Friday, September 28, 2007

Olympics 'will boost London property'

London property will experience a positive knock-on effect once the Olympic Games have been staged there in 2012, it has been claimed.

According to Naomi Heaton, the chief executive of London Central Portfolio, it is not only the east area of the capital - which is set to be regenerated with Olympic funding - but also other areas that will benefit.

The expert noted that events will take place in areas such as Hyde Park and Regents Park, while the Palace will stage beach volleyball and a triathlon will be conducted in the Serpentine.

Ms Heaton said: "They'll be a huge amount of activity in the centre of town ... there's going to be a massive face lift in the centre of London."

In addition, she noted that the city's transport links will be improved in the city centre, potentially more good news for property investors.

London 2012 states that the capital will "come alive with cultural activity" during the games

source: news.realestatetv.tv/

Jankovic looks forward to the Olympics
Olympics centenary

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The U.S. might bid for the 2012 Youth Olympics

The U.S. might bid for the 2012 Youth Olympics after not joining a crowded field of competitors for the inaugural 2010 event.

Alexander “Sandy” Treadwell, chairman of the Lake Placid Regional Winter Sports Committee, has sent a letter to the Colorado Springs-based U.S. Olympic Committee, expressing the New York village’s desire to host the first winter version of the Youth Olympics.

No other cities have publicly stated an interest in hosting the 2012 Youth Olympics, although the bidding guidelines have yet to be released by the International Olympic Committee. The host city will be named in 2009.

USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said his organization hasn’t decided whether it will bid for the 2012 Youth Olympics because it’s focused on comprising Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics.

“I can’t say whether we will or will not at this point,” Seibel said. “It is something we will evaluate. It is a concept that we fully support, and we’ve expressed that to the IOC.”

The Youth Olympics, which will feature athletes ages 14-18, was created in July by IOC president Jacques Rogge in an attempt to get youth active in sports and away from TVs and computers.

About 3,500 athletes are expected for the Summer Games and 1,000 for the Winter Games. Each country will send a minimum of four athletes, who will be chosen at least 18 months before the Games.

The summer version features most of the 26 sports that will be contested at the 2012 London Games — baseball and softball are not part of the program — with several twists to appeal to youngsters.

The basketball competition may be “streetball,” in which games are held outside and sometimes with fewer players. The cycling disciplines are mountain bike and BMX, and road and track cycling were left off the schedule.

The IOC will foot the bill for the Youth Olympics — about $30 million for the Summer Games and $15-20 million for the Winter Games.

In a letter to national Olympic committees, Rogge said the Youth Olympics “can offer an excellent platform to create a true community between the youth of the world and the participants by learning and sharing experiences. ... Our hope is that if young people can learn to respect each other on the field of play, they may transfer this to the other parts of their daily lives.”

Ten cities were confirmed this month by the IOC as candidates for the 2010 Youth Olympics: Algiers, Algeria; Athens, Greece; Bangkok, Thailand; Debrecen, Hungary; Guatemala City; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Moscow; Poznan, Poland; Singapore and Turin, Italy.

Candidate cities have until Oct. 26 to complete a 127-page IOC questionnaire. The IOC will select an unspecified number of finalists in November and determine the host city in February.

Athens, Moscow and Turin are the early favorites because they’ve hosted the Olympics — Turin in 2006, Athens in 2004 and 1896 and Moscow in 1980. Algiers and Guatemala City are strong contenders because the Olympics never have been held in Africa or Central America.
Looking ahead to 2012, Lake Placid could be challenged by Salt Lake City and Calgary. Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Olympics, and Calgary was host of the 1988 Winter Games.

The venues used at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid have been maintained by the city’s Olympic Regional Development Authority. They include the hockey rink from the “Miracle on Ice” game, in which the U.S. upset the Soviet Union en route to the gold medal.

“It comes down to venues. If you have the venues, you can do it,” said James McKenna, president of the Lake Placid-Essex County Visitors Bureau. “You’re pretty hard-pressed to find any place in the world that has all of the current sports facilities in an eight-mile radius within a town that is a destination resort.”

The IOC mandates that leaders from candidate cities be “cost-conscious” in their bids and that no new venues be built for the Youth Olympics.

Also, all competitions must be held in the host city, meaning it’s not possible for Colorado Springs to join forces with Denver in a joint bid for 2012.

The IOC’s large seating requirements is the biggest roadblock for a future Colorado Springs bid.

According to bid procedures, the track and field stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies must hold 10,000 people, and a city must have a 2,500-seat aquatics facility.

