Bikinis banned in Olympics 2012

A spokesman said, "Many of these countries have religious and cultural requirements, so the uniform needed to be more flexible," although the countries wanting the change were not specified. Beach volleyball has only been an Olympic sport since 1996, and the new rule is meant to encourage more countries to compete.

It's pretty crazy the sport previously mandated that the women wear such a revealing uniform, since more coverage obviously doesn't have an impact on how the men play. Could it be that the idea of women bending, stretching, and jumping in bathing suits is considered a draw for viewership? Either way, it's expected that most players will wear the typical sports bra/bikini bottom ensemble at this year's Olympics.

Olympics 2012 Edition Adidas Watch

Get pumped for the Olympics with:

 Adidas "Santiago" Approx cost: $75;
Available at www.nordstrom.com

Match this with a Olympics 2012 shirtRALPH LAUREN OLYMPICS 2012 Polo Shirt

or a NIKE Olympics 2012 Jacket

An orange and blue inspired football cleats will go well with it

JAPAN beats SPAIN (1-0) in Olympics 2012

 A MAJOR Upset for SPAIN

Image from GMANEWS.TV

Japan's Yuki Otsu scores past Spain's keeper David de Gea to win their men's Group D football match at the London 2012 Olympic Games in Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland on Thursday. 

IMAGE from www.guardian.co.uk

Japan has made history! Beating Spain for the first time at any level and done so in style. This victory was as deserved as it was unforeseen: Japan was sharper and tactically superior against a Spanish team full of decorated stars: if their finishing had been better they could have won by five or six goals.


 It would be premature to declare the Spanish dynasty to be in decline because these players have already proven they are a cut above most at their level, but we have certainly been given proof that if they have an off day.

Olympics 2012: Volleyball Bikinis and Swimwear

Olympic Beach Volleyball

Beach Volleyball as an Olympic discipline at an IOC meeting in Monaco, opening the door for the sport to participate in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Beach Volleyball is now one of the most popular Olympic sports thanks to professional athletes, a healthy and colourful ambience, exciting competition and entertainment, and the equal treatment of men and women. Atlanta 1996.Atlanta 1996 was the first Olympic Beach Volleyball competition and it was a memorable start. Twenty four men's teams and 18 women's teams competed for Olympic medals on Atlanta Beach in July in a 10,000-seat stadium, with more than 107,000 spectators selling out the six-day event. Some 600 athletes representing 42 countries took part in the Olympic qualifying process. Sydney 2000. Four years after the overwhelming success of the first Olympic experience, Beach Volleyball become even more of a hit. The top 24 men's and women's teams in the world competed on Bondi Beach in a wonderful stadium seating 10,000 spectator, with modern facilities offering a top-class event to the Olympic family of players, fans, media and sponsors. Athens 2004. With its new 10,000-seat main stadium built in the style of a traditional Greek amphitheatre, the Beach Volleyball venue and its surroundings provided an amazingly entertaining atmosphere at the Athens Games in 2004. For the first time in an Olympic Games, an entertainment programme was implemented with the involvement of 12 dancers, DJs, multilingual announcements and production managers. More than 60 countries took part in the qualifying process, with 24 men's and women's competing in Athens. Beijing 2008. The fourth Olympic Beach Volleyball competition at Beijing 2008 again saw 24 women's and 24 men's teams competing against each other, this time over 14 days (after six continuous days in Atlanta, 10 days in Sydney and 12 in Athens) of action-packed fun on the sand. There were a total of 108 matches, comprising 54 men's and 54 women's matches.  London 2012. Olympic Beach Volleyball in 2012 will have another spectacular setting: Horse Guards Parade, just off Whitehall in central London, will be hosting the competition.

a lot of SPEEDOS and NIKE SWIMWEAR

VISA sponsors, Visors and cool Shades make this a fashion scene!

Athletes for the Beach Volleyball Olympics 2012

Ralph Lauren Polo Shirt for Olympics 2012

This shirt by Polo Ralph Lauren exhibits excellent quality, anonymous to the
Olympics 2012 spirit in London.

You can even customize it with your own name and number
and choose your own country, available at Ralph Lauren
Stores.

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad, also known informally as London 2012, is scheduled to take place in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July (when the opening ceremony is held) until 12 August 2012. The first event, the group stages in women's football, began two days earlier on 25 July. Over 10,000 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) are expected to participate.

