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from Newsmaker:
Send your questions for Seb Coe and Hugh Robertson
To mark the one year countdown to the London Olympics, Thomson Reuters will hold a Newsmaker on July 21 at 18:30 BST with four-time Olympic medalist and chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, Sebastian Coe and Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson MP.
The event will begin with a speech by Coe, who won gold in the 1500m at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, followed by a Q&A session with both guests, moderated by me, Global Sports Editor Paul Radford. The Newsmaker will be streamed live to the Reuters website and we'll provide rolling coverage of the event as it happens.
As well as questions from the audience, you also have the chance to put your questions to Coe and Robertson. Please join us on the day and leave your comments and questions below. You can also post your questions on the Reuters UK Facebook page or send them over Twitter using the hashtag #newsmkr or via @ReutersSports
Image -- The Chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), Sebastian Coe, poses with a prototype of the London 2012 Olympic Torch at St Pancras station in London June 8, 2011. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth
Oona King to run as Labour candidate for mayoral election
Once one of “Blair’s Babes“, former Labour MP Oona King has thrown down the gauntlet to former Mayor Ken Livingstone with the announcement of her official bid to become Labour’s candidate to run for London mayor in 2012.
King served as the second black woman MP in Britain after Diane Abbott, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, who was elected in 1987.
Minister warns against “contaminating” 2012 Olympics
Clerics and police have expressed concern, and now the Olympics minister has – London could see a proliferation in prostitution and human trafficking during the 2012 Games.
Some have warned the Olympics could see a repeat of the ”mega brothels” set up in German cities for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
from The Great Debate UK:
Government must deliver on Olympic legacy promise
- Hugh Robertson is the opposition Conservatives' Olympics spokesman. The views expressed are his own. -
With three years to go, it is remarkable that London 2012 is going so well.
London’s Olympics were launched with a massive government miscalculation that resulted in the budget having to be increased threefold, were based on a plan that required us to build two Terminal 5s in half the time and have had to contend with the worst economic recession in living memory.
Can Team GB beat 2008 medal tally?
Team GB has had a glittering Olympic Games in Beijing, with its best showing in the medals table for a century.Performances by the country’s cyclists, sailors, swimmers and rowers have resulted in a gold haul of at least 16 golds, with a few days still to go.Cyclist Chris Hoy, who became the first British athlete to win three gold medals in an Olympics, was one of a clutch of stars to make history.Ben Ainslie became Britain’s most successful Olympic sailor, while Rebecca Romero became the first British woman to win two medals in two summer Olympic sports.London 2012 chiefs had targeted fourth place in the medals table in four years’ time, but Team GB was already holding third place in 2008 ahead of Russia and arch rivals Australia.Will Team GB be able to perform so well in 2012? Or has it peaked? What needs to happen to help it maintain expectations?
Training for the Olympics – with hard hats
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said he wanted to get more women into Olympic construction jobs, but there weren’t many on view during a site visit this week.
Instead, there was Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell donning hard hat, safety goggles and Caterpillar boots. The floral jacket seemed a bit out of place, but maybe it was proof you could still be a woman in a man’s world.
London’s Olympic site stripped bare
It’s a lot of mud for nine billion pounds.
Work on London’s Olympic Park is bulldozing ahead — literally. Dozens of diggers are clearing the site in east London before construction on the main stadium, velopark, aquatics complex, media centre and Olympic village can begin.
The site has become an industrial dinosaur over the decades, seeping pollutants into the soil and waterways.
Olympic tussle over a name?
British Airways has effectively spent 40 million pounds securing the right to show the Olympic logo on its planes ahead of London 2012, but smaller companies which unofficially try to plug the rings run the risk of getting into trouble with the authorities.
Dennis Spurr, who owns the high street butchers “The Fantastic Sausage Factory” in Weymouth where the Olympic sailing events will be held, received a phone call from Olympic heavies in London telling him to bring down his Games poster as the international logo is protected.
An Olympian task trying to please the hacks
After the controversy surrounding the London 2012 Olympic logo, reporters wondered just how wacky the design for the main stadium would be.
The jigsaw-like logo, which is supposed to resemble the date of the Games, was criticised for being too abstract, while its animated flashing version was said to pose a health hazard.
from Ask...:
Coe undefeated by doubters – just winded
Sebastian Coe said the negativity shown by Londoners towards hosting the 2012 Olympic Games doesn't get him down.
But he must have had the wind knocked out of him by the questions and sometimes anger shown by local residents and politicians in recent question and answer sessions.
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The Wall
