Olympian uses brothel for fundraising

Logan Campbell had a dilemma. The Beijing Olympian's funding had dried up and he was in danger of missing the London Olympics in 2012.

So the 23-year-old came up with an outrageous plan - he traded his taekwondo outfit for a sharp suit and became a pimp.

Campbell and business partner Hugo Phillips, 20, last week launched a "high-class gentleman's club" (read brothel) near Auckland's infamous K Rd, and Campbell hopes to get to London off the earnings of prostitution.

He finished in the top 16 in the featherweight division at Beijing, after losing his first match against reigning world champion Yu-Chi Sung, of Taiwan, who finished with the bronze medal.

Campbell said Sung is a "movie star" in his home country and "never has to worry about funding".

Campbell's Beijing campaign cost about $150,000 in the preceding years, most of it eaten up by travel costs as he competed at events around the world. Most of the money came from his parents his father, Max, an auctioneer, worked two jobs to get his son to the Olympics. Campbell said he was sick of being a burden on his parents.

He received a $15,000 "performance enhancement grant" from government sports funding body Sparc for finishing in the top 16 at Beijing, but Taekwondo New Zealand (TNZ) has suspended the funding because Campbell has not been competing.

Campbell's plan is to take a couple of years off, hopefully earn up to $300,000 from the brothel, and launch his London bid in 2011. He believes with that kind of money behind him, he will be a serious medal prospect.

But his unorthodox fundraising plan has not gone down well with his national body.

TNZ funding manager John Schofield said that although it would not affect his membership, it would be taken into account when considering him for international selection.

"Selection takes into account not just performance but also the athlete's ability to serve as an example to the youth of the country."

It is not the first link between the Olympics and the sex industry. Swimmer Toni Jeffs was sponsored by a strip club at the Barcelona Games. And in 1999 it was revealed that Sydney Olympic hopeful Nicole Tasker, a cyclist, was lap dancing at an Auckland strip club to raise money.

The new club, named 25 Cross St, opened this month and is one of the country's biggest with 14 rooms. Phillips put up some of the money and the building owner also helped with finance.

Campbell said his parents were supportive. "Mum was hesitant but she met the girls, a couple came over to her house and she was sweet as. She realised they were just normal people supporting their kids and stuff."

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Phillips, an Auckland University of Technology accounting graduate, said his parents both lawyers were not so keen.

Convinced the sex industry was riddled with criminals and gangsters, his criminal lawyer mother, said: "I'll be representing you in court if you continue with this."

He was initially kicked out of home but says he is starting to win his parents over.

Campbell said he was not a pimp in the traditional sense.

"When people think of a pimp they think of a guy standing around on a street corner with gold chains. Pimps are more tough-type guys. I'm an owner of an escort agency."

Asked if he was bringing his sport into disrepute, Campbell said: "Some people on the team will not think highly of me for doing this. If they saw this place and how it's operated, they'd change their mind."

Not content to simply become players in the sex industry, Campbell and Phillips want to transform it, as they believe most clubs and parlours are "seedy".

They screen customers at the door, charge much higher rates than other brothels and employ only "smart, attractive" girls."We don't treat them like pieces of meat."

Customers can pay up to $2500 for a night in a room, and can even have food platters delivered.

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Cisco to be a sponsor of 2012 Olympics

Cisco Systems, which hopes to grab a share of the sports industry business by providing network technology to stadiums, has signed up to be a sponsor of the 2012 Olympics.

London Olympics officials announced Friday that the San Jose networking giant will replace bankrupt Canadian technology sponsor Nortel Networks. Nortel, as a "tier one" sponsor, had committed $65 million in cash and services. Cisco, on the otherhand, will be a "tier two" provider, which means the company will kick in about $20 million less, according to organizers, The Associated Press reported.

Nortel is in the process of selling off its different business units. Nokia Siemens Networks agreed to buy some of the company's wireless operations.

"We continue on a path to deliver the most connected Games possible. We part with Nortel on good terms," London 2012 CEO Paul Deighton said in a statement.

Organizers hope to raise as much as $1.13 billion in sponsorships. So far, it has commitments of nearly $810 million.

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Cisco replaces Nortel as London Olympics sponsor

Cisco Systems Inc. was named Friday as the technology sponsor of the 2012 summer Olympics in London, replacing bankrupt Nortel Networks Corp.

The switch will cost the games an estimated $19.4 million in lost revenue because San Jose-based Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) is coming in as a "tier two" sponsor and Nortel had been a "tier one" sponsor.
The switch was made because Nortel could no longer provide the network infrastructure it had promised, organizers said.
California-based Cisco will fulfill all of Nortel's obligations, but London organizers estimate that it will provide about $20 million less in cash.
The organizers have so far raised about $810 million from 20 sponsors, short of their ultimate target of getting between $1.05 billion and $1.13 billion.

