Beijing 2008
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Marleen Veldhuis wins Gold!
Sunday, 10 August, Marleen Veldhuis, member of DSM’s Unlimited Sports Team won her first Olympic Gold medal together with the 4 x 100 m freestyle relay team. In a spectacular finals race, the Dutch team, consisting of Inge Dekker, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Femke Heemskerk and Marleen Veldhuis, beat other title favorites USA and Australia in a new Olympic Record of 3.33,76.
This is the first success for a member of the DSM team – we hope many more successes will follow!
The final countdown
Friday, 8 August, the final countdown! Today, the 08-08-2008 is a very special day… the start of the XXIXth Olympiad. With a spectacular opening ceremony in the futuristic Olympic Stadium, known as the ‘Birds Nest’ the eyes of the world are now turned to Beijing for the coming weeks. Yesterday another festive ceremony already took place: the opening of the Holland Heineken House 2008. Bigger than ever before. Chair of the Dutch Olympic Committee Erica Terpstra and Mrs De Carvalho-Heineken beat a gong to officially open the House, in the presence of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.
Innovation is our Sport™
Thursday, August 7, only one day to go…DSM holds a press conference on the 'Innovation is our Sport' program, in which Vice-Chairman of the DSM Managing Board Jan Zuidam and Chief Innovation Officer Rob van Leen commented on the cooperation with the sportsmen and women of the DSM Unlimited Sports Team and described the innovations developed for the Olympic athletes. The innovations have been geared to the specific conditions that the athletes will be facing during the Summer Games in China. Specific highlights of the press conference: Jan Zuidam announced that it has become sponsor of Dutch top swimmer Marleen Veldhuis – and Rob van Leen presented a new special Drinking Device to Erica Terpstra.
News from Qingdao
Wednesday, August 6, three days to go…the sailing boat developed by DSM for the 470 team Marcelien de Koning and Lobke Berkhout has officially qualified for the Olympics. As a general rule all participating boats are tested in the week before the Olympic Games. The new boat meets all official requirements and is ready to compete!
In the Holland Heineken House the DSM sailing innovations are on display, featuring a life-size 3D mock-up of Marcelien and Lobke's Olympic 470. Because of its size and the technical details that can be seen through cutouts in the hull, the boat attracts a lot of attention.
Let the Games begin
Monday, August 4th, 4 days to go, after a beautiful weekend, with blue skies, there is less speculation about the weather, the pollution and the required air quality standard.
So, what is the talk of the town? Unrestricted (or restricted) Internet access, expected protests… in the absence of athletics stories, there is a tendency to fall back on political issues – also in the Chinese newspapers – but, let’s hope, that as soon as the Olympic Games have started all eyes of the world will be focused on the athletes. Which athletes, and which countries, will surprise us and win more medals then we are counting on? Without any doubt host country China is aiming at becoming the leader of the Olympic medals table (with over 120 medals!). According to China, for the first time since the 1992 Olympic Games, the USA is in danger of finishing second in both gold and overall medal counts…I can’t wait, let the Games begin!
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