Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts


Olympics are all about medals and the country that has the highest number of gold medals rules the chart in the end. Thousands of athletes compete to get the gold medal and earn a name and respect for their country but only a few succeed. Every country sends the best men and women it has in sports to compete against the players from around the world. When it comes to tennis, USA has some of the best athletes who have earned respect for USA for years by winning record grand slams and Olympic titles as well. Serena and Venus Williams, the two sisters have won several grand slam titles for USA and took the responsibility of bringing back some gold in Olympic Games 2012.

Venus Williams the elder sister has already won 1 gold medal for USA in 2000 Olympic Games in Women’s Singles. She has also won gold medals in Women’s doubles with her sister Serena Williams in 2000 and 2008. Having won several grand slam titles and names written in history for winning most number of grand slam titles, there couldn’t be any better candidates from USA to compete in the Olympic Games 2012 for gold medals. However, Venus Williams who was a bigger hope in the context that she had already won a Women’s Singles gold medal in Olympics for USA in 2000 has been eliminated from the women’s singles competition.

Venus Williams lost against Angelique Kerber from Germany in two straight sets without putting up a solid fight in the third round. Though from her matches in the first and second round it was looking that she was in great form but things didn’t quite work for her in the third round. Contrary to that, Serena Williams is now looking right on the track and better than ever with her extremely powerful strokes and tremendous attacking, which she revealed in the match against Vera Zvonareva. Beating Zvonareva 6-1, 6-0 Serena has sent the threatening signals to players facing her in the next rounds. Not to forget the rocketing 12 aces in the match and brutal 32 winners she played in the match.

The way Serena Williams has played against the number 13 seed, it looks that USA can count on her to win the gold medal and remove one block from the way of coming close to China in the race of gold medals. While Serena is looking in great form, Kim Clijsters and other players are coming strong too. Let’s see who bites on the gold medal in the Olympic Games 2012 because once you lose the opportunity, your next chance is 4 years away from that day.


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When you look at the medal chart of Olympic Games 2012, you will notice something. You will notice a battle between different continents which of course cannot be mentioned on a medal table. However, it lies in the eye of the beholder whether he is able to see the amazing trends on an Olympic medal table or not. If you look at the latest medals won by first three countries, you have China on top, USA on second and France on third. Now, since we have been talking about continents and now you know the top three entries in the medal chart, do you realize something?

Yes, you have three different continents boasting on first, second and third ranking. Now, if you see the logo of Olympics it has 5 rings depicting the 5 different continents and also reflecting the most common colors present in the flags of the countries located in these continents. Since Olympic Games are all about sports, we are talking about competition. Medals are awarded to the winners so we are talking about even tougher competition. The real fight is about making your continent proud by winning the most number of gold medals or total number of medals.

There wasn’t much contribution from Asian countries in the past Olympic Games but with the passage of time, Asia started to take part in more and more games, and picking up bunches of medals from the table. China has always been the best candidate from Asia to win the highest numbers of gold medals. However, after the Olympics of 2000 things started to change abruptly and China gradually started to move into the top position on the charts. Looking at the latest proceedings and medal chart, China is still topping it with a total 15 gold medals on the sixth day of Olympics since 27th of July.

With further countries such as Korea, Kazakhstan, Russia and others, Asia has high chances of winning most number of gold medals or total medals. Italy, Great Britain, Germany and France are the hopes from Europe to take it on top with highest number of gold medals. USA is already standing on number 2 and trying to surpass China as more games are played and finished. However, looking at the chart of 2008 Beijing Olympics where China had a big lead on its biggest opponent USA it feels that China alone will be enough to win highest number of medals for Asia.


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What good is a competition if there is no competition? In sports all the excitement is of competition and if the two nations fighting in a sports competition are rivals for years. If you have a look at the Olympics medal charts for the past 3 Olympic Games and the current Olympic Games 2012, you will right away notice something on top of the charts. There has been a very close competition since 2000 between China and USA for the highest number of gold and other medals. The first rival for USA was Russia along with Germany but gradually China rose up in ranks and more and more Chinese athletes made their ways on the medal charts.

