Michael Hobson's Diary

The runner Michael Hobson is keping a diary on the BBC (it can be seen here). I think things like this is the key, its a great easy way to help the general population understand all the effort and time needed to be an olympic athlete, its a great and very personal insight into the young lads life and hopefully will build a nice fan base for him when the real thing comes around in 2012. I wonder what other ways athletes can create a presence online, ways that we can see there progress throughout the ups and downs on the road to the olympics.

Chinese power! British power?

"It's the time to blossom," the gold medalist said: "Now I can show the Chinese power to the whole world."

At 2008, team GB won a record number of medals coming 4th overall. This shows we can punch well above our weight in terms of achievement, but will out spirit match our achievement in 2012. Mayor Boris Johnson has already said were not going to have the same kind of opening ceremony as they did in China, were going to go for something more 'British'. Will this way of thinking extend to the support? I think its a major concern, i hope us Londoners and the UK as a whole dont get bogged down with the negative aspects of staging the Olympics (Cost etc) and realise that its going to happen, and just use there energy on getting behind our athletes.

Post Olympic downer.

There are rumors that the famous birds nest stadium has started to rust, stain and peel. (Source)


With makes me think about the after plan. What is east London going to be be like after the Olympics is over? After my tour of the olympic site, it was explained to me that a large portion of the facilities that are going to be erected are designed to be either taken down after (!!!) or taken down and rebuilt in other parts of the country, to spread out the facilities (!!!) Thats some clever thinking, but is it going to work?

Lessons learned for the London Olympics.

Fascinating post: HERE

Chinese pride for there athletes.

One thing that stood out about the Chinese Olympics is the amount of national pride and support for there athletes. The stadium felt more electric when a Chinese athlete was competing. I wonder how the Brits are going to react in 2012, with our button down culture i hope were going to relax and get into the spirit of things.