Annie Last is smiling as she looks up at what appears to be a waterfall of sharp rocks down which, as Britain's leading female mountain biker, she will be expected to plunge during the Olympic final on August 11 when the Games come to this course at Hadleigh Farm in Essex.

Or it could be that this 21-year-old brainbox – she got straight As at A level and has a deferred place to read medicine at Sheffield University – was just squinting into the sun which has unexpectedly bathed this part of Britain on a day when, elsewhere, it is either chilly or indeed snowy.

This location, however, with a view clear over the Thames Estuary to Canvey Island, home to the world's largest, brightest and most outlandish domestic displays of Christmas lights – at least, that's how it appears whenever I have driven around it at Christmas time – is clearly in a microclimate.

Stephen Castle, the County Councillor who has welcomed our media throng to this invigorating edge of Essex, maintains joshingly that Hadleigh is the driest place in Britain. I am assured that this is true. It is certainly the driest place in Britain right now as the April sun beats down upon our faces and glorifies the huge clumps of yellow gorse which intersperse the snaking, plunging course around which riders from 36 countries will risk their reputations – and necks – this summer.

Seven months after a successful Olympic test event, the course has been altered so that it is now faster, smoother and more technically challenging. In fact, according to Martyn Salt, the London 2012 mountain bike manager, this is "the most challenging Olympic course ever constructed", not least because of its relentlessness. "It is technically very challenging, and there is almost no time to rest on it," he adds.


Matt Parker, of GB cycling, concurs with the view that this is the toughest course ever presented to Olympic riders. As far as Last is concerned, however, he points out that this is nothing but good news as, even this early in her career, she is already regarded as one of the most accomplished technical riders on the circuit.

At the last mountain bike World Cup in March, at the Pietermaritzburg venue in South Africa, Last finished in the top 10, having led the race for almost half of the five circuits. Having won silver medals in the European and World Under-23 Championships last year, the young woman from Derbyshire has established herself in the senior ranks, even if she is not yet among the favourites for Olympic medals.

Realistically, Parker would expect Last to be first – or near offer – in the first half of the Olympic final, although it may be too much to expect her to maintain `a medal position in the closing stages as her more experience rivals – and most female mountain bikers peak at around 26 or 27 – make their moves.

"There are going to be 20,000 people on the course, and it would provide most of them with something to cheer about," Parker says. "And if you have 20,000 people supporting you, you just never know what might happen."

But what about Last? We'd better get back to her, as the sun is still shining in her eyes.

"I enjoy technical courses," she says, as one of her GB colleagues makes his way carefully down through the dusty and jagged landscape, one of two such "rock gardens" on the course. "I think that having a tough Olympic course is going to be really good for me."


Last (pictured) is set on being in or close to the lead when the women's Olympic race – there is just a straight final – gets underway. "If you can get to the front it is so much easier," she says. "You have a clear race, and you don't have to worry about riders falling in front of you.

"But then again, if someone goes ahead and you don't think they are going to maintain the pace, it is not worth going with them or you will both blow up. Sometimes if you push too hard on the course, you might end up gaining a couple of seconds but it has taken so much effort that it is not worth it, particularly in a race which takes one and a half hours."

Obviously it will be a big advantage to arrive at the top of the rock fall by which we are standing with a clear view of it rather than having to follow riders who will be choosing their own routes down. But that may not be a luxury Last can rely on.

"When I get to the top of this in the final I might have an idea of what line I will take but I could have to take a different line if there are other riders around. You have to make up your mind in a split second when you are racing."

So are we looking at what will turn out to be mountain biking's very own Beechers Brook just over 100 days down the line?

Another smile. "You will probably see some falls, although they will tend to come from among the riders trying to catch up with the leading ten or so in front. That is when more mistakes are made because in that position you don't get to race your own race. That's why I want to up near the front – I want to be able to race my own race."


Looking back up the rockfall, I can't help thinking that the sensible mountain biker on the day will simply run down the grassy slopes either side of it. Certainly that is what I would do if I were asked to compete in the Olympic mountain bike final, although it is more likely that I would call in saying that I was refusing to race without stabilisers.

Such tactics, of course, will be both illegal and impractical. As Salt explains, all the riders will have to remain within the confines of the course, which will, for the first time in the Olympics, be marked by a succession of upturned "brushes" – wider at the top than the bottom, and branded in a colour which I would like to tell you about but as it is a special London 2012 colour I couldn't possibly write about it without having nightmares of footsteps on the stairs at 3am. Besides which, no one at London 2012 would tell me.

