Cheerleaders - Beijing Olympics 2008

From about 5,000 applications, 297 candidates were chosen from a dozen Beijing colleges and 40 students from Shanghai to be 'Olympic victory ceremony volunteers'.




Forget the skimpily clad cheerleaders.The immaculate hostesses handing out medals at the Olympics have won the spectator vote for glamour. Wearing Chinese silk dresses with their hair pulled back tightly into neat buns, the hostesses are beautiful, elegant and their eyes are three-tenths the length of their faces, as required by the Chinese selection committee.


Two wearing 'cheongsam', or long dresses, stand either side of the podium while
three or more in knee-length dresses hold platters bearing the medals
and bouquets of nine red roses, with red a lucky colour in China
and nine meaning everlasting. But although the role looks simple,
in line with China's bid to host the perfect Games,
these hostesses have been meticulously chosen and trained.


In photo - Chinese young women place books on their heads for balancing during
an etiquette training class at a vocational school for
For the 'Beijing 2008 Olympic Games medal ceremonies' hostesses in Beijing, China.
The polished young women practice proper posture by balancing books on their
heads while squeezing a sheet of paper between the knees.
A perfect smile is one that reveals six to eight white teeth,
a skill honed by hours in front of a mirror while carefully clasping a chopstick
between the canines.


A Chinese instructor gives exercise lessons to the volunteers assigned
for Beijing Olympic victory ceremonies at a training school in Beijing.
Over 300 volunteers have been selected for victory ceremonies. (AP photo)


'In the standing sessions, we have to stand still and smile for half an hour or more.
We also run about a 1,000 metres every day for physical conditioning,'
one of the hostesses, Ma Sha, 20, told Reuters ahead of the Games.
China's 1.3 billion people are crazy about sports, but not cheerleaders.
Women here who have embraced the all-American phenomenon hope that
plans to have cheerleaders perform at this summer's Olympic games will bring some glamour to their profession in China and get more fans fired up. (AP photo) (Content: Reuters)