Olympic Notes

In N.Y., Juliet Macur writes about a 15-minute drive from the Olympic Village, on a "quiet campus with tall trees, the [USOC] has created what it calls a high-performance center," where athletes can "train, eat and play in a place that looks and feels like home." The USOC "spent more than $3[M] to set up and maintain the high-performance center, which has everything an Olympic athlete may need to prepare for the Games." At the peak of the Games, "about 500 staff members will be working" there. As far as USOC officials know, the U.S. team "is the only Olympic team to have a facility like this in Beijing" (N.Y. TIMES, 8/5).

IOC's Official Beijing Book To Be Bound In Gold Silk

THE GOLDEN BOOK: MediaWorks Asia said that the IOC's official Beijing Olympics book "will be covered in gold silk." Only 800 copies will be printed, and the IOC "will give them as gifts to VIPs such as the chiefs of Olympic sporting federations and heads of state." The volumes are "currently en route to the capital from printing plants in China under tight security" (WSJ.com, 8/5).

STERN TEST: In Montreal, Dave Stubbs reports the Beijing Games "might be the cleanest in recent history, thanks to a net whose weave has never been tighter -- not that this will deter the dopiest cheaters." Former WADA Chair and Canadian IOC member Dick Pound: "You've got to know, when you come here, that the testing will be state of the art and will be evenly applied" (Montreal GAZETTE, 8/5).