The contribution of Coca-Cola to the Olympic Movement has always been the model of a true partnership.

- Jacques Rogge, 1.8.05

This just in from the media desk of the International Olympic Committee:

The International Olympic Committee and The Coca-Cola Company today announced a renewal of their partnership for an unprecedented 12 years, thereby taking what was already the longest sponsorship of the Olympic Games to a record 92 uninterrupted years. The partnership, which began in 1928, was extended during a signing ceremony on the Great Wall of China. The new agreement, which begins in 2009, will see Coca-Cola supporting the Olympic Movement over a period which covers the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, the London 2012 Olympic Games, plus the Olympic Games of 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.

Welcoming the renewal of the partnership, IOC President Jacques Rogge said, “The contribution of Coca-Cola to the Olympic Movement has always been the model of a true partnership. The Olympic Games would not be where they are today, and so many athletes over the years could not have competed in the Games, without the extensive corporate support pioneered by Coca-Cola as our longest continuous sponsor. Because the Olympic Family and Coca-Cola share the values of Olympism at their deepest level, this is a natural partnership that we hold most dearly.”

The Coca-Cola Chairman, Mr E. Neville Isdell, echoed the President’s comments, emphasising the new atmosphere of Olympic spirit at the world’s leading beverage company. “The privilege of being associated with the Olympic Movement for nearly a century is reflected in this landmark agreement,” Mr Isdell said. “Our investment in the future of the Olympic Games underscores our faith in the Games and how they continue to make our world a little bit better. This long-term commitment comes at a time when those of us throughout the Coca-Cola system are rededicating ourselves to the Olympic spirit. We have recently challenged ourselves not to wait every two or four years to celebrate the Olympic ideal, but to bring to life those values in our everyday lives - to think Olympic, act Olympic, and, indeed, truly live Olympic.” he added.

Also attending the announcement, which was made in China as the country marks three years to go until the Olympic Games of Beijing 2008, was Jean-Claude Killy, three times Olympic Games gold medallist and IOC member, young Chinese diver Wu Min Xia, who won a gold medal and a silver medal at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, together with a host of guests including leadership from both the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad and the upcoming Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games.

Coca-Cola will start trading on Wall Street today at $43.77.

The Games of the XXVIII Olympiad are over. Athens 2004 was not the shambles that many feared. Neil Horan, looking like a reject from an un-filmed Father Ted screenplay, was the only intrusion when far, Far, worse was feared. Yay.

The closing ceremony was a closing ceremony. A blend of solemnity and party, and the obligatory cultural piece from the host of the next Games. Memories of the inflatable kangaroos on bicycles at Atlanta 1996 have scarred my brain. Beijing’s balletic presentation on Sunday night was far more tasteful. At least until a Chinese Nikki Webster appeared out of a giant red lantern at the climax.

No less a director than Zhang Yimou was at the helm of the eight-minute Chinese spectacle. Coincidentally, his 2002 Jet Li martial-arts opus, Hero, topped the US box office this weekend.

Here’s the list of flag-bearers for each country at the closing ceremony. The one other comment I’ll make about the evening is to congratulate Jacques Rogge for not adopting the JA Samaranch sycophancy of calling each Games “the best ever”. For a report of the closing ceremony, I’ve chosen Deutsche Welle (in English).

China got 32 gold medals at Athens, three behind the US. Just think what they’ll be like at home. Maybe they should split China into separate provinces for the purposes of Beijing 2008. And start with Tibet.

I couldn’t help but note that if you add together the gold medals of Russia (27), Ukraine (9), Belarus (2), Georgia (2), Uzbekistan (2), Kazakhstan (1), Lithuania (1) and Azerbaijan (1), the old Soviet Union totalled 45 gold medals and would have finished on top.

More perverse statistics: of the eleven nations with populations of 100 million or more (source: CIA fact book), China, the USA, Russia, Japan and Brazil all did fairly well. And then there’s:

• India (pop. 1065 mil): 0 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze
• Indonesia (pop. 238 mil): 1 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze
• Pakistan (pop. 159 mil): nothing
• Bangladesh (pop. 141 mil): nothing
• Nigeria (pop. 137 mil): 0 gold, 0 silver, 2 bronze
• Mexico (pop. 105 mil): 0 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze

On the other hand, a total of 57 countries claimed at least one gold, and 75 claimed at least one medal. There’s a good piece in Monday’s Christian Science Monitor about the greater distribution of medals internationally.

Only 1439 days till the start of Beijing 2008. Here’s the BOCOG website… spot the non-Y2K compliance!

Sunday was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Deng Xiaoping. Comrade Deng was “a great proletarian revolutionary [and] statesman,” President Hu Jintao told revellers at the Great Hall of the People, “a long-tested Communist fighter, the chief architect of China’s socialist reform, opening-up and modernization drive”.

Hu told the gathering of prospective Beijing 2008 volunteers that the day’s commemoration would “further inspire the whole Party and nation to push forward the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics”.

Socialism. Olympics. Oxymoron. See you in four years time, Hu.

The Chinese olympic team celebrated their beloved late Comrade’s 100th by winning three more gold medals to take their total thus far to 22. Teng Haibin won the men’s pommel horse, Jia Zhanbo won the men’s 50m three positions rifle shooting, and Zhang Yining won the table tennis women’s singles.

But How’s This For Spooky? Zhang’s victory was the 100th Olympic gold medal in the history of the People’s Republic of China. And on Deng Xiaoping’s 100th birthday! Wooooooooo…. (Here’s a list of China’s 100 gold medallists, compiled by the Xinhua News Agency.)

All I can say is:

Let a hundred flowers bloom:
let a hundred schools of thought contend.
- Mao Zedong.

Curiously, China’s most successful sport at the Olympics has been diving, where they have won seventeen gold since their entry to the Games in 1984. One that they didn’t pick up in Athens was the women’s 10 metre platform. Loudy Tourky was the Australian most likely in this event, but it was Chantelle Newbery who came away the winner. She was Australia’s first diving gold medallist since Dick Eve won the high dive at Paris 1924. Read Caroline Wilson’s report for The Age.

Khuloud Tourky, to give her correct name, is a Palestinian by heritage who was born in Haifa. See this rather sour piece from the August 2002 edition of “The Review”, the monthly journal of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.

Speaking of Palestine, Raad Aweisat finished third in a heat of three competitors in the men’s 100 butterfly with a time of 1:01.60. Sanna Abubkheet came seventh out of seven to finish her heat of the 800 metres on the track on Friday with a time of 2:32.10, 25 seconds behind the sixth-placegetter.

Coming up in Day 9 Part 2: Timor Leste, Great Moments In Choking, and the War on Error .