2012 London Olympic Games

Guardian news: Future of Olympic Stadium must be settled by end of the year

2010-03-04T07:37:00.000-08:00

Wrangles over who gets to use the Olympic Stadium after the London 2012 Games must finish by the end of this year, the Olympic legacy chief Baroness Ford said today.

Considering West Ham United's new and high-profile interest in moving in to the east London stadium after the Games amid other suggested would-be tenants, a public consultation process will be used to help make the decision, she told MPs.

Baroness Ford, chair of the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), which is in charge of planning, developing and managing the Olympic Park, said: "It seems the time is absolutely right now to go into a public process to get a set of settled uses for the stadium.

"This is a £540 million public asset so it goes without saying that we are not just going to have some conversation off stage left and someone is going to take over the stadium.

"It has to be a publicly managed process to demonstrate value for money and that we are keeping the bid commitments that were there."

It will start with three months of market testing, including publication of an OPLC prospectus in the next few weeks inviting people to make suggestions on what they can do in legacy. A formal procurement process will then take place.

Baroness Ford told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee: "We are really hoping we will get to an agreed position by the end of the year so we can say 'here are the uses for the stadium' and we can put that to one side and get on with other things.

"I am quite confident that we can get to a good decision on the stadium but we must do it this year because it can not be left to just drag on."

Rumours have been rife that rugby and Twenty20 cricket could also be interested in using the stadium but Baroness Ford insisted that the bid pledge of having a grand prix athletics track after the Games "have to be met".

She said: "We know that the amount of times that athletics will be used in the stadium will not be a huge amount of times, maybe a couple of dozen times a year, but for me premier athletics must be part of the mix because that was part of the bid commitment."

West Ham's new co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan took over the cash-strapped club this year and immediately confirmed their interest in relocating to the 80,000-capacity Olympic Stadium in Stratford, east London, as they try to improve the club finances.

The stadium is to be shrunk into a 25,000-seater venue after the Games complete with an athletics track. At the moment, there seems no reason why football and athletics could not exist together in the stadium, Baroness Ford pointed out.

She said: "Technically the pitch within the track is absolutely Fifa-compliant, from the point of view of size and sight lines, and evidently the stadium is IAAF-compliant.

"These things could technically co-exist, it is whether people would want to co-exist.

"Ed Warner [the UK Athletics chief executive] I know is quite happy to share with football and it is now for football to tell us, if they want to come in to the stadium, how they would want to keep their part of the bargain in terms of the bid."

Baroness Ford said West Ham are not "the only show in town" in terms of use of the stadium as the OPLC is in "lots of discussions with many other people".

She noted: "We need to get this settled once and for all this year. "The current planning status quo is for the stadium to be taken down and rebuilt into a 25,000- seater, the new Crystal Palace, and if that is what we decide to do, fine. We should not apologise for that. We have Twickenham, we have Wembley, and we would have a new athletics stadium – that is what is currently envisaged.

"If alongside that or complementary to that other things can happen in the stadium that make it more viable, more animated, give loads of access, that involve the community – that would be absolutely fantastic."

Ищготовление шкаф купе с рисунком на зеркале в Киеве, Чернигове, Славутиче и Броварах.

An Olympics Tradition?

2008-08-29T04:26:00.001-07:00

Many were scandalized when the Beijing Olympic organizing committee revealed that Lin Miaoke, the girl who sang a patriotic song during the Olympics opening ceremony, was actually lip-synching over a recording by someone deemed less attractive by authorities. Some said it was indicative of the Chinese government’s reach of control.

But another revelation, this time by the Sydney Symphony, suggests that faking goes beyond the Chinese government and may even be an Olympic tradition.

The orchestra’s managing director told The Sydney Morning Herald that it not only mimed over a pre-recorded set for the opening of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, but that some of the pieces were recorded by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Both orchestras were quoted in the story saying the miming act was done purely as a safeguard in case anything went wrong during the performance. They also said it was done only to save time, not because one of the orchestras was better than the other — or because of acid reflux, a la Ashlee Simpson.

According to the report, mimed orchestra performances are not unheard of. Directors of both orchestras said this was the case at both the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the Rugby Union World Cup in 2003.

But miming at religious events is considered a strict no-no. As a spokesman for World Youth Day told the newspaper, music played during the Pope’s visit to the Sydney event did not permit faking because it was “an authentic expression of the prayer and song of those people at the time in that place.”

World's Biggest Airport - Beijing Airport! (part 5)

2008-08-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

erminal 3
Terminal 3 opened in 2 stages: February 29, 2008 for trial operations and March 26, 2008 for business. It mainly houses Air China, Oneworld, Star Alliance, and other domestic and international flights. It is composed of three sections, C, D, and E (to avoid leading passengers to Terminal 1 or 2 when seeing the letters A and B). T3-C,D, and E are linked by an inter-terminal train.

[edit] Terminal 3C
Air China (Domestic) (Baotou, Changchun, Changde, Changsha, Changzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Daxian, Datong, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Guilin, Guiyang, Haikou, Hailar, Hangzhou, Harbin, Hefei, Hohhot, Jinggangshan, Kunming, Lanzhou, Lhasa, Mianyang, Nanchang, Nanjing, Nanning, Nantong, Ningbo, Ordos, Qingdao, Sanya, Shanghai-Hongqiao, Shanghai-Pudong, Shantou, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Taiyuan, Tongliao, Urumqi, Weihai, Wenzhou, Wuhan, Xiamen, Xi'an, Xiangfan, Xilinhot, Xining, Xuzhou, Yancheng, Yanji, Yantai, Yinchuan, Yuncheng, Zhangjiajie, Zhengzhou, Zhuhai)
Shandong Airlines (Jinan, Qingdao, Yantai)
Shanghai Airlines (Hangzhou, Shanghai-Hongqiao, Shanghai-Pudong)
Sichuan Airlines (Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Wanzhou)

Terminal 3D
This will be used for charter flights during the Beijing Olympics, then will be used for international flights.

Terminal 3E

Terminal 3 waiting area with Air China lounge on the rightAir China (International) (Athens, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Busan, Daegu, Delhi, Dubai, Frankfurt, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jakarta, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, London-Heathrow, Los Angeles, Madrid, Malé [seasonal], Manchester [begins March 2009], Melbourne, Milan-Malpensa [begins October 2009], Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Munich, Nagoya-Centrair, New York-JFK, Osaka-Kansai, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Pyongyang, Rome-Fiumicino, Saipan [seasonal], San Francisco, São Paulo-Guarulhos, Sapporo-Chitose, Sendai, Seoul-Incheon, Singapore, Stockholm-Arlanda, St. Petersburg, Sydney, Toronto-Pearson [begins March 2009], Tokyo-Narita, Ulaanbaatar, Vancouver, Vienna [begins October 2009], Warsaw [begins October 2008], Washington-Dulles [begins March 2009], Yangon, Zurich [begins March 2009])
Air Canada (Toronto-Pearson, Vancouver)
Air Macau (Macau)
Air New Zealand (Auckland) [begins July 18]
All Nippon Airways (Osaka-Kansai, Tokyo-Narita)
American Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare) [begins March 25, 2009]
Asiana Airlines (Busan, Cheongju, Gwangju, Seoul-Incheon)
Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
British Airways (London-Heathrow)
Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)
Dragonair (Hong Kong)
EgyptAir (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Cairo)
El Al (Tel Aviv)
Emirates Airline (Dubai)
Finnair (Helsinki)
Hainan Airlines (International) (Algiers [Begins 2008], Berlin-Tegel [begins May 19], Brussels, Budapest, Chicago-O'Hare [begins June 2009] , Dubai, Geneva [awaiting gov't approval], Luanda [pending gov't approval], Novosibirsk,Newark [begins October 2009] [13], Osaka-Kansai, Seattle/Tacoma [begins June 9],St. Petersburg)
Japan Airlines (Nagoya-Centrair, Osaka-Kansai, Tookyo-Narita)
LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw)
Lufthansa (Frankfurt, Munich)
Qantas (Sydney)
Qatar Airways (Doha)
S7 Airlines (Irkutsk, Novosibirsk)
Scandinavian Airlines System (Copenhagen, Stockholm-Arlanda)
Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
Thai Airways International (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi)
Turkish Airlines (Istanbul-Atatürk)
United Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare, San Francisco, Washington-Dulles)
US Airways (Philadelphia) [begins March 25, 2009]

Cargo airlines
Aeroflot-Cargo (Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Novosibirsk)
Air China Cargo (Anchorage, Chicago-O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Portland (OR))
AirBridgeCargo Airlines (Moscow-Domodedovo, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, St. Petersburg)
Cargolux (Luxembourg)
FedEx Express (Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai-Pudong)
Korean Air Cargo (Seoul-Incheon)
Malaysia Airlines Kargo (Kuala Lumpur)
SAS Cargo Group (Copenhagen, Shanghai-Pudong, Stockholm-Arlanda)
Singapore Airlines Cargo (Singapore)
TESIS Aviation Enterprise (Kemerovo, Novosibirsk)
Volga-Dnepr (Krasnoyarsk)

World's Biggest Airport - Beijing Airport! (part 4)

2008-08-13T06:58:00.002-07:00

World's Biggest Airport - Beijing Airport! (part 3)

2008-08-13T06:58:00.001-07:00

World's Biggest Airport - Beijing Airport! (part 2)

2008-08-13T06:57:00.001-07:00

World's Biggest Airport - Beijing Airport! (part 1)

2008-08-13T06:51:00.000-07:00

Beijing Capital International Airport, (simplified Chinese: 北京首都国际机场; traditional Chinese: 北京首都國際機場; pinyin: Běijīng Shǒudū Guójì Jīchǎng) (IATA: PEK, ICAO: ZBAA) is the main international airport that serves the capital city of Beijing, People's Republic of China. The IATA Airport Code is PEK, reflecting Beijing's former Romanization Peking. The code BJS is also frequently used, reflecting the current pinyin spelling of Beijing and including all airports in the Beijing metropolitan area; currently, Beijing Capital (PEK) is the only civil aviation airport that falls under BJS.

The airport is located 20 km to the northeast of Beijing city center. Although many consider it to lie in Shunyi District, it is, in fact, an exclave of Chaoyang District, Beijing.

The airport is a primary hub of operations for Air China, which flies to around 120 destinations (excluding cargo). It is also a hub for Hainan Airlines and China Southern Airlines. The airport expansion is largely funded by a 500-million-euro (USD 625 million) loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The loan is the largest ever granted by the EIB in Asia; the agreement was signed during the eighth China-EU Summit held in September 2005.

Beijing Capital is today the busiest airport in the People's Republic of China, having registered double-digit growth annually since the SARS crisis of 2003. In 2004, it became the busiest airport in Asia by aircraft movements, overtaking Tokyo International Airport (Haneda). In terms of passengers, Beijing was the second-busiest airport in Asia after Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) and ninth-busiest worldwide in 2006. In 2007, it served 53,736,923 passengers and had 399,986 aircraft movements. It was the 23rd busiest airport in terms of traffic movements. It is also the 20th busiest airport in terms of cargo traffic, having moved 1,028,908 million tonnes of cargo in 2006. It operates around 1100 flights a day, and is expected to rise to 1500-1600 at the Olympics in 2008. [From Wiki]

Michael Phelps the greatest olympics champion of all time

2008-08-13T06:49:00.001-07:00

Womens Gymnastics Team Finals - Yang Yilin VT

2008-08-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

France, Georgia get first Olympic golds in Beijing

2008-08-13T06:44:00.000-07:00

Both French and Georgian wrestlers won their respective nations first Olympic golds in Beijing Olympics Wednesday afternoon.

Both winners wore their national flags to agitate hails from their countrymen who arrived at the wrestling venue for cheeringup their national heroes.

Steeve Guenot defeated Kanatbek Begaliev of Kyrgyzstan in the men's 66kg Greco-Roman competition before Manuchar Kvirkelia beat the host wrestler Chang Yongxiang in the men's 74kg class.

Guenot, a subway employee who trained part time, said, "I'm really proud and this is my happiest time in my life to win France the first gold in the Olympics. All my family and friends are here and I think the gold medal is the best gift for them."

Guenot's family were also the happiest because the elder brother Christophe Guenot added a bronze for France in the men's 74kg competition. "There is no secret. Our father taught us the value of hard work," Christophe Guenot said.

France sends a strong Olympic team to Beijing but their medal board lacked the color of gold before the Guenot brothers' feats, with only seven silvers and two bronzes in most time into the fifth day at Beijing Olympics.

Similar to Guenot, Kvirkelia obtained a comfortable victory over his Chinese rival with his artful skills and great experience. The 23-year-old Chang, standing tearful on the victory podium, has continued making feats since his first round when he defeated world champion Yavor Yanakiev of Bulgaria, who finished the bronze in today's competition.

Chang said, "I was so upset not to win China a gold although this is the best result of the men wrestlers in the Olympics."

"He (Kvirkelia) was obviously better than I," Chang said. After Chang's securing a final berth this morning, his coach helped him prepare a lot in a bid to get the gold.

China eventually lost the title to a country that has not yet gotten a gold medal in the Beijing Olympics.

A veteran wrestler who won a world championships bronze medal in 2006, Kvirkelia said, "My country is now in a difficult situation and I'm dedicating this gold to the Georgian people who will feel better."

Both Armen Vardanyan of Ukrain and Mikhail Siamionau of Belarus won the bronze medals in the men's 66kg class. Together with Frenchman Guenot, Bulgarian Yanakiev got another bronze in the men's 74kg competition.

Terror threats, smog but also hope for the greatest show on earth

2008-08-07T02:31:00.000-07:00

CHINA yesterday insisted the Olympics would be the best ever – despite a rising terror threat, unprecedented security and thick smog.
Last-minute preparations gathered pace in Beijing as the countdown continued to what is being billed as the most spectacular opening ceremony in the Games' history.
And Chinese leaders stepped up their efforts to reassure the world they could provide a safe environment for visitors and athletes in the wake of this week's separatist attacks. Sun Weide, an official on the Games' organising committee, said security was the "foundation and a key part of the event".

He added: "We are confident and capable of holding a safe Olympic Games under the leadership of the Chinese government and with the help of the international community."

But Dr Kerry Brown, associate fellow on the Asia Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said Muslim extremists would see the Beijing Olympics as a "once in a lifetime opportunity" and that the massive Chinese security effort will make a successful attack "unlikely, but not impossible".

"It will be too much to let it go for them, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to hit the people they regard as oppressors," he said. "There is a lot of anger and hatred and it would draw attention to their cause and hurt the people they regard as oppressors."

The warning follows the bloody attack on Monday which has proved a setback for a Chinese government trying to present an image of national stability. Two members of the largely Muslim Uighur minority have been accused of killing 16 border police and injuring 16 others in China's Western region.

Alim Seytoff, general secretary of the Washington-based Uighur American Association, yesterday said the attack pointed to discontent over Chinese controls on religion and the expanding ethnic Han Chinese presence in Xinjiang.

The beating by police yesterday of two Japanese journalists reporting on the attacks drew an official apology, but Beijing also set new obstacles for news outlets wanting to report from Tiananmen Square.

Meanwhile, the Olympic stadium in Beijing has been enveloped in smog in the run-up to the Games, despite drastic measures to improve air quality.

Controversy has dogged the event since China successfully bid for it, and the global Olympic torch relay was beset by protests against the country's human rights record and treatment of Tibet. And the International Olympics Committee yesterday warned the protests could stop the event happening ahead of London 2012, with Dick Pound, a Canadian senior IOC figure, calling for an end to the parade.

China has invested about £20 billion in the Games and analysts say the country may emerge with an even stronger economy for all its lavish spending.

Andy Rothman, an economist with brokerage CLSA in Shanghai, said: "The majority of the money accounts for permanent infrastructure, stuff that we think, long term, will be productive for the Chinese economy."

However, Dr Yiyi Lu, a research fellow at the China Policy Institute, part of the University of Nottingham, warned against overemphasising the impact the Olympics would have on the country's global standing.

Women's Football: Champions make stumbling start

2008-08-07T02:29:00.000-07:00

There are still two days to go before the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games officially open, but that did not stop the Women's Football Tournament from getting underway on Wednesday. Intense heat and high humidity were the order of the day as reigning champions the USA opened their defence with a defeat. Elsewhere, Germany and Brazil shared the spoils after a fierce duel and China PR gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about with a win over Sweden.

The big game
As if being hampered by the absence of their most deadly finisher was not bad enough, the USA promptly conceded the two quickest goals in the history of the tournament when they took on Norway in Qinhuangdao. There was no way back for the 2004 champions after the Scandinavians' early double salvo, especially with the lethal Abby Wambach sidelined through injury. And although the Americans moved the ball around gamely, their opponents, ably marshalled by the veteran Solveig Gulbrandsen, held onto their lead without too much discomfort.

The other games
In a repeat of the final of the FIFA Women's World Cup China 2007, Germany and Brazil served up a tense encounter in which the Canarinha enjoyed the better chances. It all ended goalless, however, much to the disappointment of the watching Ronaldinho and his team-mates, who were among the VIP guests at the Shenyang Olympic Sports Centre Stadium.

That result helped Korea DPR take an early lead in Group F after they edged out Nigeria 1-0. The scoreline flattered the Africans, who were indebted to some wayward Korean finishing and goalkeeper Precious Dede for escaping a heavier defeat.

Hosts China PR were clearly inspired by the occasion as they took to the field against Sweden in Tianjin. Pu Wei put the Steel Roses ahead early on, only for the Swedes to eventually get to grips with the humid conditions and reply just before half time through Lotta Schelin. But with nearly 38,000 fans cheering them on, China PR secured the points thanks to a fine strike from Han Duan.

Nevertheless, the win was not enough to give the hosts first place in Group E, that honour going to Canada, who had too much power and experience up front for Argentina. Candace Chapman and Kara Lang set the Canucks on their way, while Ludmila Manicler picked up a consolation goal five minutes from the end for the Albiceleste, who can at least take heart from an improvement on their showings at China 2007.

Japan pulled off the comeback of the day. Trailing a boldly impressive New Zealand side 2-0 with less than 20 minutes remaining, the Nadeshiko never gave up, and were rewarded for their persistence with a valuable point.

The player
Marta could be forgiven for having recurring nightmares about German keeper Nadine Angerer. It was Angerer who kept out her penalty in the final at China 2007, and the shot-stopper was at it again on Wednesday, ensuring that the latest meeting between the sides ended in a goalless draw. The German No1 kept a clean sheet in every game at last year's FIFA Women's World Cup and showcased her superb reflexes and flawless positioning with two spectacular stops from Cristiane and Marta. The question now is, can she go unbeaten at Beijing 2008?

The stat
2 - The number of minutes it took for Norway's Leni Larsen Kaurin to give the USA that sinking feeling in their Group G opener. Coming after just 69 seconds, Kaurin's strike was the quickest in the history of the tournament and was followed just two minutes later by a second Norwegian goal from Melissa Wiik, which equalled the competition's previous fastest, scored by Germany's Pia Wunderlich against Brazil at Atlanta 1996.

What they said

"I thought both sides came out full of confidence and it was a tough battle for the first five minutes. Unfortunately we lost that battle and the two early goals made things much more difficult for us. We're disappointed to lose but we'll be working hard to get back on track against Japan."

Christie Rampone, USA captain.

The results
Argentina 1-2 Canada
Germany 0-0 Brazil
Japan 2-2 New Zealand
China PR 2-1 Sweden
Korea DPR 1-0 Nigeria
Norway 2-0 USA

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Theme Song

2008-08-06T05:12:00.001-07:00

2008 Summer Olympics - Welcome Song

2008-08-06T05:09:00.000-07:00

U.S. cyclists wear masks upon arrival in Beijing

2008-08-06T03:44:00.000-07:00

Some American cyclists were wearing black masks when they arrived today at the airport in Beijing.

"I suspect it was their choice, you would have to talk to them as to what prompted them to do this," Darryl Seibel, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee tells Reuters. "I will say this: I am not a scientist, but in my view that was unnecessary."

The level of pollutants in the air was particularly bad yesterday. Right now, Beijing is "shrouded in a light gray haze," according to the Associated Press.

Q1x00249_9 The International Olympic Committee will receive hourly updates about air pollution when the games begin Aug. 8, but one official says he's "confident the air quality will not prove to pose major problems."

Arne Ljungqvist, head of the IOC medical commission, tells AP that public perceptions are part of the problem.

"The mist in the air that we see in those places, including here, is not a feature of pollution primarily but a feature of evaporation and humidity," Ljungqvist said. "We do have a communication problem here. Once the misconception has become sort of established in the minds of people, it's not that easy to get the right message through."

CHINA GUARANTEES: "GAMES WILL BE SAFE"

2008-08-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

The Chinese authorities guarantee that the Olympic Games will be safe. Three days before the opening of the Games and 24 hours after the terrorist attack in the Xinijang region in which 16 policemen were killed, Beijing issued a precise message: "We are able to guarantee safe and peaceful Olympic Games", said Sun Weide, spokesman of the Organising Committee of Beijing 2008. The terrorist threat from the region with a Muslim majority, mostly of Uyghur ethnic origin, remains though. Yesterday at 8am local time (2am in Italy) two man used a lorry to ram into a police station in Kashgar and throw two hand grenades, after which they attacked the agents with knives. The attackers have been arrested.

Summer Olympics 2008 Cities

2008-08-05T07:12:00.000-07:00

Summer Olympics 2008, China

China will host the prestigious Summer Olympics in 2008. Already, Olympics fever has gripped China and we'll probaby see another exciting Olympics in 2008. The two cities that will host the Olympics in China are Beijing, which is the nations capital and Qingdao, a seaside city in the province of Shandong, in north-east China. Let's get to know these two Olympics cities better.

Beijing

Beijing is the capital for China. It was also a capital for the last two monarchies that ruled China before being overthrown by Sun Yat Sun in 1911 and has been the capital since Mao Tse Tung declared China a People's Republic in 1949.

Beijing is located in northern China, close to Tianjin Municipality and partially surrounded by Hebei Province. The city covers an area of more than 16,800 square kilometers (6,487 square miles) and has a population of 13.82 million people. Beijing is at its best in late spring and autumn, particularly during the months of May, September, and October when people can enjoy bright sunshine and blue skies.

As the capital of the People's Republic of China, Beijing is the nation's political, economic, cultural and educational center as well as being the China's most important center for international trade and communications. It has been the heart and soul of politics and society throughout its long history and consequently there is an unparalleled wealth of discovery to delight and intrigue travelers as they explore Beijing's ancient past and enjoy its exciting modern development.

Beijing is also the tourist capital of China, boasting of favourite tourist sites such as :

Great Wall of China

Forbidden City

Summer Palace

Temple of Heaven

Ming tombs

Tiananmen Square.

Beijing will also be the host for the Summer Olympics in 2008. Already, Olympics fever has gripped the city as construction of new buildings, hotels and stadiums, sprucing of tourist facilities, cleaning up of air and water pollution takes on a fervent pace.

Qingdao

Qingdao is a bustling city located in Shandong province, in the North East of China. Qingdao will be the site for sailing events for the Summer Olympics as Beijing is not by the sea.

Qingdao city lies on undulating hills with luxuriantly green trees and buildings noted for their attractive architectural styles. The red colour of the tiled roves, green colour of the trees thills and blue of the sea contrast beautifully. All this along with its beautiful climate, make the city well-known as a summer and health resort.

The city occupies an area of 10 654 km2. The city is located in flatlands, with mountains spurring up nearby. The highest elevation in the area is 1133 m above sea level. The city has a 730.64-kilometer coastline. Five significant rivers that flow for more than 50 km can be found in the region.

Qingdao is estimated to be the home for more than 7 million inhabitants, of which around 2.6 million is residing in the Qingdao urban area.