Looking at the chart of 2000, China was at number 3 with 28 gold medals and 58 medals in total. At the top was USA with 37 gold medals and 94 medals in total. Big difference you would say after looking at the stats. Well, it didn’t quite remain like this for long and the sight of the medal chart changed in 2004. Russia who was at number 2 in 2000 on the medal charts now moved down to number 3 and China moved one step up to take the second spot. Total number of gold medals won by USA and China were 36 and 32 respectively and the difference was disappearing with time.

Move to the medal chart of Olympic Games 2008 and you will be astonished to see what just happened there. Well, China took the top spot while being the host at the same time by winning a total of 51 gold medals. USA walked away with second position with 36 gold medals but the difference in total number of gold medals was ample. Definitely the cat and mouse chase was over and now China has taken over the chart, which was certainly a big concern for the American athletes and officials.

Looking at the latest medal charts of current Olympics Games 2012, we once again have China on top with a total of 15 gold medals and 27 medals combined. USA ranks second with 10 gold medals and 26 medals in total. Questions have been raised by American officials and commentators about many Chinese players using the performance enhancement drugs. The biggest controversy of Ye Shiwen has gained a lot of hype where her 2 recently claimed gold medals are on the line if any medical tests prove positive signs of any performance enhancements. Has the war of medals turned into a battle of egos? Let the show wind up and we’ll surely know.


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Olympic Games are already interesting enough that they attract nations from all corners of the world in one place to compete but at the same time show unity by staying together. Some fascinating performances, ground breaking ceremonies, exciting moments, funny faces, fulfilled dreams and ever determined athletes are the identity of Olympic Games. However, making all of this possible within slightly more than two weeks is not an easy job and the nation hosting Olympic Games needs to show the true character by utilizing all of its resources to make them successful. Olympic Games 2012 have been held in London and are expected to go on until 12th of August. While all the fun, entertainment, sports and electricity is on, here are some cool facts for you to know about Olympic Games 2012.

• London is the only city to have the honor in a three century old history of Olympics to host them for three times.

• The capacity of the stadium where Olympic games will be played is eighty thousand (80,000) people.

• Olympics are not only about sports and excitement, they can also affect the economies of cities where they are held and London Olympics 2012 are a good example of this. It has been estimated that only because of the Olympics being held in London, London’s economy will rise by $80 billion. The estimate is supposed to be met in the year 2015.

• People are looking for jobs, fighting to get new jobs and struggling to get better ones. Governments are doing whatever they can to create more job opportunities for the people but Olympic Games 2012 have come out of nowhere for many jobseekers. By creating 12000 new jobs in Olympic park, London Olympics have certainly given a new hope to many who were looking for jobs.

• This is one of the best things you would hear about Olympics. Do you know what happens to all the sports equipment that will be used during Olympics after the games are over on 12th of August? Well, every piece of sports item will be given as charity. Isn’t that amazing?

• Well, it’s been four since the construction of Olympic park started in 2008 for London Olympics. An estimated 5250 people are constantly putting their best efforts to make it the best park for Olympics.

• Let’s talk security. The budget for the security of Olympics is around five hundred and fifty three million pounds. Now that’s secure and safe.


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Of course, it is not easy to host Olympic Games and you need resources to accommodate all that happens in Olympic Games. Only London has the honor to host the Olympic Games 3 times. Current Olympic Games 2012 have been held in London once again and this time the hopes are high for British people. Looking at Britain’s profile, you expect big things and a lot of gold medals from it. It must be noted that Great Britain has always won at least one gold medal every time it has appeared in Olympic Games. Now that Britain has appeared in all the Olympic Games, hosted them 3 times and won medals in almost all the games, it becomes a demand from the nation to expect more from its athletes. But will British athletes be able to make their fans’ wishes come true?

Since the beginning, Britain has been renowned for producing the best rowers. Steve Redgrave is the name of one of the best rowers of all time and he was from the Great Britain. Steve appeared five times in Olympics and guess how many gold medals he won? Yes, he won a gold medal in every appearance he made. If you look at the history, you will find out that there are several athletes from Britain who won back to back medals. The mayor of London Boris Johnson gave a speech to urge his players before the games to do something big. He did this by asking the players to defeat Australia in the race of medals. However, looking at the current medal chart, things are looking very disappointing for the Mayor and all British people. China is topping the chart with 23 medals in total including the highest 13 gold medals.

