Tokyo’s hopes of hosting the 2016 Olympics were shattered Friday as the Japanese capital was eliminated in the second round of voting by the International Olympic Committee.

Rio de Janeiro was named the winner of rights to stage the 2016 Games, beating Madrid in the final round of voting to become the first South American Olympic host. Rio had 66 votes to Madrid’s 32.

Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting before Tokyo’s exit left the race down to the Rio and Madrid. Tokyo had 22 votes in the first round and 20 in the second.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama released a statement Saturday congratulating the Brazilian people on Rio de Janeiro’s win in a bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

‘‘I want to offer my heartfelt appreciation for the citizens of Tokyo and athletes,’’ said Tokyo Gov Shintaro Ishihara. ‘‘Let’s use this precious experience, while tackling environmental issues and contribute to the development of world cities. I pray for the success of the Games in Rio de Janeiro.’’

Under host city voting procedures, the city with the fewest number of votes in each successive round of balloting is eliminated until one city has reached a majority of the valid votes cast.

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The International Olympic Committee is no stranger to tough decisions. It took the risk of sending the games to Beijing and said “No” to New York in the aftermath of 9/11. Yet, despite all of that accumulated experience, some IOC members are struggling with their latest conundrum: choosing the Olympic host for 2016.
Just two days ahead of the vote, many were undecided.
And that means two things—it’s still too close to call between Rio de Janeiro, Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid and, for the next couple of days, IOC members are going to feel that they are the most popular people on the planet. Everyone in Copenhagen, where they are gathered, seemingly wants to be their new best friend.
Want to meet Michelle Obama? Not a problem if you’re an IOC member who needs a little pointer on which way to vote. The first lady, beating her husband to the Danish capital, has a two-room suite in the IOC hotel, with homely white leather furniture and an interactive table that, at the touch of a hand, gives bird’s eye views of how a Chicago Olympics might look.
Mrs Obama arrived Wednesday, two days ahead of the U.S. leader, and got straight to work on impressing IOC members.
“We’re not taking anything for granted, so I’m going to go talk to some voters,” she said.
IOC members who have been through this selection process repeatedly, previously sending the games to London, Beijing, Athens and Sydney, told The Associated Press that they could not remember a tougher choice. The AP canvassed the opinions of a dozen IOC members. With all four cities seen as amply capable, technically at least, of holding the Olympics, they said much will ride on how well or badly the cities make their case in final 45-minute presentations to the IOC on Friday before the successive rounds of secret balloting.
“I have two favorites,” IOC member Nicole Hoevertsz said. “It’s going to come down to the last, last presentation. It’s going to come down to the last minute.”
As tension mounted, so did tempers. Despite fresh IOC warnings that the cities should avoid criticizing their rivals, the Spanish Olympic Committee’s vice president, Jose Maria Odriozola, told the national Efe news agency that “Rio is the worst bid.”
Rio bid organizers said the criticism was “totally unacceptable” and formally complained to the IOC.
The outcome Friday could hinge on which cities are eliminated first and, if and when their favorites are knocked out, how IOC members subsequently line up behind the other candidates. That makes predicting a winner perilous and means that even members who say they already have made their choice are still worth lobbying.
“It is difficult enough to know where the first-round votes are going to go, so trying to imagine where the swinging votes are going to go is impossible,” said Spanish IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, whose father served as IOC president for 21 years.
“Events in the next 48 hours will decide the winner, because they will have a significant influence on the second- and third-round votes,” he said.
Samaranch said he believes nearly all the IOC’s 106 members already have a favorite. But IOC vice president Chiharu Igaya said “many” members are undecided.
Added British IOC member Craig Reedie: “This is really close. The closer it gets the more people will say, let me think about it. We all want to see the presentations. It’s what people see that will count. Decided? No, I haven’t actually. I’m getting close.”
Late, high-powered lobbying can be important—as then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, proved when London campaigned successfully for the 2012 Olympics. Blair traveled to Singapore ahead of the vote and spent two days lobbying members, inviting them to his hotel suite for one-on-one meetings.
Chicago tore a leaf from Blair’s playbook: Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett met with him last week to solicit his advice and get tips on navigating the IOC voting process.
But for the first time, there are no IOC executive board meetings in the days leading up to the vote. That means less opportunity for schmoozing.
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This weeks Sexy Sport Hot Babe of the week is Haley Cope
Haley was born in Chico, California. Her best swimming performance was the gold medal on the 2001 world championship.
Top performances:
2001: LC World Championships – 1st 50m backstroke (28.51), 6th 50m free (25.25), 11th 100m backstroke (1:02.61)
2002: SC World Championships – 1st 100m backstroke (59.07), 2nd 50m backstroke (27.44), 4th 50m free (24.70), 2nd 4×100m medley relay (3:57.17), 4th 4×100m free relay (3:37.10), Pan Pacs – 3rd 100m backstroke (1:01.74)
2003: LC World Championships – 8th 50m backstroke (28.99), 13th 50m free (25.52), 25th 100m backstroke (1:03.45)
2004: Olympic Games – 8th 100m backstroke (1:01.76); SC World Championships – 1st 50m backstroke (27.49), 1st 100m backstroke (59.03), 2nd 4×100m medley relay (3:55.68)

