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The International Olympic Committee on Wednesday stripped China of a bronze medal in the women's team event at the 2000 Olympic Games after finding one of the team's athletes was underage.

The United States will be awarded the bronze medal instead, the IOC said in a news release.

The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) in February decided to cancel all results obtained by gymnast Dong Fangxiao at the Sydney, Australia, Games.

"The FIG conducted an inquiry which showed that the athlete was only 14 years old during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games," the IOC said. Under FIG qualification rules, athletes must be 16 in the year of the Games in order to compete.

The IOC's executive board on Wednesday decided to reallocate the results of the events that Dong participated in. She had placed sixth in the women's individual floor exercises and seventh in the women's individual vault.

Dong has been disqualified from all the events she participated in, which also included the women's individual uneven bars, the women's individual all-around and the women's individual balance beam.

The construction site just off east London's Pudding Mill Lane is a hive of activity. To a sound track of saws, whirring engines and vehicle horns, workers are shifting earth, laying roads and scaling a cavernous steel-framed structure. On a viewing platform overlooking the site, a steady stream of people gather to watch the development take shape. Many linger: a dedicated coffee shop at one end of the platform offers hot drinks amid the crisp, wintry weather.

London's construction workers had better get used to the scrutiny. With the Vancouver Winter Games now concluded, attention will switch to the British capital — which was awarded the 2012 Summer Games five years ago — as it races to get ready. Learning from the last host city will be vital. While the sports on show in London will be different from those in Vancouver, the Canadian city's experience "gives us real food for thought," Sebastian Coe, chairman of London's organizing committee, told reporters ahead of the closing ceremony on Feb. 28. London, he said, would "use this information to ensure we stage a Games for everyone." 

Coe, part of a 50-strong London delegation that studied the Winter Games firsthand, divides the lessons he and his colleagues learned into "four Ss" — sport, service, stadiums and sites. The team is set for a full debrief in the next few weeks. Ahead of that, here's a quick TIME guide for London:

Get the atmosphere right, and you're golden. Canadians bought into the Vancouver Games in a big way, and that played a key part in their success. London's organizers applauded Vancouver's party atmosphere, while International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge reckoned that locals had "embraced the Olympic Games like no other city in the world before."  

Building such an atmosphere in London will be crucial. Plans are in place to put up dozens of big screens throughout the U.K. by 2012, mimicking the sites in and around Vancouver that offered people without tickets the chance to feel part of the action. 

Locating about a quarter of the 2012 venues outside of London should also help stoke Britons' interest. Within the sprawling, densely populated capital, though, organizers "need to carefully plan how they're going to control, handle and manage the crowds to make sure everyone's safe and not gridlocked," says Ed Hula, editor of Around the Rings, a publication on the Olympics. 

Give locals something to cheer about — but don't overdo it. Sports fans will doff their cap to a great performance by any competitor. In Vancouver, it was hard to see past American skier Lindsey Vonn or South Korean figure skater Kim Yu-na. But the sporting success of the home nation helps set the tone for an Olympics. Just ask Canada's rabid ice hockey fans. Canada topped the gold-medal count this winter, and the U.K. will be under pressure to deliver in 2012. Recent history is encouraging: Britain finished fourth in the medals table in Beijing and landed its biggest gold-medal haul in a century.

But the other lesson from Canada is that you can go too far. The country's "Own the Podium" initiative — a $110 million program designed to put Canada on top of the medals table — generated almost as much criticism as podium finishes. The plan limited rivals' access to facilities like the sliding and speedskating tracks, prompting protests from foreign competitors. Some even suggested that it contributed to the tragic death of Georgian luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili. Others claimed that it heaped too much pressure on the home nation's athletes. London chair Coe has defended the initiative in recent days; a two-time Olympic track champion, he knows all about high expectations. But managing expectations, and limiting the grumbles of others, will surely be in London's interest.

When you invite the world to a party, there are going to be glitches. Transport snarls, a lack of early snow and a mechanical snafu during the opening ceremony prompted one British newspaper to label Vancouver a contender for "worst Games ever." But minor hitches are inevitable. So too is a little criticism. What matters is how you react. "Success is measured in part or determined by how well you respond or how you cure inefficiencies early on," says Hula. And in that sense, "[Vancouver] did very well." 

