1.
Kuala Lumpur
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Kuala Lumpur, officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, or more commonly called KL is the national capital of Malaysia as well as its largest city. Being rated as an Alpha world city, Kuala Lumpur is the global city in Malaysia which covers an area of 243 km2 and has an estimated population of 1.73 million as of 2016. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an agglomeration of 7.25 million people as of 2017. It is among the fastest growing regions in South-East Asia, in terms of population. Kuala Lumpur is the seat of the Parliament of Malaysia, the city was once home to the executive and judicial branches of the federal government, but they were moved to Putrajaya in early 1999. Some sections of the judiciary still remain in the city of Kuala Lumpur. The official residence of the Malaysian King, the Istana Negara, is situated in Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is the cultural, financial and economic centre of Malaysia due to its position as the capital as well as being a key city. Kuala Lumpur is one of three Federal Territories of Malaysia, enclaved within the state of Selangor, on the central west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Since the 1990s, the city has played host to international sporting, political and cultural events including the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Kuala Lumpur has undergone rapid development in recent decades and it is home to the tallest twin buildings in the world, the Petronas Twin Towers, which have become an iconic symbol of Malaysias futuristic development. Kuala Lumpur means muddy confluence, kuala is the point where two rivers join together or an estuary, and lumpur means mud. One suggestion is that it was named after Sungai Lumpur, it was recorded in 1824 that Sungei Lumpoor was the most important tin-producing settlement up the Klang River. It has also proposed that Kuala Lumpur was originally named Pengkalan Lumpur in the same way that Klang was once called Pengkalan Batu. Another suggestion is that it was initially a Cantonese word lam-pa meaning flooded jungle or decayed jungle, there is however no firm contemporary evidence for these suggestions other than anecdotes. It is also possible that the name is a form of an earlier. It is unknown who founded or named the settlement called Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur was originally a small hamlet of just a few houses and shops at the confluence of Sungai Gombak and Sungai Klang before it grew into a town. The miners landed at Kuala Lumpur and continued their journey on foot to Ampang where the first mine was opened
2.
Malaysia
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Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy located in Southeast Asia. Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government, with a population of over 30 million, Malaysia is the 44th most populous country. The southernmost point of continental Eurasia, Tanjung Piai, is in Malaysia, located in the tropics, Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries on earth, with large numbers of endemic species. Malaysia has its origins in the Malay kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, the first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946, Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963 to become Malaysia, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. The country is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, which plays a role in politics. About half the population is ethnically Malay, with minorities of Malaysian Chinese, Malaysian Indians. The constitution declares Islam the state religion while allowing freedom of religion for non-Muslims, the government system is closely modelled on the Westminster parliamentary system and the legal system is based on common law. The head of state is the king, known as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and he is an elected monarch chosen from the hereditary rulers of the nine Malay states every five years. The head of government is the prime minister, since its independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with its GDP growing at an average of 6. 5% per annum for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce. Today, Malaysia has a newly industrialised market economy, ranked third largest in Southeast Asia, the name Malaysia is a combination of the word Malay and the Latin-Greek suffix -sia/-σία. The word melayu in Malay may derive from the Tamil words malai and ur meaning mountain and city, land, malayadvipa was the word used by ancient Indian traders when referring to the Malay Peninsula. Whether or not it originated from these roots, the word melayu or mlayu may have used in early Malay/Javanese to mean to steadily accelerate or run. This term was applied to describe the current of the river Melayu in Sumatra. The name was adopted by the Melayu Kingdom that existed in the seventh century on Sumatra
3.
2022 Winter Olympics
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It will be the third consecutive Olympic Games held in East Asia, after Pyeongchang 2018 and Tokyo 2020. Having previously hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing will become the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics and it will also become the largest city ever to host the Winter Olympics, a distinction currently held by Vancouver, which hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics. The 2022 Winter Olympics will be the first Winter Olympic Games ever to be held in China, the estimated budget for the games is $3.9 billion, less than one-tenth of the $43 billion spent on the 2008 Summer Olympics. Beijing will also be the city in East Asia to host the Winter Games, after Sapporo, Japan, Nagano, Japan. The bidding calendar was announced by the IOC in October 2012, the IOC Executive Board reviewed the bids from all applicant cities on 7 July 2014, and selected Oslo, Almaty and Beijing as the final candidate cities. Oslo withdrew its bid on 1 October 2014, leaving Almaty, Beijing was selected as host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics after beating Almaty by 4 votes, on 31 July 2015, at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The ski resort has earned over 1.54 billion yuan in tourism from the 2015–2016 snow season for a 31.6 percent growth over the previous season. In 2016 it was announced that Chongli has received 2.185 million tourists for an increase of 30 percent during the first snow season after the winning the Olympic bid. The snow season lasted for five months from November, during which Chongli has hosted 36 competitions and activities, such as Far East Cup, a total of 23 skiing camps have also been set up, attracting the participation of 3,800 youths. All venue construction will start in November 2016 and will be finished by the end of 2020 to enable the city to hold test events and it will be built for speeds up to 350 km/h, and travel from Beijing to Zhangjiakou is estimated to take 50 minutes. The Beijing Subway is expected to continue expanding and projected to have at least 24 lines by 2022, expressway and highway networks are also expected to be upgraded. A new second airport for Beijing and the region, tentatively known as Beijing Daxing International Airport, is expected to open by 2019, the Zhangjiakou Cluster is about 160 km from Beijing and is located in a different province, Hebei. The Yanqing Cluster is about 85 km from Beijing Fifteen sports are scheduled in the 2022 Winter Olympics program, bobsleigh events will be contested in both bobsleigh and skeleton disciplines. The remaining four sports are biathlon, curling, ice hockey, a delegation from the Chinese Olympic Committee visited the 2017 Bandy World Championship and held talks with FIB President Boris Skrynnik about the possibility of including bandy in 2022. The matches could then be hosted at Olympic Sports Centre, a 36,000 capacity stadium, broadcast rights to the 2022 Winter Olympics in some countries were already sold as part of long-term broadcast rights deals. The decision to bid for the Olympics was controversial in China because Beijing itself, concerns have been raised that snow may need to be transported to the venues at great cost and with uncertain environmental consequences. The environmental impact of hosting the games near Beijing has been questioned, the Chinese government responded to these concerns by expanding the adjacent Beijing Songshan National Nature Reserve by 31% of its original size
4.
Lima
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Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the coastal part of the country. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms an urban area known as the Lima Metropolitan Area. With a population of almost 10 million, Lima is the most populous area of Peru. Lima was founded by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro on January 18,1535 and it became the capital and most important city in the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. Following the Peruvian War of Independence, it became the capital of the Republic of Peru, around one-third of the national population lives in the metropolitan area. Lima is home to one of the oldest higher-learning institutions in the New World, the National University of San Marcos, founded on May 12,1551 during the Spanish colonial regime, is the oldest continuously functioning university in the Americas. In October 2013 Lima was chosen to host the 2019 Pan American Games and it also hosted the December 2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference and the Miss Universe 1982 pageant. In October 2015 Lima hosted the 2015 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group, according to early Spanish articles the Lima area was once called Itchyma, after its original inhabitants. However, even before the Inca occupation of the area in the 15th century and this oracle was eventually destroyed by the Spanish and replaced with a church, but the name persisted, the chronicles show Límac replacing Ychma as the common name for the area. Modern scholars speculate that the word Lima originated as the Spanish pronunciation of the native name Limaq, linguistic evidence seems to support this theory as spoken Spanish consistently rejects stop consonants in word-final position. Non-Peruvian Spanish speakers may mistakenly define the city name as the direct Spanish translation of lime, the city was founded in 1535 under the name City of the Kings because its foundation was decided on January 6, date of the feast of the Epiphany. This name quickly fell into disuse and Lima became the name of choice, on the oldest Spanish maps of Peru. The river that feeds Lima is called Rímac and many people assume that this is because its original Inca name is Talking River. However, the inhabitants of the valley were not Incas. This name is an innovation arising from an effort by the Cuzco nobility in colonial times to standardize the toponym so that it would conform to the phonology of Cuzco Quechua, later, as the original inhabitants died out and the local Quechua became extinct, the Cuzco pronunciation prevailed. Nowadays, Spanish-speaking locals do not see the connection between the name of their city and the name of the river runs through it. They often assume that the valley is named after the river, however, historically, the Flag of Lima has been known as the «Banner of Perus Kings City»
5.