Qingdao enjoys mild summers and relatively warm winters, with the average July temperature at 23.8°C and the average January temperature at -0.7°C. The city gets most rain in June and July, at an average of 150 mm.

Qingdao has very strong German influence in the 19th century and many German influenced buildings can still be seen. In fact, Qingdao beer is famous throughout the world, and every year, hundreds of thousands of people, both local and overseas gather in Qingdao for the annual Beer festival.

Qingdao attracts many tourists due to its seaside setting and excellent weather. Parks, beaches and sculpture -- as well as some unique architecture -- line the shore. Qingdao's major attractions include:

- Ba Da Guan, the older area of town with some surviving German architecture.

- Laoshan, a famous Taoist mountain.

- Lu Xun Park, named after Lu Xun, a famous modern Chinese writer.

- Qingdao Beer Museum, on the site of the old brewery.

- Qingdao Naval Museum

- Qingdao International Beer City, the primary site of the annual Qingdao International Beer Festival.

- Qingdao Underwater World

- St. Michael's Cathedral, a Gothic/Roman cathedral designed by German architect Pepieruch, completed in 1934.

- Zhan Qiao (Zhan Pier)

- Zhanshan Temple, Qingdao's only Buddhist temple.

Qingdao has such nice weather and scenary that the China ruling party has a large rest and retirement santuary in Qingdao for it's retired cadres.

Bijak will compete for Germany in Olympics

2008-06-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

Utah gymnast Daria Bijak is within months of having a lifelong dream realized after she was selected Tuesday to represent Germany in the 2008 Olympics.
Bijak was named to the team after she placed fourth in Germany's national championships Saturday.
Bijak was selected to the 2000 Olympic team but ruptured her Achilles' tendon and couldn't compete. Germany didn't qualify for the 2004 Olympics.
The sophomore from Cologne, Germany, recently completed her sophomore year for the Utes, helping them to a second-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
"She is so excited," said Utah coach Greg Marsden, who spoke to Bijak on Tuesday. "This has been her dream and only a handful of college gymnasts have gone on to compete in the Olympics after starting college."
If she avoids any injuries and competes, she will be the fourth Olympian in Utah's gymnastics program, joining Missy Marlowe (1988, USA), current Ute team member Gael Mackie (Canada, 2004) and Cheryl Weatherstone (Britain, 1984).
"The requirements are so different from college, it's hard to train for both," Marsden said of the international competitions. "She started right after our season was over to get ready for the qualifying meets."
Marsden acknowledged Bijak's busy offseason could possibly leave her burnt out as the college season begins, but said that is a trade-off he is willing to make.
The Olympics have been her dream since she was a little girl," he said. "If you really care about someone you have to support them and help them accomplish their dreams."

2008 Olympics not on TV?

2008-06-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

According to Time magazine, there are various organizational problems occurring that could lead to the Olympics not being broadcast on television. A series of unworkable conditions are being created for networks including limits on live coverage in Tiananmen Square and allegations that freight shipments of TV broadcasting equipment are being held up in Chinese ports.

The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing are scheduled to begin on August 8th. According to the minutes of a May 29th meeting, procedures which have been used by broadcasters in other Olympics are conflicting with China's authoritarian government. Some plans are months behind schedule, which could force broadcasters to compromise coverage plans.

The Chinese are very concerned about something going wrong - and so they are in Olympic gridlock," said John Barton, director of sport for the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, which represents broadcasters in 57 countries. "This is the greatest moment in their sporting history," Barton said. "They've built a stage on which they want to perform, but they are rather queasy about how it should be shown."
All I can say is when you try to make deals with a totalitarian government, you get what you pay for.

China's security preparations for the Beijing Olympics

2008-03-06T02:05:00.000-08:00

The head of the world's largest police organization, Interpol, says he is satisfied with China's security preparations for the Beijing Olympics. He was speaking at Interpol's Asian Regional Conference in Hong Kong, where senior law enforcement officials from across Asia discuss ways to strengthen cooperation in combating crime - ranging from sex attacks on children to cyber crime. Claudia Blume reports from Hong Kong.

Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble praised China's security preparations for the Olympics, when he opened the police organization's Asian meeting in Hong Kong, Monday.

"We have been working very closely with China, in this regard, for years now and especially this year," he said. "I have made one personal trip to China for the purpose of seeing the progress being made and, as I said, the progress is significant and the preparations are of the highest possible standard."

But he urged China to remain prudent, saying any international event can be a potential terrorist target.

One of the main themes of this year's Interpol Asia conference is the tracing and apprehending of child-sex offenders in the region. He says many perpetrators are from outside Asia and often travel from one country to another, making their identification and arrest difficult.

"What do we do as an international police organization if we know someone is engaged in this kind of sexual activity against the child victims and we know he is moving from one country to another country, because we don't have an arrest warrant? How can we stop his travel? Is there a way for the country of his nationality to suspend his passport and only allow him to return home? It is very complicated. These are the kind of issues we want to discuss during the conference," said Noble.

Other topics of the meeting include combating transnational intellectual property crime as well as so-called cyber crime. This includes international Internet fraud schemes as well as what Noble calls "cyber-terrorism" - sabotaging computer systems of governments or businesses.

Noble says there are many examples of the successful cooperation between Interpol and police in Asia. Last year, for example, "Operation Soga" against illegal soccer betting, led to the arrest of more than 400 people in countries such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

The largest airport terminal in the world - Beijing Capital International Airport’s Terminal

2008-03-02T05:38:00.000-08:00

China inaugurated the largest airport terminal in the world on Friday, a soaring golden-roofed structure evoking a flying dragon.

Nearly 2 miles long, the $3.8 billion terminal, which covers 240 acres, is the world’s largest covered structure.

“Our Chinese people should be very proud when they pass in and out of this airport,” Aviation Minister Li Jiaxiang told journalists.

Employing 50,000 laborers at the peak of construction, the terminal at Beijing Capital International Airport was built in three years and nine months to cope with the expected deluge of visitors to the Beijing Summer Olympics.

“It was incredibly fast. Even by Chinese standards, it was fast,” said Rory McGowan, a director of the London-based engineering firm Arup, one of several partners on the project.

One of the 10 busiest airports in the world, Beijing’s airport handled 53.5 million passengers last year, far above its capacity of 35 million. With the new terminal, the airport can handle 96 million passengers a year and 1,590 flights a day. By 2012, the airport will become one of the five busiest in the world.

Terminal 3, as the new terminal is called, is double the size of two other terminals. Even with the addition, however, China’s aviation growth will make the airport suffer overcrowding again within seven years, experts say.

British architect Norman Foster, the terminal’s designer, noted the building’s scale in a statement to the Chinese news media this week: “It’s so big that under a certain amount of light you can’t see one end of the building from the other.”

The terminal has 64 restaurants, 175 escalators, 173 elevators and 437 moving sidewalks — but no bookstore that sells foreign-language periodicals. Censorship is still imposed in China, and average Chinese are not exposed to the kinds of critical views common in the media of democratic countries.

Without a critical press or political opposition, Chinese officials summarily moved nine

Beijing Subway Map
Simple Rube Golberg 3D animaton

Beijing Subway Map

2008-03-01T06:44:00.000-08:00

Beijing Map 2008

2008-03-01T06:42:00.000-08:00

Beijing Summer Olympics: Before Olympics begin, Net's already a winner

2008-03-01T05:21:00.000-08:00

The first javelin has yet to be tossed at the Beijing Summer Olympics, but Bill Barney already knows the biggest winner: the Internet.

"This is going to be the Internet Olympics," said Barney, chief executive of Pacnet, a Hong Kong deep-sea fiber-optic cable network operator.

He should know. Barney, who announced this week that his company is the largest investor in a consortium that includes Google to build a new trans-Pacific cable, keeps a close eye on the increasing traffic jams caused by Internet users.

"It's the new killer app, which is video," he said. He expects Olympic history to be captured on video cameras - or even cell phones. And sports fans will be sending those images to friends and family across the globe.

Barney figures he'll be able to know which countries are scoring gold medals simply by monitoring traffic. If Team Romania does well in gymnastics, he expects to see a spike in activity between Beijing and Eastern Europe.

Chinese authorities, who are also grappling with a domestic Internet boom, are gearing up. China, with some 210 million Internet users, is expected to have the world's largest online community this year.

"They've been ramping up for the last four months," Barney said. "We can't install capacity fast enough for the Chinese. They are just chewing through bandwidth."

HIGH-TECH HOMES: "Smart Homes" are coming to downtown San Jose.

M3Pods will give future homeowners at Three Sixty Residences the ability to control their lights, cameras and all the other electronic action in their high-rise condos from anywhere in the world.

"It's everything in a box," said Blake Tablak, principal with the company. "It's the future."

Tablak said last fall he offered the device to Charles Young, director of Mesa Development's San Jose project, which is building Three Sixty. Young, he said, liked it and decided to offer the option in the company's 23-story high-rise that will be finished in spring 2009.

"Mesa is the first," Tablak said.

M3Pods are developed by the company of the same name, which is headquartered in Atlanta but set up an office in San Jose a year ago.

With the M3Pod you can flip the switches for your lights, security system or even program a TV show to watch when you get home. You can also play music from your home collection on a cell phone or a PC with speakers anywhere in the world.

The devices, which will add $8,000 to $13,000 to the cost of each condo, are wireless gadgets that work via radio frequency and provide access from a browser, which can be your cell phone. The units at Three Sixty range in size from 800 to 3,440 square feet, and in price from the high $500,000s to more than $2 million.

nissan maxima 2009

Chief of 2012 Olympics visits Morocco

2008-01-10T00:57:00.000-08:00

Chief of 2012 Olympics visits Morocco to promote youth sports
Lord Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London Organising Committee of the 2012 Olympic Games, met with Moroccan officials and athletes Monday (January 7th) to discuss how to promote sports among young people.

"Few countries are able to boast of having such sports stars as Nawal Al Moutawakil, Said Aouita and Hicham El Guerrouj", Lord Coe said at a press conference in Casablanca. "It's a great honour for me to be in Morocco, a country that has contributed so much to sport in general and athletics in particular."

According to Lord Coe, his discussion with National Athletics Federation President Abdessalem Ahizoune was quite relaxed. "We talked about a range of topics directly or indirectly affecting athletics in Morocco, with the sole purpose of bringing sport up to speed just four years ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games in London," he explained, adding that the big challenge today is getting young people to take up athletics rather than other activities. He emphasised that realising this goal is in everyone's best interest.

Legendary Moroccan athlete Hicham El Guerrouj said, "When I learned that Lord Coe had come to Morocco, I left Nice in France straight away to come and meet him, because he was always a role model for me." It is a great honour, the former Olympic and world champion said, to work with Coe on youth athletics in Morocco and elsewhere.

Nawal El Moutawakil, named Minister for Youth and Sports by King Mohammed VI last month, also appeared with Lord Coe at the press conference. She said Morocco needs the know-how of a great champion like Sebastian Coe to move forward in athletics. "I met Lord Coe at the Moscow Olympics in 1980, and for me he was a model to emulate, especially in his determination to succeed," said the minister.

In 1984, El Moutawakil became the first Muslim woman to win an Olympic gold medal. She is now a member of the International Olympic Committee and, as president of the IOC Evaluation Commission, helped choose the host nation for the 2012 Games. London won the rights to organise the Olympic Games, beating out Paris, New York, Moscow and Madrid.

The new minister is also vice-chair of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which uses sports programmes as a "universal language" to battle crime and drugs, "break down the barriers of war-torn nations and regenerate forgotten communities".

Sebastian Coe broke the world records for the 800 m, 1500 m and mile in the 1980's. He has been Chairman of the London Organising Committee of the 2012 Olympic Games since 2005. He is also Vice-President of the International Athletics Federation.

Louis is ready to take on the best at Beijing Olympics

Anti-doping body for 2012

First Trojan for iPhone App

2010 Vancouver talisman

2008-01-09T03:49:00.000-08:00

The complete guide to: Beijing 2008 Olympic travel

2008-01-05T06:38:00.001-08:00

The world's first sporting arena was at Olympia in the Greek western
Pelopponese. A five-day festival of chariot and horse-racing, long-jumping and
foot-racing was held every four years from 776BC until the Games were abolished
nearly 1,200 years later. Happily, a fair amount of ancient Olympia is still
intact. Down the centuries, the site has been hit by two earthquakes and severe
floods, and the site was almost consumed by forest fires that engulfed the
region last August, claiming 63 lives. The field and the surrounding buildings
and temples are now overlooked by a hillside of charred trees.
The flames came within a few metres of the rectangular field that was
rediscovered only in the 19th century. Years of careful excavation have made
sense of the tangle of fallen columns and stones, assisted by scale models in
the adjacent museum. The temple of Zeus, three times the size of the Parthenon,
has not survived but another, dedicated to Hera, has been almost wholly
reconstructed, and its magnificent 4th-century BC statue of Hermes is on display
in the museum. Other sights include a monument containing the heart of the
founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who died in 1937.
Ancient Olympia (which reopened within two days of the fires) opens every day
from 8.30am-3pm (November-March) and 8am-7.30pm (April-October). The admission
charge of €9
You can reach Olympia by flying to Athens and travelling overland to the far
west of the peninsula. Olympia's largest hotel is the Europa International (1
Drouva Street; 00 30 2624 022650; www.hoteleuropa.gr). A double room, including hot breakfast, can
be secured online for €64 (£45) until the end of March. A good, family-run
alternative is Hotel Pelops (Varela 2; 00 30 2624 022 543; www.hotelpelops.gr), in the
heart of the village about 800m from the archaeological site. Double rooms, with
buffet breakfast, are €54 (£38).
No one with a sense of history or a love of sport will fail to be moved by
the experience of standing on the field where man, for the first time in
recorded history, found a competitive alternative to warfare.
The organisers of the Athens games in 2004 paid homage to Olympia by staging
the shot-put finals there, and in March the Olympic torch will be lit there,
from the rays of the sun, before being relayed around the world to Beijing. The
first stop will be the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, built around 330BC and
gloriously reconstructed for the first modern Games in 1896, thanks to a wealthy
Athenian benefactor. In the eyes of Greeks and of the Olympic movement,
Panathinaiko has iconic status. Lying just east of the National Gardens, it is
the only stadium in the world constructed entirely out of marble. It did further
Olympic service in 2004, hosting the archery competition and the finish of the
Marathon, but its elongated shape, like a giant paperclip, makes it unsuitable
for most modern sports. On 30 March, the 2,300-year-old stadium will witness the
passing of the flaming Olympic baton from the Greeks to the Chinese.
The flame takes a 137,000km journey through every continent except Antarctica
over a period of four months. The torch is scheduled to pass through London on 6
April, San Francisco (9 April), Buenos Aires (11 April) and Canberra (24 April),
before reaching Hong Kong on 2 May at the start of a tour of China and Tibet.
The highlight – literally – will be an attempt to take the flame to the summit
of Mount Everest: a second torch will be left with a group of mountaineers who
are planning an ascent in May.
Is Beijing ready for the games?
In contrast to Athens 2004, whose Olympic building programme only just met
the deadline, the Chinese capital is well ahead of schedule. In fact, some of
the 15 new venues were completed more than a year ago, prompting the IOC
President Jacques Rogge to urge the organising committee to slow the work down,
so that Olympic venues wouldn't be left standing empty for long periods.
The centrepiece is the Swiss-designed National Stadium, handily located in
the north of the city near the international airport, with a latticed outer
structure resembling a giant bird's nest. It can seat 91,000 spectators, but
it's been reported that four times that number of people were removed from their
homes to make way for it – without being compensated.
The main stadium is not yet finished, but don't doubt for a second that
everything will be ready for the opening ceremony, which starts at 08:08:08pm
(local time) on, you guessed it, 08-08-08. The airport has a new, third terminal
to cope with the Olympic traffic, and Beijing's metro is being almost trebled in
size, with seven new lines and 90 new stations. That apart, the most obvious
sign that the Olympics are coming to town are the hundreds of official
merchandise stores already doing brisk business.
Beijing's urban poor notwithstanding, China has embraced the Olympic movement
with enthusiasm, and its sportsmen and women are expected to challenge the
Americans at the head of the medals table next year. Sportsworld Travel (01235
554844; www.sportsworld.co.uk) is the official ticket agent of the
British Olympic Association, and the only UK company authorised to request
tickets from the Beijing organising committee. The company will do this on a
monthly basis according to demand, and will organise your accommodation, airport
transfers and Chinese visa. Flights to and from Beijing, however, are not
included. The cheapest package costs £850, for a four-night visit between August
17-21, just in time to see Paula Radcliffe's attempt to win the women's
marathon. If your application is successful, a day watching the athletics finals
at the main stadium will cost from £63, including handling charges.
Where best to explore the Olympic past?
The headquarters of the Olympic movement is in a city that has never staged
the Games, and is never likely to. Baron de Coubertin founded the International
Olympic Committee in Paris in 1894, but it moved to Lausanne after the First
World War because of Switzerland's neutrality. In the rolling gardens of Olympic
Park, a cunningly concealed piece of modern architecture houses the world's
finest collection of Olympic memorabilia. The Musée Olympique at 1 Quay d'Ouchy
(00 41 21 621 6511; www.museum.olympic.org) has permanent exhibitions devoted to the
summer and winter games, and an Olympic Hall of Fame. Plenty of athletes have
provided historic items of kit. On display are Carl Lewis's golden running
shoes, Chris Boardman's bicycle, which revolutionised the sport at Barcelona in
1992, and Jean-Claude Killy's boots, which the French skier modified after an
injury in a car crash, whereupon he won the slalom, giant slalom and downhill
races at Grenoble in 1968. Serious students of Olympic history can pore through
some of the uo 18,000 books and 17,500 hours of film and video footage in the
library, and enjoy panoramic views of Geneva and the Alps from the rooftop
restaurant and terrace. The museum opens 9am-6pm daily (except Mondays between
November and March); admission is 15 Swiss francs (£7).
Lausanne is most easily reached by flying to Geneva and taking the train
direct from the airport station in less than an hour. Alternatively, you can get
there by train from London St Pancras via Paris through Eurostar (08705 186 186;
www.eurostar.com ).
Where next?
All the modern Olympic stadia survive, but some have fallen from grace. The
most obscure is Francis Field, which hosted the St Louis Games of 1904. Now used
by students at Washington University, safety regulations have reduced its
capacity to just 4,000. But it is worth taking a look if you find yourself in St
Louis, the "gateway to the West" which has daily flights from Gatwick on
American Airlines (08457 789 789; www.aa.com).
The Olympic Stadiums of Antwerp (1920), Amsterdam (1928) and Barcelona (1992)
are now the home grounds of lowly professional football teams, although
Amsterdam hosted Ajax FC for some years; it also boasts the best Olympic museum
outside Lausanne.
The Olympic Experience in the Dutch capital is currently celebrating the
spread of the Games to China; it is located at Marathon Port (00 31 20 305 4400;
www.olympischstadion.nl)
on tram routes 16 and 24 from Centraal station, and opens 11am-5pm daily except
Monday; admission €5(£3.50).
Another feature of the Amsterdam stadium is its Marathon Tower, with four
open balconies at the top which were fitted with what, in 1928, was the novel
facility of loudspeakers to keep the crowd informed.
The Olympic Stadium in Helsinki (1952) has a taller tower, 72m high, that
still dominates the city skyline. On the outskirts of Paris, the stadium that
hosted the 1924 Chariots of Fire Olympiad has been overtaken by developments
elsewhere in the city. Known as Stade Colombes, it was the pride and joy of
French sport until the Parc des Princes opened in 1972. These days, Colombes has
to make do with club rugby, but it still has a special aura about it. The
stadium is a 15-minute train ride from Gare St-Lazare, on the line to
Ermont-Eaubonne.
None of these ageing venues, however, has suffered misfortune on the scale of
Montreal (1976) and Moscow (1980). The Montreal Games were in trouble long
before a starting gun was fired. Labour disputes and technical glitches delayed
the construction of the main stadium – an ambitious affair designed with an
external tower to control the retractable roof. The Olympics began with neither
roof nor tower in place; in fact, the complex took another 14 years to complete,
with the cost mounting so high that the city paid off its Olympic debt only in
2006.
As one mishap followed another, the stadium became variously known as " The
Big Owe", "Uh-O" and "The Big Mistake": there was a serious fire, bits fell off,
beams snapped, the roof didn't work properly, the weight of snow one winter led
to a further collapse of masonry, and the floor of one of the Olympic pools fell
in during a water therapy session for senior citizens.
Montreal's stadium is now described as a "multi-purpose facility", which is
another way of saying it has very little purpose at all, and its demolition has
been proposed. However, it remains the city's most eye-catching piece of
architecture – and a big tourist attraction. Half-hour guided tours of the
complex (001 514 252 4141; www.rio.gouv.qc.ca) start at 10am in summer; 11am in winter
(C$8/£4.10), and you can take a cable car (C$9/£4.10) to the top of the leaning
tower that looms over the arena like a preying mantis, and provides wonderful
views of the city. The nearest Metro station is Vian.
At the height of the Cold War, the focal point of Moscow's much-boycotted
Olympic Games was known as "The Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium ". This
is where Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett fought two epic duels over 800m and
1500m, but two years later it was the scene of a ghastly spectator stampede near
the end of a football match, which claimed the lives of at least 66 people.
The stadium, now named the Luzhniki Olympic Complex, has since been
extensively modernised and is due to stage next year's Uefa Cup Final, but the
authorities are still unhappy with the entry and exit facilities.
Which Olympic venues survived the test of time?
Just as London intends to show off the likes of Tower Bridge and Buckingham
Palace on its planned 2012 marathon route, the organisers of the Rome Olympiad
of 1960 made a point of staging events in and around notable landmarks. The
Stadio Olimpico itself had already been built in the Foro Italico; the wrestling
competition was held in the 4th century Basilica of Maxentius (open 9am-7pm;
admission €7.80/£5.50); the gymnastics at the 3rd century Caracalla Baths (open
9am until an hour before sunset; admission €6/£4.20), and the marathon ended
under the Constantine Arch on the Appian Way.
You approach the Stadio Olimpico along a pavement lined with pleasing
classical statues, but every slab of paving is dedicated to Mussolini: the
slogan "Il Duce ...Il Duce ...Il Duce" dogs your every step. For some reason,
the Rome authorities never bothered replacing them. Despite these fascist
undertones, the stadium has enjoyed a glittering life, hosting football's World
Cup Final in 1990.
The other Olympic city tarnished by fascism is Berlin. The 1936 Games were
inaugurated by Adolf Hitler, who was in the stadium to witness the arrival of
the first Olympic Torch, borne aloft by an unquestionably Aryan, blond male
athlete. Somehow, the giant concrete edifice in the Grunewald Forest west of the
city survived the ferocious Allied bombardment of 1945 with only minor damage,
and it later survived a strong public campaign for its demolition.
In 2006, like Rome's Stadio Olimpico, Berlin's totally remodelled stadium
hosted the World Cup Final. West of the main arena the original Olympic bell
tower has been rebuilt, but without the bronze bell that sounded the opening of
the Games. This is mounted immediately outside the stadium, with its engraved
swastika clearly visible.
The 77m tower (00 49 30 305 8123; www.glockenturm.de) contains a two-floor
exhibition of Olympic history in German and English, and a glass lift to an
observation platform at the top, which is open every day between 9am-6pm from
April to October, and from 10am-4pm on "sunny weekends" in November and
December. Admission to both is €3.50 (£2.40).