“It would be very easy to add temporary seating to the Air Force track,” said Mike Moran, director of communications for the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation. “What do you do with the aquatics venue? I don’t think there is anything in the area that would seat that many people.”

Asked about Colorado Springs’ chances of hosting the Youth Olympics, Moran said, “The list of (financial) guarantees is daunting. And we’re not typically a city that has been willing to lay out large guarantees.”

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Adidas Becomes Next Major Sponsor of 2012 London Olympics

With the 2012 Summer Olympics more than four years away, the sponsors are starting to line up.

Adidas has agreed to a deal worth $99.6 million to become the third major sponsor of the 2012 London Olympics, according to the London Telegraph.

The agreement is expected to be formally announced on Thursday during a press conference featuring U.S. sprinters Tyson Gay and Allyson Felix.

Adidas joins Lloyds TSB and French energy company EDF. Those two firms paid about $159.3 million and $99.6 million, respectively, as top sponsors. The deal brings LOCOG "a step closer to realizing the $3.98 billion target they have set for staging the 2012 Games," the newspaper said.

Jankovic looks forward to the Olympics

Jankovic, the currently No. 3 in WTA, will take part in China Open as the second seed and the Serbian player also showed her expectations for next year's Olympic Games on Monday.

The 22-year-old Serbian sensation just applied the wildcard last Saturday for the 600,000 US dollars China Open. On talking about next year's Olympics, Jankovic expressed her willingness.

"I hope I can come back next year for Olympic Games because it's such an exciting event. But there is still a long way for me to go. I hope I can be there," said Jankovic, last year's semifinalist here.

At the Bali Classics last week, the top seed Jankovic was beaten by the 31-year-old Lindsay Davenport who just gave birth to her first child in June and might become the Serb's opponent again in the quarter-finals of China Open.

"She is in her amazing form now. And she also have the great shape after having the baby. I hope she can enjoy the game and it's good she is coming back. But I just want to focus on my next match and if I meet her again, I will try my best to beat her."

Having known her partner Li Na was out for injury, the Serb sent her wishes to this Chinese top player.

"Li Na is one of my best friends in tour. I feel pity that she has to survive the injury. I hope she can be better soon."

Monday, September 10, 2007

Last chance saloon for Olympics

ELEVEN months before the Beijing Olympics, Athletics Australia has put the hard word on the runners, jumpers and throwers who expect to compete for their country in China.

In the wake of the world championships in Osaka, where Australia had the second worst overall team performance in the event's 24-year history, athletes are being warned they have entered the last chance saloon.

While Jana Rawlinson (400m hurdles) and Nathan Deakes (50km walk) proved themselves the world's best, a swag of athletes who went with medal hopes, such as pole vaulters Steve Hooker, Paul Burgess and Kym Howe, long jumper Bronwyn Thompson, 1500m runner Sarah Jamieson, 400m runner John Steffensen and 5000m runner Craig Mottram, all left empty-handed.

And then there were those who should have at least made finals but perennially under-achieve at major events, such as sprinters Patrick Johnson and Joshua Ross, and 800m runner Tamsyn Lewis.

The 1980 Olympic 800m champion Steve Ovett commented after Lewis's run that she had two options before Beijing. "She should retire or train harder and I would suggest the former," Ovett said.

Danny Corcoran, chief executive of AA, said he left Osaka disappointed because so much promise had come to so little.

"I think there was an enormous wake-up call for the sport," Corcoran said.

"We don't want to have the same feelings walking away (from) the Beijing Olympics.

"Beijing will be the defining moment for a lot of athletes' careers. We have to be a darn sight wiser there and this time they have to get the preparation right. The underlying sentiment is there won't be second chances for a lot of them after Beijing."

It is not just the preparation but also the attitude they need to overhaul if results are to improve.

Corcoran, who stayed in the team hotel in Osaka for the duration of the nine-day championships, was able to observe the athletes close up.

"I saw who bled and who did not," Corcoran said.

In Osaka, some Australian athletes did not appear to be cut deeply enough.

Pole vaulter Hooker, who was gold medal favourite but came ninth through a combination of bad strategy and bad jumping, was already turning his mind to last night's lucrative Golden League meeting in Zurich.

"I am philosophical about it," Hooker said after the final. "There is a bit of history of those who do badly here going on to do well in Zurich."

And then there was Johnson, who ran 9.93sec at a small meet in Japan in 2003 but has not got near that time since. Before Osaka, he was promising a good show but didn't make it past the second round of the 100m or the semi-final of the 200m.

