2012 london olympics.com

2012 London Olympics| Even the Bad times are Good

We always seem to look at what is not happening in our lives, rather than looking at what is happening. As much as there are people going through a very tough time, there are those that are doing very well. The 2012 London Olympics is going ahead and there is a lot of preparation that is required. There is still a lot of building that has to take place, not to mention all the other industries that will benefit form this mammoth project. It was very interesting to see some of the figures given out on who is doing what.

London 2012 business benefits:
• 801 contractors have won work supplying the ODA worth over £3.5bn in total.
• Over two thirds (68 per cent) are small and medium sized.*
• Just under half (46 per cent) are based outside of London.
• More than one in ten (12 per cent) is based in the Olympic Park Host Boroughs.
• 98 per cent are based in the UK.

This is fantastic news for these companies. While we keep being told how bad everything is, here are companies that are doing very well and having a good time right now. There are all the companies that will supply those who have won contracts with raw material - so these are not the only ones to benefit the list will go on and on.

When we, as a nation, believe that even the bad times are good, we will turn this current crisis around. The 2012 London Olympics prove that life goes on regardless of current circumstances.

2012 London Olympics| London Olympics

1908 Summer Olympics
The 1908 Summer Olympics (the Games of the IV Olympiad) were the fourth modern Olympic Games and the third to be hosted outside of Athens, Greece. The International Olympic Committee considers them the fourth Olympic Games, discounting the intercalated 1906 Summer Olympics.

The 1908 Olympic Games were scheduled to take place in Rome, but the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 7 April 1906 required the Italian Government to redirect funds away from the Olympics. The events took place between 27 April 1908 and 31 October 1908, with 22 nations participating in 110 events. The British team easily topped the unofficial medal count, finishing with three times as many medals as the second-place United States.

1944 Summer Olympics
The 1944 Summer Olympics (Games of the XIII Olympiad) were scheduled to be held in London. Awarded in 1939, they were, however, cancelled due to World War II. These Games would have celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Modern Olympiad. A small celebratory sporting competition was held in Lausanne, in lieu of the Olympics, at IOC HQ.

1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics (the Games of the XIV Olympiad) were the first to be held after World War II, with the 1944 Summer Olympics having been cancelled due to the war. Showing a collective unity after the war, 59 nations competed in 136 different events between 29 July 1948 and 14 August 1948. Germany and Japan had not been invited due to security reasons. Unlike the last time the UK hosted the Olympics, the British athletes did not have a high medal count, finishing 12th in the unofficial medal count with only 23 medals.

2012 Summer London Olympics
The 2012 Summer London Olympics (the Games of the XXX Olympiad) are planned to take place between 27 July 2012 and 12 August 2012. The London 2012 Olympic bid was announced as the winner of the bidding process on 6 July 2005, following unsuccessful bid attempts for previous Olympics by Manchester and Birmingham. The planning for the Games is still ongoing, with many announcements and developments taking place.

2012 Summer Paralympic Games
The 2012 Summer Paralympic Games will be the fourteenth Paralympics and will take place between 29 August 2012 and 9 September 2012 at the Summer Olympics venues in London.

This information was taken from Wikipedia.

2012 London Olympics| Equality in Sport

I have seen there is a lot of lobbying going on for the cycling to get the 3 women’s event up to the same as the men’s 7 events. Dave Brailsford, the British performance director is the person behind this.

I think that women should be allowed to compete the same as men if they choose to. The time has come to get rid of this idea that women are not able to do the same sort of events.

It is the same in swimming - men do the 1500 M race and women do 800 M race. I really do believe that it is now time to put this all aside. I know that one of the arguments is that the time table is already crowded but then if that is the cases cut down a few of the events and make it even for both men and women.

The 2012 London Olympics should be fair for all people and all sexes. I am sure if the women did not want to compete in certain events they would not enter them. It should be their choice and not that of a committee who claim to know best for them.

2012 London Olympics| Olympic rings

The five Olympic rings represent the five continents and were designed in 1913, adopted in 1914 and debuted at the Games at Antwerp, 1920.

The rings symbolize the whole of the Olympics. Those five interlocking rings, coloured blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a white field were originally designed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1912.  He is the founder of the modern Olympic Games. The rings stand for passion, faith, victory, work ethic, and sportsmanship. The emblem was chosen to illustrate and represent the world Congress of 1914 ...: five intertwined rings in different colors - blue, yellow, black, green, red - are placed on the white field of the paper. These five rings represent the five parts of the world which now are won over to Olympism and willing to accept healthy competition. According to De Coubertin the ring colors stand for those colors that appeared on all the national flags of the world at that time.

The 1914 Congress had to be suspended due to the outbreak of World War I, but the symbol (and flag) were later adopted. They would first officially debut at the VIIth Olympiad in Antwerp, Belgium in 1920.