London's Olympic mementoes
There's scant evidence that the city staged the Olympics of 1908 and 1948,
although the decision by exhausted, bankrupt Britain to step in and save the
Games after the Second World War may well have counted in London's favour when
it bid for 2012. Against the odds, the 1948 Olympics (right) were a success,
with the "old" Empire Stadium at Wembley the focal point. The Games were cobbled
together on an austerity budget. There was no Olympic Village: male athletes
were quartered at an army camp in Uxbridge, Middlesex, while the women used
dormitories at Southlands College, Roehampton.
The first London Olympics, 40 years previously, had a stadium specially built
for the purpose. White City, near Shepherd's Bush, took only 10 months to build
and cost a miniscule £60,000, but when it opened it was the largest sports arena
in the world, with a vast tank at one end for the swimming events, a cycling
track, and a running track. After the Games, White City never found a permanent
role, although it kept going until 1978 – and even staged a World Cup qualifying
match (between France and Uruguay) in the 1966 World Cup.
In 1985 it was demolished to make way for the new BBC Radio headquarters, and
the only clue that it once staged the Olympic Games is a list of the gold
medal-winners on the wall of a nearby housing estate. Since 1908 remains the
only Olympiad in which Britain came first in the medals table, a proper memorial
would be fitting.
Britain rewrites the rules
The most enduring legacy of the 1908 Olympics in London is the exact length
of the marathon. At 26 miles 385 yards, it's the only Olympic event with an
imperial measurement (although it is uncertain whether this will help Paula
Radcliffe, above, at this year's Games). In previous Games, the marathon had
been 40km (24.85 miles) and then 26 miles, which was roughly the distance from
Windsor Castle to the White City stadium. The extra, lung-bursting 385 yards
were added when Princess Mary asked the organisers to move the finishing line to
a point beneath the royal box. After passing famous landmarks such as Tower
Bridge, the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, the 2012
marathon will also finish directly below the royal box at the new Olympic
Stadium in Stratford. Plus ça change...

Saracens consider move to Olympic Stadium

2008-01-05T06:16:00.001-08:00

Saracens yesterday confirmed Eddie Jones will take control of coaching next
season while talks continue with new backers whose injection of cash may lead to
the club to leaving Vicarage Road, possibly for the 2012 Olympic Stadium. Jones,
the 47-year-old former Australia coach, who also helped South Africa to their
recent World Cup final victory over England, will sign a three-year contract and
begins a new role as the club's director of rugby at the end of the season. Alan
Gaffney will continue in a part-time role.

Meanwhile, the club is in talks with the South African businessman Johann
Rupert, who once had plans to form his own club in London based on South African
players. Rupert's company is expected to become a shareholder in Premier Team
Holdings, an umbrella company for the rugby club, with Nigel Wray remaining as
Saracens' chairman.

Mark Sinderberry, the club's chief executive, said yesterday talks were
taking place with several companies and that a move from Watford, where Saracens
play, is a possibility. The club has identified new sites in Hatfield, where
Saracens are based during the week. Sinderberry said: "The Olympic Stadium could
be one option but it won't be ready until 2012 and in the meantime we are happy
at Vicarage Road. But if a partnership goes ahead these are exciting times for
the club."

Saracens have been the Premiership's great underachievers despite Wray's
investment of millions since the game turned professional in 1995. They have won
only one domestic cup, 10 seasons ago. But Gaffney helped Saracens to fourth
place in his first season last year, they are currently third in the Premiership
and are challenging for three trophies with a major home game against Biarritz
in the Heineken Cup next weekend. To add to the air of optimism Andy Farrell is
also expected to sign a new deal next week.

Jones, who had a spell at Saracens two years ago, said: "I have a great base
to work on here after Alan's good work. We have aspirations to challenge the
likes of Leicester and Wasps and we need to build a strong academy to bring
young English guys through.

"There won't be an influx of Australians or South Africans but hopefully we
will cherry-pick some imported players if we can identify that they will become
a big influence. Saracens have developed a style of play over the last couple of
years. If the players swapped shirts I think you would still know they are
Saracens."

Louis is ready to take on the best at Beijing Olympics

2008-01-05T06:12:00.001-08:00

CITY gymnast Louis Smith could be about to make British sporting history by grabbing himself a dream ticket to the greatest sporting show on earth.
After a series of superb displays on the pommel horse in 2007 – reaching a peak with a first medal for a British man in over a decade at the World Championships in Stuttgart – 18-year-old Smith has made himself a red-hot favourite for one of only two places on the gymnastics team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

If Smith is selected in April, the news will be a huge four-year leap into the future for the Olympic hopeful who many had thought would not be ready for the ultimate test of his precocious skills until London 2012.

But having proved his status as a world class competitor with a string of gold, silver and bronze medals at international events throughout the past year – the Hunts Gym Club member is eager to prove to the country that he is ready to make history.

"I obviously do not know what is in the selectors' minds for Beijing but I know what is in mine and I know I am ready now," he said

"A lot of people thought I would be targeting London in four years but with the way it has gone for me I feel ready to go to Beijing to try and become the first British man ever to win a gymnastics medal at the Olympics.

"Just lately I have realised that my dreams may be about to come true. No British man has ever even got to a final and I know I have the talent to deliver under pressure. I love to perform in front of big crowds, I always have. I have an excellent chance of being selected, I will just have to wait and see what happens."

But despite his relcutance to second guess the selectors, Smith should be confident of his place on the plane should he wish to take it.

The Eye youngster's performances on all six pieces of apparatus alongside clubmate Dan Keatings in Stuttgart, proved decisive in the decision to hand Britain two Olympic places instead of one and should be enough for Smith to head to the Chinese capital for a shot at a medal in his favoured discipline.

He said: "While I consider myself a six-piece gymnast, I would go to Beijing as a specialist in the pommel. I know I can compete with the best in the world in that discipline and only missed out on a silver at the worlds by a tiny fraction so I feel I have a real chance.

"But even just to be there would be amazing, pulling on the GB vest at the Olympics has always been my ultimate dream and would make all the hard work worthwhile – but a medal and a little piece of history would really be the icing on the cake."

Britain sets up independent anti-doping body for 2012

2007-12-06T01:46:00.001-08:00

The British government has announced the formation of an independent body to bolster anti-doping measures in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics.
UK Sport and the Departure of Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) said on Wednesday that the National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO) will be up and running well before the Games.
It will operate outside UK Sport, the goverment agency currently responsible for implementing and managing Britain's anti-doping policy.
The move follows a comprehensive six-month review of the country's anti-doping measures by a working party comprising members of UK Sport and DCMS.
Earlier this year a cross-party committee of British parliamentarians accused the government of being complacent in putting together a robust system to catch drug cheats.
Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe welcomed the recommendations, saying the NADO will mean drug cheats have "no place to hide".
"Establishing a new, independent anti-doping organisation is a natural evolution in the fight against drugs in sport," he said in a statement.
"In the same way drug cheats are constantly finding new ways to beat the system, we have to constantly look at what we do to catch them.
"We have to ensure they have no place to hide and these new powers, implemented by an independent agency, will help us do that. By 2012 drug cheats will never have had it so bad."
The NADO will work more closely with law enforcement agencies to stem the supply of prohibited substances.
It will also take away the onus on national governing bodies to bring doping cases themselves -- a situation that has raised fears of conflicts of interest in the past.
Sue Campbell, chairman of UK Sport, said current anti-doping measures were in danger of being overtaken by the increasingly sophisticated supply and use of performance-enhancing drugs.
"People who are determined to cheat are increasingly sophisticated in the ways in which they go about their business, as are the people that supply and manipulate them, and we need to ensure we adapt our approach accordingly," she said.
"The scale of this type of operation, particularly in terms of the single focus required, simply means that the role of the NADO has outgrown its current position within UK Sport."

2007-12-05T10:02:00.001-08:00

The buzz: China says reporters are welcome at its Olympics

2007-12-05T09:49:00.000-08:00

China says reporters welcome at its Olympics
China said it welcomes journalists covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, responding to complaints by a media-rights group that the Communist regime has decided to clamp down on reporting in the run-up to the games.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the Paris-based group has launched “consistent attacks on China” and reiterated that Beijing was “willing to provide services and facilitate” coverage.

Budget overruns possible for London Olympics
The London Olympics could go over its $19.1 billion budget. John Armitt, the chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, told a British parliamentary committee that the $5.5 billion fund set aside for budget overruns may not be enough.

Armitt said the authority, which is responsible for building the venues and infrastructure for the 2012 Games, was sticking to tight budgets, but he couldn’t promise there would not be overruns.

Dynamo, Revolution to play season opener
The Houston Dynamo will open the 2008 Major League Soccer season at New England on March 29, a rematch of the MLS Cup championship game.

The Saturday game, a rematch of Houston’s 2-1 victory over the Revolution on Nov. 18 at RFK Stadium in Washington, will highlight a “First Kick” weekend that will include all 14 teams, although a match involving the expansion San Jose Earthquakes and New York Red Bulls was still being finalized.

The Wizards will play host to D.C. United on March 29. Other games that day include Toronto at Columbus, Chicago at Real Salt Lake, and David Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy at Colorado.

Masters field taking shape
Despite a change in criteria, it appears the field for next year’s Masters will not top 100 players, which is what the club wants.

With an overhaul of the PGA Tour schedule and format, the Masters revamped its qualifying this year to invite winners of PGA Tour events that get full FedEx Cup points, those who qualified for the Tour Championship at the end of the FedEx Cup season, and those who finished in the top 30 on the PGA Tour money list.

UK government to reveal London 2012 budget plans

2007-12-05T09:47:00.000-08:00

The UK government will next week release new details of how the £9.3 billion London 2012 budget is being spent.

The Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, is expected to use a scheduled Commons appearance on Monday to update parliament for the first time since the revised budget was announced in March.

It is anticipated that Jowell will outline how spending on a number of projects, including the £496 million main stadium, breaks down as well as the level of contingency that has been allocated to each project.

Beijing Olympics take the stage at NAG

2007-12-04T05:26:00.000-08:00

If the world gives the stage to China for 16 days, it will get in return five millennia worth of cultural splendor, claimed a photographic exhibition depicting the preparations for the Beijing Olympics 2008.

The weeklong exhibition ‘Beijing Welcomes You’ started on Wednesday at the National Art Gallery (NAG) after which it would head to the Al-Hamra Cultural Complex in Lahore for another week to enable more Pakistanis to experience the charms of contemporary Beijing.

The exhibition revealed how the Chinese capital is preparing for the 2008 Olympics. The eager anticipation of the Chinese people as the games approach has been vividly depicted including photographs of the construction of sports venues.

The deeply rooted 5,000-year old Chinese culture and history have magnificently been captured by photographers who have presented a truly unique Chinese charm through their work.

As many as 400 million young people in China have been exposed to Olympic values, which will have a great impact on the Olympic movement thereby mobilising more future support.

With extensive public education campaigns for a populace of 1.3 billion, the Olympic spirit has been interpreted in a manner consistent with Chinese traditions valuing culture and civility.

“I participate, I contribute and therefore I enjoy” is the public campaign slogan for the Olympics and the pictures displayed at the NAG depicted people belonging to almost every age group and every category participating in the campaign in their own ways.

It also depicted the Chinese folk crafts in which the artists show enthusiasm in creating figures in the image of the Beijing Olympics ‘mascots’ using specially treated flour dough.

The pictures show the commitment of the Chinese government and the public to stage truly unique Olympic games of the highest standard and their determination to present an environmentally sustainable, technologically empowered and culturally enriched Olympiad in a cost-effective and ethical manner.

It also captures the reform and opening up to the outside world that brought about great changes in Beijing and nurtured with a 5,000-year culturally enriched history. The city has taken on a completely new look as it enters the new century.

The exhibition is aimed at providing Pakistani people with an opportunity to learn more about Beijing and that is why it includes pictures of a wide range of aspects of the city, such as everyday life, environment, climate, cultural and scientific activities, historical monuments and tourist attractions.

A few pictures gained a huge public response including the picture of the national stadium due to its massive inter-wired steel structure forming a bird’s nest, the national swimming centre called a water cube, because of its ingenious architectural design, the Great Wall of China and the Imperial Temple once used for sacrificial rites.

Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Pakistan Louu Zhaohui and Minister for Culture Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan Jogezai were present at the opening ceremony of the photographic exhibition.

The ambassador urged Pakistan to strengthen cultural ties between the two countries and hoped that such activities would prove to be helpful in achieving this goal.

NWMSU sorority raises money for Special Olympics awareness

2007-12-04T05:23:00.000-08:00

NWMSU sorority raises money for Special Olympics awareness
Whether it's handing out pancakes and juice at a breakfast, timing participants in a track meet or simply spending time with members of Special Olympics, one Northwest Missouri State University sorority constantly strives to make a difference in the lives of the mentally handicapped.

A major part of being in a fraternity or sorority is taking part in philanthropic projects.

And for 75 Alpha Sigma Alpha members at Northwest, this is no different.

One of the sorority's main projects is Special Olympics, specifically helping with the group out of St. Joseph, Mo.

The Alpha Sigma Alpha ladies will be running a Special Olympics House of Pancakes (SOHOP) from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 9. Each plate is $6 with all you can eat pancakes, sausage, juice and coffee served by Chris Cakes at the Maryville Community Center.

SOHOP event coordinator Julie Gosnell said she hopes to involve more of the community for this event.

"Getting more awareness for the cause is a big deal to us," she said. "We also would like to raise more money for the foundation."

All proceeds directly benefit Special Olympics. Last year the event raised more than $300, but Alpha Sigma Alpha member Meredith Wilmes said she thinks this year will be more successful.

"We tried to pick a time and place that would work for everybody," she said. "We are hoping it might be a good time for people to stop and eat after church on Sunday."

Wilmes said she "very much enjoys" working with the Special Olympics and said that working with the Track and Field event every spring in St. Joseph is an especially exciting experience.

Former president of Alpha Sigma Alpha, Kayla Long, shares in her sentiments.

"If you were to ask any one of our chapter members, they would say that it is our favorite event all year," she said.

Long never had a second thought about joining a sorority and becoming involved in community projects.

"Not being involved wasn't an option for me when I came to college — a sorority was a good way to settle that," Long said.

Alpha members run fundraisers like SOHOP to donate to the Special Olympics Track and Field event in the spring.

"We have done that event for years," Gosnell, said. "It is truly one of our favorite things about being an Alpha. We all love helping people out, and it is such a wonderful thing to see the athletes light up when they participate.

"For us girls to be a part of that is such an unreal feeling. It is like we really are making a difference — and that is why we are here."

As a national philanthropy for Alpha Sigma Alpha chapters across the United States, members donate their time at various fundraising events during the school year to donate to raising awareness for Special Olympics.

Special Olympics provides year-round training and athletic competition for a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with mental disabilities. It gives them the opportunity to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in sharing those experiences with their families, community and fellow Special Olympic athletes.

Special Olympics, which was founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, was adopted by Alpha Sigma Alpha as a national philanthropic project in 1976, and since that time members have been contributing time and money.

Debate over 2012 legacy

2007-11-21T05:31:00.000-08:00

Sir Clive Woodward's involvement in London 2012 continues to attract suspicion from within Olympic governing bodies despite the peace deal between UK Sport and the British Olympic Association announced this month.
Athletics and cycling both used a hearing of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee in parliament yesterday to express doubts about what the Rugby World Cup-winning coach could bring to their sports that they did not already have. Woodward has developed a £150,000-a-year multi-coach training programme for athletes but the major sports appear to require some convincing of its worth.
"At this time we don't see anything that he has to offer cycling that we are not already getting from UK Sport, and UK Sport would be in serious difficulties if he could offer anything they are not," said Chris Boardman, the former Olympic cycling champion.
The UK Athletics chairman, Ed Warner, was also sceptical. "There are those who would say there are no new ideas in the Woodward programme," he said. "So far he has had no impact on athletics but he might do, provided that we can dictate what we can use to improve our chances. There has been a risk that we get caught up in the political backlash of two organisations [UK Sport and the BOA] locking horns over their rival programmes."

Debate over 2012 legacy
The role of Sport England in delivering the sporting legacy of the 2012 Olympic Games remains a major concern to MPs and sports' governing bodies. The question was repeatedly raised at yesterday's select committee hearing, with all the sports agreeing that Sport England should drive the legacy commitment but unclear as to its plans.

The quango is currently in negotiations with the government over its funding package from 2009 to 2011 but it remains to be seen whether its primary role going forward will be mass participation to encourage a health and fitness agenda or promoting sport.

Fundraising doubts
Serious concerns remain at UK Sport about how the government will raise £100m from the private sector to complete its total pre-London 2012 funding package of £600m. UK Sport's chair, Sue Campbell, told the select committee yesterday that she could not confidently predict that the money would be raised.

The DCMS is in the process of hiring an agency to help raise the cash but sponsorship has already been ruled out as an option.

England look to first base
England have narrowed their search for potential Euro 2008 base camps down to two or three options should they qualify for the tournament by avoiding defeat against Croatia at Wembley tonight.

The favoured option is understood to be a base in Switzerland close to one of the major cities, with a site on Lac Leman, near Geneva, among the possibilities.

With two of the Euro 2008 groups playing all their matches in Austria, however, they will wait until the draw on December 2 before allowing England's head coach, Steve McClaren, to have the final say.

Refreshingly the Football Association has no intention of repeating the World Cup 2006 mistake of selecting a remote base that cuts the players off from media, supporters and, in some cases, reality.

Dein under fire
The former Arsenal vice chairman David Dein, below, clashed with Andy Walsh, chairman of the Independent Manchester United Supporters' Association, at yesterday's Future of Football conference in London over the issue of supporter representation on club boards.

Dein, who is fronting the Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov's attempts to take control of Arsenal, said he had never met a board member who was not a fan.

Walsh also spoke out against foreign ownership but found no one in the audience of financiers and football club employees to support his view.

The flood of foreign cash into the English game shows no sign of slowing, meanwhile, with the Dubai International Capital group, which tried and failed to buy Liverpool, understood to be still eyeing investment opportunities in the Premier League.

Coincidental clash
It was curious timing yesterday for the launch of the Legacy Trust, a new charitable body whose task is to fund "the sporting and cultural legacy of the 2012 Olympics".

Some 19 months after Tessa Jowell first announced it, the official launch event started just as officials from UK Sport and leading governing bodies were being grilled in parliament on issues including the sporting legacy of London 2012.

A spokeswoman for the DCMS said the clash was entirely coincidental.

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Rising Olympic costs slammed as catastrophic

We love volleyball and want to improve

2007-11-19T03:16:00.000-08:00

The quest for homegrown glory at the 2012 Olympics is taking British sport to the strangest of places — for example, the foot of the Dutch professional volleyball league.

There you will find, occupying basement position in the table, Club Martinus — unremarkable except for the fact that the long established Amsterdam outfit is, in fact, the British national team.

As a result of an arrangement both innovative and curious, UK Sport has 'borrowed' the financially stricken Martinus for a season and filled its first team with the players they are developing for the London Games.

The club's fans, in a country where volleyball enjoys considerable popularity, have adopted Britain and need to be fairly tolerant, too, because after seven matches of the season Martinus, aka GB, are without a win.

And so it was that on Saturday night the journey to London 2012 took them via an airy sports hall besides the ring road of the northern city of Groningen.

There they were playing fourthplaced Lycurgus and it was another cuffing for the young British team, their inexperience showing in unforced errors at crucial times in a 25-20, 25-16, 25-20 defeat. With only 150 spectators braving a cold night, this is hardly the glamour end of European sport. The familiar outcome tested the patience of head coach Harry Brokking, 52, who used to run the Dutch national team. ' I t's frustrating but to be expected, given the level at which they started. Inevitably, they are behind skills-wise, but this is a long-term project and they are making progress,' he said.

"It's not realistic for them to be gold medal candidates in London but they can definitely be competitive. They just need to do what they do in practice under pressure and this is the place to learn. It can't be done in England."

When Martinus lost their main sponsor this year, Brokking brokered a deal for GB to step in until April; a similar experiment is being tried with the nascent British handball team in Denmark.

The British squad of 12 volleyballers, a mix of amateurs and players with some professional experience around Europe, now live and train just outside Amsterdam.

That they have a foreign coach is hardly surprising. Volleyball is one of the world's biggest participation sports but, despite being invented by Welshman William Morgan in the late 19th century, it has barely registered a blip on the mainstream British radar. In fact, the biggest boost for the sport in the UK has been the influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe, especially Poland, where it is second only to football. Polish teams in London (Plumbers United?) are overflowing.

Brokking is trying to develop the likes of 21-year-old Ben Pipes from Hull. He is standing in for skipper Chris Porter, who is awaiting knee surgery — the game is about as easy on the knees as carpetfitting.

Pipes is the poster boy for British volleyball and after spending two seasons as a pro in Sweden and Spain, is sufficiently rated to be eyed by clubs in the Italian league, Europe's most prestigious, He is 6ft 8in — which passes for average in volleyball — and led gallantly on Saturday night. But it was not enough to stop another reverse against equally committed and vocal opponents in what, to outsiders, is a surprisingly aggressive sport.

"Every single team desperately wants to beat us,' he said. 'We are coming into their league and are a national team so every match we play seems to be like a cup final — but that's great for us because we are experiencing such intense competition.

"I won't pretend that losing every week has been fun. It's devastating but every Monday is the start of the new week and we have to drag ourselves up and look ahead to the next match.

"Our players are mostly aged between 20 and 26. It's all geared towards 2012, so by then we should have a good nucleus fed by other players."

The results are certainly not for want of trying and despite the squad's proximity to Amsterdam there is little time to experience the city's varied delights. Undergoing a rigorous routine of six hours training per day, they live off their UK Sport funding grants and occupy flats generally used by workers at the nearby airport.

"We have all bought into it because we love volleyball and want to improve. People at Martinus have been very welcoming," said Pipes.

"There's very little going out. We don't have much money and the front room of one of the flats is like a hair salon because we cut each other's hair. It's probably a bit like being a student — except without the fun bit."

Rising Olympic costs slammed as catastrophic

2007-11-15T04:50:00.000-08:00

· Entire £2.7bn contingency fund is to be used up
· Final London 2012 bill will be three times bid figure

The most pessimistic estimates of the final bill for the London 2012 Olympics were vindicated yesterday when the most senior civil servant involved on the project admitted that the entire £2.7bn contingency fund for the project would probably be spent.
The admission to MPs by Jonathan Stephens, permanent secretary to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, contradicts repeated assertions from government and the Olympic Delivery Authority that costs had not risen in real terms since the bid was submitted in 2004.

The admission means the final cost is likely to be at least £9.3bn, more than double the figure given in London's bid book, a disparity which the Labour MP Don Touhig described as "the most catastrophic piece of financial mismanagement in the history of the world".
Until yesterday the ODA and DCMS had insisted that the intention was not to spend the contingency money but, at a hearing of the public accounts committee at Westminster yesterday, Stephens conceded that it might all be spent.

"The only safe assumption is to expect all of it to be spent," he said. "Obviously we are all working to ensure that less is spent but on a project of this size we might expect risks will materialise, and as they do contingency will be transferred to the ODA. We are trying to advance the timetable to deal with cost pressures but it is realistic to expect a significant amount, if not all, of the contingency to be spent."

The admission will fuel suspicions that the original budget was set deliberately low to attract cabinet approval for a bid and undermines repeated assertions from the ODA that costs have not risen.

The original budget, compiled in 2004, put construction costs at £2.375bn, with a further £1bn set aside for regeneration costs and another £700m coming from the private sector. In March this year the Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, told parliament that the budget had risen to £9.3bn, an increase of more than £5bn, of which almost half was the "potential additional programme contingency".

Until now the Olympic officials have insisted that the new construction budget was broadly comparable to the 2004 figures once VAT and compound inflation to 2012 prices was taken into account. The likelihood that all contingency will be used explodes that argument.

Stephen's evidence came during an often heated appearance in front of the influential Commons committee, which was questioning Olympic officials for the first time since the revised budget was published.