What’s happening down there at number 13 on the chart? Well, what do you know, it’s Australia on number 13 but does that indicate something important? Yes, it does. To see the important part you need to move down one step and look at number 14. We have Great Britain at number 14 with just one gold medal so far. As mentioned above, Britain has been known for rowing and once again it was the rowers who have brought luck and gold medal for the Great Britain. Gold medal won by the rowers is the only gold medal for Britain by now with 2 silver medals and 3 bronze. Britain has athletes taking part in most of the games so we can see a rise in the number of medals as we move on but would that be enough to beat Australia?


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Yes, Olympic Games 2012 have seen a lot of controversies before commencing and a lot of controversies are arising while it is still on. While these controversies are not pleasing for everyone but they surely do give more coverage to Olympics since it is a world event and the entire world gets to see what’s going on during Olympics. Before the badminton and swimming controversy of Olympic Games 2012, the Hijab controversy had already been given a lot of hype. A lot of controversy, anger and debate took place when a Saudi teen named Wodjan Shaherkani stood up to defend her hijab or you could call it a scarf. She was convinced not to compete in the Judo matches without a scarf on since she gives high importance to her religious values. This surely raised another big issue for the IOC and other officials.

However, there were mixed remarks from the human rights organizations as well. People believe that it wouldn’t do much with the conditions that women are living in, in Saudi Arabia but if women have thought of taking part in something, stopping them from doing so wouldn’t be a good idea as well. Based on the statements given by the head of International Judo Federation it was clear that Shaherkani wasn’t going to get what she demanded for that easily. Due to the fear of strangulation in the presence of scarf, it was stated that Shaherkani just like other players must compete while staying within the rules of Judo. Despite all the anger and reaction from around the world, Shaherkani did not relent and stood fast with her belief of covering her head while competing in judo matches.

The efforts from Shaherkani and some support from the human rights organizations from the world have finally resulted in IOC accepting Shaherkani fighting judo matches with the scarf on. This might not be a happy news for many people and not even change too much in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for women but it is a small pebble in the stagnant water and it will surely create some ripples on the surface. Whenever Olympics have held in London, something unique and memorable has happened. Not to forget the postponing of Olympic Games of 1944 due to World War II and the first TV broadcast of Olympics in 1948. This time in Olympic Games 2012, London might become the origin of a change in Women sports in Saudi Arabia.


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People sit down in front of their TVs and many buy new TV sets just to watch the full coverage of Olympic Games because if they miss is today, they’ll get the chance to watch them after four years. The entire world is getting together in one place and players from all corner of the earth walk on the same track carrying their flags. However, among all these spirits and passions lie a few controversies that become popular from day one of the Olympic Games. Olympic Games 2012 are no exception and we are seeing controversies arising on various fields and different sports. From swimming pools to the badminton courts, controversies have not spared the Olympic Games 2012 as well. The most strange and one of a kind controversy arose in the badminton court after the Ye Shiwen controversy in the swimming pool.

The controversy lifted its head when the crowd and Badminton World Federation saw few players not putting any efforts to win their matches. Probably there was a purpose behind it but still this is something that cannot be stated with surety since you can’t prove the sincerity of a person with a sincerity test. A total of eight players were brought under the hammer of justice when the match referee and the crowd noticed that players were not doing anything at all to win the match. Badminton, which is a game that has frequent rallies touching or going easily in double figures, witnessed a day when the entire first game was finished without any rally touching double figures. Of course, the reaction from the crowd was instant and the arena was surrounded by the booing sounds from the fans who were there to see some action.

The charges were laid on the doubles pairs. The two pairs belong to South Korea while the other two coming from China and Indonesia. It was a match between the South Korean pair and a Chinese pair that ended with South Korean pair taking the match. It has been alleged that Chinese player lost to South Korean pair because if they had won, they would have met their own countrymen prior to the final match. They lost so if these two teams meet, they will meet in the final and winning or losing will still bring gold and silver medal home. The Chinese players of course have their own say on this but the biggest shocker for referee Berg was when something similar happened in the match played between South Korean and Indonesian team. What more do Olympic Games 2012 hold for us, let’s see as we proceed with the matches.