But anyway, these brushes will not only prevent people doing the mountain bike equivalent of riding on the pavement – they will also allow cameras, and indeed the 20,000 spectators who will be allowed to roam over these hillsides like so many sheep, to get a clearer view of the action than in any previous Games, where the course has been bounded by tapes and mini fences. It's looking good at Hadleigh Farm – and the looking will be good too.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

Exactly seven years ago this weekend I attended the first Islamic Games in Mecca. I was the only Western journalist there and probably the only infidel.

Outside of the Rumble in the Jungle it was hard to recall as anything quite as bizarre as this Dazzler in the Desert, an event of near Olympian proportions taking place in the holiest of citadels, where they flock in their millions to pray but had now gathered to watch thousands play.

A total of 7,000 athletes from 54 Islamic countries competing in 13 sports over a fortnight.

For some of us old enough to remember, a Friday night at Mecca years ago meant smooching around the local ballroom to the strains of Joe Loss. Here, another sort of song and dance was going on, a fascinating piece of Arabesque. As the searing sun dipped behind the dunes, and the athletes grouped behind their banners at the opening ceremony, more than 3,000 students re-enacted the religious, romantic and often violent history of Mecca.

And not a woman in sight.

Either as a competitor or spectator.


While I was there it was whispered to me then that the International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge had written to the Saudis on behalf of world sports governing bodies expressing his concern and suggesting in the strongest possible terms that the Saudi's ban on women from the sporting arena had to be addressed. Pronto.

He indicated that by the 2012 Olympics all nations must have female participation. The inference was clear. If it did not comply, one of the world's wealthiest sporting nations could face expulsion, just as South Africa did over their own form of discrimination. It was a yellow card.

Yet Saudi Arabia's disgraceful sexual apartheid continues.

After initially hinting that at least there might be a token female representation in the Saudi team for London it seems there has been a swift volte-face, no doubt after pressure from Saudi's all-powerful mullahs.

As insidethegames has reported, Prince Nawal bin Faisal, the President of the Saudia Arabian Olympic Committee (and ironically a member of the IOC whose own Charter prohibits gender discimination) now says they will not select women, declaring: "We are not endorsing any Saudi female participation at the moment in the Olympics or other international championships."

However if the IOC were to offer any Saudi woman athlete a wildcard, as they did young "suffragette'" showjumper Dalma Malhas (pictured) for the last Youth Olympics they would be allowed to compete – though presumably not under the national flag - as long as they did not violate Sharia law. Which again presumably means being covered from head to toe and not mingling with men.


What sort of a compromise is that?

It smacks of the old South Africa, where occasionally approved prominent black sports figures were allowed into the country to take part in sports events as "honorary whites".

Why the IOC have tolerated this situation for so long is beyond comprehension. One hopes it is not because the Saudis are a wealthy and powerful presence on a body which doffs it cap all too readily to the rich and the royal.

Apart from covering the Islamic Games I have visited Saudi Arabia on several occcasions and every time I have felt as uncomfortable as I did in apartheid South Africa.

I asked repeatedly if other predominantly Islamic countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Morocco were happy to send women to the Games, why not the kingdom of Saudi Arabia? The answer was always a shrugged: "It's our culture."

Many things have been part of culture – like public executions in this country, and slavery in the United States. But we have moved on. So must the Saudis.

Can they really continue to hide behind such a medieval cultural veil?

Precedcent says not. Afghanistan were excluded from the Sydney Olympics in 2000 because of the Taliban's discrimination against women, their IOC membership having been suspended the year before.

And of course South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) had been banned earlier because they refused to send teams that were representative of the country.

While I am not in favour of quasi-politcal protests that disfigure the Games I would find it hard not to support any demo that condemns the presence of an all-male Saudi team in London. And I suspect there will be some.

As Sue Tibballs, chief executive of the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation points out, the IOC needs to send a clear message that they will not tolerate continued gender discrimination. She is not alone in calling for Saudia Arabia to be banned from the London Games.

Back in Mecca in April 2005 I got the impression that hosting the Islamic Games was done with a prospective football World Cup bid in mind and, one suspects, much further down the line, an Olympics, too. Of course, that would not be possible while Saudi Arabia continues to exclude women from the playing field and the stands.

