London 2012

“For the avoidance of doubt…”

Pete Baker on December 16, 2012, 11:32 pm | Readers 34

The unsurprising, for many reasons, winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2012 may have been this year’s Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, a well-deserved third place went to Olympic and US Open tennis champion, Andy Murray. But the Guardian’s Paul Owens has spotted something strange about the BBC’s Panel awarding ‘Team of the Year’ to the Olympic Team GB/Paralympics GB. From the BBC’s own “SPOTY Voting & Judging: Terms & conditions 2012” [dated 12 December 2012] TEAM OF THE YEAR For the …

“Honorary gold post boxes for Jason, Michael and Bethany…”

Pete Baker on September 13, 2012, 2:56 pm | Readers 53

The BBC are reporting that the Royal Mail have decided that Eglinton deserves an honorary gold post box. As does Glengormley and Seaforde, County Down. From the BBC report The honour was a response to overwhelming public support for the tributes, said Royal Mail. “Honorary gold post boxes for Jason, Michael and Bethany are an appropriate tribute for our local Paralympic heroes given their tremendous achievements and the very clear community support for this,” said Barbara Roulston, Head of External Relations …

IPC to scrutinise future media deals with the US and other ‘under-performing’ Paralympic nations…

Mick Fealty on September 11, 2012, 12:01 pm | Readers 47

Okay, so there’ve been pages now written on how great the Paralympics were in #London2012. But to give praise where it is undoubtedly due, it was probably Beijing that first raised the bar and the status of the Paralympic games to, if not equal status, then a great deal closer to the Olympics than at any time before. London’s achievement was to repackage and reengineer it as a product, not least by giving it the time and public attention that …

“The UK is believed to be the first country to paint post boxes gold to celebrate Olympic and Paralympic gold medal wins…”

Pete Baker on September 9, 2012, 4:49 pm | Readers 78

Apparently, double gold medal winning, and double world record breaking, Team Ireland Paralympian sprinter, Jason Smyth, would quite like a gold-painted post box in his home town of Eglinton. What does anything think, do we deserve a #GoldPostBox in Eglinton because I live and am from Northern Ireland @postoffice @royalmailnews RT — Jason Smyth (@smyth_jason) September 8, 2012 According to an earlier Belfast Telegraph report, he would have the support of Dame Mary Peters and the Northern Ireland Sports Minister, Sinn Féin’s …

“or just the re-announcement of the £3.27 million of lottery funding”

Pete Baker on August 12, 2012, 4:58 pm | Readers 74

As you might expect, the Northern Ireland Sports Minister, Sinn Féin’s Carál Ní Chuilín, has been maximising the PR potential of the Olympic success of athletes from here. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, is doing likewise. But eyebrows should have been raised by the NI Sports Minister’s “timely public announcement” of an over £3million investment programme for amateur boxing. As Newton Emerson noted in yesterday’s Irish News Sinn Féin culture minister Caral Ni Chuilin earned a full day of headlines by announcing …

“Olympic Torch Relay will take the 2012 Games to almost every corner of the UK”

Pete Baker on November 7, 2011, 2:02 pm | Readers 13

As the BBC report, the over 1000 cities, towns and villages on the route of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay have been announced – there’s an interactive map here. But despite a previous BBC report confirming that “the Olympic torch will travel across the Irish border”, Dublin doesn’t appear to be included in the final route. Something to do with the “complex” politics mentioned previously? What we can spot is that Locog have made sure they cover a lot of the islands, …

“The Olympic Flame will shine a light right across every Nation and Region of the UK…”

Pete Baker on May 18, 2011, 2:27 pm | Readers 6

The BBC reports the announcement of the first 74 locations on the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Route across the UK – starting at Land’s End, Cornwall, on the morning of 19 May 2012. They have an interactive map too. The torch will arrive in Northern Ireland on 3 June and will travel to Portrush, Londonderry, Newry and Belfast. As the short version of the LOCOG press release notes The cities and towns, in every nation and region of the UK, will …