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While Olympic Games are always the centre of attraction after every 4 years and the biggest event on planet earth for many types of sports, there are moments in every Olympics that are not very happy or amusing. Sometimes the sorrows come from a broken winning streak of the most famous player and sometimes careers end due to detrimental injuries. Amidst these things, some illegal and unlawful activities from some players who are may be not serious with their careers also become the sources of disappointment for many fans. However, sometimes the allegations made by officials taking care of Olympics are not true. They can be hurting for the players if they are not involved in any illegal activity but are accused of doing so.

One such example in Olympic Games 2012 is the Ye Shiwen from China who is a young prodigy of 16 years competing in swimming competitions. She has done something in Olympic Games 2012 that has raised doubts in the mind of many Olympics officials about her performance. Though the allegations and whispers from various corners have not been authenticated yet, but they have surely affected the image of a nation, the player and the country. So what is it that has made many officials suspicious about Shiwen’s performance? This young prodigy has already claimed two gold medals in 200 meters and 400 meters individual medley. Most of the questions were raised by the officials and experts when Ye Shiwen swam the last lap of her 400 meters individual medley.

Men’s gold medalist named Ryan Lochte’s name has been repeatedly mentioned while accusations were made on Ye Shiwen and it has been stated over and over again that she swam faster than men’s gold medalist in the last lap of the 400 meter race. Chinese officials and the player herself have shown disagreement and anger to the accusations made by Olympics officials. There is a mixed response from around the world about her performance and while on one hand there are whispers of Ye Shiwen using banned drugs, on the other hand people are supporting her and wishing her best of luck for the coming feats. Looking at the medals table, China is leading with the number of gold medals and right below China is USA. The controversy about Ye Shiwen’s use of performance enhancement drugs can take many turns and some people might just say that it is a way to bring China’s ranking down. What’s the reality, we don’t know yet. Let’s go with “innocent until proven guilty” for now.


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One of the biggest names in Tennis Rafael Nadal, who has succeeded to have his name written in history, is not going to take part in Olympic Games 2012. This news though not big enough to cast a shade on the excitement of Olympic Games 2012 but is still sad enough for many tennis fans that they must have felt half of their Olympics excitement go away. People who are not much aware must know that Rafael Nadal was also the defending champion for Olympics. Having won his 7th Roland Garros title, people were expecting tougher competitions and more exciting matches in the ongoing Olympics but the defending champion had a different mindset. The reason for his withdrawal from such a huge event was the knee injury, which has been bugging him for quite some time in the matches he’s played this year.

All the big names of Tennis are taking part in Olympic Games 2012 including Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer, Davydenko, Simon, Del Potro, Almagro, Gasquet, Andy Murray and JW Tsonga. With such a big list of players, missing Rafael Nadal is like missing the most part of the excitement. Tennis fans cannot get enough of Roger Federer, Djokovic and Nadal. Be it any competition or any tournament, their fans get to see them competing in finals. However, Rafael Nadal’s exit from the Olympics this year will definitely make a lot of hearts sad. Another reason why Nadal fans will miss him in the Olympic Games is because he just lost to a 100th ranked player in the latest Wimbledon tournament. The fans wanted to see him rise back up and show his true form.

Djokovic, Federer and Andy Murray have made their way to the third round and Murray being British definitely has a huge support from the crowd behind his back. As for Nadal, him being one of the most challenging and hard working players of all times is not happy and showed his dismay by calling this moment the saddest one in his whole life. The player who has been making Spain proud for years and was supposed to bear the flag for Spain had to forget about the event and sit back home. Nadal’s absence from Olympic Games 2012 is surely a big space that needs filling but recalling the very recent final of Wimbledon between Federer and Murray, which was played on the same court where Olympics’ final will be played, there’s still enough action left in the competition for tennis fans to enjoy.


