A summit seminar on Olympic Games Global Impact (OGGI) jointly initiated by the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee (BOCOG) and Renmin University of China (RUC) was held in this University's Century Hall on June 13, signifying that Beijing will become the first Olympic host city to make this kind of evaluation.

Sources say that there was no systematic record and research on the influence of Olympic Games beyond the sports world before the 2004 Athens Olympics. Summary report on the Olympics has thus far been composed of three parts, namely, introduction of preparation work, competition organization and scores of contests. With the deepening impact of the Olympic Games, International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to add a fourth part recording the global impact of the games. So research projects on the global impact of the Olympic Games emerge as the time requires.

Because of the time schedule, it is impossible for Athens, host of 2004 Olympic Summer Games and Turin, host of 2006 Olympic Winter Games, to provide any complete report. Beijing, therefore, will become the first host city to do such evaluation of the whole process. In this sense, Beijing's research will be the pioneer of its kind in the history of modern Olympics.

Cheng Tianquan, secretary of the Party committee of Renmin University of China, said in his speech: the subject group for OGGI did a lot of substantial research last year. Under the circumstance of no precedent to use as reference, the staff members with the information center of BOCOG and researchers of the subject group have, through their joint efforts, basically decided on their project research target through consultations with the IOC.

By People's Daily Online