Stephens and David Higgins, the ODA chief executive, came under sustained criticism for the disparity between the two budgets, with Edward Leigh, the Conservative chairman, telling them that he had little confidence in their ability to control costs as the Games approached.

"What worries me is that judging by your record so far I have no confidence in your ability to plan ahead. As the Games approach you are going to have to throw money at it," he said.

Stephens denied that this was the case. Asked repeatedly why the original budget was so inaccurate and had even failed to take into account government guidelines on budgeting for major projects, he said that inaccuracies were inevitable in a project of this scale and complexity, that the original budget had been signed off across government and had been based on expert independent advice.

The committee seized on an increase in management costs from £16m to £570m between the two bids, with the Conservative David Curry describing it as "more Harry Potter than Accountancy Age".

A reduction in the budgeted private-sector contribution from £738m to £165m also drew criticism: "It is staggering that an accounting officer could include an estimate for £738m which he has been warned is not based on any sort of accurate information. It is an appalling abrogation of your responsibilities as an accounting officer," said Leigh.

Higgins insisted the ODA was working to control costs, rejecting the charge from Austin Mitchell that "the construction industry has you by the short Olympic rings". At the end of the session Leigh warned Stephens and Higgins that they could expect a highly critical report from the committee.

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MPs seek answers over 2012 costs

2007-11-14T05:47:00.000-08:00

London 2012 organisers will face another round of searching questions over their spiralling budget when they appear before the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee today.
For the first time since the Olympics Minister, Tessa Jowell, announced in March that the funding provision for the project had leapt to £9.3 billion from £2.375bn at the time of the bid in 2005, MPs will get the chance to grill the government and the Olympic Delivery Authority on the rising costs.

The hearing comes at a time when ministers and London 2012 bosses are under renewed pressure over the mega-project's finances.

Last month the British Olympic Association chairman Lord Colin Moynihan broke ranks to criticise the government for a lack of financial transparency on the budget. As a member of the Olympic board, Moynihan's comments caused considerable unease.

A few days later, Jowell conceded that the final "baseline" budget for the Games was still being worked out – an admission described by opposition politicians as "startling".

Against this backdrop, this afternoon's hearing is likely to be uncomfortable for the ODA chief executive, David Higgins, and Jonathan Stephens, permanent secretary at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and accounting officer for the project.

Committee members will want to know why, eight months after Jowell announced the budget, there seems to be so little detail.

They will ask exactly what has been spent so far and how much of the £2.7bn of contingency set aside for the project has been allocated.

Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: "There's no possible reason for hiding anything in the budget. The more we shine the spotlight on these people, the more we will get down to the nitty gritty of these figures."

Organisers and ministers argue that they cannot be too open because much of the information is financially sensitive.

On the accusation that costs are spiralling out of control from 2005 forecasts, they say a direct comparison is impossible. "It's like comparing apples with pears," said a DCMS spokesman yesterday. But that begs the question why more detailed analysis was not done at bidding time. And if the sums were wrong then, what's to say the £9.3bn announced by Jowell in March is more reliable?

With 4½ years to go until the start of the Games, organisers know they need to get to grips with the debate on costs.

The unpalatable truth is that the final bill is unlikely to be known until some time after the Games are over.

How the costs rose

July 2005* July 2012
Total funding package £2.375bn £9.3bn

Total cost of sports
venues / core costs
of Olympics £573.1m £3.08bn***

Regeneration £1.044bn £1.67bn

Main stadium £281m £496m

Aquatics centre £73.1m £150m**

*Costs submitted at time of bid in 2005 but worked out, according to International Olympic Committee rules, on the basis of 2004 prices.
**Final approved forecast for the aquatics centre has not been announced but is estimated to be somewhere between £150m and £200m
***While the 2005 figure is specifically for the Olympic venues, the 2012 number includes all associated costs in redeveloping the main Olympic park in Stratford. The actual venue costs will not be known for some time.

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Poll says more than three-quarters back 2012 Olympics in London

2007-11-12T05:38:00.000-08:00

A new nationwide survey suggests 76 per cent of people are pleased London is staging the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in 2012 - with even higher backing among younger people and in London, southern England and Northern Ireland.

The poll, with more than 2,000 people questioned by the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB), also shows widespread optimism that the Games will have a positive effect on London and the whole country and high levels of confidence that the UK will stage successful Games in 2012.

Strongest support for the Games came from 25 to 34 year olds, with 90 per cent saying they were pleased London is staging the Games, in Northern Ireland (88 per cent), in London (82 per cent), among 35 to 44 year olds (82 per cent), among 15 to 24 year olds (81 per cent) and in southern England, where backing was 80 per cent.

Even where support was lowest, more than six out of ten were pleased about London hosting the Games. Among those aged 65 and older backing was put at 66 per cent, with 67 per cent of 55 to 64 year olds pleased, 69 per cent in Scotland and 70 per cent in the Midlands.

Among other findings, the polling suggests:
* 81 per cent think 2012 will have a positive effect on London and 70 per cent on the country as a whole.
* 76 per cent are confident the UK will host successful Games.
* 63 per cent think the legacy from 2012 should be wider than just sport.

But only 39 per cent know "a lot" or "a little" about plans for the 2012 Games, with 41 per cent knowing "not very much" and the remaining one fifth nothing. However in London the figure rises to 64 per cent.

Olympic Minister Tessa Jowell welcomed the poll's findings:
"More than two years after we won the Games, over three-quarters of those questioned remain enthusiastic about the world's top event coming to London - a real sign of a positive attitude which will inspire us all to deliver the maximum benefits for the whole country, as well as staging a terrific festival of sport."

But she added:
"We must not get complacent. We don't have a day to waste and it is up to all of us - not just Government - to act to maximise the benefits. The polling shows that many people still have to switch on to 2012. When they do, I am confident support will reach even higher levels."

The survey was carried out to aid work developing the Government's 'Our Promise for 2012' before the publication of its Legacy Action Plan in the next few months.

More than two-thirds of those surveyed rated inspiring young people to take part in local volunteering, cultural and physical activity as the most important of the five promises. The second most popular, backed by just over 50 per cent, was demonstrating that the UK is a creative, inclusive and welcoming place to live in, visit or do business in.

Tessa Jowell said:
"We wanted to know what the people's priorities were for 2012 to make sure that the Games and our ambitions for an enduring legacy were in accord - and they are. There is wide awareness - and even greater support - for our drive to create jobs, increase participation in sport, provide new facilities and promote the UK as a great place to visit - with a special focus on young people.

"We will now use this research to make sure we focus our energies and attention on the things that people think matter most, and the activities that we know they will respond to and get involved with from now to 2012 and beyond."

London 2012 Olympic Games stadium design unveiled
olympic 2012 opening ceremony

Blaze breaks out in London near 2012 Olympic venue

2007-11-12T05:32:00.000-08:00

The London Fire Brigade has reported a huge blaze has broken out in east London near the site where the main stadium for the 2012 Olympics will be constructed.

Arounf 40 firefighters were called to the blaze at around midday at Waterden Road, Stratford.

There are no reports of any casualties and the Metropolitan police has said it is continuing its investigations into the incident.

"We have nothing to suggest that this anything other than a fire at the moment," said a police spokesman said to reporters.

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London 2012 Olympic Games stadium design unveiled

2007-11-08T03:37:00.000-08:00

London's Olympic organizers unveiled the design of the main stadium for the 2012 Games on Wednesday, billed as a hi-tech arena which will serve the British capital for generations afterwards.

The 496 million pound (710 million euro, 1.04 billion US dollar) structure, in the form of a sunken bowl with a wraparound fabric covering and a removable roof, will dominate the centre of the Olympic Park in east London.

The 80,000-seat stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games as well as key track and field events. Organizers hailed the unveiling of the plans as a "milestone" on the road to the London Olympics.

"In unveiling today's images I want that to be the unveiling of a journey for the next five years," said former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe, head of the London 2012 organizing committee, at a press conference.

"The stadium...is a stadium for a completely new era."

Initial reaction to the blueprint was positive. The London Evening Standard newspaper called it a "striking design," while London mayor Ken Livingstone said it would be a "beacon for the capital."

While the stadium's initial use will be for the 2012 Games, organizers also want to make sure it is still used by local people in the years afterwards.

When the Games are over the stadium's high-tech design allows for it to be reduced to a 25,000-seat arena, to be used by the local community and for other major sporting events.

English Premier League football side West Ham United were mooted as possible future tenants for the new stadium but many teams dislike playing in an athletics stadium because the track distances them from spectators.

Livingstone, though, said that football clubs may have to look elsewhere.

"We made a commitment that there would be a permanent athletics facility and we have honoured that commitment," he said.

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said: "This is a very important Olympic milestone and this stadium is focused very much on legacy and sustainability.

"Once the Games are over, this will then be translated into a stadium that will not only host grand prix athletics events and other national sport events but will also serve the communities of the boroughs."

With post-Olympic use in mind, the upper parts of the structure are designed to be removed, including a roof which will provide protection from the weather for two-thirds of the seats inside.

A wraparound fabric curtain, which will encircle the stadium in its Olympic version, will also come off afterwards, with plans for the material to be made into bags and other souvenir goods to remember the Games.

The London Olympics are helping to revive a deprived part of the city, and the permanent stadium will be a key part of that. "It's a stadium that will be inspiring, it will be a stadium that will have a lasting legacy," said Coe.

Critics have highlighted the ballooning budget since London won with its bid for the 2012 Olympics in Singapore in July 2005. The stadium price tag was put at 280 million pounds at that time.

John Armitt, chair of the Olympic Delivery Authority, said: "Nearly 500 million pounds is a lot of money in anyone's terms but it is the budget and we are determined to work within that."

"If there is a requirement for any extra, we have a contingency within the scheme covering this as a whole and we will use some of that, but that is not the plan."

Building work is due to start next April or May, three months ahead of schedule, and should be completed in 2011 to allow test events to be held in the stadium before the Games themselves.

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Games demolition milestone marked

2007-10-31T07:57:00.000-07:00

The 12-storey derelict building in Stratford, which was earlier a part of the University of East London, is being torn down by a 50-tonne machine.

Lord Coe, chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee, described the wrecking as "another milestone" leading up to the site's transformation.

The park will form the heart of London's Olympic Games in 2012.

There were a total of 220 buildings at the site, of which 106 have been demolished, the Olympic Development Authority (ODA) said.

Underground work

Lord Coe said: "This is another milestone in the transformation of the Olympic Park site.

"In the last year, much of the work has taken place underground on the power lines. Now, you will see an increasing amount of work taking place at ground level, as remediation and demolition gather pace."

The cleared site will form the link between the Olympic Village and VeloPark during the Olympics. After the event it will connect the regenerated area with land to the north of the site.

The Olympic Park will include the main stadium, an aquatics centre, velodrome, three sports arenas, a hockey centre, media facilities and the Olympic Village, in which 17,800 athletes and officials will be housed.

Once built, the Olympic Park is set to be one of the largest new urban parks opened in Europe for 150 years.

Guiding hand to make the most of the Olympics

2007-10-31T07:47:00.000-07:00

BUSINESSES in Coventry and Warwickshire are being offered the opportunity to produce a guide to help other firms win London 2012 contracts.

West Midlands Business Council has invited the region's companies to pitch for a contract to design and produce the guide, which will then be distributed in the region.

The guide, which is targeted at smaller businesses, aims to assist bosses in winning the numerous lucrative contracts that the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will generate.

There are already several ways in which businesses in Coventry and Warwickshire can look for 2012-related contracts and a new electronic brokerage service is expected to be launched in early 2008.

The guide will contain all necessary information for businesses to find out about contracts and the best ways to win them.

More than £25 billion of work is expected to be generated when the capital hosts the Games and several companies in Coventry and Warwickshire have already secured 2012 contracts.

The Coventry and Warwickshire 2012 Partnership, a collaboration of private, public and voluntary organisations, is the local body working towards maximising the opportunities arising from the 2012 Games.

David Hartley is chairman of the partnership's business sub-group and director of business development and finance at the Coventry and Warwick-shire Chamber of Commerce.

He said: "Coventry and Warwick-shire's business community can reap huge rewards from the London 2012 Games.

"Bidding for 2012 work is a highly competitive field and many companies feel daunted by what they fear is a complicated process, but it is not as difficult as it may seem and there is plenty of help available.

"The Coventry and Warwickshire 2012 Partnership, working with local partners such as the Chamber and regional partners like the West Midlands Business Council, will make every effort to ensure companies feel confident in bidding for work.

"We all want to see the region maximising the opportunities available."

Olympics chief urges 2012 action

2007-10-30T03:06:00.000-07:00

The International Olympic Committee has urged the organisers of London 2012 to get on with their preparations.
IOC boss Jacques Rogge told BBC Sport that London "is doing OK" but must focus on delivering the Games on time.

"We urge them to work as soon as possible and to prepare today for the unforeseen of tomorrow," said Rogge.

He also said the IOC had "no regrets" about giving the 2008 Games to Beijing despite recent international criticism of China's foreign policy.

Rogge stressed that the Swiss-based IOC was "basically happy" with the progress in London and remained optimistic a permanent tenant for the Olympic stadium will be found.

"That would be something that would please the IOC very much and we are very keen on that," he said.

"We know that Seb Coe and LOCOG (the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) are working very hard to find a solution."

The current plan is to reduce the stadium's capacity from 80,000 to 25,000 in 2013 and use it as a multi-sport venue with athletics and community facilities at its heart.

But that plan depends on a football or rugby club becoming an "anchor tenant" to subsidise the stadium. So far that has proved to be beyond Coe and his team, partially because the post-2012 plans do not include a roof for the majority of the seats.

Premiership club West Ham have already said they are not interested in moving to Stratford as the capacity is too small, and Leyton Orient are reported to be concerned the capacity is too high.

A shadow has been cast over preparations for the 2008 Games in Beijing because of calls for a boycott over China's foreign policy.

China has been condemned by human rights campaigners for its links with the Sudanese government which is embroiled in a four-year conflict with rebels in Darfur.

China buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil output and is the African state's biggest arms supplier following a 25-fold increase in weapons sales between 2002 and 2005.

International experts say 200,000 people have died and 2.5m have fled their homes in Darfur since the conflict started in 2003.
The Save Darfur Coalition - an umbrella group of 180 religious and human rights groups - has accused China of taking an "ambiguous" stance towards Sudan.

China has also been attacked for its continued support of the military regime in Burma, where recent pro-democracy demonstrations have been crushed.

The Chinese government only agreed to back a critical statement from the United Nations Security Council to Burma when the threat of an Olympic boycott was raised by campaigners.

Rogge said he understood why human rights groups used the Olympics to apply pressure on China, but disagreed with those groups' criticisms of the IOC itself.

"I respect them for what they're doing. It is absolutely legitimate that they get the most from the Olympics," he said.

"But where they make an error is to criticise the IOC for not solving the problems.

"Why would we be able to succeed where generations of heads of state and governments who have come to Beijing have not succeeded? We are a sports organisation - there are limits to what we can do.

"Does that mean that we don't strive for human rights? No, of course we are in favour of human rights, and we've proven that many times in the past.

"But don't expect from the IOC what the IOC cannot do. The Games will contribute but the Games will not solve all the problems of the world.

"We gave the Games to a country that represents of one fifth of mankind. We gave the Games to a country that will change, that is changing. We have no regrets."

Rogge pointed to recent reforms in China's judicial, media and property laws as evidence that the Olympic effect was already being felt. He also praised the emerging superpower for addressing its poor record on child labour.

The 55-year-old, who sailed for Belgium in three Olympics, said he was also satisfied with the steps the Chinese were taking to tackle doping and brushed off concerns about Beijing's air quality.

A recent United Nations report was critical of China's attempts to improve the air quality in Beijing, stating that pollution was three times higher than the level recommended by World Health Organisation standards.

And on Friday, Beijing's weather office warned children and the elderly to stay indoors as heavy fog was exacerbating the city's air quality problems.

An IOC inspection team visited Beijing last week and admitted that pollution remained a concern but said it was confident proposed traffic controls and factory shutdowns would have a positive effect.

Rogge added: "If the atmospheric pollution is too high at certain times then we might consider rescheduling.

"But this is not exceptional for the Olympics. We have a similar situation in the Winter Games with snow. And it's the same with the wind and sailing, rowing or canoeing."

source: bbc.co.uk

London Olympic flame to be carbon neutral

2007-10-26T00:25:00.000-07:00

It is the enduring symbol of the Olympic movement, lit in the past by legends of sport including Muhammad Ali and the Australian gold medalist Cathy Freeman.

But with the globe facing the ever-growing threat of climate change, Olympic chiefs are increasingly worried about the environmental damage caused by the Olympic flame.

Now, in an effort to ensure London's 2012 Olympics are remembered as the "greenest" ever, organisers are exploring ways of developing a more carbon neutral flame which will be kept alight in a cauldron in the main stadium for the month of Olympic and Paralympic competition.

A spokeswoman for London 2012 said: " We want London 2012 to be a truly sustainable Games. Using a low-carbon fuel to light the Olympic flame and keep it burning throughout the Games is one of the many things we are looking at right now to deliver a 'green games'.

"The Olympic games and Paralympic games have the power to set agendas, and change behaviour, and applying sustainability principles to one of the most potent symbols of the Games will, we hope, help us do just that."

To that end London 2012 are now in talks with one of their major sponsors, the French company EDF, about finding an energy source which will reduce carbon emissions.

In the past, host cities have relied on high carbon based fuels such as paraffin to ensure that the flame, carried by torch bearers from the ancient site of Olympia in Greece, is visible during the day and at night.

But next summer's Beijing Games are set to be overshadowed by pollution concerns with the International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge warning earlier this year that some events may have to be postponed because of the city's smog.

With that in mind London say they are making environmental and sustainability issues one of the key priorities of the 2012 Games.

Earlier this week they announced plans to deter the 8million who will attend the event from using their cars. And next month London will unveil their sustainability strategy for the 2012 Games.

But Jenny Jones, a Green party member of the London Assembly, accused London's organisers of getting their priorities wrong and for failing to stick to targets they set themselves on renewable energy.

She said: "Every little helps but this really is a drop in the ocean. There are much bigger problems of sustainability to deal with."

2012 stadium cost rises by £216m
Larkham sets sights on Japan

Spectators for the London Olympics in 2012 will be banned from travelling by car

2007-10-23T05:58:00.000-07:00

Spectators for the London Olympics in 2012 will be banned from travelling by car and forced to use public transport, cycle or walk, it has emerged.

According to the Times, only a small number of disabled people will be permitted to park in close proximity to car exclusion zones at event venues in London, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Cardiff, Weymouth and Portland (Dorset).

The transport plan for the 2012 Olympics sees around 800,000 people amassing at venues on the busiest days, with personalised itineraries sent to attendees detailing how to arrive.

Plans for two giant park-and-ride sites on the M25 and M11 motorways are to be cancelled, the newspaper reports, and one lane in several key London routes will be reserved for some 80,000 members of the 'Olympic family' for around two months.

Dubbed 'Zil lanes' - after the lanes reserved for Politburo convoys in Moscow - these routes will be specifically for athletes, officials and media.

Talking to the Times, Hugh Sumner, the Olympic Delivery Authority transport director, said: "We have a very aggressive programme to make it the greenest games in modern times. We want to leave both a hard legacy in terms of infrastructure and a living legacy in the way people think about transport and about how they travel to sports and cultural events."

Mr Sumner added: "We want to accelerate the shift to public transport and cycling that we have seen in London in recent years.

"There will need to be traffic controls around competition venues. We will make it very plain to people that there isn't going to be parking."

China will strictly ban drugs in sport and step up censor

2007-10-23T05:14:00.000-07:00

China's top sports official promised the country will strictly ban doping and assist the International Olympic Committee to host "clean" Games.
"China will strictly ban drugs in sport and step up censor," said Liu Peng, head of the State Administration of Sport. " Athletes involved in doping will be severely penalized."

Liu, a delegate to the week-long 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, said China pays close attention to anti-doping and has banned exhilarant in its sports law.

Liu said his administration and all its provincial branches have signed anti-doping contracts with their athletes.

The Chinese team to next year's Games will consist of 570 athletes, the largest ever in China's Olympic history, he said.

China sent a 300-strong team to the Athens Games in 2004.

In preparations for the Beijing Games, he said China is building a new testing base with a state-of-the-art lab and facilities. "Very soon we'll inaugurate a national anti-doping agency."

During a recent visit to China, World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound confirmed the country's efforts in fighting against drugs in sport and said China "stands as a model to the world".

2012 stadium cost rises by £216m

2007-10-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

The Olympic stadium for the 2012 Games will cost £216m more to build than originally predicted, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has said.

While bidding for the Games the projected cost was £280m but since then the figure has risen by more than 77%, the new ODA chairman John Armitt said.

He said "inflation, VAT, legacy conversions and earthworks" had resulted in the escalation in expenses.

The budget for the Games was increased to £9.3bn by the government in March.

Costs 'in line'

Addressing London Assembly members on Wednesday, Mr Armitt said: "To suggest that the costs have doubled from the bid book represents a grossly misleading figure for the public.

"This figure represents a 2012 outturn cost which includes inflation, VAT, legacy conversion and earthworks.

"The bid figure was a 2004 figure which all the bidding cities were asked to give. Insofar as a comparison can be made with the bid book the figures are broadly in line," he said.

The designs for the 80,000-seat stadium will be unveiled later this month, he said.

After the Games the stadium will be scaled down to accommodate 25,000 people.

He went on to add that the final cost of building the 20,000-seat aquatic centre, which will include a wave-shaped roof, is still not clear.

"I'm not sure where we are going to finish up... the important thing is that it does the job that is required."

The bidding document said the aquatic centre would cost £75m to construct.

Heneghan Peng Architects to design Olympic Park Footbridge for 2012

2007-10-19T02:53:00.000-07:00

Heneghan Peng Architects, with Adams Kara Taylor Engineers, have won the competition to design one of the key footbridges in the centre of the Olympic Park. The design competition, launched in May, was for multi-disciplined teams to design the footbridge located on the central pedestrian concourse in the Olympic Park. The footbridge spans 26m over the River Lea at a focal point between the Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre and Basketball Arena.

The planning and design of the bridge will integrate both Games and legacy use. During the Games the bridge will have a total width of 55 metres to accommodate increased spectator numbers. After the Games temporary sections of bridge will be removed leaving two narrower bridges that span either side of Carpenters Lock, a unique 1930's historic structure on the River Lea Waterway.

In June a six-strong shortlist of established designers, engineers and emerging young practices were asked to develop concept design proposals for the bridge and the immediate surrounding landscape in Games time and legacy mode. Their designs were assessed by a specialist design jury who selected the Dublin based firm Heneghan Peng Architects as the design competition winners. The shortlisted teams were assessed by a Design Jury comprising: Carl Ainley - British Waterways; Bob Allies - Allies and Morrison; Peter Bishop - Design for London; Sarah Buck - BSW Consulting, President IStructE; Ricky Burdett - ODA Principal Design Advisor; Jorgen Nissen - Bridge Consultant; Kevin Owen - LOCOG; Simon Wright - ODA Director of Infrastructure and Utilities.

A key requirement of the design is that its surface area has to be reduced significantly after the games are over. Heneghan Peng's concept designs were praised by the design jury for making the bridge a spectacle in Games mode by using the landscape for colour and activity followed by the transformation of the structure in legacy to leave two footbridges linked by a central blade-like walkway offering views over the river and Carpenters Lock. Removing the surface after the games will reveal a grass amphitheatre which will allow access between the elevated pathways and the waterway.

The design jury was particularly impressed with the way Heneghan Peng's concept designs brought together a design solution that worked for both Games and legacy. The short span of the footbridge gave Heneghan Peng scope to develop a more creative design than a usual bridge structure by using the surrounding landscape as a way of shaping the bridge structure itself.