Haley Cope - hot pictures (nude)

Softball will seek to rejoin the Olympics alone after its governing body on Friday rejected baseball’s proposal to make a joint pitch for inclusion.
Softball and baseball were dropped from the Olympics after last year’s Beijing Games but are among seven sports targeting the 2016 event when two sports will be added to the lineup.
In lobbying efforts, the International Softball Federation (ISF) has attempted to distance itself from baseball, which has been criticised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for Major League Baseball’s failure to tackle doping issues and for not freeing top players to participate in the Games.
Golf, squash, rugby, karate and rollersports are the others sports hoping to join the Olympics.
“The ISF recently received a proposal from the International Baseball Federation for a combined approach for Olympic Games programme status,” ISF president Don Porter said in a statement.
“However, having looked at all the factors involved, the ISF has decided that softball will not combine with any other sport and stands by the current proposals to the International Olympic Committee submitted in our recent response to their questionnaire.
“We have offered the IOC a doping-free, universal team sport that reflects Olympic values all over the world.
“Softball is also a stand-alone sport with its own rules, values, and philosophy.”
Since softball was voted out of the Olympics in 2005, the ISF has launched a vigorous campaign for reinstatement.
Softball has attempted to address the IOC’s two biggest concerns that the sport is not played at the highest level in enough countries and is dominated by the U.S..
The ISF has introduced several new competitions around the world and pointed to Japan’s upset win over the U.S. in the gold medal final in Beijing as a sign the sport is growing.

The IOC will vote on the inclusion of up to two new sports during its congress in Copenhagen in October.

source: reuters.com

If Chicago is selected as the host city for the 2016 Olympic Games, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena could be one of the venues for the men’s and women’s soccer tournaments.
The stadium was one of six venues proposed by the Chicago bid committee when it submitted its canditature file to the International Olympic Committee.
The others are Minneapolis Stadium, Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey, Philadelphia Stadium, the Edwards Jones Dome in St. Louis and Landover Field in Maryland.
Chicago proposes staging the medal-round matches at Soldier Field.
The Rose Bowl was the site of the soccer final at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and also has staged the final of the World Cup in 1994 and the Women’s World Cup in 1999.

source: latimesblogs.latimes.com

Sport’s long-term popularity will suffer badly if governments redirect funds away from its grassroots during the global credit crunch, International Olympic Committee (IOC) chiefs warned on Friday.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said top-tier events like the Olympic Games and soccer’s World Cup were not suffering too much from the worst economic downturn in almost 80 years, though sports at local level were struggling to cope.

“If the financial crisis continues any longer than we expect … the popularity of sport will be severely damaged in the long term as grassroots and local games find it harder to survive,” Rogge told reporters in Brussels.

“I think the main place for the crisis is at grassroots level, the small clubs, national federations, some national Olympic committees. They say it’s getting extremely difficult to find sponsorships.”