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Cisco replaces Nortel in key 2012 Olympics role

Nortel has been dropped as the official communications supplier for the 2012 London Olympics, and has been replaced by Cisco.

In a statement on Friday, the London 2012 Organising Committee (Locog) said it had ended its contract with the bankrupt infrastructure supplier "on good terms". In January, Nortel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States and sent its UK operation into administration. The company is currently selling off its various divisions as separate businesses.

"Technology for the Games is a huge undertaking with a fixed deadline, relying on finalising the design and building of systems now," Locog's statement read. "In order to deliver 'the most connected Games possible', Locog felt it was vital to work with a single business to cover the entire network infrastructure. As a result, Locog and Nortel amicably decided to bring the current agreement to an end."

Nortel was a tier 1 sponsor of the 2012 Olympics, but Cisco is apparently a tier 2 sponsor.

In a separate statement, Cisco's UK and Ireland chief Phil Smith said his company was "delighted" to score the 2012 deal.

"We will work hard to deliver the infrastructure for London 2012, which promises to be the most connected Games ever," Smith said.

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London 2012 replaces sponsor Nortel with Cisco

LONDON (AP) — London organizers have replaced bankrupt Canadian technology sponsor Nortel Networks with Cisco for the 2012 Olympics.

The London 2012 organizing committee said on Friday that Nortel, which is selling off its assets, could no longer provide the services required for the games.

While Nortel was a "tier one" sponsor, Cisco will only be a "tier two" provider.

California-based Cisco will fulfill all of Nortel's obligations in the new deal, which is worth about $32 million in cash and services.

Organizers have raised almost $810 million by signing up 20 sponsors providing services and cash. The sponsorship target is between $1.05 billion and $1.13 billion.

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'Police warn of 2012 Olympics cyber-threat'

Jul 10, 2009 (DMEUROPE via COMTEX) -- Scotland Yard has warned that international groups of cyber-criminals are preparing to target the 2012 London Olympics, writes The Guardian.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Janet Williams announced an investigation into a series of front companies that could be used for online frauds.

Speaking at the Association of Chief Police Officers annual conference in Manchester, she said criminals could be preparing complicated electronic attacks on ticketing, sponsorship deals and transport infrastructure. She said a specialist team had been set up by London's Metropolitan Police to examine the threat of internet and electronic attacks on the 2012 Olympics. She told the conference that 3 million online crimes take place in the UK each year, equal to around one crime every 10 seconds. 

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Brighton's Pride parade could be scrapped to make way for Olympics

Brighton's famous Pride parade could be abandoned in 2012 to avoid a clash with the Olympics.

Organisers have said the parade and festival will not go ahead "as people know it" in the first weekend of August.

Thousands of visitors annually descend on Brighton and Hove for the Pride Festival, which includes a colourful parade through the city to Preston Park.

But Lesley Burn, Pride’s chief executive, said that because of the drain on resources caused by the London Olympics, there are fears a traditional parade may stretch emergency services.

She added that early discussions had already begun to establish what shape Pride 2012 would take.

Ms Burn told The Argus: "In 2012 the greatest show on earth is coming to our shores and it is just up the road.

“We really do not know what we are going to be doing yet. We may put it on at a different time, it could be earlier in the year.

“But whatever we decide we will look at whatever else is going on in the city at that time.

“We just need to decide how we are best going to celebrate with the LGBT community.”

Contracts for the event production and security, which are up for renewal this year, have now gone up online.

A notice on the Pride website says: “The contract period will be for four events, to run from 2010 to 2013 or 2014, pending a decision about the event in 2012.”

Superintendent Ian Davies, from Sussex Police’s operations department, said: “Pride has been very responsible and sensible about the Olympics.

“Pride is quite a significant planning and resource operation and if it was held on its traditional weekend it would be in the middle of Olympic period.”

However Supt Davies said officers were still anticipating lots of people will organise events to tie in with Olympics.

He said: “Pride has a huge impact for us and the city council so it makes sense if we can agree to another arrangement, such as possibly moving it to a different period.

“The organisers have taken a common sense approach to a major event.”

This year’s Pride parade and main park event will take place on August 1. It has been confirmed that Boy George will be performing a DJ set at 1.30pm.

The Argus, as ever, will bring you all the latest Pride news running up to the event in both the newspaper and live at theargus.co.uk. 

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Ancient mass grave found on Olympics site

LONDON (Reuters) – An ancient burial pit containing 45 severed skulls, that could be a mass war grave dating back to Roman times, has been found under a road being built for the 2012 British Olympics.