Peru
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Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the west by the Pacific Ocean. Peruvian territory was home to ancient cultures spanning from the Norte Chico civilization in Caral, one of the oldest in the world, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty with its capital in Lima, ideas of political autonomy later spread throughout Spanish America and Peru gained its independence, which was formally proclaimed in 1821. After the battle of Ayacucho, three years after proclamation, Peru ensured its independence, subsequently, the country has undergone changes in government from oligarchic to democratic systems. Peru has gone through periods of political unrest and internal conflict as well as periods of stability, Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. It is a country with a high Human Development Index score. Its main economic activities include mining, manufacturing, agriculture and fishing, the Peruvian population, estimated at 31.2 million in 2015, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians. The main spoken language is Spanish, although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages and this mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine, literature, and music. The name of the country may be derived from Birú, the name of a ruler who lived near the Bay of San Miguel, Panama. When his possessions were visited by Spanish explorers in 1522, they were the southernmost part of the New World yet known to Europeans, thus, when Francisco Pizarro explored the regions farther south, they came to be designated Birú or Perú. An alternative history is provided by the contemporary writer Inca Garcilasco de la Vega, son of an Inca princess, the Spanish Crown gave the name legal status with the 1529 Capitulación de Toledo, which designated the newly encountered Inca Empire as the province of Peru. Under Spanish rule, the country adopted the denomination Viceroyalty of Peru, the earliest evidences of human presence in Peruvian territory have been dated to approximately 9,000 BC. Andean societies were based on agriculture, using such as irrigation and terracing, camelid husbandry. Organization relied on reciprocity and redistribution because these societies had no notion of market or money, the oldest known complex society in Peru, the Norte Chico civilization, flourished along the coast of the Pacific Ocean between 3,000 and 1,800 BC. These early developments were followed by archaeological cultures that developed mostly around the coastal, the Cupisnique culture which flourished from around 1000 to 200 BC along what is now Perus Pacific Coast was an example of early pre-Incan culture. The Chavín culture that developed from 1500 to 300 BC was probably more of a religious than a political phenomenon, on the coast, these included the civilizations of the Paracas, Nazca, Wari, and the more outstanding Chimu and Mochica. Their capital was at Chan Chan outside of modern-day Trujillo, in the 15th century, the Incas emerged as a powerful state which, in the span of a century, formed the largest empire in pre-Columbian America with their capital in Cusco
6.
125th IOC Session
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The 125th IOC Session took place at the Buenos Aires Hilton in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 7 September to 10 September 2013. The International Olympic Committee elected Tokyo as the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games on 7 September, Wrestling was restored to the Olympic program for 2020 and 2024, and Thomas Bach was elected to an eight-year term as IOC President. The IOC received two bids from cities to host the 125th Session, Buenos Aires and Kuala Lumpur made bids, the Argentine capital Buenos Aires was elected at the 122nd IOC Session in Vancouver which took place prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics. The members of the IOC elected the host city of the 2020 Olympic Games on 7 September 2013, the candidates were Tokyo, Istanbul, and Madrid. Before the vote the contest was considered to be close between the three cities, Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Summer Olympics. The results of the ballot were as follows, Following Madrids elimination. The announcement was met with jubilation from the Tokyo delegation and across Japan, japanese fencer Yuki Ota alluded to the 2011 earthquake in a statement to reporters, After the earthquake everyone in Japan was depressed but now we have to make a dream come true. Abes role in the stages of the bid, including his reassurances to the IOC that Fukushima radiation would not affect Tokyo, was considered to be a major asset. Tokyos bid had also received support from Princess Hisako and Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, on 10 September 2013, Thomas Bach of Germany was elected to succeed Jacques Rogge as IOC President, winning in two rounds of voting, over five other candidates. The IOC considered adding wrestling, squash and baseball/softball to the program for the 2020 Summer Olympics, the results of the vote on 8 September 2013 were, Baseball was first played at the Summer Olympics as a demonstration sport at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis. It was then played as a Demonstration sport at the Summer Olympics in 1912,1936,1956,1964,1984 and 1988, at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Baseball made its debut as an official medal sport. It was then present at each Summer Olympic Game until the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing where it was last played at the Olympic Games, Softball was played at the Summer Olympics from 1996 to 2008. The governing bodies for Baseball and Softball ultimately merged to form the World Baseball Softball Confederation in 2013, both Baseball and Softball were able to have a singular bid for joining the Olympic program. Squash has been played at international sporting events. It is played in more than 185 countries and by millions worldwide and it has been played at the Pan American Games since 1995 and the All-Africa Games since 2003. It has also played at both the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games since 1998. The sport is governed by the World Squash Federation, Wrestling is practiced all around the world - officially in 177 countries, some of which participate in the Olympic program just in this sport. It was initially dropped from the program for the 2020 games, however, Wrestling will still be part of the program at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro
7.
Buenos Aires
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Buenos Aires is the capital and most populous city of Argentina. The city is located on the shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata. The city of Buenos Aires is neither part of Buenos Aires Province nor the Provinces capital, rather, in 1880, after decades of political infighting, Buenos Aires was federalized and removed from Buenos Aires Province. The city limits were enlarged to include the towns of Belgrano and Flores, the 1994 constitutional amendment granted the city autonomy, hence its formal name, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Its citizens first elected a chief of government in 1996, previously, Buenos Aires is considered an alpha city by the study GaWC5. Buenos Aires quality of life was ranked 81st in the world and one of the best in Latin America in 2012 and it is the most visited city in South America, and the second-most visited city of Latin America. Buenos Aires is a top tourist destination, and is known for its preserved Spanish/European-style architecture, Buenos Aires held the 1st Pan American Games in 1951 as well as hosting two venues in the 1978 FIFA World Cup. Buenos Aires will host the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics and the 2018 G20 summit, Buenos Aires is a multicultural city, being home to multiple ethnic and religious groups. Several languages are spoken in the city in addition to Spanish, contributing to its culture, the hill was known to them as Buen Ayre, as it was free of the foul smell prevalent in the old city, which is adjacent to swampland. During the siege of Cagliari, the Aragonese built a sanctuary to the Virgin Mary on top of the hill, in 1335, King Alfonso the Gentle donated the church to the Mercedarians, who built an abbey that stands to this day. In the years after that, a story circulated, claiming that a statue of the Virgin Mary was retrieved from the sea after it miraculously helped to calm a storm in the Mediterranean Sea, the statue was placed in the abbey. Spanish sailors, especially Andalusians, venerated this image and frequently invoked the Fair Winds to aid them in their navigation, a sanctuary to the Virgin of Buen Ayre would be later erected in Seville. Pedro de Mendoza called the city Holy Mary of the Fair Winds, mendoza’s settlement soon came under attack by indigenous people, and was abandoned in 1541. For many years, the name was attributed to a Sancho del Campo, a second settlement was established in 1580 by Juan de Garay, who sailed down the Paraná River from Asunción. Garay preserved the name chosen by Mendoza, calling the city Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María del Buen Aire. The short form Buenos Aires became the common usage during the 17th century, the usual abbreviation for Buenos Aires in Spanish is Bs. As. It is common as well to refer to it as B. A. or BA /ˌbiːˈeɪ/ bee-AY), while BA is used more by expats residing in the city, the locals more often use the abbreviation Baires, in one word. Seaman Juan Díaz de Solís, navigating in the name of Spain, was the first European to reach the Río de la Plata in 1516 and his expedition was cut short when he was killed during an attack by the native Charrúa tribe in what is now Uruguay
8.
Bids for the 2022 Winter Olympics
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There were a total of six bids which were initially submitted for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Beijing was then elected as the host city at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, on 7 July 2014, the IOC announced the three remaining applicant cities would move on to the candidate phase. On 1 October 2014, Oslo withdrew its application after one of the governing political parties Høyre decided not to support the application. Oslo last hosted the 1952 Winter Olympics, and Norway last hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, on 1 October 2014 the Conservative Party decided that they would not support a bid for the games citing costs and lack of public support. A vast number of polls were conducted, and since April 2014 support had varied between 24% and 37%, the days leading up to the deliberation in the Conservative Party had consisted of a series of negative developments for the bid. If the bid had been successful, it would have been the first time either Poland or Slovakia hosted the Olympics, zakopane previously bid to host the 2006 Winter Olympics but failed to become a candidate. Krakóws bid was submitted to a referendum held on 25 May 2014. After that Kraków discontinued the application on 26 May 2014, Lviv, Ukraine The National Olympic Committee of Ukraine officially submitted a bid for Lviv to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games on 5 November 2013. On 30 June 2014, however, the IOC announced that Lviv would turn its attention to an Olympic bid for 2026, the decision comes as a result of the 2013–15 Ukrainian crisis which seriously influences Lviv and the country. Stockholm, Sweden On 11 November 2013, the Swedish Olympic Committee announced that it had submitted a bid, Åre, about 610 km from Stockholm, was scheduled to host the alpine skiing events. Stockholm previously hosted the 1912 Summer Olympics and hosted events of the 1956 Summer Olympics. Also, it would have been the first city to host both the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics, but that went to Beijing. Note that the candidate cities have slightly changed venues plan in the final proposal to the IOC. Almaty moved technical alpine skiing events from Shymbulak to Tau, Beijing dropped both Taiwu and Wanlong ski resorts, and proposed hosting snowboarding and freestyle skiing events in the two venues in Genting Snow Park. All data come from applicant cities bid books, candidate cities public support data has been updated. Each cell of the table provides a minimum and a figure obtained by the applicant city on the specific criteria. These figures are to be compared to a benchmark which has set at 6. The capital of Tyrol, Innsbruck, has already hosted Olympic Winter Games twice, however, the common legislative assembly of Tyrol, South Tyrol and Trentino rejected the proposal during its session on 30 March 2011
9.
