Summer Olympics 2012 London

London 2012 Olympics: Fencer Shin A-Lam stages dramatic sit-down protest after losing controversial semi-final
South Korean fencer Shin Lam broke down in tears amid extraordinary scenes at the ExCeL arena last night in a women’s epee semi-final and was forced to stay on court for over an hour as her delegation protested the most controversial incident of the Games thus far.

The countdown clock in the 25-year-old’s contest against reigning Olympic gold medallist Britta Heidemann was reset from zero to one second with the scores tied on 5-5, though Shin would have taken the victory through a ‘priority ruling’ which meant the onus was on Heidemann to score another point.
Shin believed she was through to the final, but as the clock was reset, Heidemann pounced to score a decisive hit. It appeared to have given her a place in the final against Ukraine's Yana Shemyakana. Shin, meanwhile, broke down in tears.
Shim Jaesung, the Korean coach, then furiously launched an appeal against the decision to allow the fight to continue and it was nearly half an hour before it was announced to the crowd - slow-handicapping by this stage - that Heidemann's win stood.
Shin broke down in tears for the second time and sat on the runway while her opponent celebrated she remained there, a forlorn figure.
The crowd was then told she was doing that because a formal appeal was being considered and if she left the field of play it would be deemed an acceptance of defeat.

jury spokesman said it would "take a while to come to a decision in this delicate situation.", with an announcer declaring that "if the Korean leaves the piste, she accepts the defeat." Thirty minutes later an official came onto the piste to encourage Shin to leave, although she refused. Another official came on to assist as she dissolved into tears again. As she was led off, without a decision been announced, there were catcalls from the spectators.
As she was hugged by her coach the announcer asked for respect to be shown to the athletes and judges - and also a big round of applausefor the world number 12 as she finally left. The crowd was then incredulous when just before 7.40pm - nearly an hour after the incident - that an announcer claimed that in the rules the Koreans had to lodge money for the appeal to be valid.

Scoring controversy takes center stage at men's gymnastics final


Kohei Uchimura's revised pommel score boosted Japan from fourth to second.
LONDON -- Three thoughts from the men's gymnastics team final, where China ran away with its second straight Olympic gold, Japan was second, then fourth, then second again, and Great Britain won bronze, its first team medal since 1912 ...
1. Yet another gymnastics scoring controversy, and the world's greatest gymnast was at the center of it. The very last routine of Monday's competition was Japan's Kohei Uchimura on pommel horse. Uchimura is the three-time reigning world all-around champion, his face plastered on airplanes in Japan. He is superman. Uchimura surely didn't know the exact standings as he performed his final routine, but the vibe in the arena was that Japan had clinched silver. Uchimura performed solidly until a dismount so clumsy that he left the horse with a sheepish grin. Nobody was really paying attention to Uchimura's score. The British fans at North Greenwich Arena were already celebrating an apparent bronze medal.
But then the final team standings flashed on the scoreboard. 1. CHINA 2. GREAT BRITAIN 3. UKRAINE 4. JAPAN. Elation ensued. Uchimura's face froze. He had been given a 13.466. Kohei Uchimura never scores in the 13s. Once the bewilderment faded (a little), it was announced that Japan filed a protest of Uchimura's score. Minutes passed. The crowd did the wave. Heroes played over the loud speakers. At last, a message flashed on the scoreboard, "Inquiry accepted." Uchimura's score was boosted to 14.166, enough to vault Japan over both Ukraine and Great Britain for silver. As result, Ukraine finished off the podium.
Judges had conferred and bumped up Uchimura's "D score," or difficulty score, which surely had been downgraded because of his lack of a dismount. We are no longer in the subjective perfect-10 era. Gymnastics overhauled its scoring system after judging controversies at the 2004 Olympics (see Paul Hamm, Yang Tae-Young and Alexei Nemov). The complicated "code of points" was aimed to eliminate this kind of issue. But here we are again. And, you have to wonder, how much did Uchimura's reputation play a role in the change?
2. The U.S. stumbled, then crumbled and never recovered. There's a reason they throw out qualification scores. The Americans were the best in the world on Saturday, when no medals were at stake, while Japan and China were uncharacteristically mediocre. But with a clean sheet and gold, silver and bronze on the line, everything changed. China completely flipped the switch and had its second straight Olympic title wrapped up with one rotation to go. Japan, before Uchimura's head-scratcher, was also clearly better than the rest of the field, as it should be.
The U.S., if it had a poor final, was supposed to do no worse than bronze. Fifth? Out of the question. It's the worst U.S. men's finish at an Olympics since 2000 (also fifth; they were sixth in 1992) and softens the momentum built from a silver in 2004 and a bronze in 2008.
The Americans opened on floor exercise, where their least experienced member, Sam Mikulak, put his hands down on a dismount for a score of 14.6 (he scored 15.366 in Saturday's qualifying). They were in fifth place after the first of six rotations. It wasn't the worst possible start, but it sent the five-man team into its two weakest events without a whole lot of confidence.
The second event, pommel horse, again proved to be the Americans' Achilles' heel. Danell Leyva fell off of it and scored a 13.4, and John Orozco struggled even more, posting a 12.733. They fell to seventh after two rotations.
Sound the alarms. They bounced back a bit on still rings, but any hope of a comeback for a bronze went splat when Orozco sat down his vault on the third rotation. Really, given all that went wrong, the recovery for fifth should get a golf clap.
3. American all-around prospects also took a hit. Orozco, who on Saturday qualified fourth into Wednesday's all-around final, had a nightmare Monday. He posted the lowest American score on four straight events -- pommel horse, rings, vault and parallel bars -- and was fighting back tears after the 14.6 on vault. Can Orozco, the youngest member of the team at 19, put this behind him over the next 48 hours?
Then there's Leyva, the top qualifier into the all-around final. He recovered slightly after the fall on pommel horse, but you have to wonder if this disappointment will conjure memories of the 2011 world championships. Leyva qualified third into the all-around final there, only to finish dead last after slamming his chin on high bar and getting a 6.466.

