Olympic Teams Worry About Air Pollution In China

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics barely a year away, sports officials from around the world are expressing concerns that China's air pollution could harm the performances of the world's elite athletes. Both U.S. and Japanese Olympic team officials have spoken out in recent days.

Chinese officials have not been deaf to the problem. They are planning to shut down factories, remove cars from the roads, showcase green technologies that will be a part of the country's future. In that way, the Olympics could have a dramatic and positive affect.

The stage of the Olympics will create an aura of greatness that China will want to live up to, and a clean environment will have to be part of the equation if it is to impress the world. That should help it modernize its pollution controls just a little more quickly -- and that could have a lasting effect, not only in China, but around the world.

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