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Asian countries will unfortunately support Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, Chinese State Sports General Administration Director Liu Peng told Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone on Monday, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry. In response to Nakasone’s request to support the bid, China’s state sports director said Japan is capable of hosting a successful Olympic Games.
Since Japan has several Human rights issues still open it should put efforts on that before having international events. Japan is still not a foreign-friendly country and foreigners are viewed with suspicion.
Liu was also quoted as saying that he felt that the Japanese government and people are determined to host the Olympics, after seeing the sites that would be used for the event. The Chinese official expressed the hope of promoting sports exchanges with Japan.

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The city of Madison and the surrounding area, home to three major bicycle companies, will serve as the cycling hub for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in the event Chicago is chosen as the host city.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle Friday announced the selection by the Chicago 2016 Committee, which is organizing Chicago’s bid for the 2016 games.
“Not only is Madison a great place to live, it’s the nation’s premier area for bike riding,” Doyle said. “I am pleased that the Chicago 2016 Committee has chosen Madison to be its cycling hub and can’t wait for people from around the world to discover our beautiful region.”
To select an ideal venue, the bid committee worked collaboratively with cycling experts, Olympic athletes and the International Cycling Union (UCI) to select courses that are technically challenging and conducive to high-level competition.
The Wisconsin Road Cycling Course would begin on the campus of the University of Wisconsin, head east through downtown and feature several steep climbs near the finish line in Blue Mound State Park. The Wisconsin Mountain Bike circuit would take place in Tyrol Basin, a popular ski and snowboard destination in the winter that makes for a technically challenging course that meets the needs of the athletes while allowing for a great spectator experience during the Games, state officials said.
Doyle said Madison has one of the most extensive bike trail systems in the United States. Pacific Cycle, Trek and Saris, three of the cycling industry’s leading companies, are based in the Madison area.
Chicago is competing against Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid for the right to host the 2016 Olympics. The four candidate cities have until Feb. 12 to submit their plans to the International Olympic Committee. The final decision on the host city will be made by the full IOC membership on Oct. 2 during the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen.

source. bizjournals.com

Singapore 2010 Youth Olympics logo

On Saturday January 10th, about three months delayed, The Singapore Youth Olympics 2010 logo was unveiled, and the results of the public logo competition were announced.
A new emblem is born. On Saturday, Singapore 2010 launched its official emblem for the 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games. “The emblem embodies the spirit of the Youth Olympic Games and represents the blending of the IOC’s and Singapore Organising Committee’s vision to bring the youth of the world together,” said IOC President Jacques Rogge in his message.

Colourful and vibrant
The emblem illustrates in a colourful and vibrant way the passion of sport with the champions in its centre. It will be a strong ambassador for Singapore 2010.

An event in itself
The emblem launching ceremony was accompanied by sports demonstrations based on the new disciplines of the 2010 Games sports programme (like basketball 3 on 3) and a 2010m run with many Singaporean youngsters participating.

Singapore 2010 Logo

Sport, Culture and Education
Some 3,594 athletes from all 205 National Olympic Committees will compete in Singapore in 26 sports comprising 201 events. Besides the sports competitions programme, the YOG will feature an extensive Cultural and Educational Programme (CEP), which aims to introduce, in a fun and festive spirit, the young athletes to Olympism and the Olympic values, and to raise awareness of important issues such as the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, the fight against doping and their role as sports ambassadors in their communities.

source: olympic.org

Singapore Youth Olympics 2010 logo

A new emblem is born. On Saturday, Singapore 2010 launched its official emblem for the 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games. “The emblem embodies the spirit of the Youth Olympic Games and represents the blending of the IOC’s and Singapore Organising Committee’s vision to bring the youth of the world together,” said IOC President Jacques Rogge in his message.

Colourful and vibrant
The emblem illustrates in a colourful and vibrant way the passion of sport with the champions in its centre. It will be a strong ambassador for Singapore 2010.

An event in itself
The emblem launching ceremony was accompanied by sports demonstrations based on the new disciplines of the 2010 Games sports programme (like basketball 3 on 3) and a 2010m run with many Singaporean youngsters participating.

