LONDON 2012

The greatest Olympian in history brought down the curtain on his uniquely glittering career, and the London 2012 swimming competition, by doing what has come naturally for over a decade – winning.

Swimming the third leg for the United States in the 4x100 metres medley relay – an event they have never lost at any Olympic Games – Michael Phelps (pictured top) devoured the lead established by another all-time great swimmer, Kosuke Katajima of Japan, in the breaststroke phase and powered to the head of the field with his instantly recognisable, pterodactyl-like butterfly.

Freestyler Nathan Adrian was quick to exploit the edge that the great man had given him and saw the team home the best part of two seconds clear, in a time of 3min 29.35sec.

The win put the seal on what has been as fantastic a Games in the pool for Phelps' country as it has been disappointing for their old arch-rivals, Australia.

With only the open-water events in Hyde Park to come, the Americans have racked up a total of 30 medals, more than half of them gold, to the Australians' 10, which includes just one solitary gold.

Underlining the US' dominance is the multi-medal hauls of their top swimmers.

If Phelps led the way with four golds and two silver medals – some way short of his epochal eight gold-medal haul four years ago in Beijing – his team-mates were not far behind him.

Team-mate and rival Ryan Lochte managed five medals at London 2012, as – following the US women's team's scorching win tonight in their 4x100m medley relay in a world record 3:52.05 – did Allison Schmitt and Missy Franklin.

Franklin, a 17-year-old 6ft 1in backstroke specialist, actually matched Phelps' total of four gold medals and, should she be granted the great man's competitive longevity, might conceivably one day challenge his towering overall total of 22 medals – 18 of them gold.

"I'm definitely just taking them one at a time," she said after the night's events, betraying the sort of level-headedness likely to stand her in good stead in her years as a sporting celebrity.

There was a world record, too, in the men's 1,500m – the longest event in the Olympic pool – with Sun Yang of China smashing his own mark by more than three seconds in recording a time of 14:31.02.

It was this remarkably versatile swimmer's fourth medal of the Games, following gold in the 400m, silver in the 200m freestyle and bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

He afterwards drew applause from journalists by offering an aggressive response when questioned over allegations of doping that have swirled around the Chinese swimmers, following their strong performance in London, including five golds.

"I think many people think China's gold medals are because of doping or other substances," Yang said.

"I can tell you it's thanks to hard work – training and hard work.

"Chinese are not weaker than the US or other countries."

In the other event in an extraordinary night's swimming, Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands completed a sprint double in the women's 50m freestyle.

Tonight, though, was all about Phelps, this phenomenon who first took to an Olympic pool in Sydney 12 years ago, managing fifth place in the 200m butterfly.

Now 27, he has amassed a haul of Olympic gold worthy of a central bank and was this evening presented with a striking silver trophy proclaiming him "The Greatest Olympic Athlete of All Time".

It is just a pity that he had to collect the trophy in a pair of those ghastly lime-green trainers that appears to be part of the US swim team's gear.
Not that the great man seemed to mind, as he flashed his trademark toothy grin to all corners of the London Aquatics Centre.

Phelps, whose London 2012 campaign had begun in low-key manner with fourth place in a 400m individual medley won in emphatic style by Lochte, used the post-race media formalities to confirm that he would be retiring.

"I told myself I never want to swim when I'm 30," he explained.

"That would be in three years."

Furthermore: "I have been able to do everything I wanted.

I have been able to do something no-one else has ever done."

Looking at his new trophy, he reflected that it was "kind of weird looking at this thing and seeing 'The Greatest Olympic Athlete of All Time'".

He had "looked up to Michael Jordan all my life" because, he said, he was the greatest basketball player of all time.

Now "I have been able to become the best swimmer of all time".

Phelps, though, has always been more eloquent in the pool than with a microphone and it was the precocious Franklin who produced the best epitaph for his extraordinary career.

"Just watching Michael swim is beautiful," she said.

Those of us privileged enough to have seen him will never forget the experience.

By David Owen at the Aquatics Centre on the Olympic Park in London

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

Referee Ishanguly Meretnyyazov from Turkmenistan has been expelled from the London Olympics, the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) said yesterday.

A second referee, Frank Scharmach of Germany, was suspended for five days by AIBA and a technical official from Azerbaijan sent home following two controversial decisions at the Olympic competition on Wednesday.

"I deeply regret that we had to take these decisions," AIBA president Wu Ching-Kuo said in a statement.

"However, our main concern has been and will always be the protection of the integrity and fair-play of our competitions. I will take all possible steps to reinforce this."

