Aussie currently second in the jog.

Deception is fool's gold and cheating is threatening the credibility of the 2012 Olympics

by: Robert Craddock From: The Sunday Telegraph August 12, 2012

CHEATING, rule bending and drug taking has cost Australia gold and is stealing the credibility of the 2012 Games, Robert Craddock reports

Alex Schwazer heard his doorbell ring and knew he would not be defending his Beijing gold medal.

The Italian walker tipped to win the 50km event in London was about to be exposed as an EPO drug cheat. He was ready for it. A life of deceit was destroying him.

"When you wait for your girlfriend to go to train so that you can lock yourself in the bathroom and inject EPO in your veins so that no one will know, it's not nice," Schwazer said this week, weeping openly.

"I'm not made to take drugs or to deceive people, and I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't wait for the whole thing to end. When on the 30th (of July) the doorbell rang I knew it was the anti-doping people, I knew it was all over. It would have been enough to tell my mum not to open the door or to tell them I wasn't home. But I couldn't take it anymore."

The Olympics started out, as they always do, with a puritanical oath promising a drug-free, moralistic Games. But then competition starts and not everyone keeps their word.

On the Ben Johnson scale of Olympic scandals, London's Games seems to have escaped without a big scandal - so far - but that does not mean there were not drug takers or shameless cheating with rule bending or breaking.

Australian swimmer Christian Sprenger was the victim of this but was incredibly gracious in defeat after South African Cameron van der Burgh admitted cheating his way to gold in the 100m breaststroke final. Van der Burgh confessed to doing illegal underwater dolphin kicks - but Sprenger was genuinely thrilled with silver and refused to condemn the victor's unethical tactics.

Elsewhere we had badminton teams throwing matches, to cyclists deliberately falling in races, boundaries were pushed and sometimes broken, sometimes secretly but often brazenly and without penalty.

It's about 'The Edge'; that precious, priceless advantage that could propel you to the top of the podium.

Some were too desperate to get there. According to the International Olympic Committee, five athletes were ejected from the Games.

American judoka Nicholas Delpopolo, Russian cyclist Victoria Baranova, Colombian 400m runner Diego Palomeque Echavarria, Uzbek gymnast Luiza Galiulina and Albanian weightlifter Hysen Pulaku comprise the hall of shame and some others did not even make it through the front door.

Morocco's Mariem Alaoui Selsouli was a warm favourite for the women's 1500m but tested positive for the banned diuretic furosemide in Paris six weeks before the Games was banned on the eve of the Games.

Longtime anti-doping campaigner Paula Radcliffe, the British long-distance runner, tweeted: "Good riddance, no surprise."

No Games would be complete without a novel drug excuse and US judo competitor Nick Delpopolo took the gong after being retrospectively disqualified from the Games after testing positive for marijuana.

Delpopolo claimed he ate some space cake baked by a member of his family, claiming on Facebook "after making frantic phone calls to friends and family following the results, a family member confessed that the brownies she had baked (and that I had eaten a few weeks prior) contained marijuana.

"I had no idea that I had ingested marijuana until that moment. I slept the entire four-hour drive home the day I ate the brownie, but thought that I was just extremely tired from training and travel."

The quirkiest sight of the Games was that of a badminton team from China trying to lose against a team from Korea who made it difficult because they were trying to do the same thing.

The top seeds from China, and teams from Indonesia and South Korea were thrown out of the competition after the Chinese tried to manipulate the draw to ensure they did not play against their compatriots in the semifinals, making it easier for the two Chinese teams to play off for gold. When the other three teams saw what China was doing, they too tried to lose so they would avoid the other Chinese team in the semifinals as well, trying for an easier passage into the gold medal match.

Games boss Lord Sebastian Coe called it "distressing" and the tanking was so pathetic, so obvious and contemptuous that the crowd started jeering. Referees stepped in and ordered the teams to try. The players were booed off court by an irate crowd.

Just as brazen was British track cyclist Philip Hindes, who told reporters he deliberately crashed in the heats of the men's team sprint, struggling to get into his seat after the gun went to ensure there was a restart. He enabled his team, including track legend Chris Hoy, to record as fast a time as possible en route to gold.

"I just crashed. I did it on purpose to get a restart, just to have the fastest ride. So it was all planned, really," the 19-year-old German-born rider admitted after the race.

Such is the complex nature of cycling that some were dirty on Hindes, not for crashing but for admitting it.

"He (Hindes) should not have told the truth," said Daniel Morelon, the Chinese coach.

A similar case of rule bending came after a Japanese women's soccer team lost to South Africa.

Coach Norio Sasaki revealed he instructed his players not to beat South Africa in a group match.

The 0-0 draw allowed Japan to remain in Cardiff, Wales, for a quarterfinal match instead of travelling to Scotland.

"I feel sorry we couldn't show a respectable game, but it's my responsibility, not the players'," he said.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/deception-is-fools-gold-and-cheating-is-threatening-the-credibility-of-the-2012-olympics/story-e6frexni-1226448186883

Cash-strapped Kookaburras beat Great Britain 3-1 to win consolation bronze medal

by:
Robert Craddock From:
The Courier-Mail August 12, 2012

KOOKABURRA'S coach Ric Charlesworth claimed his players were paid "an absolute pittance" and said Australia must accept that it must give athletes more support if it wants Olympic medals.