"It was all about preparation for Beijing," said Johnson, who turns 35 this month.

Imagine a footballer walking off after losing the grand final and saying, "Oh well, it was good preparation for next year's grand final".

Josh Ross, who ran 10.08sec in March - easily fast enough to make the blue-riband 100m final if he had done it in Osaka - went home in a distressed state after being burnt out by an ill-conceived lead-up season in Europe.

The men's 4x100m relay was robbed of its two fastest runners, Ross, and Johnson, who were left out by coaches because of a perceived lack of commitment.

Ovett also had a strong take on the relays, saying team management should have resolved the issues to make sure the fastest teams were entered.

Corcoran says Australian coaches need more support and training. "We have to better educate our coaches. Our selection of elite junior athletes is also incredibly important, to find the ones who have the right make-up and mental wherewithal," said Corcoran, who is introducing psychological testing to junior programs.

But they are solutions for the long-term, not likely to make much difference in Beijing.

In the short term, Corcoran says AA will have to take more control of athletes' programs before Beijing so less is left to chance.

For example, Ross, who gets homesick, was advised by AA's elite performance manager Max Binnington not to spend three months in Europe, but no-one actually stopped him.

"If athletes are funded, programs will have to be signed off because we have to ensure our money is well spent and the programs are on track to deliver outcomes we expect," Corcoran said.

The difficulty for AA is that there is no one solution for a team of more than 40 diverse athletes. At one end, there was pole vaulter Vicky Parnov, 16, who was there for the experience, and at the other end, seasoned sprinters, distance runners and vaulters who blew it with more culpability.

Distance runners Benita Johnson and Donna MacFarlane might have won medals if they weren't tripped in rough races. There was bad luck and bad management.

David Culbert, the former Olympic long jumper who was commentating for SBS, said AA officials had to learn from the frustration of Osaka.

"The fact we won two gold medals can't be overlooked. It hasn't happened since the 1968 Olympics and if we had three or four others who finished in the top eight, we would be celebrating," Culbert said.

"It is a very fine line, but a line you have to be on the other side of. But it is not cause for hysteria.

"It is not a swimming pool with a lane where conditions don't change. Grant Hackett doesn't get his goggles ripped off by the guy in the lane next to him," he said.

www.theaustralian.news.com.au

Friday, September 7, 2007

Olympics centenary

Major celebrations are being planned to commemorate the centenary of the 1908 London Olympics. The Royal Family and could be involved in the celebrations. I am told the Queen has already been approached.

This would be entirely appropriate. The 1908 Olympics saw London stepping in to help the Olympic Movement when Rome, which had been given the Games, could not stage the event.

The Games itself saw the Royal Family play a big part. The House of Windsor, in effect, decided the distance of the modern marathon. Some 385 yards were added to the original distance. This followed the decision to start the marathon not from the centre of Windsor, as had been planned, but from the Royal nurseries at Windsor Castle so that the children of Edward VII could see the start.

The Queen came into the picture after the Marathon was run.

This was when Dorando Pietri, the Italian, was disqualified from the Marathon after he had been helped over the line. He was the first into the stadium and the first across the line having collapsed several times as he approached the finish. The Queen was much taken by his courage and presented him with a Gold Cup. He would become quite a celebrity in later years.

Copyright: Hulton Archive / Getty Images

I understand the family of Dorando has been contacted and his Gold Cup may return to London for the celebrations.

The celebrations could also see a tug of war match between City of London Police and Liverpool police, the contestants for the olympic tug of war back in 1908 which the City of London won.

Plans are also being discussed to have a rugby match to mark the 1908 olympic rugby contest (rugby then was part of the Olympics, as cricket was to be for a brief moment at a subsequent Olympics). In 1908 the match was between Australia and Cornwall, who were representing Great Britain and Ireland. The Australians won. Now the idea being discussed is for the Wallabies to play a British team, which would be the Lions team minus the Irish.

The rugby match idea is not yet cast in stone but I am told the Wallabies may be interested given 2008 will mark the centenary of their first overseas official tour.

The Olympic torch could also play a part in the celebrations. The torch for the Beijing Olympics is due in this country next spring and it might be taken down part of the 1908 Marathon route ending at White City, now, of course, the home of the BBC.

But however colourful the celebrations, and whatever part the Queen plays, one thing is certain, it will not last as long as the 1908 Olympic Games which started on 27 April and did not finish until 31 October.

