Olympic Times – Sports Daily

London Underground workers' unions

Thousands of London Underground workers will be advised to reject a payment of £850 each for working during the London 2012 Olympic Games, their union has said.

The Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) had declared a dispute with LU almost two weeks ago because of a lack of progress over the Olympic payment which the union said would affect 18,000 workers.

A total of 150 union representatives unanimously agreed to advise their members to reject the offer because it does not include drivers.

They said they will write to London Underground demanding “an Olympic bonus for all staff without strings”.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “Our reps have made it clear that we want the Olympics to succeed and will work within the existing frameworks in a co-operative manner to ensure this happens.

“All we want is a deal that ensures that the extra work and efforts of our staff are fairly rewarded with a substantial Olympic bonus of the same value made to all grades without the array of strings currently attached.

“The matter will now be considered again by the executive.”

Last week Unite, which represents engineering, electrical, power control and management workers, rejected the same £850 offer.

Unite said the company is demanding “unlimited flexibility” for an indefinite period of time after the Games have finished.

source: http://news.sky.comОткъде да купя иконаидея за подарък

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Francisco ("Paquillo") Fernández

Spanish walker Francisco “Paquillo” Fernandez, a 2004 Olympic silver medalist, will miss the London Games after losing a doping case. The Court of Arbitration for Sport says it has upheld an appeal by the IAAF and banned Fernandez for two years. The 35-year-old Fernandez cannot compete until December after the court allowed for time served while provisionally suspended. Track and field’s ruling body says Fernandez admitted possessing the endurance-boosting drug EPO. Spanish authorities found it in his apartment in 2009. The IAAF appealed after a Spanish track tribunal cleared Fernandez to compete last May. Fernandez is a three-time world championships silver medalist in the 20-kilometer walk.

Francisco Javier (“Paquillo”) Fernández Peláez (born on March 6, 1977 in Guadix) is a Spanish race walker. He specializes in the 20 km race walk.
Fernández was made ineligible for competitions for two years after he was found guilty of possessing performance-enhancing drugs in February 2010

source: http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics and Wikipedia.orgХудожник

First lady Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron, wife of British Primer Minister David Cameron, talk with United States Women's National Soccer Team midfielder Lori Ann Lindsey, left, and defender Becky Sauerbrunn as they join with students participating in a mini-Olympics competition in celebration of the 2012 London Summer Olympics and Mrs. Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative, Tuesday, March 13, 2012 in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

After-school sports got a new spin Tuesday as first lady Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron led a group of fifth-graders through a mini-Olympics.

They were joined by former Olympians Dominique Dawes and Lisa Leslie, as well as Paralympian Kortney Clemons, who lost his leg while fighting in Iraq. At the event, they stressed the hard work and determination that got them to the games — but not before the 55 fifth-graders from three Washington-area schools cycled through stations where they played basketball, soccer and tennis. There were also machines to simulate swimming, and a section of the gym was dedicated to a relay race.
Obama and Cameron, the wife of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who’s in Washington this week for an official visit, billed the event at an American University gym as an advance celebration of this summer’s London games.

“I’m particularly excited that the Camerons are visiting our country this week,” the first lady said, “because as it turns out, I will be visiting their country this summer.”

The White House announced Tuesday that Obama will lead the U.S. delegation to the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games in London. First ladies often lead the U.S. delegation — Hillary Clinton led the American group at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, and Laura Bush led the U.S. delegation to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

Obama dovetailed into her “Let’s Move” initiative, which promotes exercise and healthful eating for children.

“In the months ahead, I’ll be talking to Americans all across the country to encourage even more young people to tap into that Olympic spirit and turn their inspiration into action,” the first lady said.

Obama has in recent months taken on a higher-profile role in promoting the two-year-old initiative. She went on a multistate tour to mark the anniversary last month and has appeared on television with celebrities, including Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon and Ellen DeGeneres. Next week, she will appear on “The Late Show With David Letterman.”

At the event Tuesday, the first lady urged the students to find things they’re passionate about, whether sports or other activities.

“You are all champions in our minds,” Leslie, a Women’s National Basketball Association player who won four gold medals as part of the U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team, told the kids before a ceremony in which they were all given medals. “You do not have to be an Olympian or a Paralympian to be active and to be healthy. Whether you play sports or not, we’re really encouraging you to do that with ‘Let’s Move’”

Other Olympians at the event included tennis player MaliVai Washington, soccer players Lori Lindsey and Becky Sauerbrunn, runner Benita Fitzgerald Mosley and decathlete Dan O’Brien. Paralympians April Holmes and John Register and tennis player David Wagner, who plays in a wheelchair, were also on hand.