Almaty
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Almaty /ˈælməti/, formerly known as Alma-Ata /ˌælmə. əˈtɑː/ and Verny, is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of 1,703,481 people, containing 9% of the countrys total population. Almaty is considered a World City with a Beta - classification according to GaWC and it served as capital of the Kazakh state in its various forms from 1929 to 1997, under the influence of the then Soviet Union and its appointees. Alma-Ata was the host city for a 1978 international conference on Primary Health Care where the Alma Ata Declaration was adopted, in 1997, the government relocated the capital to Astana in the north of the country. Almaty continues as the commercial and cultural centre of Kazakhstan. From 1929 to 1936, Almaty was the capital of Kazakh ASSR, from 1936 to 1991 it was the capital of Kazakh SSR. After Kazakhstan became independent in 1991, Almaty continued as the capital until 1997, Almaty remains the largest, most developed, and most ethnically and culturally diverse city in Kazakhstan. The city is in the foothills of Trans-Ili Alatau in the extreme south-east and it has a relatively mild climate with warm summers and quite cold winters. Since the city is in an active area, it has an endemic risk of earthquakes. Although most do not cause any significant damage, Almaty has suffered some large destructive earthquakes, in 1997 the capital was moved to Astana in the north-central part of the country. Since then Almaty has been referred to as the capital of Kazakhstan. The name Almaty has its roots in the medieval settlement Almatu, a disputed theory holds that the name is derived from the Kazakh word for apple, and is often translated as full of apples. Originally it was Almatau which means Apple Mountain, the Russian version of the name was Alma-Ata, however, since independence Russian has tended to use the Kazakh Almaty. There is great diversity among the wild apples in the region surrounding Almaty. The wild Malus sieversii is considered a candidate for the ancestor of the modern domestic apple. The citys name was written as آلماتی in Turkish and Persian written with the Perso-Arabic script, during 1000–900 BC in the Bronze Age, the first farmers and cattle-breeders established settlements in the territory of Almaty. During the Saka period, these lands were occupied by the Saka and later Wusun tribes, evidence of these times can be found in the numerous burial mounds and ancient settlements, especially the giant burial mounds of the Saka tsars. The most famous archaeological finds have been the The Golden man, also known as The Golden Warrior, from the Issyk Kurgan, the Zhalauly treasure, the Kargaly diadem, during the period of Saka and Wusun governance, Almaty became an early educational centre. During the Middle Ages, a city developed in Almaty
10.
Beijing
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Beijing is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China and the worlds third most populous city proper. It is also one of the worlds most populous capital cities, the city, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by population after Shanghai and is the nations political, cultural. It is home to the headquarters of most of Chinas largest state-owned companies, and is a hub for the national highway, expressway, railway. The citys history dates back three millennia, as the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political centre of the country for much of the past eight centuries. Beijing was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium A. D, the city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have made it centre of culture, encyclopædia Britannica notes that few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. Siheyuans, the traditional housing style, and hutongs, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing. The city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, many of Beijings 91 universities consistently rank among the best in China, of which Peking University and Tsinghua University are ranked in the top 60 universities in the world. Beijings Zhongguancun area is known as Chinas Silicon Valley and Chinas center of innovation. According to the 2016 InterNations Expat Insider Survey, Beijing ranked first in Asia in the subcategory Personal Finance Index, expats live primarily in urban districts such as Dongcheng and Chaoyang in the east, or in suburban districts such as Shunyi. Over the past 3,000 years, the city of Beijing has had other names. The name Beijing, which means Northern Capital, was applied to the city in 1403 during the Ming Dynasty to distinguish the city from Nanjing, the English spelling is based on the pinyin romanisation of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin. Those dialects preserve the Middle Chinese pronunciation of 京 as kjaeng, the single Chinese character abbreviation for Beijing is 京, which appears on automobile license plates in the city. The official Latin alphabet abbreviation for Beijing is BJ, the earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic Homo sapiens also lived more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout the municipality, including in Wangfujing, the first walled city in Beijing was Ji, a city from the 11th to 7th century BC
11.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
12.
Kazakhstan
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Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in northern Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Kazakhstan is the worlds largest landlocked country, and the ninth largest in the world, Kazakhstan is the dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the regions GDP, primarily through its oil/gas industry. It also has vast mineral resources, Kazakhstan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, the terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppe, taiga, rock canyons, hills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. Kazakhstan has an estimated 18 million people as of 2014, Given its large area, its population density is among the lowest. The capital is Astana, where it was moved in 1997 from Almaty, the territory of Kazakhstan has historically been inhabited by nomadic tribes. This changed in the 13th century, when Genghis Khan occupied the country as part of the Mongolian Empire, following internal struggles among the conquerors, power eventually reverted to the nomads. By the 16th century, the Kazakh emerged as a distinct group, the Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century, they nominally ruled all of Kazakhstan as part of the Russian Empire. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganised several times, in 1936, it was made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan has worked to develop its economy, especially its dominant hydrocarbon industry. Kazakhstans 131 ethnicities include Kazakhs, Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Germans, Tatars, the Kazakh language is the state language, and Russian has equal official status for all levels of administrative and institutional purposes. The name Kazakh comes from the ancient Turkic word qaz, to wander, the name Cossack is of the same origin. The Persian suffix -stan means land or place of, so Kazakhstan can be translated as land of the wanderers. Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age, the regions climate, archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse in the regions vast steppes. Central Asia was originally inhabited by the Scythians, the Cuman entered the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan around the early 11th century, where they later joined with the Kipchak and established the vast Cuman-Kipchak confederation. Under the Mongol Empire, the largest in history, administrative districts were established. These eventually came under the rule of the emergent Kazakh Khanate, throughout this period, traditional nomadic life and a livestock-based economy continued to dominate the steppe. Nevertheless, the region was the focus of ever-increasing disputes between the native Kazakh emirs and the neighbouring Persian-speaking peoples to the south, at its height the Khanate would rule parts of Central Asia and control Cumania
13.
Lausanne bid for the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics
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Lausanne 2020 was a successful bid by the city of Lausanne and the Swiss Olympic Association to host the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics. The IOC selected the host city for the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 31,2015, lausannes bid for the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics was confirmed on 12 July 2013. The city is where the International Olympic Committee is headquartered, Lausanne is also home to many sport federations. The bid was put forward in August 2013. Lausanne was signed Youth Olympic Game Candidature Procedure on 12 December 2013, the city of Lausanne made several bids in the past. Lausanne bid to host the Summer Olympics in 1936 but lost to Berlin, the city again bid for the 1944 Summer Olympics which was awarded to London, however those games were cancelled because of the Second World War. London hosted the 1948 Summer Olympics, Lausanne bid to host the 1960 Summer Olympics but lost to Rome. St. Moritz hosted the 1928 and 1948 Winter Olympics, st Moritz unsuccessfully bid to host the 1936 and 1960 Winter Olympics and lost to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Squaw Valley respectively. Sion bid to host the 1976,2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics but lost to Denver, Salt Lake City, Denver pulled out as host of the 1976 games and Innsbruck ultimately hosted the games
14.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
15.
Romania
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Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU, the River Danube, Europes second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romanias Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest are marked by one of their tallest peaks, Moldoveanu, modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war, following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition back towards democracy and it has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. A strong majority of the population identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are speakers of Romanian. The cultural history of Romania is often referred to when dealing with artists, musicians, inventors. For similar reasons, Romania has been the subject of notable tourist attractions, Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning citizen of Rome. The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, after the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a leader of the early 19th century. The use of the name Romania to refer to the homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861, in English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania. Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975, Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government. The Neolithic-Age Cucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the region of the earliest European civilization. Evidence from this and other sites indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture extracted salt from salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage
16.
