Beibei's Sports

In China's traditional culture and art, the fish and water designs are symbols of prosperity and harvest. And so Beibei carries the blessing of prosperity. A fish is also a symbol of surplus in Chinese culture, another measure of a good year and a good life.

The ornamental lines of the water-wave designs are taken from well-known Chinese paintings of the past. Among Fuwa, Beibei is known to be gentle and pure. Strong in water sports, she reflects the blue Olympic ring.

Swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water-polo, canoe kayak flatwater, canoe kayak slalom, rowing, sailing and rhythmic gymnqstics.

Swimming is one of the oldest human activities and has been held in every Summer Olympics. Women's swimming events became a regular part of the Olympic Games in 1912, then men and women now compete in 16 events each.Along with track & field athletics it is one of the most popular spectator sports at the Games and one with the biggest number of events.

The swimming event of the 29th Olympic Games will be held at the National Aquatics Center in the Olympic Green from August 9-24, 2008. A new event will be added in Beijing 2008 both for men and women, it being 'Marathon 10km.

Diving was first introduced in the Summer Olympic Games almost a century ago. It was known as "fancy diving" for the acrobatic stunts performed by divers during the dive (such as somersaults and twists). It was popularised by the Swedes and the Germans in the 18th and 19th centuries.The first known book on diving was published in Germany in 1843. Competitive diving began in Britain in the 1880s. Until now, China is considered the top nation in the Diving events.

This year, the diving competition will be held at the National Aquatics Center in the Olympic Green.

Synchronized swimming is one of the few disciplines to be contested only by women (rhythmic gymnastics and softball are the others). It was first held in 1984 during the Los Angeles Olympic Games with solo and duet events. The current Olympic program has competition in duet and team events, but in past games, a solo event was also contested. The United States, Canada and Japan have traditionally been the strongest nations in the sport, winning every Olympic medal from 1984 through 1996, but Russia has recently dominated, winning every event in 2000 and 2004.

This year, the synchronized swimming competition will be held at the National Aquatics Center in the Olympic Green.

Water polo was developed in Europe and the United States as two separate sports. But the European style is the forme of the game pracetised universally. It is more scientific, faster and less dangerous than the original American game. Water polo has been part of the Summer Olympic Games program since the second games, in 1900. A women's water polo tournament was introduced for the 2000 summer Olympic Games. Hungary, Italy and Great Britain have dominated this sport, with the former having won as many gold medals as the other two cobined.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games water polo event for men and women will be held at Ying Tung Natatorium.

Canoeing/kayaking was introduced in the Summer Olympic Games since the 1936 Games in Berlin. There are two disciplines of canoeing in Olympic competition: flatwater and slalom.Two styles of boats are used in this sport as well, canoes with 1 or 2 canoers and kayaks with 1, 2 or 4 kayakers. This leads to the name designation of each event. For example, "C-1" is a canoe singles event and "K-2" is a kayak doubles event. Races are usually 500 metres or 1000 metres long, although there were also 10 km events from 1936 to 1956.

The canoe/kayak event of the 29th Olympic Games will be held at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park on the side of Chaobai River in the Shunyi District of Beijing from August 11-23, 2008.

Rowing was first used as a means of transport in the ancient cultures of Egypt, Greece and Rome. Rowing has been contested since the 1900 Summer Olympics. The sport had been on the program at the1896 Summer Olympics but was cancelled due to weather. Only men were allowed to compete until 1976 when women's events were introduced at the1976.

The rowing event of the 29th Olympic Games will be held at Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park on the side of Chaobai River in Shunyi District of Beijing from August 9-17, 2008.

Sailing (or yachting) was first contested at the 1900 Summer Olympic Games,in Paris, as a men's competition comprising 10 events. Absent in 1904, it has been present at every Summer Olympic Games since then. Reportedly, it was to be included in the original 1896 games, but light winds forced the event to be canceled.Women have always been allowed to compete in Olympic sailing with men, but in 1984, separate sailing events were introduced exclusively for women. The Olympic sailing programme in 2000 consisted of men's, women's and mixed events.In effect, sailing made its Olympic debut in Sydney, as it became the first Olympic sport to make a name change. The sport had always been called yachting in the past.

The sailing event of the 29th Olympic Games will be held at Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center from August 9-21, 2008.

Individual rhythmic gymnastics was added to the Olympic program in 1984 and team competition was added at the 1996 Atlanta Games.Rhythmic gymnastics combines ballet and creative movements to music, while working with ribbons, balls, hoops, ropes and clubs in a choreographed dance-and-tumble routine. It has a lot more dance than artistic gymnastics. Everything is done on the floor with far different routines and different music.

The rhythmic gymnastics event of the 29th Olympics Games will be held at the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium from August 13-16,2008 .