A major concern for the Beijing Olympics has been the air quality of the city and its surrounding areas. Currently, the air pollution levels are at 3 times the acceptable level, according to the World Health Organization. Beijing is one of the most urbanized, and indeed the most populous city on Earth.
A spokesman for the British Olympic Association has expressed some concern over what influence this pollution will have on athletes, especially when combined with the characteristic humidity of eastern asia. Despite the BOA's apprehension, Britain has won 6 of its 12 gold medals in cycling.
Chinese Officials have said that they will attend to this environmental issue by removing hundreds of thousands of taxicabs and buses from the city during the olympics, as well as the relocation hundreds of factories to other cities.
The game has its origins in England as an after-dinner amusement for upper-class Victorians in the 1880s. Mimicking the game of tennis in an indoor environment, everyday objects were originally enlisted to act as the equipment. A line of books would be the net, a rounded top of a Champagne cork or knot of string as the ball, and a cigar box lid as the racket.
Athletics, also known as track and field athletics, is a collection of sports events that involve running, throwing and jumping. The name is derived from the Greek word "athlos" meaning "contest". The original and only event at the first Olympics in 776 BC was a stadium-length foot race or "stade", run on a track when Koroibos, a cook from the nearby city of Elis, won the stadium race, a foot race 600 feet long.
The game of volleyball, originally called "mintonette", was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan, after the invention of basketball by only 4 years. Morgan, a graduate of the Springfield College of the YMCA, designed the game to be a combination of basketball, baseball, tennis and handball.
In the Olympics there are two different kinds of volleyball, Volleyball and Beach Volleyball. Volleyball became an Olympic sport in 1964 and Beach Volleyball became an Olympic sport in 1996.
Basketball was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith at Springfield College in Massachusetts. He wanted an indoor game for his students. It was first played with a peach basket and a scrunched up ball of paper. Today basketball is one of the most popular games in the world.
