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Oct.27 - The swimming finals and much of the gymnastics at the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be held in the morning, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday in Beijing.
The competition schedule for the Games had finally been agreed by the IOC's executive board "after a thorough consultation1 process", IOC coordination2 commission chairman Hein Verbruggen said at a news conference. The team and all-round individual events in the gymnastics are set for the morning, although the individual apparatus3 events will be contested in evening sessions. All the track and field finals will take place in the evening with the customary exception of the marathon. The proposed morning shift for the swimming finals caused uproar4 when the news was leaked earlier this year, with some swimmers accusing the IOC of putting the interests of US broadcaster NBC before the needs of the athletes. "I would like to deny that we are doing the bidding of certain broadcasters," Verbruggen said. "It has always been like this, the schedule is always the result of a thorough consultation process and what comes out of this is a compromise. For example, in Seoul in 1988, many events were held in the morning. "The impression being given is that this is a special case, this is not true." BIG DRAW Verbruggen also said the international federations5 responsible for the sports, which run the events at Games, had agreed the schedules. Morning finals in Beijing mean prime-time audiences in the US for NBC, which paid $3.55 billion for the exclusive North American media rights to the 2000-2008 Games. Swimming is a big draw for American audiences and the U.S. team led by Michael Phelps, who won six gold medals in Athens in 2004, enjoy a great rivalry6 with the Australian team. An IOC spokeswoman said the decision was only made after they had been convinced the physiology7 of athletes would not be affected8, and that they had thoroughly9 discussed the move with their athletes commission. Asked whether it was fair on Chinese television viewers who may not be able to watch morning events because they would be working, the IOC's Gilbert Felli said swimming was just one of many sports at the Games "We are not talking about the swimming world championships, there will plenty of other competitions for the Chinese to watch on television in the evening," he said.
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