currybetdotnet London Olympics archive

100 years since the first London Olympics
Earlier this week I wrote a post on the anniversary of the 1906 Intercalated Olympic Games in Athens. We are used to the Summer Olympics being held later in the year nowadays, but April used to be the chosen month to get the games underway. Today is the centenary anniversary of the first time that London held the games. Following the first three modern Olympiads in Athens, Paris and St. Louis, the 1908 Olympic Games were scheduled to be held...

Read the full post - Published April 27, 2008 in BBC, Football, London Olympics, Olympics

1906 Athens 'Intercalated' Olympic Games anniversary
The fact that the modern summer Olympics have generally been run in late summer means that there is a cluster of Olympic anniversaries in August. However, today is the 102nd anniversary of the opening of the 1906 games being held in Athens. These games are remarkable because they are no longer counted as 'official'. Athens held the first modern Olympics in 1896, and also wanted to host the 1900 edition. Paris was offered this honour instead, but by way of...

Read the full post - Published April 22, 2008 in Greece, London Olympics, Olympics, Turkey

Greece admits defeat against Olympic phone-tapping spies
It sometimes seems that, rather like the funding mechanisms of the British Labour Party, politics in Greece simply lurches from one scandalous crisis to the next. Before Zahopoulos there were the accusations by the government that the opposition party was deliberately starting the devastating summer forest fires, and before that there was the bond sales saga. Way back when I first arrived in Greece, it was the Vodafone phone-tapping issue that was top of the scandal agenda. Whilst the Zahopoulos...

Read the full post - Published January 23, 2008 in Greece, London Olympics, Olympics, Politics

Greece lets Athens Olympics domain names lapse
Whilst I was poking around the English language Greek news sites for information on the Zahopoulos case, another news item caught my eye in Kathimerini. 'Games website lost for a pittance' explains that: "Internet users wishing to find information on the Athens 2004 Olympic Games are no longer able to access its official website after the government failed to renew the rights to the domain name. A 29.30-euro fee required by site owners to renew domain name ownership rights every...

Read the full post - Published January 14, 2008 in Football, Greece, London Olympics, Olympics, Web

"East Meets West" at Tower Bridge
I was rather lucky on Monday to get to go to a promotional evening on the walkways of Tower Bridge, called "East meets West". I've been up there a few times, as my wife used to work there, and I've even DJed up in one of the towers. The bridge itself is unique in being both a heritage monument, a working bridge, and an astonishing feat of Victorian design and engineering. The event was being held to celebrate the success...

Read the full post - Published October 17, 2007 in London Olympics, Other

College to close swimming pool in Olympic Borough of Waltham Forest
It hasn't been a good week or so for the 2012 London Olympics, what with the logo fiasco and all that. The Sun, well known champion of minority rights and anti-discrimination, ran a competition featuring a blind woman and a monkey to improve the logo design. Nice to see The Sun think of them as equals. And I noted that they managed to plug the software used by their designer for her effort: "The Sun's graphics editor Kathryn George also...

Read the full post - Published June 13, 2007 in London Olympics, Walthamstow

How many logos does one London Olympic Games need?
Do you have a logo for your business or event? Does it neatly encapsulate the vision of what you are doing - say for example including a recognisable landmark like the Thames, in the colours of something to do with what you are promoting, I don't know, say the Olympics? Does it carry all the vital information you need to convey, say for example the date and location of the event? Have you sold a ton of merchandising already featuring...

Read the full post - Published June 4, 2007 in London Olympics, Olympics

Olympic Round-Up
The BBC wasn't the only site to suffer from the volume of Olympic related internet traffic just after decision time this afternoon - whilst we had to switch to our frankly ugly mini-me version of the homepage to help the servers cool off, london2012.org died completely. Elsewhere on the web the DCMS opted for a massive splash graphic to announce the news, whilst london.gov.uk went for a more restrained approach.    Meanwhile the official Olympics site used the iconic image...

Read the full post - Published July 6, 2005 in DCMS, Football, London Olympics, Olympics, Walthamstow

The 1908 Olympics in White City
Another thing that happened whilst I was away from work was that the BBC's Broadcast Centre got a wall display about the 1908 Olympic Games that were held on the site. As I approach my office every morning I cross over a marker on the ground that shows where the finish line of the 1908 track was placed. (Sometimes, if I think nobody is looking I approach it in a faux slow-motion run whilst whistling the Vangelis theme tune from...

Read the full post - Published May 17, 2005 in BBC, London Olympics, Olympics

A warped sense of loyalty
Tonight's Evening Standard printed a letter from a London Assembly Member, Labour's Cllr Murad Qureshi: I see that French Arsenal and Chelsea players have aligned themselves with the Paris bid to host the 2012 Olympics I would have thought Londoners who pay £40 a match to watch footballers who are paid £20,000 a week would expect a little more loyalty. Hmm, I wonder what the public reaction would be if a certain David Beckham and Michael Owen showed the kind...

Read the full post - Published March 10, 2005 in Evening Standard, Football, London Olympics, Olympics, Politics

The Olympics have started on the BBC

Published August 14, 2004 in BBC, Greece, London Olympics, Olympics