Following a bid headed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe and the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, London was selected as the host city on 6 July 2005 during the 117th IOC Session in Singapore, defeating bids from Moscow, New York City, Madrid and Paris. London will become the first city to officially host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948.

Construction in preparation for the Games has involved considerable redevelopment, particularly themed towards sustainability. The main focus of this is a new 200 hectare Olympic Park, constructed on a former industrial site at Stratford in the east of London.^] The Games also make use of many venues which were already in place before the bid.

Sexiest Swimmers from the Olympics

Amanda Beard participated in the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, winning seven medals.

Bia and Branca Feres twins started practicing swimming and gymnastics at the age of three, and started on synchronized swimming at the age of seven. They reached second place in the Pan American Junior Orlando in 2005. They represented Brazil in the 2007 Pan American games.

Dara Torres is the first swimmer for the United States to compete in five Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2008), and, at age 41, the oldest swimmer ever to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Torres won three silver medals. She has won twelve Olympic medals (four gold, four silver, four bronze) over her career.

Haley is a retired American swimmer. She won a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics, eight world championship medals, and held a world record in the 50 metre backstroke

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Coughlin became the first American female athlete in modern Olympic history to win six medals in one Olympics and the first woman ever to win a 100 m backstroke gold in two consecutive Olympics.

Stephanie currently holds the world record in the 400 m individual medley. She won 3 gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Swimming World Magazine named her as the 2008 Female World Swimmer of the Year.

Sexiest Athletes for Olympics 2012

Maria Sharapova, tennis, RussiaSharapova has been featured in a number of magazines, notably in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 2006, she was Forbes magazine’s highest-paid female athlete in the world, with annual earnings of over $18 million US, the majority of which was from endorsements and sponsorships. She has topped that list every year since, even after her 2007 shoulder injury.

Daniela Hantuchova, tennis, Slovakia
Hantuchova speaks three languages (Slovak, English, and German), and was trained as a classical pianist.

Josefine Oqvist, soccer, Sweden

During the 2011 World Cup, video of Oqvist changing jerseys with and kissing a German male fan after the match with North Korea became a very popular YouTube hit.

Leryn Franco, javelin, Paraguay

Franco is perhaps more famous for her beauty than athletic ability, however, and has appeared, most notably, in the 2011 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition

Ana Ivanovic is a former world no. 1 Serbian tennis player. She is currently No. 14 on WTA rankings. Ivanovic endorsed Nike apparel and shoes at the beginning of her professional career, but at the beginning of 2006 switched to rival Adidas. Ivanovic then signed a lifetime contract with the company. Ivanovic will become an ambassador for Adidas once she retires from competitive tennis. She is believed to be the youngest athlete, male or female, to sign a contract of such longevity.

Melanie Adams, pole vault, Australia

Adams has aspirations to be a model and was a finalist in the 2006 Miss Teen Australia pageant. She hopes to enter the Miss Universe pageant in the future.

Mariem Alaoui Selsouli sent home

London 2012 Olympics: Mariem Alaoui Selsouli sent home after failed drug test as Paul Padcliffe tweets 'good riddance'

Team GB medal hopeful Paula Radcliffe has said "good riddance" to Mariem Alaoui Selsouli after the Moroccan gold medal track prospect was thrown out of the Olympic Games after failing a drugs test for the second time in her career.

Ridiculous Mascot up for 2012 Olympics

Wenlock: the 2012 London Olympics Mascot

The name Wenlock is inspired by Much Wenlock, a small town in Shropshire.

In 1890, Baron Pierre de Coubertin was invited to visit Much Wenlock by Dr William Penny Brookes, an advocate of physical education in schools.

De Coubertin watched Dr Brookes' ‘Much Wenlock Games’, comprising athletics and traditional country sports with a procession of flag bearers, competitors and officials.

In 1894, de Coubertin’s proposal to establish the Olympic Games in a modern form was approved and the very first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens two years later. 

