Berlin burns as bright as Beijing for Heidler

Betty Heidler of Germany receives the gold medal for winning the Women's Hammer Throw Final in Osaka (Getty Images)
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Ask questions to World Hammer Throw champion Betty Heidler and the articulate, bright athlete is only to happy to oblige.

But one question the German cannot answer is what prize she would rather have, the Olympic gold in Beijing next year or the retention of her World title in 2009.

The reason is simple. Heidler would, of course, like to land Olympic gold but she also harbours a burning ambition to retain her world crown because they are staged in Berlin, the city where she was born and lived up she was 18.

"It's both," she said, when asked, 'what is her main goal?'

"They are both special events. The Olympic Games is one of the biggest events for a sportsman but Berlin is also very important and a special event for me."

Family connections

Aged just 24, a baby in hammer throwing terms, the future does indeed appear bright for Heidler, who was aged 23 when she landing the World title in Osaka by just 0.02 from Cuba's Yipsi Moreno in August.

The Berliner took up athletics aged 14 after a friend decided to join the local athletics club and she followed her. From a sporty family - her mother was a rower and her father a keen footballer - Heidler enjoyed running, jumping and throwing but discovered a flair for the throws and, particularly, the hammer.

"It was good for me to do everything," she said of trying different events. "But I liked the hammer throw."

On closer examination, however, Heidler has a strong family connection with track and field. Her great grandfather, Martin Riefstahl, was a high jumper at appeared in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games while her great cousin, Cornelia Oschkenat, won a bronze medal in the 100m Hurdles at the 1987 World Championships.

Heidler's early promise was recognised and she moved from her native Berlin to Frankfurt to link up with her current coach Michael Deyhle in 2001. Dehyle -who also coaches German international hammer thrower Kathrin Klaas - has intelligently nurtured Heidler and the world champion accepts the move has played a major part in her subsequent success.

"It wasn't very easy leaving home I was only 17 and a few days later I turned 18, she said of the move to live in western Germany from Berlin. "I can't say why really works with Michael, it just works. I think my coach has a really good eye."

Bayern to host Chinese Olympic team

BERLIN, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- German soccer powerhouse FC Bayern Munich will play two matches against the Chinese Olympic team in January and in May, German sports website Bundesliga.de reported on Wednesday.

The first leg of the Allianz Cup will take place in the Allianz Arena on January 12 next year, said the website.

The second leg in China will probably be played at the end of May.

The Chinese Olympic team, coached by Serbian Ratomir Dujkovic, will travel to Europe in January for a series of matches.

5 S American countries fight for volleyball berth in Beijing Olympics

LIMA, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Five South American countries will fight for a women's volleyball pass in Peru's capital Lima city for Beijing Olympic Games, Peruvian Volleyball Federation (FPV) officials confirmed on Wednesday.

Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela will compete for the pass as of January 3 of 2008.

Meanwhile, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Ecuador decided not to participate in this pre-Olympic event, while Brazil already obtained its pass in the World Cup held in Japan.

The event in Lima will be played in a single round-robin format and the team that wins first place will qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, FPV president Cesar Vertiz said.

Peru and Venezuela have good teams and are expected to be favorites

BEIJING 2008: Russia's Kapranova tops individual event

(BEIJING, December 5) -- Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium saw the first day of competitions of the 2007 Rhythmic Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament Wednesday afternoon. The rope and hoop exercises were presented, with Russia's Olga Kapranova topping the list of athletes, earning a total score of 36.450 points.

The 2005 World All-around Champion also achieved the highest individual score of the day in the hoop exercise, scoring 18.275.

In the competition, Anna Bessonova of Ukraine grabbed second place, scoring 18.000 points for her rope exercise and 18.250 points for her performance with the hoop. She was followed by Aliya Garaeva of Azerbaijan with a total score of 34.025. Spain's Olympic veteran Almudena Cid placed in the sixth position with 16.075 points for the hoop and 16.500 for the rope exercises, while China's Ding Yidan came in ninth with a low hoop score of 16.000 points.


Anna Bessonova
Sixteen gymnasts participated in the individual event competition of the 2007 Rhythmic Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament. As one of the events of the "Good Luck Beijing" sport series, the tournament will take place from December 5 to 7, 2007.

Among these gymnasts, twelve have already qualified for the Olympics through the World Championships in Patras, Greece, which took place in September. The Olympic host country, China, sent three gymnasts, two of whom will not be ranked in this tournament.

According to the schedule, the gymnasts will compete in Clubs and Ribbon events on the second day of individual qualifications. The final will be staged Friday afternoon.

The Olympic Anthem

"Throw wreaths of fadeless flowers to the victors

In the race and in the strife!

Create in our breasts, hearts of steel!"

Kostas Palama, extract from the Olympic anthem.

The Olympic anthem was composed by Spiros Samara, based on the words of Kostas Palama, for the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens in 1896. It was played again in 1906, but subsequently replaced by anthems specially commissioned for the Olympic ceremonies. In 1954 the IOC held an international competition won by Polish composer Michael Spisiak, who had put a poem by Pindar to music. It was played in Melbourne in 1956, but the composer demanded such a large fee that it was subsequently abandoned. When the Japanese played the piece by Spiros Samara at the 55th IOC Session in Tokyo in 1958, everyone enjoyed it so much that it was unanimously adopted as the official anthem, at the proposal of IOC member Prince Axel of Denmark.

-- Prince Pierre of Monaco, IOC member, offered the sum of US$ 1,000 to the winner of the competition for an Olympic anthem launched by the IOC in 1954.

-- The IOC received 392 entries from composers from 40 different countries. At its 51st Session, the IOC chose Michael Spisiak's composition.

