BEIJING — A filthy gray veil hangs over China’s capital, turning tall buildings into ghostly shapes. Behind the overcast is a burnt-orange disc, the sun glowing like a flashlight underneath a woolen blanket.
“It’s kind of like there’s giant sunglasses in the sky,” U.S. gymnast Justin Spring said. “It looks just like it’s overcast and rainy — but it’s not rain clouds.”
Beijing’s notoriously bad air quality has been worrisome for the Olympic officials and athletes since the city was awarded the Games in July 2001. The issue hasn’t faded on the eve of the Games. Four U.S. track cyclists made headlines when they wore masks on their arrival at Beijing’s international airport, sending members of the U.S. Olympic Committee into damage control because of the embarrassment it caused their host. The cyclists quickly apologized.
But the air may not be as bad as it looks. USOC personnel test the air daily, as do the International Olympic Committee and Beijing organizers. Asked to rate the air quality on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the worst, Steve Roush, the USOC’s chief of sport performance, gave it “a 3 or a 4.”
Much of the visibility problem stems from haze caused by high humidity and dust that has blown into the Beijing basin, Roush said.
“It’s more of a wind pattern bringing it in, not necessarily pollutants but this haze (with) a little bit of dust from the south,” Roush said. “We’re hopeful the wind pattern shifts. But from the standpoint of being anything that is dangerous to the athletes, nothing indicates that.”
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge agreed.
“The fog you see is based on humidity and heat,” Rogge said. “It does not mean this fog is the same as pollution. Of course we prefer clear skies, but the most important thing is that the health of the athletes be protected.”
Beijing promised improvements in human rights and no expense spared to improve the air quality when it beat out Toronto and Paris for the bid.
“The IOC really has to be tight on them to fulfill those promises,” said Johann Olav Koss of Norway, then a member of the IOC and a former Olympic speedskater. “There was a $12 billion environmental promise, meaning there should be totally clean air.”
It’s far from that.
Wednesday, U.S. cyclist Mike Blatchford rode for the first time in Beijing, a day after his teammates arrived in masks.
“I didn’t have any issue — and I’m asthmatic on my (medication),” said Blatchford, who trains in Colorado Springs. “You definitely can see the heavy haze. You can take a direct photo of the sun without lens flare.”
He backed his teammates’ precautionary decision to wear the masks: “Everyone is here to do the absolute best, and it was purely a situation of you don’t know what to expect. . . . And if I feel there’s a need, I’ll go ahead and use it.”
But Blatchford, like other Olympians, felt that while the sky may look bad, it doesn’t make him feel bad.
Peter Montgomery, Australia’s Olympic committee vice president, said about 10 of his athletes “have been affected by it (Beijing’s air), getting slight throat problems and gritty eyes — and have responded favorably to medication.”
But he also suggested the reaction could be caused by the athletes’ trips back-and-forth between Beijing’s smothering heat and their rooms’ frosty air conditioning. Montgomery said masks are available for Australian athletes, but nobody has requested one.
Lleyton Hewitt, an Australian tennis player who won the U.S. Open in 2001 and Wimbledon in 2002, said he doesn’t think the pollution will affect the athletes. “I hit out there this morning, and it didn’t worry me too much,” he said. “It’s still quite smoggy out there on court, but I think the humidity and the heat will cause more issues.”
As fellow Australian tennis player Casey Dellacqua said: “Everybody’s in the same boat.”
