Olympics: London braced for world's greatest show

Posted: 23 July 2012 1616 hrs


A man dressed like a telephone box cheers up the pedestrians in central London five days before the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games. (AFP PHOTO / JOHANNES EISELE)


LONDON: Seven years in the making, costing 9.3 billion pounds ($14.5 billion) and featuring 10,490 athletes, the London Olympics opens on Friday with 302 gold medals to be won and hard-fought reputations at stake.

The Olympic Stadium and Aquatics Centre in London's East End will host Beijing super-heroes Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, who tore up the history books in 2008.

On the other side of the city, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams will be the headline acts as Wimbledon welcomes the heavyweight tennis talent.

In between, Horse Guards Parade, within walking distance of Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament, hosts beach volleyball and Wembley Stadium will stage the football final.

Even Lord's, the home of cricket, gets involved, opening its doors to the world's best archers.

On the track, Bolt, a triple gold-medallist in Beijing in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay, faces a mouthwatering showdown with Jamaican team-mate Yohan Blake in the 100m final on August 5.

Bolt holds the world record of 9.58 seconds but Blake is the world champion and the in-form sprinter this season, getting the better of his senior partner in the Jamaican trials last month.

In the pool, Phelps, whose eight golds in Beijing took his overall medal tally to 16, needs three more to surpass the all-time record of 18 set by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina between 1956 and 1964.

"Obviously, we always want to do our best and swim the fastest, they are the main objectives," said Phelps, who will compete in seven events.

Like Bolt, the 27-year-old Phelps also faces a national rival in the shape of Ryan Lochte, a triple Olympic champion, who can put a huge hole in his rival's dreams when the two clash in the 200m and 400m medleys.

Elsewhere in the pool, eyes will also be on precocious Missy Franklin, just 17 and also racing seven events, and Australian sensation James Magnussen.

Dubbed 'The Missile', Magnussen is the 100m freestyle world champion and earlier this year swam that event's fastest ever time without the aid of the now-banned, drag-reducing 'super suits'.

Other athletics stars include Russian polevault queen Yelena Isinbayeva, Kenya's David Rudisha in the 800m and Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, the 5,000m and 10,000m champion in Beijing.

South Africa's Oscar Pistorius, known as 'Blade Runner' because he runs with carbon fibre prosthetic running blades, will make history as the first double amputee athlete to compete at an Olympics.

At the velodrome, Bradley Wiggins, fresh from his historic Tour de France triumph, will fire up home hopes.

Zara Phillips, the grand-daughter of Queen Elizabeth, adds a little royal lustre to the equestrian at Greenwich.

Federer, having won a record-equalling seventh Wimbledon title, returns to the All England Club in south-west London looking to add singles gold to the doubles he won with Swiss compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka four years ago.

His rivals will be Djokovic and Andy Murray but there will be no defending champion Rafael Nadal, who pulled out to rest his ongoing knee problems.

The United States will be comfortable favourites in the men's basketball with a Dream Team boasting LeBron James and Kobe Bryant but not the injured Dwyane Wade or Derrick Rose.

The build-up to the Games has been relatively trouble-free, although organisers had to summon 3,500 troops for the showpiece after private security firm G4S admitted they couldn't provide a full contingent of guards.

Amid gripes about security and transport, colourful London mayor Boris Johnson hit out at critics of the Olympics, saying the city was about to stage the greatest show on Earth.

"Oh come off it, everybody - enough whimpering," Johnson wrote in The Sun newspaper.

"Cut out the whingeing. And as for you whingers, put a sock in it - fast."

However, one subject the British enjoy discussing - the weather - continues to be at the forefront.

After a wet and chilly summer, temperatures are expected to reach the high twenties by the time the Games officially get underway with Friday's opening ceremony.

