Sometimes the fiercest and most passionate Olympic competition has little to do with athletics. Such is the case with Beijing after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Commission visited in late February to determine whether the city could be recommended as deserving of hosting the 2008 Olympic Games.
If Chinese public will is any yardstick, Beijing will host an Olympics. The only question in people's minds, if question remains, is when? BOBICO, Beijing's bid committee, and the whole of China yearns for it to be 2008. The committee's members and the world will know the answer on July 13 this year when the full IOC membership decides which of five candidate cities will have the honor of staging the 2008 Games.
As yet, nothing is set in stone. The only certainty is that the Evaluation Commission has gone away fully satisfied that BOBICO has done all that is humanly possible to present it with the fullest picture of every aspect of Beijing's sports facilities and other attributes, and that the committee answered, in fullest detail, any question put to it by the Commission.
These ultimate questions were in fact put to BOBICO's 17 carefully chosen and briefed special presenters, all expert in their respective fields, who each made a final presentation to the Commission.
Enter presenter Yan Xinmin, Beijing native, Canadian resident, freelance teacher, and the only non-government volunteer in the BOBICO firmament. Why did she volunteer her services? "I love Beijing,"- she replies, as if that simple response explains everything.
Oddly enough, it does.
While some volunteers and employees of BOBICO are no doubt in harness for the uniqueness of the experience, Yan's motivation is purely out of love for the city in which she was born and raised, and the honor and benefits it and its people will accrue if Beijing wins the July 13 vote, which will take place in Moscow. Any city which hosts a Games generates enormous revenues and invariably attracts much foreign investment, always assuming it plays its cards right (Montreal was a notable exception in 1976). Perhaps most important of all, it earns enormous prestige on the world stage.
To many in China, the Olympic Spirit is a dream, one of those things unimaginable until if has been felt first hand. "My first Olympic experience was at Atlanta in 1996. It wasn't the most successful Games in that it was very American, and probably too commercial. But I had the best time because that was my first experience of being a part of the Olympics,- recalls Yan almost wistfully. "At an Olympics, every day sees activities throughout the host city, as well as tourists and spectators from different countries in their national dress mingling with each other. You really get the sense that there is potential for true world peace, and that everyone can happily co-exist under the same world roof.
"It's truly a great international gathering. I remember a women's volleyball game between China and Brazil. I was sitting next to the Brazilian section - you know how animated Brazilians can be. China beat Brazil, but after the game everyone, Chinese and Brazilian, was holding each other and clapping hands, arms around each other's shoulders, and taking pictures. People came to have fun. Afterwards some of us went out with the Brazilians for a beer. Sports, in particular the Olympics, pull people together."
Yan admits to being something of a dreamer, a free spirit who floats wherever the wind takes her - at last count 13 countries in the past five years. Mount Everest is one destination she hopes to be swept away to soon. Right now she's teaching on a freelance, temporary basis while doing a little translation work on the side. She has no desire to be tied down. "I need the freedom and opportunity to be creative. I'm the kind of person who likes to look for new things and experiences I've never had before."
A BOBICO advertisement on the Internet last year was what initially caught Yan's attention. The committee was looking for people to work in its marketing/media/publicity department. Says Yan: "When I first came to BOBICO I was a little unhappy with the work I was given. It was frustrating because I felt that I could contribute much more than I was initially allowed to."
What precisely was she doing at the start? "Simple filing work and translation here and there.- But before long she began working on what would become, for the Evaluation Commission's acceptance and deliberation, Presentation No.6 on the subject of (Olympics) Marketing. Try-outs were held among candidates to make the presentation, and BOBICO's leaders seemed to like her speech and PowerPoint Presentation - the latter now a "must" - in the western world and which Yan had mastered during her studies in the United States and in her years working for multinational companies.
Notification that she had been selected as a presenter surprised many people simply because she was a volunteer with BOBICO, and not on its full-time staff. Not that her selection fazed Yan one iota, a trait that probably influenced the committee in the first place.
Time was short for the preparation of a report of such vast importance, but Yan was not alone. "I met a lot of good, intelligent, open-minded people among the other presenters,- she happily acknowledges. "We all worked hard and communicated well. I think the presenters did a great job. It was a team effort. The Evaluation Commission asked a lot of tough questions, sometimes stretching a thirty-minute session into two hours because they needed to know whether we understood the subject we were presenting.
They wanted to [be convinced] that our city was capable of hosting the Olympics.- She adds a personal view: "I think the Commission likes a city that has culture, character, and is exciting. Beijing is all of these."
Yan describes the Olympics as being "about people from different cultures running in the streets, having a beer, having parties, sitting down together and having fun. And I've always felt that China should be part of that. But for one reason or another it seems as though Chinese people are alienated from everyone else because they either stay aloof or are excluded by outside parties.
"China should be involved, and should involve itself into the 'one world' theme. Winning the bid would be a really fantastic opportunity for China - a huge window through which to reach out to the world and meet and learn from other nations."
(21dnn 05/16/2001)
