美國女士將在華傳遞奧運火炬

李向娜

“聯想在華外國人奧運火炬手”選拔活動最終結果日前揭曉: 生活在北京的博珍妮將成為2008年為北京奧運會傳遞火炬的唯一一位美國人。

Jenny Bowen, an American living in Beijing, has been selected as the only American to carry the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch(火炬) on Chinese soil next year. She and seven other non-Chinese winners were chosen from a pool of 262 applicants from 47 countries in a competition organized by Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group and the official English-language newspaper, China Daily.

When Bowen runs with the Olympic torch next year, she will not only be representing the United States. She will also be representing thousands of Chinese orphans.

Bowen, a mother of two adopted Chinese daughters, is executive director(執行理事) of Half the Sky Foundation, an organization which was established in 1998 and aims to enrich the lives and improve the prospects(前景) for orphaned children in China. Nearly 10 years later, Bowen and Half the Sky have touched the lives of over 13,000 children. Half the Sky is now present in 36 welfare institutions in 28 Chinese cities. Approximately 4,000 children are active in the program, which provides trained staff, educational tools, medical support and nurturing love to orphans.

Bowen hopes that running with the Olympic torch next year will help draw attention to the children in China. She will be among 19,400 runners who will carry the flame along an 85,000-mile, 130-day route across five continents. Beijing organizers say it will be the longest torch relay in Olympic history.

Like Bowen, the seven other non-Chinese winners, who include a German engineer and a Venezuelan graphic designer, live in China. Other countries represented will be the Philippines, Colombia, India, Japan and Russia. Each runner will carry the torch for 200 meters on Chinese soil.

According to Olympic organizers, candidates(候選人) were selected based on an online vote, committee selection, their “love of Chinese culture and history” and devotion to “communicating information of a real China to their native countries.”

博文珍妮，一位生活在北京的美國女士，被選為明年在中國大地傳遞2008年北京奧運火炬的唯一一位美籍火炬手。她和其他7位非中國國籍的優勝者都是從來自47個國家的262位申請者中選拔出來的。這個選拔賽是由中國電腦制造商聯想集團和官方英語報刊《中國日報》主辦的。

明年博文女士傳遞奧運火炬時，她將不僅代表美國，也代表數千名中國孤兒。

博文女士收養了兩名中國女孩，她也是半邊天基金會的執行理事，該基金會成立于1998年，旨在豐富中國孤兒的生活，改善他們的未來。近十年來，博文女士和半邊天基金會影響了13000多名兒童的生活。現在，28個中國城市的36個福利機構中都有半邊天基金會。約有4000名兒童參與這個項目，該項目為孤兒提供培訓人員，教育設施，醫療支持以及對孤兒的關愛。

博文女士希望明年傳遞奧運火炬能幫助吸引人們更多地關注中國的兒童。她將成為19400名火炬手中的一員，他們將高舉奧運火炬，花130天的時間，跨越5大洲，跑完85000英里的路程。北京的組織者稱這是奧運史上最長的火炬接力。

和博文一樣，其他7位非中國國籍的火炬手入選者也都住在中國，其中包括一名德國工程師和一個委內瑞拉書畫設計師。其他派出代表的國家有菲律賓、哥倫比亞、印度、日本和俄羅斯。每個火炬手將在中國大地手舉火炬跑200米。

據奧運會組織者稱，候選人的選拔是依據網上投票進行的，最后還要經過委員會選拔，候選人“對中國文化和歷史的熱愛”和“對向自己國家傳遞一個真正中國的信息”的貢獻也是選拔所依據的標準。