Dream becomes reality: Marcos Torres torchbearer for 2008 olympics

Only 8 among 100 possibles made it to the final list of expats as torchbearer in next year’s Olympic games in Beijing.

And a Filipino is included in that list, who goes by the name of Marcos Torres!

The campaign was organized by Lenovo Group, the worldwide partner of the Olympic torch relay, with the help of China Daily, the country’s only national English-language newspaper.

Some 262 people from 47 countries and regions vied for the eight available slots and another 245,000 voted with their mouse. Altogether, 1.5 million people comprising 156 nationalities visited the campaign webpage.

Applicants, votes and comments poured in from all around the world after the online campaign began on September 7, said Alice Li, vice-president, Olympic Marketing of Lenovo.

“This demonstration of enthusiasm, creativity and sense of international community is consistent with the Olympic spirit, which cherishes the participation and unification of different cultures and peoples,” she said. “It greatly helped Lenovo increase its brand influence.”

The winners were chosen by a vote, but in order to be shortlisted they had to demonstrate their appreciation of Chinese culture and history and their devotion to communicating information about “the real China” to the rest of the world.

The oldest contestant was 88-year-old Eleanor Liu and the youngest was four-year-old Serena Gao. Both were born in the United States.

Although Gao ranked sixth according to the number of votes, she was disqualified for not meeting the minimum age requirement of 14.

Many prominent political figures, including the ambassadors of Greece and the Seychelles, could not make it to the final eight, as did leading business figures like the presidents of Bayer Healthcare and Chang’an Ford Mazda Automobile Co.

In the campaign, as in the Olympics, contestants entered a very level playing field and performed according to their own merit.

In addition to the required campaign stories, themed “China and I”, which were published on the China Daily website along with the candidates’ photos, some applicants engaged a variety of mass media to promote themselves.

Some cooperated with newspapers, television and radio station in China or in their home country to solicit votes, others opted for personal blogs.

Some formed groups on popular social networking websites like FaceBook, while others uploaded campaign videos on websites like Youtube.

-source: chinadaily.com 

I first blogged about it here. And made a follow-up post here.

I hope the Philippines will bring home lots of Gold this time.

Congrats to Marcos!

update: read the official statement of Marcos Torres