Ironically, with all their resources, Saudi Arabia probably stage the Olympics at the drop of a burqua, though the prospect of the likes of Jessica Ennis having to run and jump in one may not be quite as appealing.

With Qatar promising some female selection for 2012 (well, they have no choice as they are staging the football World Cup in 2022 and are in the biddingmarket for an Olympics two years earlier) and Brunei indicating they will choose anyone, male or female, who meets the qualifying standard, Saudi Arabia will be the only all-male bastion left in the Olympic movement, which the increasingly strident voices of female IOC members are not slow to point out.

Among them are the world's foremost Muslim woman Olympian, Nawal el Moutawakel, the Moroccan who leapt over the hurdles in her homeland and is now moving up the IOC hierarchy, and American Anita DeFranz, the  chair of the IOC's Women and Sport Committee who has a great ally in fellow IOC member Prince Faisal of Jordan, another Islamic country where the emancipation of women in sport puts the Saudis to shame.

Those Islamic Games were the closest a sports event has been to the days of the original Olympics in Ancient Greece, where females were also forbidden from playing and peeping and, if they were caught doing so, were put to death.

Knowing their propensity for casting the first stone at errant women I'm surprised the Saudis haven't gone that far yet.


However we learn that some team sports, like basketball and volleyball, are now being quietly introduced in private girls schools. One small step for womankind in a feudal society where females still cannot drive on the roads, let alone off the first tee.

The Saudis have had ample warning that cultural taboos must be removed and allow their sport to show its feminine side. But the time has come for them to stop playing men-only games with the Olympics and for the IOC to cease burying their heads in the copious sands of this obstinate desert land.

So come on Mr President. Man up.

Unless he relents Prince Nawal should be kicked off the IOC and Saudi Arabia's membership suspended forthwith. Time they were shown the red card.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title from Atlanta to Zaire.

It is a discipline in which Britain has never won a gold medal at the Olympic Games previously, but Campbell Walsh is hoping to make it third time lucky this summer at the London 2012 canoe slalom on the water at the Lee Valley White Water Centre.

Walsh has had an up and down career, starring at the Olympics in 2004 when he clinched a silver medal in Athens, only to be disappointing four years later in Beijing. Despite being the reigning European champion, and having claimed bronze medals at the World Championships in 2006 and 2007, Walsh failed to medal.

He has not won a medal at a major championship since illness ruined his 2010, but Walsh is on the up once more as the London Olympics near. Today at Lee Valley, where the canoe slalom takes place in just under four months' time, Walsh was reserved about his chances of even going to the Games.

"Not many of us [here today] will be going to the Olympics," he told insidethegames. "I am not looking at it as third time lucky, it will be tough – the last couple of years I have not been challenging for golds at major championships.

"I've been pretty good recently and there is always the possibility."

Walsh will be the first canoe slalom athlete to compete at three Olympic Games if he makes it through selection trials next week.


The winner of a silver medal at Athens 2004, former World Cup and European champion Walsh (pictured) will be pushed hard by Richard Hounslow for a spot in the men's K1, while youngster Tom Brady and Huw Swetnam are also harbouring ambitions of a place at the Olympics next weekend.

Three days of racing from next Friday, April 13 will determine which canoe slalom athletes are selected to represent Britain on the water at the Lee Valley White Water Centre at London 2012.  It is expected that the British Olympic Association will then confirm the canoe slalom team on April 25.

Britain will have four canoe slalom boats going to the Games, one in each of the four Olympic classes – women's kayak single (WK1), men's kayak single (MK1), men's canoe single (MC1) and men's canoe double (MC2).

Fiona Pennie, who competed in Beijing four years ago, may have a slight advantage over Lizzie Neave, Laura Blakeman and Louise Donington in the battle for the place on offer in the women's K1. In the men's C1, David Florence, who won silver in 2008, is the favourite to qualify ahead of Hounslow, who came fourth at last year's World Championships, and Mark Proctor.  In the men's C2, Florence and Hounslow will compete with Tim Bailie and Etienne Stott, and young pair Rhys Davies and Matt Lister.


Next weekend will see three races taking place on the water at Lee Valley, with each competitor's best two race results being used to determine selection. Athletes can use the results from the 2011 World Championships to count towards their 'best two results'.

Once at the Games, Britain is aiming for what would be a record three canoe slalom and sprint medals at this summer's Olympics, GB Canoeing performance director John Anderson said here today.

