The Independent - Olympics RSS Feed

Great Sporting Moments: Jesse Owens wins four gold medals in Berlin

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:01:52 GMT

Some athletes achieve immortality through a single, consummate moment. Bob Beamon travels through the thin air of Mexico City at the 1968 Olympics, on and on, before touching down in the sand. When he realises he has long-jumped 8.90 metres, or 29 feet 21/2 inches - nearly 2 feet further than the world record, in a discipline where increments are normally measured in inches - he collapses in shock. Filbert Bayi goes straight to the front in the 1974 Commonwealth Games 1500m final at Christchurch, and stays there, and stays there - and, 3 minutes 32.16 seconds later, with the field closing but not close, its leaders also running beyond their known limits, he has taken almost a full second off the world record of the great Jim Ryun.

Great Sporting Moments: Athletics

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:01:42 GMT

Sometimes, sport is more than just sport. Sometimes, the greatest champions reach a zone of near-perfection that approaches the divine.

Myles makes waves in hunt for black gold

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

You can wait a while for a young British swimming prospect with great potential linked to a double-barrelled name and suddenly, like the proverbial London bus, two come along together. First there was the backstroker Chris Walker-Hebborn, 19, featured earlier in this series, who has gone on to become a British champion and is about to represent Team GB in the World Championships in Rome. Following in his wake is freestyler Myles Crouch-Anderson, 16 last week (they share the same birthday) and launching his own precocious ascent towards London 2012 with his international debut in the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tampere, Finland, which begins next weekend.

Cyber criminals 'preparing to attack Olympics'

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:13:14 GMT

International organised criminal networks are already preparing to target the London 2012 Olympics, a senior police officer warned today.

Redgrave: London is in the bag... so now let's take on the World

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Sir Steve Redgrave must be the closest thing we have got to a modern-day Hercules. According to the ancient myth, Hercules performed 12 seemingly impossible tasks to become the greatest of all the Greek heroes, and to celebrate the achievement he founded the Olympic Games in honour of his father Zeus.

Professional fighters will compete in 2012 Games

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Professional boxers are to be allowed to take part in the Olympic Games. A revolutionary move will enable fighters who have earned money in the ring to compete for medals together with amateurs, starting in London in 2012.

null100m black hole discovered in 2012 Olympics accounts

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

A £100m black hole in the 2012 Olympics accounts of the London Development Agency (LDA) is to be investigated by independent auditors, it was revealed last night.

£100m black hole discovered in 2012 Olympics accounts

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

A £100m black hole in the 2012 Olympics accounts of the London Development Agency (LDA) is to be investigated by independent auditors, it was revealed last night.

In 2012, they will struggle to catch the Pidgeon

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Cheltenham , renowned for its thoroughbreds, currently boasts a fleet-footed filly who is chasing not so much a Gold Cup as a gold medal. Although Emily Pidgeon has done her share of steeple-chasing, her forte is the flat, but she'll be the first to admit that in her early athletics career she had a few hurdles to overcome in her pursuit of being first past the post in the 2012 Olympic Stakes.

Obama sets-up Olympic Office to boost Chicago bid

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:12:28 GMT

U.S. President Barack Obama announced the creation of the White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport on Tuesday, which could provide a boost to Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Games.

Rucking leaves Olympic ideal at sixes and sevens

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

An unseemly scrum is developing in the race to get into the Olympics-after-next and rugby is right there in the thick of it, shoving, rucking and mauling towards inclusion in 2016. The sevens version is one of seven sports – golf, squash, baseball, softball, karate and roller-skating are the others – two of which will find their way into the Games of 2016, thus adding to a gargantuan programme which is already overcrowded and increasingly unwieldy.

Rebecca Adlington: 'I was getting out of training crying. Your mind plays tricks'

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

This is the girl you know: tall, blonde, radiant, smiling, always smiling. There she is, Rebecca, in the audience at Strictly Come Dancing. There she is, receiving an award, or presenting another. There she is, at a film premiere. In her designer shoes, in her sleek dress: tall, blonde, radiant, smiling, always smiling.

