The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) wants to drop doubles from the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games, reports China Daily. The reason – it’s an effort to stop China from winning so many table tennis gold medals and make the sport more of a crowd pleaser.
ITTF president Adham Sharara said Monday. “we have submitted an official proposal to the IOC regarding changes to be made. A decision is expected in 2005 and we are optimistic that it will be a positive one, provided the number of players and judges doesn’t change”.
China has won 16 of the 20 gold medals at the last five Olympics, including Athens, but there are concerns their domination is unhealthy for the sport.
Under the proposed rule change for the 2008 Games China’s medal count will be reduced because countries will only be allowed to enter one team.
Meanwhile, Beijing’s Organising Committee for the 2008 Games has put together a colourful, picture-filled text book that was released Tuesday in Beijing. The book is an attempt to get foreigners attending the Games to be able to at least greet locals with a friendly “ni hao”, the Chinese phrase for “hello”.
Each chapter includes text in English and French.
In the past few years Beijing has tried to teach taxi drivers and police basic English in preparation for the Games.
Zhang Xinsheng, vice minister of education said, “if every visitor can learn to speak 10 to 20 phrases of Chinese, that would be an amazing achievement”.
