Inside the Beijing Olympics

Jeff PhD Ruffolo

Description

As the only American in the senior management team of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, Jeff Ruffolo takes you behind the scenes and into a world no one has ever before witnessed. This remarkable, first-person account of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games is a riveting narrative taking you inside the greatest Olympics ever!

This true story recounts the author's effort to perfect the broadcasting of NCAA Volleyball on the fledgling Internet and commercial radio stations throughout the Western USA and how he parlayed that experience into becoming America's voice of Olympic Volleyball at the 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Summer Olympics and then finally securing a position with the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee.

Follow the author as he maneuvers alone through unchartered and perilous waters in The People's Republic of China to become the Senior Expert of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee and the personal challenges he faced as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Media Center managed one global media crisis after another.

Be captivated by this fascinating tale of political intrigue, mystery and magic as you too will be transported ... Inside the Beijing Olympics.

Sujets

• Sport
• Autour du sport
• Jeux Olympiques
• Jeux olympiques
• Recreation
• Sports
• Olympics
• Paralympics

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 21 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456609429
• Langue: English

Extrait

Inside the Beijing Olympics
 
 
by
Jeff Ruffolo
 


Copyright 2012 Jeff Ruffolo,
All rights reserved.
 
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0942-9
 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
 
Foreword
I never wanted to write this book.
About halfway through the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, I toyed with the idea of writing the true story of my experiences as the lone American in the senior management team of the Olympics in China and mentioned this to many of the international journalists there working covering the Games. Unanimously I was asked – no - begged to put pen to paper and let the world know what it was like to be the only American inside the Chinese Communist Government-orchestrated Olympic Games.
My reply at the time, “not a chance.”
However, as I moved on to work for two years as the Executive Advisor for The 16 th Asian Games in Guangzhou, the idea of sharing my Olympic experience in China remained in the frontal lobe of my skull … whispering to me “write, write, write”.
It took looming unemployment to be the catalyst.
After the 2010 Asian Games, I went to Doha to take a senior management position with the Local Organizing Committee of the AFC Asian Cup, finally returning to China in February 2011 and unemployment.
In a panic, I immediately called a good friend, Lisa Johnson, who lives in New York City. Lisa and I worked together during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and had stayed in touch ever since. Even in China where business is booming, Lisa was blunt, acknowledged my ego but realistically stated that “try as hard as you can, if you can’t manufacturer a job then don’t try.”
“You need to write the story”, said Lisa. I knew what she meant … that writing this book would keep my sanity from the endlessly torture of handing out resumes.
And so, with a collective sigh and great reluctance, I started to write.
One year later, this story is complete.
To all journalists who will leaf through the pages for that which is perceived scandalous or a criticism of the Chinese, you are looking in the wrong place. Likewise, to my hundreds of Chinese friends, from senior leaders in the Government to those steaming rice for a living, you will not find this work skewed to puffery.
There is 100% truth in everything written herein. Nothing has been held back.
It is my prayer that in reading this, you will be swept into a deeply personal experience; an adventure without road map or compass … deep into the Olympic world previously shrouded by mystery and magic.
If you are the President of the United States, Prime Minister of Great Britain and all parts in-between and seeking a primer on what it is like in China after you board your airplane and leave the PRC in your rear window - that is to say, specifically what happens behind closed doors that you and your diplomats are not and will never be privy to - then you should be taking notes and booking me for lunch in the Oval Office.
I’d like a spinach salad sans dressing … please.
Ego? Perhaps.
Realism is more to the point.
Just as Edgar Snow of the Saturday Evening Post wrote of his experiences in China during the Long March of the 1950s, this story needs to be told and so it shall.
Herein I have many people to thank, Chinese and foreigner alike (notwithstanding the stalwart Miss Johnson) but to list them all would take up another full chapter.
I thank all of you for your friendship.
Above all, I dedicate this book to my daughter, Danielle and thank her for still loving her father after leaving her and my life in America behind to come to China and be part of the greatest Olympics in history.
And now - aaaway we go …
 
