UK News

from Photographers Blog:

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…?

Snow. Looks good on those Christmas cards, doesn’t it? Fun for small children. Even nice for penguins in the zoo. But photographers covering soccer? Brrrrrrrrrr. Not really.

Let’s get one thing straight. We Brits go on about the weather like a stuck record, but when it comes to it, we can’t cope with it. That’s why we live in Britain.

We whinge when the mercury drops to -3 (26 degrees Fahrenheit). A colleague of mine in Canada will point out that’s not cold. Cold, proper cold, can’t feel your fingers, just walked into a fridge cold, is -25 (-13 degrees Fahrenheit).

So when the Met Office started predicting heavy snowfalls on the night of the Aston Villa v Liverpool game, I did my best boy scout impression, packed my shovel and set off four hours early, you know, in case of snowdrifts the size of elephants.

There weren’t any.

It was the sort of game where you could find yourself nodding off, a dull, tactical, stand-off between two Premiership sides fighting to finish in the top four to get a Champions League place.

Probably the only reason this match will ever be remembered - even by the most diehard fans - is the snow. Ninety minutes of sitting by the pitch feeling some sympathy with an ice lolly.

The London 2012 Paralympic Games is already changing lives

- Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson is Britain’s most successful Paralympic athlete, with a total of 16 medals, including 11 golds. She is part of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and Vice-Chair of the Sports Advisory Group. The opinions expressed are her own. -

One of the best parts of being involved in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is that I get to see for myself how hosting the London Games is already changing people’s lives across the world.

In the weeks before today’s 1,000 days to go milestone I was in Jordan for the launch of International Inspiration. I had been asked to come and see what the London 2012 Games are doing for children there.

International Inspiration aims to changes the lives of millions of children throughout the world by giving them better PE lessons and sport and play opportunities. It’s absolutely core to LOCOG’s (the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) commitment to use the London Games in a transformative way.

But it’s not just kids and young people around the world who are already getting involved and benefitting from London hosting the Games.

Millions of people here in the UK are already inspired by and involved, through the many sports participation programmes going on, by playing the National Lottery and by helping build the Olympic Park.

Once finished the Olympic Park will welcome people of all cultures, faiths and ages and be accessible to disabled people.

Should women box in the London Olympics?

    ****For full Olympic coverage click here****

Boxing chiefs are to press for the inclusion of female fighters in the 2012 London Olympics.

They say theirs is the only sport in the Olympic programme without women and they await a decision from the International Olympic Committee by December.

Women did actually box in the 1904 Olympics and the sport has developed a higher profile in recent years thanks to boxers like Laila Ali and Jaqueline Frazier-Lyde, the daughters of old rivals Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier.

The International Boxing Association women’s commission vice-chairwoman Bettan Andersson believes having women’s boxing at the Olympics would help improve the overall image of the sport.

“If women come in, people will feel the sport is more common, not so dangerous, and that would be a very good thing for the image of boxing,” she says.