Olympics 2012 - 16

CONDOM GATE

There has been much written about the “must use” only Olympic sponsors items at the Olympics, though judging by the number of luminous yellow NIKE shoes one sees the athletes running in on the track Adidas have right to be a little miffed. Now comes fresh news of trouble with the “Official Olympic Condom”

Don’t mess with the official condom of the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

That’s essentially the message being sent by LOCOG, the organizing committee of these games, after a bucket of unauthorized condoms was discovered in the Olympic Village.

Condom-gate came to light when Australian BMX cyclist Caroline Buchanan posted a photo of the bucket on her Twitter account, according to The Guardian newspaper.

The bucket was adorned with a sign bearing the message, “Kangaroos condoms, for the gland downunder," and a photo of a boxing kangaroo.

Organizers of the London Games, following a tradition started in Barcelona in 1992 and backed by the IOC, placed 150,000 free Durex condoms in dispensers for the more than 10,000 athletes competing this summer. Durex paid for the right to supply the condoms.

LOCOG officials are trying to determine how the Kangaroo condoms got into the athletes village, a spokeswoman told The Guardian. The condoms apparently came from Durex rivals Ansell Ltd., an Australian company, and Pasante, a private British firm.

The number of condoms supplied at London broke the record of 100,000 offered in Beijing four years ago. Organizers of the 2000 Sydney Games had to pull out an additional 20,000 condoms after the athletes worked their way through the initial allocation of 70,000.

Those who watched the women's vault final on Sunday probably saw American gymnastMcKayla Maroney visibly less than enthused about grabbing the silver medal in the competition. (We need not look further than Maroney appearing to snub a Russian competitor's congratulatory hug, which many interpreted as intentional.) Maroney is the defending world champion on the apparatus and was the favorite coming into the event following her seemingly flawless vault in the team final, so her dismay was understandable.

Now a meme involving a photo of Maroney on the medal stand that night with a begrudging look on her face is making inroads in the online humor community. It's even spawned its own Tumblr page. Here are some of our favorites of "McKayla is Not Impressed":

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Olympics 2012 - 15

From the Bronte's to the Brownlee's

As I spent my time at the Olympic stadium on Tuesday enjoying an atmosphere that seemed ready to irrupt into frenzy of British pride for the smallest reason, .just enjoying the wave of pride and emotion that is covering my country right now.

It was almost beyond my comprehension as the tidal wave of ran through the people like an giant Mexican wave through the stadium, around the surrounding venues, walk ways ad parks where hundreds of thousands cheered every event and athlete. Smiling faces of every age and from all 204 surrounding countries covered in flags of every nation fill a transport system that whizzes you to your Olympic destination seemingly before you can say “gold medal”.

Not just the audience are enjoying them selves, the picture of the athletes parting after their events fill the papers, Cameroon has seven athletes that have disappeared, seemingly wanting to stay in Britain.

In the velodrome the cycling completed with “team GB” as it is known winning more gold I every event except three events. Even in those three events two medals and a disqualification (while leading) showed British cyclist superiority. France (always the French) have winged about secret motors inside and the fact that Britain have specials “extra round wheels”... There was an article in the paper on Monday when something strange happened in the velodrome as another countries anthem was played instead of the of “God Save the Queen”, not by mistake but just for the first time in so many events GB had not won the gold.

Yorkshire is a large county in the North of England, home of Charlotte Bronte, location for Wothering Heights etc, sometimes called “Gods Own Country”. It is at no little pride for those living there that if that one county was a country they alone have one more gold medals than the countries such as Australia, France and Spain.

In amongst the success, there are a few athletes that have tried to compete while injured only to fail. The support I was witness to of a Mexican athlete in the woman's 5000mtrs receiving as the padded round the track way behind the rest of the field, like a rolling wave of thunder following in her around the track showing the encouragement that every watcher is seemingly there to provide.

In the final of the team horse show jumping a Brazilian rider had the seemingly every fence down, even a fence where one of the poles was knocked off by the wind he went on to almost demolish the rest of the fence.

