Olympians fight Beijing smog: insulting?

by Rob Peters | January 24, 2008 at 10:12 am

1751 views | 4 Recommendations | 17 comments

Many Olympic athletes are wondering what they should do to combat smog in Beijing, where pollution levels are up to five times higher than World Health Organization standards.

Should I run behind a bus and breathe in the exhaust? Should I train on the highway during rush hour? Is there any way to acclimate myself to pollution?

One scientist at the US Olympic Training Centre has come up with some interesting recommendations:

To protect the athletes, Mr. Wilber is encouraging them to train elsewhere and arrive in Beijing at the last possible moment. He is also testing possible Olympians to see if they qualify for an International Olympic Committee exemption to use an asthma inhaler. And, in what may be a controversial recommendation, Mr. Wilber is urging all the athletes to wear specially designed masks over their noses and mouths from the minute they step foot in Beijing until they begin competing.

But is walking around in Darth Vader masks a slap on the Olympic host's face?

His multipronged strategy could give the United States team an advantage over teams from less-prepared countries. But the plan has a downside: it runs the risk of offending the host country, creating political tension.

Chinese officials say air quality at the Olympics won't be no thang.

Chinese officials say the air in Beijing, one of the most polluted cities in the world, will not be an issue when China’s first Olympic Games start Aug. 8. They plan to limit vehicle use, close factories and do everything in their power to bring blue skies to Beijing. Jacques Rogge, the I.O.C. president, said he was confident the air would be clean because Chinese officials “are not going to let down the world.”

What do you think? Should athletes protect their health at the expense of good guestmanship?

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Caoimhin1

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 10:18 on January 24th, 2008

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff.

amandaleigh

at 11:23 on January 24th, 2008

Mid-day in Beijing.

amandaleigh has contributed a photo to this story.

Digging For Fire

at 12:07 on January 24th, 2008

A recent photo of Beijing on a very smoggy day.

Digging For Fire has contributed a photo to this story.

hanz.schulz

at 13:27 on January 24th, 2008

Some days just look like this. But I must admit that they are improving. Still it affects your health living/staying/breathing in Beijing...

hanz.schulz has contributed a photo to this story.

lisafaith

at 15:42 on January 24th, 2008

This was shot from a terrace overlooking a main highway intersection in Beijing in December. Two days in Bejing and I woke up coughing at night even though my friends had air cleaners going 24 hours a day. Five days in Beijing and my nylon tan down coat was black about the neck and shoulders.

lisafaith has contributed a photo to this story.

Paraic

at 15:44 on January 24th, 2008

I'm afraid I have nothing to add to the picture other than the claim I heard several Beijing residents make; that what looks like smog can have a complex set of causes involving industrial and energy pollution, local construction, dust from the Gobi Desert and the regional microclimate. I have no idea how much truth there is to any of that.

Paraic has contributed a photo to this story.

Miriam and Tony

at 22:54 on January 24th, 2008

This looks like lovely, ethereal mist but it's not. It's horrible, choking smog. We couldn't even get good pictures in Beijing unless we were 20 feet or closer to the subject b/c the smog was so thick. I got sick from the second (literally) that I stepped off the plane, hacked and coughed the whole week I was there, then stayed sick (coughing gunk out of my lungs) for 6 weeks after I got home. I live in CA, in a smoggy, dusty area and don't have any reaction to it, but nothing prepared me for this type of smog.

Miriam and Tony has contributed a photo to this story.

hanz.schulz

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 01:40 on January 25th, 2008

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff.

arthritisboner

at 14:03 on January 26th, 2008

This was the view outside of my Beijing classroom at the BFA. Our university was located on the west corner of the old city wall which is that little gate down there. The city wall was an old earth wall back in the imperial days so lots of trees surround our school which means there was something resembling oxygen in the area in which we lived. The buildings are built at random because Beijing never has a city plan so none of the architecture goes together and these random buildings go on forever...

Anyways this was my first morning in Beijing and so as you're seeing this for the first time so was I and I have to say that I was pretty amazed about how far I couldn't see into the horizon. I didn't think it was sad but rather a reminder of what the whole world will look like if we keep progressing in the wrong direction. I seriously can imagine the whole world as a series of high rises one day, never ceasing to stop for hundreds of miles but no one can know what is beyond them because of how thick the smog will be.

arthritisboner has contributed a photo to this story.

B-Art-o

at 04:21 on January 27th, 2008

Beijing By Day

There is so much smog that even the sun looks like a full moon during the day!

B-Art-o has contributed a photo to this story.

claustrophonic

at 06:40 on January 27th, 2008

We were cycling around Beijing for a day, and according to our hosts, the smog in this photo is considered a "light smog" day for Beijing!

claustrophonic has contributed a photo to this story.

funkywombats

at 03:37 on January 28th, 2008

Beijing on 1 October 2007 - Golden week.

funkywombats has contributed a photo to this story.

craa22uk

at 06:46 on January 28th, 2008

This is what the Beijing smog looks like in late summer. Taken in Chaoyong Park. The smog actually lowers the temperature on the ground and makes conditions less fierce.

craa22uk has contributed a photo to this story.

Rachel Portele

at 20:42 on January 30th, 2008

I spent a semester studying in Beijing, and the first three weeks I spent there I didn't see the sun once, even though it was never cloudy. I took this picture in the afternoon, with my camera pointed directly at the sun, which should result in a blinding glare and sun spots on the lense. Instead, all I got was a barely visible orb behind a toxic screen of pollutants. I absolutely loved China, but I'm happy to be breathing fresh air again!

Rachel Portele has contributed a photo to this story.