The jury also praised the proposals to open up the Carpenters Lock area, creating new meeting spaces, views and links above and below the bridge between the river tow paths, Carpenters Lock and the upper concourse in the Olympic Park.

Directors of Heneghan Peng Architects, Roisin Heneghan and Shih-Fu Peng, said: "We are thrilled to have won this competition particularly after being faced by such incredible opposition. We hope that our design will form an important element within the spectacle of the London 2012 Games and as a striking element of the enhanced connections the Olympic Park will create in legacy." Other shortlisted firms included McDowell+Benedetti, Ron Arad Associates and Future Systems. Heneghan Peng Architects have a good track record in competition having won competitions to design the Grand Egyptian Museum at the Pyramids of Giza in 2003, and the visitor centre at the Giants Causeway in 2005.

ODA Director of Infrastructure and Utilities Simon Wright said: "The winning team impressed the design jury with their understanding of the need to plan Games and legacy together. Their designs will help us lock-in legacy now by designing a bridge that meets Games-time needs but which also leaves behind a striking structure in the heart of the Olympic Park for future generations to enjoy. The jury were impressed with all of the shortlisted teams but Heneghan Peng's designs emerged as a clear favourite and will help us ensure we continue to aim for the highest standards of design excellence across the project."

Olympic consultants cost £1m a week

2007-10-19T02:52:00.000-07:00

Olympic consultants cost £1m a week
Fresh figures revealing the true cost of the 2012 London Olympics won’t impress taxpayers, but will hurt less if you’re one of the event’s self-employed consultants.

In a parliamentary answer, the government said The Olympic Delivery Authority is currently paying £1million a week to temporary, interim or contract professionals.

Bosses at the ODA spent £50.5m in the last financial year, while a further £10.7m was paid out on contracts within the first three months of 2007.

The figures fly in the face of assurances given by Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, who recently said only two contracts were agreed last year and none for this year.

They were uncovered by Tory MP Hugh Robertson, who has attacked the government for not factoring in the £60m spent so far on consultants into its budget.

He said: “The revelation that the ODA has spent over £60m on consultants already will raise very serious questions about the direction of the Olympic budget.

“Tessa Jowell has also failed to answer eight specific Parliamentary Questions about the budget. We need much greater clarity and honesty over exactly what is going on in order to restore confidence in London's Olympics.”

His comments come after figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show Olympic bosses paid 65 agency workers a massive £7,707,000 – about £118,500 each.

Coupled with the state’s admission that the budget for the event has leapt from £2.4bn to £9.3bn, these revelations help explain why 90% of Brits think the games will go over-budget.

Matthew Elliot of the Taxpayers Alliance, which commissioned the finding, said the costings of the London games make it a unique event in the event’s history.

“The 2012 Olympics are set to become the most expensive games in history,” he told The Daily Mail yesterday.

“Once consultants are brought in, costs rocket.”

The ODA’s latest vacancies include a job as a transport press officer for the games, commanding a £40,000 salary. The London 2012 Organising Committee is also looking for a creative individual who can coordinate final ceremonies in Beijing as a Production Project Manager; for an undisclosed salary.

Xinhua opens Beijing Olympics News Service

2007-10-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

Beijing Olympics News Service
The Xinhua News Agency launched formally the Beijing Olympics News Service (BONS) on Oct. 8, 2007, to enhance its English language coverage of events and preparations for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

The multimedia news service will be operational from Oct. 8, 2007, to Oct. 8, 2008. The BONS will provide texts, photos and graphics.

In the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games, the BONS will focus on the preparatory work of the host country and international athletes. It will also present China to the world, including its reform, opening-up and modernization process as well as the Chinese culture.

After the opening of the Games in August 2008, the focus of the BONS will shift to the actual events: the athletes, results, feedback from the participating countries and regions, and Olympics-related information.

xinhuanet.com

Chinese games - 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing
FRANCE v ALL BLACKS 1/4 FINAL (20-18)

Britain Warms-Up For 2012 With Lifesaving Champs

2007-10-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

Saving lives is not an Olympic sport but one of the biggest sporting events in the world with lifesaving as its aim - bigger than the Commonwealth Games in fact and one that will help Britain to prepare for the London 2012 Games - has been awarded to Cornwall.

Never been to Cornwall? Put it on your list. It's fabulous, with a wild and windswept shoreline that offers some of the best beaches in Britain (the world, some would say but not if lounging in the sun is your thing) and will make a fantastic venue for the Rescue 2010 Lifesaving World Championships.

The event was awarded to the Fistral surfing beach in Newquay, Cornwall at a vote today in Oporto, the northern Portuguese city that lends its name to Port wine, among delegates of the International Life Saving Federation (ILS), the central body of national associations of lifesaving clubs and the governing body for the Rescue series.

The opening ceremony of the championships, over two weeks in June and July 2010, will take place at the Eden Project in St Austell, Cornwall, a place no-one should drive past when in that part of the world. Indeed, make a point of travelling that way to see the Eden Project. It's terrific.

Speaking at Fistral Beach, Jonathan Ball, President of Surf Life Saving Great Britain and Chairman of the British bid team, said: 'This is a wonderful opportunity for Britain and the result of a lot of hard work by a top class project team. We can now open serious discussions with major corporations and funding organisations to establish the budget and put in place the infrastructure for the Championships and the wider promotion of water sport and lifesaving skills amongst the community.

'It is a unique opportunity for organisations to contribute positively to an ethical mission that will help to inspire young people and raise public awareness of a sporting challenge that recognises bravery, encourages selflessness, personal fitness and well being and service to the community. Aquatic sport is one of the fastest growing sports in the world and the highly challenging and visual Rescue 2010 Championships will offer international, national and local exposure to companies involved in sponsoring or supporting them.'

Britain's bid for Rescue 2010 was submitted by Surf Life Saving Great Britain (SLSGB) in partnership with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). The two organisations have signed a strategic partnership to develop volunteer beach lifeguards around the coasts of Britain and the World Championships will focus public attention on the campaign and the needs and values of lifesaving skills.

Andrew Freemantle, Chief Executive of the RNLI said: 'The award of Rescue 2010 to Britain will encourage the development of Britain's swimmers and promote water sports amongst the wider population, and young people in particular, as part of a healthy lifestyle. Volunteer lifeguards are essential to our plans to double the size of our lifeguard operations in the next five years. These championships will give a huge impetus to our strategic partnership with SLSGB to develop volunteer lifeguards on our beaches.'

The Lifesaving World Championships are held every two years to test the skills, stamina and courage of qualified lifesavers from local clubs throughout the world.

Lord Coe, Chairman of the London Organising Committee for London 2012, said: 'When we won the bid to bring the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to London, we hoped our success would lead to more top sporting events coming to the UK. This is a very good example - many congratulations to all involved.'

Expected in Cornwall are 6,000 competitors and officials from the life saving national teams and clubs of 55 nations, a greater participation event than the Commonwealth Games.

Britain's gold and silver world lifesaving medallist, Katy Whear, who is a Portreath Surf Lifesaving Club member and RNLI lifeguard, was delighted with the news: 'Holding Rescue 2010 in Cornwall could alter the perception of the country. I have met people in Australia who think we only have pebble beaches. Many of them don't think of Cornwall as a destination for the World Championships, and yet we can get awesome surf and we have some really good beaches. This will be a chance to show the world how great Cornwall is.'

The cost of hosting the Championships is estimated at around £6 million and will be funded from public and private sponsorship. The economic benefit of Rescue 2006 to Australia was estimated at more than £18 million, with approximately 40 per cent attributable to the local area of the games.

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh is patron of the Championships and the British bid received enthusiastic support from the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown MP, and opposition leaders, as well as Lord Coe, Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Sir Roger Bannister, the first four-minute miler and now a world ambassador for sport.

source: swimnews.com

London Games creates hurdles for building offices in the City

2007-10-01T03:06:00.000-07:00

The spiralling cost of construction in the lead-up to the Olympic Games in London in 2012 is undermining City office development deals, a report will reveal today.

A shortage of skilled labour, soaring prices of raw materials and a growing number of Olympics-related projects have given the building industry huge bargaining power over developers in the pricing of new schemes in the capital.

Building cost estimates have risen by about 25 per cent over the past year. The surge in costs, coupled with the recent credit crunch from banks, has turned the City office investment market into a virtual dead zone since the end of July, with little prospect of improvement until the new year, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial property agency.

A total of £5.4 billion was spent on buying City office space in the third quarter of this year. While that represented an 8 per cent rise on investment in the previous quarter and 14 per cent more than the same period a year ago, all but about £350 million of deals took place before the start of August, Cushman’s figures reveal.

Since August, banks have tightened their lending criteria and are demanding far more upfront cash from potential investors – or they are not lending at all.

Meanwhile, the cost of building the foundations and shell for a City office block has risen from about £200 per square foot last September to £270 for a normal structure and up to £300 for the tallest skyscrapers, Bill Tyser, head of Cushman’s City investment team, calculates. Four years ago build costs would have been about £170 to £180 per square foot.

“People like to fix costs upfront and they are not being able to do so. The issue at the moment is that we are in a period where investors can’t get liquidity in the financial markets, so a lot of structured deals are not happening,” Mr Tyser said.

“What started this year off was a huge rise in the price of cladding and steel formation due to demand from China and India. Now we are beginning to see the impact of the Olympics building up. A lot of contractors are in command about what they want to do. Many are saying: ‘I do not want to do that – a City scheme – as I want to be in the frame for East London.’ So there have been really big build-cost jumps this year.”

City skyscraper projects with planning but still yet to get off the ground include Land Securities’ 20 Fenchurch Street, a 37-storey project rising to 160m (525ft) and dubbed the “Walkie Talkie” due to its concave shape. No decision will be made until next spring on a starting date for the building, including whether to construct speculatively, without a tenant lined up, or with a prelet in place, a senior company source told The Times.

Meanwhile, plans to build The Pinnacle, a 288m City skyscraper dubbed the “Helter Skelter” because of its twisted shape, still depend on securing the last slice of development finance. The site’s owner, an Arab Investments-backed offshore company, has been in talks for nearly a month to sign a definitive fixed-price construction contract with Multiplex, the company behind the delayed and overbudget Wembley stadium. It is understood that Khalis Affara, the managing director of Arab Investments, has signed only a heads of agreement with Multiplex, but a full contract is needed before the final construction funding falls into place. Construction is due to start early next year, with completion in 2009.

A start date has yet to be fixed for construction of New London Bridge House – in what will be London’s tallest tower at 310m – after the backers for the scheme, dubbed the “Shard of Glass”, confirmed this month that they were struggling to secure development finance. Talks are under way for a new investor, possibly the state of Qatar, to buy a one-third equity stake from Simon Halabi, the tycoon, while Credit Suisse is on standby to provide new finance.

The only significant Central London office deal to take place since August has been the £240 million sale by Legal & General of its Bucklersbury House site between Cannon Street and Bank stations, which in 2013 is destined to become Walbrook Square, the City’s largest new office and shops scheme in 25 years.

Questions have already been raised in the City over how the eventual buyer of the scheme, Metrovacesa, of Spain, will make a profitable return. Among those who balked at the prices needed to make it through to the final round of bids were Canary Wharf, the docklands developer.

Metrovacesa shot to prominence this year when it paid £1.1 billion for HSBC’s Canary Wharf headquarters, representing an initial yield - return from rent compared to price paid – of just under 4 per cent. Average City office yields have since shifted from about 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent, over fears of price falls.
source: business.timesonline.co.uk

Olympics 'will boost London property'
The U.S. might bid for the 2012 Youth Olympics

Olympics 'will boost London property'

2007-09-28T04:26:00.000-07:00

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

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

2007-09-25T02:46:00.000-07:00

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.”

Adidas Becomes Next Major Sponsor of 2012 London Olympics

2007-09-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-19T02:46:00.000-07:00

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."

Last chance saloon for Olympics

2007-09-10T05:19:00.000-07:00

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

Olympics centenary

2007-09-07T04:49:00.000-07:00

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

2016 Summer Olympics - Chicago

2007-09-06T04:13:00.000-07:00

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.

Koreans Advance to Olympics

2007-09-05T06:19:00.000-07:00

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.

Chinese games - 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing

2007-09-04T03:43:00.000-07:00

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

Eleven cities bid for Youth Olympics

2007-09-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

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.

Beijing 'ready' for '08 Summer Olympics

2007-08-31T02:34:00.000-07:00

BEIJING — It sounds like Chinese chutzpah. "This nation is ready, wearing a smile and saying hello," runs a line from We Are Ready, the theme tune invitation to the greatest coming-out party ever — the Beijing Olympic Games in August 2008.
In fact, the song reflects the justified confidence of a one-party state that can move mountains, and blow billions, to play the perfect host.

For like every piece of its Olympic hardware and software, China is not leaving that welcome smile to chance.

Once infamous for surly service, Beijing Capital International Airport is undergoing a major face lift. The high-tech, dragon-shaped Terminal 3 will wow visitors when it opens next year as the world's largest terminal building. Inside, immigration officers such as Lily Li should impress with newfound people skills. "We are told to smile more, deal more politely with people, and look at them when talking," says Li of weekly training that is part of mass campaigns to "civilize" the capital of the oldest continuous civilization on Earth. "We are the window for Beijing and China."

More people than ever are flying through that window. China is set to overtake the USA as the world's No. 3 tourist destination in 2007. The Olympic bump is expected to draw 550,000 foreign visitors next August alone to Beijing (pronounced bay-jing, as in "jingle," though some Westerners say "zhing/shing"). That's almost two-thirds more than 2006 and 2 million more for the whole year.

China's communist government, isolated for decades, has seized the Olympic limelight to showcase the country's transformation. This Olympiad "matters more to China than to previous hosts," says Qin Xiaoying of the China Foundation for International Strategic Studies. "The Games show off our economic achievements from 30 years of opening up. In sport, too, we were 'the sick man of east Asia,' and now Chinese athletes win gold, silver and bronze."

For travelers, the Games mark Beijing's arrival as an international metropolis. That stunning new Terminal 3, a $2 billion expansion, is just the first taste of a $40 billion splurge that leaves this city of 17 million more accessible than ever. And, unlike the last-minute scramble to ready Athens for the previous Summer Olympics, all Beijing's infrastructure projects will be ready well ahead of time.

Besides the soon-to-be-iconic new sports venues, visitors to the Chinese capital will enjoy multiple new road, rail and air links, dozens of new hotels, freshened-up historical sites and acres-more green space in a long, gray industrial city. But "we still face challenges on every front," says Wang Wei, a top government organizer for the Games, who lists improving air quality, manners and hotel service among pressing concerns.

Sweating outside the Forbidden City on a recent August afternoon, several American tourists agree the air is still foul. "I'd hate to be one of the athletes in this pollution and in this heat," says Will Andersen, 30, a medical salesman from New York.

Wang Wei acknowledges reducing pollution "will be very difficult." International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge says endurance events such as the marathon may be delayed if smog is unbearable.

Despite the frequent haze and language barrier, Andersen remains upbeat about a city whose numerous imperial sites, including the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, can require a marathon trek. China's expanding global role motivated their self-organized tour, he says. "Knowing its culture and what's going on here is very important for Americans."

Is Beijing ready to greet the world in English?

"I don't think so," says Li Yang, a key language consultant to the Games, who inspires mass rallies of volunteers to parrot Olympic slogans. "The government loves to boast of big numbers of English speakers (more Chinese are learning English than speak the language worldwide), but the reality is that many foreigners complain 'so many people don't speak English.' "

Still, correct English is making inroads on restaurant menus as authorities crack down on "Chinglish" translations (no more "fried crap") and misspellings that make tourists smile. "We are standardizing the English menus of 10,000 restaurants in central Beijing," says Yu Debin, deputy head of the Beijing Travel Administration. "It is a huge effort that costs a lot of money, but we must correct the mistakes to make the city ready for the world."

Even one year out, you can find Olympic volunteers already on the streets. At an information and recruiting stand near Sanlitun Bar Street, a popular nightlife area, Zhang Hailing promises Beijing is ready. "It is the duty of all Chinese to look after guests from afar," says Zhang, an Amway saleswoman. "I have never been abroad, but I am so happy the world will come here next year. We are all one family."

Her enthusiasm echoes Beijing's Olympic slogan: "One World, One Dream." In some parts of Beijing, however, you could add "one homogenized, globalized nightmare."

"Going to the hotel, we see Subway, 7-Eleven, Starbucks, Sizzler, McDonald's," star U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps said on a visit in April. "It's like a big American city. They have everything we have in the States."

Beijingers soon can gawk at Hooters, too, beside the soccer venue.

Peer beyond the Westernized façade, and Beijing will reward with insights into China's past that may help explain the present.

At the fast-rising Olympic Green, 5 miles north of Tiananmen Square along the city's sacred axis, all eyes migrate to the "Bird's Nest," or National Stadium, a spectacle in twisted steel.

Beside it, the sci-fi "Water Cube," or National Aquatics Center, appears sheathed in massive bubbles because of its high-tech membrane. But by year's end, when all historic sites currently under renovation will be ready, a Ming Dynasty fertility temple will be visible in the Water Cube's shadow.

The Temple to Our Lady (Northern Summit) offers a 400-year-old hint at China's more distant past and the rich religious life of China's capital before the Communist Party took charge. "People came here to pray for sons or to recover from illness," says Ren You from the district cultural office, which has spent $1 million restoring the Taoist temple, used as a school since the 1949 revolution.

The temple will reopen next year as a museum for some of the 1,500 artifacts archaeologists unearthed from 700 ancient tombs found during construction of Olympic venues. They range from the jade belts of imperial eunuchs to snuff bottles, bronze mirrors and 2,000-year-old terracotta pots.

"Wherever you dig in Beijing, you find history," Ren says. The race to build quickly meant archaeologists could excavate less than 1% of the area surveyed, but Ren hopes "the temple will help introduce Chinese culture to the world."

American Shauna Liu also is bringing history to life. Tucked deep in the hutong (alley) that once housed court musicians, the former investment banker has converted a Ming Dynasty temple, also used as a school in recent times, into Beijing's first boutique hotel, the Côté Cour. Inspired by the riad hotels of Marrakesh (formerly ancient palaces and residences), Liu battled bureaucrats and won.

"It is so difficult to win permission to open a hotel, especially for foreigners, but I want my guests to have a chance to experience local life," Liu says. "The old magic of Beijing still survives." It's there right outside the hotel door, where old men offer bicycle and shoe repair, vegetable sellers and knife sharpeners pedal by, and neighbors gather to gossip in circles. But don't wait too long. "The hutong area will get smaller and smaller," Liu warns.

The smile on Lily Li's face breaks when the immigration officer considers the Olympic tourist deluge. "I feel lots of pressure in my work. We are here to serve the people. But next year there will be five times the normal flow of people. How do we keep them all happy?" Li asks.

The Miss Manners of the Beijing Olympics never drops her smile, despite tough battles to change and save the city's face. "We need more people to smile. I wish the whole of Beijing would smile more to welcome the world," says Zhang Huiguang, head of municipal etiquette campaigns. "We are making progress, and there's still a year to go, but we have a lot of work to do. Spitting and littering still happens."

While the government mobilizes the masses for an immaculate, completely scripted display next summer, some officials suggest China should feel confident enough to let the mask slip, at least a little.

"It's impossible for everything to be perfect in Beijing in 2008," says professor Ren Hai, director of the sports ministry's Olympic Studies Center. "I don't want the Olympics to just be a communist symbol. It should be a real introduction to China — good and bad."

via http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2007-08-30-beijing_N.htm

The lucky few: 1/21 chance for opening ceremony tickets

2007-08-27T07:24:00.000-07:00

Over 300,000 people across the Chinese mainland have managed to successfully reserve 1,593,345 tickets to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, including 26,000 tickets for the opening ceremony.

For ticket categories where demanded exceeded availability during the first phase of ticket sales, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) used a lottery system.

The ticket lottery included winners from all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities of the Chinese mainland, with 44% of the winners representing Beijing. The national lottery win rate was 4.7% for opening ceremony tickets and 15.1% for closing ceremony tickets.

The Beijing Olympic Ticketing Center received applications requesting 5.18 million tickets from 720,000 people across the Chinese mainland. The most popular request was for opening ceremony tickets, with only one winner for every 21 requests. For the closing ceremony, there was a one in seven chance of getting a ticket.

Book tickets for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

2007-08-27T07:23:00.001-07:00

More than 300,000 people across the Chinese mainland will soon be apprised that they have managed to book tickets for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) released the outcome of the first phase of its ticketing scheme on Thursday. As a result, the lottery winners of high demand tickets will be notified shortly.

The first phase of the Olympic ticket sales began on April 15, 2007 and ended at midnight, June 30, 2007. During this period, the Beijing Olympic ticketing center received more than 720,000 applications requesting 5.18 million tickets. Due to higher demand for some tickets, 72% of the 2.2 million tickets available to the public during Phase I were sold.

All 26,000 tickets for the opening ceremony available during the first phase were sold out, with only one lucky winner for every 21 applications. For the closing ceremony, 1/7 of the 172,219 applicants were lucky enough to get tickets. The top five most popular events based on ticket requests were basketball, diving, table tennis, football, and gymnastics.

To ensure the fairness of the sales procedure, for every event's ticket price category for which demand exceeded supply, a lottery system was used. Ticket lottery winners represent all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities of the Chinese mainland, with 44% of ticket lottery winners from Beijing.

Beijing residents accounted for 46% of the total Phase I ticket applications. A significant number of applications also came from Guangdong province, Shanghai, Hebei province, Jiangsu province, and Zhejiang province.

Two from Dorman to represent U.S. in China's Special Olympics summit

2007-08-27T06:57:00.000-07:00

Chris Rhodenbaugh and Rashad Richardson have a lot in common. Rashad, 16, is a sophomore at Dorman High School, while 18-year-old Chris is a 2007 graduate of the school. They both enjoy music, family and sports. And they both share a passion for the Special Olympics organization, which gives athletes with special needs a chance to compete with their peers.

The two teens now will have a unique chance to share their passion with millions around the world. They have been chosen members of the 2007 Special Olympics Global Youth Summit in Shanghai, China, from Oct. 2-11. The two young men, along with their adviser, Marsha Deal, will be the only team to represent the United States. They're also one of two teams representing North America. While in China, the trio will publish stories, blogs and Webinars to help people understand the strength of the special needs community.

"They're going to be representing the U.S. in this global group of young people that share many different things in common even though they're from different parts of the world," said Ron Vederman, director of organizational development with Special Olympics. "We hope our organization will form a bridge through acceptance, and through sport is how we show individuals what they can do."

Vederman said the Spartanburg team went through a competitive application and interview process. They were among about 15 teams to apply. In China, there will be teams from about 15 countries, and each team consists of one Special Olympics athlete and one non-disabled partner from the same school or community.

Rashad is a gymnast with Special Olympics. For the past eight years, he's honed his skills on the rings, pommel horse and bars. Chris, who began classes at the University of Notre Dame last week, began volunteering with the organization through his golf team at Dorman. The teens held a celebration at Fuddruckers last week, complete with family, friends and balloons to wish them well.

"I think I'm excited about being able to meet people from all over the world and come together with the same focus and same idea," Chris said.

Rashad said he's looking forward to meeting new people. And his mother, Laverne Pearson, said his confidence will get a boost because of this opportunity.

"I'm excited about the movement to include special needs people in everyday events in the world," said Deal, a special education teacher at Dorman with 29 years in the field. "And that's our goal: to inform the world that special needs people have hopes and dreams just like they do."

Rashad brought home several gymnastics medals from the 2003 World Games in Ireland. He will not compete in China; however, two other local athletes and a coach will. Darlene Wycuff and Jason Morrow are among four athletes from the state selected to compete. And Dorman golf coach Lewis Terry was selected to be one of eight assistant coaches for Team USA golf.

