GAMES

The organisers of the London 2012 Olympics marked Monday’s 200-day countdown to the start of the Games by confirming legacy plans for three of the event’s key competition venues.

Construction giant Balfour Beatty PLC has secured the contract to run the Olympic Park, which includes the 115-metre high AccelorMittal Orbit feature, following the Games in a 10-year deal worth a reported £50 million. Meanwhile the Aquatics Centre and multi-use Handball Arena will be operated by Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL). The new contracts are expected to create at least 254 jobs on the Park, which will host showcase events such as athletics, track cycling and swimming when the Games commence on July 27.

By combining two venues in one contract, the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) has ensured that the Aquatics Centre will not require any additional public subsidy as the Arena will cross subsidise it. Further revenue will be generated from naming rights for both venues, which will be on offer at a later date. The agreements mean that only anchor tenants remain to be found for the Olympic Stadium and Press and Broadcast Centre, with organisers claiming their progress puts them ahead of any other Olympic host city at a comparative stage.

“GLL and Balfour Beatty WorkPlace will play a key part in the creating a Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park that is a thriving visitor destination with world-class sporting venues that are both affordable and accessible to the public,” said Baroness Margaret Ford, chair of the OPLC. “Today’s appointments are just another example of how London’s legacy plans are further ahead than any previous host Olympic City. By working closely with sporting bodies and our local communities now, we can ensure that these venues will have a full and compelling programme of activities for when they reopen after the Games.”

As part of the 200-day countdown, London 2012 also released details of new Games-time naming for selected venues and spectator areas in the Olympic Park. The Hockey Centre will now be known as the Riverbank Arena reflecting the venue’s location next to the River Lea in the Olympic Park. Meanwhile, the Handball Arena will be renamed as the Copper Box with a view to the venue’s boxed-shape and distinct copper cladding.

Monday also saw UK Prime Minister David Cameron hold his first cabinet meeting of the New Year at the Olympic Park, instead of at Downing Street. The British government will stage a number of business summits during the Games which it hopes will raise an additional £1 billion of revenue for British companies. “I want the message to go out loud and clear, from tourism to business, sport to investment, we are determined to maximise the benefits of 2012 for the whole country,” said Cameron. “Today, as we mark 200 days to go, and six out of the eight Olympic venues having already secured their future, we are well on track to delivering a lasting legacy for the whole of Britain.”

By Matt Cutler

Source: www.sportbusiness.com

January 10 - Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) has spoken of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) plans to encourage participation in sports up to and beyond this year's Olympics and Paralympics after the proposed new UK School Games received a massive injection of cash.

Alongside a panel featuring the Sport and Olympics Minister, Hugh Robertson, chair of UK Sport Baroness Sue Campbell and the chief executive of Sport England, Jennie Price, Hunt admitted that their intention was to build upon the promise Sebastian Coe made following London 2012's Olympic bid triumph in 2005 when he spoke of inspiring a new generation to participate in sport.

The chances of that sporting legacy coming to fruition was given a huge boost today when Sainsbury's pledged a £10 million ($15.5 million/€18.2 million) package to support the new School Games competition over the next four years.

A further £14 million ($22 million/€17 million) from the Department of Health plus a further £8 million ($12.4 million/€9.7 million) from Sport England will extend funding for School Games organisers from two years to four years, up to 2015.

And sponsorship from adidas means that the 1,600 young athletes who take part in the first event scheduled to take place between May 6 and 9, with the final day's events being held in the Olympic Park, will be provided with sports kit.

Hunt is sure that London hosting this year's Olympics and Paralympics will provide fertile breeding ground for Britain to produce its next batch of champions.

After revealing he used to work in his local Sainsbury's, Hunt said: "Seb spoke to me about sitting cross legged in a hall at school, watching the 1968 Olympics, 'and by the time I was back in that classroom', he said, 'I knew what I wanted to be'.

"In 1984, he became the first person ever to win Olympic gold in the 1500 metres twice in a row – an historic moment for British sport.

"Just as historic was what was happening at home at that moment, when a 14-year-old Kelly Holmes watched Seb's win on TV and decided she wanted to be a 1500m Olympic champion.

"And when she won double gold in Athens in 2004, it was 14-year-old Stacey Smith who decided that she wanted to follow in Kelly's footsteps.