Japanese protest leads to Ukrainian disappointment in men's gymnastics final

LONDON – For 10 whole minutes Ukraine's men's gymnastics team did the things that unexpected bronze medalists are supposed to do.

They stood at the western edge of the North Greenwich Arena, hugging, high-fiving and celebrating a third-place finish that felt like gold.

They screamed into the air. They pumped their fists and sought out whatever fans they had in the place, mostly a few family members waving flags amongst a pro-Great Britain throng that included Princes William and Harry.

"It was a big emotion," said coach Yuliy Kuksenkov.

And then it was gone.

A controversial scoring appeal of Japan's Kohei Uchimura's dismount from the pommel horse resulted in .700 points being added to his score. That small amount was enough to push Japan from fourth place at 271.252 to second at 271.952, mere decimal points for some but for Ukraine the difference between delight and an empty-handed return home.

China remained the gold medalists by a great margin. Great Britain was pushed to third but scarcely cared, so unexpected was their own run for the podium.

It was the Ukrainians that lost out and couldn't quite accept this tortured outcome.

"We did not expect [the appeal]," said Kuksenkov, searching desperately for diplomacy but finding it elusive. "We are not blind, everyone has their own opinion, everyone has their own vision about it. We think we deserve the medals."

The judges, however, watched the video of Uchimura's dismount repeatedly, a huddle of sport-coat clad officials circling a television monitor. They talked amongst themselves and pointed at the video to make sure he got both feet down.

While the men from Ukraine celebrated originally, Uchimura's face carried the opposite emotion. He knew that with everything on the line and a pocketful of silver awaiting him, he had forgotten his lines. The three-time world champion had held his nerve in some of the toughest arenas in gymnastics. But this was the Olympics.

As he made a final twist and prepared to make his landing from the horse he overextended, lost balance for a split second and toppled awkwardly from the apparatus.

"I knew I had made a mistake so I was sure that the score would not be too high anyways," Uchimura said. "I was not expecting a lot. I saw the score and the team leader said we were going to protest. Of course it is better to get silver than no medal at all. I wanted to land it better but it was a mistake."

And almost the most costly of his career.

Originally he was not credited with a dismount, but instead a fall. A gymnast receives no points for a fall. However even a clumsy exit from the horse, as long as he gets two feet down, counts for some points.

Once the giant scoreboard in the middle of the gymnastics hall announced the appeal had been accepted, the fortunes of the teams spun.