Tokyo 64 Track Shoe Revisiting Olympic Games in 1964

Worn during the Tokyo Olympic games in 1964, the “Tokyo 64” Addidas Sprinter Shoe

The 1964 Summer Olympics were seen as vitally important to the Japanese government. Much of Japan's infrastructure had been destroyed during World War II and the Olympics were seen as a chance to re-introduce Japan to the world and show off its new modernised roads and industry as well as its burgeoning economy. Every Olympics since the first modern games in 1896 Summer Olympics had been committed to film to some extent to another, usually financed by theInternational Olympic Committee for reasons of posterity. For the 1964 Olympics the Japanese government decided to finance their own film and initially hired Akira Kurosawa who, at the time, was the most famous Japanese director worldwide thanks to films such as Ikiru and Seven Samurai. However, Kurosawa's famous tendency for complete control - he demanded to not only direct the film but the opening and closing ceremonies as well - led to his dismissal. This led to the bringing in of Ichikawa, who had a reputation of coming in to productions where events hadn't followed the initial plans.

The film is held in very high regard and is seen, alongside Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia as one of the best films about the Olympics and one of the best sports documentaries of all time. Based on 11 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of critics gave the film a positive review.

Voula Papachristou Racist Remarks on Africans (Oympics 2012)

LONDON – Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou was banished from the Olympic Games on Wednesday after making racist comments and expressing right-wing sentiments on Twitter.

Papachristou was scheduled to fly to London next week from her training base in Athens when the Hellenic Olympic Committee – Greek’s Olympic federation – made the decision to expel her from the team

Papachristou, 23, made a racist and tasteless comment on her Twitter account, @papaxristoutj, that highlighted the number of African immigrants in Greece.

“With so many Africans in Greece … at least
the West Nile mosquitos will eat homemade food!!!,” 

Papachristou wrote. She also reposted a comment from controversial Greek politician Ilias Kasidiaris, who has strongly criticized his government’s “soft” immigration policy.

The West Nile virus was first discovered in Uganda, but cases have recently been found during the European summer. Papachristou’s tweet was met with a flood of angry responses, but she didn’t respond until Wednesday, when it became clear she might lose her spot in the Olympics.

“I would like to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke I published on my personal Twitter account,” she said. “I am very sorry and ashamed for the negative responses I triggered, since I never wanted to offend anyone, or to encroach human rights.”


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The triple jumper issued a wide-ranging apology after the ruling was announced. Her tone turned defiant on Thursday when she spoke with Reuters about the decision:

"I have not slept at all and to be honest I am still trying to come to terms with what has happened. I am trying to stay calm otherwise I would lose control."

"I am thankful to my coach and family and so many other people who have stuck by me.... After so many years of hurt and sacrifices to try and get to my first Olympics I am very bitter and upset. But what has upset me the most is the excessive reaction and speed of the disciplinary decision."

Though it's probably not best to talk about how you may "lose control" -- I don't think that's taught in Crisis Management 101 -- Papachristou has a point. The reaction was excessive and the speed with which it was made suggests undue haste. It's strange; Greek officials are usually so prudent and judicious in their decision making.

Beautiful faces at London Olympics 2012

Darya Klishina is a 21-year-old from Russia, whose chosen sport is long jump. With those long legs of hers, Klishina will be one to watch out for at the London Olympic Games.

Norwegian hurdler Christina Vukicevic is not only a stunner, but is amongst the top favourites to come away with a medal from the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Xue Chen is a beach volleyball player from China, and was ranked third in CNN International's list of Asia's 30 Sexiest Athletes.

Bulgarian athlete Ivet Lalova specialises in the 100 metres and 200 metres sprint events; and has been dubbed 'the fastest white woman in the world'. Look out for Lalova before she races away past the finish line.

Russian high jumper Anna Chicherova won the gold medal at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. Chicerova won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympic Games, and at London will look to jump her way to a different coloured medal.

Russian high jumper Anna Chicherova won the gold medal at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. Chicerova won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympic Games, and at London will look to jump her way to a different coloured medal.

Nike Air More Uptempo ‘Olympic Dream Team’ Shoe

The 1992 U.S. Men’s Olympic basketball team, often referred to as the “Dream Team”, took home the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and defeated their competition by an average of 44 points—setting a record that has yet to be beaten. The team included the the likes of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Karl Malone, and Magic Johnson—each and every one of them legends in the world of sports.

Adidas Olympic Inspired Conductor Highs

What was formally Patrick Ewing’s signature shoe has taken on a new name and a new look with these Olympic inspired Conductor Highs.  Adidas applies  6 colors represent each of the 5 rings on the Olympic symbol plus the white field on which the logo sits on and gold details that include an Olympic Torch, making the shape of the Adidas trefoil on the tongue.

the Torch on the Upper sleeve makes it look ready for the Olympics!

One Flag, five rings, six olympic colors.