Project 119: How China won Beijing 2008 Olympics
What is Project 119? In 2001, immediately after winning the bid for hosting the 2008 Olympics, Beijing started a project to improve China’s performance in certain medal-rich sports they typically did poorly in. The total number of medals they sought to go after totaled 119, hence the name.
Athletics: 47
Swimming: 34
Rowing: 14
Sailing: 11
Canoe / Kayak – Flatwater: 12
Canoe / Kayak – Slalom: 4
Total: 122
In Sydney 2000, China won only one medal from the list of 119; in Athens 2004, they won four. For Beijing 2008, the medal possibilities have increased to 122, and China has invested millions of dollars into their athletes and facilities preparing for this year’s games. The First Post has an article China’s Olympic plan to topple America worth taking a look at:
For the past seven years, China’s communist authorities have been running an intensive training programme reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s methods – and goal of global domination – during the Cold War era. Unprecedented military discipline, huge sporting budgets, state-of-the-art foreign technology and proven international coaches have all been incorporated into what the Chinese call ‘Project 119′.
Pricewaterhouse Coopers has projected that the Chinese team of 639 Olympic athletes (more than double the 311 it sent to Sydney in 2000, and topping the US tally of 596 athletes this year) will pip the US in Beijing by a total of 88 medals to 87. American bookies currently have China as favourite to win both the overall and gold-medal counts.
With 61 medals (to the US’s 65) and an amazing 35 gold (to the US’s 19), Project 119 is clearly off to a good start. Go China!
| This entry was posted on Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 2:02 pm and is tagged with beijing 2008 olympics, pricewaterhouse coopers, communist authorities, military discipline, canoe kayak, global domination, 2008 olympics, olympic athletes, international coaches, chinese team, foreign technology, s games, athens 2004, sydney 2000, s 65, intensive training, bookies, slalom, pip, medals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback. |
8 Responses to “Project 119: How China won Beijing 2008 Olympics”
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What I think i China “People are really hardworking towards their job and and their habbits. When comes to olympic this one country alone rules many of the medals. Great going China
Yes, China rocks. I am currently in South Korea and most of people here get crazy about Olympics and about China. I have to say Korean people don’t like Chinese that much though
I wanted to go there but suddenly realized that my business plans are quite far from fun trips ((
do you know the actual number of medals won by china in project 119 sports? hint: it’s less than the number won in 2004.
they spent more money on olympic sports programs in the last 7 years than any other country, and the total medals taken in those areas diminished over the last 4 years. maybe they should spend that money on the millions of people in their country living in poverty conditions.
[...] Ese desarrollo ha sido consistente con su inversión de US$136.000 millones en ciencia y tecnología, el segundo presupuesto más grande del planeta. Para la muestra, ya han enviado al espacio dos astronautas y varios satélites con sus propios cohetes, mientras que lo único que tenemos para mostrar es el Libertad1, un satélite lanzado por la Universidad Sergio Arboleda en un cohete ruso alquilado en 2007 (2). Además, de ganarse su primera medallita olímpica en Los Ángeles 2004 pasaron a arrasar en Beijing 2008 con 49 medallas de oro, por encima de potencias deportivas como USA (33), Rusia (21) y Colombia (0). ¿Cómo hicieron? Crearon en 2000 el Proyecto 119 (3), que invirtió en instalaciones, entrenadores, médicos y estudios científicos para desarrollar atletas capaces de ganarse 119 medallas de las tres categorías en varias disciplinas. Claro que entre 1.300 millones de chinos no debe ser difícil encontrar 100 atletas talentosos, pero hacer ese tipo de inversión acá podría ayudarnos a mejorar el caminado en los próximos olímpicos, ¿no? [...]
i think they r stupid. yea thats right. they really didn’t win that much, so yea. i think that USA rocks!!!!!!!
GO USA!
GO USA!
GO USA!
china are full of ****, half of their gymnasts had faked passports and birth certificates etc
obcourse the fight spirit is they are the host, and i believe they prepared well