GAMES

September 8 - International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Sir Philip Craven today formally invited the top disability athletes on the planet to the London 2012 Paralympic Games at a speech here at Trafalgar Square that rounded off International Paralympic Day just hours before tickets went on sale for the event.

London's iconic landmark has been celebrating the day from the early morning with a various demonstrations of Paralympic sport that attracted plenty of interest from members of the public.

There were also appearances from a number of high profile guests, including Prime Minister David Cameron, London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe and four-time Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius for South Africa.

Tickets for the London 2012 Paralympics will go on sale at 9am tomorrow and Sir Philip promised something special will happen as he called on athletes to compete in the capital next year.

"In 356 days' time the Paralympic Games will head back to its spiritual home," the IPC President told the crowd gathered in the shadow of Lord Nelson's statue following a day which had included Cameron taking on London Mayor Boris Johnson at tennis.

"Something that Dr Ludwig Guttmann started in 1948 on a patch of grass at the back of Stoke Mandeville Hospital will return as one of the world's biggest multi-sport events.

"The foundations for what could be the best Paralympic Games ever have been laid here in London.

"Most of the venues are ready, we're expecting more media and TV coverage than ever before, and the demand for tickets which go on-sale tomorrow is unprecedented.

"All we need now are the 4,200 athletes from 150 countries to take part.

"Our symbol, the Agitos, represents our role in bringing together athletes from all over the world through the Movement.

"That is why I would like to invite athletes and National Paralympic Committees to come here to London next year to make history."

In the UK and within the European Union, people can apply for tickets between 9am tomorrow and 6pm on September 26.

Approximately two million tickets will go on sale to the public between now and Games-time, with 1.5 million being available in the first phase.

"Something special is going to happen at the London 2012 Paralympic Games."

As with the controversial Olympic Games tickets, the system is not first come first served and there is no advantage to applying earlier in the process to try to see athletes like Pistorius and Ellie Simmonds in action.

Applicants also need to use a Visa card.

Tickets for oversubscribed sessions will be allocated via a ballot.

Payment is due to be taken on October 31 with notification of whether applications have been successful sent by November 18.

For applicants outside of the UK, a full list of Authorised Ticket Resellers is available on the London 2012 ticketing website.

There will be over 300 sessions across the 20 Paralympic sports at 20 venues, including those within the Olympic Park, plus ExCeL, Greenwich Park, The Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, North Greenwich Arena, The Mall and, outside London, Brands Hatch, Eton Dorney and Weymouth and Portland.

"We're going to put on a show that will captivate billions, inspire millions and show the world that anything is possible," said Sir Philip.

"And I want you to be part of it.

"London 2012 will be 'Sport Like Never Before' showcasing the talents of some incredible athletes taking part in 20 amazing sports.

"The action will be intense, the competition close, but ultimately what you will witness will alter perceptions and lead to societal change.

"Athletes are the heart of the Paralympic Movement.

"They are critical to the success of the Games.

"Without you we cannot put on the Games, with you we can ensure that the London 2012 Paralympic Games are possibly the best ever."

Ticket prices were announced earlier this year with a wide range of prices and ticket initiatives on offer.

Prices start at £10 for adults and £5 for those who are 16 or under and 60 or over on 29 August 2012.·

Tickets for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies will start at £20.12 with a top end price of £500 for the Opening Ceremony.

A Games Travelcard, for use on the day of the event on public transport in zones 1-9 in London and for travel between London and Eton Dorney and Brands Hatch, is included within the price of a ticket.

"The Paralympic Games are coming home in 2012 and I'm confident that the whole country will get behind them," said Coe.

"Alongside the Games come a whole range of opportunities.

"People will have the chance to see sport like never before, with world class athletes who challenge the notion of 'disability'; it's a huge opportunity for Paralympic sport to become part of the nation's consciousness and finally, it will be a moment of extraordinary pride.

"A fitting end to what promises to be an amazing summer."

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

By Tom Degun at Trafalgar Square in London

September 7 - Canada's preparations for London 2012 have been rocked by the shock resignation of Alex Baumann as the chief executive of Own the Podium, which oversess the country's high performance programme.

The 47-year-old double Olympic swimming champion is stepping down from October after taking the decision to relocate to New Zealand, where he has agreed to become the chief executive of High Performance Sport New Zealand

It follows a successful operation earlier this year for cancer.

It was Baumann's second fight against cancer having already undergone surgery for testicular cancer in 1999.

"There is a saying that, when a person gets cancer, the whole family gets cancer," said Baumann, who won the 200 and 400 metres medley at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

"I watched over the months the impact this diagnosis had on my wife and children.

