Olympic Fever

I have just written a piece bigging up the 2012 Games in the hope of slicing through the cynicism. The Bishop of Barking reckons that cynicism could rise up until two weeks before the opening ceremony. That’s a little less than two years of increased negativity! I’ve given it a shot in less than 300 words. It's only going out through pro-Olympic networks, so I'm probably only raving to the converted.


FYI: This is what you’ll now see if you pass through Stratford station:

(Minus the reflection.)

Swimming Championships in Rome

Yes! Well done to Brits Jo Jackson and Rebecca Adlington for taking the silver and bronze at the Swimming Championships in Rome yesterday. And Rebecca did it in a Speedo LZR (50 per cent polyurethane) while everyone around her went for the 100 per cent polyurethane suits (Jo in Adidas and Italian Federica Pellegrini, who took the gold, in Jaked). The swimming governing body, FINA, announced last week that the suits will be banned from January.

Here is what Rebecca had to say about the suits (I have taken this from The Guardian, but she is quoted in all over the place saying the same thing):

“Maybe I could have gone a little bit faster but I wanted to be able to compare my times last year, and I want to be able to come next year and know that I can hopefully go just as quick, so that’s why I chose to wear this. At the end of the day a suit is not going to swim by itself, it’s the person that is in the suit that’s got to do the work.”

What can you say? Rebecca is a true sporting heroine. Everyone from the Daily Mail to The Guardian loves her. It's a shame to hear the BBC reporting tonight that swimming in Britain is on the decrease. Well, build some more decent pools!

Meanwhile - great news that the Stratford Olympics Stadium is ahead of schedule. London Mayor Boris Johnson was all excited about it on Twitter today – and at the launch of the new high speed train traveling from Kings Cross to Stratford in under seven minutes. That’s great! Now, I wonder if the last Tube out of central London on Friday and Saturday nights could leave at 1am…

2012 Olympics "On Track"

Did anybody else feel like jumping in a lake after reading yesterday’s papers?

Well, for anyone who hasn’t spotted it yet, I have found a snippet of good news in a small, right hand corner of The Guardian, not quite buried on page 15:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/21/2012-olympics-stadium-progress-pictures

Swimming Champions

Woo hoo! Well done to Beijing Olympics double gold-medallist, Rebecca Addlington, and fellow British champion swimmer, Jo Jackson, for smashing the world record for the 400 metres freestyle at the British Swimming Championships last night. Jackson beat Adlington by 0.13 of a second, clocking 4:00.66 sec at Ponds Forge in Sheffield, but both swam under Adlington’s Beijing world record. I hope Adlington qualifies for the World Swimming Championships in Rome!