Lausanne
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Lausanne is a city in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and the capital and biggest city of the canton of Vaud. The city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva and it faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura Mountains to its north-west. Lausanne is located 62 kilometres northeast of Geneva, Lausanne has a population of 146,372, making it the fourth largest city in Switzerland, with the entire agglomeration area having 420,000 inhabitants. The metropolitan area of Lausanne-Geneva was over 1.2 million inhabitants in 2000, Lausanne is a focus of international sport, hosting the International Olympic Committee, the Court of Arbitration for Sport and some 55 international sport associations. It lies in a noted wine-growing region, the city has a 28-station metro system, making it the smallest city in the world to have a rapid transit system. Lausanne will host the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics, by the 2nd century AD it was known as vikanor Lousonnensium and in 280 as lacu Lausonio. By 400 it was civitas Lausanna and in 990 it was mentioned as Losanna, after the fall of the Roman Empire, insecurity forced the transfer of Lausanne to its current centre, a hilly site that is easier to defend. The city which emerged from the camp was ruled by the Dukes of Savoy, then it came under Bern from 1536 to 1798 and a number of its cultural treasures, including the hanging tapestries in the Cathedral, were permanently removed. Lausanne has made a number of requests to recover them, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Lausanne became a place of refuge for French Huguenots. In 1729 a seminary was opened by Antoine Court and Benjamin Duplan, by 1750 ninety pastors had been sent back to France to work clandestinely, this number would rise to four hundred. Official persecution ended in 1787, a faculty of Protestant theology was established at Montauban in 1808, during the Napoleonic Wars, the citys status changed. In 1803, it became the capital of a newly formed Swiss canton, in 1964 the city hosted the Swiss National Exhibition, displaying its newly found confidence to host major international events. From the 1950s to 1970s a large number of Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese immigrated, settling mostly in the district of Renens. The city has served as a refuge for European artists, while under the care of a psychiatrist at Lausanne, T. S. Eliot composed most of his 1922 poem The Wasteland. Hemingway also visited from Paris with his wife during the 1920s, in fact, many creative people - such as Edward Gibbon, an historian, and Romantic era poets Shelley and Byron - have sojourned, lived, and worked in Lausanne or nearby. The city has been quiet, but in the late 1960s. Later demonstrations took place to protest against the high cinema prices, the most important geographical feature of the area surrounding Lausanne is Lake Geneva. Lausanne boasts a dramatic panorama over the lake and the Alps, in addition to its generally southward-sloping layout, the centre of the city is the site of an ancient river, the Flon, which has been covered since the 19th century
17.
2020 Summer Olympics
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The games are planned to be held from 24 July to 9 August 2020 in Tokyo. The city was announced as the host at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires on 7 September 2013, Tokyo, Istanbul, and Madrid were the three candidate cities. The applicant cities of Baku and Doha were not promoted to candidate status, a bid from Rome was withdrawn. The IOC voted to select the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympics on 7 September 2013 at the 125th IOC Session at the Buenos Aires Hilton in Buenos Aires, an exhaustive ballot system was used. No city won over 50% of the votes in the first round, a run-off vote between these two cities was held to determine which would be eliminated. In the final vote, a head-to-head contest between Tokyo and Istanbul, Tokyo was selected by 60 votes to 36, the Tokyo metropolitan government set aside a fund of 400 billion Japanese yen to cover the cost of hosting the Games. The Japanese government is considering increasing slot capacity at both Haneda Airport and Narita International Airport by easing airspace restrictions, but East Japan Railway Company is planning a new route near Tamachi to Haneda Airport. Funding is also planned to accelerate completion of the Central Circular Route, Tokyo Gaikan Expressway and Ken-Ō Expressway, the Organizing Committee is headed by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Olympic and Paralympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa is overseeing the preparations on behalf of the Japanese government, as a result, a design competition for the new stadium was launched. In November 2012, the Japan Sport Council announced that out of 46 finalists, plans included dismantling the original stadium, and expanding the capacity from 50,000 to a modern Olympic capacity of about 80,000. However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced in July 2015 that plans to build the new National Stadium would be scrapped,11 new venues are to be constructed. Seven venues will be located within the business area of Tokyo. Several of these venues were used for the 1964 Summer Olympics. 30,000 yen will be the price for the final of popular games, such as athletics. The average price of all the Olympic tickets is 7,700 yen, 60% of the tickets will be sold for 4,400 yen or less. Tickets will be sold through 40,000 shops in Japan, the 2020 Summer Olympic program is scheduled to feature 33 sports and a total of 47 disciplines and 324 events. Following the 2012 Games, the IOC assessed the 26 sports held in London, with the remit of selecting 25 core sports to join new entrants golf, in effect, this would involve the dropping of one sport from the 2016 Games program. This would leave a vacancy in the 2020 Games program, which the IOC would seek to fill from a shortlist containing seven unrepresented sports
18.
Baseball
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Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases, Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the team who reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases during teammates turns batting. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning with the team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, and the team with the number of runs at the end of the game wins. Baseball has no clock, although almost all games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century and this game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the sport of the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, in the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions, East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series, the top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision, a French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, consensus once held that todays baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England, recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of other. It has long believed that cricket also descended from such games. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, David Block discovered that the first recorded game of Bass-Ball took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford and this early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants
19.
Softball
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Softball is a variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. It was invented in 1887 in Chicago as an indoor game and it was at various times called indoor baseball, mush ball, playground, softball, kitten ball, and because it was also played by women, ladies baseball. The name softball was given to the game in 1926 because the used to be soft. A tournament held in 1933 at the Chicago Worlds Fair spurred interest in the game, the Amateur Softball Association of America governs the game in the United States and sponsors annual sectional and World Series championships. Womens fastpitch softball became a Summer Olympic sport in 1996, but it were dropped from the 2012 Games, there are three types of softball. In fastpitch softball, the pitch is fast, there are nine players on the field at one time, modified softball restricts the windmill windup of the pitcher, although the pitcher is allowed to throw as hard as possible with the restricted back swing. Softball rules vary somewhat from those of baseball, despite the name, the ball used in softball is not very soft. It is about 12 in in circumference, which is 3 in larger than a baseball, Softball recreational leagues for children often use an 11-inch ball. In fast pitch softball the entire infield is sand, whereas the infield in baseball is grass except at the bases which are sand, the earliest known softball game was played in Chicago, Illinois on Thanksgiving Day,1887. It took place at the Farragut Boat Club at a gathering to hear the outcome of the Yale University, when the score was announced and bets were settled, a Yale alumnus threw a boxing glove at a Harvard supporter. The other person grabbed a took a swing at it, george Hancock called out Play ball. And the game began, with the boxing glove tightened into a ball and this first contest ended with a score of 41–40. The ball, being soft, was fielded barehanded, george Hancock is credited as the games inventor for his development of ball and an undersized bat in the next week. The Farragut Club soon set rules for the game, which spread quickly to outsiders, envisioned as a way for baseball players to maintain their skills during the winter, the sport was called Indoor Baseball. Under the name of Indoor-Outdoor, the game moved outside in the year. In 1895 Lewis Rober, Sr. of Minneapolis organized outdoor games as exercise for firefighters, Rober may not have been familiar with the Farragut Club rules. Fire Station No.19 in Minneapolis, Robers post from 1896 to 1906, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in part for its association with the sports development, the first softball league outside the United States was organized in Toronto in 1897. The name softball dates back to 1926, the name was coined by Walter Hakanson of the YMCA at a meeting of the National Recreation Congress
20.
Bowling
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Bowling refers to a series of sports or leisure activities in which a player rolls or throws a bowling ball towards a target. It is one of the forms of throwing sports. In pin bowling variations, the target is usually to knock over pins at the end of a lane, when all the pins are knocked down on the first roll, this is a strike. In target variations, the aim is usually to get the ball as close to a mark as possible. The pin version of bowling is played on a flat wooden or other synthetic surface, while in target bowling. The term bowling in the United States and Canada most frequently refers to ten-pin bowling, in the United Kingdom, the earliest known forms of bowling date to ancient Egypt. Other balls made of porcelain have also found, indicating that these were rolled along the ground rather than thrown due to their size. Some of these resemble the modern day jack used in bowl games. Bowling games of different forms are noted by Herodotus as an invention of the Lydians in Asia Minor. About 400 AD, bowling began in Germany as a ritual to cleanse oneself from sin by rolling a rock into a club representing the heathen. In 1299 the oldest known bowling green for target style bowling to survive to modern times was built, Masters Close in Southampton, England, in 1325 laws were passed in Berlin and Cologne limiting bets on lawn bowling to five shillings. In 1366 the first official mention of bowling in England was made when King Edward III banned it as a distraction to archery practice. In the 15th-17th centuries lawn bowling spread from Germany into Austria, Switzerland, in 1455 lawn bowling lanes in London were first roofed-over, turning bowling into an all-weather game. In Germany they were called kegelbahns, often attached to taverns, in 1463 a public feast was held in Frankfurt, Germany, with a venison dinner followed by lawn bowling. In 1511 English King Henry VIII banned bowling for the lower classes, another English law passed in 1541 prohibited workers from bowling except on Christmas, and only in their masters home and in his presence. About 1520 Protestant Reformation founder Martin Luther set the number of pins at nine, in 1609 Dutch East India Company explorer Henry Hudson discovered Hudson Bay, bringing Dutch colonization to New Amsterdam, Hudsons men brought some form of lawn bowling with them. In 1670 Dutchmen liked to bowl at the Old King’s Arms Tavern near modern-day 2nd, in 1733 Bowling Green in New York City was built on the site of a Dutch cattle market and parade ground, becoming the citys oldest public park to survive to modern times. A photograph of this appeared in the pages of the US-based Bowlers Journal magazine in 1988
21.
