Year after year, many countries around the world have been battling with each other for the Olympic gold medal—a most prestigious award a country can achieve in the area of sports. There are lots of sports events that are included in the world Olympics, and one of these is the basketball Olympics. Have you ever wondered how are the participating countries are chosen? After the participating country has been chosen, how are the athletes chosen? What are the qualifications that you need to pass in order to whittle down the field?
All international basketball competition is being governed by the International Basketball, or more popularly known as FIBA (Fédération Internationale de Basketball). They allot a certain number of berths to the 5 FIBA zones through the Zone’s championship tournament. The 5 FIBA zones are as follows:
FIBA Asia
FIBA Oceania
FIBA Africa
FIBA Europe
FIBA Americas
3 wildcard entries will also be selected weeks before the Olympics. It will come from those teams in the FIBA Zones that have failed to win during the preliminary tournament. So all in all, there will be 12 countries competing—both in the men’s division and the women’s division. Is your country one of the competing teams this year?
Mark your calendar this summer. It’s the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Also known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, the Olympics will be held from August 8-24, 2008. Opening ceremony will take place at exactly 8:08 pm, with the number 8 believed to be good fortune for the Chinese. Among the anticipated games in the Olympics is the basketball Games in the XXIX Olympiad. The games will be held in the Wukesong Indoor Stadium, which can seat about 1800 people.
All countries are ready with their players. Spain’s team includes the great talents of Juan Carlos Navarro and Pau Gasol. If Spain shows great defense in their games, they can expect to bring home the gold this summer. Lithuania’s team led by Sydrunas Ilgauskas is also ready for their free-wheeling shooting style. With great outside shootings, they will either shoot their way to victory or loss. Canada, Russia, China, and all the rest of the teams in the Olympics are also all set to shoot themselves to success.
So, which team will take home the gold medal? Will Argentina bag another gold this year after its winning performance in the 2004 Sydney Olympics? Will China compete successfully in front of its home fans? Or will USA finally redeem its disappointing performance in 2004? All these questions will only be answered this summer.
The China Olympics will be held in Beijing from August 8 to August 24, 2008. It is expected that the country will accommodate 10,500 athletes that will compete in 28 disciplines. Now a number more will be added and the number will include foreign journalists and visitors as well. The number of expected visitors that will come to the country truly makes the Olympics a global event.
When China won the right to host the games, the country lost no time in designing the logo and the mascot that will be used on the games. The official logo that was adopted by the country was called the Dancing Beijing. This logo featured a stylized calligraphic character ‘jing’ that refers to the city of Beijing.
Five mascots are designed for the games, and each of these mascots represents the color of the Olympics. The slogan that was adopted by the host country is ‘One World, One Dream’ and signifies the call for all nations to unite under the Olympic spirit. And in order to accommodate the thousands of people that will descend on China, the country has built 12 new venues, renovated another 11 of existing venues and made eight temporary venues.
