UK/FILE: OLYMPICS: London stages its third summer Olympics against a sombre backdrop tempering the excitement and anticipation before the world's greatest sports festival

Record ID: 332524

  • Title: UK/FILE: OLYMPICS: London stages its third summer Olympics against a sombre backdrop tempering the excitement and anticipation before the world's greatest sports festival
  • Date: 23rd July 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (RECENT) (REUTERS) OLYMPIC RINGS AT HEATHROW AIRPORT TERMINAL FIVE ARRIVALS PEOPLE WALKING BY "PROUD TO BE HOST AIRPORT OF LONDON 2012" SIGN
  • Embargoed: 7th August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jamaica, United Kingdom
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom Jamaica
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA99IZSM1MG2B2NYS8J4SCNVXBD
  • Story Text: London, an ancient city steeped in theatre and pageantry, stages its third summer Olympics against a sombre backdrop tempering the excitement and anticipation before the world's greatest sports festival.
    Euphoria in Singapore, where London secured the Games in 2005, was succeeded within 24 hours by horror in the British capital when 52 commuters were killed by four suicide bombers.
    Consequently the Games of the XXX Olympiad, opening at the Olympic stadium in east London on Friday, will feature Britain's largest peacetime security operation which has further inflated the budget in troubled economic times.
    London's creaking transport system, criticised as "often obsolete" by International Olympic Committee (IOC) inspectors after the city was short-listed for the Games, is another problem.
    So, too, is the unpredictable British climate during a summer of unrelieved gloom and drenching rain, although signs that the weather gods may have finally relented came at the weekend with clear skies, rising temperatures and optimistic forecasts.
    On the plus side, the Asia-Pacific Foundation report pointed out that Britain has a "very successful track record" in hosting major sports events, a point stressed by London 2012 Olympics organising committee chairman Seb Coe.
    "The Olympic Games does have an added tier of security, there is no appetite for risk," Coe said in May. "I don't think anyone would be surprised with that. But this is what our teams are working on, to make sure we minimise that type of disruption. But there will be checking, there will be queuing but we want to make sure we get that balance right."
    London held the 1908 Olympics at the height of the golden Edwardian summer when Britain ruled much of the world. The 1948 Games were hosted by a city ravaged by wartime bombing in an emotionally and physically exhausted country burdened by a record debt.
    In a link with the past, the Olympic Park is located in an area of London which suffered some of the worst bombing in World War Two, as part of a programme of economic regeneration.
    Britain possesses an unparalleled sporting history, stemming from that astounding period in Victorian Britain when the rules for virtually all the games now played throughout the world were either invented or codified.
    The Olympic movement has been criticised as bloated, grandiose and in thrall to the sponsors and television companies who provide the money which underpins modern sport.
    No credible alternative economic model exists and, even if the IOC ceased to exist, the sports and leisure industries would soon entice the individual federations into new multi-sports commercial ventures.
    Under Rogge, the IOC has moved with the times and there is also nothing remotely bloated about the background of the athletes expected to make the most impact when the track and field competition, the core sport of the Games, starts on Aug. 3.
    Usain Bolt electrified the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing four years ago with world records in the 100 and 200 metres followed by a third as a member of the Jamaican 4x100 relay squad.
    Bolt is coached by Glen Mills at the Racers Track Club in Kingston, where the facilities are rudimentary but the work ethic relentless.
    After Bolt again shattered the world 100 and 200 records at the 2009 Berlin world championships, clocking a scarcely credible 9.58 and 19.19 seconds, another golden double in London seemed a formality provided he remained fit and focused.
    Four years, though, is a long time in the life of any athlete and now another sprinter from the Racers Track Club threatens to dethrone Bolt in London.
    Yohan Blake rejoices in the nickname of "The Beast", a tribute to his ferocious appetite for training. Whereas Bolt is tall, lean and languid, Blake is compact, muscular and explosive.
    At the Daegu world championships last year, Blake won the 100 metres after Bolt was disqualified for a false start. This year he beat Bolt, who has been hampered by a right hamstring strain, decisively in both the 100 and 200 at the Jamaican Olympic trials.
    "Oh my God I'm over the moon, you know Usain Bolt has been motivating me and telling me I can do it, you know, I have to do it tonight," Blake said after beating Bolt in the 100m, "and it's just a dream for me, I'm speechless."
    Bolt said: I'm Olympic champion. I have to show the world that I'm the best so I expect I'll come back. It's not like I was blown away or anything so I know what I need to do to get it right."
    The 100 metres is the most exciting and the most elemental of races, equivalent to a world heavyweight title fight in that the winner of the former can plausibly claim to be the fastest man in the world while the victor of the latter can say he is the meanest.
    In London, the race is likely to be won and lost at the start. Because of his height, Bolt is slow to unwind out of the blocks but if he does get away swiftly there is nobody in the world who can touch him.
    As well as Blake there will also be former 100m world-record holder Asafa Powell and American Tyson Gay vying for the gold but Bolt insists he does not worry about his opponents.
    "No, you try not to worry about them," Bolt said. "You definitely watch their race, listen out keenly to see what they are up to because you definitely want to know if they are really getting better or what so ever. I never really sit down and think about it. Freinds tell s me, or you may watch a race here and there, but I never really worry about it."
    There will be many events and rivalries to watch but no single fan, however many dedicated television channels he or she watches, can absorb the entire Olympic spectacle.
    The beauty of the Games is the prominence it gives to sports which mostly pass unnoticed in the larger world.
    South Koreans are the masters in archery, Hungarians have a proud record in water polo, including the infamous underwater battle against the Soviet Union at the 1956 Melbourne Games after their country had been invaded by the Soviet Army.
    Chinese gymnasts ruled in Beijing, Cuba has traditionally dominated the men's boxing and Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria have impressive weightlifting pedigrees.
    London in the early years of the 21st century is a multi-cultural, cosmopolitan city and sport is a lucrative global spectacle, where the boundaries of time and space have vanished with the proliferation of sports channels and websites.
    The combination could result in an outstanding Games starting with Friday's (July 27) opening ceremony when the eyes of the world will focus on the British capital.
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