The Japanese began celebrating wildly as they moved from fourth to silver. The crowd booed the decision for a moment as they realized Great Britain was relegated to bronze, but the reaction only lasted briefly.

It was the Ukrainians who hung their heads, picked up their backpacks and left the gymnastics hall in disbelief. Moments before they had cheered their fortune. Then they waited nervously for the appeal. Now it all sunk in.

Their reign as bronze medalist was just 10 minutes long.

"Life is life," Kuksenkov said.

Gatecrashing Indian marcher identified

If you were perplexed by the sight of a casually dressed woman marching next to the Indian flag-bearer during London's triumphant Olympics opening ceremony, the mystery has been solved.

It wasn't an unsettling breach of security, merely an example of an over-excited cast member who wanted her 15 minutes of fame. And the world was watching.

Indian Olympic officials are reportedly miffed about how the woman managed to march with the country's delegation during the athletes' parade.

India's Deccan Chronicle has identified the woman as Madhura Nagendra, a post-graduate student from Bangalore.

"DC sources say that her friend from the college was also baffled seeing her with the Indian contingent," the paper reported.

"She has been living in London and before she went with the Indian team, she had displayed her Olympic passes on her Facebook account. But once this became an issue, she had deactivated her Facebook account.''

Acting chef de mission of the Indian contingent Brig P.K. Muralidharan Raja told the Press Trust of India they were angry that an individual who was not part of the delegation was allowed to hog the limelight.

"She had no business to walk in with the Indian contingent and we are taking up the issue with the organisers. We don't know who she is and why she was allowed to walk in. It is a shame that she was with the athletes in the march past," Raja told the PTI.

LOCOG chief executive Sebastian Coe emphasised that the woman's surprise appearance was not a breach of security as she hadn't "walked in off the street".

"I think there is a very important point here to take into consideration - and I don't minimise the fact that she got into the opening ceremony, we will have our own discussions about that - but, of course, she could not have got on to the Olympic Park without having gone through all our security protocols anyway. So ... she should not have been in the opening ceremony but don't run away with the idea that she sort of walked in off the street to be able to do that. She hadn't," Coe told a media briefing.

"But yes, we will be looking at that - next time we have an opening ceremony."

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[video=youtube_share;n5njzFO3udM]http://youtu.be/n5njzFO3udM[/video]
Last 50m faster than men

[video=youtube_share;mRpiXB5NSBA]http://youtu.be/mRpiXB5NSBA[/video]

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/AjoDrL9wk3E/

History in making - watch 400m Olympic Medley swimming

chowka said:

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clock failure my arse, not only that, he need to pay money to appeal. crazy.

US attacks China over drugs row supergirl swimmer: Chinese teenager who swims faster than men's No1 is forced to deny doping claims
Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen smashed world record by a second and her own personal best by five seconds



The Chinese 16-year-old was forced to deny using drugs after a respected US coach called her gold medal-winning performance ‘unbelievable’.
But her defiant pledge that the world record-breaking swim on Saturday – which saw her outpace the winner of the men’s event – came purely from ‘hard work and training’ failed to defuse a doping controversy gripping London 2012.


John Leonard, the US executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, described Saturday’s swim by ‘Supergirl’ Miss Ye – who last night broke the Olympic record in another event – as ‘unbelievable’ and ‘disturbing’.

He also made the extraordinary suggestion that the Chinese could be using genetic manipulation to enhance performances.

His claims came as anti-doping officials revealed that cleaners and security staff have been asked to spy on athletes in the Olympic Village and report anything suspicious that could be linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
Miss Ye’s gold medal came in the 400m individual medley, in which she swam the last 50m of the freestyle leg in 28.93 seconds – compared with the 29.1 seconds that 27-year-old American Ryan Lochte managed in the men’s event minutes earlier.
Her time for the whole event was more than five seconds better than her previous best.
Pressed on the use of drugs she told the China News Service last night: ‘There is absolutely no problem with doping. The Chinese have always had a firm policy about doping. My results come from hard work and training and I would never use any banned drugs. The Chinese people have clean hands.’
But Mr Leonard compared the final 100m swum by Miss Ye as being ‘reminiscent’ of some old East German swimmers, several of whom were subsequently exposed for using performance-enhancing drugs.
He said Miss Ye looks like Superwoman, adding: ‘Any time someone has looked like Superwoman in the history of our sport they have later been found guilty of doping.’
If someone could outpace one of the fastest male swimmers in the world and finish three-and-a-half lengths ahead of her nearest female rival, he said, ‘all those things, I think, legitimately call that swim into question’.


