Olympics

Evening Standard

Riding high: Geraint Thomas says he has learnt so much from riding in this year's Tour de France. Image courtesy of Evening Standard

Cadel Evans made history yesterday by becoming the first Australian to win the Tour de France but Britain’s 2012 medal hopefuls are confident that the London Olympics will provide a different story.

Minutes after Advance Australia Fair had rung out over the Place de la Concorde, I asked Geraint Thomas whether he was worried that he might have to hear a lot more of that national anthem next summer.

Cardiff-born Thomas, 25, who won gold as part of the team pursuit in Beijing, smiled and said: “The Australians can say what they want about the British, morale-wise we are in great spirits. Everyone forgets that me and Bradley [Wiggins] have stepped away for quite a while. We’re pretty confident that, when we come back in and give it 100 per cent, it will be different.”

Read more >

Evening Standard

Brown and Cameron: illustration by Paul Dallimore. Image coutesy of Evening Standard

David Cameron has little reason to say a good word about Gordon Brown. But, next year, as he takes his seat for the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, he may reflect that the former Prime Minister has been responsible, albeit unwittingly, for an unexpected success story. London, the only city to host the Olympics three times, will also be the first in modern times to come in under budget. Not quite a golden legacy but at least, in this area, Labour has left Cameron some money – the Government will be getting back more than £800 million from its Olympic budget.

To appreciate how unexpected this is, consider the spat between the chairman of arguably the most powerful Commons committee and the highest civil servant in the department responsible for the Olympics. It came in 2008, just a year after Brown’s government had finally announced that the budget for the Games had risen almost four times, from its original estimate of £2.375 billion to £9.3 billion.

Read more >

Evening Standard

London calling: Pippa Funnell with Redesigned, the horse that has put her in line for another shot at an Olympic gold. Image courtesy of Evening Standard

Great eventers, unlike great generals, do not fade away. They look for new horses to bring back the glory, and Pippa Funnell is convinced she has found the horse that can lead her to Olympic gold.

It is eight years since Funnell achieved what no one else in eventing has and claimed the Rolex Grand Slam, winning at Kentucky, Badminton and Burghley in the same year.

But, in the last five years, she appeared to have lost the appetite for top-class competition, missing the Beijing Olympics and turning to writing horsey books for children.

Now here we are, at her stables near Dorking, discussing the 43-year-old’s planned return to Badminton next month for the first time in four years. As she strokes her horse, Redesigned, she whispers: “Come on Red, we are going to the Olympics.”

Read more >

London Accountant

It’s by no means certain that money will be made from London 2012. It will depend on what business you’re in. Even tourism, often seen as the big beneficiary of the Olympics, may suffer, since fewer visitors may come to the capital.

With two years to go we are in the realm of projections, but we have two very distinct schools of forecaster for the 2012 money games table. The most optimistic forecasters are in government and business, with Heather Hancock, managing partner, innovation and brand, at Deloitte, convinced that the 2012 business medals table will yield golds.

Read more >

The Evening Standard

The story of the Vancouver Olympics is not so much that, after a dismal start, Canada got it right. The real lessons are provided by the emergence of China as a winter games nation.

They show that China has fully mastered the art of using the modern Olympics to play war games, to send messages which resonate far beyond the fields of play.

Nothing illustrated this better than the pairs figure skating held at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum. This event has been the preserve of the Russians since 1960, the year before the Berlin Wall was built.

Read more >