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20 Nations Will Train For Olympics in Japan Because of Pollution Concerns

Beijing’s horrifying air pollution has driven 20 nations to have their athletes undertake pre-Olympic training in Japan instead of China:

Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States are among nations planning to hold training camps in Japan, according to the Japanese Olympic Committee and other sources.

[...]

“I want to avoid the risk of a long stay in Beijing,” said the coach of the Finnish rowing team on a visit to Kagawa Prefecture in November to sound out the possibility of holding a training camp there.

The Finnish canoe team also made an approach to the prefecture the following month, leading a prefectural government official to suggest that “competitors in outdoor events have got the jitters about the air quality [in Beijing].”

The manager of the British swimming team also reportedly told an Osaka municipal government official of their “anxiety” over air pollution and food in China.

Some national teams have decided to hold camps in the same locations as they did for last summer’s athletics championships in Osaka.

The Finnish athletics team will be based in Marugame, Kagawa Prefecture, a city where nine countries held camps before the Osaka championships.

Ireland’s athletics coach gushed about Matsue as a training location, saying, “Everything–the facilities, food and accommodation–was good.”

Do you think it is reasonable for athletes to be concerned about the air pollution in Beijing?

15 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - January 14, 2008 at 9:43 am

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags: 2008, Beijing, china, enivornment, japan, olympics, pollution, science, sports

http://relaxedfocus.blogspot.com Rob

Went to China over the winter vacation. 3 cities/6 days, including Beijing. Didn’t see the sun unless I was on a plane above the smog layer. It was worse than I expected it to be. In Beijing, after a day of walking around, I had a headache, red eyes, and a cough that lasted the rest of the week. There was haze and pollution *inside* department stores. It was kind of ludicrous. I don’t get how the athletes are supposed to perform under those kind of conditions.

Our tour guide did say that July/August are “blue sky months” though. Which raises the sad issue that only some months have blue skies in Beijing.

http://www.gaijinbash.com Brian

I went to a couple cities in China last month in December. It was sunny Beijing and raining in Xian. Both cities had the same visibility…
The Overthinker

I was in Shanghai last year and didn’t bother wasting my time going up the Orient Pearl etc to admire the view, as all I would have been admiring was thick pea-soup smog….
http://www.transpacificradio.com/ Garrett

I agree, Rob, I was shocked at how bad the pollution in Beijing was. Air so good you could see it. What worries me is that it was that nasty even though I was there in April and May 2003, when much of the city was cleared out and decidedly less busy than usual due to SARS.
I got the sickest I think I’ve ever been while there – like a flu on steroids. Even the Chinese Tourist Bureau said foreign visitors would more likely than not get an upper respiratory tract infection on the first visit. A shame because, pollution aside, I thought Beijing was interesting, if nothing else.

What would be bad would be if some of the athletes started getting sick shortly before they were supposed to compete.

http://www.neilduckett.com Neil Duckett

Not a bad idea, having spent some time in Shanghai i can see the benefit of them training here.
Grinz

Is it just me or does the picture above give of a certain “Silent Hill” vibe to it.
http://www.machinimad.com Sean

It really is a shame China is so polluted. A beautiful country like this shouldn’t be having to deal with pollution. Maybe this will encourage them to actually try to slow or stop green house gas increases.

Raza

Although I haven’t been there, I must agree with your post. Seeing China on TV is spectacular. The history and tradition that reign there are extraordinary, but the pollution is making me think twice about going there. How do the Shaolin Monks train?!?!

Pollution is an issue for the Olympics. Although the government of china has shut down plants in the city’s surroundings to stop pollution, i personally think that its a long term process and pollution won’t go away that easily.

P.S : LOL to people who voted no. 621 to 39. What have YOU been smoking?!?!

The Overthinker

“How do the Shaolin Monks train?!?!”

The hardest part of their training is adapting their lungs to breathe pure carbon soot….

http://www.keepingpaceinjapan.com Turner

Let me put it like this. I’m friends with a lot of long distance runners. Naturally, we can’t train on the treadmills jogging 10-20 miles in one go. Someone was doing this as often as he could in Beijing for a few months. Upon returning home and seeing a doctor, he was told “you need to stop smoking.”
…

Expect what? China is a cursed nation.
Tim

My wife is Chinese, from Shanghai. I’ve been to China 6 times in the past 5 years. I’ve been to Beijing twice, once in 2004 and once in 2007.

This past summer I was in Beijing for only 4 nights/3days. I got very ill while there and was ill for the next 10 days. The last few days of a 16 day vacation I was fine. However I spent the first day in Shanghai (and was fine) and the last 10 or so in Shanghai. Since that trip and returning to the U.S., I’ve not been sick for 7 months. Between the air, the dirty environment and I also believe I touched something that had a virus or germ of somesort on it, I got very ill while there.

The air pollution is very bad in Beijing. Everywhere you go around that city, even at the Great Wall at Badaling, it’s bad. The city is also very dirty. Beijing has a serious “automobile” pollution issue that they haven’t dealt with.

Actually “Raza” the vote (when I voted)is 721 “Yes” and 44 “No”, people know the pollution is an issue.
Jay K.

Well, nice input guys. As a “lao wai”(i think its gaijin for you guys in Japan, in Beijing, I can definitely say most of your comments are right on.

The Euros here, especially the Spaniards and French speaking people welcome everybody by saying somewhere down the line, the word “Turista”; that is within the first week or 2 you will definitely get diarrhea and a horrible one.

Maybe my immune system was a little bit stronger, but I did get a respiratory infection on the 2nd month. I was a bit too nervous and scared to go to the hospital, but my self diagnosis of hacking my lungs of everyday for over 1 month was about right.

I think it is very smart for nations to train in another country in which pollution is not so high, because quite frankly although Beijing gets more blue skies compared to the past it’s still a polluted city.

The Beijing version of Japan Probe is danwei.org
and according to what they have found out its Air Quality Index is not really the greatest, although us vets here in Beijing seem to have mutated our immune system to it
http://www.danwei.org/beijing/beijing_air_breathable_again_t.php
that is the website for it

Now this is from IHT (intl heral tribune) news and a contrasting report on it.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/10/asia/beijing.php

I personally agree with the latter because, being in this country over 1 year nad talking to the other expats here, as well as seeing how things are done here. i wouldnt be surprised @ all at how much deception and propaganda crap is done to make the olympics the best thing ever in china…

Greetings from Beijing, China

Jay
http://p0taku.blogspot.com/ 1337rice

just move the Olympics to Hong Kong, at least the air there is 10x better than Beijing
oh oh, AND WE HAVE BETTER ENGLISH (meaning LESS ENGRISH)
Pingback: Current Events: China’s Pollution « My Ambience

20 Nations Will Train For Olympics in Japan Because of Pollution Concerns

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