-- The current Olympic anthem was adopted at the 55th Session of the IOC in Tokyo in 1958.

-- The Olympic anthem was played for the first time in Athens in 1896 and again in Rome in 1960.

-- The Olympic anthem was played for the first time at the Olympic Winter Games in Squaw Valley in 1960.


The Olympic Anthem
Immortal spirit of antiquity,

Father of the true, beautiful and good,

Descend, appear, shed over us thy light

Upon this ground and under this sky

Which has first witnessed thy unperishable fame

Give life and animation to those noble games!

Throw wreaths of fadeless flowers to the victors

In the race and in the strife!

Create in our breasts, hearts of steel!

In thy light, plains, mountains and seas

Shine in a roseate hue and form a vast temple

To which all nations throng to adore thee,

Oh immortal spirit of antiquity!

The Olympic Motto

A motto is a phrase which sums up a life philosophy or a code of conduct to follow.

The Olympic motto is made up of three Latin words: "Citius, Altius, Fortius", which means "Faster, Higher, Stronger".

These three words encourage the athlete to give his or her best during competition, and to view this effort as a victory in itself.

The sense of the motto is that being first is not necessarily a priority, but that giving one's best and striving for personal excellence is a worthwhile goal. It can apply equally to athletes and to each one of us.


History
The three Latin words became the Olympic motto in 1894, the date of the IOC's creation. Pierre de Coubertin proposed the motto, having borrowed it from his friend Henri Didon, a Dominican priest who taught sport to students.


To better understand the motto, we can compare it with the following well-known phrase:


The most important thing is not to win but to take part!
This idea was developed by Pierre de Coubertin who had been inspired by a sermon given by the Bishop of Pennsylvania, Ethelbert Talbot, during the Games of London in 1908.

The Olympic Charter: the codification of the Fundamental Principles of Olympism

The Olympic Charter (OC) is the codification of the Fundamental Principles of Olympism, Rules and Bye-Laws adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It governs the organisation, action and operation of the Olympic Movement and sets forth the conditions for the celebration of the Olympic Games. In essence, the Olympic Charter serves three main purposes:a) The Olympic Charter, as a basic instrument of a constitutional nature, sets forth and recalls the Fundamental Principles and essential values of Olympism.

b) The Olympic Charter also serves as statutes for the International Olympic Committee.

c) In addition, the Olympic Charter defines the main reciprocal rights and obligations of the three main constituents of the Olympic Movement, namely the International Olympic Committee, the International Federations and the National Olympic Committees, as well as the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games, all of which are required to comply with the Olympic Charter.


Preamble
Modern Olympism was conceived by Pierre de Coubertin, on whose initiative the International Athletic Congress of Paris was held in June 1894.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) constituted itself on 23 June 1894. The first Olympic Games (Games of the Olympiad) of modern times were celebrated in Athens, Greece, in 1896. In 1914, the Olympic flag presented by Pierre de Coubertin at the Paris Congress was adopted. It includes the five interlaced rings, which represent the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games. The first Olympic Winter Games were celebrated in Chamonix, France, in 1924.


Fundamental Principles of Olympism
1 Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.

2 The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.

3 The Olympic Movement is the concerted, organised, universal and permanent action, carried out under the supreme authority of the IOC, of all individuals and entities who are inspired by the values of Olympism. It covers the five continents. It reaches its peak with the bringing together of the world's athletes at the great sports festival, the Olympic Games. Its symbol is five interlaced rings.

4 The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play. The organisation, administration and management of sport must be controlled by independent sports organisations.

5 Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.

6 Belonging to the Olympic Movement requires compliance with the Olympic Charter and recognition by the IOC.

The Olympic Flag: aimed to encourage world unity

On the Olympic flag, the rings appear on a white background.

The flag reinforces the idea of the Olympic Movement's universality, as it brings together all the countries of the world.

Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games, explains the meaning of the flag:

"The Olympic flag [...] has a white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre: blue, yellow, black, green and red [...] This design is symbolic; it represents the five continents of the world, united by Olympism, while the six colours are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time." (1931)

Textes choisis II, p.470.

Combined in this way, the six colours of the flag (including the white of the background) represent all nations.

It is wrong, therefore, to believe that each of the colours cor-responds to a certain continent !

At the Olympic Games, the flag is brought into the stadium during the opening ceremony. Since the 1960 Games in Rome (Italy), it has been carried horizontally by a delegation of athletes or other people well known for their positive work in society.

After its arrival, the flag is hoisted up the flagpole. It must fly in the stadium during the whole of the Games. When the flag is lowered at the closing ceremony, it signals the end of the Games.

The mayor of the host city of the Games passes the Olympic flag to the mayor of the next host city of the Games.


History
Even though Pierre de Coubertin intended the Olympic Games to be an international event from the time of their re-establishment in 1896 in Athens (Greece), it was only at the 1912 Games in Stockholm (Sweden) that, for the first time, the participants came from all five continents. One year later, in 1913, the five rings appeared at the top of a letter written by Pierre de Coubertin. He drew the rings and coloured them in by hand. He then described this symbol in the Olympic Review of August 1913.

It was also Coubertin who had the idea for the Olympic flag. He presented the rings and flag in June 1914 in Paris at the Olympic Congress.

The First World War prevented the Games from being celebrated in 1916 in Berlin (Germany) as planned. It was not until 1920 in Antwerp (Belgium) that the flag and its five rings could be seen flying in an Olympic stadium.

The universality conveyed by the rings and the flag was a new idea at the beginning of the 20th century. Nationalism was very strong and tension between certain countries was high. It was in this climate, however, that Coubertin proposed a symbol which aimed to encourage world unity.