Track and Field Delivers World Records Despite Fears of Poor Air Quality; Tickets Can Be Bought

On Saturday, August 16 I sat in China's National Stadium for the very first time to watch Jamaica's Usain Bolt literally bolt to the finish line of the 100-meter race, breaking both the Olympic and world records with speed and ease. The fact that Bolt broke a world record challenges popular fears that poor air quality would mean poor performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games:

How the athletes are going to cope with this (air quality) has been a hot topic in sporting circles. The Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, 34, the marathon world record holder, pulled out of the event over pollution concerns earlier this year. On Tuesday the Portuguese cyclist and Athens silver medallist Sergio Paulinho also withdrew from the Games, citing a respiratory problem that he feared could be exacerbated by the pollution," wrote Will Pavia in "Beijing Smog Makes for a Painful Jog.

Gebreselassie and Paulinho may wish they hadn't been so hasty. Other track and fielders besides Bolt have broken records in Beijing running longer distances. Ehtiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba, for example, set a new Olympic record in the women's 10,000-meter race (29:54:66) on August 15, and Russia's Galkina-Samitova set a new world record in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase on August 17.

Fortunately for Beijing, the weather has been on its side as well, in part due to government policies to reduce automobile and factory emissions during the Games. On August 17, for example, marathoners ran in weather cool enough for light jackets. It felt like autumn. The two days before were clear blue and comfortable, as is today (August 18).

Note: Bolt ran to a packed Bird's Nest. Despite recent reports of empty seats at stadiums, I've been to two events that filled up as the events progressed. Friends have reported the same. And despite claims that tickets are sold out, you can buy tickets this late in the game at www.cosport.com. On August 12, two friends bought tickets for August 16 tennis finals. The trick is to refresh the page continually until the event you want is available. It may take up to an hour.)

Comments

[PaPaPeng]

I have been to Beijing for a month in 06 and went everywhere by bus, on a bicycle or on foot. There were at least two days a week where the air was so thick one couldn't see the buildings just a kilometer away. I had no respiratory problems although I am sensitive to even a dirty ash tray on the next table. Neither did anyone I saw anywhere coughing let alone hacking their lungs out. You have seen for yourselves in more than a week of the Games that none of the TV reporters, none of the athletes nor anyone in the background been caught on tape as coughing on account of the bad air. My only unusual health related oddity was the thick lump of mucus in my throat each morning.

During my stay there there was a dust storm that overnight completely covered the streets and cars until the cars looked like clay sculptures. The yellow loess dust reached the seventeenth floor apartment i was staying in. The dust was easy to sweep up as it did not stick to the floor or furniture and was dense enough to remain in a swept pile. When rubbed against the fingers dust was finer than baby talc and easily filled the grooves between the ridges of the fingertips. The dust did not stick to the buildings and by the following afternoon everything looked normal again.

[GeeBee]

Considering how few breaths a 100-meter runner takes in those few short seconds, and how little they contribute to the amount of oxygen they use up in the process, your comment on Usain Bolt is a little silly. Ever hear of "Oxygen Debt"? That's the thing that makes you want to throw up when you have to run very fast very suddenly.

Now the marathon runners, that's a different story - you can't run on stored oxygen for a whole 26miles+. However, judging from the women's event the other day, the air in Beijing is at least decently clean right now. Of course that will all change once the Olympics are over and the city goes back to work.

[Courtney Woo - Huffpost Blogger]

You made a good point. I merely wanted to demonstrate that Beijing has cleared its air for the games, as it promised it would, and even long distance runners (not just sprinters) are breaking world records. As for air quality once the games end, you're probably right.