LONDON 2012

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

London 2012 has started to put thousands of tickets back on sale for the Olympics in an emergency bid to fill the empty seats at venues across the Games.

In the lead-up to the Olympics, London 2012 claimed there would be no empty seats at the venues as they were overwhelmed with ticket requests but the sight of whole sections of gaps in the stands has angered the thousands of fans who missed out on tickets.

The non-attendance of accredited "Games Family" – including sports officials and media – has largely been blamed for the empty seats but London 2012 have said that international federations  have started giving tickets back to sell to the public.

"We talked to the international federations yesterday," said the London 2012 director of communications and public affairs Jackie Brock-Doyle at a press conference here.

"We were able to put back into the pot for sale around 3,000 tickets last night; they have all been sold.

"That includes about 600 for the gymnastics event today and we are going to do that on a day to day basis.

"The other side of it is obviously in basketball, when the Dream Team [the USA basketball team] played yesterday, there wasn't a spare seat in the house.

"So we are doing this session by session, talking to the accredited groups including broadcast media, and asking whether we can release for the different sessions tickets back into the public pot.

"Where we can, we are going to release those the night before and put them up for sale.

"The accredited seating for these Games is down 15 per cent on previous Games, so there already has been a reduction in accredited seating for London 2012."


Brock-Doyle also defended criticism that London 2012 should have addressed the issue at an earlier stage.

"I think we are trying everything we can to make sure those accredited seats are filled where we can," she said.

"There are operational issues that make it difficult to fill some of those seats which is why we are putting and making them available to the troops and to the teachers and children.

"We had a plan in place for the teachers and the children over a year ago that we have been deploying.

"There are 150 children and teachers who are on the Park today.

"That is only for the Park.

"We will increase that to about 300 or 400 tomorrow and we will keep going on that.

"We really are doing the best we can but it is not an exact science, as we saw with swimming last night and with basketball and the American match yesterday.

"We are working within the numbers that each of the accredited areas look at.

"We have done a lot already.

"At a lot of venues, we have taken, for preliminary rounds, away all of the non-tabled seats and sold those out.

"So we have done an awful lot already in the lead up."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) director of communications Mark Adams said the organisation is looking to help.

"From the IOC's point of view we are doing a number of things," he said.

"From that you will understand that clearly we are giving up those seats in those accredited areas on a case-by-case basis.

"At the USA basketball game there were 200 or 300 people who could not get into the accredited area because it was completely packed.

"So it is horses for courses."

By Tom Degun at the Main Press Centre on the Olympic Park in London

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

Lithuanian teenager Ruta Meilutyte has caused one of the biggest shocks of London 2012 so far after the unheralded athlete stunned a world-class field in the women's 100 metres breaststroke final to claim her country's first ever Olympic swimming medal.

The victory makes Meilutyte (pictured top, in green cap) the youngest ever winner of the discipline at 15 years 133 days old as well as the youngest Olympic champion in any swimming event since American Beth Botsford triumphed in the 100m backstroke at Atlanta 1996 aged 15 years 62 days.

Meilutyte, originally from Kaunas but who now lives in England and attends the same Plymouth school as British diver Tom Daley, led from the start and miraculously held on to claim gold ahead of American superstar and reigning world champion Rebecca Soni by the narrowest of margins.

The teenager finished in a national record of 1min 05.47sec while Soni, the overwhelming favourite going into the race, finished just 0:08sec behind in 1:05.55 to claim silver, the same colour medal she won in the event in Beijing four years ago.

Japan's Satomi Suzuki earned bronze in 1:06.46 while Australia's defending Olympic champion, Leisel Jones, finished fifth.

But the race undoubtedly belonged to Meilutyte, who was completely overcome with emotion following the unlikely win on the biggest stage in sport.

"I can't believe it," she said through tears.

"It's too much for me.

"I really can't say anything.

"It was hard and difficult.

"At the moment I can't speak too much but it means a lot to me and I'm so proud."

Meilutyte's tears of joy continued on the podium in what marks a remarkable journey for the teenager, who only turned 15 in March.

She moved to Britain three years ago with her father and is trained by English coach Jon Rudd.

Rudd knew he had a major talent on his hands when he first saw Meilutyte but admitted the result was a major shock.

"We didn't realistically know what she would do but the Olympics are a funny place," he said.

"She is a talented and vigilant worker but this is obviously unexpected."

Meilutyte proved she was not at the Games just to make up the numbers by setting a European record in the heats which proved two seconds faster than her personal best.

She swam even quicker in the semi-finals yesterday to qualify fastest for the final and managed to hold her nerve even through a bizarre fault at the start when the bleep went off before the swimmers were told to take their marks.

The long delay should perhaps have favoured more experienced competitors but Meilutyte kept her composure to astonish both herself and the crowd to win.

Soni sportingly led the tributes to the Lithuanian.

"You have to give her credit because what she has done is phenomenal," said the American.

"I'm a little disappointed not to win gold but to do what she did at her age is pretty special."

Meilutyte could actually add to her medal tally at the Olympics as she is also competing in the women's 50m and 100m freestyle events and will now be taken seriously by her competitors following the shock gold.

It marked Lithuania's first gold medal of London 2012 and only its fifth ever.

The first was won in the men's discus by Romas Ubartas, who claimed victory at Barcelona 1992, four years after winning a silver medal for the Soviet Union at Seoul in 1988.

The second also came in the men's discus, at Sydney 2000 courtesy of Virgilijus Alekna, while at the same Games, Daina Gudzinevičiūtė took victory in the women's trap shooting.

Alekna again won the men's discus at Athens 2004 while Meilutyte becomes Lithuania's first swimming gold medallist.

By Tom Degun at the Aquatics Centre on the Olympic Park in London

Source: www.insidethegames.biz