CHINA: PARALYMPICS - China mobilises hundreds of volunteers for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics

Record ID: 449826

  • Title: CHINA: PARALYMPICS - China mobilises hundreds of volunteers for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics
  • Date: 5th September 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) JIANG MAN, 20-YEAR-OLD VOLUNTEER, SAYING: "I have got a better understanding of the life and training of the disabled athletes. I really admire their sports spirit. We feel really honoured to be able to know them as a volunteer for the Paralympics. It is quite an experience."
  • Embargoed: 20th September 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVADC188NPAVHER5O6X30UJT6ZF0
  • Story Text: Volunteer representatives for the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games gather at the ceremony in a bid to inspire the Chinese society to pay more attention to next years Olympic Games and people with a disability.

    Two days before the one-year countdown of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, hundreds of volunteer representatives for the Games gathered on Tuesday (September 4) for a mobilisation ceremony.
    Volunteers are vital to the successful running of the Games, performing functions from helping athletes and the media to directing crowds at the venues.
    "Our purpose to hold this mobilisation ceremony right before the one-year countdown of the 13th Paralympic Games is to call for all the volunteers -- as requested preparation work for the countdown -- to be well prepared, and provide high-quality service with good working spirit,"
    said head of the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee Liu Qi.
    Beijing plans to have 70,000 volunteers for the Olympics, which open on August 8 2008, and 30,000 more for the Paralympics in September the same year.
    It also hopes to have 400,000 "city volunteers" posted around the Chinese capital during the Games and more than a million "social volunteers".
    "To me, the Olympics and Paralympics are equally important. It means a lot for us to have this opportunity to witness these two games and make our own contributions," said 20-year-old volunteer Cao Feilong.
    Most of the volunteers are college students who have already finished a one-month-long training during the summer break, and will get more in the coming test games.
    "I have got a better understanding of the life and training of the disabled athletes. I really admire their sports spirit. We feel really honoured to be able to know them as a volunteer for the Paralympics. It is quite an experience," said volunteer Jiang Nan.
    The sports and vocational training centre for the disabled was completed on the same day of the mobilisation ceremony after two years of construction. It will become the training base for the disabled athletes who compete in the 2008 Games.
    The centre can provide sports and skill training for over 30,000 disabled people every year.
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