美国女士将在华传递奥运火炬

李向娜

“联想在华外国人奥运火炬手”选拔活动最终结果日前揭晓: 生活在北京的博珍妮将成为2008年为北京奥运会传递火炬的唯一一位美国人。

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(执行理事) 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(候选人) 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国女士，被选为明年在中国大地传递2008年北京奥运火炬的唯一一位美籍火炬手。她和其他7位非中国国籍的优胜者都是从来自47个国家的262位申请者中选拔出来的。这个选拔赛是由中国电脑制造商联想集团和官方英语报刊《中国日报》主办的。

明年博文女士传递奥运火炬时，她将不仅代表美国，也代表数千名中国孤儿。

博文女士收养了两名中国女孩，她也是半边天基金会的执行理事，该基金会成立于1998年，旨在丰富中国孤儿的生活，改善他们的未来。近十年来，博文女士和半边天基金会影响了13000多名儿童的生活。现在，28个中国城市的36个福利机构中都有半边天基金会。约有4000名儿童参与这个项目，该项目为孤儿提供培训人员，教育设施，医疗支持以及对孤儿的关爱。

博文女士希望明年传递奥运火炬能帮助吸引人们更多地关注中国的儿童。她将成为19400名火炬手中的一员，他们将高举奥运火炬，花130天的时间，跨越5大洲，跑完85000英里的路程。北京的组织者称这是奥运史上最长的火炬接力。

和博文一样，其他7位非中国国籍的火炬手入选者也都住在中国，其中包括一名德国工程师和一个委内瑞拉书画设计师。其他派出代表的国家有菲律宾、哥伦比亚、印度、日本和俄罗斯。每个火炬手将在中国大地手举火炬跑200米。

据奥运会组织者称，候选人的选拔是依据网上投票进行的，最后还要经过委员会选拔，候选人“对中国文化和历史的热爱”和“对向自己国家传递一个真正中国的信息”的贡献也是选拔所依据的标准。