London 2012 Olympics - 'The Greatest Tickets on Earth': Multi-million Pound Ticket Advertising Campaign Took Off

LONDON - Gymnast Beth Tweddle is among the British stars to feature in London 2012's ticket advertising campaign, their biggest marketing campaign yet. 

Beth Tweddle

The campaign will run for the next six weeks - tickets are on sale until April 26th - with the theme of 'the greatest tickets on earth'.

Organisers Locog have produced 13 different adverts supporting eight sports with leading British athletes, such as diver Tom Daley and gymnast Beth Tweddle, among the stars.

"The launch of Olympic tickets is an important milestone for us, and a key part of our commercial programme," said London 2012 commercial director Chris Townsend. 

"We need to raise £500 million from ticket sales - this is a key revenue stream for the costs of staging and hosting the Games.  

"We have developed a fair ticket pricing model, and are confident the public are as excited about the greatest tickets on earth as we are."

Educating fans about the ticket process is one of organisers Locog's current biggest challenges. Fans will have six weeks to apply and oversubscribed sessions will be allocated after a ballot.

Locog want to reinforce the message that tickets are only available from three official sources, the London 2012 website, short break packages from Thomas Cook and on-site hospitality run by Prestige Ticketing.

"We want this to be the greatest show on earth, not the greatest scam on earth, and we want these tickets to be bought by genuine sports fans, who want to be part of London 2012," said London 2012 chairman Seb Coe. 

"I would urge caution, be sure about where you are buying tickets from and if they are not an official ticket seller, be safe and don't take a chance."

London 2012 have also produced a series of films, featuring Olympic gold medalist Jonathan Edwards and comedian Miranda Hart, designed to make sure fans get the lowdown on how to apply for tickets.

London 2012 Olympics: 500 Days to Go - - Countdown Timer Unveiled at London

A timer showing the 500 days to go until the 2012 Olympics is being unveiled in London, but why are these countdowns so beguiling, asks John Morton, writer of comedy Twenty Twelve.

Remember Ken Livingstone's "live" running unemployment total on the old GLC building in London? Or there's the US National Debt Clock in Times Square. Or the live stock market prices and world financial indices snaking their way around the walls of the Thompson Reuters building in Canary Wharf. 

There seems to be something hypnotic about watching history unfolding digitally in real time before our eyes. 

But it's the clocks that count downwards towards a fixed point that really seem to have us in their thrall. How else could Countdown's 30-second analogue clock face with its plinky plonky musical accompaniment have dominated afternoon television for nearly 30 years as the procession of presenters, contestants, and fragrant letter-wranglers have come and gone beneath it. 

And then there was the Millennium. Remember the mounting fear, presented to us as a kind of world-wide ticking bomb, that when the digits on our computer clocks finally flicked over to 2,000 all our planes would suddenly fall out of the sky? 

And remember all those public Millennium clocks counting us down second by second through the final years, months, and days to the zero hour? The French had theirs ticking away outside the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The Queen unveiled London's at Greenwich with a thousand days to go. 

In Dublin they had the brilliant idea of installing theirs underwater so that the time on its green-illuminated face would shine up through the waters of the Liffey. Needless to say it let in water, failed to tell the time correctly, and quickly earned its nickname of "The Time in the Slime". 

Where are they all now?

There's something both fascinating and unsettling going on here, and perhaps it's not so much to do with the clocks as with time itself, or the way we perceive it. Maybe there's something about the certainty, the unavoidabiltiy of that journey down towards zero that taps into something buried deep within the collective psyche. 

Parachutists call it ground rush. Apparently while you're falling through the sky and before you open your parachute the perception is that you're dropping towards the ground at a perfectly manageable speed. Yes it's exhilarating, but there's plenty of time to look around you and take in the wonder of it all. 

But that's an illusion caused by the lack of visual cues. It's only when you drop below a certain height and suddenly become aware that the ground is rushing up to meet you that you realise how fast you've been falling all along. 

More sobering still, maybe there's an analogy here for the way we experience time over the course of a human life. 

For most of our lives we drift along on the assumption that there's always going to be time left ahead of us to develop, modify, and realise our many and varied dreams in that portion of it, still unused, called the future. 

And we're happy enough with this arrangement right up to the point where we become aware that we've run out of future. What happened? Of course the ground has been rushing up towards us all along, we just didn't realise how fast we'd been falling. 

Maybe it goes some way to explaining the lure of the countdown clock. A thousand days to go - still a long way away. Five hundred days - still pretty much still talking about the future. A hundred days - anybody know how many months that is? Fifty days - wait a minute, hang on, that's less eight weeks. 

Suddenly we're not going to make this. What happened to all the time? 

So perhaps as Olympics fans watch the 500 days to go clock, they should have a quick glance at their to-do list.