Before that, the first action will take place in Wales on Wednesday when the Great Britain women's football team tackle New Zealand at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

- AFP/ck/de

 

Olympics: Village people bed down in London

Posted: 22 July 2012 0753 hrs


Flags are pictured on the balconies of the German Olympic team accommodation in the athletes village in the London 2012 Olympic Park. (AFP - Carl Court)


LONDON: Super-rich footballers bed down along the corridor from penniless gymnasts, while an Australian husband and wife are banned from sleeping together.

Welcome to the Athletes' Village at the London Olympics, a complex of 11 blocks housing 2,818 apartments described by the organisers as "gold medal standard".

Each night, competitors will return after crushing disappointment or glorious triumph to either cry on their teammates' shoulders, or hold impromptu victory parties.

Although a familiar feature of Olympic life for most competitors, the relatively modest accommodation at the Athletes' Village is a new experience for the players in Great Britain's football team.

Liverpool midfielder Craig Bellamy, more accustomed to five-star hotels, admits it is an eye-opener.

"It is all new to us," he said. "It's a lot different. You eat with other athletes but it all adds to the experience."

Bellamy admitted that top footballers are "usually kept away (from other people)", adding: "So we have to embrace this."

Australia shooter Russell Mark found his arrival in the village less comfortable after he was told he will not be allowed to share a room with his wife Lauryn.

Mark, 48, and his wife, who is also on the Australian shooting team, have been told to room separately.

The veteran, competing at his sixth Olympics, said Australian officials had enforced the ban because Lauryn had angered officials by posing in a men's magazine holding a shotgun over her back dressed only in a green and gold bikini.

Mark said he and his wife were being punished for being a married couple.

"The stupid part of this... is that there are tonnes of gay couples on the Olympic team who will be rooming together so we are being discriminated against because we are heterosexual."

But Nick Green, chef de mission for the Australian team, dismissed the claims.

"It is simply not true... accommodation and bedding are done in a particular way to ensure all the athletes are accommodated in the village."

Clearly many athletes are finding a way to meet up, judging by the organisers' decision to distribute 150,000 condoms in the village, reportedly 50,000 more than were given out at the 2008 Beijing Games.

When not arguing over their sleeping arrangements, the Australians were quick to make an impression on the village, spreading banners reading "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie; Oi, Oi, Oi" over several balconies.

They have even hung an inflatable kangaroo from one apartment.

Another block has a long banner in the Belgian colours hanging from a balcony, while others were decorated with Slovenian, Norwegian and Team Ireland flags.

The basic rooms have artwork done by schoolchildren on the walls.

Competitors are two to a room and are even allowed to take home their colourful London 2012 duvet.

Britain's double Olympic gold medallist swimmer Rebecca Adlington tweeted a picture of her bed, complete with Team GB mascot.

The beds can be extended to accommodate the tallest of athletes.

While some of the footballers were prepared to give the village a go, it is just not luxurious enough for the US basketball "Dream Team" - Kobe Bryant and the rest of the squad are taking over an entire boutique hotel in London.

It means they will miss out on the extraordinary range of food on offer at the village.

American 400 metres hurdler Kerron Clement sparked headlines with his claims that it had taken four hours to travel across London from Heathrow Airport to the village.

But his next tweet raved about the food on offer, chirruping: "Love the variety of food choices."

Tessa Jowell, Britain's Olympics minister from 2005 to 2010, has been appointed a deputy mayor of the village.

"I think the athletes will love it. It transcends nationality," she told AFP.

"The athletes are arriving, the excitement is palpable. All those years of preparation and it's all about to start."

To pass the time, competitors can spoil themselves with complimentary salon treatment, where they can have their hair cut, get a shave, a facial and their make-up done.

They can also have their nails painted with one of the 207 nail-sized flag designs.

And home comforts can always be found - a Colombian athlete who had run out of shampoo and had been using washing-up liquid was given a bottle of the real stuff, a salon worker told AFP.

- AFP/de

 

Hopefully they have anticipated this possible nightmare and are prepared for the worst.