He later told Reuters: "There is only one truth and we always get to the truth."

Meretnyyazov failed to stop a men's bantamweight bout despite fighter Magomed Abdulhamidov being knocked down six times in the final round. The referee was expelled with immediate effect and AIBA said he was on his way home.

Japan's Satoshi Shimizu, who went into the last round of the bout against the Azerbaijani trailing by seven points, lost the contest by five when all three rounds were scored.

AIBA later overturned the verdict saying Meretnyyazov should have given the Azerbaijani "at least" three standing counts which would have resulted in the contest being stopped.

Iran's Ali Mazaheri accused officials of "a fix" after being disqualified by referee Scharmach in the second round of his opening heavyweight bout against Cuban Jose Larduet Gomez following three warnings for persistent holding.

Mazaheri was leading by two points going into the second round but the Iran team did not appeal and under AIBA rules it is now too late to do so.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored ties with AIBA in 2006 after freezing some funds to the association over controversial scoring decisions at the 2004 Athens Games.

At the time, the IOC expressed concerns over the scoring process and the selection of judges and froze more than US$1 million in payments to AIBA.

The boxing tournament in Athens was marred by several controversial scores that angered spectators and fans.

Source: www.trinidadexpress.com

The Badminton World Federation  has charged eight Olympic doubles players with "not using one's best efforts to win a match".

Four pairs of players - two from South Korea, one from China and one from Indonesia - could be disciplined.

Constant errors, including players serving into the net, were made.

All four pairs had already qualified for the last eight and have been accused of wanting to lose in an attempt to manipulate the draw.

The federation meets on Wednesday morning to discuss the case. As well as the "not using best efforts" charge, the players are also accused of "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport". Options open include expulsion from London 2012.

Teams blamed the introduction of a round-robin stage rather than a straight knockout tournament as the catalyst. In the round-robin format, losing one game can lead to an easier match-up in the next round.

In the first women's doubles match at Wembley Arena on Tuesday night, fans jeered China's Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli and South Koreans Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na .

The longest rally in the first game lasted four shots, with match referee Thorsten Berg coming onto the court at one point to warn the players.

South Korea won the Group A match, which lasted 23 minutes, 21-14 21-11.

Both pairs were already through to the quarter-finals, with the winners to face China's Tian Quing and Zhao Yunlei. The two Chinese pairings can now only meet in the final.

Korea's coach Sung Han-kook said: "The Chinese started this. They did it first. It's a complicated thing with the draws. They didn't want to meet each other in the semi-final, they don't want that to happen.

"They (BWF) should do something about that."

But Yu said the Chinese decided to preserve energy ahead of the knockout stages.

She said: "Actually these opponents really were strong. This is the first time we've played them and tomorrow it's the knockout rounds, so we've already qualified and we wanted to have more energy for the knockout rounds."

A later match between South Korean third seeds Ha Jung-Eun and Kim Min-Jung and Indonesian pair Meiliana Juahari and Greysia Polii was played out in a similar atmosphere.

Referee Berg returned to court and brandished the black card, signalling disqualification, but it was rescinded and the match resumed when the Indonesians protested.

Both pairs had also already qualified for the knockout stages, with the winners of Group C to play Yu and Wang and the Korean pairs to face each other if Ha and Kim lost.

The Koreans won 18-21 21-14 21-12 and did not comment before leaving the court, but Polii said: "I don't know what happened. If that's the game, we have to accept all the things.

"Either they want to trust us - we play bad or we play good. Our control is only to play as good as we can."

Gail Emms, a badminton Olympic silver medallist for Great Britain in 2004, who was at the event for BBC Sport, said: "I'm furious. It is very embarrassing for our sport.

"This is the Olympic Games. If badminton wants to save face they should disqualify the two pairs and reinstate the pairs that came third in the group.

"This is something that is not acceptable. The crowd paid good money to watch two matches."

The International Olympic Committee said it had "every confidence" in the badminton federation to "deal with the issue appropriately and take any necessary measures".

China's Olympic sports delegation has begun an investigation into the matches, state media reported. The country's Olympic Committee opposed any behaviour which violated "sporting spirit and morality", a spokesman said.

Further action could be taken based on the results of the investigation, the spokesman said in a report published by Xinhua news agency.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Michael Phelps won the right to call himself the greatest Olympian of all time when the US team destroyed the field in the 4x200 metres freestyle relay yesterday to hand him his 19th medal.

