China will top the Beijing 2008 gold medal count before
permanently dominating future Games, an eminent international
Olympic figure predicted yesterday.
Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates, whose home
event was famously endorsed as the "best ever" by former
International Olympic boss Juan Antonio Samaranch, tipped China's
meteoric rise and expressed his awe at the sheer scale of the
Beijing project during a fleeting visit for this week's
Chefs-de-Mission meetings.
"I think they will top the medal count in gold medals," Coates
told China Daily in an exclusive interview. "There's a
feeling in sporting circles of apprehension about China on the
sporting field."
Not one prone to hyperbole, the former lawyer has been making
realistic calls ever since he kept a steady pace as his high school
rowing crew's coxswain in the 1960s.
After attending every Olympics since managing the Australian
rowing team at the 1976 Montreal Games, Coates has tracked the
development of all nations and believes China is on the verge of
becoming untouchable.
Coates cited tremendous progress in a range of sports,
especially rowing, to back his claims, but also noted the country's
limited success at the World Swimming titles in Melbourne earlier
this year to temper his short-term forecast. "I think it's very
difficult to beat the Americans in overall medals because there are
44 track-and-field events and they can have three or four in every
event," he said in reference to next year's outcome.
"But London!" he gasped, shaking his head in awe of China's
potential.
During his stay Coates visited Australian teams competing in the
first official test event at the Shunyi Rowing Center, while the
country's men's and women's hockey teams, sailors and other
athletes got their first taste of China elsewhere.
Incredible facilities
Australia spent about US$5 billion on the 2000 games compared to
Beijing's estimated US$40-US$50 billion, a 10-fold increase not
surprising given the island continent's population is dwarfed by
China's 65:1.
"I'm gobsmacked by the quality of the venues and
infrastructure," Coates delighted, noting proudly that Australian
architects had worked with Chinese to help design the aquatic
center "Water Cube". "We have absolutely no doubt they will end up
being the best ever," Coates says. "At this stage it's really the
venues and infrastructure and ability to get something out of the
ground so quickly."
The only concerns held by the Australian delegation, according
to Coates, relate to air quality. But athletes he consulted while
in Beijing complained only about natural weather conditions. "I
went to the Shunyi rowing course yesterday and spoke to our teams
and coaches," the Sydney resident said. "They were having their
second row out there and they tend to think that humidity is the
issue."
Like many cities straining under the scourge of fossil fuel
combustion, Beijing's air quality is a concern. And it is being
factored into the preparations of the 500-strong Australian team.
"We are anticipating respiratory problems," said the man who has
advised his athletes to arrive in China just four days before their
events. "Our doctors met with experts for an environment workshop
at the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) a month ago and we are
waiting on their report."
But International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge
expressed satisfaction after the Beijing Olympic Committee outlined
a number of air quality plans to be implemented, if required, this
time next year.
"It is important to stress that our Chinese colleagues are doing
their utmost to deal with this challenge," he said during the
opening seminar of the Chefs-de-Mission yesterday.
"We are very hopeful the matter will be tackled
effectively."
Home advantage?
Beijing's conditions raise the prospect that home athletes will
enjoy significant advantages.
Australia's Olympic supremo believes they can emulate Ian Thorpe
and Cathy Freeman's homebaked glory in 2000, when other local
prospects, it must be remembered, failed to shine as brightly.
But Coates, too, is salivating at the knowledge Beijing's time
zone is shared by Australia's west while its east is a mere two
hours ahead. "There's always home advantages but we think there are
also advantages for us in terms of western European countries in
not having to come here early for acclimatization," Coates
said.
Besides the glory won by Aussie athletes, Coates cited the
relief he felt during Sydney's opening ceremony among his own
highlights and as a salutary lesson for Chinese skeptical about
their fortnight in the spotlight.
The chief organizer had dreaded Australia's opening spectacle
ever since inflatable kangaroos wheeled out as Sydney previews at
the 1996 Atlanta finale were ridiculed at home and abroad. "I was
so worried it was going to be seen as kitsch," Coates recalled.
"But when the horses came galloping into the stadium and the crowd
went wild, I felt so relieved and I knew we had pulled it off."
The Chefs-de-Mission, which attracted representatives of
relevant IOC bodies, major international sport federations and
hosts of the 2012 Olympic Summer Games, will conclude tomorrow. The
seminar is staged a year before each Olympics to brief nations on
the hosts' progress and for them to glean the views of the
community of nations including Australia.
East greets west
English poet Rudyard Kipling, who famously visited Australia in
1891, once condescended that "East is East and West is West, and
never the twain shall meet". But a growing consensus exists among
Australians today that the Indian-born writer's oft-quoted couplet
belongs to the age in which he wrote it.
"Former World Bank president James Wolfensohn was in Australia
to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the Melbourne Olympics last
year and he described the Beijing Olympics as China's coming out
party -- and that's how we're viewing it," Coates said of the
Aussie-born banker.
"I just think this Olympics will be like the world has never
seen and probably never will again."
By Ben Johnson
(China Daily August 8, 2008)