For London, as with any host, it underlines the need for "testing, testing, testing," as Rogge urged for the Vancouver Games. The message seems to have got through. "We have an entire year built in to make sure we test, test, test," says Joanna Manning-Cooper, spokeswoman for the London organizing committee. In 2011, organizers will try out all 26 of the Games' venues, mounting everything from "mass participation jamborees" to full-blown international meets in order to test catering, toilets, turnstiles and transport.

Selling more obscure sports cleverly can work. Demand for many of the 9 million tickets that London organizers plan to sell will be fierce. For some events, though — think handball — organizers know they may have to coax fans along. But that doesn't mean it can't be done. Few Britons had ever heard of ski cross before the Vancouver Games, but the event, which pits four skiers simultaneously against one another over an undulating course, drew millions of television viewers. London organizers have been busy drawing up marketing plans to help push the lower-profile events. Vancouver may have given them some ideas. 

Merchandising matters. O.K., so we've known that for a while. But ever since the over-commercialized Atlanta Games in 1996, host cities have made a big deal of being all about the sports while treating merchandising like a necessary evil. Vancouver proved it doesn't have to be that way. The enormous success of the red mittens — sales of the $10 gloves generated more than $12 million for Canadian sports — "helped us clarify our thinking around what could become the iconic collector's item of the Games," says Manning-Cooper. 2012 umbrella, anyone?

Volunteers work at the ski jump at Whistler Olympic Park during preparations for the Winter Games

They're scattered around Vancouver clad in blue jackets, as ubiquitous as the city's rain. There are 18,500 volunteers at this year's Olympics who are helping ticket holders find their seats at venues, giving directions to confused guests wandering the streets, driving around dignitaries and printing out stat sheets for cranky, sleep-deprived journalists. Some 95% of them are Canadian, and though the athletes from the host country are trying to toughen up under the "Own the podium" rallying cry, the Canadian volunteers are living up to their country's reputation for being incredibly gracious and friendly. The rest come from places as far away as China, Russia and New Zealand.

The volunteers must pay their way to Vancouver and use up precious vacation days, or else take unpaid leaves, from their day jobs. They subject themselves to endless pestering over 10-hour shifts. They do it for the perks, right? Aren't the volunteers guaranteed tickets to a few choice events? "Oh no, nobody gets anything for free," says Sharon Schapansky, an accountant from Penticton, B.C., who chose to forego billable hours in order to drive around the doctors from the International Olympic Committee. "The IOC members get the tickets; we have to pay like everyone else."

For every three days the volunteers work, however, they get a sticker with a picture of Quatchi, one of the Olympic mascots, stamped on the back of their identification badge. For every Quatchi sticker, they might get a pin or some other small token of appreciation. And once they get three or four Quatchi stickers, rumor has it, the volunteers get a Swatch.

So why do these folks work so many hours? "It's a chance to be part of one of the biggest events in the world," says Kalum Iverson, 33, an oil company account manager from Langley, B.C. He's also driving around dignitaries. "I didn't want to miss out." Iverson remembers waking up in the middle of the night during the 1998 Olympics to watch the hockey games being broadcast from Nagano, Japan. Since then, he has wanted to be part of the Olympics in any capacity.  

Iverson, a hockey nut, did score two free tickets — to a cross-country skiing event held 2½ hours from Vancouver. "Look, I'd give up a lot of my life to be at Canada Hockey Place watching all the games," says Iverson. "But I'm still a part of something. This whole experience makes we want to go to the next Olympics to help out."

Some people are abnormally amped up for their mundane tasks. Instead of tending to her patients, Crystal Boser, a chiropractor from the Vancouver suburb of Maple Ridge, is volunteering to stand on a downtown city street for 10 hours and direct the media to their proper buses. "So many interesting people come by here and ask different questions," says Boser. "Figuring out the answers is a challenge." She's got the media bus routes down cold but loves it when strangers ask her about Vancouver's public transportation.