Archaeologists, who have only just begun excavating the site, say they do not yet know who the bones might belong to.

"We think that these dismembered bodies are likely to be native Iron Age Britons. The question is — how did they die and who killed them," said dig head, David Score, of Oxford Archaeology.

"Were they fighting amongst themselves? Were they executed by the Romans? Did they die in a battle with the Romans?

"The exciting scenario for us possibly is that there were skirmishes with the invading Romans and that's how they ended up chopped up in a pit," he told Reuters.

When the main Roman invasion force landed in Britain in AD 43, Claudius' legions moved swiftly through western England to subdue fierce Celtic tribes.

The skulls and other bones were unearthed at a place called Ridgeway Hill, on the construction site of a new major relief road to Weymouth, on the Dorset coast in southwest England.

The seaside town — in the heart of Thomas Hardy country — is to host sailing events for the London Olympics.

The grave site is close to Maiden Castle — Europe's largest Iron Age hill fort where local tribes are said to have staged a last stand against the Roman legions after the invasion.

Some historians believe the Romans sacked the site, butchering its population including women and children, before burning it to the ground.

Score said they had counted 45 skulls so far in the 6-meter wide pit, together with a tangle of torsos, arms and legs, More could be found in the coming weeks.

Most of the skulls were those of young men, supporting the theory they could have been killed in battle or executed en masse.

"One of the things that we will be looking for is do they have sword cut marks on the bones, and how were the heads dismembered: prior to or after death in an act of victory," Score said.

Archaeologists say they could also be Roman citizens or indigenous people who had died through disease or disaster.

Few artifacts have so far been found with the bones, though pottery shards dating to the late Iron Age and early Roman period have been found scattered around the pit.

"It is rare to find a burial site like this one," Score said. "There are lots of different types of burial where skeletons may be aligned along a compass axis or in a crouched position, but to find something like this is just incredible."

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Coach K sees only upside in USA ball

To Mike Krzyzewski, there is no down side to coaching for USA Basketball.

The Duke coach, who led a star-studded U.S. team to an Olympic title in Beijing in 2008, said on July 1 he was considering a second run with the men's senior national team, but a final decision would not be made until July 21.

However, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo told The Associated Press “all leads point to Coach K coming back” to pursue a second gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics. And the Boston Globe, citing two unnamed sources, reported Wednesday that Krzyzewski has decided to make another three-year commitment, through the 2012 Summer Games.

Could another tour of duty with USA Basketball adversely affect Duke? Not according to Krzyzewski.

“There was not one negative thing for me, my program, my family,” Krzyzewski said during his summer news conference nine days ago. “It helped our program, it helped me (and) it helped our school. It was just a good thing.”

Krzyzewski originally agreed to coach the national team, which was coming off a third-place finish in the 2004 Olympics, on Oct. 26, 2005. In the four college seasons since, Duke has won slightly fewer games (13 less) and half as many in the NCAA tournament, compared to the previous four seasons (see chart, 2C).

ESPN analyst Jay Bilas doesn't see a correlation between Krzyzewski's decision to work with USA Basketball and the slight drop in the win column at Duke or the relative lack of success recently in the NCAA tournament.

Bilas, who played for Krzyzewski at Duke and was an assistant on his coaching staff, said any negative effect the time Krzyzewski has spent away from the Duke program has been offset by the positives.

“It has been incredibly energizing for him,” Bilas said. “He has also learned more from the coaches on his (USA) staff and seen a different way of doing things. It has expanded his basketball horizons.”

Krzyzewski has adopted new offensive sets from assistant Mike D'Antoni, an NBA head coach, and has occasionally borrowed a 2-3 zone defense from assistant Jim Boeheim, Krzyzewski's contemporary at Syracuse.

But Duke's relative postseason struggles – a first-round NCAA tournament loss in 2007, a 5-4 NCAA tournament record the past four years – open the door to questions about Krzyzewski's ability to juggle both jobs.

Plus, there's the UNC factor. Since Krzyzewski started pulling double duty, the Tar Heels have won more games than Duke (124 to 102), have reached two Final Fours and won a national title – facts not missed by fans on either side of the rivalry.

Bilas chuckled at the notion that Krzyzewski's involvement with USA Basketball could be construed as a bad thing. He remembered when Krzyzewski took the job in 2005 how opposing college coaches and others speculated that it would result in an unfair recruiting advantage for Duke.

“Just goes to show you how baseless some of this speculation can be,” Bilas said.

Duke's recruiting has been at a consistently high level, before and after Krzyzewski's decision to rub elbows with LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, according to Dave Telep's recruiting rankings for scout.com. But there hasn't been the expected spike in recruiting.

