In great news for the 2012 London Olympics, Rafael Nadal has announced that not only is he planning on representing Spain in the 2012 Olympic Games, but he’s skipping the 2012 Davis Cup to help prepare himself for the event.
The Olympic tennis competition will be held at the All England Club, site of the well-known Wimbledon tennis tournament, and the grass courts are very familiar to the world’s top players.
Getty images has announced that they will capture the London Olympics in 3D, marking the first time an Olympic Games has been filmed in lifelike 3D. A handful of photographers will be deployed during the Olympics will expensive 3D cameras, and will capture events, athletes and crowd shots, and Getty believes that the images will become iconic for the London games.
Normally we’d don’t care about mega-mall openings, but the Westfield Stratford City is both the largest urban shopping center in Europe and it’s located adjacent to the Olympic Park and will form the gateway to the London Olympics. How big is the Westfield Stratford City? It is comprised on 1.9 million sq ft of retail, plus 1.1 million sq ft of office space, three hotels and homes. There will be 300 stores plus 50 restaurants, and it is expected that 70% of Olympic Games visitors will pass through Stratford City. Amazing.
India athlete Sudha Singh, the Asian Games gold medalist in the 3000m steeplechase wasn’t allowed a chance to qualify for the Olympics in London due to a foul up by National Open Athletics organizers in Kolkata on Monday. Due to a snafu, only two runners (Singh and her teammate Kiran Tiwari) showed up for the steeplechase finals. Races have to have at least three competitors, so the race was cancelled. And thus no Olympics for Singh.
For her part, Singh is hopeful to get a waiver and complete a trial before the London Olympics. She is considered to be one of India’s brightest stars and most likely medalists.
Much-awaited pictures of the London 2012 Olympics medals have been released. Have a look! What do you think? I like them, but it’s too bad that the gold medal has the London 2012 Olympics logo in the middle, considering the logo itself is rather… odd. Kidding aside, big congrats to British artist David Watkins, they look great.
Even with the London riots ongoing, Olympics organizers are pushing ahead with test events this week. These events are taking place to check out all the small details that might go unnoticed before the games start, and are utilizing Olympic athletes. Starting Tuesday, Aug. 16, there are 12 Women’s Beach Volleyball matches going on at Horse Guards Parade. Other test events scheduled for this week including a cycling road race through the streets of London on Sunday (hopefully they won’t have to dodge looters are flaming garbage cans!), a marathon swimming competition at Hyde Park, and the world badminton championship at the Olympic venue of Wembley Arena in north London.
Read more at ABC News
Yes, the London Olympics Aquatic Center is finished, one year ahead of the Olympics. Designed by Zaha Hadid, the London Aquatics Center features a wave-like roof and over 17,000 seats. What do you think of the design? They still have some work to do one the outside, but that should be easy compared to the work that went in to the building itself. Let’s start swimming already!
As part of the new Thames River Park for the London 2012 games, developers are planning to incorporate a floating walkway on the Thames, BBC News reports. The floating walkway would include pavilions showcasing different parts on London and Britain, and would be paid for with 60 million pounds of investor money.
In an interesting and fun turn, the London 2012 Olympic Committee decided to make all the field hockey pitches blue with pink sidelines areas for the events at the London Olympics. Eye strain and seizure inducements aside, it’s a fun choice – grass is so boring when it’s all green.
Read more at ESPN
It’s shocking, almost. Olympic Stadiums traditionally are one of the last things to be finished, with construction continuing sometimes after the Opening Ceremonies. But the London 2012 has done a great job, getting the London Olympic Stadium completed on time and under budget!
Read more at The Guardian