Boser says no one has yelled at her yet. She's one of the lucky ones. Granted, some volunteers are pretty clueless, giving you three different answers to the same question. And too often, they pester attendees for the wrong reasons. For example, ushers at the speedskating venue are fond of telling people to clear out of empty areas for fear of blocking traffic, ignoring the fact that the area is empty.  

Still, the volunteers take much more abuse than they deserve. According to a manager of a group of volunteers, several IOC officials like to take late-night trips to Sochi House, where the Russians are partying hard and promoting the 2014 Olympics, which they will be hosting. Several suits have asked volunteer drivers to wait past midnight for a ride and then complained when the volunteers went home rather than stick around for the tipsy bigwigs. (In fairness, the manager did say that this same group of IOC officials gave away 50 event tickets to the volunteers.)

One of the toughest places for the volunteers to operate, it seems, is the curling venue. "I find that there's a lot of drunk people at curling," says Sue Andrykew, a mail carrier from Windsor, Ont., who took a month off to volunteer and is crashing on a friend's futon. A few days ago, a woman screamed at Andrykew, demanding that she move some people who were blocking her view of the sheet. As if that's not bad enough, too many smokers are lighting up in nonsmoking areas.

Is Andrykew at least getting a chance to enjoy Vancouver's vibrant nightlife? "Oh, at the end of the day I'm too tired for anything like that," she says. So if she could do it all over again, she surely wouldn't sign up, right? "Absolutely I would," Andrykew says. She points to Quatchi on the back of her badge. "I'm excited to go to work to get some more stickers."

German skier Björn Kircheisen trains in one of the green facilities designed for the Vancouver Olympics.

Despite Vancouver's best efforts, the carbon footprint for the Winter Games could be massive.

When the Vancouver Organizing Committee was born in 2003, it set a lofty goal: make the 2010 Winter Olympics the greenest Games in history. While calling the Games the "greenest ever" might lead one to believe that the net effect will be similar to planting thousands of acres of Amazonian rainforest, the reality is that the Olympics are going to do some damage to the environment. When you bring hundreds of thousands of people together for an event as massive as the Olympic Games, an enormous carbon footprint is almost inevitable, even with VANOC's efforts to mitigate it.

VANOC believes it is on target to achieve a 15 percent reduction in its direct carbon footprint over what would be normally produced in these types of events. The reduction measures involve small steps, like including bus fares in the price of Olympic tickets and not providing public parking at events (to encourage spectators to use public transportation), and larger efforts, like construction of venues to LEED standards for green building. Especially state of the art are the community energy systems that use recovered heat from sewage or wastewater to produce heat and hot water for the Olympic villages in Vancouver and Whistler. Additionally, 90 percent of the power supplied for the Games will be renewable (from hydroelectric sources), and even backup power will be mostly supplied over the grid, requiring fewer diesel backup generators than at prior Olympics.

But even with VANOC's efforts to reduce, the Games will still produce 268,000 tons of carbon emissions, roughly equivalent to the emissions of 55,000 midsize cars over the course of a year. More than half of these projected emissions—150,000 tons—will come from the travel of spectators, sponsors, and partners to the Games, and the other 118,000 tons will come from VANOC's operations.

That's a lot of carbon. VANOC does have plans to offset at least a portion of it and, as a result, the Vancouver Games is the first to have an official carbon offset sponsor. This company, Offsetters, has committed to offset all 118,000 tons of VANOC's direct emissions from Olympic operations—44 percent of the total Olympic footprint—with carbon reductions from clean-energy projects in British Colombia (allowing VANOC to claim carbon neutrality). As for the remaining 150,000 tons of indirect emissions—the remainder of the Olympic footprint—Offsetters has set up a voluntary program that will allow spectators and sponsors to calculate their carbon footprint from their travels to and from the Games and purchase offsets to cover their environmental impact, at a cost of about $25 per ton of emissions. "It's all about everyone taking some personal responsibility," says Linda Coady, VANOC's vice president for sustainability. "We want to use the spotlight of the Games to make people more aware of their carbon footprint."