Singapore 2010 Logo

Sport, Culture and Education
Some 3,594 athletes from all 205 National Olympic Committees will compete in Singapore in 26 sports comprising 201 events. Besides the sports competitions programme, the YOG will feature an extensive Cultural and Educational Programme (CEP), which aims to introduce, in a fun and festive spirit, the young athletes to Olympism and the Olympic values, and to raise awareness of important issues such as the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, the fight against doping and their role as sports ambassadors in their communities.

source: olympic.org

The city’s proposal to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games has strong ties to Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago. The bid’s motto, “Stir the soul,” plays on the famous words attributed to Burnham: “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” And in the spirit of the Burnham Plan, the effort’s mastermind aims to leave a great physical legacy for future generations of Chicagoans.

Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin spoke with Chicago 2016 chairman and CEO Patrick Ryan (left) about the bid. An edited transcript follows:

Q. What’s the relationship between the history of the modern Olympic Games, which were founded by French educator Pierre de Coubertin, and the Burnham Plan?

A. De Coubertin was developing the modern Olympic movement in Paris at the same time Burnham was developing the plan for the City of Chicago. There’s a real kinship between the two of them in their ideals and visions: the importance of body and mind; the importance of aiming high; and the importance of achieving lasting results.

Q. How are you drawing upon these connections in preparing Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Summer Games?

A. As we were planning our Olympic bid, we looked back in history to see the impact of the Burnham Plan. The vision that he had — of the lakefront and keeping the parks open and everything for the people — is something that really shapes our plan.

Q. What sort of legacy might the 2016 Games leave in Burnham Park and the portion of that park called Northerly Island?

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Preparations for the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) gained
further momentum at the end of the year with the launch of two new programmes: the Olympic Education Programme (OEP) and Friends@YOG. “Since Singapore won the bid to host the 2010 YOG, our schools have been actively organising various activities to intensify the YOG buzz. These two new initiatives will further lay the foundation for a successful and memorable YOG event in 2010”, said IOC member and Chairman of the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) Ser Miang Ng at the launch ceremony.

Friends@YOG
Under “Friends@YOG”, each of the 360 Singapore schools will be “twinned” with one of
the 205 National Olympic Committees.” It will be a fun and exciting learning journey for our students as they cultivate a global mindset through the forging of international friendships, learning about other countries’ cultures and developing respect for cultural diversity”, underlined Ser Miang Ng.

Friends@YOG aims to achieve the objectives of:
• building international friendship through collaboration and cultural exchanges among young people;
• promulgating the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect;
• cultivating among young people a global outlook, a passion for sport and good
habits that are part of a healthy lifestyle.

Olympic Education Programme
With the launch of the Olympic Education Programme (OEP), youngsters in Singapore will have more opportunities to experience and embrace the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. They will also get to better understand the diverse cultures of the world. All schools will receive the specially designed “Living Olympism” Education Resource Package as part of the associated teaching materials. Teachers can draw on the various interesting ideas in the package to develop innovative learning activities for students to acquire knowledge about the Olympic Games and understand the Olympic spirit in a fun way.

source: olympic.org

Overnight hotel room inventory during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada are getting a boost from an unlikely source. Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) will park the 1,132 cabin, 91,740 Gross Tonnage ‘Norwegian Star’ passenger liner under a private charter arrangement at Vancouver’s North Shore, directly across from Stanley Park, during the games.
Four night accommodation packages aboard the 2,240 passenger ship range from $2,010 for an inside cabin to $9,400 for the Owners Suite. Six night packages begin at $2,999. Rates are in US Dollars and are based on double occupancy. Third & fourth persons sharing a cabin each pay from $100 per night. Rates do not include service fees, port charges and taxes.
Benefits for Winter Games families staying on the ‘Norwegian Star’ are that meals aboard ship are inclusive as well as 24 hour complimentary in-room meal service and kids & teens ‘Youth Staff’ supervised activities. Nightly ‘Baby Sitter’ services at $5 per hour are also available.
Daily transfers from the ship to Vancouver’s City Transit Hub with connecting access to all Olympic Venues plus Vancouver Airport transfers for arriving and departing ‘Norwegian Star’ GolfAhoy guests are included in package prices.
The 965 ft. long ‘Norwegian Star’ has been chartered by ‘Newest Special Projects 2010 Limited Partnership’, an Edmonton, Alberta travel company for the duration of the Winter Games.

