The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has agreed to move the dates for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games originally scheduled from July 25 to August 10 ahead to August 8 to 24, to avoid Beijing’s summer heat and humidity.
Gilbert Feli, executive director for the Olympic Games said, “it was the first time in the bidding process that we had proposed dates for the Games. Before that we had just said, ‘tell us when you would like to stage the Games’. This time we had set dates but the Chinese said to us those were not the best dates for them because of the weather. So we reassessed. The conditions will be much better in terms of heat and humidity”.
Beijing organizers welcomed the decision. Wang Wei, vice president of the Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee said, “it is better to move back the Games two weeks. But from our point of view it would be much better if the Games could be moved back one more week”.
