Olympics

Ancient Nemea to host 2008 Olympic-like summer games

By Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations | 04 June 2008

Just as the official Summer Olympics get underway in Beijing on June 21, an ancient athletic stadium at a UC Berkeley archaeological site in Greece that was home to the original Panhellenic Games will once again come alive with competition, writes Kathleen Maclay of the University of California at Berkeley.

"Paula Radcliffe, Britain's best hope for an Olympic gold medal, is on crutches just three months before the Games open in Beijing after developing a hip injury which has forced her to stop training. It is another blow for Radcliffe who was forced to miss the London marathon last month because of a toe injury and whose preparations for the Olympics are beginning to look increasingly compromised."
Full Guardian report here.

Nike have got some great new running shoes coming out at Olympics time. This heads-up is courtesy of Dwight Cornwell of Gap Coaching, who just bagged second in his age group at the Carslbad 5000: 18:45 at 61.

I caught up with Dwight after our Saturday high-altitude run on Magnolia Road; he was absolutely flying, while I staggered through the first 6 miles at barely above jogging pace, then enjoyed the benefits of the downhill-trending last 6 after my turn-around.

Shock news and comment on The Science of Sport here.

Former Olympic champion and world record-holder Sebastian Coe has told the BBC that he fears for the future of athletics in the wake of recent drug scandals involving Marion Jones and British sprinter Dwain Chambers.

He is concerned about the effect that the reinstatement of drug cheats could have on the sport. "We could end up with a situation like WWF wrestling where everyone knows it is fake and they don't care", he said. Coe again called for drugs cheats to be handed a minimum four-year ban from the sport.

I'm not a huge fan of Runner's World, but I will buy any running magazine that has marathon superstar Paula Radcliffe on the cover. Well, I'm a Bit, and she's our best runner, male or female.

So the March RW cover story reveals that the 2:15 world record-holder Paula was "down to" 70 miles a week by month 7 of her pregnancy. Her earlier concession had been to slow from 5:30 to 6:30 per mile. And there's a picture of her in full stride, smile on her face, running that 42-minute 10k race in London's Hyde Park 14 weeks before giving birth.

Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, aka "Blade Runner", will not be allowed to compete in the Beijing Olympics now that the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) has ruled that his carbon fibre racing prosthetics give him "a clear competitive advantage".

"The day after a special 'Environment Forum' [in Beijing, China] dedicated to reassuring the athletics world that it had its air pollution under control, the city awoke to find itself engulfed by a thick pea-souper.

"Visibility was reduced to less than 50 yards, flights were delayed, major roads into the city closed and, most importantly, the smog was so serious that children and the elderly were told to stay indoors by the city's weather bureau.

"'Wear a face mask if you go out', its head, Sun Jisong, said. His office's report said the air was 'heavy with particulate matter'."

Oscar Pistorius, the elite South African amputee runner, is now a step closer to becoming the first amputee and/or physically handicapped-runner to qualify for the able-bodied Olympics.
Last Friday, Oscar set a new P.R. and broke his own 400m Paralympic world record (47:34) with a time of 46 seconds flat at the [...]