Tom Daley moves school after bullying

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:39:36 GMT

Olympic diver Tom Daley started at a new school today after his parents said bullying forced the teenager to leave his former college.

From pitch to podium, footy rejects get lifeline

Sat, 30 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It's that time of year again, when the dreams of hundreds of young footballers are brutally dashed. Called into the manager's office they are told: "Sorry son, you are not going to make it."

England get Olympics football go-ahead

Fri, 29 May 2009 10:24:15 GMT

The four home nations today struck a deal which would allow an England football team to represent Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympics.

London legacy job goes overseas

Wed, 27 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

A deputy mayor from Philadelphia will head the company set up to ensure the long-term use of London's 2012 Olympic facilities.

Bostock keeps praying for his Olympic dream

Sat, 23 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Apart from how we are going to be paying for it all, the most vexed question surrounding London 2012 is whether there will be a British football team in the Olympics for the first time in 40 years.

Natalie Du Toit: 'If I can achieve a dream, then anyone can'

Wed, 20 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

In the midst of her busy schedule yesterday – training in the pool from 5am to 7.30am, dashing off urgently afterwards to sort out a temporary passport, grabbing lunch, heading to the gym for an afternoon session, and then training in the pool during the evening from 5.30pm to 7.30pm – Natalie Du Toit found a little room to reflect on her life and times. But ask her to take stock and there's no shortage of material.

Boris Johnson visits Seoul Olympics site

Mon, 18 May 2009 10:04:00 GMT

London Mayor Boris Johnson says a tour of the Seoul Olympic sites have given him good ideas on how to build venues that will have a lasting legacy long after the 2012 Games.

Sir Clive Woodward: Alchemist on hunt for more gold nuggets

Sat, 16 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

When Sir Clive Woodward was brought in to motivate Team GB's Olympic aspirants, he described his revolutionary role as "the biggest challenge in British sport, and of my life". Two and a half years into the job, and with Britain's greatest-ever Olympics under his belt, he no longer feels he is treading his way gingerly through hitherto unfamiliar territory, dextrously avoiding a minefield of sensitive toes along the way. England's World Cup-winning rugby union coach is now even more confident he can help unearth more gold nuggets both in the Winter Games in Vancouver next year and in 2012.

Centurion Rampling passes baton to London generation

Sat, 09 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

At the cosy nursing home in Bushey, Hertfordshire where, he says, he is "wonderfully looked after", they call him The Colonel. He retired with that rank in 1958 after 29 years in the Royal Artillery and he still has that military mien – firm handshake, impeccably groomed, wearing a blue blazer and Olympians' tie, clear-eyed and with a fine head of silvery white hair. He has been there for the last nine years and is now confined to a wheelchair. "I don't run any imore, you know," he says, impishly, but in his younger days he was one of the greatest relay racers Britain has ever seen.

Olympic design chief warns of 'wasteland' legacy

Fri, 01 May 2009 17:31:22 GMT

London's Olympic Park could become a "wasteland" after the 2012 Games unless better legacy plans are put in place to counter the removal of temporary stadiums, one of the Government's chief design advisers was reported as saying today.

The male synchronised swimmer barred from the Olympics

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Niklas Stoepel has to shave his legs and wear bathing suits embroidered with sequins in order to take part in his favourite sport.

Who did England beat at cricket to become the last Olympic champions? France – and they want a 2012 rematch

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The reigning Olympic silver medallists at cricket will throw down the batting glove this week for a re-run of the match which they lost to England 109 years ago.

Alan Hubbard: Olympic shame as 'minority' sports miss out

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:00:01 GMT

What was it that dear old Baron de Coubertin said about the Olympics? "The most important thing is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well." It is an adage that rings hollow as Britain goes prospecting in the great gold rush of 2012, which is turning east London into the new Klondike.