Volodymyr Gerashchenko, a senior Ukrainian Olympic official, has been suspended after a BBC investigation showed he was willing to unofficially sell 2012 tickets for cash. Volodymyr Gerashchenko, of Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee (NOC), told a reporter posing as a UK tout he would have up to 100 tickets to sell. It is a criminal offence, punishable by fines of up to £20,000 ($32,000),…
ic Games begin on 29 August 20012 and close on 9 September 2012. During the London 2012 Olympic Games top sportsmen and women from across the world will be competing in 26 sports which break down into 39 disciplines. There are 20 sports in the Paralympic schedule in the London 2012 Games. An Olympic Park has been created on 2.5sq km of land in east London from former industrial land that has been…
c mirror. The ceremony came amid political and economic turmoil in Greece, the home of the Ancient Olympics, where a week-long leg of the relay will be held. The flame flies to Britain on 18 May for a 70-day relay around the UK. The lighting ceremony took place in front of the ruins of the Temple of Hera, next to the ancient stadium. Actresses playing Olympic priestesses danced and men dressed as…
ken on a week-long tour of Greece. A British delegation including David Beckham are due to fly with the torch to the UK on Friday. It will then be carried 8,000 miles (12,875 km) by 8,000 bearers in a 70-day relay ending at the Olympic Park. The relay begins at Land’s End on Saturday when triple Olympic sailing champion Ben Ainslie will be the first to carry the torch on British soil. After…
London’s Olympic Stadium will welcome the athletics events later in the day, ensuring the Olympic Park’s busiest day since the Games opened a week ago. More than 200,000 people will be at the park, prompting warnings for those not attending the Games to avoid the area. The Central Line, which serves the Olympic Park in Stratford, is suspended from Liverpool Street to Leytonstone. It f…
Aug 3 2012 | Posted in
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regulations by providing a glut of sponsored messages for high calorie food and drink that are at odds with the Olympian athletic ideal.” The restaurant will be McDonald’s first sustainable outlet and 75% of the building and fittings will be recycled or reused. It is part of London 2012’s bid to be “the greenest Games ever”. While the restaurants serve fast food to the hungry public, McDonald’s ex…
Last night, at the Olympic Opening Ceremony, Queen Elizabeth II appeared in her first movie acting role and proved herself an instant comedy hit. Her Majesty was seen in a film alongside James Bond actor Daniel Craig before apparently “parachuting” into the stadium for the opening ceremony. The recorded sequence opened at Buckingham Palace, where a tuxedo-wearing Daniel Craig as 007 w…
2012 Olympics stadium has been officially opened by nine-year-old Niamh Clarke-Willis at a ceremony in east London. Niamh Clarke-Willis joined LOCOG head Lord Sebastian Coe to hit a button which launched balloons into the sky above the venue for this summer’s Games. Around 40,000 members of the public were at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford to witness the opening, which included a laser li…
The official Olympic flag has arrived in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, the host city of 2016 Games. Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes waved the flag after stepping off the plane with other officials and Brazilian athletes who competed in London. The flag was handed to Eduardo Paes on Sunday in London before the flame at the Olympic Stadium was extinguished. The move marks the official start of Rio&#…
Aug 14 2012 | Posted in
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an Coe told the crowd: “Prepare to be inspired, prepare to be dazzled, prepare to be moved.” The Queen said: “The Games are returning to the country where they first began, more than 60 years ago.” Earlier, athletes paraded around the Olympic Stadium, with Paralympics GB entering last to huge cheers. The opening ceremony, co-directed by Jenny Sealey and Bradley Hemmings, si…
Aug 30 2012 | Posted in
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Spectators who attended a preview of the Olympic Games opening ceremony have been urged to keep the details secret and not spoil the surprise for others. Thousands of people who attended a rehearsal on Monday were asked not to circulate images or videos. Danny Boyle, the ceremony’s artistic director, reportedly addressed the audience to “save the surprise”. About 62,000 are set…
Jul 24 2012 | Posted in
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…eron earlier said the London Games would show the world “beyond doubt that Britain can deliver”. The flame ended the day in Hyde Park where the final torchbearer lit a cauldron in front of 60,000 people who have gathered for a celebratory concert. London Mayor Boris Johnson wished the crowds a “wonderful” Olympics, and thanked them for their support. “Are we ready? Ye…
Jul 26 2012 | Posted in
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ar-right Golden Dawn party, criticizing Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s stance on immigration. She had previously retweeted several links to videos promoting the views of Golden Dawn, which won 7% of the vote in Greece’s recent elections, and had directly communicated online with Ilias Kasidiaris. Ilias Kasidiaris gained notoriety for slapping one left-wing woman politician and throwi…
