Beijing rehearsal wins gold medal

With less than seven weeks to go until the Olympic Games opening ceremony, the second and final technical rehearsal has been successfully completed.

The rehearsal involved 2,500 staff and tested 500 operational scenarios including network disconnection, power failure, security attacks and flooding.

“The preparation and performance by the Beijing 2008 Organising Committee and Atos Origin for the final technical rehearsal was outstanding,” said Jean-Benoit Gauthier, technology director of the International Olympic Committee.

Rehearsals ran across 39 Olympic venues in Beijing and in remote cities such as Hong Kong, and included 35 sports.

Operations staff were not told what the pre-defined scenarios would involve.
For example, the beach volleyball rehearsal and a drill organised separately by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security were deliberately timed to coincide, to test the city’s emergency response capacity.

“It is a valuable exercise that helps to strengthen the team’s confidence,” said Patrick Adiba, executive vice president for Olympic Games and major events at Atos Origin.