Karate
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Karate is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the martial arts of Ryukyu Islands under the influence of Chinese martial arts. Karate is now predominantly a striking art using punching, kicking, knee strikes, elbow strikes and open-hand techniques such as knife-hands, spear-hands, historically, and in some modern styles, grappling, throws, joint locks, restraints, and vital-point strikes are also taught. A karate practitioner is called a karateka, Karate developed on the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was brought to the Japanese mainland in the early 20th century during a time of cultural exchanges between the Japanese and the Chinese and it was systematically taught in Japan after the Taishō era. In 1922 the Japanese Ministry of Education invited Gichin Funakoshi to Tokyo to give a karate demonstration, in 1924 Keio University established the first university karate club in mainland Japan and by 1932, major Japanese universities had karate clubs. After World War II, Okinawa became an important United States military site and karate became popular among servicemen stationed there, Karate schools began appearing across the world, catering to those with casual interest as well as those seeking a deeper study of the art. Shigeru Egami, Chief Instructor of Shotokan Dojo, opined that the majority of followers of karate in overseas countries pursue karate only for its fighting techniques, depict karate as a mysterious way of fighting capable of causing death or injury with a single blow. The mass media present a pseudo art far from the real thing, shōshin Nagamine said, Karate may be considered as the conflict within oneself or as a life-long marathon which can be won only through self-discipline, hard training and ones own creative efforts. On September 28,2015, karate was featured on a shortlist along with baseball, softball, skateboarding, surfing, on June 1,2016, the International Olympic Committees executive board announced they were supporting the inclusion of all five sports for inclusion in the 2020 Games. Web Japan claims there are 50 million karate practitioners worldwide, while the World Karate Federation claims there are 100 million practitioners around the world, Karate began as a common fighting system known as te among the Pechin class of the Ryukyuans. There were few formal styles of te, but rather many practitioners with their own methods, one surviving example is the Motobu-ryū school passed down from the Motobu family by Seikichi Uehara. Early styles of karate are often generalized as Shuri-te, Naha-te, each area and its teachers had particular kata, techniques, and principles that distinguished their local version of te from the others. Members of the Okinawan upper classes were sent to China regularly to various political and practical disciplines. The incorporation of empty-handed Chinese Kung Fu into Okinawan martial arts occurred partly because of these exchanges, Traditional karate kata bear a strong resemblance to the forms found in Fujian martial arts such as Fujian White Crane, Five Ancestors, and Gangrou-quan. Many Okinawan weapons such as the sai, tonfa, and nunchaku may have originated in, Sakukawa Kanga had studied pugilism and staff fighting in China. In 1806 he started teaching an art in the city of Shuri that he called Tudi Sakukawa. This was the first known recorded reference to the art of Tudi, around the 1820s Sakukawas most significant student Matsumura Sōkon taught a synthesis of te and Shaolin styles
22.
Sport climbing
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Sport climbing is a form of rock climbing that relies on permanent anchors fixed to the rock for protection. This is in contrast to traditional, climbing where climbers must place removable protection as they climb, Sport climbing emphasises strength, endurance, gymnastic ability and technique over adventure, risk and self-sufficiency. While sport climbing is common in many world wide, it is heavily restricted in some places where it is considered ethically unacceptable to bolt climbs. This, in addition to the need to place gear, tends to result in different styles of climbing between sport and trad, on August 3,2016, Sport climbing was added to the 2020 Summer Olympics program. On a sport climbing route, pre-placed bolts follow a line up a rock face, Sport climbs can vary in length from a few metres to a full 60-metre rope length for multi-pitch climbs. The climbs might be equipped with just a few bolts or many, Sport climbing can be undertaken with relatively little equipment. As each bolt is reached along the route, the climber attaches a quickdraw to the bolt and this bolt is now protecting the climber in the event of a fall. At the top of sport routes, there is typically a two-bolt anchor that can be used to return the climber to the ground or previous rappel point. Because sport routes do not require placing protection, the climber can concentrate on the difficulty of the rather than placing protection or the consequences of a fall. Sport climbing differs from traditional climbing with respect to the type, traditional climbing uses mostly removable protection, and tends to minimize the usage of pre-placed protection. Sport climbing typically involves single pitch routes but can have multi-pitch routes, long multi-pitch routes may lack pre-placed anchors due to economical, logistical or ethical reasons. Rock types that produce good sport climbs include limestone, granite and quartzite, Sport climbs are assigned subjective ratings to indicate difficulty. The type of rating depends on the location of the route, since different countries. The UIAA grading system is used for short rock routes in Western Germany, Austria and Switzerland. On long routes it is used in the Alps and Himalaya. Using Roman numerals, it was intended to run from I to X. An optional + or − may be used to further differentiate difficulty, as of 2004, the hardest climbs are XII−. The Ewbank rating system, used in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, is a numerical open-ended system, starting from 1, the French rating system considers the overall difficulty of the climb, taking into account the difficulty of the moves and the length of climb
23.
Squash (sport)
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Squash is a racket sport played by two or four players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball. The players must alternate in striking the ball with their racket, the game was formerly called squash rackets, a reference to the squashable soft ball used in the game. The governing body of Squash, the World Squash Federation is recognised by the International Olympic Committee, supporters continue to lobby for its incorporation in a future Olympic program. The use of stringed rackets is shared with tennis, which dates from the sixteenth century. In rackets, instead of hitting over a net as in such as tennis. Squash was invented in Harrow School out of the older game rackets around 1830 before the spread to other schools. The first courts built at this school were rather dangerous because they were near water pipes, buttresses, chimneys, the school soon built four outside courts. Natural rubber was the material of choice for the ball, students modified their rackets to have a smaller reach to play in these cramped conditions. The rackets have changed in a way to those used in tennis. Squash rackets used to be out of laminated timber. In the 1980s, construction shifted to materials with small additions of components like Kevlar, boron. Natural gut strings were replaced with synthetic strings. In the 19th century the increased in popularity with various schools, clubs and even private citizens building squash courts. The first squash court in North America appeared at St. Pauls School in Concord, in 1904 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the earliest national association of squash in the world was formed as the United States Squash rackets Association, now known as U. S. Squash. In April 1907 the Tennis, rackets & Fives Association set up a sub committee to set standards for squash, then the sport soon formed, combining the three sports together called “Squash”. In 1912, the RMS Titanic had a court in first class. The 1st-Class Squash Court was situated on G-Deck and the Spectators Viewing Gallery was on the deck above on F-Deck, to use the Court cost 50 cents in 1912. Passengers could use the court for 1 hour unless others were waiting, standard rackets are governed by the rules of the game
24.
Surfing
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Surfing is a surface water sport in which the wave rider, referred to as a surfer, rides on the forward or deep face of a moving wave, which is usually carrying the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitable for surfing are primarily found in the ocean, however, surfers can also utilize artificial waves such as those from boat wakes and the waves created in artificial wave pools. The term surfing refers to the act of riding a wave, regardless of whether the wave is ridden with a board or without a board, and regardless of the stance used. The native peoples of the Pacific, for instance, surfed waves on alaia, paipo, and other such craft, and did so on their belly and knees. The modern-day definition of surfing, however, most often refers to a riding a wave standing up on a surfboard. Another prominent form of surfing is body boarding, when a surfer rides a wave on a bodyboard, either lying on their belly, drop knee, other types of surfing include knee boarding, surf matting, and using foils. Body surfing, where the wave is surfed without a board, using the surfers own body to catch, recently with the use of V-drive boats, Wakesurfing, in which one surfs on the wake of a boat, has emerged. For centuries, surfing was a part of ancient Polynesian culture. Surfing may have first been observed by British explorers at Tahiti in 1767, samuel Wallis and the crew members of the Dolphin who were the first Britons to visit the island in June of that year. Another candidate is the botanist Joseph Banks being part of the first voyage of James Cook on the HMS Endeavour, who arrived on Tahiti on 10 April 1769. Lieutenant James King was the first person to write about the art of surfing on Hawaii when he was completing the journals of Captain James Cook upon Cooks death in 1779. When Mark Twain visited Hawaii in 1866 he wrote, In one place we came upon a company of naked natives. In July 1885, three teenage Hawaiian princes took a break from their school, St. Mathew’s Hall in San Mateo. George Freeth is often credited as being the Father of Modern Surfing and he is thought to have been the first modern surfer. In 1907, the interests of the land baron Henry E. Huntington brought the ancient art of surfing to the California coast. While on vacation, Huntington had seen Hawaiian boys surfing the island waves, looking for a way to entice visitors to the area of Redondo Beach, where he had heavily invested in real estate, he hired a young Hawaiian to ride surfboards. George Freeth decided to revive the art of surfing, but had success with the huge 16-foot hardwood boards that were popular at that time. When he cut them in half to them more manageable, he created the original Long board
25.