The symbol's popularity and widespread use began during the lead-up to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Carl Diem, president of the Organizing Committee of the 1936 Summer Olympics, wanted to hold a torchbearers' ceremony in the stadium at Delphi, site of the famous oracle, where the Pythian Games were also held. For this reason he ordered construction of a milestone with the Olympic rings carved in the sides, and that a torchbearer should carry the flame along with an escort of three others from there to Berlin. The ceremony was celebrated but the stone was never removed. Later, two British authors Lynn and Gray Poole, when visiting Delphi in the late 1950s, saw the stone and reported in their "History of the Ancient Games" that the Olympic rings design came from ancient Greece. This has become known as "Carl Diem's Stone". This created a myth that the symbol had an ancient Greek origin. The rings would subsequently be featured prominently in Nazi images in 1936 as part of an effort to glorify the Third Reich.

The current view of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is that the symbol "reinforces the idea" that the Olympic Movement is international and welcomes all countries of the world to join. As can be read in the Olympic Charter, the Olympic symbol represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games. However, no continent is represented by any specific ring. Though colorful explanations about the symbolism of the colored rings exist (for example, it is said that the five Olympic rings are blue, yellow, black, green, and red because at least one of these colors appears on every national flag), the only connection between the rings and the continents is that the number five refers to the number of continents. In this scheme, the Americas are viewed as a single continent, and Antarctica is omitted. The current 5 continents are Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

The black ring may be substituted by a white ring if the symbol is placed on a dark-colored background.

After all those years it was only a thought and an idea from  Pierre de Coubertin that has created history;  a history that lives on to the present and on to the London Olympics in 2012.

Information from Wikipedia.

2012 London Olympics| Amateurs and Professionals

It has always been said that a healthy body is a healthy mind. I can see how this works. If you feel good about how you look, you tend to think differently. I know from my own past, the times I have been overweight I felt bad, both in mind and body. 

There has always been the idea that a professional has an unfair advantage over an amateur because the amateur is doing the sport as a hobby. The exclusion of professionals has caused several controversies throughout the history of the modern Olympics. 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon champion, Jim Thorpe, was stripped of his medals when it was discovered that he played semi–professional baseball prior to winning his medals. He was restored as champion on compassionate grounds by the IOC in 1983. Swiss and Austrian skiers boycotted the 1936 Winter Olympics in support of their skiing teachers, who were not allowed to compete because they earned money for their sport and were considered professionals.

As of 2004, the only sports in which no professionals compete is boxing (even this requires a definition of amateurism based on fight rules rather than on payment, as some boxers receive cash prizes from their National Olympic Committees); in men's football (soccer), the number of players over 23 years of age is limited to 3 per team.

Most athletes who win or do well get some form of remuneration for their efforts, even if it is in the line of sponsorship.

I think sport is sport, and as long as drugs are not used, and everyone abides by the same rules, let the best win. What do we want for the 2012 London Olympics ? A fair and competitive Games.

2012 London Olympics| Where to after Gold ?

Have you ever thought about when you see an athlete in tears on the podium receiving a gold medal at the Olympic Games? We all automatically assume they are tears of joy because they have won. Are they?

You often hear the athletes say they are so overwhelmed by the occasion, and what it means to them to have won a gold medal at the Olympics. Most athletes work very long and hard to be in top condition for the Olympic Games. The spend most of their waking hours thinking about it and seeing themselves walking off with the gold around their necks. The ultimate aim is to peak on the day of your final event, and most have worked out for around 4 or more years for this.

The day comes and they put in the performance of their life, and the Gold is theirs - maybe even a world record.

Are those tears really tears of joy or could they be "what now - is my life over ?  I have achieved everything I have been living for, what is left ?"

I think there are a lot of us who will never really know what the emotions are on the podium, unless we have been there. Sadly, I will never know. The only time in my life when I might have had a chance was when I was in my teens, swimming. I was good, and swam with natural talent but was just too lazy to train properly. I held the record for the men's mile when I was only 16 - the fastest in the country.

I believe all athletes should be taught the art of goal setting so that they can achieve and have more to look forward to when their sporting careers come to an end. I honestly think that is why so many boxers make comebacks in their 40’s - they have nothing more to live for and feel boxing is the only thing they can really do.

2012 London Olympics|Sport at its best. Never Quit

I can’t wait for the 2012 London Olympics to see Oscar Pistorius in action. Because I originate from Africa, I have a real interest in this young man. He had been dubbed “the blade runner”. He has no legs so he has been fitted with blades so he can follow his dream of being a sprinter. He has such a will to win that even when the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) claimed he would have an advantage with J-shaped blades,(and did not want to allow him to enter the Beijing Olympics), he fought until he got the right to compete. He then had a big disappointment because he failed to achieve the minimum required qualifying time.

