Beijing Olympics: Winners and Losers

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While strolling through Ritan Park (also known as the Temple of the Sun), the designated protest park closest to my home, I certainly saw no dissidents expressing their views. Along with regular families and couples enjoying the pleasant grounds filled with traditional pagodas and Chinese arches, plainclothes police officers—notable for their brush cuts and imposing physiques—were omnipresent. Also giving away their identity were their not-so-subtle efforts to catch one's image on their camera phones. Helping the monitoring effort are Honeywell (HON) surveillance cameras (BusinessWeek, 8/7/08) mounted throughout the park.

Beijing environment—temporary winner

Beijing did have relatively clean air during the Games. This can be credited to a massive industrial shutdown (BusinessWeek, 7/3/08) across North China, strict traffic controls that took almost 2 million cars off the streets, and a huge cloud-seeding effort (BusinessWeek.com, 7/31/08) to bring rain and clear out haze. Problem is, there is little reason to believe that clean air will continue past the Olympic and Paralympic Games running Sept. 6-17. I for one am hoping that now that Beijingers know it is possible to have a cleaner city, they will start to more aggressively demand it. Maybe people will appreciate the better environment so much that they might accept long-term restrictions like a continuation of the odd-even license plate rule for driving.

A sour note: In its efforts to "beautify" downtown Beijing, the city authorities have made it even harder to ride a bike to work. Near my office, a host of blue-shirted Olympic volunteers appeared whose sole job seemed to consist in telling you that you could not lock your bike up anywhere. Heaven forbid that the new park and sports fields they had just constructed might have actual bicycles locked to the fences ringing them. That would look backward, I'm guessing was the reasoning. The same motivation apparently for the widespread practice of putting up huge billboards extolling the 2008 Olympic slogan, "One World, One Dream," but really aimed at hiding from view the older neighborhoods of the city. This continues a process which is making the business districts of Beijing ever more of no-go zone for bikes. Meanwhile, large underground parking lots make it ever easier for the owner of a combustible engine. So, why not drive your smog-blasting car to work instead!

Chinese food—loser

For a country that prides itself on having one of the world's best cuisines, China's culinary tradition was a big loser. Beijing missed the chance to highlight some of its best foods, such as dumplings or pastries that could have easily been available on site. Instead, the food offered in the Olympic venues was bad enough to turn your stomach. Along with McDonald's (MCD) at the main venue, mobbed with daunting lines of hungry people, the food highlights were instant noodles, a single variety of pork "hefan" or lunchbox of Chinese fast food, strange small loafs of bread with unidentifiable "fruit" chunks, or greasy sausages. Inevitably, one left after a day or evening of great athletics with a stomach ache.

International Olympic Committee—loser

A special loser's medal goes to IOC President Jacques Rogge. Not only did his organization almost completely ignore Beijing's failure to honor promises towards new openness for internal dissenters, he showed how completely out of touch he was when he criticized Usain Bolt. According to Rogge, Bolt's exuberant and winning ways were "not the way we perceive a champion."

Wrong: With Bolt, we have not only the kind of awe-inspiring athlete that comes along once in a century but also one who happens to be a very charismatic character. Bolt charmed his fellow athletes as well as billions of spectators around the world. "I'm a performer," Bolt shot back. "I come out there and perform and let the public enjoy themselves. I won't change. I will always be myself." Let us hope he keeps doing exactly that. The combination of Bolt's tremendous athletic achievement plus his lighthearted ways were key in making a memorable Games—one that will go down in history as a great Olympics.

Business Exchange related topics:
Beijing Olympics
Global Sports Industry
Sports Marketing
China Business
China Innovation

Roberts is BusinessWeek's Asia News Editor and China bureau chief.