InclusiveLondon.com: A Website Launched to Answer Querries About London 2012 Olympics

LONDON – InclusiveLondon.com has been launched; a website to assist sports fans searching out about how available facilities are at the London 2012 Olympic venues and tourist hotspots including the 2012 Games venues, hotels, restaurants, pubs, shops, museums and tourist attractions.

London 2012's director of Paralympic Integration, Chris Holmes, said, "InclusiveLondon.com is a fantastic tool that will help us to deliver the most accessible and inclusive Games ever.” Holmes has been a nine-times Paralympic swimming champion.

The site, InclusiveLondon.com, which continues online after the 2012 Games, can riddle searches by queries such as whether there is wheelchair or pushchair access, if assistance dogs are welcome or whether there are hearing loops.

The site, InclusiveLondon.com is open for reviews and feedback which currently has details of 7,700 London locations.

Bahram Afsharzadeh, Secretary General of Iran's National Olympic Committee, Slams Comments of David Cameron

TEHRAN -The Secretary General of Iran's National Olympic Committee, Bahram Afsharzadeh said British Prime Minister David Cameron does not have the right to make comments on sport issues. 

Afsharzadeh's remarks came following insulting comments by Cameron on Iran's participation London international games in 2012. 

"International Olympic Committee is our other side in London Olympic games," Afsharzadeh told media on Friday as reiterating that, "a political official does not have any right to make comments on sport activities." 

"We will make coordination with officials of the International Olympic Committee and we will arrive in London to play gloriously," Afsharzadeh continued. 

The UK Prime Minister has recently claimed, "the London Olympics would not miss Iran, if they did not want to come." 

David Cameron’s comments followed a protest by Iranian Olympics officials that the logo chosen for the 2012 games was racist and showed the word of "Zion."

London 2012 Olympics: Rebecca Adlington Comlpetes European Titles Hat-trick Ready to Rock Olympics

ALL that glitters is gold for Rebecca Adlington – she's now conquered Britain, Europe and the former Empire in the past 12 months.

And now she wants to take on the world.

The 22-year-old completed a golden hat-trick at the British Gas Swimming Championships in Manchester last night – romping to 800m freestyle gold to add to her 200m and 400m victories.

Poolside murmurs hinted her world record, set en route to Olympic gold in Beijing, was in danger but while she blew her British rivals out of the water, that will have to wait.

Not that she was in the slightest bit bothered. For that was set in the lightning fast Water Cube and before polyurethane became prohibited. Still, Adlington's winning time was 8:20.23 minutes was too hot for the rest to handle.

Adlington thrives when she races the clock rather than her rivals. Just as she did in Beijing, she streaked clear of the field last night and ate up all 16 lengths of the Manchester Aquatics Centre pool.

"It wasn't an easy race because some of the other British girls are very strong and I expected it to be closer than it was," said Adlington.

"I had a little look at my time at the halfway stage and thought I was going a bit quickly but it's not always easy when you're out there on your own."

Jaz Carlin trailed home a full 5.44 seconds adrift while Keri-Anne Payne completed the podium in third.

But what a difference a year makes for Adlington. After getting it all wrong over 800m at the European Championships she cut a forlorn figure in Budapest – and it was fast becoming a familiar sight.

She roared back to secure the 400m title however and followed that up with two gold and two bronze medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games when she added the freestyle relay to her three individual events.

Adlington fully intends to do so again at next year's Olympics but, before she makes a four-pronged assault on London 2012, this summer's World Championships beckon – and she's admits she's got some unfinished business.

"Hopefully it will be third time lucky in Shanghai," added Adlington, who could only manage two bronze medals at teary 2009 World Championships in Rome.

"I'm just looking forward to getting out there and racing. Without the suits I don't really think anyone is interested in times, I'm certainly not. All I want to do is get out there and race like I did here."

Meanwhile, fellow Nova Centurion swimmer Jess Sylvester, who along with Adlington won 4x100m freestyle silver at last October's Commonwealth Games, bagged 50m butterfly gold last night.

The 23-year-old touched home in 27.37 seconds to take victory ahead of Youth Olympian Rachael Kelly before returning to the pool to advance to the 50m freestyle final, clocking 26.21.

"I'm enjoying myself here," said Sylvester. "My 100m races aren't really going that well at the moment but my 50s are. That is a positive to take from this."

In the 800m, Nottingham's Sasha Matthews came seventh in 8:42.93, 22.7 seconds behind Adlington.

The nation's leading energy supplier British Gas is the principal partner of British Swimming.

London 2012 Olympics: The Event is Going to be Affected by Increasing Number of Crimes in the City

If you are watching or reading newspapers you can see clearly that in London and UK shooting, killings and stabbings increasing rapidly and this is just not safe or secure us to take our families, friends to London Olympics in UK. You never know where the armed gangs going to come or fights. London media reported today a man blasted with a shotgun staggered on to an Underground train to escape a gunman and managed to travel one stop before collapsing on a platform in front of horrified passengers.

