The decision of whether the competition time for the swimming finals at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will be moved to morning will be made in the latter half of this year, a senior official from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Tuesday.

"We are looking at the possibility, and have not made any decision," said Gerhard Heiberg, IOC marketing commission president, while attending the second Beijing Olympic Sponsor Workshop in Beijing.

"The final solution will be announced during the second half of the year," Heiberg added.

In order to suit viewing audiences, Olympic broadcaster NBC has requested to move the swimming finals from the evening to morning hours so that the competition can be shown live in the prime-time of the United States. The IOC executive board discussed this issue last week during its meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

"We want to ensure the audiences around the world all get a feeling that they are a part of the games," said Heiberg. "As you know, there is a time difference between here and the (United States). If we can put some of the finals in the morning, that would be good for the US audience, just like the audience in Australia and Europe, so we have to be a little flexible."

But the proposal was rejected by some of the swimmers, who have been used to competing at night, especially the Australians.

Australian Swimming has led calls for FINA (Federation International De Natation), to raise objections to the move and has called on the IOC to stick to a programme that will ensure the finals staged according to tradition in the evening.

In the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, half the programme's finals were staged in the morning to suit US television viewers.

According to wire reports, Bill Sweetenham, Britain's performance director, has urged British swimmers and coaches to think hard about the issue and express their view to FINA and the IOC.

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The Americans seem resigned to such a switch.

"That's a very radical change," Mark Schubert, national team coach and general manager for USA Swimming told the Associated Press last week. "We're very anxiously awaiting the final schedule."

As to those rejections, Heiberg said the IOC is "open" to suggestions of all stakeholders.

"We are talking to people and try to find the best solution, but we are flexible," said Heiberg. "We also know the athletes are flexible, so we don't want to do anything wrong for the athletes."

NBC owns the exclusive US media rights to the Olympics, having paid US$3.55 billion to cover the Games from 2000 to 2008. The company recently secured the rights to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada and 2012 Summer Games in London for an additional US$2.201 billion.

Swimming is likely to be one of their biggest ratings winners at the 2008 Games with American Michael Phelps, who won a record eight medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics, leading the pack.

Source: China Daily