The four classes signed since Oct. 2005 have been ranked No. 4 (class of 2006), No. 6 (2007), No. 13 (2008) and No. 9 (2009), which is on par with the previous four classes.

Telep said Krzyzewski's Olympic success could pay off in a big way with the class of 2010, the first recruiting cycle since the U.S. beat Spain in the gold medal game in Beijing last August.

Wing Harrison Barnes, the top-ranked player in the class, and point guard Kyrie Irving, also a top-10 prospect, are considering Duke.

“If they get one or both of those guys, there's your spike in recruiting,” Telep said. 

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IOC criticizes USOC for launching network

LONDON (AP) — The International Olympic Committee chastised U.S. Olympic officials on Thursday for "unilaterally" launching their own television network, warning the project could jeopardize relations with Olympic broadcaster NBC.

The IOC accused the U.S. Olympic Committee of acting hastily by announcing plans Wednesday for the "U.S. Olympic Network," which is scheduled to go on air next year after the Vancouver Winter Games with Comcast as broadcast partner.

"We were aware that the USOC had been considering a new 'Olympic broadcast network', but we have never been presented with a plan, and we had assumed that we would have an opportunity to discuss unresolved questions together before the project moved forward," the IOC said in a statement from Lausanne, Switzerland.

"It is for this reason that the IOC is disappointed that USOC acted unilaterally and, in our view, in haste by announcing their plans before we had had a chance to consider together the ramifications."

The IOC said the venture "raises complex legal and contractual issues and could have a negative impact on our relationships with other Olympic broadcasters and sponsors, including our U.S. TV partner, NBC."

NBC holds the U.S. broadcast rights through the 2012 London Olympics. The network acquired the rights to the Vancouver and London Games in 2003 in a deal worth $2.2 billion. NBC is also expected to be among the U.S. networks bidding for rights to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi and 2016 Summer Games.

"The IOC is seeking additional information on USOC's plans and remain hopeful that we can work through the issues and reach a solution that works for all the many partners involved and for the American public in particular," the IOC said.

The IOC and USOC have had tense relations in recent years, particularly over the contentious issue of the USOC's share of Olympic revenues.

The statement was issued following a conference call between IOC president Jacques Rogge and Richard Carrion, head of the IOC finance commission and negotiator of U.S. television rights deals.

If unresolved, the dispute could hang over Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. Chicago is competing against Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, with the IOC to select the host city Oct. 2 in Copenhagen.

The U.S. Olympic Network project had been in negotiation in the U.S. for more than two years. The USOC says the network is a way to keep Olympic sports in front of viewers outside the period of the games. The project is intended to be of particular benefit to smaller sports that struggle to find air time outside of the Olympics.

The USOC said the network will air archival footage, news shows and small-sports coverage.

Timo Lumme, the IOC's director of television and marketing, sent a letter to USOC chief operating officer Norman Bellingham on Tuesday urging the USOC to reconsider plans to announce the venture.

"For the record, the IOC has neither authorized nor approved, and has serious concerns about, the launch of such a network," Lumme said in the letter, obtained by The Associated Press.

"The IOC retains certain approvals and controls over the use and sublicense of Olympic marks and/or historical Olympic Games footage in the United States," he said. "The USOC should not proceed on the assumption that any such approvals will be granted, or any such controls waived, by the IOC."

IOC officials said Rogge and USOC chairman Larry Probst discussed the proposal by phone last Friday. The IOC said it never signed off on the idea.

"Given the short notice you have chosen to give to the IOC to consider the USOC's plans, and the lack of any real information about those plans, this letter should not be read as a complete list of the IOC's concerns or of the IOC's rights and remedies," Lumme said.

Bellingham said Wednesday the IOC has long been aware of the USOC's intentions to start a new network, something he and others at the USOC have been talking about publicly for nearly three years.

Of the IOC complaints, he said, "to say they caught us by surprise is an understatement."

"We firmly believe that what we're doing with this network is in the best interest of the Olympic movement," Bellingham said. "This is something that's going to deliver great value to them. It speaks to the ideals of the movement. There's nothing out there that does that on a year-round basis."

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Dwain Chambers finds ally in battle to compete at 2012 Olympics

It expressed concern at his treatment and called on the British authorities to let him "go about his daily business untainted".

Chambers, who will be competing this weekend in the World Championship trials in Birmingham, has served a mandatory two-year ban for doping offences, yet was still prevented from representing Britain at last year's Olympics.

A British Olympic Association bylaw gives a lifetime ban to anyone convicted of a doping offence. Christine Ohuruogu successfully appealed after missing three drugs tests and went on to win a gold medal in Beijing.

UK Athletics selected Chambers for the individual events at the recent European Cup but he has been excluded from the main European meetings and has already been told that he will not be considered for the 100 metres relay at the World Championships in Berlin.