"Our athletes are absolutely dedicated to their sport," he insisted. "All these athletes have put in 10,000 hours of preparation to get to where they are today. They are absolutely some of the most talented athletes in the world that we have been privileged to watch."

The chances of achieving his goal should be boosted by Tim Brabants if he makes it to London. The Beijing 2008 gold medallist turned doctor, turned Olympic athlete again, and soon to turn back into being a doctor, is aiming to retain his title. But if Britain can pick up a canoe slalom gold it will be the first in the discipline since it became a part of the Olympic programme in 1972.

At the course today alongside the 2012 medal hopes were that British team from 1972 in Munich, giving the day a rounded, historical feel. But Britain only picked up its first canoe slalom medal at Barcelona 1992 through Gareth Marriott, and have won a further four slalom medals in subsequent Games, meaning much of the sport's 'history' is yet to be made in this country.

Anderson told insidethegames that the future was bright for the sport, and was particularly pleased with the facility at Lee Valley, the first Olympic venue to be built and open to the public when it opened its doors last April. It was also the first Olympic venue to win the right to host a major international championships – the World Canoe Slalom Championships in 2015.


"As soon as London won the Games and we knew there would be a slalom course here we got involved in the design of the facility," Anderson told insidethegames.

"Three of our staff here were involved in designing the model. The legacy value of this course is above and beyond, it really is. I'd like to think we'll have a fantastic Olympic competition here that captures the public's imagination.

"I'm absolutely convinced that this facility will be a commercial success."

With 30,000 visitors coming to Lee Valley to take to the white water course since its construction it is providing an early legacy for London 2012 and some evidence of Anderson's views. It is also only the second white water centre in Olympic history to have two courses; the second is a 'legacy loop' for beginners and canoeing enthusiasts to hone their skills.

And on the water, Anderson insisted that the team selected to compete at the Olympics were "absolutely capable" of making one of the three medals he hopes to win a gold. His strategy is simple.

"My aim is to have at least three boats per class capable of challenging for the podium," he said. "It has tended to be that way in the last three Olympics, we did not qualify a C2 for Beijing which was really disappointing for us. We came back and regrouped and now it (C2) is a real strength."

Indeed the C2 is the only discipline in which Britain medalled at last summer's World Championships. If only everything in life were so simple. Next weekend it will be anything but for the athletes fighting for a chance to go to the Olympics this summer and make history on the waters here.

David Gold is a reporter for insidethegames

It was billed as a "historic day" for FIFA in terms of its reform process but what happens now? It's one thing being accused of failing to sufficiently investigate corruption allegations against its members. But it's quite another actually doing something about it.

Anti-corruption guru Mark Pieth's eagerly awaited report into FIFA's recent conduct may have been hard-hitting in its conclusions and suggested firm ways of rebuilding trust. But until and unless FIFA acts on the recommendations the cynics will still swirl around football's world governing body.

The next move is supposedly the FIFA Congress in Budapest next month. That's where proposals such as splitting the Ethics Committee into two to make it more credible, limiting the terms of office for the President and vetting the appointment of key officials will be approved.

But even then, until someone is actually prevented from joining FIFA's inner sanctum because of a previously undiscovered misdemeanour, until there are concrete examples of FIFA learning lessons from the past, it's hard to grasp how last Friday's so-called day of transparency will end up being a genuine turning point in FIFA's determination to clean up its act.


Pieth's (pictured right with FIFA President Sepp Blatter) report may have attacked the way FIFA dealt with alleged vote rigging but it was never going to call for a full investigation into  the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process.

Qatar's landslide 2022 victory may have been constantly tinged with suspicion in some quarters but no firm evidence has ever been forthcoming and, more importantly, for the sake of balance any fresh inquiry into the tiny Gulf state's extravagantly funded campaign would also have had to include a probe into Russia's equally emphatic 2018 victory. One without the other would not have been fair since they were conducted simultaneously.

Pieth's anti-corruption proposals aside, there was one particular aspect of last Friday's Sepp Blatter press conference that accompanied the publication of Pieth's report which will have set alarm bells ringing among the four British associations.

Over the past few weeks, these associations have made it clear they might be prepared to give up their historically nominated FIFA vice-presidency, otherwise known as the "British seat", as part of the general reform process. But on one condition – that their role in the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the game's lawmakers, remains unchanged.