Hosting Olympic Games is a dream for many countries and that’s why there is a great package created by all the candidates to convince the IOC when the selection process is going. Videos, pictures, speeches and a lot of other things are shown to the IOC officials to convince them that a city (which is of course in a country) is eligible to hold the Olympic Games. Hundreds of cities from around the world wish to hold the Olympic Games even if it’s once and for all. London is one of the most blessed and privileged city to have hosted the Olympic Games three times including the Olympic Games 2012. It’s a memory, an achievement and history in writing that London is holding the Olympic Games 2012, which is something that no other city has achieved in the world.

The first Olympic Games hosted by London were in 1908, second time was in 1948 and the third time is in 2012. A lot has happened in between and Olympic Games have gone through a lot during all this time. We can say that London has been lucky on many occasions as well since the first Olympic Games that were held in London in 1908 were not supposed to be held here. The 1908 Olympics were going to be held in Rome but it was Mount Vesuvius that didn’t seem quite happy with the decision and erupted badly. Due to the eruption, Italy had to forfeit its dream of hosting the Olympic Games but on the other hand, some country had to step in and take the responsibility of hosting the games. It was London and thus London hosted its first Olympic Games in 1908.

Then in 1944 London once again had the privilege of hosting the games but World War II compelled IOC to postpone the games, which were then held in 1948. The venue wasn’t changed and it was London once again hosting the Olympic Games and this time the lucky thing for London was that these Olympic Games were the first ones to ever reveal on TV screens. After a gap of 64 years, London has finally been chosen to host the games once again. Though it is a huge achievement for London but we never know London might achieve even a bigger success in future. For now, let’s see which nation out of 204 wins the most number of gold medals and rewards. 


The small town of Wenlock is about One hundred sixty miles north-west based in london, and was an area of a priory during 690AD. Addititionally there is proof of a Saxon regal abbey. Because of its area close to the border of Welsh, it also increased into a flourishing market city. However it is in 2012 that this small city in Shropshire is chosen to be put securely in the spotlight, since its history is actually connected to Olympic Games.

In mid-1800s, Dr William P. Brookes, a genuine Victorian guy, who loved the actual 'manly sport from the outdoors', put an instance forward for that "reinstitution of games played by of our ancestors and forefathers... to keep so good feeling in between low and high, wealthy and poor, which gladly may be the national sign of Old England". The actual town's folk accepted Dr Brookes' concept and also, since 1850, the town of Much Wenlock has organized a yearly 'Olympian Games.

The original competitors contained cricket, modified football, higher jump, lengthy jump as well as quoits. To include the entire community, there is also a jumping and running race. Competition obtained bigger every year and other sports activities were launched, including archery, the blindfold wheelbarrow race, placing the rock, a this halloween race, challenge races or even a race for old ladies.

The Much Wenlock Olympic Games used to be a large success. Around 5000 spectators created the journey towards the town each year. Even the Excellent Western Train had to place on particular locomotives to handle the figures. At the moment, researchers across the globe have been encouraging individuals to take part in outside activities to enhance health, therefore sports had been rapidly increasingly trendy throughout Europe as well as North America.

Pierre Coubertin, an aristocrat fwho loved fencing, rowing as well as boxing had developed taking pleasure in English books in which the characters were, "fondly dedicated to manly games and outside sports". He had been devoted to changing the French training system. Also, he encouraged the introduction of sports and physical eduction. He earned many outings to Britain from 1880 to check out the British training system. He or she spent considerable time in the capital of scotland - Rugby as well as in the early 1890s, once he heard about Games of Much Wenlock. He also paid the city a trip; he soon started his marketing campaign to re-introduce the actual competitions associated with Historic Greece.

To compliment his suggestion, Coubertin released a column: "The Much Wenlock Olympian Games" in 1890, which started with praise to Dr Brookes, the one who was respected greatly by Coubertin. In following articles, Coubertin once again pointed out the way the people from Much Wenlock continued to uphold the real traditions from the Olympic Games.

Therefore, after a lot of effort, along with an extremely good attitude, Pierre Coubertin was crowned the founding father of the modern Olympics that were organized in 1896 in Athens. Thanks to the Much Wenlock town for uplifting Pierre de Coubertin, and also to the panel of London Olympics for selecting the Wenlock for 2012 Olympics.
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