By Duncan Mackay - 6 June 2009
 

So Tessa Jowell has avoided another bullet and retained her position as Olympics Minister after Gordon Brown's latest reshuffle announced yesterday. But even she must realise that the chances of her still being in the post by the time the Olympic flame is lit in 2012 are as about as remote as Lewis Hamilton retaining his Formula 1 world title.
 

 

By Thomas Luff - 3 June 2009
 

The 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore will be held for two weeks in August 2010 and will help potentially showcase some great new athletes for the coming decade.

  

 

By John Goodbody - 2 June 2009
 

 

The last time that rugby union was part of the Olympics was at the "Chariots of Fire" Games in 1924. It was an unseemly event, as the United States defeated France 17-3 in the final.

 

By Roald Bradstock - 1 June 2009
 

Last Friday was the last day for entries for the 2012 and the Arts Council's 'Artists Taking The Lead' project.

 

 
For those of you that do not know this project has a budget of £5.4 million for 12 new works of commissioned art, each worth up to £500,000.

By Duncan Mackay - 29 May 2009
 

No-one would argue that with five World Cup victories to their name that Brazil is the most successful football team in history. Down the years they redefined the sport with their blend of beautiful football. The English may have invented the game, but it is the Brazilians who have perfected it, is a favourite saying on the streets of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

 

 

By Dame Kelly Holmes - 27 May 2009
 

I have been genuinely touched by the range and breadth of support and personal messages the recent announcement of my new role as President of Commonwealth Games England (CGE) has brought me.

 

 

By Roald Bradstock - 26 May 2009
 

There has been a lot of discussion about the Cultural Olympiad and its importance leading up to and during the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics - getting people around the country involved in celebrating the 2012 London Games. But there isn’t any mention about the Cultural Paralympiad? You never hear of that, do you?

 

By Martin Gillingham - 20 May 2009
 

 

Just half of the Lions squad have played a Test match in South Africa while only two of them know what it feels like to have won one. Of Ian McGeechan’s original 34-man selection, three have already fallen by the wayside – two to injury and the other suspended. And there’s still another weekend of domestic stuff with the finals of the Heineken and Challenge Cups coming up when a couple more key figures could be lost.
 

 

 

By Adrian Hill - 14 May 2009

As I travelled around the beautiful country of New Zealand recently, I was struck by how sport unites its cosmopolitan society. The nation’s remoteness, in a way, is its strength – a “them against us” syndrome combined with the innate warrior instinct derived from the large Maori and Polynesian population.

 

 

 

By Duncan Mackay - 9 May 2009
 

I have just landed back at Heathrow Airport after six weeks of travelling during which I have flown approximately 32,932 miles, visited four of the world's greatest cities, interviewed Presidents and Prime Ministers, met the greatest sportsman in the world and been told by British Airways that I was about to crash into the sea.

 

 

 

By Martin Gillingham - 8 May 2009
 

Rugby hadn’t seen anything like it for 25 years since its last football-style, penalty shoot-out. The prize? A place in the final of the Heineken Cup – the Champions League of rugby.

 

 

By Roald Bradstock - 7 May 2009
 

Al Oerter winning 4 consecutive gold medals in the discus is a legendary accomplishment. Each time he competed he was never favourite to win and yet he rose up, overcoming adversity, to win again and again.  He was a true competitor - the modern day discobolus - a modern day legend whose name and achievements have become synonymous with the modern Olympics

 

 

 

By Martin Gillingham - 29 April 2009
 

A prominent International Olympic Committee official claimed last week that former East German coaches deserve a second chance.

 

 

By John Bicourt - 28 April 2009
 

Clearly, Ethiopians, Kenyans (and perhaps Kalenjin tribe in particular because they predominate) have a natural propensity towards running. But whether this can be attributed solely to a specific genetic advantage, is questionable.
 

 

 

 

By Mara Yamauchi - 26 April 2009
 

After running through the streets of London today in the Flora London Marathon with a million spectators I now know how fantastic it will be when it stages the Olympics in 2012.