"The waiting, the worrying and the uncertainty probably put more stress on them than me.

"It is times such as these we realise the importance of family and time together."

Baumann claims that moving to New Zealand will put him closer to his extended family.

"What most people don't know is that I have no relatives in Canada at all and [wife] Tracy's family are all in Australia," said Baumann.

"It is in these moments of life's greatest challenges that we turn to our families for the love and support only they can provide.

"We missed having that support and the tyranny of distance began to take its toll, which sparked our thinking it was time to consider leaving Canada earlier than planned."

High Performance Sport New Zealand is a subsidary of Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC).

"This is definitely an exciting opportunity for me," said Baumann.

"But there is a reason I have a maple leaf tattooed over my heart - I love Canada.

"I hope people can appreciate this was not an easy decision.

"But I have to do what I believe to be best for my family."

Baumann was born in Prague but raised in Canada after his family moved there in 1969 following the the Prague Spring.

He then moved to Australia in 1991 following the end of his career before returning to Canada in 2006 after Own the Podium was founded with the specific aim of helping them being successful at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The initiative was a stunning success as Canada finished top of the medals table in Vancouver, with the gold medallists including Jon Montgomery (pictured) in the bob skeleton.

Baumann succeeded Roger Jackson as chief executive in April 2010 and was helping Canada's summer athletes work towards the target of a top-12 place at London 2012.

"Our goal has always been to create a system that rivals any sport system in the world," Baumann said.

"We have made great strides in a short time to establish Canada as a world leader in high-performance sport.

"I am proud of our ability to build a talented and dedicated team of colleagues in both our Ottawa and Calgary offices, all of whom played a critical role in streamlining our operations for Canada's summer and winter sports with the same objective in mind - to own the podium."

John Furlong, the chief executive of Vancouver 2010, who is now the chairman of Own the Podium, paid tribute to the work that Baumann had done.

"Alex is an extraordinary leader who has done an exceptional job of ensuring Canada's high-performance sport culture remains focused on excellence," he said.

"Alex has played a pivotal role in Own the Podium's evolution and positioning Canadian athletes for a record performance in London next summer.

"His uncompromising attitude to succeed at the highest level is a huge reason why support for Canada's athletes, coaches and national sport organisations has never been stronger.

"The sport community owes him a big thank you."

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

By Duncan Mackay

Athletics' governing body has confirmed it will not change the false-start rule before the 2012 Olympics in London.
The rule - which sees any athlete making a false start disqualified - led to world record holder Usain Bolt missing the 100m final.
But president Lamine Diack said no one at Sunday's IAAF council meeting had asked for the rule to be changed.
Diack said: "We will not come back to the issue. Bolt had a false start but that is not going to make us change."
Many, including Jamaican officials, had called for the IAAF to reconsider the rule to avoid having a star like Bolt disqualified in similar circumstances in London.
Yet the athlete himself said his disqualification had been "a lesson" and did not demand a change to the rules, as Diack pointed out.
IAAF vice-president Bob Hersh had earlier said no action should be taken until further talks.

"It's not on any current agenda but I wouldn't be surprised if it were reviewed," Hersh told BBC sports editor David Bond.
"We will have to go back and talk to our stakeholders and discuss further."
Hersh also pointed out that Bolt, the 100m world record-holder and the reigning Olympic 100m and 200m champion, had backed the new rule when it was proposed in 2009.
Former world 1500m champion and BBC commentator Steve Cram also agrees with the rule, which was amended in 2010 to automatically disqualify anyone moving before the gun.
He said: "There's nothing wrong with the false-start rule, people have got used to it and accept it and actually it's there to help people like him.
"Having this rule of no twitching, one and you're out, stops people messing around."
Until 2001, every athlete had the right to one false start before risking disqualification but that led on occasion to several aborted starts before a race took place and was changed partly because of demands from television broadcasters.
Under the second version of the rule, athletes had the right to make one false start and then the whole field was given a warning with any subsequent false starts leading to disqualification.
But that brought the risk of what IAAF director of communications Nick Davies called "a bit of gamesmanship", with athletes looking to remove any advantage fast starters have by deliberately false starting to put the field under pressure, hence a further change for 2010.
The World Championships also saw high-profile false-start disqualifications for British duo Christine Ohuruogu and Dwain Chambers.
London 2012 chief Lord Coe, an IAAF vice-president, said: "The issue is very simple for me. You have to be consistent. You have a rule and you don't suddenly revisit it because a high-profile athlete has fallen foul.
"I'd rather not have Usain false start in London. But the start's not separate from the race; it is part of the race. It's not a technical nicety. It's part of the sport like a knockout punch in boxing.
"You pay to watch a title fight in Vegas knowing that a fighter might get knocked down in the first round."
However World 100m silver medallist Walter Dix, who finished behind Jamaican Yohan Blake, said: "That false-start [rule] is killing us. Hopefully it will change by London."
And bronze medallist Kim Collins of Saint Kitts added: "At least give the field one false-start."