Japanese charts j-pop Top 10

Cabins and packages can be booked through GolfAhoy Cruise Planners, call Toll Free 1-877-415-5442 http://www.GolfAhoyCruisePlanners.com (select the ‘Registration’ tab on the home page) or internationally phone +1-780-415-5442.
Four night minimum ‘Norwegian Star’ 2010 Olympic Winter Games

* Vancouver package dates are from Feb.16 to Feb.20 & from Feb.20 to Feb.24.
* Six night package dates are from Feb.10 to Feb.16 & from Feb.24 to Mar.02.

“If 2010 Winter Olympic Games accommodations aboard a cruise ship are not your first choice, GolfAhoy Cruise Planners is offering four night minimum hotel and Olympic event ticket packages at the Four Seasons Resort Whistler located in the village on Blackcomb Mountain from $8,650; Marriott Vancouver from $8,950 and Plaza 500 Hotel Vancouver from $6,325. These GolfAhoy four nights Winter Olympic hotel packages come with Category A Tickets to three Alpine events, $200 daily F&B hotel credits and $100 daily Spa credit per room and on site GolfAhoy VIP hospitality center with complimentary beverages and snacks,” added Anthony Webber, Managing Director, Caribbean Cruise Lines (Canada) Ltd. and U.S. subsidiary GolfAhoy Cruise Planners http://www.GolfAhoyCruisePlanners.com
Golfers from around the world visiting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games might be inclined to add a two or three day pre or post Olympic Games golf add-on excursion package to their travel plans. GolfAhoy http://www.GolfAhoy.com/7820 has exclusive escorted group golf trips to the 4 Star Crown Isle Golf Resort on picturesque Vancouver Island.

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Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda plans to ask outspoken Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara to make a presentation in Lausanne, Switzerland, in June for the Japanese capital’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. ‘‘We need Governor Ishihara, who is also the bid committee chief, to make an appeal,’’ Takeda said Monday, referring to the occasion when the four finalist cities will be granted the opportunity to speak before International Olympic Committee members.

The IOC will name the host city of the 2016 Olympics from among Tokyo, Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro at its general assembly meeting in Copenhagen in October 2009. ‘‘I believe the governor knows he is the one. He is a charismatic person known even to the media overseas,’’ said Mitsuru Arakawa, a senior official of the 2016 Tokyo Olympics campaign.
Tokyo is bidding for the 2016 Olympic Games but Japan should look at basic Human Rights Issues and only then after international events!

Amnesty International argues that the Japanese justice system tends to place great reliance on confessions and it has been claimed that these may be obtained under duress. According to a 2005 Amnesty International report:

“Most have been sentenced to death on the basis of confessions extracted under duress. The potential for miscarriages of justice is built into the system: confessions are typically extracted while suspects are held in daiyo kangoku, or “substitute prisons”, for interrogation before they are charged. In practice these are police cells, where detainees can be held for up to 23 days after arrest, with no state-funded legal representation. They are typically interrogated for 12 hours a day: no lawyers can be present, no recordings are made, and they are put under constant pressure to confess. Once convicted, it is very difficult to obtain a re-trial and prisoners can remain under sentence of death for many years.”

Amnesty International also reports of allegations of abuse of suspects during these interrogations. There are reports of physical abuse, sleep deprivation and denial of food, water and use of a toilet. It also criticises the fact that inmates usually remain for years, sometimes decades, on death row, knowing that executions come with little warning and each day may potentially be their last. According to Amnesty International, the intense and prolonged stress means many inmates on death row have poor mental health, suffering from the so called Death row phenomenon. The failure to give advanced notice of executions has been stated by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to be incompatible with articles 2, 7, 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

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THE past year will be remembered as the year of the “Lightning” Bolt that struck at the Beijing Olympic Games. Usain Bolt certainly stunned the world with his world record-breaking performances in the 100 and 200 metre sprints. Next year‘s world championship meeting in August in Berlin will be the highlight of the world athletics calendar and will surely deliver another round of explosive performances from the sprinter.

The question is: How much faster can Bolt still go? Then the question is also asked whether defending world champion Tyson Gay will be able to bounce back or will Asafa Powell be the dark horse to content with?