From BBC sport

Thursday, September 6, 2007

2016 Summer Olympics - Chicago

Chicago Submits Application to Host 2016 Summer Olympics
Chicago announced that it "has formally entered" the competition to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. The USOC and Mayor Richard Daley each sent letters to the IOC, "officially submitting" the city as the U.S. applicant, according to the Chicago Tribune.

If any U.S. venue is sports-crazy enough to host an Olympic Games, it is Chicago. And especially after New York's failure to land the 2012 Summer Games (London has them) and Atlanta's rough Olympic road in 1996, Chicago deserves a high level of consideration from the IOC to represent the U.S.

"We know the next two years will require hard work on all our parts, but it's a great opportunity to educate America and the world about the Olympic movement and the spirit it brings to our city," Daley said.

Asked whether Chicago's bid would be hurt by potential Chicago Transit Authority service cuts, Daley said Olympic host cities have been able in past years to get federal funds for transportation and security. Chicago's bid is backed by a package of public and private guarantees, the newspaper said.

The IOC is expected to announce a full list of bid locations on Sept.14 with a winner to be chosen on Oct. 2, 2009. Other cities likely to declare their candidacies include Rio de Janeiro; Madrid; Tokyo; Doha, Qatar; and Baku, Azerbaijan, the newspaper said.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Koreans Advance to Olympics

South Korea qualified for the Olympics in men’s gymnastics on Wednesday.

The Korean teams earned a trip to Beijing by placing eighth at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Tuesday in Stuttgart, Germany. The Koreans totaled 360.400 points as team in six qualifying events, defeating some of the world’s strong rivals, including France ㅡ which finished with 359.900 points ㅡ Italy and Canada.

It is the fifth straight time the Koreans have qualified for the Olympics in men’s gymnastics. That gives Korea it’s longest string of Olympics berths in the sports since its gymnastics team made its first Olympic appearance in 1964 in Tokyo.

The Koreans have now qualified for every Olympics since the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Spain.

The six-member national team went through difficult competitions against international rivals, such as Germany and Spain in qualifications.

Despite a favorable match schedule, three Koreans struggled with their performances at the beginning. Some made mistakes in the pommel horse by touching their hands on the ground, causing them to lose points. They also had less-than-satisfying performances on the rings.

But after earning 62.875 points in the vault, the Koreans gained momentum with strong performances on the parallel bars (63.650), which was regarded as a strong event for Korea, helping the team to finish with 360.400 points en route to advancing to the final round of the 2008 Olympics.

Yang Tae-young, who was deprived of a golden medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics after some controversial decisions, made great contributions.

Despite making some mistakes by touching the ground in the pommel horse, he had a strong performance on the parallel bars, recovering the previous faults to stir up the morale of the team.

Korea’s remaining five gymnasts also contributed to their team’s success, despite being plagued by injuries.

The Olympic champions will be crowned in Beijing next year by calculating scores from six categories ㅡ floor exercise, horizontal bar, parallel bars, pommel horse, rings and vault.

The Koreans hope to be raked fifth or higher entering the Olympics.

China took first at the Artistic World Championship with 374.275 points, followed by Japan with 370.725 and Germany with 364.350.

The U.S., Russia, Romania, Spain, France, Italy, Canada and Bulgaria also won tickets for the final rounds of the Beijing Olympics.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Chinese games - 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing

With less than a year before the start of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the world community has trained its gaze on China. The Games present an opportunity to pressure that nation's communist government to correct some of its worst abuses in the areas of human rights, press freedom and individual expression.

Along with reports on the pageantry of the Games, attention should be lavished on China's atrocious human rights record. This includes the despicable practice of forced abortions that result from the nation's one-child policy. Reliable reports abound of women being taken from their homes and made to undergo abortions, even in the ninth month of pregnancy.

This is a good time, too, to highlight China's abuse of dissident voices. In a case all too familiar in China, self-trained lawyer Chen Guangcheng was sentenced to more than four years in prison in 2006 for bringing attention to abuses by family planning officials in Shandong Province in eastern China. Chen, who is blind, is being held in isolation from other prisoners. Villagers at his trial allegedly were tortured into testifying against him.

The human rights group Amnesty International is working to bring attention in the run-up to the Games to such cases, as well as China's broad employment of the death penalty without a fair trial and its stranglehold on free expression and Internet access.

