IOC Says that Beijing Endurance Events May Be Postponed
Due to the current state of pollution in Beijing, the International Olympic committee declared that they might regretfully force the postponement of high profile events such as marathon, triathlon, and road cycling (all endurance events) at this year's Olympic Games, in case the pollution situation in Beijing does not change for the better.
As such, the IOC will devise a plan B in case those three events be judged undoable in Beijing. The plan B was spurred by the declaration of marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie, that he won't be likely to compete in the marathon event in the Beijing Games because of asthma concerns.
Around August last year, the IOC sent a medical commission to do an investigation of the city's air quality. They deemed the health of athletes as “largely not impaired” should they continue with the games in the city, and the same conditions may still apply in the period this summer. The report also took note of the World Junior Athletics Championships that took place in Beijing on August 2006, which didn't report any incident on pollution-induced impairment by the athletes.
Despite these observations however, the commission had also noted that the air quality in Beijing may induce some level of risk to competitors participating in endurance events which include minimum one-hour continuous physical efforts at high level, such as events in urban road cycling, mountain bike, marathon, marathon swimming, triathlon, and road walk.
The risks have evolved to a point where the IOC is required to create procedures that will allow the implementation of a Plan B. For now, air quality and weather conditions will be continuously monitored, and while events may be postponed, changing the venue completely is not a likely possibility.
Of course, its possible that some events will not take place in prime conditions, which of course happens in all sports competitions, so records may not get broken in Beijing. However, it stands to reason that the Olympic games are more about competing in the spirit of friendship and national pride rather than breaking records. Games that involve potential risk will be monitored daily during the Games, and will make decisions accordingly so as to ensure the protection of athlete's health.
The measures undertaken by the IOC are already put in place, coupled with the Beijing organizers own contributions and efforts, will strive to continually improve the air quality of the city leading up to and during the Olympics.
