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British team has no concern about food for Olympic athletes in Beijing

Britain will not follow America’s lead by importing its own food for athletes at the Beijing Olympics, a British sports official said Friday.

"We have no major concerns about the food in Beijing," Bernard Cotton, head of performance fort the British Olympic Association, told reporters in the Chinese territory of Macau.

The U.S. Olympic Team has said it will fly in thousands of tons of meat and other foods for its more than 600 athletes staying in central Beijing for the Aug. 8-24 Games. U.S. Olympic officials are concerned that food tainted with chemicals or other drugs could not only pose a health risk to an athlete but could trigger a positive drug test.

Cotton said catering facilities at the Olympic Village where the bulk of international athletes will be staying during this summer’s Games are "of the highest order" and that the British team was not worried about contamination.

"One of the dangers of the Olympic Village is athletes putting on weight, not getting ill," he said.

Cotton said there was concern about Beijing’s air pollution, and that "some" athletes might choose to wear face-masks, but no decision had been taken for the team as a whole.

He reiterated that British athletes would not be asked to sign any new agreements restricting them from commenting on political issues during the Games, other than what was contained in the International Olympic Committee’s charter.

"We have no intention of applying any further restrictions than what is written in the IOC charter and what’s in previous team documents," he said.

Amid criticism that it was gagging athletes, the BOA appeared to drop a plan to strengthen the segment of its agreement banning political comments. Cotton said the agreement would be exactly the same as the one signed by athletes for the past two Olympic Games.

"The (IOC) agreement is focused on creating an environment in which all athletes can concentrate on their performances and not be distracted by nonperformance issues," he added.

Cotton said about half the British team would be based in tiny territory of Macau and would travel to Beijing 48-72 hours before their events.

The choice of Macau had raised eyebrows in the neighboring Chinese territory of Hong Kong, which up until 1997 had been a British colony. Reports suggested Hong Kong’s choking pollution had driven the team to seek an alternative, but Cotton said the decision was based more on ease of transport.

"A 25 minute drive from our hotel (in Macau) and our athletes can be at the most distant training facilities. Our experience of Hong Kong is that it’s very busy, it’s frenetic and it wouldn’t produce the same coherent, compact operations," he said.

Asked if he was concerned that the athletes would be distracted by the plethora of casinos in the former Portugese colony of Macau — the only place in China where casino gambling is legal — Cotton was adamant his team would not risk their performance at the tables.

"They will be the most boring lot of athletes you have ever met. They will eat, they will train and they will sleep … and they will go to Beijing healthy and rested from their experience in Macau."

The first of over 250 athletes, coaches and medical staff staying in Macau will arrive on July 23.

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Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft has withdrawn from the indoor world championships because of a thigh injury.

Sweden team doctor Sverker Nilsson said Kluft has a rupture in her right thigh and will not be able to compete for several weeks.

"She’s incredibly sad, she had worked really hard for this," Nilsson told The Associated Press.

Kluft had been the favorite to win the pentathlon at the March 7-9 indoor worlds in Valencia, Spain.

The 25-year-old Swede withdrew from the GE Galan indoor meet in Stockholm on Thursday after feeling cramps in her right thigh during the warmups.

Nilsson said the injury would not affect Kluft’s chances of competing in the Beijing Olympics.

"Not at all," he said. "Maybe in a positive way because she can start preparing for it earlier."

Kluft is undefeated in the heptathlon since 2001, and her score of 7,032 points at last year’s world championships in Osaka, Japan, has only been bested by Jackie Joyner-Kersee of the United States.

However, she has said she may skip the heptathlon in Beijing to focus on the long jump.

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Christie will not carry Olympic flame - GLA

Controversial former sprinter Linford Christie will not carry the Beijing Olympic torch when it passes through London, the Greater London Authority (GLA) said on Friday.

However, there was confusion over whether he was ever invited by London Mayor Ken Livingstone to be one of the 80 runners taking part in the April 6 torch relay.

"Linford Christie has made it clear he will not be participating in the torch relay," a GLA spokesperson said.

"Inaccurate reports have appeared claiming that the Mayor invited Linford Christie to participate in the torch relay.