Meanwhile, pledges made to improve press freedoms remain unfulfilled. China said it would lift restrictions it places on foreign media until the Games end next August. But according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Chinese journalists continue to be harassed, threatened and jailed. Foreign reporters say China regularly disregards even the temporary rules it put in place to give international media a freer hand.

China's misdeeds don't just harm its own citizens, as a sobering New York Times report on the country's massive pollution problems pointed out last week. Just as industrialized nations are coming to realize the peril of unabated carbon emissions, China could overtake the United States as the world's leading producer of greenhouse gases as soon as the end of this year.

The government has been lax on pollution control to avoid exerting drag on the country's red hot economic engine. Companies have freely dumped chemical waste into surface water, releases of which recently sent toxins flowing into Russia. The sun is perpetually darkened by pollution over some Chinese cities, and large swaths of Chinese coastline are devoid of marine life. Children suffer high rates of lead poisoning, and disease caused by pollution is a leading cause of death.

What's more, China's rapid development is run mostly on dirty, obsolete coal technology.

Despite the far-reaching power of China's strict authoritarian government, experts say the pollution might be impossible to control because of a thorny Catch-22 . China's growth is fueled by exports made cheap in part by laissez-faire pollution regulation. Slowing that growth could foment social and industry unrest that would threaten Communist Party rule. The same could result from unmitigated environmental degradation.

The international pre-Olympics spotlight also has illuminated Beijing's investments in Africa, including in Sudan, where that government is funding a genocidal war in Darfur.

Recent recalls of lead-poisoned toys, adulterated pet foods, toxic toothpaste and dangerous tires have awakened Americans to the hazards that go with saving money on cheaply made Chinese goods. To that add flagrant copyright piracy to the issues China must confront head-on.

This is not the time to let China bask in the pride of its Olympics coup, but to use the global attention to make it clean up its act.

www.chron.com

Monday, September 3, 2007

Eleven cities bid for Youth Olympics

ATHENS, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Eleven cities have submitted bids to host the first edition of the Youth Olympics in 2010, designed to shore up dwindling support for the Olympic movement, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Monday.
With the average age of television viewers of the Olympics increasing and youngsters turning away, the IOC has said it needs to change to secure its survival.
For athletes aged 14-18, the first summer Games will take place in 2010 and the inaugural winter edition two years later.
The candidate cities for 2010 are Algiers, Athens, Bangkok, Belgrade, Debrecen, Guatemala City, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, Poznan, Singapore and Turin, the IOC said in a statement.
The first host city will be decided next February.

Popular Posts

2012 London Olympic Games Labels

London 2012 (25) 2012 Olympic Games (16) 2012 London (14) Beijing Olympics (14) 2008 Beijing Olympics (12) 2012 Olympics (11) Beijing 2008 (11) 2008 Olympics (9) China (9) Olympic Games (9) London (8) Olympics (8) Beijing 2008 Olympic Games (6) Olympic Park (6) 2008 china (5) 2012 (5) Beijing Airport (5) Olympic (5) 2008 Olympic (4) Beijing (4) London Olympics (4) London 2012 logo (4) 2010 Vancouver (3) 2012 Games (3) ODA (3) Olympic Committee's (3) VeloPark (3) 2008 Summer Olympics (2) 2010 Winter Olympics (2) Beijing Summer Olympics (2) London 2012 Olympics (2) London stadium (2) all olimpic logos (2) ioc (2) logo (2) olympic Village (2) song (2) 1908 Olympics (1) 20016 (1) 2010 Vancouver talisman (1) 2012 Olympic Stadium (1) 2012 drug cheats (1) 2014 Winter Olympics (1) 2016 Summer Olympics (1) 2018 Winter Olympics (1) ATHENS (1) Alpha Sigma Alpha (1) American cyclists (1) Aquatic Centre (1) Athletics Australia (1) Beijing Map (1) Beijing Subway Map (1) Bijak (1) China Citys (1) David Higgins (1) Interpol (1) Jonathan Stephens (1) Lin Miaoke (1) Locog (1) London 2012 budget plans (1) London Games (1) Louis Smith (1) Michael Phelps (1) Olympic flame (1) Olympic guide (1) Olympic travel (1) Olympics Promo (1) Organising Committee (1) Paralympic Games (1) Paralympic Games 2012 (1) Summit (1) Tessa Jowell (1) UK (1) UK School Games (1) Vodafone (1) Womens Gymnastics (1) adidas (1) k2 (1) korea (1) london velo (1) olimpic flag (1) olympic Football (1) roadshow (1) sport (1) volleyball (1)