Australia today rallied from the shattering disappointment of losing their semi-final to snatch a consolation bronze medal against Great Britain in the Olympic men's hockey competition.

The Kookaburras had too much class for a willing Great Britain side, winning 3-1 after the scores were 1-1 at half-time.

"The inevitable stuff will be happening in Australia - criticism of us and how much it costs for a gold medal," Charlesworth said.

"You just have to be here in Great Britain to understand how uplifting for the country this Olympic Games have been and what a marvellous thing it's done for Great Britain, to understand the absolute pittance that is spent on these athletes is a worthwhile thing.


"We provide money for people to do well in all sorts of things - writing poetry and writing books and doing mathematics - and if some people want to excel at sport then I think it's the right thing that that goal should be supported.

"But I have less resources now than what I had when I was coaching the women's team more than a decade ago.

"There are things that, when I look at our program, that we didn't do because we didn't have the resources. The point being that if you want excellence and you want to perform well in competitions like this then the proof is the performance of Great Britain as a team here in every sport.

"They have supported their athletes with greater resources and they have done amazingly well as a country."

Most of Australia's athletes survive on small, five-figure sums annually and many supplement their income by playing overseas. They still pay fees to pay in the interstate hockey league and even $7 a weekend to play club hockey in Perth.

When the final siren sounded the reaction of the Australian players differed.

Youngster Matthew Swann jumped for joy in unison with Fergus Kavanagh and they exchanged high fives but some of the senior players, still bleeding from their gold medal denial, simply moved to shake hands with their opposition.

It is a position the Kookaburras know well for Australia's teasing Olympic record now includes four bronze medals to go with the three silvers and just one gold in Athens in 2004.

Since Australia first competed in the men's competition in 1956 Australia have never finished worse than sixth but the lack of gold medals is an acute disappointment for players past and present.

Today's match was the Charlesworth's Olympic swansong. Despite being contracted for two more years, the Australian hockey legend has declared he has no intention of leading the side to the next Games in 2016.

Australia, who have been slightly off-key for most of the tournament, played strongly.

Though they lost only one match in the tournament - to Germany in the semi-final - they will remember this tournament as one where the music never really played for them.

Simon Orchard gave Australia the lead when he drilled the first goal of the game from 15m out midway through the first half. He was one of Australia's better players and shapes as a long-term anchorman of the team faced with challenges with the Olympic exit of their champion Jamie Dwyer.

Australia did not really dominate from penalty corners throughout the tournament, but they had a change of luck in the second half when Dwyer took advantage of a ball which bounced off keeper James Fair's helmet and was comfortably dispatched into the back of the net.

There was a similar theme to Australia's next goal when Kieran Govers swatted in another deflection off Fair for the two-goal buffer to seal the bronze medal.

Australia had conceded three second-half advantages to draw or lose games in this tournament, but Great Britain did not have the class or petrol to make lightning strike again.

Great Britain took their goal-keeper off in the final five minutes to try and press for goals but the decision proved fruitless.

In the gold medal match, Germany successfully defended its Olympic title by beating the Netherlands 2-1, ruining hopes of a Dutch golden double in the process.

Jan Philipp Rabente scored two remarkable goals - a brilliant solo opener in the 33rd minute and the winner after running around behind the net with five minutes to go.

Mink van der Weerden equalised for the Dutch in the 53rd with his tournament-best eighth goal.

The Dutch had hoped to pull off the first Olympic double after their women beat Argentina 2-0 on Friday.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/london-olympics/kookaburras-beat-great-britain-3-1-to-win-consolation-bronze-medal-at-london-olympics/story-fn9dirj0-1226448408055

Spirit of Olympic Games, Re-defined by Korea

[youtube]uBnhd4ngwEo[/youtube]

Edited by Viper 0: 12/8/2012 08:30:08 午前

South Korea win battle to avoid war

August 11, 2012
By John Duerden

If you find yourself in any one of the thousands of Karaoke rooms in Seoul, there is a good chance you will hear the words of 'A Private's Letter', floating through the underground labyrinths that spring to life as the evening grows old. A sentimental song written from the perspective of a young man about to join the army, it has become something of a Friday night staple.

On this Saturday morning however, microphones and tambourines were left untouched as a nation tuned into see whether their young football stars could defeat Japan, take bronze at the 2012 Olympics and be granted exemption from the mandatory military stint given to all Korean athletes who make the podium at the Olympics.

Any one on its own would be powerful motivation but add them together and the meeting at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was a huge one for coach Hong Myong-Bo and his players. The military issue loomed especially large. Whenever South Korean boxer Han Soon-Chul needed a pick-me-up in the early rounds of the 2012 Olympics, his trainer simply yelled 'army, army' from the corner. It must have worked as Han fights for gold on Sunday. Hong didn't need to remind his players of what was at stake and spent much of the first half telling them to calm down.