Mr Leonard also called for an investigation into the Chinese, saying they could be using genetic manipulation.
‘It is a result that demands an explanation – it is unprecedented,’ he told the Mail. Genetic manipulation in animals, he said, had given added strength and oxygen usage. ‘Who knows what it can do to humans?’ he added.

Jonathan Harris, London 2012’s head of anti-doping, said that organisers had made security, cleaning, events services and others ‘very aware of the issue of doping, so if they were to come across practices, paraphernalia, whatever it may be, then they would bring it to our attention and, of course, we would investigate this and treat it as intelligence.’
A source close to the British swimming team, who did not want to be named, said yesterday: ‘There has been a lot of talk since Saturday about the Chinese swimmers, particularly Ye, and how they are managing to come out of nowhere and achieve these incredible times.
'We all know about the kind of punishing regimes the Chinese swimmers are put through.’
One insight came on Sunday. After winning silver in the 100m butterfly, Chinese athlete Lu Ling said: ‘In China we’re used to study, study and train, train and then rest. I think our way of thinking has many limits. In Australia I’ve been invited to barbecues with my teammates – that would never happen in China.’
Officials say there have been 1,461 drug tests carried out so far in this Olympics – no results are yet known – and that testers can take samples at any time.

Ye has never failed a drugs test and, when asked about the issue of doping, she said: “The Chinese team keep very firmly to the anti-doping policies, so there is absolutely no problem.”
Leonard, who has been executive director of the WSCA since 1989, claimed that the consensus in the coaching community was that the swim was “unbelievable”. He said: “I use that word in its precise meaning. At this point it is not believable to many people.” Lochte, the American men’s swimming star of these Olympics, admitted that “if she was there with me, she might have beat me”.
The performance of Ye was also questioned immediately after the race by Clare Balding, the BBC presenter, in her discussions with former British Olympian Mark Foster. “How many questions will there be, Mark, about somebody who can suddenly swim so much faster than she has ever swum before?” she said. Blood samples taken at these Games will be kept for eight years. “I have every faith that eventually if there is something there to be caught it will be caught,” Leonard told a newspaper.

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When it is unbelievable to an ang mor, it is doping. Ang mor-kie. knn!!!!

singveld said:

It may be out of the box creativity, but it is a stupid idea anyway. No one can see it from outside the stadium, they have to extinguish the flame everytime they move it. I call it EPIC FAIL.

look at this

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so who is going to take the scrap copper metal back for the Independent Olympic athletes ? Is there a hunger games fight to determine who bring it home?

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It is part of the British humour & irrelevance. You cannot be too serious about them Brits.

OK, so they broke the modern tradition of not having a caudron visible outside the stadium, Look at 1952 Helsinki games.




Quite essentially queer Brit, they rightly decided that the caudron is a prop too, is not as important as the Olympic Flame. It was only re-introduced in 1928 Amsterdam.

The Brit have calculated that some countries may not want a scorched copper debris. Even if all of them take back, the one for the Independent Olympic goes to the IOC HQ or join the remaining ones (new sample and unwanted orphans) in another museum.




What surprised me is the Mini Cooper. Noticed that it is a BMW and not an original Mini. Some say it is because the Brit Mini broke down along the way; just like how Mini used to breakdown often. Some think they should be pushing a Brit Mini into the stadium, just like how the Brits have to push the broken down Minis in the good old days.

neddy said:

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This is 100 times better than the london olympic one, it is cheap, it is small, when you move it, you do not have to extinguish the flame, they did it right, simple job for one man.

Not that they are no problem with money, they spend so much money on the LED lights around the stadium, which is 10 millions, left 17 millions for the rest, then they spend god know what amount on this complex cauldron, they should save money and make sure the performer actually dance in a line, move in synchronise, not spend money on these shit.

tonychat said:

When it is unbelievable to an ang mor, it is doping. Ang mor-kie. knn!!!!

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They cheated before, therefore people doubt them.

Never mind tonight after midnight, pls support her in 200m individual medley.

How many of you are watching tonight??