[Developer]

Olympic attendance rate over ninety percent



Mr. Wang Wei


Full coverage: Fourth IOC & BOCOG press conference
(BEIJING, August 12) -- On Monday, two of the 18 Olympic venues in Beijing had an attendance rate of over ninety percent, reported Wang Wei, Executive Vice-President and Secretary General of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Games of the 29th Olympiad (BOCOG) at a joint IOC/BOCOG press briefing on Tuesday.
On Monday, August 11, there were a total of 20 competition events staged in 16 venues or venue clusters, 14 of which were located in Beijing. The remaining two venues were held in co-host cities. Thirteen gold medals were awarded during the day. The competition venues received 2,975 athletes and 1,853 team officials from the 888 participating teams, as well as 2,087 technical officials, 186,037 spectators, 4,750 VIPS and 6,455 journalists. The Olympic Green received approximately 40,000 visitors yesterday.
Competition organization and venue operations ran smoothly throughout the day, Wang Wei said. Two of the 18 venues in Beijing had an attendance rate of over ninety percent, six over eighty percent, eight over seventy percent, and the remaining two had over a sixty percent attendance rate.
The athlete village welcomed 540 more athletes yesterday, and 59 athletes left, leaving the total resident count at 13,575. The athletes in the village hale from 204 different countries and regions. The Olympic Family Hotels now have a total of 1,793 residents and are expected to receive another 25 more guests after 75 guests left yesterday. The number of media personnel using Olympic Identity and Accreditation Cards stands at 23,936. Altogether, 79 dignitaries left Beijing on or before Monday, August 11.
In response to concerns about ticket scalping, Wang Wei said that scalping is prohibited under Chinese law and fixed measures have been implemented to prevent scalping. All Opening and Closing Ceremony tickets have the names of the ticket holder on the ticket. Wei noted that there are also quotas on the number of tickets any one person can buy for competition events.
As part of the IOC anti-doping initiative, IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies told the media gathering that 1500 doping tests have already been completed. It is estimated that over 4500 tests will be conducted during the Beijing Games.