"The decision to invite Linford Christie to be a torchbearer was not taken by the Mayor. The Mayor only had the right to nominate five torchbearers and Linford Christie was not one of them."

However, a spokesman for Nuff Respect, a sports marketing agency established by Christie in 1992, said earlier on Friday that the he had indeed been asked to join the relay.

"Linford has been invited to take part and will do depending on his schedule because he may be away warm weather training," the spokesman said.

His agent, Sue Barrett, said Christie had been personally invited by Livingstone, although overseas coaching commitments would have prevented his appearance.

"I have a letter in front of me signed by Ken Livingstone," she told BBC Radio Five. "It says ’I would be delighted if you would consider being one of our torchbearers in London and join with 80 other well known personalities and young Londoners to each carry the flame for about 250 metres.’

"I’m surprised they are saying that considering it’s his signature on the end of the letter."

Christie, who celebrates his 48th birthday four days before the relay, won the Olympic 100 metres gold medal in 1992 but tested positive for the steroid nandrolone in 1999 and served a two-year ban.

Christie, who has always denied taking performance enhancing substances, is not allowed to work in any official capacity with the national Olympic team under BOA rules.

The GLA are organising the relay across London from Wembley Stadium — site of the 1948 Games — to the 02 Arena that will serve as a venue for the 2012 Olympics.

The only names released so far by the GLA are those of retired middle-distance runner Kelly Holmes, who won two gold medals at the 2004 Games in Athens, broadcaster Trevor McDonald and actress Amara Karan.

With the slogan ’Light the passion, Share the dream’ and the theme of ’Journey of harmony’, the Olympic torch will visit 22 cities around the world before arriving in Beijing’s Olympic stadium for the official opening of the 2008 Games.

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Gleaming and amazing, China’s £200million Olympics stadium is shown to the world as a proud symbol of the country’s dramatic change.

But two million people driven from their homes for this summer’s Beijing Games could tell a different story… if they were allowed.

A tale of how their lives have been ruined for the sake of their rulers’ Olympic dream.

Of how their houses have been torn down with just a month’s notice.

And how those who have dared to complain have been tortured and jailed.

More than 40,000 people have been arrested for organising protests at the way lives in China’s capital have been destroyed. Many have been treated brutally by police.

And more than 200,000 have had to live on the streets while they seek a new home - in towns and cities miles from their old ones.

But Prime Minister Gordon Brown saw no sign of them on his visit to Beijing last month. Before he arrived police swept them from the streets.

Last night Amnesty International UK protested to the Chinese Embassy in London over the treatment of citizens such as Ye Guozhu, evicted with his wife and son.

He was told their home was to be razed to make way for a park to beautify the capital for the Games. There was no offer of compensation and no advice on where they could live. Ye, 38, began planning a 10,000-strong protest.

When the police learned of the plan, Ye was arrested and beaten unconscious. He woke up in a grubby cell.

When Ye refused to admit he was guilty of stirring unrest, he was beaten and tortured with electric batons, then bound to a chair for 23 hours a day. He finally "confessed" and was jailed for four years.

Ye’s 17-year-old son, Ye Mingjun, said: "We have filed appeals against his sentence but the court always refuses to accept the case as they say my father must sign the papers in person. But he can’t - he is in jail and we have no contact with him."

Six months ago, 200 men and women due to be evicted for the Games chained themselves to their homes. All were sent to "labour re-education camps" for five weeks.

The scandal of China’s displaced millions is just one of many human rights failures in a country likely to be the world’s biggest economy by 2020.

Last month the Sunday Mirror revealed how the one-child policy was leading to forced sterilisations, with children being sold by traffickers and parents who dared to break the rule being beaten.

And last week movie director Steven Spielberg quit as the Games’ artistic director in protest at China’s failure to act over the brutality in Darfur, Sudan - whose leaders it supports. China also carries out more executions than any other country - more than 7,000 a year.

But the story of Chinese citizens losing their homes has remained largely unheard as the government tries to silence dissent.

Three people are reported to have died campaigning for justice - but experts say the number is likely to be far higher.

Amnesty International UK campaigns director Tim Hancock said: "China promised that hosting the Olympics would improve human rights.

"But people have lost their homes and their livelihoods to make way for Olympic venues. Those who complain have lost their liberty too."