At one point, Dawes, who competed in three games, asked the kids to list the sports included in the summer games. Kids shouted basketball, swimming and track; one suggested yoga.

“That’s not an Olympic sport — yet,” she said. “That would be awesome.”

Read the full story and more at: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73970.html

Ian Thorpe of Australia swims during the Australian swim team training session ahead of the 2011 FINA World Cup at Singapore Sports School.

Already under enormous pressure to break into Australia’s Olympic swimming team as the headline act of this week’s national trials, Ian Thorpe was forced to wade into controversy on Wednesday over preferential payments made to marquee swimmers.

Local media have reported disaffection within Australia’s swimming ranks over alleged preferential funding benefiting former Olympic champions on the comeback trail like Thorpe, Michael Klim and Libby Trickett in the days leading up to the trials that start on Thursday.

Reports have questioned the value of funding Thorpe’s comeback ambitions, which has entailed providing individualised training overseas in Switzerland and the Middle East, while other front-line swimmers have trained at home and shared coaches.

Thorpe denied receiving preferential funding, which local media have estimated cost Swimming Australia A$150,000 ($158,000) — up to 10 times the amount given to other swimmers.

“Firstly, I haven’t been paid a cent,” five-time Olympic champion Thorpe told reporters at the South Australia Aquatic and Leisure Centre, the venue for the trials that start on Thursday. “Its been clarified by a number of people that what’s been reported isn’t factual.

“There’s been a number of athletes who’ve been Olympic champions or world record holders who have been supported by Swimming Australia.

“The funding that’s come from that is not dissimilar as to what’s been funded for other people in this sport.

“There hasn’t been any preferential treatment, as such, given.

“There may be a higher cost because I’m training outside (Australia) and it’s not shared amongst a number of athletes, that’s it.”

Thorpe, whose image dominates promotional material at the meeting and around South Australia’s state capital, has attracted a huge media presence to the trials, despite the swimmer all but writing off his chances to make the team.

He will compete in the 100 and 200 metres freestyle events, with most pundits forecasting his only hopes of selection for London lie in cobbling a spot on the relay teams.

Swimming Australia has conceded Thorpe’s programme overseas may have cost more than preparing domestically-trained swimmers but has pointed to the raised attention the swimmer’s comeback has brought back to the sport.

A flop of their headline act in the trials would nonetheless be an embarrassment for the governing body, whose head coach Leigh Nugent has backed Thorpe to the hilt and shot back at critics that have said the swimmer left his run too late to be fit for London.

Thorpe was offering little comfort on Wednesday, two days before he swims the 200 freestyle heats.

“I’m not sure how fast I can go at this stage and like most of the other athletes here, I am nervous about the upcoming days,” the 11-times world champion said.

“It’s going to have be much faster than what I’ve swum previously.

“What I said was that I’d come to terms with, this is what could happen, that I more than likely could fail in this.

“But once you can kind of accept that you can let yourself go and be able to do what’s necessary to be able to prepare and be able to train without having that level of fear in what you’re trying to accomplish.

“I’m probably as confident as I’ve been in my preparation, I’m happy with how I’ve trained recently and I’m looking forward to the competition.”

(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
By Ian Ransom
source: http://www.reuters.com

Japanese equestrian Hiroshi Hoketsu, who looks set to be the oldest competitor at the London Olympics

Japanese equestrian Hiroshi Hoketsu, who looks set to be the oldest competitor at the London Olympics, says at 70 he feels as fit as ever and fancies his chances of success at this year’s Games.
Hoketsu, who was the oldest Olympian in Beijing in 2008, says his fitness regime is not so arduous, with about 40 minutes of muscle training every day accompanied by vitamins and immune-boosting supplements.

His diet is perhaps less strict than others who will be vying for glory in the summer, with the septuagenarian eating and drinking what he likes — including a nightly glass of wine.

And it appears to have done him no harm. His weight has remained at 62kg (137lbs) since he trotted to his first Olympics in his native Tokyo in 1964, finishing 40th in show jumping.

“I haven’t changed much in four years, physically and mentally. Luckily I have had no major illness, except for bouts of cold,” Hoketsu, who turns 71 on March 28, told AFP in a telephone interview from his home in Aachen, Germany.

Hoketsu and his horse, 15-year-old chestnut mare Whisper, won a dressage Grand Prix in France last week, the final Olympic qualifying event.