Yesterday I was one of the crowd enjoying the quarter finals of the men's basketball, in a different location to my previous visitiation and another full of the nations from all part sof the world, where several of the planned thousand used basketballs were being slammed and dunked.

While the closing ceremony plans are well underway, based on London, and the history of British music with stars such as The Who and even the “Spice Girls” scheduled to appear (did I say stars) there is a sad note to type about. The scheduled reunion of “Take That” might now not take place after singer Gary Barlow might well not appear. Earlier this week, his expected fourth child was sadly “still born” something that obviously might be more important than appearing in the closing ceremony.

I have said before this whole Olympics is just making my so proud to be British, the trips to the stadium or what I have seen on the TV have only gone to fill my heart with this pride and overflowing exuberance for my homeland.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Olympics 2012 -13

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One of the to the London 2012 Olympics staff on the track you might not have noticed is the Mini MINI. Three Mini MINIs painted red, white and blue  almost “Italian Job” that's the first one with Michel Caine are being deployed for the crucial task of retrieving hammer, shot and javelins for the athletes. They are operated by Games Makers assigned and trained for this duty.  

The cars are roughly a quarter scale of the full-sized car and carry the athletic equipment situated inside, accessible through the adapted sunroof.  

While I'm typing up this the final of the Olympic 100 meteres is coming up in an hour or so, but spare a thought for some of the less auspicious athletes. In the qualifying of the 100meteres a slightly tubby 32 year old  Chris Meke Walasi clocked 11:42 seconds in the heats... and he didn't even finish last 

Another great day for team great Britain and the Olympics in general, special celebrations continue at the track following yesterdays three gold medals, on the water Britannia rules the waves, cycling and gymnastics add further medals and even in tennis “yes tennis” team GB win a gold and a silver. These victories adding another two stamps the the gold medal collection issues by the post office. 

With everything going on in the Olympic village, 36 year old Former world champion Kim Collins was removed from the 100 meters event by the St Kitts and Nevis officials for spending a night in a hotel “with his wife”. 

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

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OLYMPICS 2012 - 5

 

What has been around the world, has three sides and 8000 holes?

Answer the Olympic torch

Ed Barber and Jay Osgerby, designers of the London 2012 torch, explained that the triangular shape of the torch is for the three times London has been the host city - 1908, 1948 and 2012 - and the 8,000 holes in it match the number of relay runners.

London has become a hot ticket since it won the honor of hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics. Getting to the Games by plane from just about any corner of the globe can cost quite a big chunk of change if you don't have enough cash or frequent flyer miles to get you there. One Chinese man may have found a way around that, assuming you have super strong calves and a couple of years to spare.

Chen Guanming a 57-year-old farmer from the eastern village of Jiangsu, has made it to London just in time for the start of the Games today. He claims he got there on a rickshaw, according to the Associated Press.

His long journey started all the way back in 2008 during the Summer Games in Beijing. A British media outlet invited him to attend the Games in London but he couldn't pay for a plane ticket to get there. So in April 2010, he started pedaling toward Great Britain.

Chen told the AP that he had to traverse through some rough terrain to get to London, including flooding in Thailand and a dangerous snowstorm in Turkey, but he stuck through it and was able to ride his rickshaw all the way to France where he caught a ferry to get to London.

Of course, the irony is that after pedaling his rickshaw thousands of miles, there's no way he'll be able to find a parking space for that thing in London...

Before the games has been officially opened he first two world records of London 2012 have been claimed by South Korea in the men's archery ranking round. 

Im Dong-hyun, who is legally blind in one eye broke his own individual record by three points in Friday's ranking round, while in the team event, South Korea, who have won 15 gold medals since 1984 set a new world record for 216 arrows.

According to reports, nine athletes were told that their services would no longer be required on Wednesday due to a series of drug, doping, and other chemically-induced alterations were discovered in their small plastic bottle.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry