China curtails Olympic domains

Chinese officials have banned anyone but the athletes themselves from using the country's Olympic gold medalists' names as web addresses.

China advised those that have registered domain names of athletes prior to the games that they can keep them, but were advised to give it to the medalist "as a gift", according to the Xinhua news agency.

The Chinese government controls the awarding of web addresses using the ".cn" suffix but has no power over those assigned in other countries.

Many of the country's top athletes registered their domain names before the Beijing games got underway on 8 July.

Although China is behind the US on the total number of medals won, with 77 versus America's 79, China tops the medal leader board with a haul of 44 gold medals.

Britain currently sits third on the the leader board, but could be overtaken by a resurgent Russia.

One of the Team GB athletes to have registered their own names as domains is Paula Radcliffe. Britain newest track star, Christine Ohuruogu, does not have her domain name registered.

www.paularadcliffe.com