Beijing, China
July, 2012
Chapter 1
The House on Nomar Street
The People’s Republic of China hosted the greatest Olympic Games on Earth.
Do I have your attention?
I would like to think that I did. Perhaps I should repeat it again for all of you just settling in for what I know will be a good read.
The People’s Republic of China hosted the greatest Olympic Games on Earth.
Now are you paying attention? I sure hope so because unless you have just stumbled into your favorite bookstore (in print or on-line) and opened this book thinking it is perhaps a story about geography as in saying China’s greatness is being pronounced because of its massive land mass and capability of mass producing Starbucks Coffee houses, you have perhaps advanced to learn about 1/16 th of this story.
No Dear Reader, as a proud American I have no doubt that even voicing such an opening to this true story would cause many in Fargo, North Dakota or Lynchburg, Virginia to start sharpening their knifes and voodoo dolls ready to stick my likeness repeatedly for what I will relate to you in this book. But it bears repeating. Not only did China host the greatest Olympic Games on Earth.
The People’s Republic of China is the greatest nation on Earth.
***
 
Well I am sure that now I have you attention.
Okay, so I may be fibbing just a tad to say that China, today, is the greatest nation on Earth, but it certainly it has the potential to do so and during the 2008 Olympics, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee (BOCOG) created the platform for greatest level of global sport competition and by doing show, showed the world just what the Chinese people can accomplish. So, how do you judge the greatest found within a nation of people? Is it within in hectares of land set aside for a hotel or public works program? Or could it be in the arts; the language; the culture or perhaps the food? I can testify that what I have experienced since when I arrived in China - specifically Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou in the fall of 1999 and culminating with the 2008 Beijing Olympics and subsequent 2010 Asian Games, that China is all that and so much more.
As the sole American given the title and position of Senior Expert for the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, I personally saw the greatness of the Chinese people which was clearly evident during the most majestic Olympic Games ever. How can anyone doubt the Games of the XIXV Olympiad was not the greatest of all Olympics when you have Athletics contested in the Bird’s Nest (National Stadium) and Aquatics in The Water Cube … coupled with the smiles and everyday kindness shown by thousands and thousands of youthful Chinese volunteers. From a sheer architectural perspective alone, both The Water Cube and The Bird’s Nest vividly represent the “coming out” of China onto the world stage and showcased a Chinese society that has endured for 2,000 years and will do so in like fashion far into the future.
If you want to take a glimpse into the future you don’t have to visit a Disneyland Park and trek over to Tomorrowland. Instead, just hop on a plane and visit Shanghai. At Pudong International Airport you can see the Batplane parked next to Millennium Falcon before you board a mag-lev train and travel 400 kilometers an hour into the heart of the city. If you are lucky, you’ll also catch a glimpse of Spider-Man as he web slings from high-rise to high-rise.
That is Shanghai.
China is simply a breathtaking place unlike anything in the world and its current rise as the leading political, economic and culture power in Asia simply cannot be denied. This nation and its people will never go away and clearly demonstrated so from the moment billions of people around the globe witnessed the Olympic Games that started at 8:08 p.m. on August 8, 2008.
The Olympic Games in China became the catalyst for a mighty change in a nation of more than 1.3 billion souls and a society that itself is changing and maturing every single day. Take for example the Olympic Education program, in which the values of sportsmanship, fair play and honesty were taught – without prior editorial censorship – to more than 500 million Chinese youth across the country. I know this because I was directly involved in the marketing of these programs. Without the Olympics in China, the worldwide international community would never have any direct influence to the youth of China. It would simply never happen. Does that mean that we should overlook the things in China that just aren’t so good? Of course not. But constantly hammering the Chinese people, to their collective “face”, about all of the things they are doing wrong will gain you nothing. In total, the people here will fold their arms and then stare at you.
Better to use a carrot than a mallet.
***
 
If you saw the Opening Ceremonies of Beijing's Olympic Games, you are among the more than three billion people around the world who watched the Olympics in China either through the technological miracle of television or through the somewhat lesser miracle of being there in person in the Bird’s Nest. It was an awesome Opening Ceremonies, one that American TV host Bob Costas told the millions watching the Games begin that the Chinese “have re-written the book on how to do an Olympics”.
A few months later as winter firmed its grip over America and millions of families huddled together by a warm fireplace to celebrate the holidays,  NBC TV replayed the Opening Ceremonies of these Beijing Summer Olympics as a TV special.  
By any measure, the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games was the greatest Olympic Games ever.
I can say that because I was in the thick of it all.
As the Senior Expert of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, I certainly wasn't part of any pro-Communist or anti-West political propaganda agenda; my work was in promoting the Olympic Games in China and innovative efforts used to make sure every major and