Print

Mail

wiki links

BEIJING 2008: Most volunteers already chosen, Beijing says

Beijing organizers have chosen more than 80 percent of the 100,000 volunteers required for this year's Olympics and Paralympics from the biggest candidate pool in Games history, officials said yesterday.

More than 800,000 applied to be volunteers for the Games while another 920,000 applicants are chasing 400,000 positions as "city volunteers," according to Liu Jian, head of the volunteer department at the Beijing organizing committee.

"Mencius says a just cause enjoys abundant support," Liu told reporters, quoting an ancient Chines philosopher. "We should sincerely thank those people who are voluntarily offering help."

An army of volunteers has become a standard feature of the Olympics over the past few decades, helping to keep the cost of the Games down by working without pay and not charging travel and accommodation expenses.

The 80,000 recruited volunteers, nearly half of whom are university students in Beijing, had passed exams, interviews and background checks, received general training and been tried out during a series of test events, Liu said.

More than 50,000 applications came from outside China but Liu would not say how many overseas volunteers would be recruited.

"If a volunteer knows nothing about Beijing we would have to let another volunteer work for him, which is a waste of human resources," Liu said.

Meanwhile, organizers say they're not worried about a possible lack of wind at the sailing site for the Olympics and the schedule will go off without a snag, state media reported yesterday.

Several races were canceled or rescheduled last August during an Olympic test event because of insufficient wind.

But Xinhua news agency quoted Qingdao Vice Mayor Zang Aimin as saying that, based on the test events and weather data over the past 30 years, Qingdao's wind conditions would meet the standards needed to hold an Olympic sailing competition.
This story has been viewed 590 times.