The Ultimate 2008 Beijing Olympics Quiz

2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China

• The 2008 Summer Olympics were held from 8 to 24 August 2008 in Beijing, China, marking the first time China had hosted the Olympic Games.

• 10,942 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) competed in 28 sports and 302 events.

• 37 venues were used to host the events, including twelve constructed specifically for the 2008 Games.

• The equestrian events were held in Hong Kong, making these the third Olympics for which the events were held under the jurisdiction of two different NOCs.

• China won the most gold medals (48) and became the seventh different team to top an overall Summer Olympics medal tally, winning a total of 100 medals overall.

• The United States placed second in the gold medal tally but won the highest number of medals overall (112). The third place in the gold medal tally was achieved by Russia.

• The opening ceremony was lauded by spectators and numerous international presses as spectacular and spellbinding.

• The 2008 Games were watched by 3.5 billion people worldwide and featured the longest distance for an Olympic Torch relay.

• The 2008 Games set numerous world and Olympic records and were the most expensive Summer Olympics of all time.

• Beijing hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics, making it the first city ever to host both the Summer and Winter Games.

• Beijing was awarded the 2008 Games over four competitors on 13 July 2001, having won a majority of votes from members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after two rounds of voting.

• The theme song of the 2008 Summer Olympics was "You and Me."

• The Beijing National Stadium was the showpiece of the 2008 Summer Olympics, nicknamed "The Bird's Nest" because of its nest-like skeletal structure.Summary Title: 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

• The 2008 Olympic Torch was designed to remain lit in 65 km/h winds and in rain of up to 50 mm per hour.

• The torch relay lasted 130 days and carried the torch 137,000 km, the longest distance of any Olympic torch relay since the tradition began at the 1936 Berlin Games.

• The relay was met with protests and demonstrations by pro-Tibet supporters throughout its journey, leading to the IOC subsequently barring future Olympics organizers from staging international torch relays.

• The opening ceremony officially began at 8:00 pm China Standard Time on 8 August 2008, co-directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou and Chinese choreographer Zhang Jigang and featured a cast of over 15,000 performers.

• The program for the Beijing Games was quite similar to that of the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens, with 28 sports and 302 events at the 2008 Games.

• 125 Olympic records, including 37 world records, were set in various events at the Games.

• Athletes from China won the highest number of gold medals of any nation at these Games, with 48.

• Michael Phelps won a total of eight gold medals, more than any other athlete in a single Olympic Games, setting numerous world and Olympic records in the process.

• Usain Bolt completed the 100 m final with a time of 9.69 seconds, beating his own previous world record.

• The United States team won the most medals overall, with 112.

• Of the 204 nations that participated in the 2008 Games, 87 earned medals and 54 of those won at least one gold medal, both of these figures setting new records for Olympic Games.

• The 2008 Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony concluded the Beijing Games on 24 August 2008, and included the handover of the Games from Beijing to London.Title: The 2008 Beijing Olympics

• The 2008 Beijing Olympics were held in China from August 8 to August 24.

• The mascots of the 2008 Summer Olympics were the Fuwa, created by Han Meilin, which consisted of Beibei, a fish, Jingjing, a panda, Huanhuan, an Olympic flame, Yingying, a Tibetan antelope, and Nini, a sand martin kite.

• The Beijing Olympics were hit by a number of doping scandals before and after the Games had commenced.

• Many of the worst fears about the Games failed to materialize, but there were concerns over China's hosting of the Games, including claims of human rights violations and air pollution in both the city of Beijing and environs.

• There were also claims that several members of China's women's gymnastics team were too young to compete under the International Gymnastics Federation's rules for Olympic eligibility.

• The 2008 Olympics are associated with a variety of problematic topics: the ecological impact, residential displacement due to construction, treatment of migrant workers, the government's political stance on Tibet, and more.

• The Beijing Olympics are generally accepted by the world's media as a logistical success.

• The Games bolstered domestic support for the Chinese government and for the policies of the Communist Party, giving rise to concerns that the Olympics would give the state more leverage to suppress political dissent.

• The Olympics boosted the political careers of pro-Beijing politicians in Hong Kong, although any trend towards greater identification by Hong Kongers with Mainland China appears to have been short-lived.

• Some sectors of the Beijing economy may have benefited from the influx of tourists, but other sectors such as manufacturing lost revenue because of plant closings related to the government's efforts to improve air quality.

• Four years after the Games, many of the specially constructed facilities were underused or even deserted.

• Economists expect that there will be no lasting effects on Beijing's economy from the Games.