Countdown to the Olympics. Photocredit: AndyRobertsPhotos
The background
The London 2012 Olympics are almost upon us, with 30 days to go. So what’s the current situation? Well, 28,000 media types are expected, for one thing, from 190 countries – that’s three times the amount of athletes competing, reported The Guardian. There are the usual rumblings over cost – it will, apparently, be the most expensive Games ever; whilst people are grumbling about the Games’ legacy, and whether it will bring in the tourism and money that was expected. However, the torch relay continues to provide inspiration.
Where’s the torch?
Today (Wednesday 27th June) is the 40th day of the Olympic torch’s route. This week it’s been in South Yorkshire, where thousands of people lined the streets in Rotherham, reported The Star. In Doncaster, reported The Mirror, Ben Parkinson, a wounded soldier, astonished watchers by walking further than he’d ever done before on his prosthetic leg. It will be in Lincolnshire today, where a flypast from the Red Arrows will make it a more than special event.
Round the clock courts
Metro reported that special courts will be instituted to fast-track offenders, even using video links from police stations so that suspects do not have to physically appear in court.
Attack of the press
America’s NBC TV network is hiring three Boeing 777s to send 2,700 of its staff over, reported The Guardian. The main press center is “the size of the Tate Modern gallery.” The BBC will cover 2,500 hours of action with 765 people. Even Kiribati, a nation of 100,000 , is sending a reporter. It’s hardly surprising, since he Olympic movement earned £2.7 billion from selling TV rights for London 2012. Luckily, reported The Guardian elsewhere, the Church will be offerring beds to reporters from poorer countries.
We’re going to be skiving off
Apparently 4.8 million of the British population will be calling in sick over the Olympics in order not to miss the action, reported The Telegraph. One in five of the 2,000 people sample polled by Littlewoods said that they would take four or five sick days. 250,000 men will skip work to watch the women’s beach volleyball.
Olympics not inspiring?
The Olympics motto, “inspire a generation,” is apparently not having the desired effect. 8 in 10 people, reported The Guardian, say it hasn’t had an effect on their exercise habits yet. Howeer, Lord Coe, the London 2012 chairman, said it wasn’t fair to judge the legacy of the games before they had happened yet. He has a point.