Wycuff, 55, will participate in the 100-meter walk and the softball throw. Morrow, 20, is a swimmer, skilled in the 50-meter butterfly, 25-meter butterfly and 100-meter freestyle.

"I'm looking forward to meeting new friends," said Morrow, whose mother taught him how to swim as a baby. A senior at Polk County High School in Columbus, N.C., Morrow is also excited that his family is traveling to China to cheer him on.

Wycuff has been involved with Special Olympics for years, having won ribbons in cheerleading, bowling and badminton. Her trip to China will be the first out of the country.

"I think it's great what they do for me," Wycuff said of the organization. "I think it's great I can learn to depend on myself and speak for myself in Special Olympics."

German Oympic Committee Praises Winter Olympics Proposal

2007-08-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

German Olympic Committee (DOSB) chief Thomas Bach has praised the concept behind Munich's proposed bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.

"I rate this a very convincing and compact concept," Bach said. "I am happy that the winter sports federations ratified it unanimously and that the decision was reached quickly."

The German winter sports federations agreed on Friday that a Munich bid would only involve three venues. Under the proposals, the city itself would stage ice events, Garmisch-Partenkirchen would offer snow sports and bobsleigh, while skeleton sledding and luge would take place at Königssee.

Having hosted the Summer Olympics in 1972 and now bidding for the Winter Olympics, Munich is hoping to become the first city to stage both prestigious events. Garmisch-Partenkirchen organized the only Winter Olympics so far in Germany in 1936.

Unique chance
"The German winter sports federations see Munich's bid as a unique chance and support it unanimously," said Alfons Hoermann, president of the German ski federation, after the meeting.

Traditional resorts such as Ruhpolding (biathlon), Inzell (speed skating) and Oberstdorf (nordic ski) were dropped from the concept, with Bach reiterating that "only a compact proposal has a chance."

The final DOSB decision on the Munich bid is set for early December. It has already ruled out a bid for summer games in the near future despite interest from Hamburg and Berlin.

Bavaria's state capital will reportedly have to spend up to 35 million euros ($48 million) if the DOSB approves its bid.

Vancouver is set to host the 2010 winter games and Sochi was last month elected to stage the event in 2014. The 2018 host city will be elected by the International Olympic Committee in four years' time.

It's not too early to plan for Beijing Olympics

2007-08-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

Although the 2008 Summer Olympics, being held Aug. 8-24 in Beijing, are still a full year away, making plans to attend the games has already come down to a roulette-like gamble of hurry-up-and-wait, with choices narrowing as time goes by.

The most important task is securing tickets, which can be difficult. Only a certain number of tickets are allocated to each country, and direct ticket-buying in each is only available to local residents. Unfortunately, June 30 was the cutoff date for entering the lottery to reserve the exact tickets you want. But there are other options if you're willing to compromise on price or on which events you attend.

Read more here: http://www.mercurynews.com/travel/ci_6663244

And visit very nice blog about Beijing Olympics

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Ireland's show-jumpers fail to qualify for Olympics

2007-08-17T02:32:00.000-07:00

Ireland's show-jumping team today lost its last chance of qualifying for the 2008 Olympics when it failed to stay in the top 10 after the first round of the team championship at Mannheim, Germany.

Dropping from overnight seventh to 13th overall at the end of today's competition means that the Irish squad will not go through to the second round of the team event tomorrow - only the best
10 teams take part.

This effectively finishes Ireland's chances of qualifying a team for the Beijing Olympics, as only a top three place at Mannheim amongst the teams not already qualified would have secured the slot.

Ireland's hopes sagged after the first two riders went out this morning - Cameron Hanley and Hippica Kerman accounted for 12 faults, while Marion Hughes and Heritage Transmission lowered three poles and added a time fault to finish on 13 faults.

Irish Independent Echo Beach and Cian O'Connor, drafted in on Tuesday from Fifth Man position, dropped their only fence of the championships to end on four faults, while Jessica Kurten and Castle Forbes Libertina also finished on four faults.

Today's faults were added to penalty points from Wednesday's speed competition to arrive at the final team score.

Jessica Kurten is now in 22nd position individually and Cian O'Connor 28th. The Individual European Championships finish on Sunday.

Equestrian Federation of Ireland (EFI) Chairman Charles Powell, commenting on today's failure to gain an Olympic team qualifying place, said: "I am disappointed for the team, but I am fully supportive of Team Manager Robert Splaine and the EFI Jumping Committee, who did their very best with the horsespower available to them."

Beijing Has Much Work to Finish Before the Olympics

2007-08-15T05:14:00.000-07:00

Beijing Has Much Work to Finish Before the Olympics
"We've seen the future after waiting year in, year out. We are all wet with sweat..."
With these lyrics a large crowd launched into a hearty rendition of the theme "We Are Ready" in Tiananmen Square on Wednesday evening, celebrating the one-year countdown to the Beijing Olympics. The people of China can barely contain their excitement as they watch their long dream come true, a full one hundred years after the Tianjin Youth Daily declared that China should host the Olympics in an editorial in 1908.

But Beijing is not the only Chinese city excited about an upcoming affair. People in cities across the country have been hard at work preparing for a wide assortment of international events.

Shanghai, the economic capital of China, is but one example. Recently Xi Jinping, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Han Zheng, mayor of Shanghai, cut a ribbon at a ceremony to start the 1,000 day countdown to the 2010 World Expo, slated to open May 1 of that year in Shanghai. A public relations tour is visiting a dozen nearby cities until Sept. 9, promoting the approaching expo.

Five Chinese cities -- Shanghai, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Tianjin and Chengdu -- are busy putting the finishing touches on facilities to host the FIFA Women's World Cup soccer tournament for three weeks from Sept. 10. Other cities are preparing for more international events: Hong Kong will host the 2009 East Asian Games, Harbin the 2009 Winter Universiade, Guangzhou the 2010 Asian Games, and Shenzhen the 2011 Summer Universiade.

Guangzhou's mayor Zhang Guangning recently declared an ambitious plan to transform his city into a modern eco-friendly urban area by building 1,900 km of new roads and 250 km of new subway lines.

It's easy to understand why China is devoting so much effort to hosting international events. China apparently believes it can earn triple rewards this way -- more revenues from tourism, direct and indirect development including infrastructure construction, and heightened civic spirit. The Beijing Olympics, for example, could turn out to be the most commercially successful games ever, as the organizing committee has already earned US$1.5 billion from sponsors and licensees. That's triple the amount collected by the Athens Olympics. Some say the World Expo could be just the boost Shanghai needs to realize its dream of becoming a global financial hub.

But the real question is whether these events can turn China into a responsible member of the international community. The final analysis isn't in yet, but currently skeptics are prevailing. To cite an example, with a year left before the Olympics, China has been cracking down on the freedom of the press and restricting human rights, according to international groups such as Reporters Sans Frontieres.

When China was chosen to host the Olympics in 2001, Beijing promised to clean up its filthy city air to WHO standards. But the pollution in downtown Beijing in June reached its worst level in seven years, running counter to international trends. And despite extensive government campaigns, many Chinese people haven't been able to give up some bad habits, including public spitting, littering and aggressive driving.

Interestingly, China has reportedly been studying the 1988 Seoul Olympics for ideas, on the grounds that the Seoul games were held under a military dictatorship and the event helped trigger South Korea's economic growth. But what China should pay more attention to is the fact that the 1988 Olympics served as the momentum for South Korea's move towards true democracy and acceptance of international norms of civilization. In that sense, China still has a long way to go before it can successfully host the Beijing Olympics and assorted other international events.

Government urged to fast-track immigration process of chefs in bid to avoid Olympics skills shortage

2007-08-15T05:00:00.001-07:00

by Greg Pitcher

Foreign chefs must be given the same immigration fast-track as Premiership footballers to stop the 2012 Olympic Games being blighted by a kitchen skills crisis, Gordon Brown has been told.

Sector skills council People 1st and trade body the British Hospitality Association (BHA) have sent a joint letter to the prime minister urging him to act immediately on the issue.

London mayor Ken Livingstone has already warned that increasing the standard of hospitality the capital offers visitors is crucial to their perception of the 2012 Olympics.

Four in 10 UK chefs do not possess a Level Two qualification – deemed to be the minimum needed to prepare food from scratch.

Brian Wisdom, chief executive of People 1st, said: “The government has known for some time that employers here are struggling to find highly skilled chefs.

“There is a certain irony in the fact that a sushi chef with 12 years’ training – who we really need in this country – gets denied entry, yet footballers from the same part of the world with less years’ training behind them take priority.”

BHA chief executive Bob Cotton added that high-quality Asian restaurants were struggling to find enough chefs locally and needed to look abroad.

“With our food tastes evolving, there is an urgent need for great chefs, and this will become even more of an issue with the influx of millions of tourists heading to London in advance of the Olympic Games,” he said.

London shares down midmorning, off lows, July inflation falls below 2 pct

2007-08-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

Leading shares remained weak midmorning but off lows as investors drew some comfort from July inflation news which showed the headline number fall back below the BoE target of 2 pct.

By 10.15 am, the FTSE 100 index was 14.7 points lower 6,204.3, with the FTSE 250 index was also recovering some of its earlier losses to trade 58.4 points lighter at 11,110.7.

Volume was fair, with 484 mln shares changing hands in 138,922 deals.

In economic news, inflation in the UK fell by the biggest amount in over five years during July, pushed down by falls in food prices and furniture, as well as utility and petrol costs and taking the key CPI rate below the Bank of England's target rate, official figures showed.

The Office for National Statistics said the annual CPI inflation rate slumped to 1.9 pct in July from 2.4 pct in June, well below analysts' forecasts for a decline to 2.2 pct and the steepest drop since May 2002.

This is the lowest CPI rate since March 2006 and is also the first time since that date that inflation has been below the 2.0 pct level that the Bank of England is charged with targeting.

The news is likely to diminish expectations for a further interest rate rise in the autumn, particularly in the light of the recent turmoil on financial markets.

Back among the blue chips, financials were weighing as ongoing credit concerns hit the banking and asset management sectors.

Inter-dealer broker Icap slipped 15 to 476, while Man Group slid 8 to 504.

Elsewhere, banks were lower after Credit Suisse advised its clients to stay away from the sector and backed up its concerns with a downgrade to Bradford & Bingley, off 12 pence at 417, and HBOS which eased 5 to 900.

Morrison also took a tumble, down 6 at 259, after issuing a warning of an e-coli outbreak in the Paisley area.

The outbreak was linked to sliced cold meat products at the delicatessen counters of its Lonend and Falside Road stores in Paisley, Scotland as the public health protection unit at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde started an investigating.

The move was precipitated after a 66-year-old woman died as a result of contracting the infection, while her husband remains seriously ill in hospital.

Sainsbury slipped 3 pence to 544-1/2, after it emerged the Qatari investment fund Delta Two which is targeting the UK supermarket group could reduce the debt proportion in its proposed 10.6 bln stg bid, according to a report in the Financial Times.

This move, said the newspaper, is an attempt to satisfy concerns that the supermarket group could withstand potential pressure on earnings from difficult trading conditions.

Philip Hampton, chairman of the UK's third-biggest supermarket chain, is expected to repeat demands for Qatari investment group Delta Two to restructure its offer proposal to include an additional 1 bln stg of equity when the two parties meet for a fifth time Wednesday, Thomson Financial News reported yesterday, citing city sources.

Sticking with M&A news, Royal Bank of Scotland bucked this morning's negative trend after a report in the Financial Times that the consortium led by the UK bank looking to buy ABN Amro has increased its stake in the Dutch bank to 3.25 pct. The move signals the group's determination to continue with its 71.1 bln eur bid for ABN.

There had been speculation that the consortium's takeover attempt could be undermined by tighter conditions in the credit markets, with concern centring on Fortis' debt-dependent contribution to the financing of the bid.

Lenders are currently demanding higher returns from all borrowers amid worries over a wave of defaults in the US sub-prime mortgage sector.

In broker driven news, BT Group rallied 3-1/4 to 311 after being upgraded to 'neutral' from 'underperform' at Credit Suisse, citing its cost cutting efforts and a slow take-up of full local loop unbundling in the UK.

Vodafone ticked up 1.3 to 159.6 as Germany's Federal Cartel Office said it had no objections to Vodafone, Telefonica's O2 and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile plans to set up a mobile television joint venture.

The companies plan to base the venture on the DVB-H standard mobile TV technology.

Elsewhere, Anglo American benefited after HSBC upped its rating to 'overweight' from 'neutral' and raised its price target to 3,350 pence, from 3,200 in the wake of the company's H1 results. The shares rose 31 to 2847.

In earnings news, InterContinental Hotels Group reversed opening falls after unveiling H1 earnings broadly in line with the markets' estimates and which highlighted that signings continue to run at record levels.

The company also raised its interim dividend by 12 pct to 5.7 pence from 5.1 pence. IHG's shares added 10 to 1,111.

Miners also reversed early losses as investors focused on firmer metal prices overnight and as early profit taking following yesterday's sharp gains petered out.

Antofagasta added 6 to 691, Vedanta took on 15 to 1,682 and Rio ticked up 8 to 3,228.

Turning to the second line, National Express Group gained 16 pence at 1,163, after winning the race for the UK's prestigious East Coast inter-city rail franchise, with a pledge to pay the government 1.4 bln stg over the life of the seven year deal.

National Express finance director Adam Walker said differences between the new contract and the previous deal, including a new timetable from 2010, 20 pct more capacity and potential boosts to demand such as the London 2012 Olympics, should help it avoid the problems that led to GNER's demise.

From www.hemscott.com

School 'Olympics' face growth spurt

2007-08-14T03:22:00.000-07:00

An increase from five to eight sports and a possible visit from Gordon Brown will further raise the bar of the second United Kingdom School Games when the four-day event opens in Coventry on Aug 23.

The Prime Minister, one of the event's most powerful supporters, first announced the Games in his 2006 Budget speech - he referred to it then as the 'Schools Olympics'. He is believed to be committed to pushing on with school sport development and grassroots sport investment for the next decade.

The sports programme for Coventry, in the wake of the inaugural event in Glasgow last September which was heralded as a great success, has seen an increase in sports. Badminton, volleyball and judo are added this year to swimming, athletics, table tennis, gymnastics and fencing. Table tennis joins athletics and swimming on the disability sport programme in Coventry.

Next year the UK School Games could branch out even further and add sports that do not feature in the Olympic, Commonwealth and Paralympic Games. There are many supporters of 'lifestyle' sports which are popular with youngsters. Arguments that skateboarding and BMX bike riding are not mainstream enough are facile: BMX has been included for the 2008 Games in Beijing and skateboarding is also being talked up as a possibility, too, for London in 2012.

Critics once said the same of snowboarding, but on vert ramps these days we are watching the scintillating skills of athletes in baggy clothes. Skateboarding is now one of the most visually spectacular events, both for television viewers and live spectators, at the Winter Olympic Games.

Street sports are already being organised in schools. Action Sports In Schools (ASIS), a non-profit sports coaching programme, has already been growing in schools over the past year. Just as dance and aerobics has become a popular activity for many teenage girls, so 'street sports' should also be included under the school sports umbrella.

The Youth Sport Trust, who run the Games on government funding, have established core themes underpinning the aims of the event and potential career pathways for teenagers in sport. They include developing the integration of Olympic and Paralympic themes, both with athletes and organisers; the experience of opening and closing ceremonies and life in an athlete village (this year at the Warwick University campus); volunteer training towards 2012 and beyond, and a change in the content, structure and presentation of competitive sporting opportunities.

All athletes will be accommodated on the campus, where they will experience the atmosphere of an Olympic village. The British Olympic Foundation are partners in the delivery of the Games, and are to provide first-hand experience of the Olympics to re-create a 'hub' which will become the 'melting pot' for 1,500 schoolchildren. Athletes will mix and learn about other sports. This year, 11 'athlete ambassadors', former and current Olympians, will live alongside the athletes.

Steve Grainger, the chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust, said: "Within England the UK School Games forms the apex of a pyramid of competitive sporting opportunities being promoted through school sport. The government announcement of July 13 committed additional funds to complete the roll-out of competition managers across all school sport partnerships from 2008.

"These competition managers will be key to implementing this enhanced competitive offer for young people. They will work closely with national governing bodies and local school sports federations to create pathways from high-quality intra-school competition." £2.3 million in National Lottery funding has been awarded to the Youth Sport Trust through the Big Lottery Fund to develop the UK School Games until 2011 and for the 2007 Games in Coventry.

• Visa is the presenting sponsor of the 2007 Games, which are also being supported by Coventry City Council.

• Tickets are available by phone on 0871 230 1080 or at www.ukschoolgames.com.

From www.telegraph.co.uk

Cuffy’s focused on London Olympics

2007-08-13T03:30:00.000-07:00

The moment a Cayman cricket coach set eyes on six–year–old Tyrell Cuffy at the Owen Roberts International Airport, he said: “That boy is destined to be a sprinter.”

And sure enough, 12 years later, he’s been proved right. Cuffy is one of the Caribbean’s fastest teenagers, on the verge of being world class at 18 with Olympic ambitions firmly in his sights. The cricket coach was Andy Myles, there to welcome Tyrell’s dad Theo to Grand Cayman from Trinidad to take up the position of cricket’s technical director. Cuffy is still in the post and Myles his assistant. Little Tyrell, however, has grown into a strapping six–footer, improving virtually every time he runs the 200 metres. “I could tell Tyrell was a sprinter even then because he walked on his toes, not the balls of his feet,” says Myles. “He had a very smooth, easy step, sort of glided.”

“Even at George Town Primary School his teacher, Mrs. Ebanks, spotted his sprinting talent,” says Theo. “He played cricket, captained the Under–15s and went on to play for the U–19s but then athletics took over.”

And how. Cuffy has just completed his first senior season, always a difficult one for aspiring champions used to being top dog as juniors. He fared well too, running fast enough at the Pan Am Junior Games in Sao Paulo to take silver in the 200m that qualified him for the senior tournament in Rio de Janeiro a few days after where he got to the semis. “Going to Rio was a great experience where I met professional athletes who gave me good advice,” Cuffy says. “I learned to always stay focused and they told me to do my school work and stay disciplined.”

Cuffy roomed with his Caymanian team mates high jumper Omar Wright and multi–disciplined thrower Michael Letterlough. “That was fun too. Omar is more a wise guy, who advised me to leave the girls alone for now and train hard. Michael has more of a business brain and talked about how to make the money.”

All three are the products of an intensive Cayman athletics programme headed by coach Kenrick Williams, who is churning out high quality competitors with production–line precision. “Kenrick is the best,” says Cuffy. “I’ve been with him since I was eight and still keep in touch with him now I’m at college. He believes that if he can get you to the level of the Cafita Games then you are destined to make it.”

Cuffy’s closest sprinting pal is Kemar Hyman, a 17–year–old Caymanian who is also emerging as one to watch. “I also like training with Stephon Johnson. He’s the perfect role model. He sits you down and gives good advice. The twins Carl and Carlos Morgan (Caymanian athletes studying in American colleges) have just emailed me to say they’re training hard and coming after me in the 200m next year, so watch out. I’m looking forward to it. I love the competition.”

Established Caymanian athletes Kareem Streete–Thompson and Cydonie Mothersill are also great sources of inspiration for Cuffy.

A business administration student at King College in Bristol, Tennessee, Cuffy enjoys the small campus atmosphere and competing in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics league. Offers have come to move to larger colleges where he can run in more competitive Division One meets. But he’s happy with the parochial life there for now.

“I’m settled there with my coaches Johnny Bomar and Tom Murrell who are trying to improve my endurance by running occasional 400m relay. Studying always takes precedence though. Classes in the morning, I train at 3pm then back to my books in the evening.”

He adds with a big smile: “I’m not much of a party guy,” but does admit to having “a couple of girlfriends”.

With a degree firmly on his resume in three years’ time, Cuffy is coming back to Cayman with the intention of being a full–time sprinter. “My ultimate dream is the Olympics. I came this close to qualify for Beijing next year in the 200m with a time of 20.83 seconds when the qualifier is 20.75 so I hope to get that time next year.”

By then he’ll be bigger, stronger and better equipped for the rigours of the event. His size and shape lends itself more to the longer sprint than the 100m. “The way I run, the strides, I’m told I don’t have the ‘quick twitch’ action you need to be really good at 100m, but I am improving.” He’s still run a respectable 10.39secs.

Cuffy wants to emulate Jamaica’s world–record holder Asafa Powell. “That guy is unbelievable. He’s my idol. I’ll be rooting for him at the World Championships in two weeks’ time. I’ve met him in Jamaica and shook his hands. Nice guy.”

Cuffy hopes to compete in Beijing for the experience with a goal of reigning supreme at the London Olympics in 2012. “I’ve only passed through London as a sprinter but I’d love to visit there. Dad talks about it all the time.”

Tyrell believes he can reach Olympic medal status without illegal drugs. “I haven’t been offered any drugs and definitely wouldn’t take them anyway to be the best. I’d say about 80 per cent of athletes are clean. I run for the love of it, the money’s just a bonus. I could never take them because if you get caught you get a bad name and a bad rep. When Justin Gatlin got caught I threw all his images away. At least I know Asafa is clean.”

A wholesome family lifestyle is something he enjoys with his dad, mum, Sandra and sister Trisha, 20. They live in Newlands and still take family breaks together. “I was in Cayman Brac with my family last week and had so much conch. Mum wants me to take some back to college and freeze it. There’s no need to go that far!

“We’re very close. I talk to dad every day from college and mum is always encouraging me and keeping me motivated.

“My first month at college was tough. I was very homesick so when I came home for a week’s spring break it was great to go out with Trisha. We had a blast.”

As Theo was an outstanding cricketer, Tyrell obviously inherited his sporting genes. “Dad told me he used to run when he was younger, I can’t believe that.”

Bristling with pride, Theo says: “Tyrell knows how I feel about smoking and drugs and thankfully he doesn’t indulge. He gets a high from music. He doesn’t really love fast food, more his mother’s cooking.

“He’s recording excellent times for an 18–year–old and will be maturing in the next few years. I have high hopes for him. He’s set his goals, let’s see how he works towards it. Only the almighty determines that. He has a good coach in Tom Murrell who is like a father figure. Tyrell is a good product of Cayman and I hope he can be a lesson for all youngsters to show what can happen if you work hard. I want him to shoot for the stars but keep his feet firmly on the ground.”

Wildlife finds new homes away from Olympic Park as construction accelerates on site

2007-08-10T08:31:00.000-07:00

LONDON: Newts, toads, fish and other wildlife are being relocated from a run-down site in east London to make way for the main complex for the 2012 Olympics.

Although much of the 2.5-square-kilometer (1-square-mile) site has previously been used for industrial purposes, its wetlands and waterways are the natural habitats of several different species that organizers want to protect as construction accelerates on the Olympic Park.

"A great deal of work is being done to ensure that we minimize any disruption to existing habitats and protect the wildlife on the site," Olympic Delivery Authority chief executive David Higgins said Thursday.

Almost 2,000 newts and hundreds of toads have already been relocated into specially constructed ponds.

Aquatic experts have used "electrofishing" — a process that temporarily stuns fish and makes them float to the surface — in the Pudding Mill River that runs through the site. They moved their catch of eels and pike into the cleaner water of the River Lea, a few hundred meters (yards) away.

Olympics all work and no pay for migrant workers

2007-08-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

The cheap toil of 30,000 construction labourers is being used to build dozens of stadiums and other venues on time

BEIJING — As he hauls heavy bags of sand to the perfectly groomed grounds of Beijing's new beach-volleyball stadium, Wang Hongjian knows he will never have a chance to see the bikini-clad athletes who will play here during the Olympics next summer.