He told Reuters in an interview "The opportunity was given back to me and I had two and half months to try and qualify. Although I didn't, it has opened the doors for the future of disabled sports and, for me that alone was a great accomplishment. I didn't make the Olympics this time, I'm hoping for the future." This never say die attitude is one we can all learn. He has his hopes set high for the 2012 London Olympics. I really hope our 2012 Athletes will take this same attitude and have a will to win - not only for Britain, but more importantly for themselves at the Summer Olympics in London.

2012 London Olympics|What does it Mean to Me

The London Olympics in 2012 will mean something different to each one of us. I was just sitting and thinking about what it means to me. There are going to be some sports that I would consider quite boring, and there are some events at the London Olympics I will stay up all night to watch. More importantly is the tradition of the Olympics.

I think back to those first Greek athletes who took part. We will have athletes doing the same in 2012, with exactly the same emotions those first Greeks had. That is so amazing.

Sport can truly unite nations and countries if it is done for the right reason -if it is done in a spirit of sport, and not in a spirit of win at all costs. London will have to provide that spirit of sport & comradeship in the way the games are handled. I can’t wait. I know it is another 4 years to go, but every day that I train for my own personal fitness, I think of our athletes who are also training for glory. That spurs me on to train even harder, although I certainly will not be competing.

So - for me, the coming 2012 London Olympics means a time to get behind our athletes, to promote a team spirit, and to hope that it remains a sport. I will be willing each and every athlete (even the sports that I have little interest in) to compete and just do their best. I am really excited, even now, about the coming Summer London Olympics even though I have to wait until 2012.

2012 London Olympics - The Number of sports contested at Summer Olympics

At the first Olympic Games, nine sports were contested. Since then, the number of sports contested at the Summer Olympic Games has gradually risen to twenty-eight on the programme from 2000–2008. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, however, the number of sports will fall back to twenty-six following an IOC vote in early 2006 deciding the removal of baseball and softball from the Olympic program. These remain Olympic sports nonetheless, with the possibility of a return to the Olympic programme at the 2016 games.

In order for a sport or discipline to be in included in the Summer Olympics programme (but not necessarily be contested at the Olympics), it must be widely practised by men and women, in at least 75 and 50 countries, respectively, spread over four continents.

2012 London Olympics – Did You Know about the Olympics

There is a lot of talk and excitement about the coming Olympics. To think thatin 2012 the famous Olympic Games will be held in London. Most of us do not have a lot of knowledge about the Olympics, and so I managed to find a few things about the Olympics that have happened over a number of years. I found these facts very interesting and I am sure you will to.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Afghanistan sent 5 athletes to the 1988 Olympic Games, which were held in Seoul, the capital city of South Korea…Afghanistan is one of the ten poorest countries in the world.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Between September 15 and October 1, 2000, the Republic of Korea, or South Korea, delegation participated in the Olympic Games held in Sydney, Australia, winning 8 gold, 10 silver, and 10 bronze medals. Overall the Republic of Korea team ranked eighth, after the United States, Russia, China, Australia, Germany, France…

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Ahmed Salah was one of the most famous runners in the 1980s. He was born in Djibouti, a small country in Africa. Ahmed Salah won the bronze medal in the marathon at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
India is the world´s second most populous country. However,India only won 1 bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Atlanta (USA).

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Saudi Arabia sent 9 athletes to the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Ghana won the bronze medal in soccer at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Pakistan won two gold medals in filed hockey in the Olympic Games history: Rome(1960) and Mexico City(1968).

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
The soccer, or football, is the national sport in Brazil. It won two silver medals in soccer in the Olympic Games: Los Angeles(1984)and Seoul(1988).

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
The 1984 Olympic Games were not boycotted by 12 socialist nations, including Benin, Congo, China, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Romania, Yugoslavia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Nicaragua sent 25 athletes to the XXIII Summer Olympic Games, which were held in Los Angeles, California (USA).The Nicaraguan delegation had athletes competing in three areas: baseball (20),boxing (3),and weightlifting (2).

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Peru competed at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada. Peru was represented by thirteen sportswomen in Canada.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Panama sent 7 athletes to the 1972 Olympic Games, which were held in Munich, West Germany (currently Germany). The Panamanian delegation had athletes competing in four areas: track and field (1), boxing (2), wrestling (2), and weightlifting (1).

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Argentina has competed in the Olympic Games 21 times and won a total of 15 gold medals.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Chile won the bronze medal in football in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Uruguay has won a bronze medal in men’s basketball two times at the Olympic Games: Helsinki (1952) and Melbourne (1956).

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Taiwan won the silver medal in baseball in the 1992 Olympic Games in Spain.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Nigeria sent 33 athletes to the 1984 Olympic Games. Nigeria finished 33rd position in the final medal rankings, with 2 medals overall

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alejandro_Guevara_Onofre
Alejandro Guevara Onofre: He is a freelance writer. Alejandro is of Italian, African and Peruvian ancestry.