"Even now she says she still watches the video of Kelly's wins for inspiration."

Among those athletes who attended today's launch was former badminton player Gail Emms (pictured below right), who won an Olympic silver medal at Athens in 2004, and Andrew Lapthorne (below left), a quad tennis player who, with Peter Norfolk, is ranked number one in doubles and one of Britain's leading hopes for a medal in the Paralympics later this year.

Hunt said: "The Olympic inspiration is not just for future champions.

"For every Seb, Kelly or Stacey, there are thousands more young people who can be inspired into sport for the sheer pleasure of taking part.

"When we talk about the once in a generation opportunity of hosting a Games at home, this is what we mean: a priceless chance to catch young people at the crucial moment and set them on the path to sport, for life.

"This is what Seb recognised when we promised we would use the Games to inspire a generation.

"As we enter our Olympic year, this is the moment that we need to make good on that promise, and secure the sporting legacy of 2012."

By Declan Warrington

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

January 9 - Australian Olympic cycling duo Patrick Jonker (pictured) and Stuart O'Grady have backed the British Olympic Association (BOA) lifetime ban for drug cheats, such as 2010 world time trial silver medallist David Millar, and believe that the same ruling should apply in their country.

The BOA are now the only National Olympic Committee to have the ruling in place but it could soon be forced remove it after it was declared "non-compliant" with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code.

The issue will be settled in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on March 12 and if it is overturned then Millar, who was suspended for two years after admitting his use of erythropoietin after police found the drug in his home in France in 2004, would be eligible to compete at the Olympics.

But Jonker, a 1992 and 1996 Olympian who was placed 12th overall in the 1996 Tour de France, and O'Grady, the 2007 Paris-Roubaix champion who hopes to compete in his sixth Olympics at London 2012, gave their support to the BOA bylaw saying that doping offenders like Millar.

"I like David Millar," Jonker told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"I would like to see him race the London Olympics, but to set an example for everyone: if you do get caught using performance-enhancing drugs, you should never ride the Olympics again.

"I think the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) should follow the British position if it's blatant, like absolutely black and white and premeditated where it cannot be accidentally ingested.

"There should be a grey area where the athlete can appeal, which there is, but in black and white cases like those of Floyd Landis, David Millar and Tyler Hamilton; for all the black and white cases, there should be a life ban for the Tour de France and Olympics."

O'Grady (pictured left with Millar) agreed with Jonker despite admitting that the issue was certainly a complex one.

"It's a tough one," he said in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.

"I'm good friends with Dave, but I also believe that if you have done something like that, it's not unreasonable that you get a life ban."

Millar is now an outspoken advocate for clean sport and sits on WADA's Athletes' Panel.

The 35-year-old is also the only British rider to have worn all three of the Tour de France's main jerseys (yellow, green and polka dot) and the only Briton to have led all three of cycling's grand tours in France, Italy and Spain.

WADA have argued the BOA bylaw goes beyond their own regulations and amounts to an extra sanction for a doping offence.

But Colin Moynihan (pictured), chairman of the BOA, today continued to defend the bylaw and promised he would do all he could to keep in place for London 2012 when the CAS hear the case.

"The current WADA policy of a serious doping offence just leading to a two-year ban is sending out absolutely the wrong message to young people across the world," he said.

"Our message is different.

"Our message is: if you go out there and you take a cocktail of drugs and you knowingly cheat a fellow member of your team out of selection from the British Olympic team, you will never be selected.

"That message will have stopped a lot of athletes who might have been tempted to take drugs to enhance performance in the past from ever going near them.

"That's why we have had very few positive tests because everyone knows the consequences to those who use drugs to cheat.

"If they are taken away, we think that would be wrong and it would be sending out simply the wrong message.

"We want to make sure we select clean athletes for the Games and we want to make sure that aspiring athletes know that we are going to take a very tough line."