 

Southeast Asia Olympic Haul Likely to Be Small

Asian Wall Street Journal


There is a handful of potential gold medalists from Southeast Asia competing in the London Olympics. How do they stack up in The Wall Street Journal's predictions?

By Shibani Mahtani




The entrance to the Olympic Park, Stratford, east London.
Reuters

With the Olympic opening ceremonies just days away, everyone from sports pundits, psychics and Goldman Sachs analysts are offering their predictions for which country will bring home the most gold.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal offered its own predictions, which included forecasts for medal tallies for some of the Southeast Asian countries participating in the games such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The bottom line: Despite some promising potential gold medalists in the region - including Indonesian badminton pair Lilyana Natsir and Tontowi Ahmad and Singapore's table tennis team - The Wall Street Journal predicts that Southeast Asia will not take home a gold during the London Games. The countries that win other medals, meanwhile, aren't likely to take home a lot, the research predicted. The WSJ research indicates that Singapore, which isn't often celebrated for its sporting achievements, will be the Southeast Asian nation to take home the most medals from London this summer, with two in total. The predictions didn't indicate what events this would be in.

Teams from Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia will walk away with a medal each, according to the predictions.

The Philippines, however, is expected to return empty-handed from these Olympics. The contingent from the Philippines is the smallest ever to participate in the Games from the country, with athletes competing in archery, athletics, boxing, cycling, judo, shooting, swimming and weightlifting.

The Journal's predictions were based on an analysis of basic information such as interviews with experts and the performances of athletes in recent national and international competitions. The model assigned probabilities to the top medal contenders and then used those probabilities to project the most likely outcomes. A sports actuary was consulted to run 1,000 simulations of the Games.

Still, the region will be watching closely to learn the fates of some of its most-prized athletes, including Malaysian badminton player Lee Chong Wei, who returned home with a silver medal from the 2008 Beijing games. Thai athletes, too, hold promise particularly in taekwondo, boxing and weightlifting, having brought home two gold and two silver medals at the Beijing Games. Weightlifter Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon and boxer Somjit Jongjohir, both Olympic gold medalists, will undoubtedly have the hopes of their nations pinned on them.

Overall, many analysts - including The Wall Street Journal and Goldman Sachs - are predicting the U.S. will take home the most gold medals, beating out China. Goldman Sachs, explaining their first ever report predicting gold medal tallies at the Olympics, offered the explanation that countries with a higher gross domestic product per capita have healthier citizens, and better athletes.

"It appears that gold does go where growth and the overall growth environment are best," wrote economists Jose Urusa and Kamakshya Trivedi.

Others have argued that the United Kingdom, this year's host, will end the games with an unprecedented number of medals - what is also known as the "host effect."

 

Olympics: What's happening around Olympic Park

Published on Jul 22, 2012


Workers and visitors walk by the stadium at the Olympic Park in Stratford, London, on July 21, 2012. After the marvel of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, hopes are that London will provide a similar spectacle. -- PHOTO: REUTERS


By Tara John

After the marvel of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, hopes are that London will provide a similar spectacle.

This is the third summer Olympics held in the United Kingdom, the first two happening in the early 20th century. The world has moved on since then, with more participating countries, mammoth expenses and a growing number of athletic events. These statistics inevitably put a toll on the host country.

In the case of London, only time will tell whether its transport system will survive the onslaught of 4 million visitors flooding into the city over Games season; Singapore's North-South line disruptions pale in comparison to Londoners' daily realities. An expected 600,000 spectators will bombard the transport network for each of the 16 days the games are held, competing with the 7 million Londoners who already struggle with a network riddled with frequent breakdowns, delays and traffic jams.


The Transport Authority of London (TfL) have allocated dedicated lanes, or 'Games Lanes', to transport the 11,500 expected athletes, 150 heads of states, media, officials and VIPs to any one of the 14 London venues. As much as this may be a necessary move, it has nonetheless gathered criticism for aggravating a notoriously jam-riddled road system.

