Daily Archives: July 30, 2012

Argentina vs Great Britain: tensions but no protests

July 30, 2012 7:00 pm by Ben Fenton

I’m at the Olympic hockey venue to watch Team GB take on Argentina in the men’s competition. This is a fixture with some added spice since Fernando Zylberberg, the former captain of the Argentine side, was shown in a television advert filmed in the Falkland Islands, the South Atlantic territory disputed between the two nations.

There have been fears that Argentinian athletes might stage protests of some kind during the London Olympics in this, the 30th anniversary year of their nation’s attempt to take control of the islands. Read more

Posted in Uncategorized |

BBC breaks records as viewers switch on Olympics

July 30, 2012 6:57 pm by Financial Times

The BBC sport site had its busiest day ever on Sunday as people flocked to watch Olympics coverage online, reports Rob Budden.

The BBC is delivering 24 simultaneous live channels over the web covering all the events at the Games. That equates to a total of 2,500 hours of coverage – 1,000 hours more than the Beijing Games.

On Sunday bbc.co.uk/sport had 8.3m global browsers – 2.2m of these overseas. These are big numbers. Indeed, the Olympics may well emerge as a key event in changing viewing habits for millions, with many no doubt watching sports content online for the first time. Read more

Tags: , ,
Posted in Media |

Cameron, Hollande and handball diplomacy

July 30, 2012 6:37 pm by Simon Kuper

David Cameron (CL) and Francois Hollande (CR) at the women's preliminaries Group B handball match France vs Spain on July 30, 2012 (JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/GettyImages)

Perhaps it was David Cameron’s Olympic dream to watch France vs Spain in the women’s handball. Read more

Tags: , ,
Posted in Politics |

Kiran Stacey PM powerless to prevent empty Olympic seats

July 30, 2012 4:20 pm by Kiran Stacey

Empty seats at the dressage event

From our Westminster blog:

David Cameron met with his “Olympics Cabinet” today to discuss, among other things, what can be done about the spectacle of rows of empty seats at Games venues. Various events, including swimming and even the popular beach volleyball, have not been full, despite huge public demand for tickets.

The problem, Downing street explained today, is not so much the sponsors (as some have suggested), but accredited Games officials, who have a certain allocation for each event, but don’t necessarily turn up.

So what did the prime minister tell the hapless official from the organising committee (Locog) who briefed him about the problem this morning?

 Read more

Posted in London, Uncategorized |

For Queen and Country: Squaddies at the gymnastics

July 30, 2012 10:35 am by Roger Blitz

Roger Blitz reports on the ‘Olympic squaddies’, whose khaki uniforms are now as familiar around the games venues as the logo and livery of London 2012. Read more

Tags: ,
Posted in Security |

Esther Bintliff The morning warm-up – Monday 30 July

July 30, 2012 9:20 am by Esther Bintliff

France's Yannick Agnel (C) competes in the men's 200m freestyle semi-final swimming event on July 29, 2012 (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/GettyImages)

After the pageant and pandemonium of Friday’s opening ceremony, we’re now firmly into the Olympics events schedule, with a jam-packed day ahead.

Highlights include:

Swimming – Tonight we’ve got the finals of the Men’s 200m Freestyle, the Women’s 100m Backstroke, the Men’s 100m Backstroke and the Women’s 100m Breaststroke. Michael Phelps will be looking to improve on his sole silver medal from the first two days of competition, Rebecca Adlington will return to the pool for the women’s 800m freestyle, and Gemma Spofforth will be hoping to impress with her 100m backstroke. In the Men’s 200m freestyle final, China’s Sun Yang is the main threat to Ryan Lochte of the US. Heats begin at 10am.

Diving – Great Britain’s Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield compete in the Men’s synchronised 10m platform final at 15.00

Gymnastics – Men’s team final at 16.30 Read more

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in London, Media |

GE’s Immelt steers clear of ‘Romneyshambles’ debate

July 30, 2012 7:57 am by Financial Times

General Electric chief executive, Jeff Immelt, is in town for the games, which GE sponsors, and happy to talk about most Olympian matters, except one: Mitt Romney, writes Pilita Clark.

“I’m not going to touch that one,” said Mr Immelt, when invited to comment on the storm of controversy stirred when the Republican presidential contender said Olympic-eve stories of immigration officer strikes and private security personnel shortages were “disconcerting”. The comments had prompted Boris Johnson, London mayor, to encourage a crowd of thousands in Hyde Park to roar their disapproval at Mr Romney for appearing to suggest the capital was not ready to host the games. Read more

Posted in London, Media, Personalities, Politics |