Friday, August 3, 2012

London 2012 Olympics















THE  LONDON  2012
XXX  OLYMPIC  GAMES



*All artwork and images provided by "Google Images". 
Games tables and schedules provided by "Wikipedia".




Images for the London 2012 Games


 
By Felicity Blaze Noodleman



The summer Olympics have arrived again and this time they have been cast in England of all places for the third time in modern Olympic history.  I’m not a big fan of the summer games which is to say I like the winter games so much better.  I really like the winter Olympics.  When the winter games conclude I go into with drawl for about a week afterwards.  That’s how much I like everything about the winter games.



I see Mitt Romney and British PM, David Cameron decided to add a new event to the games.  The presidential candidate Romney voiced a genuine concern in a interview with NBC concerning one of the English security firms hired for the games which was found to have some problems.  I think the rest of the world is concerned about the games being secure as well.  PM David Cameron was offended and seemed somewhat out of touch remarking that the  security for the Salt Lake city games was not such a concern because they were being held in the "middle of nowhere".  That sounded very UN-statesman like to me.   





Romney and Cameron.


One thing which is becoming very clear to me is how much the world has changed since the English hosted their first Olympics in 1908.  How much the balance of power has shifted.  Since 1908 England has suffered through two World Wars and has gone from one of the strongest industrial nations in the world to a more services based economy, which it has become today.


The English are very proud of their heritage but it is a heritage which is long gone.  As is the case with most of Europe the ancient architecture is beginning to crumble and showing its age.  In a world which has grown smaller because of advances in air travel and instant communications, not only England but many European nations which were once considered large and powerful have become less powerful in the world of today.  They are no longer colonial powers and newly emerging economies are becoming the centers of commerce of today's world.






Images of the 1908 and 1948 Summer Olympics held in London






Many of the events have their origins in medieval history which makes England an appropriate setting for the summer games.  They have never hosted the winter games.  Also: as you may know most events hark ens back to the ancient Olympiads of the Greek city states beginning in 776 BC and held in Olympia to honor the Greek god Zeus and continued thru Roman occupation until they were discontinued in 394 AD.  Many modern day sports have been added to the games of today which give the games a well rounded spectrum of interest in keeping with the spirit of the ancient traditions.  




The Games
*  The Following article is reprinted from Wikipedia

Participants






Team sizes

Around 10,500 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) are expected to participate, surpassing the 1948 Summer Olympics in London and the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester as the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in the United Kingdom.

Three athletes from the Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee, which had its membership withdrawn by the IOC Executive Committee at the IOC session of June 2011, and one athlete from South Sudan, which has no recognized NOC, participated independently under the Olympic flag.



Sports

 


The 2012 Summer Olympic programme features 26 sports and a total of 39 disciplines:

  • Canoeing
    • Sprint (12)
    • Slalom (4)
  • Cycling
    • BMX (2)
    • Mountain biking (2)
    • Road (4)
    • Track (10)
  • Equestrian
    • Dressage (2)
    • Eventing (2)
  • Jumping (2)
  • Greco-Roman (7)

For the first time, women's boxing is included in the programme, with 36 athletes competing in three different weight classes. There is a special dispensation to allow the various shooting events to go ahead, which would otherwise be illegal under UK gun law. In Tennis, mixed doubles returns to the Olympic programme for the first time since 1924.

London's bid featured 28 sports, in line with other recent Summer Olympics, but the IOC voted to drop baseball and softball from the 2012 Games two days after it selected London as the host city. The IOC reinforced its decision to drop both sports during the 2006 Winter Olympics, after they lost votes for reconsideration, and were last scheduled for Games at the 2008 Olympics. Following the decision to drop the two sports, the IOC held a vote on whether or not to replace them. The sports considered were karate, squash, golf, roller sports and rugby sevens. Karate and squash were the two final nominees, but neither received enough votes to reach the required two-thirds majority.

Even though formal demonstration sports were eliminated following the 1992 Summer Olympics, special tournaments for non-Olympic sports can be run during the games, such as the Wushu tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics. There were attempts to run Twenty20 cricket, and Netball tournaments parallel with the 2012 games, but neither campaign was successful.