Blatter gave that particular quid-pro-quo a monstrous kick in the proverbials when he appeared to denounce the structure of the IFAB (pictured) whose composition is four representatives from each of the British associations and four from FIFA.

Any move towards "greater democracy and transparency", as Blatter put it, would inevitably mean a weakening of British influence.

"We will ask the IFAB to reform itself with a democratic, transparent and clear structure," Blatter said. Quite how that will pan out is unclear  but you can bet your life the phones will be buzzing at the headquarters of the English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish FAs to get FIFA to clarify exactly what this means so that at least some retention of British privilege is maintained.

Andrew Warshaw is a former sports editor of The European, the newspaper that broke the Bosman story in the 1990s, the most significant issue to shape professional football as we know it today. Before that, he worked for the Associated Press for 13 years in Geneva and London. He is now the chief football reporter for insidethegames and insideworldfootball. Follow him on Twitter. 

Peter Keen has been daydreaming again.

That was my first reaction on learning that UK Sport's Director of Performance is standing down from his position in favour of a new special adviser's role that will leave him scope to mentor and coach high performers from outside sport as well as within.

My second reaction was that this was a good thing for the world at large, though not necessarily for British sport.

To elaborate: Keen, as surely everyone likely to be reading this must know by now, is the man who had more to do with Great Britain's astonishing performance at the Beijing 2008 Olympics (47 medals; fourth place in the medals table) than any other individual.

The systems he implemented ensured that Olympic and Paralympic sport's golden windfall of Lottery funding was not squandered.

The starting point for this achievement was to nurture a mindset in which elite performance programmes were, to use a phrase he employed during a long interview at his home shortly after Beijing, "unambiguously seeking excellence".

To aid benchmarking and comparisons, the necessary attributes of an elite sports programme were broken down into 32 discrete elements, with rewards meted out to individual sports dependent on performance and potential.

Cross-fertilisation is also key, with every effort made to spread relevant best practice from strong performers such as cycling and sailing to sports yet to contribute much to Britain's swelling stash of Olympic booty.


Keen was very relaxed during our time together – why wouldn't you be after such a spectacular vindication of your approach? – but he was clearly also extremely focused.

So it was surprising – and, therefore, memorable – when he started to talk about the importance of daydreaming.

"Since the early 90s I have just been willing to stare at the top of the mountain and ponder what it might be like to be there," he told me.

"I'm a good daydreamer.

"In fact, I'm a great advocate for making space in life to daydream...

"But the next step of making that of any use is to move from random daydreams to a clear vision, being able to genuinely visualise what that success might be and start to bring it to life.


"And if you can move from vision then to a series of goals, then you are starting to get somewhere."

The other somewhat unexpected thing I took away from what had been a very rich interview was the extent to which Keen's fascination with attaining excellence already superseded the confines of sport.

At different times during the conversation – to be honest, it was more like an extended tutorial – the former junior international pursuit cyclist alluded to flamenco dancing, Sandhurst, surgery, flying a plane, you name it...

I am not sure his thoughts were at that point fully formulated, but what he seemed to be suggesting is that the perceived limits of performance, endurance, consistency and excellence were not necessarily the same across these diverse areas of endeavour.

And, by implication, the standards of even the very best sports were not necessarily as high as those fully absorbed in them might genuinely believe.

This is where a train of thought regarding Sara Baras (pictured below), the flamenco dancer, led us:

"I don't think you need to be into dance to be completely blown away by what this woman can do," Keen said.


"Technically and emotionally.

"And she does it night after night after night...

"That is absolute mastery through discipline and hard work and training, which is no different to what I see [cyclist] Chris Hoy (pictured below) doing and it moves me in a similar way."

"So could sport port ideas in from the arts?" I asked.

"Absolutely, because I think [that] we think we're that tough in sport and we've got it that hard and we can't do any better.

"Actually, I think the level of immersion that is possible, the completeness of life to train in a rigorous way and to live it is far more possible in sport than we realise...

"The recent research that I'm able to read around the whole notion of talent and its emergence, not just in sport...more in just life in general – business, science, art, et cetera, it seems to be a particularly hot topic at the moment.

"Where are the great people?

"Where are those nations and organisations?

"What is this thing, talent?


"Most of the [interesting] literature that has tried to get [its] head around this keeps describing exceptional environments rather than exceptional people.