By Tom Degun

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

Mark Cavendish has confirmed he missed an out-of-competition drugs test last year while filming with the BBC on Mount Etna. The world road race champion and Tour de France green jersey holder will face no action as it is not until three tests have been missed that an athlete faces disciplinary action. As an elite competitor the Manxman is expected to be available for testing within certain predetermined times.
"I missed an out of competition test last April," Cavendish, the Olympic road race favourite, said. "It was my mistake. I was with a film crew for the BBC and Giro d'Italia on Mount Etna. It was a simple, genuine administrative error. Of course I totally understand the importance of testing in sport. I was tested by the UCI [cycling's world governing body] a couple of weeks before that and twice in the fortnight after and had around 60 tests in all last year. It's part of the job and it's my job to make sure I don't miss another."
Dave Brailsford, who is the performance director of the British Olympic cycling team and head of Cavendish's trade team, Team Sky, added that he has total faith in his rider. "There is absolutely no doubt about Mark's integrity. I am totally satisfied that he made a genuine mistake. He is tested regularly and is a powerful advocate for testing and ensuring that sport is clean."
Coincidentally, the news about Cavendish emerged on the same day that the International Cycling Union confirmed that France's world sprint champion Grégory Baugé would lose his title after being retrospectively banned for 12 months, from December 2010, owing to two infringements of the anti-doping administration and management system (Adams), through which athletes detail their availability for testing, plus a missed test. It was also announced that another French cyclist, Yoann Offredo, faces a disciplinary hearing after missing three tests.
The Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, which broke the Cavendish story, had suggested the missed test was down to an administrative error on the part of the assistant to whom Cavendish had delegated the task of dealing with his whereabouts. Another element in the story may be the fact that in 2011 the Manx sprinter was spending time between races at both his home in the Italian town of Quarrata and in Essex with his girlfriend, Peta Todd.

By William Fotheringham

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Barcelona 1992 was my second Olympic games and, after the injury disappointment I faced in Seoul in 1988, I was determined to get it right.

In Seoul I was never settled in the hotel or the country and it totally affected my preparations. Every athlete is different but the time difference, the food, the noise, it all played its part to unsettle me.

Then I had to withdraw with an Achilles injury.

I remember when the closing ceremony was taking place I stayed in my hotel room on my own; I didn't even watch. I never felt part of it or like I deserved to be there.

So I was determined to be a part of it in Barcelona four years later. I flew out to our base a week before everyone else, got settled into the hotel and felt good from day one.

As an athlete you have to get the little things right. Before anyone else had arrived I organised the rooms so all the noisy people were down at one end and I was right at the other.

If it makes you feel better, it will help, and the whole British team will have that benefit in 2012. The whole Games have been organised with them in mind.

I strongly believe that having the Olympics in their home country will be a huge advantage for our athletes. To be in London will be a massive boost - our athletes will feel at home instantly.

I felt good in Barcelona and I was running really well. I remember clocking 45 seconds dead in the heats without even trying and it had never felt so easy. So I was running for a medal, no doubt about that.

My hamstrings felt a little bit tight but nothing out of the ordinary. As a sprinter you get used to it after a few races in the space of a few days.

In the semi-final I got out of the blocks well but after 150m or so it felt like I'd been shot in the back of the leg.

The physical pain was intense and that was all that was in my mind for the first few seconds or so.

I got up and I honestly thought I could catch the rest of the runners and still make the final. Even when they were going round the final bend I thought if I started running I had a chance.

But I could barely walk.

There were some medical staff running over to me with a stretcher and ushering me to get on to it - but I just wanted to finish the race by that point.

It wasn't meant as a grand gesture or to prove the point that it is the taking part that counts. I never believed that and I don't think any athletes do. If I didn't think I had a chance of winning then I wouldn't have put myself through it.

It was then that I became aware of my dad running over to me.

He tried to talk me out of it at first. He was telling me that I had nothing to prove and that I didn't need to do this, but I told him I was going to finish. Then he said that we would do it together.

So we did, and I limped over the line in tears.

I wasn't aware of the crowd's reaction at that time; I wasn't really aware of anything at that point.

It was only after I had had some treatment on the injury and left the stadium that I saw all the press waiting for me. I didn't want to talk but agreed to hold a press conference the next day.

I was expecting a handful of reporters but the whole room was packed out.

It obviously captured people's attention and I have been very lucky from that day on. It could have gone one of two ways: people could have taken it as they have or they could have thought I was an idiot.

That was me done after that. I had about eight or nine operations but I was never fit enough to compete again.

Of course I wish things had turned out differently, but I had the chance to run at two Olympics and I'll never forget it.

Derek Redmond was talking to BBC Sport's Tom Rostance.

By Derek Redmond

Source: www.bbc.co.uk