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Martin Zhou

As a Games organiser, Zhan Lan described his memory of the Games as 'anything but sports'.
'I attended only one event at the Games proper, a gymnastics competition,' said Mr Zhan, who worked for the organising committee.
'What have I learned from my experience? Risk management. The stakes were extraordinarily high. If we had taken one false step, it could have put more than our own jobs in jeopardy.'
One year after the Games, the Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Bocog), which had 4,000 staff, is winding down.
Its headquarters in the north of the capital's downtown area is no longer heavily guarded, as it was this time last year. Only a few dozens workers, 'Bocoggers' as they dubbed themselves, are left to dispose of  files amassed during its eight years of existence. 
For those closely involved in the highly charged dramas, bearing exhaustive workloads before and during the Games, memories die hard.
'For a few weeks during the torch relay I was able to fall asleep in 10 seconds whenever I wanted,' said Mr Zhan, whose main job was to ensure trouble-free logistics for the four-month, 137,000-kilometre journey of the Olympic flame. 'The reality was, we had to stay on high alert all the time. Almost everyone, from inquisitive Western media to sometimes hard-nosed international sports officials, had an axe to grind.'
His fear was that even the slightest technical glitch could become a political storm. The run-up to the Games was marked by ever-heightening tension between overseas critics hoping to advance their causes and a nationalistic Chinese public who perceived the barbs as a conspiracy to undermine what was supposed to be a coming-out party for a long-suffering nation.
So Bocog workers took pains to tread a fine line.
Bocog had ministerial rank since its inception in 2001 and was under full government control. Most of its staff were seconded from other government agencies and state-owned enterprises.
Bocoggers hoped their Olympic experience would lead to promotions once they returned to their former jobs. A fortunate few made major leaps in their careers.
About 1,000 Bocog staff secured deals with a few coveted state-owned enterprises and government agencies. The biggest such state employer was the China Development Bank, which recruited 200 Bocoggers. 
Interestingly, very few job-hoppers sought to stay in sports, though a few dozen did join the organising committee for next year's Asian Games in Guangzhou.
'I never planned all this, but I have to say it is indeed a bonus,' said Mr Zhan, a government clerk before the Games and now a CDB employee.
Although it's in the same category as a state employer, the state-controlled banking sector usually offers better  pay and career opportunities than the bureaucratic system.
Now a loan officer who examines the creditworthiness of borrowers, Mr Zhan said his new job was a perfect match given the risk management skills he developed  at  Bocog. 
And possibly because of the cautious mindset he developed, he asked that his real name not be used in this article.
What have I learned from my experience? Risk management. The stakes were extraordinarily high. If we had taken one false step, it could have put more than our own jobs in jeopardy 'Zhan Lan', a former Bocog worker who is now a banker



All work and no play, Games were an endurance test for organisers