Team SA arrived back in South Africa this morning. They landed at OR Tambo International Airport after taking part in the Olympic Games in London. They were welcomed back by a large crowd, including schoolchildren who were there to cheer for their hero’s. Our athletes brought back six medals. Check out all the action below.
Undisputed fasted man alive, Usain Bolt, is fast. Really fast. The New York Times has already compared him to every other 100m athlete that’s ever run in the 100m event, but how would he compare against something that isn’t human? Like the force of gravity?
The Olympics are over, but which country really ranks where on the medal table? There is no official way of ranking the medal count because the media decides.
Last night the 2012 Olympics came to a grand end with the official closing ceremony. A scale model of London took centre stage and was wrapped entirely in newspaper. Damien Hirst interpreted the Union Flag by using members of the crowd, and black London cabs performed a taxi ballet.
The Telegraph has put together what they believe to be the 10 best photographs of the Olympics so far. There are some pretty spectacular images in the selection, but I found them to be a little biased toward team Britain.
It takes a lot to get to the Olympics. Strict training, years of dedication and many, many sacrifices. Especially when you come from a country like Germany, where the competition to make the cut is tough. When you finally make it onto the springboard at the London Games, it must really suck to Feck it up.
It is incredible to think that we are just over halfway through the Olympics already! More than 10 000 athletes from 200 national Olympic committees around the globe are taking part, and so far dozens of Olympic and World Records have already been broken – resulting in more than 500 medals already awarded!
If you are going to be a big douche at the Olympics, don’t do it with Edith Bosch, Netherland’s world judo champion, standing next to you. Bosch put her skills to use at the 100m final on Sunday night, by hitting a moronic spectator who threw a bottle onto the track just before the race.
We know that Usain Bolt is one man that does his surname justice. Officially the fastest man on the planet, and with four Olympic gold medals behind his name, he may arguably be the best sprinter that the world has ever seen. But how does he stack up against former medalists?
It’s no secret that the Olympics cost a metric shit ton of money. The London Organising Committee has way overblown its budget, and many people on the streets are complaining about the real benefit against the cost of such an event. Good to know then that the officials are at least eating well.
With the quarterfinals in the beach volleyball kicking off this weekend, you may have been wondering what all those signals mean that the athletes keep making behind their butts. Well, fear no more, we’ve done the hard work for you. Impress your friends this weekend with your new knowledge!
Yesterday we received our third gold medal at the London Olympics, when our men’s lightweight rowing team managed to edge out Denmark and Great Britain in the rowing final at the Eton Downey rowing centre. These pictures of Sizwe Ndlovu, Matthew Brittain, John Smith and James Thompson celebrating – a mixture of elation and exhaustion after the grueling race – makes me so proud to be from the same country as these guys!
US broadcast network NBC has received a lot of criticism for its broadcast of the Olympics so far. This has included its choice of camera work and editing, as well as delaying the coverage of events and only broadcasting them during primetime. Coverage of the women’s waterpolo between Spain and USA, which was streamed live on NBC’s website, provides a good argument for a delayed broadcast.
South Africa received its third gold medal earlier today, when our men’s lightweight coxless four managed to edge out Denmark and Great Britain in a thrilling rowing final at the Eton Downey rowing centre.
US gymnast McKayla Maroney yesterday scored 16,233 with a beautiful vault routine at the 2012 London Olympics. And just like her performance, the judges’ reactions were absolutely perfect.
It must be tough to be a North Korean athlete at the Olympics. The hermit kingdom keeps a very close eye on their sportsmen and women in London, making sure none of them defect.
Bert le Clos, the father of South Africa’s latest Olympic gold medalist, Chad le Clos, has confirmed in a radio interview this morning that his son has withdrawn from the final of the 200m individual medley.
Nearly all of China’s 396 Olympians qualified for the Games under the patronage of the country’s monolithic Soviet-style sports system. Most are handpicked at an early age – as young as four – by scouts, and attend special schools to train in sports assumed to match physical attributes.
The Olympics haven’t even been running for a week and already a second athlete has been expelled from the games following a racist tweet. This time the guilty party was Michel Morganella, a Swiss football player, and his Twitter faux pas wasn’t nearly as tame as Voula Papachristou’s last week.
With all the bad (and some good) press the Olympics, it’s great to see videos like this one surfacing. Meet Rachel Onasanwo, who volunteered to help herd fans into the Olympic stadium on Friday. Her dry humour shows a fantasticly sarcastic, yet oddly sincere appreciation for the Games that you simply have to see.
After fighting to a semi-final draw with Britta Heidemann, Shin A Lam was on the brink of progressing to the gold medal round with one second left on the clock in extra time. If the match ended in a draw the latter would have moved on, instead the timing equipment was never activated and the final second dragged on, allowing Heidemann to score the final, winning hit. Clearly upset and convinced she was cheated, Shin A Lam refused to leave the piste, for 45 minutes.
On Friday, cyclists from the “Critical Mass” cycling campaign defied police instructions not to go ahead with their monthly cycle on the eve of the Olympic opening ceremony. This ended up in brawls between police officers and cyclists in central London, resulting in 130 people being arrested.
Olympic fans wanting to share every race, event and lunch over twitter, were told on Sunday to avoid non-urgent text messages and tweets during events because overloading of data networks was affecting television coverage.
Well this is embarrassing, Egypt’s Olympic Organisers has provided over 100 of its Olympians with counterfeit official kits. The news came to light after of the team’s synchronised swimmers took to Twitter to complain.
“With so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat home made food!” It was this racist tweet that got Greek triple jumper, Voula Papachristou, expelled from the Olympics. She was referring to reports of mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus in her home country.
I feel a little bit sorry for the organisers of London’s Olympic Ceremony. They’ve got to follow on the epic opening ceremony held in Beijing, with thousand of drummers beating along in unison. The British just can’t control their people like that.
Imagine posing with a friend inside a mall photo booth when suddenly a super metrosexual-looking David Beckham pops his head inside and goes, “can I join you?” That is exactly what happened over the weekend at Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford City – just a stone’s throw from the Olympic Park.
It’s a sad day when someone pushes their personal agenda above the Olympic hopes and dreams of an entire nation, which is exactly what two of SA’s top-ranked tennis players have done. Kevin Anderson and Chanelle Scheepers have made themselves unavailable to compete in this year’s Olympics as a result of what at best can be called petty spite.
Over the coming weeks the Thames in London will literally be transformed into a floating village of luxury and excess. Up to 100 superyachts are due to arrive for the Olympic Games.
The 400-metre world record holder, Michael Johnson, says he believes disabled athletes who use prosthetic limbs should NOT be allowed to compete in able-bodied races. This after news broke of Oscar Pistorius’ qualification for this year’s Olympics. Johnson argues that as it has not been disproved whether or not it provides such athletes with an unfair advantage.