Jul 25 2012 | Posted in
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The Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in four zones across the city, the Brazilian organizing committee has said. Plans for their eight-minute segment in the London 2012 closing ceremony on Sunday night have also been set out at London’s Olympic Park. They said pure Brazilian samba would demonstrate the country’s passion. Events will be at Copacabana Beach, the Olympi…
Aug 11 2012 | Posted in
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Two helicopters have crashed near Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, leaving at least two people dead and several others injured. The helicopters hit each other in mid-air during a police exercise. German Bild newspaper said one of the pilots was killed and four people were injured, two of them seriously. Footage showed the two aircraft on their side in the snow. Some 400 federal police officers wer…
…a mass bell ringing. Big Ben rang for three minutes for the first time since King George VI’s funeral in 1952. The three-and-a-half hour show was rehearsed more than 200 times, with each of the 7,500 volunteers spending on average 150 hours practicing during the build-up. The event used 12,956 props and boasted a million-watt PA system using more than 500 speakers. Thousands of fans also ga…
Jul 28 2012 | Posted in
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…preview of the experience on Friday morning. At 114.5 metres (376 ft), the Orbit is the tallest sculpture in the UK – twice the height of Nelson’s Column. The tangled steel lattice – 63% of which is recycled steel – incorporates the five Olympic rings. “We wanted to make something that was kind of a deconstruction of the tower,” said Anish Kapoor. “Towers…
More than 750 gadget fans spent hours of waiting in line outside Apple’s flagship store in New York to get their hands on the new iPad, which went on sale at 8:00 a.m. today. The lines outside the Fifth Avenue store were even longer than experts expected, with people huddling together in sleeping bags – and others making money off their places in the line. Amanda Foote, who camped for…
The Brazilian stadium that was due to host athletics at the 2016 Olympics has been closed indefinitely because of structural problems with its roof. The Joao Havelange stadium in Rio de Janeiro was built only six years ago. The stadium was also being used as the main football venue in Rio, while the city’s Maracana stadium is being renovated for the 2014 World Cup. It is an embarrassment fo…
Mar 27 2013 | Posted in
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The Olympic Stadium will be transformed “into the British countryside” for the opening ceremony of the Games on 27 July, which has a £27 million ($43.2 million) budget. A cast of 10,000 volunteers will help recreate country scenes, against a backdrop featuring farmyard animals and landmarks like Glastonbury Tor. The opening scene will be called Green and Pleasant, artistic director Da…
Jun 12 2012 | Posted in
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…o cheat,” says John Hoberman. He believes the more money you offer, especially in poorer countries, the greater the chance an athlete will be tempted to dope. How much for a gold medal at London 2012 Olympics: • Singapore – $800,000 • Kazakhstan – $250,000 • Kyrgyzstan – $200,000 • Uzbekistan – $150,000 • Russia – $135,000 • Tajikistan – $63,000 • US ̵…
Aug 4 2012 | Posted in
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ton Court Palace and being carried down the Thames on the final day of the torch relay. Around 50 boats took part in the flotilla, each reflecting London’s waterborne heritage. The flame’s 70-day nationwide journey ends with the lighting of the cauldron during this evening’s opening ceremony but the identity of the person who will take on the honor remains a mystery. Five-times r…
Jul 27 2012 | Posted in
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has begun an investigation into claims Olympics representatives were willing to sell thousands of tickets for the London Games on the black market. The IOC’s ruling executive board met after fresh claims by the Sunday Times involving more than 50 countries. This included allegations that tickets for top events were available for up to 10 times their…
Jun 17 2012 | Posted in
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; with the Games, and he was a “very happy and grateful man”. “It has been a dream for sports lovers,” he said, adding that history had been made by many athletes. The revamped 560-acre (227-hectare) Olympic Park site – to be known as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – is set to reopen in stages starting on the first anniversary of the opening of the Games, on 2…
Aug 12 2012 | Posted in
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ium has reopened after nearly three years of renovations to prepare it for the World Cup finals in 2014. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Rio de Janeiro’s Mayor Eduardo Paes were among the 30,000-strong crowd watching the friendly between teams captained by Ronaldo and Bebeto. But the Jornal do Brasil said Saturday’s visitors “needed patience to deal with the many problems&…
