BOCOG vice president and secretary general Wang Wei, Anheuser-Busch Cos CEO and president Patrick Stokes and IOC representatives were present at the press conference, where the same was announced.

As part of the sponsorship, Anheuser-Busch has rights to use the 2008 Olympic Games logo for promotional purposes in China and 29 other countries around the world. This marks Anheuser-Busch's first sponsorship of a summer Olympic Games held outside the US.

Anheuser-Busch Companies CEO and president Patrick Stokes & Beijing Organizing Committee vice president and secretary general Wang Wei at the press conference to announce Budweiser's official international beer sponsorship of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

"The development of the Olympic marketing program in the past two decades has proven that a closer relationship between the IOC, the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and the business community constitutes a vital guarantee for the success of an Olympic Games. The participation of companies with international brand names has laid a solid material groundwork for a successful Olympic Games, and the Olympic platform, on the other hand, provides an important and rare opportunity for these companies to build up their corporate images on an international basis," Wang Wei said.

Budweiser will support its sponsorship of the 2008 Olympic Games by using the official marks on packaging, point-of-sale materials, sales promotions, branded merchandise and other marketing programs. Budweiser has been an official sponsor of the China Olympic Team since 2000.

The agreement also extends Budweiser's sponsorship of the China Olympic Team through 2008. To underscore Budweiser's support of the team, Wei, Stokes and Anheuser- Busch vice president, global media and sports marketing Tony Ponturo, honored athletes GUO Jingjing (diving), LI Xiaopeng (gymnastics) and MA Lin (table tennis) with a gift in celebration of their recent medal-winning performances in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

In addition to the 2008 Olympic Games, Budweiser is also the "official beer" sponsor of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy. Anheuser-Busch's brands also serve as "official beer" sponsors of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), extending its support of the US Olympic Team through 2008. Anheuser-Busch is the exclusive malt-beverage advertiser for all Olympic Games telecasts in the United States through 2008.

Budweiser has been an Olympic supporter since 1984 when the brand was the "official beer" sponsor of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Budweiser also was the "official beer" sponsor of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.