They topped the individual dressage rankings for Asia and Oceania to earn a spot in London. The Japan Equestrian Federation formally selected them for the Games on Monday.

“You keep on doing what you do. That’s the key,” said Hoketsu, who was born in 1941, the year Japan went to war with the United States.

“And you must regularly do a small amount of muscle training. But at my age, I try not to get too serious about it.”

In London, when he will be 71 years and four months old, he will be just a whisker away from claiming the title as the oldest ever Olympian, but says he has no thoughts of retirement.

The oldest Olympic competitor ever was Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn, who took part in the 1920 Antwerp Games at the age of 72 years and 10 months and won a silver medal.

Hoketsu said the London Games will be indeed a “milestone” in a horse-riding career that began almost six decades earlier when he first saddled up during a summer camp.

“I can’t tell what lies ahead. But I will probably not quit right away. Never.” said the 168-centimetre (five foot six inch) rider, who has lived in Aachen since his retirement in 2003 as president of a US-affiliated drugs firm.

When Hoketsu competed astride Whisper at the Beijing Olympics, he was the oldest athlete in any event and the oldest to appear for Japan in any Olympics — 67 years and four months.

Before Hoketsu, the oldest Japanese Olympian was Kikuko Inoue, a grandmother of five, who also competed in dressage at the 1988 Seoul Games at age 63 years and nine months.

The self-proclaimed “hope of old men” in a country famed for longevity, Hoketsu finished ninth in team dressage and 35th in individual dressage at the Beijing Games, his first Olympic event in 44 years.

After his Olympic debut in Tokyo, he switched from show jumping to dressage, one of the more stately Olympic sports, which is often called horse ballet and requires relatively little physical strength.

In dressage, points are awarded for the performance of the horse and rider in a series of movements. Judges rate how the horse manoeuvres in response to body signals from the rider.

Hoketsu was picked as a substitute for 1984 Los Angeles Games, and he narrowly missed out on the 1988 Seoul Olympics when his horse encountered quarantine problems.

Source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2012/03/07/japans-70-year-old-aiming-high-in-london-olympics/

Organisers of the London Olympics are set to meet their target of raising £2 billion to help stage the Games this summer. Revenue from sponsorship and ticket sales should top initial forecasts, putting the London Organising Committee on course to keep its side of the Olympic bargain, LOCOG chief executive Paul Deighton told Reuters in an interview on Monday. LOCOG will not publish final accounts until after the Games end, prompting criticism from London politicians and British media about a lack of transparency. “I broadly expect us to break even, said Deighton, who worked for investment bank Goldman Sachs for two decades before joining LOCOG in 2006. “One way I describe our project is trying to land about 2 billion pounds of revenues, with about 2 billion pounds of costs. We have got committed just over 92 percent of the revenues we need,” he said, adding the remainder should come from ticket sales and merchandising.

LOCOG is largely privately funded, raising money from local sponsors, ticket sales and merchandising. It also gets a slice of funds raised centrally by the International Olympic Committee through global sponsorship and broadcast deals. Britain has also put up 9.3 billion pounds public funding to prepare for the Games, most of it to build the Olympic Park, which has transformed a rundown area in London’s east end. Latest accounts showed more than 500 million pounds of public money remained available, with sports minister Hugh Robertson saying the Games should come in under budget. However, total public spending is more than double the forecast when Britain was awarded the Games in 2005.

Value for money wanted:
Sponsorship deals for the London Games have raised 700 million pounds, a performance Deighton said was “gravity-defying” when the economy had been struggling for growth. Ticket revenues were expected to top 600 million pounds — above an initial forecast for something above 400 million. Demand for tickets for the July 27-Aug. 12 Games outstripped supply in many events, leaving many Britons frustrated at not being able to get a seat. Deighton said sceptical Britons needed “warming up” ahead of the Games which are taking place at a time of heavy state spending cuts and rising unemployment. He said while 75 pence in each pound of public spending had gone on facilities that would leave a lasting legacy after the Games, Britons needed convincing the Olympics were worth it. “People accept it is going to be a great party in the summer. But they also want to make sure, particularly in this environment, that it is decent value for money,” he said. “I think there is still work to be done to get that effectively across.”

Source: REUTERS

America’s Olympic pixie-in-waiting looks ready for the cameras, for the Russians and for the Chinese. Jordyn Wieber, 16, is the reigning all-around women’s world champion and isn’t resting on any past podia. Instead she is adding difficulty to her routines, looking to overwhelm judges and audiences in London this summer.

