Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

2008 Summer Games Participating Countries

Afghanistan	Comoros	Iceland	Mongolia	Slovenia
Albania	Cape Verde	India	Morocco	Solomon Islands
Andorra	Congo	Indonesia	Mozambique	South Africa
Antigua and Barbuda	Cook Islands	Iran	Myanmar	Sri Lanka
Angola	Costa Rica	Iraq	Namibia	Slovakia
Algeria	Cote-d´lvoire	Ireland	Nauru	Swaziland
Argentina	Croatia	Italy	Nepal	Serbia
Armenia	Cuba	Israel	Netherlands	Singapore
Aruba	Cyprus	Ivory Coast	Netherlands Antilles	Spain
Australia	Czech Republic	Jamaica	New Zealand	Sudan
Austria	Denmark	Japan	Nicaragua	Surinam
Azerbaijan	Djibouti	Jordon	Niger	Syria
Bahamas	Dominica	Kazakhstan	Nigeria	Sweden
Bangladesh	Dominican Republic	Kyrgyzstan	Norway	Switzerland
Barbados	Ecuador	Kenya	Oman	Tanzania
Burundi	Arab Rep. of Egypt	Korea people Republic	Pakistan	Tonga
Belgium	El Salvador	Korea Democratic People Republic	Palau	Thailand
Belize	Equatorial Guinea	Kuwait	Panama	Togo
Benin	Eritrea	Laos	Papua New Guinea	Trinidad & Tobago
Bermuda	Estonia	Latvia	Palestine	Tajikistan
Bhutan	Ethiopia	Saint Lucia	Paraguay	Timor-Leste
Bolivia	Fiji	Lebanon	Peru	Turkmenistan
Bosnia-Herzegovina	Finland	Lesotho	Philippines	Tunisia
Bahrain	France	Libya	Poland	Turkey
Botswana	Gabon	Lichtenstein	Portugal	Tuvalu
Belarus	The Gambia	Luxembourg	Puerto Rico	Uganda
Brazil	Germany	Rep. of Macedonia	Qatar	Ukraine
British Virgin Islands	Ghana	Madagascar	Rhodesia	Unified Team
Brunei Darussalam	Great Britain	Malawi	Romania	United Arab Emirates
Bulgaria	Guinea-Bissau	Malaysia	Rwanda	U.S.S.R.
Burkina Faso	Georgia	Rep. of Moldova	Saint Lucia	U.S.A.
Cameroon	Greece	Marshall Islands	St. Vincent & Gr.	US Virgin Islands
Cambodia	Grenada	Maldives	Saint Kitts and Nevis	Uruguay
Canada	Guam	Malta	American Samoa	Uzbekistan
Cayman Islands	Guatemala	Mali	Western Samoa	Vanuatu
Central Africa	Guinea	Mauritania	San Marino	Venezuela
Chad	Guyana	Mauritius	Sao Tome and Principe	Vietnam
Chile	Haiti	Mexico	Saudi Arabia	Yemen
China Republic	Honduras	Micronesia	Seychelles	Yugoslavia
Chinese Taipei	Hong Kong	Monaco	Sierra Leone	Zambia
Colombia	Hungary	Montenegro	Senegal	Zimbabwe

The twenty-ninth Summer Olympics Games was held in Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China. Attended by 80 world leaders including George W. Bush and Nicholas Sarkozy, the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics was officially inaugurated by President of China, Hu Jintao. Beijing is China's second largest city in terms of population. The city was known in the name Peking. The city of Beijing is located in the northern part of China. Beijing is also one of the four great ancient capitals of China. Some tourist attractions of Beijing are Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Lama Temple, Drum Tower and Bell Tower, Summer Palace, Beihai Park and Jingshan (Prospect Park).

This was an excellent oppurtunity to China to showcase its modern outlook to the global audience, this Games also marked a healthy competition between the US and its rival in the East.

The 2008 Summer Olympics was officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad . The 29th Games of Olympiad was held in the month of August in 2008. The opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 was held on the 8th of August at the Beijing National Stadium, and the closing ceremony on August 24 marked the end of the competition. During this period, as many as 302 events in 28 sports were held .

After a tough competition with Toronto of Canada, Paris of France, Istanbul of Turkey and Osaka of Japan, Beijing won the right to host the Summer Olympics 2008. On 13 July 2001 at the 112th IOC Session in Moscow, Beijing was elected as the Host City for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in 2008.

Initially, the Summer Games were scheduled for July 25 to August 10, but because of weather concerns the Beijing Summer Games dates were pushed back by about two weeks and Beijing 2008 dates were rescheduled to 8th August to 24th August, 2008.Organizers had decided that the ceremonial torch was to be carried over the Mount Everest (mount Qomolangma) to celebrate the spirit of Olympics Beijing. The torch for Olympic Beijing 2008 boasts strongly of Chinese design and technical capabilities got approved in 2007 January by IOC.

• The emblem is known as "Dancing Beijing"
• The name of the official mascot of the competition is Fuwa, meaning good-luck dolls
• The main slogan for the Beijing Summer Games 2008 was "One World, One Dream"

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games (BOCOG) is the organizer of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.

A total of 37 venues including 31 venues in Beijing and 6 venues outside Beijing were selected for the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. From a host of Olympic Stadiums in Beijing, the main stadium was the National Stadium of Beijing or the Bird's Nest, where almost 50% of the events were held. This well-known stadium is located at the center of the Olympic Green. The opening and the closing ceremonies took place there. Besides, it hosted the events of football and athletics. This stadium staged many cultural and entertainment activities. Olympic Green is situated in the northern end of the city of Beijing.

The National Stadium, which is also called the Bird's Nest because of its unique design, will be the main stadium in Beijing Summer Games.

In this international multi-sport event of 2008, 11,028 athletes from 204 countries participated, competing in 302 different sports events. Some events (beach volleyball, sailing, swimming's new marathon) were held in Qingdao city. Hong Kong organized the equestrian events at Hong Kong Sports Institute in Fo Tan, Sha Tin.

Medal Count
In Beijing 2008 summer olympics total of 86 countries won medal including 54 countries which won at least one gold medal. China won the highest gold medal 51 while US won the total of 110 medals. American swimmer Michael Phelps received 8 gold medals setting many olympics record in this olympics.

28 sports were held in the Beijing Summer Games,2008 .The sports included in the schedule are aquatics (diving, swimming, synchronized swimming and water polo), archery , athletics, baseball, basketball, badminton, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, softball, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Venues

Medal Count For Beijing Olympics 2008

Rank	Country Name	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	51	21	28	100
2	United States	36	38	36	110
3	Russia	23	21	29	73
4	Great Britain	19	13	15	47
5	Germany	16	10	15	41
6	Australia	14	15	17	46
7	South Korea	13	10	8	31
8	Japan	9	6	10	25
9	Italy	8	9	10	27
10	France	7	16	18	41
11	Ukraine	7	5	15	27
12	Netherlands	7	5	4	16
13	Kenya	6	4	4	14
14	Jamaica	6	3	2	11
15	Spain	5	10	3	18
16	Belarus	4	5	10	19
17	Romania	4	1	3	8
18	Ethiopia	4	1	2	7
19	Canada	3	9	6	18
20	Poland	3	6	1	10