Commentary

China Watch

Forum Digests

Columnists

Letters

Closing ceremony draws the world's accolades

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-26 07:33

The closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on Sunday night has drawn worldwide attention and Beijing's successful hosting of the Games has earned global applause.

Pakistan's national TV station, and the private GEO, EXPRESS, NEWS and AAJ stations gave live coverage of the entire ceremony.

Their commentators congratulated China on its successful hosting of the Games, saying that Pakistan is happy to see China won most gold medals.

The Kyodo news agency said in a story that "The Beijing Olympic theme of 'One World, One Dream' turned out to be a success despite predictions of gloom and doom, including whispers of terrorist plots and complaints of air pollution ahead of the competition in which more than 10,500 athletes from a record 204 national delegations participated."

Japan's NHK also broadcast live the closing ceremony. Its anchor believed that although the Olympic flame was extinguished, the festival seemed to continue.

Meanwhile, the Afghan private TV channel Saba, which broadcast the closing ceremony live, said the unprecedented and impressive Olympics are specially meaningful to the war-torn Afghanistan as it has won a historic Olympic medal.

"The bronze medalist Rohullah Nikpay is the pride of whole Afghanistan and his success shows the capability of the Afghan people to the rest of the world," it said.

Peikar Farhad, an Afghan journalist, said it is the first time he felt so "involved" as the Olympic Games was held in neighboring China.

"Despite all kinds of difficulties before the Games' opening," he said. "The Chinese people showed their power to overcome all problems and made a great Olympic Games."

Many Iraqis said the Beijing Olympics are extremely successful and showcased China's characteristics and charm.

Mohammad Hussein, a 55-year-old civil servant, said the Beijing Olympics without doubt were the best among the Games he has watched since 1980.

China has performed perfectly at the Games as it won 51 gold medals, he said.

In Thailand, an anchor from Thailand's national television said the Beijing Olympics is the most wonderful one in history, and the organizing work was perfect.

The anchor said the Games provided an opportunity for the world to further understand a developing China, and cemented the links between China and the rest of the world, which is an embodiment of the slogan: "One world, One dream."

The splendid opening and closing ceremonies exerted a deep impression on the world, and the big gatherings would linger in people's memories for a long time, the anchor added.

In Brazil, TV Globo and Band Sports TV broadcast live the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, lauding the festive atmosphere during the ceremony and the success of the Games.

"The closing ceremony can even rival Brazil's carnival, and it is indeed an Olympic carnival," a Beijing correspondent of Band Sports said.

The Folha de Sao Paulo said on its website that a brotherhood atmosphere permeated the closing ceremony, and athletes were in the mood of attending a feast.

In Mongolia, four TV channels broadcast the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics live on Sunday evening, hailing the Beijing Games as a "great success."

A commentator from the TV 5 said the Games has drawn the world's attention to Beijing and added a "fabulous" chapter to the Olympic history.

The opening and closing ceremonies, in particular, presented to the world excellent performances, marking two "China days" for all spectators.

China has fulfilled its promises of hosting a "green, high-tech and people's Olympics," which showcased China's fast economic growth and its increasing openness to the rest of the world, the commentator said.

In South Korea, the Yonhap News Agency said relations between China and South Korea further cemented through the Beijing Olympic Games. The Beijing Olympics is conducive to the development of bilateral relations in the long run, Yonhap said in an article.

Climax to Games

Calling the Beijing Olympic Games as one of the most remarkable Olympics in recent history, the US-based Cable News Network spoke highly of China's efforts in displaying their mastery of all kinds of arts over the past 17 days.

"The closing ceremony marked a climax to a Games that has delivered many world-breaking sporting performances and redefined the international image of the communist nation," said the reports.

It said the country had invested a large amount of money and labor in the Games, which it viewed as a chance to show its hospitality and progress to the world.

"Unlike previous Summer Olympics, logistics appeared to run smoothly for the Games," it said.

It also noted that spectacular sporting accomplishments were recorded at the Beijing Olympics. But it said what was the most impressive was the emergence of a new world sporting superpower - the host nation China, which won its first Summer Olympic gold medal in 1984 and clinched the first place in the gold medal tally.

The Beijing Olympics "were a triumph of the will for a people and a government determined to show their skill and confidence," the Los Angeles Times said on Sunday.

"They were a triumph of the will for a people and a government determined to show their skill and confidence, as both athletes and organizers, to a world that once treated China as a weak, servile nation," the paper noted.

"China won the most gold medals, hardly a surprise when a country of 1.3 billion people decides such a goal is important and commits enormous resources to achieving it," the paper said. "China also built sports venues that combined gargantuan scale and striking architecture in a way no previous Olympic host could afford.

Doping never became the issue at the Games, the paper said.

As of Sunday, with reports of analyses on the final five days' samples yet to come, there had been just six positives out of 4, 600 tests during the Games, only two involving medalists, none of them gold medalists.

The sky fell into the "blue" category, according to the measurements of air pollution, the paper said.

"The Beijing Olympics wound up looking as most expected," the paper concluded.

Beijing Olympics 'truly exceptional'

Financial Times, the paper from the host country for the next Olympics in 2012, said China had the ability and resources to produce what the International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge called a "truly exceptional" Games.

The paper said during their wonderful time in Beijing, the athletes know that they have had what, for many of them, will have been the time of their lives.

"Most did not win; many, perhaps most, will never have this chance again. But they will always have Beijing, they will always be Olympians," it said.

Agency France-Presse said China won praise on Sunday for organizing an impressive Olympics and Germany predicted the Beijing Games would have an "irreversible" impact on the Chinese society.

Germany's Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who also has responsibility for sport, said that the aim had been met.

"China opened itself to the world community to an extent that would have been unimaginable at the time of the East-West division of Germany," he said in an interview with Bild newspaper.

That would lead to a change that would be "irreversible", he said.

As the host country of the next Olympics, Britain praised the way that Beijing organized the Games. Sebastian Coe, a former gold medal-winner in athletics who chairs the London 2012 organizing committee, said ahead of the closing ceremony that "there wasn't a good deal wrong" with the Beijing Olympics.

"The city has opened up, it is the right place to be now. Sport has been the catalyst," he added.

Xinhua-China Daily

(China Daily 08/26/2008 page9)