On Thursday both the New York Times and the Washington Post ran articles about the extreme methods that Olympic athletes will be adopting to avoid the ill effects of the gritty, smoggy, and noxious air in Beijing. Air pollution in China’s capital is typically five times above the safety level set by the World Health Organization. On some days it is 12.
The atmosphere in the city is about the same shade as its tea. “When you are coughing up black mucus, you have to stop for a second and say: ‘O.K., I get it,’ ” says Colby Pearce, who competed in Olympic test events last year in cycling. “This is a really, really bad problem we’re looking at.” The American was speaking literally. He swears he saw smog floating inside the velodrome in Beijing.
National teams are now engaged in a competition, exceeded in intensity only by the nuclear arms race of the Cold War, to come up with secret strategies to give their athletes an advantage in the dirty air. Should competitors use asthma inhalers, wear special masks, or arrive in China at the last possible moment? Dozens of nations are setting up training facilities in nearby countries, at least 20 in Japan and 15 in South Korea. The American track and field team will camp out in Dalian, a coastal city in China noted for its cleanliness. So will there be any athletes from foreign nations at the opening ceremony, which begins eight seconds after 8:08 P.M. on August 8 this year?
The president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, believes that Chinese officials “are not going to let down the world.” So far, China has only announced one pollution measure for the Games. On Wednesday, a Beijing paper reported that the government will reduce vehicular traffic in the capital city by half during the Olympics. That, unfortunately, will not be enough to clean the air. Beijing, adopting an odd-even system based on license-plate numbers, ordered cars and trucks off the road for four days last August in a practice drill. Official media said the plan was a success, but later reports revealed that the government ordered them to say that. Others stated the drastic ban had virtually no effect on air quality.
Last October, Rogge said that some endurance events may have to be postponed due to bad air. A better plan is to move them to another city. When confronted with human rights complaints about China, the IOC says that it is only concerned about a host’s ability to stage the Games. Well, now it’s clear that Beijing will not be able to clean the air in time. The U.N. Environmental Program said precisely that in a report issued in October.
Pollution is “like feeding an athlete poison,” said David Martin, a respiratory expert helping American marathoners. The International Olympic Committee has a basic responsibility not to do that.