Wushu (sport)
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Wushu is both an exhibition and a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts. The term wushu is Chinese for martial arts, competitive wushu is composed of two disciplines, taolu and sanda. Taolu involves martial art patterns and maneuvers for which competitors are judged, the forms comprise basic movements based on aggregate categories of traditional Chinese martial art styles and can be changed for competitions to highlight ones strengths. Competitive forms have time limits that can range from 1 minute,20 seconds for some styles to over five minutes for internal styles. Modern wushu competitors are increasingly training in techniques such as 540-, 720-. Sanda is a modern fighting method and sport influenced by traditional Chinese boxing, Chinese wrestling methods called Shuai jiao and it has all the combat aspects of wushu. Sanda appears much like Kickboxing or Muay Thai, but includes many more grappling techniques, Sanda fighting competitions are often held alongside taolu or form competitions. In 1958, the government established the All-China Wushu Association as an organization to regulate martial arts training. The Chinese State Commission for Physical Culture and Sports took the lead in creating standardized forms for most of the major arts, during this period, a national Wushu system that included standard forms, teaching curriculum, and instructor grading was established. Wushu was introduced at both the school and university level. This new system seeks to incorporate elements from all styles. Stylistic concepts such as hard, soft, internal, external, as well as based on schools such as Shaolin, Taiji, Wudang. Wushu became the government sponsored standard for the training in arts in China. The push for standardization continued leading to widespread adaptation, in 1979, the State Commission for Physical Culture and Sports created a special task force to teaching and practice of Wushu. In 1986, the Chinese National Research Institute of Wushu was established as the authority for the research. Changing government policies and attitudes towards sports in general lead to the closing of the State Sports Commission in 1998 and this closure is viewed as an attempt to partially de-politicize organized sports and move Chinese sport policies towards a more market-driven approach. As a result of these changing sociological factors within China, both styles and modern Wushu approaches are being promoted by the International Wushu Federation. Wushu events are performed using compulsory or individual routines in competition, compulsory routines are those routines that have been already created for the athlete, resulting in each athlete performing basically the same set
26.
Tokyo
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Tokyo, officially Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan and one of its 47 prefectures. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous area in the world. It is the seat of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government, Tokyo is in the Kantō region on the southeastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands. Formerly known as Edo, it has been the de facto seat of government since 1603 when Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu made the city his headquarters. It officially became the capital after Emperor Meiji moved his seat to the city from the old capital of Kyoto in 1868, Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture and the city of Tokyo. The Tokyo metropolitan government administers the 23 Special Wards of Tokyo, the metropolitan government also administers 39 municipalities in the western part of the prefecture and the two outlying island chains. The population of the wards is over 9 million people. The prefecture is part of the worlds most populous metropolitan area with upwards of 37.8 million people, the city hosts 51 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, the highest number of any city in the world. Tokyo ranked third in the International Financial Centres Development IndexEdit, the city is also home to various television networks such as Fuji TV, Tokyo MX, TV Tokyo, TV Asahi, Nippon Television, NHK and the Tokyo Broadcasting System. Tokyo ranked first in the Global Economic Power Index and fourth in the Global Cities Index. The city is considered a world city – as listed by the GaWCs 2008 inventory – and in 2014. In 2015, Tokyo was named the Most Liveable City in the world by the magazine Monocle, the Michelin Guide has awarded Tokyo by far the most Michelin stars of any city in the world. Tokyo ranked first in the world in the Safe Cities Index, the 2016 edition of QS Best Student Cities ranked Tokyo as the 3rd-best city in the world to be a university student. Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics, the 1979 G-7 summit, the 1986 G-7 summit, and the 1993 G-7 summit, and will host the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tokyo was originally known as Edo, which means estuary. During the early Meiji period, the city was also called Tōkei, some surviving official English documents use the spelling Tokei. However, this pronunciation is now obsolete, the name Tokyo was first suggested in 1813 in the book Kondō Hisaku, written by Satō Nobuhiro. When Ōkubo Toshimichi proposed the renaming to the government during the Meiji Restoration, according to Oda Kanshi, Tokyo was originally a small fishing village named Edo, in what was formerly part of the old Musashi Province. Edo was first fortified by the Edo clan, in the twelfth century
27.
International Olympic Committee
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The International Olympic Committee is the supreme authority of the worldwide Olympic movement. It is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Lausanne and its mission is enshrined in the Olympic Charter, to support the development of competitive sport by ethical and environmentally sustainable means. The IOC was created by Pierre de Coubertin, on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president, today its membership consists of 100 active members,32 honorary members, and 1 honour member. The IOC is the authority of the worldwide modern Olympic movement. The IOC organises the modern Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games, held in summer and winter, the first Summer Olympics organised by the IOC was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896, the first Winter Olympics was in Chamonix, France, in 1924. Until 1992, both Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same year, the first Summer Youth Olympics were in Singapore in 2010 and the first Winter Youth Olympics were held in Innsbruck in 2012. In 2009, the UN General Assembly granted the IOC Permanent Observer status and this decision enables the IOC to be directly involved in the UN Agenda and to attend UN General Assembly meetings where it can take the floor. This has provided the possibility to promote sport at a new level, during each proclamation at the Olympics, announcers speak in different languages, French is always spoken first followed by an English translation and the dominant language of the host nation. The stated mission of the International Olympic Committee is to promote Olympic throughout the world and it is the IOC’s supreme organ and its decisions are final. Extraordinary Sessions may be convened by the President or upon the written request of at least one third of the members, among others, the powers of the Session are, To adopt or amend the Olympic Charter. To elect the members of the IOC, the Honorary President, to elect the President, the Vice-Presidents and all other members of the IOC Executive Board. To elect the host city of the Olympic Games, the Olympic Laurel is awarded to individuals for promoting education, culture, development, and peace through sport. For most of its existence, the IOC was controlled by members who were selected by other members, countries that had hosted the Games were allowed two members. When named, they did not become the representatives of their countries to the IOC. The membership of IOC members ceases in the circumstances, Resignation. Non re-election, any IOC member ceases to be a member without further formality if they are not re-elected, age limit, any IOC member ceases to be a member at the end of the calendar year during which they reach the age of 80. Failure to attend Sessions or take part in IOC work for two consecutive years. Transfer of domicile or of main center of interests to an other than the country which was theirs at the time of their election
28.
South Sudan
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South Sudan, officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in northeastern Africa that gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city and it was planned that the capital city would be changed to the more centrally located Ramciel in the future before civil war broke out. It includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd, formed by the White Nile, following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon developed and ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005, later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed. South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011, following a referendum passed with 98. 83% of the vote. It is a United Nations member state, a state of the African Union, of the East African Community. In July 2012, South Sudan signed the Geneva Conventions, South Sudan has suffered ethnic violence and has been in a civil war since 2013, as of 2016 it has the second highest score on the Fragile States Index. The Nilotic people of South Sudan—the Acholi, Anyuak, Bari, Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Kaligi, Zande, the Azande, Mundu, Avukaya and Baka, who entered South Sudan in the 16th century—established the regions largest state of Equatoria Region. The Dinka are the largest, Nuer the second largest and Azande are the third-largest ethnic group in South Sudan while the Bari are fourth-largest. They are found in the Maridi, Yambio, and Tombura districts in the tropical rainforest belt of Western Equatoria, in the 18th century, the Avungara sib rose to power over the rest of Azande society and this domination continued into the 20th century. The major reasons include the history of British policy preference toward developing the Arab north. After Sudans first independent elections in 1958, the ignoring of the south by Khartoum led to uprisings, revolt. As of 2012, peoples include Acholi, Anyuak, Azande, Baka, Balanda Bviri, Bari, Boya, Didinga, Dinka, Jiye, Kaligi, Kuku, Lotuka, Mundari, Murie, Nilotic, Nuer, Shilluk, Toposa and Zande. Slavery had been an institution of Sudanese life throughout history, the slave trade in the south intensified in the 19th century and continued after the British had suppressed slavery in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Annual Sudanese slave raids into non-Muslim territories resulted in the capture of thousands of southern Sudanese. In the 19th century, the Azande fought the French, the Belgians, Egypt, under the rule of Khedive Ismail Pasha, first attempted to control the region in the 1870s, establishing the province of Equatoria in the southern portion. Egypts first governor was Samuel Baker, commissioned in 1869, followed by Charles George Gordon in 1874, the Mahdist Revolt of the 1880s destabilized the nascent province, and Equatoria ceased to exist as an Egyptian outpost in 1889. Important settlements in Equatoria included Lado, Gondokoro, Dufile and Wadelai, european colonial maneuverings in the region came to a head in 1898, when the Fashoda Incident occurred at present-day Kodok, Britain and France almost went to war over the region
29.