Beads of sweat are dripping from his forehead as he toils under the blazing sun of the Beijing summer. He works for 10 hours a day, seven days a week, earning a meagre salary of $120 a month.

The 53-year-old migrant worker from Henan province is housed in a crowded dormitory, 15 workers in each room, without air conditioning or even a fan.

By mid-day, the suffocating heat can climb to 40 degrees. If he gets thirsty while he works, he has to pay for his own bottles of water.

Asked whether he might be able to afford a ticket for any of the Olympic events, he shakes his head sadly. Tickets for some events will be as cheap as $10 or $15. But for the thousands of construction workers whose sweat and muscle are building the Beijing Olympics, a ticket to the Olympics is a dream beyond reach.

"We can't afford it," Mr. Wang says. "Just to travel from our hometown to Beijing would cost more than 100 yuan ($14 Canadian). It's too expensive for us."

About 30,000 construction workers, mostly migrants from villages and rural regions, are building the dozens of stadiums and other venues for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Their cheap labour is one of the main reasons for China's rapid readiness for the Olympics. Almost all of the venues will be built and tested by the end of this year, more than seven months ahead of the opening ceremonies.

For most of the construction workers, the Olympic projects are just another job. Most of them earn only $4 a day. They often work from 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., then from 1:30 p.m. to 6:30 or 7 p.m. Most are required to pay for their own meals, which consume as much as a third of their income. Almost all of them lack any health insurance or insurance against injuries or death, even though China has the highest rate of fatal occupational accidents in the world.

In one of the few concessions to the stifling summer heat, some Olympic workers are given daily rations of green-bean soup, which is traditionally believed in Chinese herbal medicine to have cooling properties.

Some workers are paid monthly, but many will have to wait until the end of the year. In a few cases, local subcontractors have failed to pay anything at all, skipping out on their obligations with the knowledge the workers are powerless to do anything about it.

Wang Yuelou, a 40-year-old migrant worker from Hebei province, has been working as an electrician at the new Olympic badminton gym. His employer has promised to pay him at the end of the year. In the meantime, he can apply for 200 yuan (about $24) in "pocket money" from his employer every month, but he says it is not enough for his daily expenses.

Even his year-end-salary payment is not guaranteed. He's had some employers in the past who cheated him, refusing to pay his full wages on the pretext that the construction project was not as profitable as expected.

"We do have a contract with our boss, but it's just for him to show the labour inspectors," Mr. Wang said. "We don't even see the contract. It's in the hands of our boss."

Migrant workers are routinely exploited by employers who delay their wages or refuse to pay them. As of last year, Chinese migrants were owed more than $14-billion in unpaid wages by their employers, according to official numbers. Surveys have suggested about a quarter of the 200 million migrant workers in China are owed back wages, including about 800,000 migrants in Beijing.

Mr. Wang said he would love to see the Olympics, but he knows it isn't likely. He hopes, instead, for a piece of paper from the government to document his role in constructing an Olympic site. "Being a migrant worker is a very tough job," he says.

A propaganda banner at the construction site makes his obligations clear. "Abide by the regulations and construct a harmonious society," the banner tells the migrant workers. "Establish a masterpiece and dedicate yourself to the Olympics."

At the new Olympic velodrome in Beijing, two migrants named Hou and Wang are building the cement stairs for the parking lot. They are under the impression migrants will be prevented from entering Beijing during the Olympics next year, something Beijing has denied.

Told they are legally allowed to buy tickets for the Olympics, they just laugh and shake their heads at the cost of it.

via: theglobeandmail.com

Beijing Olympics: Pirated goods on sale

2007-08-06T03:14:00.000-07:00

Almost one year ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games, Chinese authorities have vowed to do their utmost to crackdown on counterfeit Olympics merchandise.

The famous silk street market in Beijing is already selling official Olympics merchandise including clothing, shoes, handicrafts and dolls for a fraction of what they would cost in most other countries.

However, fake Olympic goods are also already being sold at underground stations and other popular sites in Beijing.

Olympic officials and local authorities are promising a strong crackdown.

"The Olympics souvenirs can only be sold in authorised stores. We will crackdown on fake products, no matter if they are sold in stands, streets or department stores," said Jiang Guohong, Department Chief of the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce, on June 12.

Deputy Director of the Publicity Bureau for Beijing's Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG), Wang Hui, said the committee's position on piracy was clear.

"BOCOG's position on IPR (intellectual property rights) is consistent and clear. We are strongly determined to protect the property rights of the Beijing Olympics. We strongly support actions to crackdown on piracy," he said.

The Beijing security bureau keeps a collection of counterfeit items from their seizures, with products ranging from whiskey and tobacco to name brand clothing and watches.

Officials say that more and more of their seizures now include fake Olympic goods. Caps and t-shirts are easy to copy, but the mascot dolls have been on top of the list of seizures in recent months.

The Beijing Olympic Committee plans to set up more officially-licensed stores, thinking that if official items are more readily available then people will be less likely to buy pirated goods.

The merchandise at official stores is two to three times more expensive than the fakes, so some consumers may still tempted to buy non-official items.

People appeared to have mixed views in Beijing on whether counterfeit merchandise should be available to buyers.

Some Chinese residents are angry with those involved in pirating goods, worrying that they may damage China's image.

"The Olympics are a grand event involving a lot of countries in the world. Fake products are not good for the image of Beijing during the Olympics," said Ms. Wang, a Beijing resident, on Friday.

However, one British tourist said he was not concerned about the prevalence of pirated goods.

"You've got a building full of fake products here, so what are you going to do? Put a lot of people out of business I suppose," said Jeff Downs, a British tourist.

About 550-thousand foreigners are expected to travel to China to watch the Olympics, starting on 8 August 2008, as well as an estimated 22-thousand journalists.

London 2012 roadshow

2007-08-03T04:55:00.001-07:00

CHESTER is to get its first taste of the Olympics this week when the London 2012 roadshow comes to town.

Sporting celebrities including Beth Tweddle will be appearing alongside aspiring Olympians from all over Cheshire this Sunday (5th August) as part of a campaign by organisers of the London 2012 games to get more local people involved in sport.
The roadshow was due to be staged at the Roodee as part of Chester Races Family Fun Day but has been relocated due to wet ground conditions. The racing fixture remains unaffected.
There will be opportunities for visitors to try a wide range of sports during a five-hour spectacular outside Chester Town Hall.

Beijing Olympics 2008: India refuses permission to Tibetans protesting Beijing Olympics

2007-08-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

Tibetan exiles on Thursday accused the Indian government of caving in to pressure from China by refusing to allow them to use an official stadium to stage a symbolic protest against the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

The activists have planned a series of protests against Chinese rule in Tibet and launched a campaign to have Tibetan representation at the Beijing Olympics despite China's insistence that Tibet is an integral part of China.

The Tibetans had planned a soccer match at New Delhi's biggest stadium that they said would have attracted thousands of refugees and protesters.

Indian officials refused them permission to play at the government-run Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium "directly or indirectly due to pressure from the Chinese government," said B. Tsering, president of the Tibetan Women's Association.

"If China can force India, the biggest democratic nation, to compromise on its democratic values, then China's misuse of power is a real cause of concern for the global community," said Tsering.

A spokesman for India's foreign ministry declined to comment.

Tsering said that the organizers had found an alternative venue in New Delhi but she was unsure whether the Indian team would be allowed to participate.

"Everything is uncertain now," she said, although activists were "determined to hold this match."

China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially an independent state for most of that time. Chinese communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951 and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand.

India has been generally supportive of the Tibetan exiles after their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled there in 1959 after a failed uprising, settling in the northern town of Dharmsala.

However, India and China have attempted to strengthen their once-shaky ties in recent years as both Asian giants emerge as significant global powers.

Last year India banned several Tibetan protests during the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao, saying they did not want to embarrass their guest.

Most Tibetans say China has attempted to destroy Tibetan Buddhist culture by flooding Tibet with China's ethnic Han majority.

Beijing 2008 Olympics IT testing underway

2007-08-02T01:21:00.000-07:00

Tests on the IT infrastructure behind the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games begins this month, a full year before the event opens on 8 August 2008.

The systems architecture for Beijing 2008 was finalised last month by the main IT supplier for the Games, Atos Origin, and all the facilities - a PC factory, data centre, integration lab and technology operation centre - are now operational.

An IT team of around 3,500 people, which includes 2,500 volunteers, will be responsible for 10,000 PCs, 1,000 servers, a Games information system and an information diffusion system across seven cities.

Guillaume Huard, sales and marketing director for Olympics and major events at Atos Origin, said: "You have one chance to get it right. There is no second chance. Testing is a big component. You don't want to affect the competition in any way. The testing is intense and takes more than a year."

The testing will include a run-through of 500 possible worst-case scenarios rehearsing every situation that could go wrong, including virus infections and cables being cut but Huard said the biggest threat is still an internal one.

He said: "We have had people trying to print their own accreditation badges, or trying to find their way around the network when they shouldn't."

To minimise this risk all the Olympic volunteers - IT and non-IT - go through rigorous police background checks. In Beijing there will be a total of 70,000 volunteers, filtered down from around five million applications.

But such is the reliability required for the Olympic Games there is little new or cutting-edge technology used.

Huard said: "You have to freeze your solution quite a long time before the event. We are not going for cutting-edge and bleeding-edge technology. It has to be mature, proven, tested technology. You can't take that risk at the Olympics."

There are currently 100 IT staff in Beijing, three-quarters of who are Chinese, and testing begins this month for the IT supporting 12 Olympics events in 11 different venues. Work on the IT infrastructure for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics is already underway and work on the London 2012 IT systems will begin after Beijing, in November 2008.

Despite the IT skills shortage in the UK, Huard said there will be no shortage of people for the thousands of volunteers needed in London.

He said: "The Olympics only happens through the help of volunteers. I don't think we will have a problem finding people for London. The attraction of the Olympics is such that people take leave from their jobs. It's a great thing on a CV."

China downplays medal chances in the 2008 Olympics

2007-08-01T07:08:00.000-07:00

BEIJING: China is downplaying its chance of overtaking the United States as the top gold-medal winning team in the 2008 Olympics.

Cui Dalin, the deputy minister of Sport, told a news conference Wednesday that China still trailed the United States and Russia as an Olympic power.

Dalin, who is also vice chairman of the Chinese Olympic Committee, said China faced challenges in sports in which it has usually done well, and could suffer from the pressure of competing at home.

Evidence from recent Olympics shows that the host nation has an advantage — not a disadvantage.

He further downplayed China's chances, saying it was more likely to be competing with countries like Japan, Germany, Australia and France in the second tier of Olympic powers.

Kenya-based Cleveland Forde eyes Beijing Olympics, London Games

2007-08-01T04:04:00.000-07:00

National men's 5000-metre record holder Cleveland Forde has his eyes set on representing Guyana at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and setting a standard for the 2012 London Games.

"I'm just looking at making the qualifying time for the Beijing Olympics next year and setting a standard that even if I don't win a medal there (Beijing), I hope to just make the standard for the 2012 Olympics in England," the 22-year-old told Stabroek Sport in an exclusive interview.

The Kenya-based athlete, who is currently benefiting from an Olympic Solidarity-funded scholarship leading up to the 2008 Olympics, said when the current scholarship was up, he hoped the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) would see it fit to secure another scholarship for him that would lead up to the 2012 London Games.

"After Beijing, I hope the GOA might see it fit to get me another scholarship. What they (GOA) have done for me so far has really helped me. I wanted to get to world standard and I'm going to try and make the Beijing qualifying time so that I can represent Guyana to get the recognition it deserves," Forde stressed.

The Mabaruma (Region One) born son of the soil who has been at the Kip Keino High Altitude Training Centre in Kenya for over two years, said training at the world famous facility had boosted his career despite his poor showing at the just-concluded 15th Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"I was not too well in Rio and I hope the GOA understands what went on. There were GOA executives there and they knew that I was not well, so I hope they understand.

"My performance at the Pan Am was not so good at all and not as close to what I'm capable of, but that's how it is sometimes.

"Yes I'm disappointed, but I have to find a way to move forward," he added.

Forde placed 11th of 13 runners in the men's 5000-metre event and 10th of 11 competitors in the men's 10,000-metre race.

Asked what he would do if the GOA were unsuccessful in securing a further four-year scholarship for him, Forde replied: "My plans after 2008, if I don't get another scholarship through the GOA, I will have to adapt to the situation and hope to be flexible, probably work in Guyana."

Asked what his training programme had been like since arriving in Kenya more than two years ago, Forde said he trains once per day (three hours) six days per week and does fortlex (run probably two minutes rest one minute continuously). He explained that his coach would usually give him a programme for the week to work with which inspires him to look forward to the next day's schedule.

"Coach Simba (Kenyan) has been great and though he never represented Kenya he has turned out world class athletes.

"I think his coaching is great, his philosophy and his approach to the job are excellent. He keeps stressing that discipline and patience are the keys to success. He tells you don't try to push things to happen, let it flow. If you try to push, you come down as fast or even faster than you got there and I have learnt that discipline is a way of life. If he says rest and you want to party you will go nowhere. Rest is a part of the training."

Asked how he has adapted to the food in Kenya, the national men's 1500-metre and South American 5000-metre medalist said getting accustomed to the food at first was a bit difficult and he resorted to eating bread alone, but in the long run he had to get used to eating what was served.

"I made up my mind and got used to it, and now I can handle the food. Sometimes sour milk which they call Maziwa Laha or sleeping milk. They say it gives the stomach work to clean you out."

He said since he had been there, he had not only been working on his athletic career, but his academic career as well.

"My first year there was just like grooving into the way of life in Kenya and their methods of training and competition and during the second year I got used to their culture and started to speak the language while training."

In 2005 Forde began an academic programme in management of information systems which he explained had to do with computer information (computer science).

"I started this course in July 2005 and did my first exams in June 2006. I got passes in all the subject areas but in December last year I failed two tests and did them over this year and am hoping for passes when the results come out next month.

"When I failed, I had underestimated the exams, I took them for granted and paid the price, but now I'm more serious."

Forde expressed his gratitude to coach Simba, who he said had been great to him. "He explained certain things in life and I listened to him attentively and am still learning. I would also like to thank coach Joseph N'June for his patience and understanding and most importantly the GOA and all other locals who have contributed in some way or the other to the little success that I have achieved to date."

Olympic contingency at risk from building cost inflation

2007-07-31T09:57:00.000-07:00

Despite the thorough way in which the latest London Olympics Budget was prepared, cost uncertainties are still reflected in the £2.7 billion contingency allowance in £9.3 billion public funding.
This is the principal finding of the U.K. National Audit Office in its otherwise favourable analysis of the budget for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games produced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport earlier this year.

The £9.3 billion figure, upper limit on public funding for the Games, is some £5.3 billion greater than the estimate in gross terms at the time of London’s bid. These estimates did not include the cost of the Olympic Village which is expected to be funded largely by the private sector.

As the audit report indicates, the main area of uncertainty is the impact of construction price inflation. Much will also depend on the level of funding secured from the private sector for building the Olympic Park.

“Significant areas of uncertainty remain”, it says, “such as the finalisation of detailed design specifications, the legacy benefits to be delivered, how potential suppliers will respond to invitations to bid for work, and the impact of inflation on construction prices, as reflected in the high level of contingency that has been provided for.”

In view of the tendency for major project costs to be under-estimated, the budget for the Games includes a contingency sum equivalent to some 30 per cent of the current budget. Use of this provision, currently set at £2.747 billion, is to be refined by the delivery authority as individual projects go forward.

By realistically reflecting the risk of additional costs, says the audit report, a risk based contingency should provide a better basis for effective cost control.

“It is however important to recognise that the Games budget is just that – a budget and not a target.

“Whilst effective risk management is essential, it is also important to seek opportunities where possible to manage within the available resources, including the contingency if used, for example by providing where appropriate suitable incentives for suppliers to come within the target cost for individual projects.”

Within the actions required to manage risk, the audit office has identified three needs which it says require particular attention now:

A clear statement of the key deliverables expected in return for £9 billion public funding, making clear time, cost and quality assumptions
More robust estimates of contingency to reflect the special risks associated with particular elements of the programme
A cash flow analysis to ensure that the ODA has money available and is not delayed in taking forward its delivery programme.
The Olympic budget includes expected funding from the National Lottery now set at £2.175 billion, of which some £750 million should be contributed by designated Olympic lottery games. This will however entail some loss of sales revenue for mainstream games currently supported by the lottery.

According to the audit report, this will be offset by a share in the expected profits from the sale of land in the Olympic Park when the Games are over. These profits, held by the London Development Agency, are to be shared with the Government, which in June expected to recoup for the lottery an estimated £675 million.

Olympics: Just five years to go!

2007-07-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

THE five years left to go to the spectacular Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games was celebrated when more than two hundred and five people working on the project came together on the site of the Olympic Village in Stratford to mark the moment.

They represented the 205 nations who will take part in the 'greatest sporting show on earth' in 2012.

Also as part of the milestone London 2012 hosted the inaugural Pierre de Coubertin Lecture in conjunction with the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce and the British Olympic Foundation.

Today is exactly five years until the Olympic torch is lit in the 2012 Games stadium in Newham.

East London 'gold' for Olympic investors

2007-07-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

The average house price in London has broken through the £300,000 barrier, with no signs of property price growth letting up significantly in the near future. But for the savvy investor who wants to buy property in the capital, the question is clear: where in the capital will they see the best return on their investment?

Some have suggested the central London market is still offering significant potential for gains, particularly for buy-to-let investors hoping to cash in on ever-high demand as well as rising rents.

Others believe that no matter where in the capital you buy, you are likely to experience success. However, depending on when an investor is hoping to see maximum returns, the various possibilities in London could yield results that are more successful for some and less so for others.

With the Olympics heading for the capital in 2012, it has been suggested that east London will see a surge in investment potential as the area is developed and regenerated in anticipation of the global sporting event.

However, the buy-to-let investor hoping to see short to medium-term results might be better off steering clear of the Stratford area for the time being, one expert has suggested. According to the director of research at property firm Hometrack, Richard Donnell, investment in east London will experience the best growth in the long-term.

"It's all about what return you want really," he commented, adding that property buyers are likely to benefit from buying east London property if they are "happy to take a long-term view".

He explained that east London property has the potential to outperform house price growth in the rest of the capital. "If house prices rise in line with earning over the next ten years, parts of east London have got a reasonable chance of outperforming the long run average for London property prices," Mr Donnell commented.

The regeneration of east London will include the development of Stratford, which will see a new retail development and improved transport links as part of regeneration work in the Olympic Village. Some 9,000 new homes are also expected to be built in the area.

"The whole broad area around Stratford and the Olympic village will benefit from economic regeneration," commented Mr Donnell. However, he added that predicting the movement of house prices in the area is "another issue", as the Olympic site is "quite disconnected" from adjacent housing markets. "Investments will have a beneficial impact on the housing market but there is only so high house prices can go," he added.

Halifax Estate Agents reported earlier this year that by February, house prices in the three postal districts closest to the Olympic village had experienced 15 per cent house price growth since the announcement of the capital's winning bid.

And its report predicted more growth for east London, saying that historically, host cities have seen house prices increase at a rate higher than the national average in the five years running up to the event.

The last four host cities – Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Athens – averaged 66 per cent of annual house price growth in the five-year period preceding the Games.

And with five years to go until London 2012, property investors with a long-term outlook could be getting gold by heading east.

Britain to consider criminalizing doping in sports

2007-07-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

LONDON: Britain may consider imposing criminal sanctions for doping before the 2012 London Olympics.

The issue will be the focus of an anti-doping commission set up Tuesday by the British Olympic Association in the first major review of drug-testing rules in Britain.

The six-member panel will also examine the rule, introduced in 1992, that automatically bans any British athlete who has a drug offense from competing in any future Olympics.

Creation of an independent anti-doping agency, along the lines of bodies set up in the United States and Australia, will also be considered.

BOA chairman Colin Moynihan said criminalizing doping for athletes and suppliers was a delicate issue.

"You would need to introduce legislation that in practice deters those around the athlete who are actively involved in the doping scandal," Moynihan said. "Getting that right in legislation has been a challenge for a number of countries that have implemented it."

Italy, France and Spain are among countries with criminal anti-doping laws.

Foreign athletes training or competing in Britain would also be subject to any criminal charges.

Several European countries have passed laws in the past two years to criminalize doping in sports.

British cyclist David Millar faced a court case in France after testing positive for the banned blood-boosting hormone EPO, and Italian police raided the Austrian cross-country and biathlon team lodgings at the 2006 Turin Olympics in search of doping substances.

Spain introduced criminal legislation for doping in February following the Operation Puerto blood doping investigation. In Germany, legislation was proposed in March for tougher penalties for trafficking in performance-enhancing drugs.

The British commission is made up of the BOA and London 2012's chief medical officer, Richard Budgett; 2000 Olympics modern pentathlon champion Steph Cook; British Cycling Federation president Brian Cookson; International Olympic Committee member Craig Reedie; medical adviser to the Lawn Tennis Association Michael Turner, and lawyer Charles Flint.

Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of the IOC's medical commission, will be a senior adviser.

"Doping is unacceptable, a social crime," Ljungqvist said in The Times of London on Tuesday. "A coming host of an Olympic Games should show a good example here."

UK Sport, which currently oversees drug testing and punishment in Britain, had a mixed reaction to the creation of the BOA panel.

"Until there is greater clarity on the commission's purpose, therefore, it is difficult to see what value it is going to add over the next year and at a time when the UK system is already under close scrutiny," UK Sport chief executive John Steele said.

"The last thing British sport needs as we build up to Beijing 2008 and London 2012 is distraction, confusion about roles and duplication of effort."

London 2012 bolsters Olympics management team

2007-07-25T10:52:00.000-07:00

The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (Locog) has made five senior appointments to ramp up its management team five years ahead of the city hosting the 2012 games. Ty Speer has been appointed client services director with responsibility for handling sponsors. He joins with 15 years experience in the sports marketing industry and has worked for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Speer will report into commercial director Chris Townsend.

Mike Gibbons joins Locog from the BBC and takes up the post head of live sites and UK coordination. He will be responsible for developing the live sites concept around the country, a key part of Lloyds TSB's sponsorship deal.

Martin Green who organised the launch of the 02 complex in Greenwich has taken up the role of head of ceremonies, which includes organising the opening and closing ceremonies of the event. Both posts report to Bill Morris, director of culture, ceremonies and education.

Sue Hunt takes on the role of director of strategy and programme management, reporting to chief executive Paul Deighton, while Punita Gajree has been named head of programme solutions, working alongside Hunt.

K2 bidding to bring the Olympics to Crawley

2007-07-25T08:16:00.000-07:00

K2 bidding to bring the Olympics to Crawley

IMAGINE this. It's the year 2012, you walk into K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley to use the fitness suite and in front of you at reception stand a group of tall, tanned athletic-looking people in green tracksuits.

Their accents betray their origins. It's the Australian national swimming squad. Seems unusual, but becomes less so as you walk around the building.

In the gymnasium, the Chinese gymnastics squad are spinning and vaulting over the apparatus. Out on the athletics track, Great Britain's 4x100m relay team are practising their changeovers and in the sports hall the Canadian basketball team are engrossed in a tough training session.

It sounds like fantasy but this vision could become reality in the year of the London Olympic Games if K2's centre manager Steve Warriner gets his way.

Thousands of athletes will travel to Britain for the Games in five years' time and all of them will need somewhere to acclimatise and blow out the cobwebs to arrive at their respective competitions in peak condition.

Warriner believes the state-of-theart facilities at K2 can persuade the world's most talented sports-people to choose Crawley for their final Olympic preparations.

"I would say to them, come with me and I'll show you round,"he says. "I'd let the place speak for itself. I don't think you can say anything which does the place justice unless you have seen it.