"There is clearly something going on in terms of a predisposition to be exceptional at something, but far more important is the 10,000 hours or whatever...of dedicated, deliberate, intentional practice that creates absolute mastery of a very domain-specific thing.

"Whether it's Sara Baras dancing or Chris Hoy sprinting."

It is my hunch that, just as Keen has overseen the application of an approach that first bore fruit in cycling to other sports, he would now like to spend more time comparing the notion of excellence and how it is attained in sport with other fields such as the arts, science and industry.

My further hunch is that whatever he concludes will be well worth hearing.

It goes without saying that we should wish him well in his new role.

He is an archetypal backroom figure, not even going to Beijing for the last Summer Games.

Yet his achievement in helping to transform Great Britain into a modern-day Olympic and Paralympic power is, for my money, every bit as great as those of England's World Cup-winning coaches Sir Alf Ramsey in football and Sir Clive Woodward in rugby.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times (FT) in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Follow David on Twitter here.

I'd never been to East London before, never mind the Olympic Park, so I didn't know what to expect from the Olympic Park Run. But coming into the Olympic Stadium at the end of the race, I had goose bumps and my hair was standing on end!

Crossing the line was such a happy feeling. Today, everyone was saying, "You are crossing the finishing line before the likes of great athletes like Usain Bolt". To be part of that was pretty special.

I started running again last year after recovering from a motorcycle accident in 2004. A car pulled out from a side road and wiped me out. My bike was a write-off. I narrowly avoided losing my leg below the knee. It was a slow recovery and it took me about two years before I could walk again unaided.

I had several operations. By the third one, they said to me, "Next time we take you into surgery we might have to amputate".  But luckily everything went fine. It's a weight on your mind to go into an operation knowing you might not come out of it with your leg.

I started my training for the Olympic Park Run by following The Couch-to-5k Running Plan, a regime designed to get complete beginners running five kilometres following a nine week training programme. My ultimate goal was to run a marathon, and after finishing the Plymouth Half Marathon in May I got an entry into this year's Virgin London Marathon, which I will be running in support of the Willen Hospice. 


Before we entered the Stadium in the final leg, we all had to run through the tunnel that's the official Olympic and Paralympic atheletes' entrance. There were speakers set up playing the music from Chariots of Fire. I think it was a bit of a joke. It was quite funny, and quite a few people were laughing about it.

When I stepped into the Stadium I could hear everyone shouting and I was worried about finding my mum and dad – Sharon and Steve – who had driven in with me. It took me a while, but I did see them. My mum looked very, very happy. She was obviously proud.

I was expecting the Stadium to be overwhelmingly large. It was lot smaller than I had anticipated, but it was still quite epic. I could imagine runners like Bolt competing here later this year, particularly when I noticed the jumping pits. I got a good look at the finish line as well. You really got a sense of the Olympic atmosphere.

Because of the amount of surgery I've had on my leg I do get the odd ache and pain. Last week my knee was a problem. I felt it for the first mile of the run, but I soon forgot about it.

They got us warmed up at the start by getting everyone dancing and jumping about. That was quite fun. Then they told us there was 25 minutes wait, but no one was groaning about it. I think everyone was just so happy to be in the race.


On my way into the Park, I stopped to get my picture taken with my mum and dad at every opportunity. And, of course, made sure I kept a smile on my face for the commercial photographers around the course! This is quite difficult when you are knackered, but you know you are going to be buying their photos later on, so it's worth smiling!

At the end of the race, we got a free certificate with our photo and finishing time printed time on it. And I have to say, the finishing medal we receieved is fantastic.

There was no problem parking in the nearby Westfield Stratford centre. When it came to getting into the Park, the queues were probably just over a mile or so long, but as soon as they opened the gates it was really quick to get in.

The Velodrome, the Aquatic Centre and the Olympic Stadium look fantastic. I felt very lucky to be running around in the Olympic Park before anyone else. It was great to see some of the venues without anyone else around – a little bit surreal too.

I think my time was 49 minutes, which was faster than ten minutes per mile I was aiming for. In the Marathon in three weeks' time, I am aiming for around five hours, so I'm about on for that. This was a brilliant preparation, and a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Alex Crawford is the website administrator for insidethegames. Living in Plymouth, he is also a member of the city's RNLI Lifeboat Station crew.