Judging by past initiatives, however, people don't really care about their carbon footprint. As a result, there might not be enough participation in the voluntary component of the offset program. This is a big deal: 150,000 tons of carbon (from travel to the Games) are at stake, equivalent to the emissions from 28,000 midsize cars over a year. According to Deborah Carlson, a climate-change campaigner at the David Suzuki Foundation, an environmental nonprofit, there has typically been only a 5 percent participation rate in similar voluntary offset programs sponsored by airlines. (The Suzuki Foundation, which initially worked with VANOC after the city was awarded the games, recently gave their gave the Vancouver Games a bronze rating for environmental performance to date – admirable, but lacking in certain key areas). Of course, there's the chance the Olympic program might surpass that—as Offsetters CEO James Tansey points out, it's easy to skip over the check box that lets you offset your emissions on an airline Web site, but there will be lots of publicity and advertising to encourage spectators to offset at the Olympics. Tansey says that corporate sponsors of the Olympics have already agreed to offset 75 percent of the emissions from their travel, which is encouraging, although it's unclear how spectators will respond to the program (both Coady and Tansey are optimistic).

Another big question is whether VANOC will manage to come out of the Games at or below their projected 118,000 tons of direct carbon emissions. Coady is confident that the Committee won't surpass the projection, even with added emissions from choppers and dump trucks bringing in the extra snow required for the Olympic events as a result of the unseasonably warm temperatures in Vancouver. As of Feb. 9, more than 170 truckloads of snow from 200 miles away had been dumped on Cypress Mountain. Coady says there is a contingency of a few percentage points built into the projections. "Even if we flew helicopters every day until the 28th of February, it's only about a 1 percent variation in the forecast," she says. "But if it goes up, it will be reflected in the final numbers, reported after the Games."

The bottom line is that whether or not the emissions from the Games exceed VANOC projections, the Committee's final report will present the most comprehensive measurement to date of an Olympic Games's climate impact. Since VANOC is the first organizing committee to measure its full carbon footprint (both direct and indirect emissions), this may arguably be the greatest environmental contribution of the Vancouver Olympics going forward. "As future decisions are taken about hosting these mega-events, we can now take the climate impact into consideration when making these decisions," Carlson says. Furthermore, VANOC's efforts will help provide a baseline and a means of comparing the environmental successes of different Olympics, which is nearly impossible to do quantitatively at this point.

While it's too early to tell whether VANOC's initiatives will be a game changer for the Olympic movement, VANOC's pioneering step of measuring its climate impact in great detail could set a clear environmental bar for future Olympics to attain and, hopefully, surpass. And that would be a worthwhile legacy.

Fast and frightening, yes. Responsible for the death of a luger, no.

Olympic officials decided late Friday night against any major changes in the track or any delays in competition and even doubled up on the schedule in the wake of the horrifying accident that claimed the life of a 21-year-old luger from the republic of Georgia.

They said they would raise the wall where the slider flew off the track and make an unspecified “change in the ice profile”—but only as a preventative measure “to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again.”

Within sight of the finish line, Nodar Kumaritashvili crashed coming out of the 16th turn and slammed into an unpadded steel pole while traveling nearly 90 mph. Despite frantic attempts by paramedics to save his life, he died at a trauma center.

Concerns about the lightning-fast course had been raised for months. There were worries that the $100 million-plus venue was too technically difficult, and a lack of significant practice time by everyone but the host nation’s sliders would result in a rash of accidents.

But the International Luge Federation and Vancouver Olympic officials said their investigation showed that the crash was the result of human error and that “there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track.”

In a joint statement they said Kumaritashvili was late coming out of the next-to-last turn and failed to compensate. “This resulted in a late entrance into curve 16 and although the athlete worked to correct the problem, he eventually lost control of the sled, resulting in the tragic accident.”

Men lugers, who were scheduled to finish training Friday morning, will get two extra practice runs Saturday. Women will train four hours later than scheduled. Men’s competition will be held later in the day as planned.

Kumaritashvili’s death cast a pall over the Winter Games before they even started.

“I have no words to say what we feel,” said International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, visibly shaken by the day’s events.

