Beijing Olympics
Friday, August 8th, 2008
The memorable day of 8th August, 2008 marked the opening of Beijing Olympics. The number 8 is considered lucky by Chinese, so the event was held on this date. The whole world witnessed the mesmerizing show of lights and music at the national stadium in Beijing. China has spent an exorbitant $43 billion in setting up the whole event. The whole city has been transformed architecturally to accommodate the players and spectators from all around the world. 37 venues will be used to host the events including 12 newly constructed ones. Total 205 nations are participating this year.
10,500 athletes are competing in 302 events in 28 sports. Following sports are on the list ( number in the bracket represents the number of events that will be held for a particular sport)
• Aquatics
- Diving (8)
- Swimming (34)
- Synchronized swimming (2)
- Water polo (2)
• Archery (4)
• Athletics (47)
• Badminton (5)
• Baseball (1)
• Basketball (2)
• Boxing (11)
• Canoeing (16)
• Cycling (18)
• Equestrian (6)
• Fencing (10)
• Field hockey (2)
• Football (2)
• Gymnastics (18)
• Handball (2)
• Judo (14)
• Modern pentathlon (2)
• Rowing (14)
• Sailing (11)
• Shooting (15)
• Softball (1)
• Table tennis (4)
• Taekwondo (8)
• Tennis (4)
• Triathlon (2)
• Volleyball (4)
• Weightlifting (15)
• Wrestling (18)
