This study focuses on exploring Swedish journalists’ experiences and thoughts about the working conditions during the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008. It is interesting because of the fact that the Olympic Games where hosted in a country with dictatorial government and this is the foundation of this study. Theories about social construction, propaganda and media events were applied to illuminate and give a broader comprehension of the influence on the journalistic work during an Olympic Game. To explore this problem and get answers to our questions we used qualitative interviews with eight Swedish journalists who were stationed in Beijing. The result of this study is based on these journalists’ experiences of their reality. We found that all the journalists experienced an almost perfect working condition in many ways. Censorship and the lack of freedom of speech were debated a lot before the games in many western media. These subjects did not affect negative on the Swedish journalists work in Beijing but the debate had anyway an unavoidable influence on them. The line between sport journalism and a social journalism was often rubbed out and it seemed hard to avoid what happened outside the Olympic area. The organization of the Beijing Games is described by many journalists as the best of all times. We found that the journalists gave a common experience which says that almost everything in Beijing was controlled and set by the organization. The majority says at the same time that they were totally aware of the ongoing propaganda. The journalists in our study describe a journalistic freedom inside the Olympic area, in the same way as in every Olympic Game. No matter if it is hosted by a democratic or a dictatorial government.

UNIVERSITY OF KALMAR - SWEDEN The institution of Social Science Project: Master Essay 15points Title: Olympic Games – An instrument for Environmental Political Change?   -A case study exploring the Environmental Political views of the Olympic Games – with special focus on the 28th Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.  ABSTRACT                                                               The essay´s aim was to explore the complex political environmental opinions and opportunities to use the Olympic Games as an instrument for environmental political changes, with special focus on the 2008 summer Olympics Games in Beijing.  In the light of two environmental political theories (The Green Business and Critical Ecology Theories)  The International Olympic Committee's (The IOC) third pillar, the environment, the Beijing Olympic Committee 's motto (BOCOG) “Green Olympics” and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO:s) such as Greenpeace and their motto “Green Games” have been reviewed. The aim was to see the organisations aim to use the Beijing Olympics as a tool for environmental political changes.   The study involves six qualitative interviews, one group interview, one written questionnaire and participating observations, during an eight week field study, during the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The conclusion of the study demonstrates that the Olympic Games can be used as important instrument to address the organisations environmental work toward a “Greening” of Olympic cities with firstly technical measures under political control.  The Olympics are also used as an instrument to raise the environmental awareness of the public in Beijing and China. The City of Beijing was seen as a showcase of green standards hopefully to be spread nationally. The “Greening of Olympics” is still though a complex social and scientific matter. Countries and cities have different conditions, knowledge, interests and ambitions. Universal standards are not always universally understood.

Abstract This paper to explore how policy changes affect real estate market in Beijing, to help readers understand how policy change to influence Beijing real estate market demand, the reader can understand the further development of Beijing real estate market, the paper is divided into three parts: the first is to explore the environment of Beijing real estate ; the second part of the real estate market in Beijing before the Olympics Games; the third part discuss the development of Beijing real estate market since Olympic Games , let readers understand the development and change of Beijing real estate market . Under the guidance of cancels the welfare lotteries policy , Beijing real estate market began to sprout, Beijing Olympic Games successful application, led to the rapid growth of Beijing real estate market, Beijing Government uses the reversion policy to regulates the supply and demand structure of market ,to guidance real estate market development, but was unable to suppress the house price effectively fast rising. The real estate has the characteristic which buys rises does not buy falls, before in 2008 Olympic Games, the people's anticipated house price will continue to rise, housing demand continues to expand, The market has the situation which falls short of demand¡FBut with the end of the 2008 Olympic Games, the "Olympic effect" gradually cooling down, the market return to a rational development , But with the end of the 2008 Olympic Games, the "Olympic effect" gradually cooling down, the market return to a rational development, people expect house prices to fall, resulting in a wait and see attitude ,Market oversupply occurs, the government resorted to liberal policies to stabilize the mortgage market. With the end of the Olympics, the Beijing government redrawing of the regional economic development, and actively promote the "era after the Beijing Olympics", In the future Beijing real estate development focus from the central area of the city gradually migrate outward circle, Function complete, facility perfect, convenient communications new town will become the new sales hot spot.