The 27-year-old victim was shot on the steps of Harlesden station in a clash between two gangs. He ran down to the Bakerloo line and jumped on to the first southbound train before getting off at Willesden Junction. Police and paramedics were called to the Tube station and the injured man was given emergency treatment on the platform. The Underground train was held and police interviewed shocked witnesses yesterday afternoon.

Commuters were forced to take buses from Harlesden station after it was closed for four hours, while police forensic science officers examined the scene. The victim, who is from south London, was today said to be in a stable condition in hospital.

A British Transport Police spokeswoman said the man's injuries were not life-threatening. He is thought to have suffered a gunshot injury to the lower back. Detectives are examining CCTV film footage from Harlesden station in a bid to identify the gunman. They believe the row began outside the station and then moved inside, where a gunman fired a blast from a weapon believed to be a shotgun.

London Olympics on the way and this kind a shooting, people running with guns on the streets and stabbing every where, teenagers gangs all sort of stuff so how can you feel safe and walk or get a train to stadium to support your team or watch amazing games in London. Security and safety is very low and this needs big attention because we might be travelling with families kids and will be many people all over the London due Olympics.

London 2012 Olympics: Tickets Touting Penalty Will be Increassed from £5,000 to £20,000 - - Home Secretary Said on Wednesday

LONDON — The maximum penalty for ticket touting at the London 2012 Olympics will be increased from £5,000 to £20,000, the Home Secretary said on Wednesday. 

"The 2012 Games will be once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the Games on home soil," said Theresa May.

"By increasing the fines for touting we are sending a clear message to criminals and prospective criminals that it is not worth their while and they are not welcome," she added.

The clampdown has been announced just before 8.8 million tickets for Olympic events go on sale on March 15. People will be able to apply for tickets for six weeks, until April 26. Tickets for the Paralympic Games go on sale on September 9.

The Metropolitan Police has a set up a special unit, Operation Podium, to deal specifically with touts and Olympic-related fraud. They have made 49 arrests since June last year, including five in early morning raids in London and Dorset on Tuesday.

The offences of those detained ranged from fraud, money-laundering, handling stolen goods and failure to appear at court.

2014 Winter Olympics Sochi - - Snowboarding Snow Leopard Wins The Mascot Race From Polar Bear and Hare

The mascots for Sochi 2014's Winter Olympics were unveiled Saturday and, among the three winners, is a snowboarding snow leopard. With a huge, benevolent grin on his face and his snowboard always nearby, the leopard won 28-precent of the votes in an online poll open to all Russians and broadcast live on TV's "Talismaniya Sochi 2014 - The Final" on Channel One.

The other two main Sochi 2014 mascot winners are a polar bear and a hare. The use of three mascots is meant to mirror the places on an Olympic medal podium. Mascots were chosen from over 24,000 ideas submitted.

Just as snowboarding in the Olympics has always been steeped in controversy, the choice of the snowboarding leopard is now a loaded topic -- even if snowboarding has little to do with it. Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin named the leopard as his mascot preference, telling students on his visit to Sochi: "(The snow) leopard is a strong, powerful, fast and beautiful animal. Leopard species had been destroyed around here but now they are being regenerated. If the Olympic project, at least in some way, should help the local environment, then it (picking a leopard) would be symbolic."

Putin's support for the snow leopard is now being questioned because the leopard was not a fan favorite in early voting. Russian political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin, on Moscow Echo radio, said: "Just after Vladmir Putin showed his sympathy for the leopard, its votes climbed sharply... "

Deron Williams promised to come back for Olympic gold

Basketball star Deron Williams breezed into London yesterday – and promised to come back for Olympic gold.

The New Jersey Nets point guard tops the bill against the Toronto Raptors at the O2 arena tomorrow night, the first regular-season NBA game to be staged in Europe.

And Williams, who has twice made the NBA’s coveted All Star line-up, has set his heart on an encore with the USA Dream Team.

D-Will sized up the 18,700-seater venue for the London 2012 hoops ­showpiece and said: “Winning the gold medal in Beijing in 2008 was my greatest moment, and I would love to accomplish something similar here.

“I’m signed up and available if they want me back, it’s where every basketball player dreams of playing.”

Williams, nursing a wrist injury and jet-lag, missed the Nets’ works outing to watch Chelsea beat Manchester United.

But he expects to be fit – and wide awake – for the double-header with the Raptors on ­consecutive nights, although the adjustment to a five-hour time difference has not been welcomed by all.

Nets head coach Avery Johnson shrugged off jet-lag as an excuse, saying: “It’s exciting to be exploring new horizons for the sport in such a cosmopolitan city.”