Chinese prodigy Ye Shiwen won her second gold of the Games, setting an Olympic record in the 200m individual medley, after stunning swimming pundits with her victory and world record in the 400 medley on Saturday.

But the night belonged to Phelps, who swam the anchor leg of a relay that the Americans dominated from start to finish after Ryan Lochte handed them a commanding lead.

It was a historic moment in the 116-year annals of the modern Olympic Games, and an emotional one for Phelps, still a powerful force but no longer the commanding figure who won an unprecedented eight golds at the Beijing Games in 2008.

His teammates flung their arms around him. "I thank those guys for helping me get to this moment," said the 27-year-old from Baltimore, who had 16 medals before the start of the Games.

Having picked up a silver in Sunday's 4x100 freestyle relay, he drew level with Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina's tally of 18 when he won silver in his first outing yesterday in the 200 metres butterfly.

The American led going into the last few metres of his favourite race, but was tiring rapidly and had to settle for second when South Africa's Chad Le Clos ploughed through to snatch it on the final touch.

Watching at poolside was Latynina, 77, who has held the record for decades with her haul from the Games at Melbourne (1956), Rome (1960) and Tokyo (1964).

Latynina told Reuters earlier this month she had no doubt Phelps would overtake her in London, adding: "I can only wish him well".

The entire audience in the 17,500-capacity Aquatics Centre stood to applaud Phelps' cumulative achievement in winning 15 gold medals, two silvers and two bronze. Latynina won nine, five and four respectively.

In other action on Day Four, Germany won its first two golds, in equestrian eventing, and France its fourth, in canoe slalom, but host nation Britain was still seeking its first.

China tops the overall medals table with 13 golds, followed by the United States with nine. Each has 23 medals in all.

The U.S. women's team stormed to the gymnastics gold - the country's first since 1996 - with dazzling performances from Jordyn Wieber and Gabby Douglas.

It was compensation for Wieber's disappointment at missing out on a spot in the all-around individual final, and for the U.S. men's slump to fifth place in their team event on Monday.

In the pool, 16-year-old Ye completed a medley double when she held off a late challenge from Alicia Coutts of Australia.

The teenager, who swam her last length on Saturday faster than Lochte did in winning the corresponding men's event, has been forced to fend off insinuations of cheating.

American John Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association but not on the U.S. coaching staff in London, told Britain's Guardian newspaper: "Every time we see something ... 'unbelievable', history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved."

The US Olympic Committee distanced itself from his comments, saying he was not associated in any way with the country's swimming or Olympic team.

Chinese officials hit back. "Ye Shiwen has been seen as a genius since she was young, and her performance vindicates that," Xu Qi, head of the Chinese swimming team, told the news agency Xinhua.

"Don't use your own suspicions to knock down others. This shows lack of respect for athletes and for Chinese swimming."

Source: www.guardian.co.tt

Switzerland footballer Michel Morganella has been stripped of his Olympic accreditation after posting a racist message on social networking site Twitter.

Morganella (pictured top, in white) posted the message, which insulted South Koreans and has since been deleted, after Switzerland were beaten 2-1 by the Asian country on Sunday (July 29).

"I made a huge mistake after a disappointing result," said Morganella.

"I wish to apologise to the people in South Korea and their team, but also to the Swiss delegation and Swiss football in general."

The 23-year-old claimed that he felt provoked after receiving a torrent of abuse throughout the match against the Koreans.

Morganella was booed throughout the match after he picked up an "injury" in a phantom challenge with Arsenal forward Park Chu Young.

After the match he made his feelings clear on Twitter writing: "I want to beat up all South Koreans! Bunch of mentally handicapped retards!" ("Je les tous Defonce Coréens, allez vous tous Bruler, bande de trisos!")

Switzerland's Chef de Mission Gian Gilli said that the player "discriminated against, insulted and violated the dignity of the South Korean football team and people."

According to a spokesman for the Swiss Olympic team, Morganella has accepted the decision to strip him of his accreditation and has apologised to South Korea.

Morganella, who has played one senior fixture for Switzerland, will miss the final Olympic clash with Mexico.

The Palermo defender's account on Twitter has also been deleted.

Although London 2012 is meant to be the first "social networking Games", the use of the media platform has already landed a Greek athlete in trouble.

Triple jumper Voula Papachristou was not even allowed to travel to the Olympics for posting a racist message on Twitter, which mocked African immigrants.

Although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has tried to encourage Olympians to communicate with fans via social networking, it has urged them to follow guidelines to avoid such pitfalls.

By David Gold

Source: www.insidethegames.biz