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List of countries participating in the Beijing Olympics 2008 with their Country Code.

Just scroll down to your country listed in alphabetical order and you will be able to find your countries Olympic code

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After Stephen Spielberg quits as artistic consultant for the Beijing Olympics last week, many interesting people have said interesting things. I’m collecting some of them here:

Politics and sports must be linked:

World’s Nobel laureates led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "We will continue to watch for concerted and consistent Chinese action to ensure rapid deployment of UN-AU [African Union] peacekeepers, progress in the peace talks, and an end to the use of rape as a weapon of war," the letter said.

Stephen Spielberg: "I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue business as usual. At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in Darfur."

Actress Mia Farrow: "Let us hope that Mr. Spielberg’s decisive action will influence other participants, sponsors and supporters of the Olympic Games to speak out. This is the time to increase pressure on China, the host country of the Olympics and, tragically, the underwriter of the Darfur genocide."

Jill Savitt, director of Olympic Dream for Darfur: "We will be targeting the various stages of the torch relay for demonstrations and we plan to be in Beijing during the Games for a demonstration."

Veerle Dejaeghere, Belgian steeplechaser: "The only thing we can do as athletes, is to bring it to people’s attention as much as possible."

Chen Kai, a member of China’s men’s basketball team in the 1970s: "People should remind the Chinese athletes that they are being brainwashed…. The Chinese athletes are nothing but tools and lackeys of the state."

Malloch-Brown, Britian’s minister for Africa: "I have absolutely no doubt that what Spielberg did has made China sit up and take notice. It certainly had the effect of concentrating minds in Beijing and elsewhere.”

Sports, politics don’t mix:

China’s foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao: "We enthusiastically welcome the world’s athletes to come and compete in China… We hope they can interact with the people of China … We hope they have a happy time in China. I believe the people of the world are kind-hearted."

China: "Darfur is not an internal affair of China, nor was it caused by China … "it is utterly unreasonable, irresponsible and unfair to link the two together."

IOC president Jacques Rogge: "I reacted by respecting his decision … I have a lot of respect for Spielberg…. The role of the IOC is to organise the Olympic Games. We are not a sports association nor a political organisation and neither an association with humanitarian goals."

George W. Bush: "There are a lot of issues that I suspect people are going to opine about during the Olympics – the Dalai Lama crowd, you’ve got the global warming folks, you’ve got Darfur. I am not going to go and use the Olympics as an opportunity to express my opinions to the Chinese people in a public way, because I do it all the time with the President."

Italian kayak champion Josefa Idem: "They could have avoided giving the Games to China but now that they’ve decided to go there, I’m against applying pressure for political goals using the skin of the athletes."

Five-times Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson: "Many of these athletes have … no connection to (China) other than they will compete there and represent their own country during what should be one of the greatest moments of their lives…. It should not be assumed that because an athlete competes in Beijing and does not speak out about China’s record that they agree with it or that they don’t care."

Dutch Olympic Committee: "China is ’different…. The committee said if its athletes talk about China individually "they do so in their own name and from their own social commitment."

Sports Minister Milan Zver of Slovenia (President of EU): "Sports is too important…. It is too important to use it as a political instrument."

Chinese Ambassador to Sudan Li Chengwen: "China is very concerned about the crisis in Darfur, and we have been making unremitting efforts to help resolve the crisis

Belgium’s Justine Henin, world’s No. 1 player in tennis: "I really have no opinion on this. I am going there for the Olympics, I am not going there to talk politics," she said. "It is not within my competency to talk about political issues. Everyone has a role and a place."

Zhang, a 64-year-old Beijing resident: "Maybe he’s an important figure in U.S., but here his words carry little weight."

Neither / nor:

Chris Rudge, head of the Canadian Olympic Committee: "We hope they (the athletes) use common sense … They are bright, smart men and women and we have confidence they will conduct themselves in manner that makes Canadians proud."

David Zweig, a China expert at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology: "Beijing must be ready for the possibility of, say, a Tibetan monk setting himself on fire in front of the Beijing Hotel…. They have to think about it very seriously. They are not very adept at handling street protests by foreigners. They’ve never done it."

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