Calendar


The final official schedule was released on 15 February 2011.


OC
Opening ceremony
●
Event competitions
1
Event finals
CC
Closing ceremony





July / August
25
Wed
26
Thu
27
Fri
28
Sat
29
Sun
30
Mon
31
Tue
1
Wed
2
Thu
3
Fri
4
Sat
5
Sun
6
Mon
7
Tue
8
Wed
9
Thu
10
Fri
11
Sat
12
Sun
Events
Ceremonies
OC
CC
Archery
●
1
1
●
●
●
1
1
4
Athletics
2
5
7
5
4
4
5
6
8
1
47
Badminton
●
●
●
●
●
●
1
2
2
5
Basketball
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
1
1
2
Boxing
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
3
●
5
5
13
Canoeing
●
●
1
1
2
●
●
4
4
●
4
16
Cycling
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
●
●
2
1
1
18
Diving
1
1
1
1
●
●
1
●
1
●
1
●
1
8
Equestrian
●
●
●
2
●
●
●
●
1
1
2
6
Fencing
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
10
Field hockey
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
1
1
2
Football
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
1
●
1
2
Gymnastics
●
●
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
3
4
●
●
1
1
18
Handball
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
1
1
2
Judo
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
14
Modern pentathlon
1
1
2
Rowing
●
●
●
●
3
3
4
4
14
Sailing
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
10
Shooting
2
2
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
2
15
Swimming
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
1
1
34
Synchronized swimming
●
●
1
●
1
2
Table tennis
●
●
●
●
1
1
●
●
●
●
1
1
4
Taekwondo
2
2
2
2
8
Tennis
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
2
3
5
Triathlon
1
1
2
Volleyball
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
1
1
●
1
1
4
Water polo
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
1
●
1
2
Weightlifting
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
15
Wrestling
2
3
2
2
2
2
3
2
18
Total events
12
14
12
15
20
18
22
25
23
18
21
17
22
16
32
15
302
Cumulative total
12
26
38
53
73
91
113
138
161
179
200
217
239
255
287
302
July / August
25
Wed
26
Thu
27
Fri
28
Sat
29
Sun
30
Mon
31
Tue
1
Wed
2
Thu
3
Fri
4
Sat
5
Sun
6
Mon
7
Tue
8
Wed
9
Thu
10
Fri
11
Sat
12
Sun




US athletes spend most of their time ether training or competing at other amateur sporting events earning their living from cash prizes and honors.  They also earn income form product endorsements and may have sponsors.  Many train eight hours a day seven days a week - more than most spend working a regular 9 to 5 job.  Another interesting fact for US Olympic athletes is they are required to pay income tax on their actual medals!  Some how that just seems wrong to me, especially when the country has received the prestige for the athletes efforts.



Michael Phelps
The USA team is doing very well at these summer games having won a total of 37 medals putting the US in second place at the time of the posting of this article.  Michael Phelps has set a new Olympic record having won a total of 21 medals since 2000 making him the most decorated man in the Olympics of all time.  He has won 2 Bronze - 3 Silver and 17 Gold medals in his overall Olympic career appearances as of 8.3.12  beginning with Athens (2000) Beijing (2008) and London (2012).  Michael is also the first male athlete to win gold in the "200 meter individual medley" for three consecutive Olympic appearances.   His contributions to team USA have been irreplaceable.  He is the kind of athlete coaches pray for and rarely see!







Mr. "Power Swimmer"!


One of the special qualities of the Olympic Games, I think, is that when you’re really into the event of whatever sport, you lose yourself and your nationality. It is at that moment you appreciate the athlete who has trained so hard to be the best no matter what their nationality. I think that is the true spirit of the Olympics games.





Top 5 Nations Medal Count:  Courtesy "NBC USA Sports" as of  8.3.12









The 2014 Winter Olympics will be coming to Sochi, Russia and I can hardly wait! I think the Olympic Headquarters should put together a “Best of Highlights” reel to help us through the long wait between the games. See you in Sochi - 2014!


Next week we will be taking a look at the US economy today.




Until Next time!

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