 

Fashion Olympics: Big designers behind games kits

The Straits Times
30 July 2012


Members of the Britain's delegation parade during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games on July 27, 2012 at the Olympic Stadium in London. Stella McCartney has worked with Adidas to design the sporting gear and 'Village wear' (read loungewear) for Britain's home team, though the outfits weren't on show on Friday as athletes covered up in white and gold tracksuits. -- PHOTO: AFP


LONDON (AP) - Who said sportswear can't be chic? The athletes' parade during Friday's opening ceremony might as well have been a catwalk show, with some of fashion's biggest names - Armani, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Stella McCartney - designing the team uniforms.

Many in the fashion industry are already calling this the most stylish Olympics ever.

The Italians must be some of the best-dressed athletes, scoring points with an understated monochrome kit in navy and white by Giorgio Armani, as well as waterproof blue designs for their sailing team by Prada.

Stella McCartney has worked with Adidas to design the sporting gear and 'Village wear' (read loungewear) for Britain's home team, though the outfits weren't on show on Friday as athletes covered up in white and gold tracksuits.

McCartney's gear takes inspiration from the iconic Union flag, but she said she deconstructed it to make it 'more delicate and feminine'.

Look out for them on the track and at the pool: Red is sparingly used to highlight a palette that mostly features white and shades of blue - turquoise, navy, cobalt.

Meanwhile, the American team may have gotten a barrage of bad press for its made in China Ralph Lauren uniforms, but the preppy designs were still some of the most stylish in the arena: clean-cut navy blazers, crisp white trousers, skirts, and shoes, accessorised with navy berets and blue, red and white striped scarves.

The Jamaican team is in the spotlight because of sprinter Usain Bolt, so it's fitting that it also got a boost in the fashion stakes this year.

Their kit, which feature the national colors as well as lightning-like prints, were designed by Cedella Marley, daughter of legendary singer Bob Marley, for Puma. The styles were modelled by a flamboyantly dancing Bolt at a London catwalk recently.

'Cedella Marley brings island color to team Jamaica - a sea of tropical yellow, green and black,' said Ms Avril Graham, Harper's Bazaar executive fashion and beauty editor, on Friday.

Other designers behind the Olympics 2012 include luxury label Hermes, which has designed riding jackets for the French equestrian team, and Salvatore Ferragamo, which designed the official uniform for the tiny European republic of San Marino.

Some designers didn't get involved in the official Olympics gear, but used the games as an opportunity to cash in and promote their brands anyway.

Karl Lagerfeld, for example, launched an Olympic-themed womenswear collection called Team Karl at London department store Selfridge's - though he reportedly said he wouldn't tune in to watch the games.

Meanwhile, high-street chain store H&M said it was launching two pop-up stores dedicated to selling sportswear in London.

Friday's athletes parade also showcased some surprising and less popular designs.

The German team was notable for not using their national colors at all - instead, the kit was all hot pink for the women's jackets, and cornflower blue for the men; both were paired with white trousers. The Czechs, meanwhile, wore bright blue wellington rain boots paired with white shorts.

Spectators also made their own judgments about the much-maligned uniforms for the Spaniards and Russians, both made by Russian sportswear company Bosco.

Some Spanish athletes have posted tweets grumbling about their garish red and gold outfits, and there are even Spanish Facebook groups set up to campaign against the gear.

Official kit aside, there were strong fashion showings in the spectator stand, too.

Michelle Obama chose a white dress by J. Mendel, while the Duchess of Cambridge, formerly known as Kate Middleton, dazzled with a pastel blue satin and belted coat dress reportedly by wunderkind Christopher Kane.

British Prime Minister David Cameron's wife, Samantha, demonstrated her fashion credentials with a bold red and black outfit by London-based designer Roksanda Illincic.