Football is the highest profile sport to be affected by the fact that South Korea is technically still at war with its heavily armed northern neighbour. This two-year tour of duty must be started by the time men turn 28 and it has held back a number of very promising careers.

Interest from European clubs has in the past been cut dead when it became clear that a player would have to be back home within three years and there would be no sell-on value. Players in the K-League who are just reaching their peak with the top clubs are sent away for two years to represent the army team which, from 2013, will permanently play in the country's second tier.

That fate no longer lies in store for any of the 18-man squad, even Kim Kee-Hee. The Daegu defender was a last-minute replacement for the injured Jang Hyun-Soo and never got near the pitch until the last minute of the last game with Japan. Hong knew that the exemption needed an appearance on the pitch and the introduction of Kim with the game virtually won was a fine gesture.

Not all agree with the current exemption rule for sportspeople who win on the world stage and there could be a revision in the not-too-distant future but as the rising sun appeared over the Land of the Morning Calm, few of the millions watching would have cared too much about that.

Playing Japan made a big game bigger though the Samurai Blue weren't seen as ideal opponents. The two teams know each other well, Japan were highly-motivated and excited to have the chance to win the bronze, had impressed immensely in the tournament and would have loved nothing more than to inflict a devastating defeat on Korea on the world stage. To play another team who had targeted gold and who saw bronze as an unworthy substitute may have been an easier option. Add in the fact that Korea often tries too hard against Japan, a nation that brutally occupied the peninsula from 1910 to 1945, it was all very uncertain.

Korea started brightly but as the first half wore on, Japan were getting on top and the men in white had collected three yellow cards, the worst of which was a late scything tackle from captain Koo Ja-Cheol. The chances of a red card being brandished at some point looked to be high.

It all changed with Park Chu-young's intervention. The Arsenal striker should not even have been there in the opinion of many back home and not because, or not just because, he had spent the previous year sat on the bench at Emirates Stadium. The 27-year-old had upset a significant proportion of the population by taking advantage of a little-known technicality to postpone his military duty by ten years. It cost him his place in the senior side and had he not apologised to the nation, he would likely have missed out on the Olympics.

Despite a diving header in the win over Switzerland, his lacklustre form in the competition had more and more calling for Hong to do a Wenger and forget the striker. There were few expectations when Park collected the ball just inside the Japanese half seven minutes before the break especially as he was soon surrounded by four blue-shirted defenders, but he made space for himself and shot home from just inside the area.

It was a fine goal and it settled his team-mates. A more composed Korea emerged for the second half and just before the hour, Koo Ja-Cheol, perhaps the team's best player in the tournament, scored a very British style goal in the Welsh capital, finishing with aplomb following a headed flick from a goal kick.

Japan did their utmost to get back in the game but Kensuke Nagai, so dangerous in the early games, struggled to see the ball and the talented. Hiroshi Kiyotake was looking dangerous when the score was level but had less influence as the game progressed. Japan had plenty of possession but in the face of a well-drilled defence troubled goalkeeper Jung Sung-Ryeong little and it was Korea, happy to hit on the counter-attack in the second half, who ensured that Shuichi Gonda was the busier of the two shot-stoppers.

It is hard on Japan, impressive for so much of the tournament, to return home with nothing though perhaps after time, helping to improve the reputation of Asian football will become some consolation. British fans, supplemented by colourful Japanese and Korean supporters, enjoyed an intense match with flying elbows and tackles, spilled blood, ripped shirts, fine goals and flashes of great skill. It was another side to Asian football that many don't get to see. In the words of a Spanish newspaper it was Asia's 'Argentina vs Brazil' or according to one Indian reporter 'Real Madrid vs Barcelona'.

For the Taeguk Warriors, it was simply 'Haniljeon' - the Korea-Japan game - but perhaps the most important such derby that they will ever play in.

Now they can now look forward to the kind of football career that the vast majority of international footballers take for granted and the next time they turn on the Karaoke machines when they hit the town, 'A Private's Letter' may be replaced with something a little more upbeat.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/1132259/john-duerden-:-south-korea-win-battle-for-bronze-to-avoid-war?cc=3436

Spirit of Olympic Games, Re-defined by Korea

[youtube]uBnhd4ngwEo[/youtube]

Edited by Viper 0: 12/8/2012 08:30:08 午前

Viper go and post your political crap somewhere else.

Sorry for that.
It was political crap right in the middle of Olympic games and I thought it is related.


London Olympics: row over S Korea 'political celebration'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-19225457

The International Olympic Committee has told South Korea to bar one of its footballers from the bronze medal ceremony after he held up a political message after the team beat Japan.

I love the way Viper is going off tap over a womens basketball game, but the South Korean president visiting the disputed Dokdo/Takeshima territory which has the rest of Japan up in arms has gone completely unmentioned.

Nice work, fuckstain.

Anyone else notice the initials of the front three black runners in the marathon are 'KKK'?

I love the way Viper is going off tap over a womens basketball game, but the South Korean president visiting the disputed Dokdo/Takeshima territory which has the rest of Japan up in arms has gone completely unmentioned.

Nice work, fuckstain.