Rogge marks Lenovo Olympic contributions

By Song Ping (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-13 08:37

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge recognized Lenovo's contribution to the Olympic movement during his visit to the Lenovo Showcase at the Olympic Green yesterday afternoon.

During his visit to the Lenovo Showcase, Rogge met with Yang Yuanqing, chairman of Lenovo Group, accompanied by Gerhard Heiberg, chairman of IOC's marketing commission, and Timo Lumme, managing director of IOC's Television and Marketing Services.

Yang presented a scroll to Rogge painted with Cloud of Promise -- the Olympic torch created by Lenovo's design team. The scroll features the Xiangyun - Cloud of Promise - torch and the patterns used on it. It was painted using both Chinese and Western techniques.

"It is a great honor for Lenovo to be able to design the torch for the Beijing Olympic Games," said Yang. "I hope the International Olympic Committee will keep it as a permanent souvenir."

Rogge said he was happy to receive the gift and vowed it will be kept at the Olympic Museum.

"Lenovo designed the Beijing Olympic torch, leaving an important cultural legacy for the Olympic movement," he said. "The unique design, its patterns, shape and color are combination of the essence of traditional Chinese culture and Olympic spirit."

In return, Rogge presented a set of sports suits to Yang.

At the Olympic torch display area, Rogge listened carefully as the design team explained about the process of creating the torch and took a group photo with the designers and Yang while holding the torch.

Rogge also visited interactive product demo area on the first floor of Lenovo Showcase, experiencing Lenovo's latest technology and products.

Rogge picked up a ThinkPad laptop and played a computer game with Yang using the laptop as a remote station to control the direction and speed of the athlete running in the trackfield.

At the IdeaPad demo area, its face-recognition function astonished Rogge as he experienced the safety of PC technology.

After the visit, both sides delivered brief speeches to the media from both home and abroad.

Yang summarized to Rogge the support Lenovo has given to the Beijing Olympic Games since it signed on to be a Worldwide Olympic Partner (TOP) with the IOC.

"Four days have passed since the opening of the Games," Yang said. "PC equipment and engineers from Lenovo successfully supported the opening ceremony that attracted the world's attention."

Lenovo engineers also worked at the weight-lifting venue to provide technical support onsite where China gained its first gold medal.

"I am grateful to the Chinese people who brought us the perfect opening ceremony and their excellent organization of the Games," said Rogge.

"I believe this Olympic Games will be very magnificent."

Yang said that during more than 10 days of remaining competition, Lenovo will go all out to ensure the steady operation of the information system.

Since signing with the IOC as a TOP, Lenovo's preparation work over the past four years is well known to all, Rogge said.

He added that he is glad to see Lenovo is providing quality products which can sustain all kinds of weathers, and technology support to the Games, which is having the most complicated-ever IT system in the history.

"I am confident that Lenovo will fulfill its mission to support the Olympic Games with outstanding performance," he said.

Chen Shaopeng, senior vice president of Levono Group and president of China and Russia geography, Deepak Advani, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Lenovo Group, Alice Li, vice president of Levono Group in charge of the Olympic project, and Yao Yingjia, lead of the Lenovo torch design team, also accompanied the visit.

The Cloud of Promise designed by Lenovo passed three rounds of selection by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games. It won over 388 other candidate designs.

The torch is in the shape of a paper scroll. Paper is one of the four great inventions of ancient China. The design is in lacquer red, a color that has been characteristically Chinese for 1,000 years.

The pattern of Cloud of Promise has become one of the key visual elements representing the Beijing Olympic Games.

(China Daily 08/13/2008 page16)