2016 Summer Olympics
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More than 11,000 athletes from 205 National Olympic Committees, including first time entrants Kosovo, South Sudan, and the Refugee Olympic Team, took part. With 306 sets of medals, the games featured 28 Olympic sports, including rugby sevens and golf and these sporting events took place at 33 venues in the host city, and at five in São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasília, and Manaus. These were the first Summer Olympic Games under the International Olympic Committee presidency of Thomas Bach, the host city Rio de Janeiro was announced at the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 2 October 2009. Rio became the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics, the United States topped the medal table for the fifth time in the past six Summer Olympics, winning the most golds and most medals overall, as well as its 1, 000th Olympic gold medal overall. Great Britain finished second and became the first country in the history of the modern Olympics to increase its tally of medals in the subsequent games after being the host nation. Host country Brazil won seven medals, its most at any single Summer Olympics. Bahrain, Fiji, Jordan, Kosovo, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Tajikistan, Ivory Coast and Vietnam each won their first gold medals, the bidding process for the 2016 Olympic Games was officially launched on 16 May 2007. The first step for each city was to submit an application to the International Olympic Committee by 13 September 2007. Completed official bid files, containing answers to a 25-question IOC form, were to be submitted by each 14 January 2008. Four candidate cities were chosen for the shortlist on 4 June 2008, Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, prague and Baku also failed to make the cut. Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco headed the 10-member Evaluation Commission, having chaired the evaluation commission for the 2012 Summer Olympics bids. The commission made on-site inspections in the quarter of 2009. They issued a comprehensive technical appraisal for IOC members on 2 September, many restrictions are in place designed to prevent bidding cities from communicating with or influencing directly the 115 voting members. Cities may not invite any IOC member to visit nor may they send anything that could be construed as a gift, the final voting was held on 2 October 2009, in Copenhagen with Madrid and Rio de Janeiro perceived as favourites to land the games. Chicago and Tokyo were eliminated after the first and second rounds of voting, respectively, the lead held and Rio de Janeiro was announced as host of 2016 Summer Olympics. This comes just five months after CCO Flávio Pestana quit for personal reasons, Pestana withdrew later during the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Renato Ciuchin was then appointed as COO, events took place at eighteen existing venues, nine new venues constructed specifically for the Games, and seven temporary venues. Each event was held in one of four geographically segregated Olympic clusters, Barra, Copacabana, Deodoro, the same was done for the 2007 Pan American Games
30.
Beijing bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics
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Beijing 2022 was a successful bid by Beijing, China and the Chinese Olympic Committee for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The IOC selected the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 31,2015 and this makes Beijing the first city to host both Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The Chinese Olympic Committee nominated Beijing as the city for the 2022 Winter Olympics on November 3,2013. In addition, Zhangjiakou is the joint city for the bidding, Zhangjiakou is located 190 kilometres northwest of Beijing. Beijing bid to host the 2000 Summer Olympics, but lost out to Sydney, Beijing went on to successfully bid for and host the 2008 Summer Olympics. Harbin bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics but failed to become a candidate city, vancouver was ultimately awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics. Harbin also bid to host the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics but failed to become a candidate, innsbruck ultimately won the right to host the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics. Nanjing successfully bid to host the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics, competitions for luge, bobsleigh and alpine skiing will be held in Xiaohaituo Mountain area northwest of Beijing,90 kilometers away from downtown. All other skiing events will be held in Taizicheng Area in Chongli District, Beijing and Zhangjiakou suffer from severe air pollution which is worse during the winter. As of February 26,2014, Beijing hit a dangerous concentration of 537. A rate of 301-500 is marked as hazardous, there was no fundamental improvement in Beijings air pollution, the local government is the relocation of polluting enterprises to Tianjin and north-east and south of Hebei. The lack of snow is cited by the IOC as an issue in Beijings bid, the average snow depth in Yangqing, where the ski competitions would be held, is five centimeters
31.
Almaty bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics
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Almaty 2022 was an unsuccessful bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics by the city of Almaty and the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The IOC selected the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 31,2015, Almaty is the only contender to have never hosted the Olympics before. Almaty will host the 2017 Winter Universiade, Almaty was a potential bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics. On 29 November 2011, Almaty was chosen to host the 2017 Winter Universiade, the city also co-hosted the 2011 Asian Winter Games with Astana, the capital since 1997. It can be seen as preparation for hosting the Winter Olympic Games in the future, Kazakhstan had been considering a bid for these games since 2011. On 17 August 2013, Almaty, the capital city and still the largest city and financial centre of the country. They were the first city to do so, Almaty bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics but failed to become a candidate city. Sochi was ultimately elected at the host city on July 4,2007
32.
Lviv bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics
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Lviv 2022 was a bid by the city of Lviv and the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The IOC will select the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Lviv withdrew its bid on 30 June 2014. Ukraines only previous experience in hosting Olympic events was during the 1980 Summer Olympics hosted by Moscow, in September 2012, government of Ukraine approved a document about the technical-economic substantiation of the national project Olympic Hope 2022. This was announced by Vladyslav Kaskiv, the head of Ukraine´s Derzhinvestproekt, by March 2013 no other preparations than the feasibility study had been approved. On 5 November 2013, it was confirmed that Lviv was bidding to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, Lviv would host the ice sport events, while the skiing events would be held in the Carpathian mountains. This was the first bid Ukraine had ever submitted for an Olympic Games, on 30 June 2014, the International Olympic Committee announced Lviv will turn its attention to an Olympic bid for 2026, and not continue with its application for 2022. The decision comes as a result of the present political and economic circumstances in Ukraine, Lviv was one of the host cities of UEFA Euro 2012. The German companies Proprojekt and AS&P conducted a feasibility study for a Lviv bid in May 2012, the Lviv Ice Zone will host all ice sports, including bobsleigh and luge, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. The Tysovets Snow Zone and the Borzhava Alpine Area, both located in the Carpathian Mountains, would host the snow events, the main Olympic Park would be centered around the Arena Lviv, hosting the opening and closing ceremonies. The Olympic Park would have two ice rinks, a speed skating oval and a temporary curling rink. The Olympic Park would also host the Olympic Village and International Broadcast Centre, a second ice rink for hockey competitions would be located just to the north-west of the Olympic Park. A sliding track would also be built in the east of Lviv, additionally, a ski hill would be developed to host all of the snowboard and freestyle skiing events. It would include an alpine village and media accommodation. Borzhava Resort - Alpine skiing Official Website of Lviv 2022 Olimpic Hope Lviv 2022
33.
Oslo bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics
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Oslo 2022 was a campaign by Oslo and the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports for the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. This bid was cancelled on October 1,2014, after the caucus of the Conservative Party had voted to not support the bid. Already, the Progress Party, Centre Party and Socialist Left Party were opposed to the bid, thus, it was no longer possible to get a parliamentary majority for a state guarantee. The IOC selected Beijing as the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics from the two remaining bids at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 31,2015, the Norwegian Olympic Committee originally planned a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Three cities announced interest, Tromsø, Trondheim and Oslo, after assessing the plans and a technical evaluation, the NOC board voted 7-6 in favor of Tromsø. However,30 September 2008 an external revision demonstrated the games would cost far more than originally suggested and this prompted the Norwegian Olympic Committee to withdraw the bid 6 October 2008, citing inter alia responsibility to avoid unwarranted public spending. The decision caused strong negative reactions, then board member and later president, Børre Rognlien, recognized in 2014 that citing responsibility of public spending was unwise. In January 2010, Gerhard Heiberg, IOC member from Norway, Lillehammer, host of the 1994 Winter Olympics, and the area Stavanger-Bergen-Voss were considered contenders. However, Oslo was selected without much deliberation in October 2011 after the seven major winter sports organizations decided to back the capital. There were negative reactions from several supporters of the Tromsø2018 bid, MP Anne Marit Bjørnflaten suggested that Tromsø2018 was cancelled not due to timing or costs, but geography. On 9 June 2012, the assembly of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports voted in favor of the Oslo 2022 bid with a majority of 142-15. Oslo City Council decided to hold a public referendum on whether or not the city would move forward with the bid. This was held in Oslo on 9 September 2013, the bid was supported by a majority of 55%. Around the same time, the Socialist Left decided not to back the bid, the pivotal issue in pushing the bid forward was obtaining state funding and an unlimited state financial guarantee, as required by the Olympic Charter. 19 June 2013, the Norwegian Olympic Committee and Oslo had put forward their application for funding, eventually the cabinet would have to present the issue to the Norwegian parliament, Storting, as the constitution gives the parliament power of the budget. The application for funding was put through a legally required quality assurance review. The next step following the review of DNV GL was to have the Ministry of Culture forward the application to the parliament, before this was executed, the bid had been withdrawn. 12 November 2013, Oslo sent their letter to be an applicant city in the bidding for the 2022 games
34.