This is the way with gymnasts, who must keep advancing always like a shark. At the Garden on Saturday in the American Cup, Wieber will unveil more combinations on the balance beam, more twists on her floor exercise. She woke up one day in January, she says, and realized this was an Olympic year, her year, and that she’d better do something about it.

“I try not to think about the outside pressure, about being a favorite,” she said Friday, before a practice session. “I have to prove myself all over again.”

Wieber is a junior at DeWitt (Mich.) High School, where she misses all the football games and dances in order to train. She also takes some online courses and travels at least once a month to Houston, for five days at a time, to practice with other gymnasts and Marta Karolyi, the national women’s team coordinator for USA Gymnastics.

Competition for the team’s five Olympic spots will climax this June at the trials in San Jose. Meanwhile, there are tune-ups for tune-ups, and the American Cup on Saturday is really the first of them. The U.S. women won the team title at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo — which was Wieber’s first worlds — nipping second-place Russia.

Jordyn Wieber - Picture: Koji Sasahara/AP

The intramural battle among the Americans is tough and very real. Some of the 2008 Beijing stars, such as Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson, have launched comebacks and are hoping to make the team as well, though they may find it difficult to excel in more than one or two specialties.

“We’re all in it together,” Wieber insisted. “We don’t feel competitive outside the gym.”

Wieber said that Liukin became her role model when she watched the Beijing Olympics on television back in 2008. At the time, Wieber was already an elite gymnast heading for the national team.

Barring injury, Wieber is considered the surest bet to make the U.S. team. By increasing the difficulty of her beam routine, already Wieber’s greatest strength, she is adding as much as five-tenths to her start value on that apparatus and may open ground on the opposition.

“You’ve never arrived,” Karolyi warned. “You always have to fight and try harder to win. The fact that she’s adding difficulty shows (Wieber) realizes that.”

She is also a groundbreaker on her other favorite event, the vault, in which she performs a 21/2 twisting Yurchenko — in which she does a cartwheel onto the springboard into a back handspring, then launches herself from the horse into those 21/2 twists. “Fun,” she calls it. Most others would call it impossible.

Wieber turned professional shortly after proving herself at the world championships. She will not be accepting any of the college scholarships available to her, a decision she realizes will further distance herself from classmates and their social lives.

“It doesn’t bother me that much,” Wieber said. “I get to travel all over the country and the world and that’s better.”

The Americans will have their top two young women gymnasts, Wieber and Aly Raisman from Needham, Mass., competing Saturday at the Garden. The Russians and Chinese, still smarting from defeat at the world championships and perhaps fearful of hometown judging, declined invitations to participate in the American Cup.

The Romanians are here, however, making this event feel a lot like the semi-boycotted 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com

Bekele, 29, is considered one of the biggest threats to British world champion Mo Farah’s chances of winning an Olympic medal in London.

The Ethiopian was one of 35 athletes suspended from international competition by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation after they failed to show up for a mandatory training camp. But the ban was rescinded just days after it was imposed and now Bekele is set to return to the city of one of his greatest triumphs.

Ten years ago, aged 19, Bekele became the first and only male athlete ever to lift the IAAF World Cross Country long and short course titles in the same year, at Dublin’s Leopardstown racecourse.

Former Olympic medallist Brendan Foster, of race organisers Nova International, belives that Bekele’s decision to take part in the 10 kilometre event could herald the start of a career as a marathon runner after the 2012 Games.

Bekele raised eyebrows when he finished way down the field in the three kilometre Great Edinburgh Cross Country last month but Foster said on Tuesday: “I was delighted when Bekele’s agent, Jos Hermens, rang me and asked whether we could find a slot in the SPAR Great Ireland Run for him. Of course there was no way I was going to say ‘no’ to such an outstanding legend.

from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics

Giant Olympic rings are floated down the Thames in central London as preparations continue for the 2012 Games.

Haile Gebrselassie

Haile Gebrselassie was facing an uphill challenge before he even set off at this morning’s Tokyo Marathon. The legendary Ethiopian was hoping to put in a strong performance to put himself in contention of getting a spot on his national marathon team for the London 2012 Olympics.

The qualifying time itself – 2:15:00 – was never in doubt. But with four Ethiopian men having broken the 2:05 barrier within the qualifying period, Gebrselassie would have to have pulled out something special in order to be chosen as one of the three men to represent his country at this summer’s Olympics.