It seems odd that it should be happening in the run-up to a Games organised by Sebastian Coe, but I can't help thinking that athletics' crown as the pre-eminent Olympic sport is slipping.

Until now, the phenomenon that is Usain Bolt had covered this up.

But Daegu has afforded us a glimpse of the world without the Jamaican showman.

And for the most part, it ain't pretty.

Sure, some events have provided fine sport.

My personal favourite to date - not for the first time - has been the pole-vault.

And the amplified shhhhhhs used by the organisers to ensure quiet as sprinters prepare to get down on their blocks are a delightful idea.

But then you think that the 5.90 metres attained by gold medallist Paweł Wojciechowski (pictured) of Poland is 25cm less than the best achieved in competition by Sergey Bubka, who may end up vying with Coe to be the sport's next boss, and reality starts to seep in.

It is surely not a healthy thing that the biggest talking point after the first few days' competition in Korea has been the sport's false-start rules.

Of course, Bolt may show up in London and gouge further lumps out of the 100 and 200 metres world records he has already abused so badly.

But what if he doesn't? What then would live in the memory about the 2012 Olympic athletics competition?

Oscar Pistorius maybe? Caster Semenya?

The problem with both these "stories", tough as it is on the athletes concerned, is that debate tends to focus on the nature of fair competition, as opposed to the wonder of their athletic achievements.

Or perhaps David Rudisha will cruise to another world record in the men's 800m.

The problem with that story is that "Kenyan wins long-ish running race" is not the sort of headline that any longer sets pulses racing far beyond Nairobi.

Now turn your mind to the competition.

In the pool, you have the enticing prospect of veterans Ian Thorpe and Janet Evans on the comeback trail, as well as Michael Phelps (pictured) trying to add further to his astonishing collection of Olympic metalwork.

That and local hero Tom Daley aiming to dive for gold.

There is the return to the Olympics of women's boxing after more than a century.

And the possibility of seeing Roger Federer bow out by winning gold at Wimbledon.

From the host nation's perspective, there is the question of whether 2008's hard-won supremacy in the velodrome can be maintained - and indeed extended to the water, with both British rowing and sailing teams exhibiting immense medal-winning potential.

Olympic team sports are on an upswing too, with the basketball competition firmly established as one of the highlights of the Games and football attracting ever more attention.

The novelty of seeing British football teams take to the field should ensure that the 2012 football competition is particularly enthusiastically supported.

Even if Bolt does do the business at London, it is hard to imagine his exploits having quite the same impact as in Beijing's stunning Bird's Nest four years ago, simply because it would be a re-run of an old story.

And who will take up his mantle in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, when the alternative attractions promise to be still more compelling, with the arrival of golf and rugby sevens on the Olympic programme?

No, I sincerely believe that athletics will have to somehow raise its game if it is to remain much longer at the head of the Olympic pantheon.

I think Daegu this week is starting to make that clear.

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

August 29 - Las Vegas have submitted a bid to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics without the permission of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), it was revealed tonight.

The letter, dated August 26 and sent to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and USOC, says, "this is intended to serve as the Vegas 2020 Bid Committee's Application Letter to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games."

The correspondence, sent to ensure it arrived at the IOC's headquarters in Lausanne before the September 1 deadline, is not accompanied by any supporting paperwork from the USOC.

"This Application Letter is not accompanied by a corresponding letter from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) our national olympic [sic] committee (NOC) which on 22 August 2011 publicly declined to consent to the application of any US city to bid for the Summer Games of the XXXII Olympiad," reports GamesBids.com, who obtained the copy of the letter.

There has been plenty of speculation that the US would put forward a bid with several cities besides Las Vegas declaring an interest, including Chicago and New York City.

But the USOC have repeatedly insisted that they will not launch a campaign to host the Olympics and Paralympics until a a solution to the row over revenue-sharing with the IOC has been found.

But the Las Vegas group have asked the IOC to judge whether a city can bid for the Games without the support of its NOC.

They want to know if they can obtain the USOC's signature of support at the time he Application File is due to be submitted on February 15, 2012.

"This would keep the US alive in the bidding process," they wrote in the letter obtained by GamesBids.com.

It is understood that the IOC have already rejected the approach from the Las Vegas group.

A USOC spokesman said tonight that they stood by their decision not to bid and had no plans to change their mind.

Source:www.insidethegames.biz

By Duncan Mackay