Arenas
and Venues for The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Starting out to plan
for the Olympic Games, the requirements were for 31
venues for the 26 sports in the 2008 Olympics. In
all 11 major new venues are being built with with
other smaller ones also being newly constructed. 11
of the major existing venues have been renovated to
accommodate the requirements for the Games. In addition
many many temporary or smaller arenas are being prepared
for training facilities.
At this stage - September
2007 - tremendous progress has been made and more
surprisingly schedules are on time and uptodate. This
is in contrast to other major events when delays caused
worry to the organisers. The good news is that in
Beijing, some of the major arenas are up and running
and almost complete. Another feature is that the architecture
of the major new arenas is truely startling. Of course
as well as the arenas it is necessary to provide accommodation
for all the competing athletes - these are reckoned
to be more than 10,000 plus the many officials and
team personnel.
The National
Stadium
The Main National
Stadium, specially constructed for the Beijing 2008
Olympic Games, has been nicknamed The Birds Nest because
of its latticed bowl construction. A powerful looking
stadium it nonetheless has a lightness and airiness
about it because of the interwoven steel strusses.
The support structures have been removed for some
time and the final construction processes are proceeding.
The National Stadium
is surrounded by an artificial lake planted with lotus
lilies and this gives a “green” appearance
to the area. Regular testing of the quality of the
lake water has commenced.
This stadium will be the venue for the Olympic Games
Athletics, Olympic Football tournament and the Opening
and Closing ceremonies. After the Games have finished
the stadium will be used for a variety of international
sporting events but also for entertainment and cultural
events.
The Stadium seats
over 90,000 spectators and contruction is to schedule
and the power supply has been connected to the structure
in July 2007.
The National
Aquatic Center
This stadium will
be used for the swimming and associated water events
after the Beijing Olympics. It has been dubbed the
Water Cube and is a stunning architectural masterpiece
with the external cladding representing water bubbles.
It is located on Olympic Green near the National Stadium.
It seats 17,000 and is the venue for the 32 swimming
events. Again construction is almost complete with
the final touches been added.
The National
Indoor Stadium
This is the venue
for a number of indoor events such as gymastics, handball
and trampoline. Indoor Stadium has been fitted with
over 100 solar panels on the roof. The covered space
of 20,000 sq ms will gain all its energy from theses
panels so making the venue almost completely “environmentally
green”.
Other Venues
As mentioned, the
Beijing Olympic Games 2008 will take place at 31 different
venues. These range across water-based, field, and
indoor to the veladromes, mountain bike courses, etc.
will participate in the games as well as about 20,000
various types of media coverage that will follow them.
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