Multi-sport Games
Vancouver dragon boat event principals were invited by the Hong Kong High Commission to produce a combined dragons by land (dragon dance) and by sea (dragonboat race) cultural celebration at the XIV Commonwealth Games in 1995 in Victoria BC's Inner Harbour as a way to mark the official farewell of Hong Kong from the Commonwealth of Nations, since the territory was to be repatriated to Chinese rule (from British) in 1997.
Beijing's summer games in 2008 featured dragon boating in a couple of significant ways. (Wushu or Chinese martial arts was the 'cultural sport' at this Olympics. Note that the last 'demonstration sports' to be officially demonstrated were more than ten years ago, at the 1996 games in Atlanta.) First, the Olympic Torch was transported by dragon boat during one of the legs in Hong Kong. Second, one of the sequences in the Opening Ceremonies featured Chinese maritime achievements and included stylised dragon boat paddlers manipulating extremely tall, artistic paddles.
Dragon boat events feature in the programs of the Asian Games, the Southeast Asian Games, the Asian Beach Games and the Asian DB Federation is recognised by the Olympic Council for Asia.
Due to the long history of dragon boat racing in China, participants in cultural and sport racing events there today number some 20 million people (on a population base of over 1 billion). Over the past 30 years since 1976, and especially since the formation of the IDBF and its Continental Federations for Asia and Europe in the early 1990s, dragon boating as a sport with regularised rules and equipment has rapidly spread beyond Asia to Europe, North and South America, Australia and Africa, becoming a popular international sport for a growing global base of participants.
The Hong Kong Tourism Board (formerly Hong Kong Tourist Association) helped move dragon boat racing into the modern era by organising the first international races back in 1976 and eventually by facilitating the donation of teak dragon ambassadors to countries around the world, starting in 1980 when three boats were sent to London England, for the Chinese Festival on the River Thames. The following year two HK style boats were sent to Germany. Six went to Vancouver in 1986 for Expo.
Today, dragon boat racing (sport and festival) is among the fastest growing of team water sports, with scores of thousands of participants in various organisations and clubs in over 60 countries – 62 of which are IDBF members (as of 8 Jan 2009). The sport is recognised for the camaraderie, strength and endurance fostered amongst participants, and it has also become a very popular corporate and charitable sport.
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