"I don't know why he is being singled out," said David Howman, the director general of WADA. "It does not feel right when you see he is still subjected to things that maybe others haven't. Is he subjected to those because he owned up? Sure he was a bad cheat. You shouldn't wear a nasty stain [because you owned up]. That's not fair.

"We are concerned from a human point of view. He has been sanctioned and he has served his sanction and he should be able to go about his daily business untainted. That is normal human behaviour for someone who has served their time.

"Fairness prevails and once you have served your time you are not subject to double jeopardy. That is a basic human, let alone legal, process. It [an admission] is significant because if an athlete has cheated and is prepared to say what is going on, then we should be listening."

Chambers failed to gain an injunction that would have allowed him to compete at Beijing. Howman, who was a practising barrister before working for WADA, said that the BOA's stance differed from doping law in the vast majority of other countries and said the bylaw needed to be legally tested.

"The BOA have a rule that I think only one other Olympic association has in the world," Howman told The Daily Telegraph. "He was challenging it and only reached an interim stage. I would have been very interested if that challenge was continued in court to see what the judge would have said. The interim judgment had nothing to do with the merits of the case, it was only whether he should have an interim injunction or not.

"The principles around that have nothing to do with it, so the case is yet to be heard. There needs to be a court decision on that rule."

Cyclist David Millar is also considering a challenge to the BOA bylaw so that he can compete in London in 2012. Millar has admitted to doping offences, served his ban and since worked with anti-doping organisations in an attempt to educate other athletes. He will decide what action he might take after the Tour de France. 

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Olympics minister: 2012 stadium will be downsized

LONDON -- Britain's Olympic minister says the capacity of the main stadium for London 2012 will be reduced from its 80,000 capacity after the Summer Games.

Calls to reconsider plans to downsize the venue to 25,000 seats after 2012 had been led by London's mayor and the legacy group, but minister Tessa Jowell says the debate is closed.

On the sidelines of Thursday's Beyond Sport summit, Jowell said that the bid commitment that the stadium would become a smaller athletics venue after the Olympics will be honored.

London 2012 deputy chairman Keith Mills added: "The country does not need another 80,000 seat stadium, which costs a lot of money to fund. Go to Sydney and look at the 90,000-seat stadium that sits there empty, it's gone bust three times."

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Special Olympics 'a wake-up call' for Britain

The chairman of the Special Olympics is jet-lagged so he can be forgiven one foray into cliche. "This is a journey, it is not a destination," said Tim Shriver. "It's a journey to find communities that are fully inclusive and appreciative of the gifts of every person." Considering our interview takes place many sleepless hours after his transatlantic flight landed at 5.20am it is a wonder this is the only time he sounds as if he is operating on autopilot. Instead for half an hour Shriver speaks eloquently, passionately and authoritatively on the rights and needs of the intellectually disabled.

He has evidently inherited some of the oratorical skills of his maternal uncle, John F Kennedy, and his reference to the "journey" comes when speaking about a gaffe committed by the current US president, one who many think embodies the ideals of JFK. Speaking on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in March, Barack Obama likened his bowling ability to "the Special Olympics or something". A thoughtless statement so out character that it warranted a call to Shriver soon after the show was recorded.

So, did Shriver admonish the president for his insensitivity, or thank him for the publicity? "Neither," he says. "I expressed to him that it was a difficult thing for our community, for many people it is quite painful to feel — even if he didn't mean it — to feel made fun of. But I also expressed my appreciation for his apology. I think all we ask of people is that they be more sensitive in the future, or open-minded — it's not just about controlling your speech, it's about opening your mind."

Previously an academic specialising in the social and emotional factors of learning, Shriver probably knows better than most that it can be counterproductive to preach — particularly when addressing your country's new commander-in-chief: "It was a tough experience for all of us in the field of intellectual disability, and Special Olympics in particular, because nobody wants to be in a situation where we're scolding, or perceived to be scolding, the president of the United States or a major political figure."

Obama offered to have some Special Olympic athletes to visit the White House to play his favourite sport, basketball, or bowling, one the president has perhaps had enough of — but to date nothing has happened: "We have not had a specific event yet where the president can interact with Special Olympics athletes yet, but we're hopeful. He has been busy."

Shriver is busy too — in London to attend the Beyond Sport summit he has given over time he could dedicate to sleeping to instead promote the Special Olympics GB National Summer Games that take place in Leicester on 25-31 July. Up to 8,000 athletes will participate across 21 disciplines in the largest multi-sport event to take place in Britain this year, but Shriver is not satisfied.

