27. October 2006  
Peking / China  
Artistic Gymnastics

Olympic Schedule of Artictic Gymnastics and Swimming displaced...

... gymnasts need power in the early morning!

The competition schedule for the 2008 Beijing Olympics has been finalized, with the swimming finals and some of the artistic gymnastics to be held in the morning, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Thursday.
"After a thorough consultation process, the IOC executive board has approved a final version of the competition schedule," IOC's coordination commission chairman Hein Verbruggen told a press conference. So the team and the all-around competition of artistic gymnastics will held at 10 a.m. local time in the morning; it's 4.a.m. CMT....
The team and all-round individual gymnastics events are set for the morning, although the individual apparatus events will be contested in evening sessions.
The schedule, agreed after months of tough negotiations, will allow the prestigious events to be aired at peak-time in the United States by host broadcaster NBC who paid 3.55 billion US-$ for rights to the 2000-2008 Games.
The IOC had looked at precedents and tried to balance the interests of broadcasters, athletes and sports federations before making the decision, said Verbruggen. "Such a schedule is a matter of discussions with the host country, with the organizers, with the international federations. The IOC will never take a decision without the consent of the federation concerned," he said.
Also at the 1988 Seoul Games, swimming, gymnastics and athletics finals were held in the morning.
Source: IOC, Chinese media