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The central question of this thesis is: How (and why) do we preserve sports legacies? Based on my research and experiences as the project coordinator for the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team Oral History Project at the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports, this thesis examines the social meanings of sports legacies and the rationale behind their preservation. I propose that sports legacies are located at the intersection of culture, memory and history; at the same time, on an individual level, sports legacies are also a form of symbolic immortality. This thesis conceptualizes sports legacies as contested terrain in which individuals and communities engage in continual negotiations on meaning and struggles over representation. Consequently, I propose that public history and oral history are the medium and methodology best suited to sports legacy preservation. Finally, I outline the process by which the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports is preserving the legacy of the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team. This thesis explains how and why we are preserving the legacy of this particular sports team and serves as a blueprint that others may use for preserving sports legacies. / text

This research examines the ways in which the Vancouver Olympics emblem, an Inuit inuksuk, and other Aboriginal symbols have been ‘adopted’ by the organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics, how visual and textual Aboriginal representations have been incorporated into the public education mandate of the Games, and how this relates to the Aboriginal Participation Goals of the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC). I use Freirian critical cultural pedagogy and Foucauldian theories along with a visual research method, semiotic analysis, as a way to examine the material presented on the official Vancouver 2010 Olympic website and related websites.

XXIX olimpinės žaidynės, vykusios 2008 metais Pekino mieste buvo jau penktosios, kuriose startavo nepriklausomybę atgavusios Lietuvos sportininkai. Vasaros olimpinėse žaidynėse plento dviračių lenktynių programoje yra dvi rungtys vyrams ir moterims: grupinės ir atskiro starto lenktynės. Šioms varžyboms Lietuvos dviratininkai rengėsi specialiai, vykdydami programoje „Pekinas-2008“ numatytus uždavinius. Pekino olimpinėse žaidynėse vieno iš tiriamųjų dviratininkų pasiektas rezultatas grupinių varžybų distancijoje buvo įvertintas patenkinamai. Tyrimo tikslas ir uždaviniai - ištirti Lietuvos didelio meistriškumo plento dviratininkų rengimąsi Pekino olimpinėms žaidynėms metiniu ciklu, nustatyti jų ugdymo ypatumus. Nustatyti Lietuvos plento dviratininkų fizinio išsivystymo rodiklių kaitą metiniu rengimosi ciklu, nustatyti Lietuvos plento dviratininkų fizinių ir funkcinių galių rodiklių kaitą metinių rengimosi ciklu, išanalizuoti ir apibendrinti jų varžybinę veiklą ir pasiektus rezultatus. Plento dviratininkų rengimo technologija yra sudėtinga, reikalaujanti iš sportininko didelių fizinių gebėjimų, funkcinio pajėgumo, laiko sąnaudų, gausaus aptarnaujančio techninio personalo. Šią sudėtingą rengimosi technologiją reikia pagrįsti moksliniais tyrimais. Buvo organizuotas dviejų Lietuvos plento dviratininkų veiklos tyrimas. Išanalizuotas fizinis krūvis, atliktas metiniu priešolimpiniu treniruočių ciklu. Pateiktos abiejų tiriamųjų dviratininkų fizinio krūvio suvestinės, išanalizuota... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Lithuanian athletes’ participation in the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in 2008, Beijing, was their fifth time participation in the Games as a delegation of independence-regained state. In Olympic Games, cycling road race consists of two events: group race and time trial race (men and women). For this race, Lithuanian riders used to prepare following the tasks set in the special preparatory program “Beijing–2008”. One investigated riders’ results, achieved in Beijing Olympic Games in group race event, received an evaluation as being satisfactory. The aim and tasks of the investigation were to study Lithuanian elite cycling road race riders’ preparation for Beijing Olympic Games in yearly training cycle, as well as to establish their training peculiarities; focus was also put on examining the change of riders’ physical development, physical and functional capacities indices in yearly preparation cycle, also – to analyze and summarize their competitive activity and achieved results. Technology of cycling road race riders’ preparation is rather complex and requires much physical and functional capacities of an athlete, as well as time expenditure and numerous technical staff. Thus, this complex preparatory technology is to be scientifically grounded. Research on two Lithuanian road race riders’ activity was performed, their physical load, carried out during yearly pre-Olympic training cycle, was analyzed. The work presents resume of both riders’ physical load; analysis on... [to full text]