Bolt has been hinting at competing in the 400m and a Bolt, Jeremy Wariner and LaShawn Merrit race might just blow some life into the sport again.

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As athletes stroke the sporting gold at the Beijing Olympic Games, those big-name sporting brands hope that the effort or cash spent in preparation for the Games would also be proved lucrative. However, sometimes, things are unpredictable, just like “anything is possible”.

Being one of the of ficial sponsors, Adidas, involved with the Games since 1928, determined to secure a bigger slice of the Chinese market, where it is in strong competition with Nike.

“The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will serve as a platform for the brand to become the leading sports brand in China,” said Erica Kerner, director of Adidas’s Beijing 2008 Olympic program me. Through a combination of TV, pr int , outdoor, public relations, digital, point-of-sale and roadshows across the country, the”Im possible is Nothing” Olympic marketing campaign aims to bring sport engagement with Chinese consumers to a new level”.

Especial ly on July 5, Adidas opened its largest Brand Center worldwide, with a size of 3,170m² occupying four floors, inside the new Sanlitun Village Shopping Center in Beijing, featuring a range of unique interact ive elements that will provide consumers with a truly special retail experience.

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IT’s a strange world in which Michael Phelps can win a record eight Olympic gold medals and still be challenged for pre-eminence in the year of the Beijing Games.

But a bolt from the blue Caribbean, in the shape of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, managed to drag the spotlight from the Water Cube to the Bird’s Nest, as two of history’s greatest athletes framed the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge declared the two men the “icons of the Games”.

In a record-breaking year for records, the pair were also the foremost exponents of the art of going where no athlete has gone before.

Appropriately for the first Olympics staged in China, Phelps and Bolt represented the Yin and Yang of great champions — the swimmer and the runner, water and earth, a diet of 12,000 calories a day versus chicken nuggets for breakfast. Phelps lit up the Games by day (thanks to NBC’s insistence on morning finals in the pool) and Bolt by night.

But where Phelps’ triumphant march was expected, even demanded (NBC was counting on it), Bolt’s sudden rise to superstardom was a joyous gift for his troubled sport, beset by doping scandals which had tarnished its credibility along with some once-great names.

It takes a huge talent to hold 90,000 people in thrall but Bolt captured them at the Bird’s Nest from the moment he dashed down the straight to win the 100m in a world record 9.69sec, becoming the fastest man on the planet, despite a side-stepping celebration over the last 20m that may have cost him up to 0.1sec.

But Bolt’s Calypso rhythm and youthful exuberance brought much-needed star quality to the main stadium.

The only time that 21-year-old Bolt was deadly serious was when he stepped onto the blocks for the 200m final. A 200m specialist as a junior competitor, he was desperate to break his hero Michael Johnson’s lauded world record of 19.32sec from Atlanta in 1996.

Bolt ran the half-lap with his eyes only on that mark and every fast-twitch fibre straining forward, stopping the clock in an astonishing 19.30sec.

And he wasn’t finished there. The showman of the Games then combined with former world 100m record-holder Asafa Powell and his Jamaican team-mates to set a third world record in the 4×100m relay.

His name was attached to three of the five world records to fall at the Bird’s Nest.

If Bolt was the king of the track, Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva was the queen of the air, after she soared to a world record of 5.05m in the pole vault to clinch her second successive Olympic gold medal.

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Relish the memories – 2008 was a special year for sport, and the outlook for the next few does not appear half so rosy.

Next year is thin in terms of big international events. The World Athletics Championships take place in Berlin, and it is left to rugby union – a minority sport globally – to provide another highlight when the British and Irish Lions tour South Africa, the world champions. And further ahead, the successor hosts of two of this year’s stellar events, the Olympic Games and the European Football Championships, have hard acts to follow, with fewer resources and the global economic crisis to combat.

The Beijing Olympics was the apex of 2008. China opened its doors to the world and demonstrated that it could organise a successful sporting extravaganza. It did so by hurling massive amounts of money and manpower at the Games, in a manner that perhaps only an authoritarian state could. The yin and yang nature of the event was symbolised by the happiness and pride of the Chinese people at hosting the world’s biggest sporting party on the one hand, and their government’s refusal to budge an inch over human rights on the other.

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