Stockholm bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics
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Stockholm 2022 was a bid by Stockholm with Åre and the Swedish Olympic Committee for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The bid was announced at November 11,2013, the IOC will select the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics at the 127th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 31,2015. Stockholm previously hosted the 1912 Summer Olympics and hosted events at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. On 17 January 2014, the Moderate Party in Stockholm decided not to support the bid, on 17 January 2014, Stockholm dropped a bid for 2022 Winter Olympics. In summer 2013, the Swedish Olympic Committee has expressed plans to submit an application for the 2022 Winter Olympics, four alpine skiing events will be held in Åre in northern Sweden. SOK has the support of the Swedish Sports Organization for the Disabled and Swedish Paralympic Committee, some people has expressed that the distance between Stockholm and Åre is too far, about 610 km. Åre has three times before applied for the games together with city of Östersund, but have been turned down all times. Östersund was also interested in a potential 2022 bid, but the Swedish Olympic Committee decided not to forward with bidding due to a lack of financial guarantees from the government. Östersund is probably too small to host the Olympic Games. Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, Minister for Culture and Sports, has said that she finds it difficult to see a future Olympic games in Sweden. The president of the Swedish Olympic Committee Stefan Lindeberg thinks that Stockholms size is perfect for the Winter Olympics, according to calculations, a Swedish Olympic Games will costs approximately 15–20 billion SEK. On October 1,2013, investigator Jöran Hägglund indicated that it is possible to host the Winter Olympics in Stockholm. Hägglund estimated the budget to 9.79 billion SEK. The games will be concentrated entirely in the Stockholm area, the infrastructure and other ice venues already exists in Stockholm. The reason for this cost cut is that the Swedish government does not want to support the games with big money, however the IOC requires the government to guarantee support for cost overruns etc. A more thorough investigation showed that the cost estimation was uncertain, IOC requirements would demand reconstruction of several existing arenas, adding VIP lounges for IOC members and separate ones for media, restaurant kitchens etc. Stockholm hosted the 1912 Summer Olympics, Stockholm also hosted the Equestrian events in the 1956 Summer Olympics. Stockholm bid to host the 2004 Summer Olympics but lost to Athens, gothenburg bid to host the 1984 Winter Olympics but lost to Sarajevo
35.
National Olympic Committee
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A National Olympic Committee is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their peoples participation in the Olympic Games and they may nominate cities within their respective areas as candidates for future Olympic Games. NOCs also promote the development of athletes and training of coaches, there are also nine dependent territories with NOCs, Four territories of the United States, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. Three British Overseas Territories, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, one territory from the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean, Aruba. The Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee was dissolved at the 123rd IOC session in July 2011 as the Netherlands Antilles ceased to exist on 10 October 2010, hong Kong, a special administrative region of China. Following an amendment to the Olympic Charter in 1996, NOC recognition can only be granted recognition as an independent state by the international community. The states which thus qualify to participate in the future are the Vatican City, a UN observer state, and Niue, other disputed states face obstacles to being recognized by the IOC. Dependent territories such as Curaçao, the Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Macau, athletes from those territories can only participate in the Olympics as part of their parent nations national team. This section lists the current,206 National Olympic Committees who are recognised by the International Olympic Committee,8 National Olympic Committees who are recognised by their continental Olympic Associations, but are not recognised by the International Olympic Committee. These committees, however, are not allowed to participate in the Olympic Games, all 22 national governing bodies that form UANOC are also members of both AOC and are eligible to send athletes to either the African or Asian Games. National Olympic Committees from UANOC member countries are noted in the list below, many of these committees were founded many years before their official recognition, while others were immediately accepted after being founded. Former states, are not listed, only the current states derived from them, for example and it was later transformed into the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee, and, after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, was re-recognized in 1993. It has, however, participated in the Paralympic Games, the Faroe Islands have a recognised National Paralympic Committee. South Ossetia intends to establish a National Olympic Committee, and representatives from the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic take part in Armenia’s National Olympic Committee, National Paralympic Committee List of IOC country codes District of Columbia Olympic Committee National Olympic Committees. Association of National Olympic Committees website Official website
36.
Olympic Charter
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The Olympic Charter is a set of rules and guidelines for the organisation of the Olympic Games, and for governing the Olympic movement. Its last revision was on the 9 September 2013, adopted by International Olympic Committee, it is the codification of the fundamental principles, rules and by-laws. French and English are the languages of the Olympic Charter. Throughout the history of the Olympics, the Olympic Charter has often decided the outcome of Olympic controversy, with its 5 chapters and 61 articles, the Olympic Charter outlines in detail several guidelines and rules. Article 2, The mission of the IOC is to promote Olympism throughout the world, article 6, The Olympic Games are competitions between athletes in individual or team events and not between countries. Article 8, The Olympic symbol consists of five interlocking rings which, from left to right are blue, yellow, black, green and this chapter outlines the membership, meetings, and guiding doctrines of the International Olympic Committee. Chapter 3 discusses the role of International Federations in the Olympic movement, IFs are international non-governmental organisations that administer to sports at the world level and encompass organisations administering such sports at the national level. For each sport that is part of the Olympic Games, an International Federation exists and these IFs work to ensure their sports are developed in a way that agrees with the Olympic Charter and the Olympic spirit. With technical expertise in its sport, an IF has control over eligibility for competition as well as details of the venue in which the athletic competition takes place. Article 28, The mission of the National Olympic Committees is to develop, promote, the role of NOCs within each country is to promote the spirit of Olympicism, ensure the observance of the Olympic Charter, and to encourage ethics in and development of sports. They are in charge of their countrys representation at the Games, deciding on a host city for the Games, in addition, Section 3 of this chapter discusses applicable protocol for Olympic functions and events. This includes an outline of use of the Olympic flag, flame, the five rings of the Olympic games signify the five continents. Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a whole the qualities of body, will. The goal of Olympism is to sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind. It reaches its peak with the bringing together of the athletes at the great sports festival. Its symbol is five interlaced rings, the practice of sport is a human right. Belonging to the Olympic Movement requires compliance with the Olympic Charter, the Olympic Charter is not simply a matter of unenforced policy for the Olympic Games. Throughout history, it has served as guidance for the proceedings of the Games, below are a few of the most recent examples, May 2004, Bernard Lagat became a US citizen three months before he ran track in Athens and won the silver medal in 2004
37.
Olympic Congress
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An Olympic Congress is a large gathering of representatives from the different constituencies of the Olympic Movement, organised by the International Olympic Committee. As detailed in chapter 1, rule 4 of the Olympic Charter, Olympic Congresses are not regular events in the IOC’s calendar. As the Olympic Charter states, The Olympic Congress gathers representatives of the constituents of the Olympic Movement, as the role of an Olympic Congress is consultative, all recommendations from the Congress must be submitted to the IOC Session for formal adoption. The first Olympic Congress was held in Paris, France in 1894 and it was this Congress which founded and established the IOC and laid the groundwork for its statutes. The process of revival of the Olympic Games also began at the Paris Congress of 1894, after 1894, and until 1930, there were eight Congresses covering various issues related to the burgeoning Olympic Movement. The last Congress before the Second World War was held in Berlin in 1930, after this time, there was then an interruption of more than forty years until the 10th Olympic Congress was held in Varna, Bulgaria in 1973. Successive Congresses were held in Baden-Baden, Germany in 1981 and then in Paris, but the Congresses, especially those after the Second World War, were the catalyst for some significant developments in the Olympic Movement. At the heart of the debate in Varna was the issue of amateurism, interestingly this topic featured in the discussions of nearly all the Congresses prior to 1930. At the Congress in Varna the IOC Eligibility Commission was tasked with examining the issue of eligibility, the Commission’s work was brought to fruition the following year at the 75th IOC Session when delegates adopted a new eligibility rule. The new rule authorised financial and material assistance for elite sportsmen and women, the concerns of the athletes took centre place at the Congress in Baden-Baden. This was the first time that played a leading role in a Congress. This Congress paved the way for the creation of the IOC Athlete’s Commission, the primary concern of the Congress in Paris was the protection of the environment. The delegates focused on developing measures to optimise the Olympic Movement’s contribution to preserving the environment, the 1994 Congress was the first time members of the media were invited to speak and had an entire discussion theme devoted to their concerns. It was not surprising that this Congress was later entitled The Congress of Unity as the event was a testimony to the relationship among the various constituents of the Olympic Family. In 2005, the IOC President Jacques Rogge called for the 13th Olympic Congress to be scheduled for 2009, on 8 February 2006, Copenhagen, Denmark was chosen as the host of the 13th Olympic Congress defeating Cairo, Egypt by 59 votes to 40. With this result, no Olympic Congress has ever taken place outside of Europe, the nine original candidate cities were, Athens, Busan, Cairo, Copenhagen, Lausanne, Mexico City, Riga, Taipei and Singapore. Athens was eliminated in the first round of voting and Riga in the second, Singapore lost a tie-breaker with Taipei in round three. Taipei was eliminated in the round and Busan in the fifth round
38.
Olympic Order
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It was established in May 1975 by the International Olympic Committee as a successor to the Olympic Certificate. The Olympic Order originally had three grades, although the bronze grade fell dormant in 1984, traditionally, the IOC bestows the Olympic Order upon the chief national organiser at the closing ceremony of each respective Olympic Games. A lapel badge, in the form of the five rings in Gold, Silver, nadia Comăneci is the only athlete to be awarded the Olympic Order twice, as well as being its youngest ever recipient. The following is a list of recipients of the Olympic Order, jordan 1996, Christian Erb Billy Payne 1997, Chris de Broglio, Hendrika Mastenbroek, Roy Jones Jr. From the Australian Olympic Committee website, John Brown AO John D
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China
Kazakhstan
Switzerland
Romania