Olympics
FINA Postpones New Omega Starting Block Until After Olympics
FINA has decided to delay the inception of the new Omega starting blocks until after the 2008 Olympic Games. The new blocks, with the “wedge” in the back to mimic a track starting block, debuted at the Water Cube test event a couple weeks ago and caused quite a stir ever since.
British Swimming Gets Organized, Announces 2012 Team
Okay, in fairness, British Swimming has not announced their Olympic Team for London yet. Rather, the Organization has announced a group of 139 athletes that they believe show the highest potential to lift British Swimming to the highest level of success in four years time. The group will convene this weekend to hear British Olympic heroes such […]
Survey Out of China: Swimming Favorite Recreation of Millionaires
The fourth annual Preferred Lifestyle and Brands of China’s Richest reported that swimming is the favorite recreational activity (beating out driving BMW’s and travelling to France) of the 660 millionaires interviewed by the report. In related news every single swimming company, professional swimmer and agent in America reinforced their Asian marketing plans.
Water Cube Construction Complete, Internal Photos Released
The vaunted “Water Cube”, the pool for the 2008 Olympic Games, is done. Workers are now finishing up with the seating and diving platforms, putting the finishing touches on the cutting edge facility. This thing looks pretty amazing…
NBC Teams up with Microsoft for Groundbreaking Web Coverage of Olympics
Those of you without Tivo don’t have to ask a family member to tape the events you can’t make it home to watch. That’s because NBC today announced the creation of NBCOlympics.com, a site dedicated to Olympic videos, media and more. With the help of Microsoft technology the site is planned to feature 2,200 hours […]
Beijing Ticket Sales on Track
According to the Beijing Organizing Committees of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) ticket sales for the Games are on track. Specifically, swimming along with the sports in which China is historically the strongest (gymnastics, diving and table tennis), are already overbooked. According to the BOCOG, 2,000,000 tickets have been bought by 340,000 purchasers as of last week.
Sports Journalists Were Spied on While in China
Sports journalists in China for the Women’s World Cup have recently filed a complaint with the international Soccer governing body, FIFA, about Chinese spying on them. This is not good news for anyone, as this was a major concern when awarding China the 2008 Olympics and brings up numerous questions on whether or not true journalistic […]
Will Bush be Watching Michael Phelps in Beijing?
In the middle of intense political discussions with Chinese President Hu Jintao concerning Iran, the trade deficit and North Korea, President Bush accepted an invitation to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing. This is a pretty huge commitment, particularly considering that Democratic Candidates have even tossed around the idea of boycotting the Olympics. Could President […]
Australian Olympic Director Controlling Everything But Athletes’ Politics in Beijing
Determined to improve upon its performance in Athens, the Australian Olympic Committee is doing everything in its power to help its athletes in China. From dealing with pollution and food poisoning to travel, Director John Coates is trying to control all the variables. His inclination to control has also brought some complaints from athletes that […]
Government Urged to Crack Down on Steroids in Prep for 2012
Let me first say that I am somewhat hesitant about the idea of someone being imprisoned for failing a drug test at the Olympic Games. It is with this mindset that I approached the idea of a discussion going on in Britain about, as The Times put it, “[making] criminals of drug users at 2012 Games.” […]
Youth Olympic Festival OK’ed by IOC
In an attempt to combat health maladies such as childhood obesity, the International Olympic Committee has announced that it will begin staging Youth Olympic Festivals every four years, starting in 2010. The Festival, modeled after the Olympic Games, will feature an estimated 3,200 athletes from around the world, with the winter version to have a […]
Reports Out of China Say Ticket Sales Look Good
Remember watching all those events on TV in 2004, seeing crowds at half-capacity? China does not seem as worried about all of this as they are reporting that tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies are over-subsribed already, and they will have to have a drawing to determine the allocation. Of course, when three quarters […]
China Says Continued Suspicion of Doping is “Unfair”
Turns out that the world has difficulty forgetting that China, just last decade, had a lot of problems with doping. Weird. Zhao Jian, head of the Chinese Olympic Committee Anti-Doping Commission, however, is sick of it. “I think it is unfair on us, we have to keep pushing our work and letting people know what […]
China Looks to Ensure it has a “Clean” Team Next Year
China wants to ensure that it has no doping athletes at the Olympics next year and is building up its anti-doping capacities in order to accomplish this. “An effective anti-doping programme will count in assessing whether the Beijing Olympic Games next year is successful or not,” Zhao Jian, head of the Anti-Doping Commission told […]
Some U.S. Presidential Candidates Consider Boycott of Beijing Olympics
While watching the Democratic presidential debates this past weekend I was drawn to the edge of my chair when New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson told the crowd, “We need China, to lean on China, which has enormous leverage over Darfur. And if the Chinese don’t want to do this, we say to them, maybe we won’t go […]
Gold Medal Mel Mel Stewart
The Swimmers' Ear Mike Gustafson
Top 5 Tuesday David Cromwell
In My Mind Nathan Jendrick