang, Rome-Fiumicino, Saipan [seasonal], San Francisco, São Paulo-Guarulhos, Sapporo-Chitose, Sendai, Seoul-Incheon, Singapore, Stockholm-Arlanda, St. Petersburg, Sydney, Toronto-Pearson [begins March 2009], Tokyo-Narita, Ulaanbaatar, Vancouver, Vienna [begins October 2009], Warsaw [begins October 2008], Washington-Dulles [begins March 2009], Yangon, Zurich [begins March 2009])
Air Canada (Toronto-Pearson, Vancouver)
Air Macau (Macau)
Air New Zealand (Auckland) [begins July 18]
All Nippon Airways (Osaka-Kansai, Tokyo-Narita)
American Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare) [begins March 25, 2009]
Asiana Airlines (Busan, Cheongju, Gwangju, Seoul-Incheon)
Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
British Airways (London-Heathrow)
Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)
Dragonair (Hong Kong)
EgyptAir (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Cairo)
El Al (Tel Aviv)
Emirates Airline (Dubai)
Finnair (Helsinki)
Hainan Airlines (International) (Algiers [Begins 2008], Berlin-Tegel [begins May 19], Brussels, Budapest, Chicago-O'Hare [begins June 2009] , Dubai, Geneva [awaiting gov't approval], Luanda [pending gov't approval], Novosibirsk,Newark [begins October 2009] [13], Osaka-Kansai, Seattle/Tacoma [begins June 9],St. Petersburg)
Japan Airlines (Nagoya-Centrair, Osaka-Kansai, Tookyo-Narita)
LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw)
Lufthansa (Frankfurt, Munich)
Qantas (Sydney)
Qatar Airways (Doha)
S7 Airlines (Irkutsk, Novosibirsk)
Scandinavian Airlines System (Copenhagen, Stockholm-Arlanda)
Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
Thai Airways International (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi)
Turkish Airlines (Istanbul-Atatürk)
United Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare, San Francisco, Washington-Dulles)
US Airways (Philadelphia) [begins March 25, 2009]

Cargo airlines
Aeroflot-Cargo (Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Novosibirsk)
Air China Cargo (Anchorage, Chicago-O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Portland (OR))
AirBridgeCargo Airlines (Moscow-Domodedovo, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, St. Petersburg)
Cargolux (Luxembourg)
FedEx Express (Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai-Pudong)
Korean Air Cargo (Seoul-Incheon)
Malaysia Airlines Kargo (Kuala Lumpur)
SAS Cargo Group (Copenhagen, Shanghai-Pudong, Stockholm-Arlanda)
Singapore Airlines Cargo (Singapore)
TESIS Aviation Enterprise (Kemerovo, Novosibirsk)
Volga-Dnepr (Krasnoyarsk)