Fencers and other athletes tested out the new facilities on the opening day of the Beijing Sports Vocational Training Center for the Disabled. (BOCOG)Paralympic One-Year Countdown Begins
Beijing will mark the one-year countdown to the 2008 Paralympic Games with the torch relay announcement, a ceremony at the Millennium Monument and invitation-issuing.
Official invitations to the Paralympics will be dispatched by International Paralympic Committee president Sir Philip Craven during the September 6 festivities.
Movie star and Olympics booster Jackie Chan will take part in Thursday's show, just as he did for the Olympic Games countdown last month.
The Paralympics Chefs de Mission meeting began a day before the official countdown. Delegates from more than 90 national Paralympic committees gathered to hear a progress report from BOCOG executive vice president Liu Jingmin.
"We will fully consider the special needs of the Paralympics and Paralympians and create an accessible environment for them in and out of competition venues," says Liu.
A day before the Chefs de Mission meeting, IPC CEO Xavier Gonzalez joined Beijing 2008 leader Liu Qi to inaugurate a new sports center. The 10-hectare Beijing Sports Vocational Training Center for the Disabled will house sport facilities as well as 2008 volunteer-training programs.
Volunteers have overwhelmed Paralympic organizers, Beijing 2008 reports. The committee has received more than 600,000 applications for 30,000 volunteer spots in one year of recruiting.
Transport officials also announced plans to improve accessibility on Beijing public transportation this week. All cars on Beijing Metro Lines 1 and 2 will have wheelchair lifts and designated wheelchair spaces by June 2008, says Beijing Metro vice managing director Feng Xingfu. His company will also make 25 percent of the city's bus fleet handicapped accessible, he adds.
However, the upgrades still leave many gaps in Beijing transport accessibility, and misuses such as parking bicycles on paths for the blind will limit their utility, critics point out.
Fifteen major Chinese universities recently announced plans to augment graduate-level language programs to help fill the nationwide need for translators. (Getty Images)
Beijing Needs Hundreds of 2008 Employees: Report
Olympic organizers need to hire more than 600 new employees before the 2008 Games, according to Chinese media.
Sports, tourism and marketing professionals who speak Mandarin and English are most in demand, the Beijing Times reports. The job openings range from venue managers to logistics specialists and product distributors.
Beijing 2008 does not post vacancies or tenders on its English web site.
USOC Stays out of 2008 Training Venue Desision
The U.S. Olympic Committee has no plans for 2008 athletes to train in South Korea to avoid Beijing pollution, contrary to some news reports earlier this week.
Some U.S. NGBs will likely train outside of Beijing. (Getty Images)
That is because national governing bodies, not the USOC, decide where to hold Games-time training, the committee confirms for Around the Rings.
Some U.S. NGBs, notably swimming and track, however, usually hold camp in pristine areas away from host cities.
The Japanese swimming and softball NGBs have already announced plans for offsite training to avoid Beijing pollution.
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