"We have 135 clubs in this country, we have 8,000 athletes who are participating – we could have one million, literally. That's not a rounded number, there are one million people with learning disabilities in this country, yet [we have] 8,000 participating," he says. "Leicester should be a wake-up call. This country is going to host the Olympics, this country is going to host every country in the world — it is going to be the centre of the world's attention. Rightfully so, it should be able to say, in every nook and cranny, in every village and hamlet, and in every town on this island and in its greater domains, bias against people with disabilities has been removed in the Olympic spirit and through Olympic ideals and values. Namely participation in human greatness through sport."

He could almost be cheekily paraphrasing: "And so, my fellow Olympians, ask not what your Olympics can do for you; ask what you can do for your Olympics." But Shriver is not his uncle and he is not a politician, which is why he is forthright in his views on the lack of funding received by Special Olympics GB over the course of its 31-year existence.

"There are 200 children born in this country every day with learning disabilities and most will grow up and experience enormous prejudice unless we do something about it. So we do need more government support, there is no doubt about it — I think we need to turn the goodwill into real support, into muscle," says a man who enjoys a good relationship with Gordon Brown. "The prime minister and his wife have been very receptive and friendly to our movement when he was chancellor of exchequer and now. What we haven't got yet is any government funding, frankly."

Ireland was the first country outside of the US to host the Special Olympics, in 2003, followed by China four years later, and Shriver says the Irish "understand the social and political power" of the Special Olympics, while the latter is as generous as any country: "Special Olympics China acts as a charity within the government and the government funds 95% of our work in China. In the total opposite direction here in the UK you have no government funding."

Panama and Egypt, among others, have never hosted the games yet Shriver says they recognise the difference the Special Olympics can make in the lives of the intellectually disabled and fund the charity accordingly. Why then has Britain failed in their support for so long?

"It's a little bit of a mystery. I think there are probably a lot of reasons. I think if we knew exactly what the reason was we'd have solved it by now. I don't know, I could speculate — it's a complicated environment here for charities and causes in general. I don't know, I'm not sure," says Shriver. Sport England have pledged £200,000 to help bridge a shortfall in funding for the Leicester games, the first funding Special Olympics GB has ever received, according to their CEO, Karen Wallin. Not so, according to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. A complicated environment indeed.

One thing that Wallin and the DCMS agree on is that the sport minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, much like his predecessor Andy Burnham, is keen to assist the Special Olympics and that money is required specifically for the learning disabled.

Many hands have been wrung of late worrying about the London Olympics' legacy and whether 2012 will get more people participating in sport; Shriver says welcome to his world. "I worry about it all the time. I worry that people think about legacy in terms of buildings, in terms of roads, in terms of bridges and in terms of money.

"The Olympics were not founded for roads and bridges and money, the Olympics were created because the Greeks felt, and [Pierre] de Coubertin felt more recently, that there was something about the human spirit that was brought out in sport. That human endeavour and achievement and courage and determination could be magnified through sport, that it could be revealed through sport. Not that we build bigger stadiums through sports, or that we'd have greater ticket sales … That's great, I don't have any problem with that, but a legacy should be a human legacy."

Shriver has ideas that may be of interest to those in 10 Downing Street, has he any plans to pay a visit while in town? "My phone hasn't been ringing. Not this time, I know the prime minister is busy." Just like President Obama. Maybe they are both fearful of his bowling ability.

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2012 Olympics boost for Scots construction firm Barr

Scottish construction firm Barr are to build the London Olympics basketball arena in a £58million deal.

Barr, who will rent the 12,000 seat stadium to the Olympic Delivery Authority for the Games, head the list of Scottish companies who have won contracts for London 2012.

The contractors are due to begin work on the site early next year. At the end of the Games, the arena will be dismantled and rebuilt for other major events.

Oda chairman John Armitt said: "The basketball arena will be the third largest venue on the park and the largest temporary structure ever built for an Olympic and Paralympic Games."

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said: "Just as Scottish athletes are a key part of Team GB, Scottish businesses are playing a key role in building the Olympic Park."

Scottish Enterprise chief executive Jack Perry said: "This is great news not only for Barr but for Scotland in general.

"With all eyes on the Games in London, we have a real chance for Scottish companies to demonstrate what they can do for large scale projects on an international stage.

"London 2012 is also a tremendous launch platform for companies hoping to be involved in the Commonwealth Games in 2014."

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Rowing NZ aiming ever higher

About the only people not surprised by the New Zealand rowing team's exceptional form in Europe are the rowers themselves.

The black singlet brigade were a dominant force at a World Cup regatta in Munich last month, where five of a record eight-medal haul were golds.

Then in a rare team appearance at the Henley regatta in England over the weekend, another four golds were reaped, fuelling an air of confidence heading into the final leg of the three-pronged World Cup circuit in Lucerne starting with heats on Friday night (NZ time).