"For me, there are a number of 'wow' factors at K2. There is the pool hall, the size of the main sports hall, which is immense, and the climbing wall which is a massive feature of the building. You see these things and think, 'I want to come and use this place'."

He speaks the truth. Last year a whopping 1.2 million visitors passed through the K2 turnstiles, roughly double the annual tally for the old Crawley Leisure Centre.

It is easy to see why this modern facility has been such a hit with the local community.

It includes an eight-lane floodlit athletics track with grandstand, an Olympic sized swimming pool with diving and play areas, a fitness suite, five squash courts, an indoor bowls rink, a climbing wall, a gymnastics hall, a martial arts room, conference facilities and a vast main sports hall that contains 12 bad minton courts.

Including all the improvements to surrounding roads and local transport infrastructure, the whole project cost a cool £37 million but looking around you can't help but feel that Crawley Borough Council have got their money's worth.

For that price, K2 had to be well used and it is - thanks to links established with local schools and sports teams as well as those from further afield.

The gymnastics arena is leased to the Hawth Gymnastics club while the climbing wall is also leased out to a private enterprise. In addition, Thomas Bennett Community College have an agreement with K2 enabling their students to use part of the sports hall, the all weather pitches, the tennis courts and aerobics studios as part of their PE curriculum.

Crawley Athletics and Swimming clubs also use the track as a strong candidate to become an Olympic training venue.

It has staged a European boxing event, the British Judo Championships, international Thai double application for it to become a training venue for teams in the 2012 Olympics.

One application has been made by K2 on its own and another as part of the Gatwick Diamond consortium of sports venues. Both bids have gone to the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) and a decision is due to be made on which venues will be given training ground status in January 2008.

The Gatwick Diamond group is a boxing, an U19 national badminton tournament, the table tennis national grand prix and IAPS swimming galas.

And on August 16 and 17 this year, basketball fans will have a chance to see NBA star Luol Deng in action at K2 when the Great Britain basketball team play two matches against Ireland as they warm up for qualification for London 2012.

Such events, Warriner believes, are a sign that the country and wider world are now aware of what Crawley has to offer in a sporting sense.

"The old Crawley Leisure Centre was well known on a regional scale but K2 has taken that onto the next level," he says.

"It has raised Crawley's profile and people are coming to talk to us in terms of hosting national events. But for some people it is not about K2 hosting the world karate championships, it's about whether they can come and use the facility."

K2's growing reputation as a first-class sports venue has provided a platform for Warriner to make a Sussex collection of sports venues comprising K2, Christ's Hospital School and Bluecoat Sports Club, East Grinstead Sports Club, Olympos Burgess Hill, the showjumping course at Hickstead and the Nivea Sun Yellowave Venue in Brighton.

In June a series of sporting events were staged to showcase each venue including the regional judo championships at K2, and Warriner feels the watching VIPs would have been impressed with what they saw.

"I think they would have seen that the facilities are big enough to cope with large scale activities," he says.

"But the facility we have can cater for so many different sports and so it gives us so many options. That's the positive thing.

"We have a good diversity of facilities so for us, between now and Beijing, it's about holding good events and truly quality products.

"We are in a good position in that we have applied and our facilities are up and running whereas other applicants have applied when their facilities are still being built.

Olympic VeloPark to Live on Well After 2012

2007-07-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

Olympic VeloPark to Live on Well After 2012

The VeloPark to be based in the north of the Olympic Park, will include a 6,000 seat Velodrome to host the Olympic and Paralympic indoor track cycling events as well as a BMX circuit for Olympic events (below).

Interior of the proposed VeloPark.
After the Games, the BMX circuit will be repositioned next to the Velodrome with a road cycle circuit and mountain bike course added to create a legacy VeloPark that will combine cycling facilities across all disciplines in one cycling ‘hub’, linked into cycle routes across London.

The design competition was judged by leading names from the world of architecture and design as well as Olympic Gold medal-winning cyclist Chris Hoy.

The winning design consortium is made up of:

-Hopkins Architects
-Expedition Engineering
-BDSP
-Grant Associates

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) also released very early concept images to demonstrate the design team’s vision behind the winning bid. More detailed work will now be carried out with the ODA over the coming months.

Jennie Price, Chief Executive of Sport England said:

“The huge crowds watching the Tour de France in London show that there is a real appetite for cycling in this country. At Sport England, we want to build on this enthusiasm by turning spectators into participants so last weeks announcement on the Velodrome is very welcome.

“We are delighted to be working with the appointed design team and the ODA to deliver an Olympic venue we can be proud of. We also need to make sure the Velodrome is used after 2012 to get local communities involved in cycling.”

David Higgins, Chief Executive of the ODA said:

“The winning team impressed the design jury with their understanding of the need to plan Games and legacy together. Their vision supported our desire for a Velodrome that sits within a comprehensive VeloPark with a wide range of cycling facilities for people of all abilities – beginner to elite.

“Between them the design team have a strong track record in designing innovative and creative projects. I am confident that they can help create both a world-class stage for the best athletes in the world and leave a lasting legacy for cyclists of all ages and abilities for many years to come.”

Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London Organising Committee, said:

“I am delighted to be announcing the design team for one of the key venues in the Olympic Park. This is on the back of a fantastic weekend for cycling in this country with the staging of the Tour de France. This showed how London is the world capital of sport and our capacity to stage world sporting events. It also showed the passion of Londoners for world class sport and the enthusiasm for cycling in the capital and throughout the UK.

“The VeloPark will contain brand new, state of the art facilities for road cycling, bmx, and mountain biking, be a great venue for the Games and leave a permanent cycling legacy in the capital.”

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said:

“I am delighted with the appointment of this experienced team who have an impressive track record. I am sure they will produce not only a world class venue for the Games, but also a lasting legacy for a training and competition centre for cycling and a venue that will be equally inviting to the local community.

“Good design is not an optional extra: it is fundamental to everything we build for the Games and I am determined to ensure that it is embedded in every project from inception to completion.”

Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone said:

“Cycling has never been so popular in the capital and after last weekend, when millions packed into London's streets to watch the spectacle of the Tour de France, we can be assured that the VeloPark will be a magnet for spectators both during the 2012 Games and long after.

“We look forward to seeing a world class VeloPark which will host major competitions that both inspire our future cycling champions and attract many more people to take up and enjoy the pleasure and benefits of cycling.”

Chris Hoy, Olympic cycling champion and member of the Design Jury, said:

“Having competed in cycling venues around the globe, I understand the importance of world-class design in Olympic venues so I was delighted to be involved in judging the VeloPark design entrants.

“I was hugely impressed by the winning team’s ideas, not only because they recognised and understood the needs of elite athletes but also because of their exciting visions for the venue and the legacy thereafter which will help inspire a new generation of cycling champions.”

Mike Taylor, a Director of Hopkins Architects said:

“We are absolutely thrilled to have been selected to design the VeloPark. The design competition was a great team effort, against formidable opposition.

“We are particularly honored because the scale and prominence of the Velodrome will make it a defining image of the Olympic Park and a place where we hope world records will be broken. Our vision for the project is one where both beginners and elite athletes will be equally at home and where everyone will be encouraged to participate and excel.”

Peter King, Chief Executive, British Cycling said:

"I was impressed by the range, vision and quality of the tenders submitted and particularly impressed with the understanding that the winning team had developed of the challenges to be faced in addressing the issues of legacy. Their concept for the Velodrome is outstanding and looks entirely practical, both in Olympic mode and as the heart of the legacy VeloPark.

“We are ready to start work with the team on the details of the Velodrome and the BMX tracks for the Olympics and on the plans to create other world-class legacy facilities in the Olympic Park for cycling user groups and the local community to use.

“These are exciting times for cycling and we look forward to being an active part of the process to ensure both the very best Olympic facilities for our sport and a full legacy for all aspects of cycling in this unique inner city setting."

Shaun Dawson, Chief Executive for the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority said:

“This team demonstrated the best understanding of the operational needs of the facility as well as inspiring design techniques. This is a winning formula which will create what will be a world class cycling facility that will hopefully help us hit gold in 2012 and in legacy inspire a new generation of cyclists of all ages and abilities.”

There will now be around 10 months for the outline design phase followed by nine months of detailed design development, before construction work starts in the spring of 2009.

The VeloPark will be completed in time for test events to take place in the summer of 2011. Lee Valley Regional Park Authority will own and operate the VeloPark in legacy.

In addition to the facilities that will remain in the VeloPark beyond 2012, the London Development Agency (LDA) are investing £5m in a new permanent road cycle circuit and mountain bike course at Hog Hill, Redbridge and will be funding the facility up to the completion of the legacy VeloPark. Work is underway to identify an operator of Hog Hill beyond 2012.

Pressure on Olympic building plans

2007-07-22T09:00:00.001-07:00

The London Olympics faces cost pressures because of stiff competition for contractors, labour and raw materials caused by a boom in construction projects, according to the man responsible for overseeing the building of the 2012 facilities.

David Higgins, chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority, says some contractors may also be scared off by the high profile of the Olympics, making it harder to generate competitive bids for games facilities.

The ODA, which has about £5.6bn of the £9.3bn overall Olympics budget at its disposal, is into its most intensive period of activity, working out budget costs and procuring work and concept designs.

Work began this week on clearing the 2.5 sq km Olympic Park site of contamination. Demolition work for the main Olympics stadium begins next week which also marks the five-year countdown to the 2012 opening ceremony. “We will be at full capacity within six months,” Mr Higgins told the FT.

But the key negotiations on construction costs are taking place during huge demand in the marketplace for contractors, he added.

“You just have to look out of the window at all the cranes everywhere, all around you. It is unprecedented, the level of development in the city,” Mr Higgins said.

“We are in a market which is very very competitive, to get the right level of staff and expertise. So we have to be attractive to clients. We have to give clear directions, clear decisions, have a clear client brief.

“We don’t have the luxury of choosing our time,” he said, referring to the fixed 2012 Olympics date.

Mr Higgins said there had been good responses from construction companies for tenders to build the media and aquatics centres and interest in less high profile Olympic projects such as bridges and roads building.

But asked if some construction companies were reluctant to get involved in the Olympics projects in general, given the controversy over Wembley stadium, he said: “High-profile iconic projects are always going to be a challenge. No one needs them on the front pages of their annual reports. No one needs any of that publicity.”

“Contractors worry about clients that can’t make decisions and change their minds. That’s the biggest risk.”

Mr Higgins’ own high profile in the Olympics project is likely to be reduced when John Armitt starts in September as ODA chairman, replacing Jack Lemley who resigned accusing politicians of political interference.

Mr Higgins denied the ODA had compromised on architectural design to cut costs, despite a big revision to the aquatics stadium. On the Olympics stadium, he said its design would be unveiled in November and would be “innovative”, providing a field of play twice the size of Wembley’s, yet surrounded by a structure not that much larger than the national football stadium’s, to house 80,000 seats.

Richard Rogers, he said, was “quite satisfied” with projects, despite his criticism about the ODA’s apparent disinterest in design. One architectural firm had left the Olympic masterplanning team, but that, said Mr Higgins, was the result of an internal issue.

The £9.3bn Olympics budget includes £2.7bn as a contingency for overruns, and Mr Higgins said there was no doubt elements of the contingency would be spent.

“It’s not there to be sat in a pristine box till 2012,” he said. “It will be used to manage risk, to spend money now in order to accelerate something to deliver it earlier.”

He added that the ODA was nearing a resolution on direct employment of workers, after warnings from construction unions that plans by the ODA to recruit self-employed migrant workers to cut costs would compromise safety.

“We’ll reach a sensible agreement. We don’t want to create something that doesn’t set an aspiration for us, but is realistic for the industry,” he said.

Athletics legend outlines Olympic benefits

2007-07-20T07:12:00.001-07:00

Olympic organiser Lord Coe was in the North East to visit our sports facilities ahead of the 2012 games in London. But how will the Olympics benefit the region?

DOUBLE Olympic champion Sebastian Coe experienced the North East’s enthusiasm for sport and its desire to share in the benefits of the world event first hand when he visited the region.

The athletics legend saw a wide cross-section of sports when he was given a guided tour around the Sunderland Aquatic Centre, Gateshead International Stadium and Glenn McCrory’s International School of Boxing in Newcastle.

The UK Olympic football tournament is coming to St James’ Park, but what other benefits can people in the area expect from the Games?

Lord Coe said: “An Olympic games coming into anybody’s country has a massive spin-off and I see the event as being a very big driver of potential in all our local communities, including the North East.

“The impact of the games in London will have an impact on participation rates both in sports, the culture of a community and businesses engagements right throughout the country, so I don’t see this as simply being a London games.”

He added: “I know the North East pretty well. I have spent a lot of my time competing here and I have good friends here and visit the region a lot.

“I believe the majority understand that an Olympic games coming to a country gives a massive opportunity to a community like the North East that really does understand what sport is about.

“I know there is a deep and abiding love of sport in the region and a recognition that sport is the real hidden social worker in so many challenged communities throughout the country.

“The London 2012 Games are truly a games for the whole nation. I am delighted to be in the North East to be able to hear more about the region’s priorities and plans to maximise the benefits of the Olympics.”

During his visit to Gateshead International Stadium yesterday Lord Coe unveiled North East England’s Regional Plan in the run up to the Olympics, outlining the hope for new business contracts, tourism and culture opportunities.

Organisers of North East England’s Regional Plan intend to co-ordinate a range of services to ensure regional businesses are fully equipped to “maximise the potential opportunities associated with the Games in order to win direct and indirect business”.

It is also hoped the Games will provide a showcase for the region’s sports facilities, attracting visiting teams to regional facilities.

“North East England’s Regional Plan will help build on the massive passion there is for sport in the region,” explained Lord Coe. “It outlines the eight key areas in which we believe the region can benefit from the London Games.

“Research has shown one in eight North East firms can potentially benefit by winning contracts to supply the 2012 Olympics.

“It is felt the Games can help people focus on healthier lives and address some of the child obesity and diabetes issues.”

Today scores of youngsters and adults sampled different sporting activities at the London 2012 Roadshow at Concordia Leisure Centre, in Cramlington, Northumberland.

Direct labour threatens to add £240m to Olympics

2007-07-18T03:51:00.000-07:00

Demands for direct employment on the London 2012 site could add £240m to the cost of the Olympics, industry experts have claimed.

One employment expert warned the move would send the wage bill soaring. “You are talking about an extra 20% at least on the wages bill when you take into account the additional cost of employers’ National Insurance contributions and benefits like holiday pay and sick pay.”

On a major job like the Olympics about a third of the total budget is allocated for labour costs, which means about £3bn of the £9.3bn overall cost is affected by the call for direct employment.

CJ understands that on a typical major project about 65% of the workforce is directly employed in the initial stages, falling to around 50% as the job nears completion.

One major contractor said: “A lot of the big boys have taken on their people direct so the number is higher at the start before the smaller firms start coming on to the job.

“If you take six out of ten workers as an average for the level of direct employment on other big sites then the 20% extra cost of taking the rest of the Olympic workforce on the books works out at £240m on a £3bn wage bill.”

The warning comes as negotiations on an industrial relations agreement between the construction unions and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) have reportedly reached a stalemate (CJ 11 July).

The unions are united on their insistence that self-employment should not be allowed on the job.

A UCATT spokesperson said: “It is a myth that so-called flexible working is cheaper. Wembley stadium and Holyrood were built on the backs of so-called self-employed workers. These projects were massively late and horrendously over budget. The direct employment model would have alleviated many of the problems experienced by these projects.

“Even if direct employment costs more, decent people and decent companies may decide that is a price worth paying in order to prevent workers being exploited and an increase in deaths and accidents that are all too often major features of bogus self-employed sites.”

An ODA spokesperson dismissed the CJ figures. “These are ill-informed back of the envelope calculations. The ODA has always maintained we are committed to ensuring high standards of employment and we’re confident of achieving this within our given budget. We have always said that the appropriate National Working Rule agreement will form the basis of employment on site.

“We are also currently discussing the final points of a Memorandum of Agreement with construction unions and it is our intention that it will include an agreement on maximising direct employment.”

from www.contractjournal.com

FIBA lifts ban on English players on British basketball team

2007-07-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

LONDON (AP) - Chicago Bulls swingman Luol Deng and Pops Mensah-Bonsu of the Dallas Mavericks will try to help Britain's national basketball qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

FIBA, the sport's world governing body, lifted its ban on English players competing on the British team after a funding dispute was resolved with British sports bodies.

"The government authorities promised to work constructively with England Basketball to move the sport forward in view of the 2012 London Olympic Games and to bring all stakeholders together under the umbrella of the national governing body," FIBA said in a statement Monday.

British Performance Basketball, a body set up to help the men's and women's teams qualify for the 2012 Games, said the issue had been "successfully resolved" and it would continue preparations for the EuroBasket Division B competitions in August and September.

If successful, each team will face two promotion playoff matches in September to reach EuroBasket Division A. Britain needs to reach that level to have a chance of qualifying for the Olympics.

Deng, who was born in Sudan and grew up in London, received British citizenship last year. Monsah-Bonsu was born in London and moved to the United States when he was 16. The two are to meet up with the British squad Friday at a training camp in Florida.

England, Wales and Scotland compete individually at world championships and Commonwealth Games, but are part of a combined Britain team for the Olympics.

FIBA has ruled that a British team must qualify for either the 2009 or 2011 European Championships in order to play at the 2012 Olympics.

British MPs To Discuss London 2012 Logo

2007-07-16T03:12:00.000-07:00

A report in Marketing Week says that a group of British MPs want to meet the team behind the controversial London 2012 logo to discuss the thinking behind the design.

Any meeting would include representatives from Wolff Olins, the design agency behind the logo, and the London 2012 Organizing Committee.

Joanna Shaw, group manager of the cross-party Parliamentary Design Group, says all parties have shown interest in discussing the logo and a meeting could be arranged for next month.

The design group was established to elevate the standard of debate on design in Britain’s parliament and ensure design is considered in policy development.

Hello velo 2012 cycling venue unveiled

2007-07-16T03:10:00.000-07:00

The London 2012 VeloPark will be the best in the world, heralding a golden age for British cycling, the Olympic champion Chris Hoy claimed yesterday. Initial designs for one of the "big four" venues in the Olympic Park include a 6,000-seat velodrome and plans to create a lasting legacy for cycling in the capital after the Games.

One of the most eye-catching features is the double curvature of its lightweight roof. Mike Taylor, a director of Hopkins Architects, part of the winning design team, said the roof took its inspiration from the "speed, drama and geometry of a cycle track". Previous projects by Hopkins include the Mound Stand at Lord's and the National Tennis Centre at Roehampton.

The VeloPark design was selected from eight bids made in a competition, judged by a panel including Hoy, Sunand Prasad, president elect of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate.Hoy said: "I believe it will deliver the best velodrome in the world and will herald a golden era of cycling."

The VeloPark, expected to cost up to £40m, will include a BMX circuit, road cycle circuit and mountain bike course. The planning application will be lodged next year and construction start in 2009.

Olympic planners left IT out of the budget

2007-07-16T02:02:00.000-07:00

The government failed to account for the costs of IT when putting together its budget for the 2012 Olympic Games, according to the bean counter watchdogs of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

In its 39th report, the PAC said the Olympic had neglected to include additional costs of £400m, which would cover "IT and site mobilisation and the costs of the CLM Consortium", a project management group appointed by the Olympic Delivery Authority to help it get everything in on time.

This £400m oversight was part of a £900m increase in the total budget for the Olympic Park, announced in 2006. The PAC says the massive underestimate was a result of using the costs of an "urban development corporation" as a benchmark for the running costs of the Olympic And they say private sector isn't leaner than public.

The report also found the authority has "seriously overestimated" the amount of private sector funding it was likely to receive. Planners budgeted for £738m of private sector funding, but it turned out that there was not enough time to negotiate the necessary contracts, so the money is unlikely to materialise.

The games were originally expected to cost around £2bn. That figure has since risen to £9bn. And although they managed a £400m tech-related oversight, at least planners managed to get Olympic in on time and looking just fabulous. ®

Olympic sites to be inspected

2007-07-02T06:09:00.001-07:00

Inspectors are beginning a three-day examination of London's plans for the 2012 Olympics.

The 16-strong International Olympic Committee's co-ordination commission is being updated on progress since the last official visit in April last year.

Organisers are hoping last week's furore over the graffiti-styled London 2012 logo, hated by thousands, has died down.

More than 30,000 people signed a petition against the £400,000 image, calling for the logo to be axed. The logo is set to be at the heart of money-spinning marketing and sponsorship schemes to help stage the Games.

Then London 2012 was forced to pull a promotional video amid claims it had triggered epileptic seizures in some people.

Speculation over the spiralling Olympic budget were answered with the announcement that building and regeneration costs had trebled to £9.3bn.

It had been triggered by the resignation of Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) chairman Jack Lemley who also claimed political meddling was hindering the scheme. John Armitt, the outgoing Network Rail chief executive, is taking over as the ODA chairman.

London 2012 will be keen to stress it has made an early start on preparations and is determined to control construction costs in its bid to bring the Games in on time and on budget.

Europe VS USA On The Blocks

2007-06-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

London's 2012 Olympic aquatics centre is in line to host swimming's answer to the Ryder Cup - Europe V US - in 2011 as a warm-up for the Games a year later.

The details of the Duel-in-the-Pool are likely to be thrashed out at a meeting between the Ligue Européenne de Natation (LEN) and USA Swimming this coming autumn, though the event could become a Trio-in-the-Pool if the parties agree to a move for Australia to be included.

Whatever form the event takes, it will represent a monument to American swimming's forward-planning skills: negotiations began as far back as 2003, when Peter Daland, an Octogenarian who during his days on the deck was one of the most successful coaches in swimming history, raised the idea with the Europe's governing federation league in the belief that either Paris or London would host the 2012 Olympic Games.

Laszlo Szakadati, Hungarian director of LEN, the European body working hard to make the event a reality, said: "We should not be blind about this: America wants this event because London has the Games and the US team wants to be here a year in advance to test the waters and their training and preparation for 2012. But Europe thinks this is a great idea, it could be a fantastic spectacle for swimming and we would like to see it become a tradition, more than something we have just twice."

Szakadati added that Europe favoured staging the inaugural Duel in 2009, though it was "not yet certain whether the 2012 pool in London will be ready then". Dublin is a favourite alternative venue for a 2009 event. There is no candidate other than London for 2011 provided Britain is ready to host the competition.

Technical and financial details have yet to be agreed and potential sponsors yet to be approached formally, while Europe has yet to decide how a team from many nations would be selected and who would foot the bill.

Disagreements with the US centre on the competition format: Europe favours two competitors from each team in each race (for a final of six should Australia be present), while the US wants to see three swimmers per team in a final of nine (Olympic pools are ten lanes wide, the outside two lanes left empty at the Games and for world championships).

Szakadati said that Europe favoured staging a two-day competition that would break away from the current Olympic format (eight days, 40 events) and be more TV-friendly. "Swimmers would enjoy that too, I'm sure. It would be a break from the routine," he added.

A meeting between Europe and the US will take place "either in October or November" to finalise details. Asked whether Australia, which already takes part in a Duel-In-The-Pool exclusively with the US, would be at those talks, the director said: "Initially this was all about US v Europe, but now there is some insistence on Australia being there. It is not that we object to that, not at all, but frankly speaking, this is about the US: it was an honour for Europe to be invited to talk about this by the Americans.

"In Melbourne (world championships last March), we were not beaten, we were ultra-beaten just a few months after a paper exercise showed how close things were between the US and Europe as a continent. I think this meet could be fantastic for the sport and for European swimming and we're working to make it happen," said Szakadati.

A Europe v USA duel is likely to attract the attention of good sponsorship and widespread TV coverage.