This paper examines the development of income in the tourist generating coun-tries, the relative prices controlled for the exchange rate, and the distance in kilo-meters between the capital in the origin countries and Athens as determinants of international tourism demand for Greece. By the deployment of an OLS log-linear regression model coupled with annual cross-section data for the period between 1998 and 2007, the desired effects could be captured. The results from this study indicates that after 2004, both the importance of income in the tourist generating countries and distance between the countries of origin and Athens have expe-rienced a quantum drop in importance as determinants of international tourism demand for Greece. Furthermore, the elasticities of these factors remained at the new level throughout the remaining period studied. This suggests that the respec-tive elasticities have reached a new plateau after 2004 where the impact on inter-national tourism demand is less sensitive to changes in these specific factors. Final-ly, the investments made in infrastructure supporting the Olympic Games have the possibility to benefit the T&T sector in Greece for an extended period of time going forward.

This research comprises three interconnected studies that, when considered together, attend to the dissertation’s purpose of presenting an integrated conceptual framework for ambush marketing in the Olympic Games. This has been accomplished in two ways: (1) the use of institutional theory, supported by network theory, as a lens to view and understand evolutionary processes in Olympic sponsorship and ambush marketing and (2) the use of grounded theory to build a conceptual framework of ambush marketing from the findings. Broadly, the model suggests the evolution of ambush marketing is partially impacted by, and an outcome of, institutional forces and considerations. Study I examines the process of institutionalization in the evolution of Olympic sponsorship during its most critical period of growth. It is argued that three key periods of change for sponsorship and two for ambush marketing exist during this time. Furthermore, these periods of change, most specifically concerning anti-ambush marketing practices, suggest the institutionalization of anti-ambush marketing legislation in the Olympic Games. Study II examines how Olympic ambush marketing stakeholder power and transfer of sponsorship and ambush marketing knowledge has influenced institutional processes toward the state of anti-ambush legislation as institutionalized brand protection. Centrality measures suggest the International Olympic Committee and Organizing Committees for the Olympic Games demonstrate the greatest stakeholder influence within the Olympic ambush marketing network. It is further argued the influence resulting from the structure of Olympic ambush marketing networks impacts the institutional processes of objectification and sedimentation. Study III examines the contemporary state of Olympic sponsorship evidenced by institutionalized legislated brand protection. While direct marketing implications of anti-ambush marketing legislation are minimal, it is argued the practice represents a portion of a regime of brand protection and that public relations outcomes of legislated brand protection must be carefully managed as part of a brand management strategy. Similarly, proportionality and managing expectations are arguably important in the understanding and application of such laws. Finally it is suggested that while the Olympic Movement may be viewed as an early adopter of anti-ambush legislation in the mega-event field, the individual character of each Olympic Games will interfere with complete isomorphism.

The aim of this study was to examine Icelandic elite athletes’ experiences in regard to the Olympic Games (OG)-2012. More specifically the focus was on the OG as a career transition process covering several phases in the Olympic cycle, having the Games as its culmination and followed by a career change. The athletic career transition model, the holistic lifespan perspective and temporal structure of the Olympic cycle guided retrospective interviews with six Icelandic athletes who (some years ago) were candidates to take part in the OG-2012. Among the six participants three were successful in the OG-2012, one was less successful and two participants prepared but were not qualified for the OG. Holistic-content and categorical-content analyses resulted in: (a) six core narratives describing and interpreting each athlete’s individual pathway through preliminary/basic preparation, selection process, Olympic season, the Games, and post-Games periods, and (b) sixteen themes following athletes’ major foci in each transition phase (e.g., “gaining international experience” and “getting financial support” in the preliminary/basic preparation, etc.) and also the transition resources perceived by athletes as necessary during the whole Olympic cycle (“prioritizing sports while balancing sport with work/school”, “organizational support” and “family support”).  Results are discussed in relation to the theoretical frameworks, previous research, and Icelandic context.