A rash of retirements and sabbaticals in the wake of last August's Olympic sparked fears New Zealand's sustained international success of the past four years may diminish.

However, Rowing NZ (RNZ) high performance manager Alan Cotter always contended that standards could be maintained and his confidence only grew as the national training programme unfolded on Lake Karapiro.

"After our testing, the speed they were showing told us they could perform in Europe," Cotter told media from Lucerne.

"In Munich, a few strong countries weren't there (the United States, Canada and Australia) but we'll take those wins.

"Nearly all of the big countries will be here this week so we'll get a good indicator of where we are ahead of the world champs."

Small focus

As usual, New Zealand's focus is in the small boats, where their strongest world championship contenders at Poznan, Poland in late August are single sculler Mahe Drysdale and the men's pair of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray.

Triple world champion Drysdale's form is red-hot, having smashed nearest rival Alan Campbell of Britain at both Munich and Henley.

Campbell shook his head after being outclassed in the Henley final in front of an estimated 80,000 supporters along the River Thames.

"It was like I had Mahe on my back and was pulling him along," Campbell told reporters.

"We've got to find a way to beat him. He's in incredible form."

Bond and Murray have been turning heads with their finishing stamina, powering away over the extended 2112m course at Henley to follow a dominant Munich gold.

Minor medals

Also victorious at Henley were women's single sculler Emma Twigg and the men's double scull of Nathan Cohen and Matthew Trott - both crews who snared minor medals at Munich.

The other Munich gold medallists were women's pair Rebecca Scown and Emma-Jane Feathery and two lightweight crews - single sculler Duncan Grant and the double of Storm Uru and Peter Taylor.

Cotter said gold to the women's pair and bronze to the quadruple scull of Genevieve Armstrong, Louise Trappit, Sarah Barnes and Harriet Austin proved their was depth in women's rowing after the retirement of double Olympic champion twins Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell.

It also vindicated RNZ's goal of fielding a women's quad at the 2012 London Olympics and Cotter hoped to see more gains this week on the Rotsee regatta course, where the finals will be contested on Sunday night (NZ time).

Before their 12-hour journey from London to Lucerne, some of the New Zealanders took a chance to visit the Olympic venue, at Dorney Lake in Eton, site of the 2006 world championships.

Meanwhile, Cotter had high hopes for the country's premier junior rowers who flew to Europe on Friday to complete preparation for the world under-23 championships at Racice, Czech Republic from July 23-26.

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UK police: Cyber criminals target 2012 Olympics

International organized criminal networks are preparing to target the 2012 London Olympics with cyber attacks, a London police chief said on Wednesday.
Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner Janet Williams said criminals may be preparing sophisticated electronic attacks on athlete protection arrangements, the transport infrastructure, sponsorship deals and ticketing.
Similar conspiracies were witnessed during the Beijing Olympics last August and work is under way to protect next year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Williams said.
"There is a lot of work to be done with e-crime and the Olympics," she said. "First of all we need to get the money sorted and there is an imperative about that now.
"We know from Canada and Beijing that the threats are real and they have grown in the last six months."
She said criminal networks in recent months have targeted London hospitals, police forces and major private companies, including well-known online retailers.
"Very recently we have had three London hospitals badly affected, that was identified as computer viruses overloading the systems," she said. "We have had police forces who have lost considerable parts of their capability for considerable periods of time and we have had attacks that have stopped other public services."

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AP source: Backup samples positive for 5 Olympians

LONDON (AP) — Backup "B" sample tests came back positive for 1,500-meter gold medalist Rashid Ramzi and four other athletes accused of blood doping at the Beijing Games, an Olympic official with knowledge of the results told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The athletes tested positive for the blood-boosting drug CERA in retests of their Beijing "A" samples earlier this year. Now, the "B" samples have confirmed the positive findings, the official said on condition of anonymity because the results are considered confidential pending a hearing.

The initial "A" sample results first were announced April 28.

The positive results clear the way for the International Olympic Committee to open disciplinary cases against the athletes, who face being stripped of results and medals and banned from the 2012 London Olympics.

In addition to Ramzi, the athletes are Italian cycling road race silver medalist Davide Rebellin, German cyclist Stefan Schumacher, Croatian 800-meter runner Vanja Perisic and Greek race walker Athanasia Tsoumeleka.

Disciplinary hearings are expected to be held at the end of the month. The IOC executive board, which has the power to disqualify athletes from past and future games, next meets in Berlin on Aug. 13-14.

Ramzi was the first gold medalist from Beijing caught using performance-enhancing drugs.

The Moroccan-born runner gave Bahrain its first ever Olympic track and field gold medal with victory in the 1,500 in 3 minutes, 32.94 seconds.

