Olympic Updates

Sanyo will begin supplying its new cassette units to Coca-Cola next March, in time for the Beijing Olympics, where Coca-Cola has announced it will use only non-HFC equipment.

"Sanyo's cassette will be fundamental in our commitment to have HFC-free, highly energy efficient equipment in all official venues of the 2008 Beijing Olympics," said Salvatore Gabola, director of Coca-Cola's worldwide stakeholder relations.

"We plan to purchase many more units using this technology, as we move towards early commercial roll-out in strategic markets around the world," he added.

Previously Coca-Cola placed more than 2,000 CO2 beverage coolers at all 12 World Cup football venues in Germany in 2006 and over 1,000 CO2 beverage machines at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

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Kung fu movie star Jackie Chan has recorded the official song to the 2008 Olympics, set to take place in Bejing in August.

The legendary actor who has starred in such movies as 'Rush Hour' and 'Shanghai Noon', recorded the song on a recent trip to the Chinese capital.

Although his native dialect is Cantonese, Chan recorded the song in Mandarin Chinese.

In addition to his movie career, he is a successful singer in Asia, and has recorded over 20 'Cantopop' albums since 1984.

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(Via The Canadian Press) CALGARY - Depending on the day, the 2010 Winter Olympics seem either far away or coming at the speed of light for Cindy Klassen.

Canada's most decorated Olympian sees the pitfalls of thinking too much about racing for gold in Vancouver and becoming anxious about it, yet acknowledges she can't block it out entirely.

"I'm thinking about how it's going to be a long process to 2010 and not where I've got to be racing so fast right now, because there's a lot of time and I'm really just trying to figure out, not just the physical part, but also the mental part," Klassen said Saturday at the Olympic Oval.

"I know come the year 2010, there's going to be a lot of pressure, a lot of hype and stuff like that. I'm just trying to prepare for that and get ready now, so when it hits us then, I'll feel ready and comfortable."

The 28-year-old from Winnipeg, winner of six Olympic medals in speed skating and five of them at the last Olympics in Turin, Italy, was getting her racing legs on at the Olympic Oval Invitational by winning the 3,000 metres Saturday.

Arne Dankers of Calgary won the men's 5,000 in the competition, which qualifies speed skaters for the World Cup team if they haven't already been named to the team.

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Around 1.85 million tickets for the 2008 Olympic Games here will be up for sale in the second round of booking from Tuesday, the state media reported.

2008 Olympic Games Ticket prices for 28 sports sessions range from 30 Yuan to 1,000 Yuan and the most expensive will be the tickets for the opening ceremony on August 8, which would cost up to 5,000 Yuan, it said.

The tickets will be sold on the first come, first serve basis at this stage, Rong Jun, head of the Beijing Olympics Organising Committee (BOCOG) ticketing centre said.

"One can buy a maximum of 50 tickets and the two-ticket limit is applied for 'high-demand events'," Rong was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

• More: 1.85 million tickets for Olympics to go on sale this week>
  

Jordanian King Abdullah II has said that the 2008 Beijing Olympics are going to be a window into China, its culture and the progress China experienced in many areas.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua prior to his state visit to China from October 29 to November 1, the king said he always looks forward to every Olympic Games as a showcase of athletic excellence, noting that the Olympic Games in Beijing would display more.

"I believe millions of people everyday read about China's extraordinary growth and progress," he said, adding that "there is a lot of additional excitement around the world just because China is hosting the games."

Abdullah said "for many people, the Olympics are going to be a window into China, its culture and its contemporary achievements in many areas."

The king expressed his belief of the success of the Beijing Olympics, saying that "I have no doubt that China will make the upcoming games one of the most memorable in history."

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Will air pollution affect the athletes at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing?
Some events in the 2008 Summer Games may have to be postponed by a day or two if air pollution in Beijing is excessive, the International Olympic Committee said on Thursday. How will all this pollution affect the Olympic athletes?

Scientists haven't done enough research to be sure, but it could make it impossible to break any world records. An athlete must breathe in a large amount of air during a competition—more than 20 times the amount inhaled by a normal person at rest. In Beijing, that means the athlete will be getting a super-sized dose of ozone and fine particulates, which can make respiration more difficult and reduce the amount of oxygen that gets to the muscles. (Other pollutants, like nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide also have negative health effects.)

To make matters worse, some people are more sensitive to air quality than others, so there wouldn't even be a level playing field, just because the contenders are all breathing the same pollutants. And since hundredths of seconds in performance can separate a gold medalist from the bronze, every breath counts.

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