Three Tree Point, Burien, Washington. January 1st, 2012. Air temperature: 53°F (11.7°C). Water temperature: Colder :-) Via b-townblog.com
-
-
A close encounter with a young sperm whale
Video captured in Dominica in 2010 with a RED 4K camera (the Lamborghini of video cameras), by Howard Hall. Those things are huge, even when they are small.
-
How much is a British Olympic gold medal worth? £2m
Leading sponsorship agency Octagon estimates according to the Independent, that some British athletes could pick up £2m (US$ 3.1 million) before Rio 2016, should they win gold at the London 2012 Olympics, and 22-year-old super-heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua maybe even up to £5m.
Swimmer Adlington, who said after Bejing that all she wanted was to buy a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes, could follow in the footsteps of Imelda Marcos should she strike double gold again.
-
Ellen Gandy the Brit that lives farthest away from the London 2012 Olympic Park
The Independent has this fun article today called “The long, short and tall of Britain’s Olympic hopefuls“, lining up interesting ‘records’ of British athletes training for the London 2012 Olympics, like 18-year-old featherweight weightlifting champion Hannah Powell being the shortest and lightest with her 4 ft 9 in (144 cm) height and 7 stone (44.4 kg) weight … so small that she had to convince a male date that she was member of the British weightlifting team by lifting him on her shoulders.
Shanghai 2011 bronze medallist Ellen Gandy is mentioned:
Furthest resident from Olympic Park
Ellen Gandy lives 10,059 miles from the Olympic Aquatics Centre where she is expected to be a British medal contender. The 20-year-old, who won a 200m butterfly bronze medal at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, lives and trains in Melbourne in Australia. Born  in Bromley, Gandy competed for Beckenham but her family relocated Down Under four years ago. Her father Simon is executive general manager of Melbourne Airport. -
Thorpe’s return has already had a positive outcome for Australian swimming
Interesting article by Michael Cowley here on The Age, on the comeback of Ian Thorpe. He believes that despite whatever ‘weak’ results Thorpe has produced by now since his comeback, he will make the Olympic team, “certainly as a member of the 4 x 200 freestyle relay team, possibly in the individual 200, and he could even swim in the 4 x 100 freestyle relay in London.” And then there is the really good bit, about how Australians have refound their interest in swimming:There is a buzz around swimming again, it has become a talking point once more as it was at the turn of the century. It will have the attention of the national and world media at trials to see how Thorpe fares. And it will return to live, prime-time, mainstream – Channel 10, not One HD – television. Just imagine what the interest will be like in July when Thorpe dives into the London pool.
Read more here on the Age
Image courtesy of xiaming, CC BY-SA 2.0
-
The other Mayan calendar predicts no London 2012 medals for Phelps
Alexandra Petri writes here on the Washington Post about an Ancient Mayan day-planner that she has unearthed, instructing her “to sacrifice a toothed hen or an Iowan who had never had his hand shaken by a political candidate. After some difficulty I located the hen.” Well, it mentions a lot of other predictions for 2012 than December 21, including one swimming-related:
14.) Michael Phelps wins no medals in the London Olympics, marking the first time that anyone was surprised and disappointed that a guy who had spent the past four years eating large quantities of food and smoking controlled substances did not win an Olympic medal.
(Image courtesy of Niharb, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
-
CC photo #2: A sceptical looking Frédérick Bousquet
This one I’ve used so often myself, that it is only fair to put it out for free (Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2.0) use. French sprinter Frédérick Bousquet looking rather sceptically directly at the camera, at the Rijeka 2008 European Short Course Championships in Croatia.
-
Happy New Year !
Time to kick back and relax, next year will be Olympic !
-
Oussama Mellouli named Arab sportsman of the year
Eqyptian magazine Al Ahram al Arabi has named Tunisian Olympic champion Oussama Mellouli the best Arab sportsman of the year 2011, after winning 15 gold medals at the Doha Arab Games earlier this month. Read Xinhuanet.com (in English)
Here is Mellouli after posting the world short course championships winning 1500 freestyle time during prelims in Dubai last year. Won’t forget that one!