If he is stripped of the victory, Asbel Kipruto Kiprop of Kenya stands to be upgraded from silver to gold. Nicolas Willis of New Zealand would go from bronze to silver, and fourth-place finisher Mehdi Baala of France would move up to the bronze medal.

Rebellin finished second behind Spain's Samuel Sanchez in the Olympic road race. If he loses his medal, Switzerland's Fabian Cancellera would move to silver and Russia's Alexander Kolobnev to bronze.

Tsoumeleka, who won the Olympic 20K walk gold in 2004, Perisic and Schumacher did not win medals in Beijing.

A sixth athlete initially was found positive in the retesting process. But the Dominican Olympic Committee cleared women's weightlifter Yudelquis Contreras last month after her "B" sample came back negative.

The IOC reanalyzed a total of 948 samples from Beijing after new lab tests for CERA and insulin became available following the Olympics. The testing began in January and focused mainly on endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and track and field.

CERA, an advanced version of EPO, increases endurance by stimulating production of oxygen-rich red blood cells.

The French anti-doping agency was the first to create a test for CERA, catching four cyclists more than two months after the end of last year's Tour de France. That success prompted the IOC to retest samples from the games.

The IOC previously disqualified nine athletes for doping at the Beijing Games. In addition, there were six doping cases involving horses in the equestrian competition.

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Cyber-criminals preparing to target London 2012 Olympics, police warn

International criminal networks are preparing to target the London 2012 Olympics, a senior Scotland Yard officer warned today.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Janet Williams said police were investigating a series of front companies that could be used in complex frauds carried out on the internet.

Williams said the multibillion-pound sporting event was proving a tempting target for criminals. "There is a lot of work to be done with e-crime and the Olympics. First of all we need to get the money sorted and there is an imperative about that now," she said.

"We know from Canada and Beijing that the threats are real and they have grown in the last six months."

Speaking in Manchester at the Association of Chief Police Officers annual conference, Williams said criminals might be preparing sophisticated electronic attacks on transport infrastructures, sponsorship deals and ticketing.

She added: "These are all potentially subject to abuses and we need to understand these and put plans in place very quickly now.

"That is a projected area of work and it is where e-crime meets the more significant threats and terrorism threats."

Williams said the Metropolitan police had established a specialist team to examine the threat of electronic and internet attacks on the 2012 Olympic games. Investigators needed "to move from business as usual to an extra amount of effort" as the start of the games neared, she said.

"We will need some extra money to do this, which we hope that the Home Office will give to e-crime.

"We are starting to see some precursor activity, we are starting to see companies being set up in what we believe are false names in anticipation of fraud and other types of criminal activity during the run-up to the Olympics."

She warned that cyber-criminals were determined, sophisticated and flourishing as police continued to grapple with the difficulties of tackling internet crime.

In recent months hospitals, police forces and major private companies, including well-known online shops, have been targeted.

"Very recently we have had three London hospitals badly affected – that was identified as computer viruses overloading the systems," said Williams.

"We have had police forces who have lost considerable parts of their capability for considerable periods of time and we have had attacks that have stopped other public services."

The conference heard that 3m online crimes take place in Britain every year, about one every 10 seconds.

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International cyber criminals targeting London Olympics

International criminal networks are preparing to disrupt the London 2012 Olympics with cyber attacks, a senior police officer warned today.

Scotland Yard has set up a specialist team to examine the extent of the threat of electronic and internet attacks on the Games.

Janet Williams, Deputy Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, said that officers were investigating a number of front companies that criminals have set up to make money in complex frauds.

Ms Williams, who is responsible for leading the fight against electronic crime, said: “We are starting to see some precursor activity, we are starting to see companies being set up in what we believe are false names in anticipation of fraud and other types of criminal activity during the run-up to the Olympics.”

Speaking in Manchester at the Association of Chief Police Officers conference, she added: “There is a lot of work to be done with e-crime and the Olympics.

“We know from Canada and Beijing that the threats are real and they have grown in the last six months.”

Ms Williams said that criminals may be preparing sophisticated electronic attacks on athlete protection arrangements, the transport infrastructure, sponsorship deals and ticketing.

She added: “These are all potentially subject to abuses and we need to understand these and put plans in place quickly.”

Ms Williams warned that cyber criminals were determined, sophisticated and flourishing.

The conference heard that three million online crimes take place in Britain every year, about one every 10 seconds.

Ms Williams said that in recent months criminal networks had targeted London hospitals, police forces and major private companies, including well-known online shops.

She said: “Very recently we have had three London hospitals badly affected — that was identified as computer viruses overloading the systems.

“We have had police forces who have lost considerable parts of their capability for considerable periods of time and we have had attacks that have stopped other public services.”

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