chinamtb 08

Here’s a handy schedule for all the cycling events which will be held during the 08 Beijing Olympics. The times are Eastern times and are subject to change.

Day 1 of the Olympics 8th August

Day 2

Day 5

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

(more…)

A group of U.S Olympic cyclists upset a few Beijingers when they arrived by wearing face masks to protect themselves from breathing in pollution. The team later apologized for their actions and stated that they were not making any kind of environmental or political protest and were sorry for any upset caused.

BEIJING (AFP) - Four US cyclists who wore masks over their nose and mouths over pollution fears when arriving in Beijing apologized Wednesday to Olympic organizers, US Olympic Committee chief executive Jim Scherr said.
Mike Friedman, Bobby Lea, Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed were among about 200 athletes from an American delegation of 596 who were issued masks by their US sport governing body to combat pollution in Beijing.

“They’ve now seen how their actions have been perceived,” Scherr said, after footage of the four arriving on Tuesday was run prominently by international news channels.

“They were very eager to take the right action, which was to apologize to their hosts.”

You can read the full article here on Yahoo.

If you didn’t already know the 2008 Beijing Olympic games will be official opened today. I will do my best to keep you updated with the mountain bike and BMX results over the coming weeks plus any other interesting Olympic news. Luckily for me we are situated in Qingdao the Olympic sailing city, and have been fortunate enough to meet with Olympians from Australia, Italy, Israel, France and many others.

The picture above was taken last night just outside the Olympic Village in Qingdao and show the preparations for tonight’s opening celebrations.