Gebrselassie had not broken 2:05 since his 2:03:59 world record run in 2008 – a mark that has since been broken by Kenyan Patrick Makau. The last marathon he completed – a victory in Dubai – was more than two years ago, and his previous attempt to gain the qualifying mark ended in disappointment when he failed to finish in Berlin last September. Before that, he also dropped out of the New York Marathon in November 2010.

So faced with the prospect of having to produce his fastest time in four years, the pressure was on Gebrselassie. While he easily dipped inside the qualifying standard, his 2:08:17 for fourth place was unfortunately not fast enough to genuinely be in with a shout of team selection, as it makes him just the 22nd fastest Ethiopian since the qualifying period started in January 2011.

Gebrselassie had led for the majoirty of the race, but with three miles to go he was caught by Kenya’s Michael Kipyego, who surged ahead to win in 2:07:37. Gebrselassie was then overtaken by Japan’s Arata Fujiwara and Uganda’s Stephen Kiprotich before the finish. The women’s race was won by Ethiopia’s Atsede Habtamu in a course record of 2:25:28.

“Sometimes you are too ambitious,” said Gebrselassie. “This can happen. My target was 2:05 today but it didn’t work out that way. On the last downhill, I started to get some pain in my back. The last 5km was the worst I’ve ever run.”

“I could run another marathon in two weeks,” he added. “I felt fantastic here for the first 30 kilometres, then had some problems at the end of the race.”

Should Gebrselassie decide to race another marathon before the qualifying period ends in July this year. The most likely choices would be either the Rotterdam Marathon or the Paris Marathon – both courses known for producing fast times. The London Marathon in April will likely not be on his radar, as Gebrselassie has previously struggled in the British capital due to pollen levels.

Gebrselassie has competed at the last four editions of the Olympic Games. He won 10,000m gold in 1996 and 2000, the latter in an epic race against Kenya’s Paul Tergat. Gebrselassie turned his attention to the roads in 2002, but opted not to contest the marathon at the two Olympics since then, due to the tough conditions in Athens and Beijing. Instead he contested the 10,000m finishing fifth in 2004 and sixth in 2008.

2012 would be Gebrselassie’s fifth Olympics. But with time fast running out, it looks more and more likely that athletics fans lining the streets of London this summer will not get to witness one of the true legends of the sport compete.

from: http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/gebrselassies-olympic-participation-in-doubt-after-disappointing-run-in-tokyo/

ИконописPanasonic is continuing its 3D push despite a thus far tepid response to the technology by the public at large. The latest move saw the Japanese electronics giant partner with NBC Universal to broadcast the forthcoming London 2012 Olympics in 3D. The announcement was made at the CES exhibition in Las Vegas.

The two companies said that the stereoscopic feed would be made available to “all U.S. distributors who carry Olympic coverage on cable, satellite and telco–nearly 100 percent of the multichannel industry.” This will be the first time that an Olympic event will have been broadcast in 3D.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) estimates that seven million 3D TVs and nine million 3D Blu-ray players will be sold by the end of 2012. Panasonic also announced that the adoption of 3D equipment has been ‘rapid’ during its press conference.

Panasonic unveiled the Z10000 3D camcorder at the show while highlighting its smart TV efforts in terms of rolling out more apps, improving control and adding room sensors into its SmartViera products.

source: digitalproductionme.comхудожник на икониИкони на светци

The British Olympic Association and the London 2012 organising committee have agreed to fresh talks aimed at settling their bitter financial row.

The BOA has asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to indefinitely suspend its request to rule on the division of any surplus from 2012.

The BBC has learned that the BOA has also requested a meeting with Locog.

Despite claims that they wouldn’t back down, Locog have agreed to the talks.

Lord Coe, chair of Locog (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games), told the BBC “Clearly it is sensible not to have a dispute running on.”

“In fairness of course we don’t see this as a dispute any longer because the International Olympic Committee have made their judgement, the Government has made its judgement, the Mayor’s office has made it’s judgement and our position at Locog is really clear – that we are running hard to maintain a balanced budget but beyond that I’m not going to speculate. I will wait to see what the meeting holds at the end of the week.”

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Star Chinese athlete Liu Xiang will bid to use the Asian Games as a stepping stone to bigger and better things at the 2011 Daegu world championships and the London Olympics a year later.

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Alaine Lambert, left, and Emily Whitaker cheer for each other before the event starts.

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Special Olympics Surrey athletes showcased their talents in a performance at Kingston’s Rose Theatre last week.

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THE Special Olympics Zimbabwe national golf championship tees off this morning at Royal Harare with players from Harare and Bulawayo taking part.

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