“It is a nervous situation,” Latvian luge federation president Atis Strenga said. “It’s a big tragedy for all (of) luge. I hope, we all hope, it’s the first accident and the last accident in this race.”

Problems at the track date back to World Cup events and international training weeks held last year, when several of the world’s top bobsled drivers were upended trying to make their way down the track with its tricky labyrinth of curves and unprecedented speed.

American pilot Steven Holcomb christened one of the course’s toughest sections—the 13th curve—as “50-50” to reflect the odds of steering a sled through it cleanly.

Kumaritashvili, who had crashed during training on Wednesday, was nearing the bottom of his sixth practice run in a turn nicknamed “Thunderbird.” His last recorded speed was 89.4 mph, measured near the last curve. He was on a higher path—line, they call it in luge—down the final bends than most sliders prefer, and the combination of speed and gravitational pull was too much for his 176-pound body to control.

Sliding diagonally, Kumaritashvili smashed into a corner entering the final straightaway feet-first. He was knocked off his sled and sailed in the other direction, apparently hitting his head before coming to rest on a metal walkway. His sled stayed on the track and skidded to a stop near the finish line.

The first rescue worker just happened to be nearby and was at his side within three seconds.

At the finish line, there was a loud gasp as onlookers watched in horror as he was catapulted helplessly through the air. Officials quickly switched off a giant TV screen showing the action on the track and did not show a replay of the incident. Soon after, the track was closed as local and Royal Canadian Mounted Police kept media members at a distance as the investigation began.

Kumaritashvili’s inexperience may have played a factor in the crash, but he had qualified to compete. This would have been his first Olympics. He competed in five World Cup races this season, finishing 44th in the world standings.

“When you are going that fast it just takes one slip and you can have that big mistake,” U.S. doubles luger Christian Niccum said Thursday, when asked about track safety. “All of us are very calm going down, but if you start jerking at 90 mph or making quick reactions, that sled will steer. That’s the difference between luge and bobsled and skeleton, we’re riding on a very sharp edge and that sled will go exactly where we tell it to so you better be telling it the right things on the way down.”

Earlier in the day, two-time Olympic champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy crashed, losing control of his sled on Curve 11. Zoeggeler came off his sled and held it with his left arm to keep it from smashing atop his body. He slid on his back down several curves before coming to a stop and walking away.

Training days in Whistler have been crash-filled. A Romanian woman was knocked unconscious and at least four Americans—Chris Mazdzer on Wednesday, Megan Sweeney on Thursday and both Benshoof and Bengt Walden on Friday in the same training session where Zoeggeler wrecked—have had serious trouble just getting down the track.

Rogge said he was in contact with Kumaritashvili’s family—the slider’s father is president of the Georgian luge federation and his cousin is the team’s coach, VANOC officials said—and the Georgian government. The remaining seven members of the Georgian Olympic delegation decided to stay in the games and dedicated their performances to their fallen teammate.

They marched into BC Place Stadium wearing black armbands and their nation’s red-and-white flag was trimmed with a black ribbon. Later, a full minute of silence was observed in honor of Kumaritashvili, the fourth competitor to die at the Winter Games, all in training, and the first since 1992.

“It’s really unfortunate to have something like that happen,” U.S. snowboarding star Shaun White said. “We’re all in different sports and from different countries but when we get here, we’re all part of the same family. It’s definitely affected everyone here.”

Under giant Olympic rings near the medals plaza in downtown Whistler, mourners placed candles and flowers around a photograph of Kumaritashvili, on his sled and barreling down the track. Around the photo, an inscription read: “In Memory of Nodar Kumaritashvili, May he rest in peace.”

Crashes happen often in luge—at least 12 sliders have wrecked just this week on the daunting Whistler surface. Still, some who have been around tracks their entire lives couldn’t remember someone actually being thrown over the wall.

“It’s a very rare situation,” three-time Olympic champion and German coach Georg Hackl said.

Shortly before the accident, Hackl said he didn’t believe the Whistler track was unsafe.

“People have the opinion it is dangerous but the track crew does the best it can and they are working hard to make sure the track is in good shape and everyone is safe,” he said. “My opinion is that it’s not any more dangerous than anywhere else.”

Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili crashes during practice Friday at in Whistler, British Columbia.

A men's Olympic luger from the Republic of Georgia died Friday in a "horrific" crash on a track that is the world's fastest and has raised safety concerns among competitors.

Nodar Kumaritashvili was in the final turn of the track, going nearly 90 mph, when he flipped off his sled, over the wall and into a steel post outside the track, NPR's Howard Berkes reported.

"He was immediately attended to by emergency crews who tried to revive him at the scene, performing CPR and mouth-to-mouth," Berkes said. "He was rushed to the hospital and he was later pronounced dead."

The death of the 21-year-old luger left Olympic officials "in deep mourning" and "heartbroken beyond words."

Before speaking at a news conference, Olympic International Committee President Jacques Rogge took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes and said, "Sorry, it's a bit difficult to remain composed."

Rogge said he spoke with the president of the Republic of Georgia to express his sympathy. Rogge said the Georgian delegation has not decided whether to remain in the competition.

"We are deeply struck by this tragedy and join the IOC in extending our condolences to the family, friends and teammates of this athlete, who came to Vancouver to follow his Olympic dream," said John Furlong, chief executive of the Vancouver organizing committee.

Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia is seen just before crashing Friday during a training run for the men's singles luge at the Vancouver Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia.

Men's luge competition is to begin Saturday. It's unclear if the schedule will change.

Kumaritashvili is the fourth competitor to die in the history of the Winter Games and the first since 1992. None of the deaths occurred during official competition.

"It's a very rare situation," three-time Olympic champion and German coach Georg Hackl said before learning of the death, clearly shaken after seeing Kumaritashvili tended to furiously by medical workers.

Shortly before the accident, Hackl said he didn't believe the track was unsafe.

"People have the opinion it is dangerous but the track crew does the best it can and they are working hard to make sure the track is in good shape and everyone is safe," he said. "My opinion is that it's not anymore dangerous that anywhere else."

It was Kumaritashvili's second crash during training for the Vancouver Games. He also failed to finish his second of six practice runs, and in the runs he did finish, his average speed was about 88 mph — significantly less than the speed the top sliders are managing on this lightning-fast course.

The track is considered the world's fastest and several Olympians recently questioned its safety. More than a dozen athletes have crashed during Olympic training for luge, and some questioned whether athletes from smaller nations — like Georgia — had enough time to prepare for the daunting track.

At the finish area, not far from where Kumaritashvili lost control, athletes, coaches and officials solemnly awaited word on Kumaritashvili before eventually being ushered away. Access to the crash area was closed within about 30 minutes.

"I've never seen anything like that," said Shiva Keshavan, a four-time Olympian from India.

The remainder of men's training was canceled for the day, with VANOC officials saying in a release that an investigation was taking place to "ensure a safe field of play."

Kumaritashvili competed in five World Cup races this season, finishing 44th in the world standings.

Earlier in the day, gold-medal favorite Armin Zoeggeler of Italy crashed, losing control of his sled on Curve 11. Zoeggeler came off his sled and held it with his left arm to keep it from smashing atop his body. He slid on his back down several curves before coming to a stop and walking away.

Stephen Colbert is coming to the Vancouver Winter Games and has accepted the city of Richmond's offer to be the Olympic Oval Ombudsman. He made the announcement on his satirical comedy show The Colbert Report.

He said he has no idea what it means to “ombud,” but “As long as it requires no effort from me, I proudly accept.”

What the comedian didn't do, however, was don the ombudsman's official uniform — the baby-pink toque that Richmond had sent to him.

Colbert was in the news earlier when Shani Davis, a member of the US speedskating team he is sponsoring, told the media that Colbert is “a jerk”, adding, “you can put that in the paper.”

Davis, who is said to not get along with fellow team members Apolo Anton Ohno, Trevor Marsicano and Chad Hendrick, and trains by himself in Calgary, declined the opportunity to explain his statement.

Stephen Colbert, who has been critical of Canada and the access U.S. athletes are being given to the Olympic speedskating oval, is coming to the Vancouver Winter Games.