Thread: London 2012 Olympics

Olympic Games
27 July-12 Aug 2012



The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXX Olympiad, are scheduled to take place in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012.

London will become the first city to officially host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948.

London was elected as the host city on 6 July 2005 during the 117th IOC Session in Singapore, defeating Moscow, New York City, Madrid and Paris after four rounds of voting. The successful bid was headed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe.

Fifa dress code ruling crushes Olympic dream
6 June 2011



Iran's dream of competing in the London 2012 Olympic women's football tournament have been crushed by an unexpected ruling that their Islamic dress broke Fifa rules, said a football federation official in Tehran.

Iran is complaining to the world ruling body after its women were banned from playing, moments before an Olympic qualifier against Jordan last week, due to their full-body strip that includes a head scarf.

The head of women's affairs at Iran's football federation said the country had made changes to its women's kit after a Fifa ban last year and believed it had been given the approval of the world federation and of its president, Sepp Blatter.

"We made the required corrections and played a match afterwards," Farideh Shojaei said. "We played the next round and were not prevented from doing so, and they didn't find anything wrong. That meant that there are no obstacles in our path, and that we could participate in the Olympics."

Fifa's rules for the 2012 Olympics state that: "Players and officials shall not display political, religious, commercial or personal messages or slogans in any language or form on their playing or team kits."

In order to comply with the Islamic dress code which is mandatory in the Islamic Republic, Iran's women footballers play in full tracksuits and head coverings that conceal their hair.
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Olympic ticket seekers who are in the red to be called by organisers
6 June 2011

• About 90,000 successful applicants have bank problems
• Lack of funds and lost or stolen bank cards top the list

Lord Coe, chairman of the London 2012 organisers, has admitted that the Olympics ticketing process is "not perfect".

London 2012 organisers will this week contact an estimated 90,000 successful applicants for Olympic tickets who have been unable to complete their orders because they do not have enough money in their accounts or have had their credit or debit cards stolen.

Amid frustration from some consumers over the ticket sales process, it has also emerged that there could be as many as one million applicants who got nothing at all in the first round of applications and so will be offered the first chance to apply for those remaining in the second phase.

Typically around 5% of ticket applicants have subsequent problems with lack of funds or lost and stolen cards. That would equate to around 90,000 2012 ticket applicants, although the numbers could be higher due to the sums involved and the uncertainty surrounding how much money would be deducted from bank accounts and credit cards and when.

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Olympic tickets credit card debt could take '20 years to pay off'
2 June 2011

Average £1,250 spend on tickets for the London Olympics could end up costing nearly £3,000 if cardholders make only minimum repayments, a comparison site warns

Consumers who bought tickets for the 2012 Olympics on their credit cards and make only the minimum repayments could still be paying for the event in 2032, according to uSwitch.com.

The comparison site said that Britons who forked out the average £1,250 on Olympics tickets would see this more than double to £2,961 including interest if they bought on a credit card and made only minimum repayments.

Even by the time the opening ceremony begins consumers could have racked up £323 of interest on tickets worth £1,250 if they used a Santander credit card with an APR of 19.9% (assuming minimum payments of 1% of the balance plus interest). USwitch said the overall debt would take 20 years and five months to clear and would cost £1,711 in interest.

^ A bit harsh i feel let them play.

the 2008 Beijing Olympics - medals

A total of 1,881 individual athletes won medals.

Chinese athletes won the most gold medals with 51 (100 total), and the United States won the most total medals with 110 (including 36 gold).

Athletes from 87 countries won medals, while 55 nations won at least one gold medal, both setting new records for Olympic Games.

American swimmer Michael Phelps was the most successful athlete, winning eight gold medals and setting a new record for most golds won in a single edition of the Olympics (the previous record, seven, had been set in 1972 by Mark Spitz). Phelps also set a new record for most career gold medals, and his 16 total medals are ranked second all-time behind Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina.

Thailand at Beijing

Gold Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon; Weightlifting Women's 53 kg
Gold Somjit Jongjohor; Boxing Flyweight
Silver Buttree Puedpong; Taekwondo Women's 49 kg
Silver Manus Boonjumnong; Boxing Light welterweight

Thailand has won 21 Olympic medals, in the following sports:
Boxing 13
Weightlifting 6
Taekwando 2

Originally Posted by bobo746

^ A bit harsh i feel let them play.

agree; does it matter?

Fifa's rules for the 2012 Olympics state that: "Players and officials shall not display political, religious, commercial or personal messages or slogans in any language or form on their playing or team kits."

so there will be different set of rules for the Qatar Football World Cup in 2022?

^The World Cup is not an amateur event, as the Olympics is....nominally.

amateur?
is it even 'nominally' any more?

Regardless, i don't understand Fifa's logic (or is it a matter of not enough bribe money paid?)

Didn't get Olympics tickets? Well Britain's richest man was handed 5,000 – and even LIBYA received hundreds
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 11:39 AM on 15th June 2011

Regimes in Zimbabwe and Burma also given tickets

While most of us have struggled to get our hands on a single ticket to the 2012 Olympics, it seems Britain's richest man has had no such problems.
Lakshmi Mittal, worth £29.8billion, has been allowed more than 5,000 top tickets to the forthcoming London games.
In a separate development, which could pose awkward diplomatic questions for the government, it has emerged that Libya has been allocated hundreds of tickets, which will be handed out by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's son Muhammad al-Gaddafi.
Britain is currently part of Nato military action against Libya
In return for services provided to Games organisers, Mr Mittal has been handed 320 prime seats a day.

The Daily Telegraph reported that Zimbabwe and Burma have also received tickets.
According to the newspaper, the International Olympic Committee said an NOC would only be excluded from ticket allocations if it were 'not able to function any more because of government interference'.
A Government spokesman said: 'Gaddafi, his son and key figures in the current Libyan government are banned from entering the EU and will not be coming to the Olympic Games.
'As with all national organising committees, the Libyan NOC, not an individual, has been allocated a few hundred tickets which they are responsible for distributing to sports organisations and athletes within their country.'

Poland charges £100 postage

14 Jun 2011

There was another day of frustration for London 2012 ticket hopefuls as the official French ticket re-seller experienced more technical problems and it emerged that Poland's reseller was charging £100 handling fee.



The official Olympic ticket resellers in Poland, Club&Travel - profesjonalna obs have added the surcharge for delivery of tickets, not on the actual price of tickets. Resellers are only supposed to levy a £20 mark up on any actual ticket price.
A spokeswoman for the London organising committee – which is charging six pounds per package for delivery of its tickets sold through the public ballot – said the Polish supplier could charge whatever it liked for postage.
''This is a charge for delivery by courier and that is what it costs from Poland,'' the Locog spokeswoman said.
''This is not to do with the cost of the ticket, which has a cap, it is the cost of the postage.''