Olympics Special Report

2008 Olympics bid city presentation by Beijing (Moscow, 2001)

"Seven hundred years ago, amazed by his incredible descriptions of a far away land of great beauty, people asked Marco Polo whether his stories about China were true. He answered: What I have told you was not even half of what I saw." - Yang Lan, 2001 in Moscow

Ms. Yang Lan, Ms. Deng Yaping and Mr. Yang Ling (from left to right).
Source: Official website of Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad

Phone Call From China Transformed '84 Games

"People think of the Olympics as a corporate structure. It really is not. It relies on relationships. It relies on trust. It relies on people who can cut through cultural differences and find common ground. That was the brilliance of that program." - Bob Ctvrtlik, a member of International Olympics Committee

Charles Lee, Who persuaded Chinese to defy a Soviet-led boycott of 84 Los Angeles Games