It doesn't take long to discover whether a sporting autobiography is going to be interesting or not. Believe me, I've done an extensive survey on them over the last 40 years or so, and if I were competing in Mastermind my special subject would be "The Written Works of West Ham United players from 1969 to the Present Day".

It's the details I crave. For years, before the idea that I would be a professional footballer evaporated like a morning mist, I prepared myself for all the ups and downs of my future life.

And the ups – as I had read in Goals From Nowhere (Stanley Paul, 1969), the life story of West Ham and England midfielder Martin Peters, artfully assembled by Peter Corrigan – would involve getting a cup of tea in bed on match days from my wife, whomever she would turn out to be.

I would also be allowed to read the morning paper at my leisure. For such were the privileges extended to Peters by his loving wife, Cathy, whose face I was already familiar with thanks to a special family photo-feature in Goal magazine.

There was much else of interest in that account of Peters' life, and I cherished it – but the conventions of the day precluded it from being totally revealing.

By the time another West Ham player who operated in midfield – although playing wider than Peters – got around to publishing his life story 40 years later the genre had altered, and total honesty – assuming the subject wanted to be honest – was admissible.

In his book From Right-Wing to B-Wing...Premier League to Prison (FootballWorld, 2009), former West Ham, Manchester City, Everton and Birmingham City winger Mark Ward charts his rise and fall – and rise – with an honesty that is unquestionable.

What sort of details are we talking here? Well, I open the book at random and what do I find? An account of a disagreement between two of Ward's West Ham colleagues, Paul Ince and Alvin Martin.

After being told to "keep it simple" by the veteran defender and captain, young Ince apparently responded "F*** off, you Scouse c***!" As Ward comments: "I heard him say it, and I thought 'You've overstepped the mark there, Paul.'"

Sure enough, as the teams troop down the tunnel at half-time, the big centre-half – according to Ward's account – picks up the midfielder and holds him against the wall before head-butting him and making the following suggestion: "Don't ever speak to me like that again."

Now that is what I call detail. I confess, that is one of the main reasons why I read football biographies. I want to know all about the goals and games and teams I have seen; I want to relive and expand those memories; and I want to know the nitty gritty!

Which brings me to James Willstrop.

Here is a sportsman who, by his own estimation, will never find himself headline news in the way that Martin Peters once was, even though he has proved himself at the very highest level in his sport – which, if you are not aware, is squash.

Willstrop, as I write, holds a proud place at the top of the World Squash rankings. Later this year this 28-year-old son of Norfolk will seek the title to go with his status – the World Open – at the National Squash Centre in Manchester. He has already been in the final once, losing to his England and Yorkshire colleague, Nick Matthew.

But if Willstrop has not yet managed to get his hands on the trophy in world squash, he has made a habit of winning big competitions. Earlier this year, he also published a book entitled Shot And A Ghost – A year in the brutal world of professional squash (CPI, £9.99) in collaboration with Daily Telegraph journalist Rod Gilmour.

In diary form, he charts his eventful season from 2010 to 2011, although he darts forward, and more often backwards, in so doing.


Last year I spoke to Willstrop about his frustrations over the IOC's continuing, and baffling, failure to welcome squash into the Olympic Games. A few weeks later I chatted to him about his sport while researching a book. His responses in both cases were helpful, thoughtful and very honest. So I knew what to expect when I got his book – and I was not disappointed.

It opens with a prologue in which our subject, in the aftermath of a surprise defeat in the 2011 British National Championship at the end of a long, exhausting season, effectively experiences a meltdown. "I've had enough," he bemoans, slumped against a wall behind the court.

It is one of many low points in his painstakingly – and occasionally painfully – honest account. Others include a reflection upon his defeat in the 2009 British Open final by Matthew, whom he accused in the aftermath of behaving unacceptably on court.

"His attitude that evening was unacceptable to me, and I have never been the type of player to go for the 'what goes on court stays on court' theme," Willstrop writes. "People don't need to swear and shout at each other, and start blocking and cheating in order to show passion. If a player is intent upon being pretentious and vicious on court, then I would rather keep to those same principles off it."

Say what you mean, James! Now that is what I call detail.

Willstrop reflects upon many aspects of his sporting life as he negotiates a season that includes his World Open defeat by Matthew but also triumphs such as his audacious securing of the Tournament of Champions trophy in New York. Back in his hotel room in the early hours of the morning, he looks at the trophy and the winner's cheque.

"I sit on the bed, wondering what on earth I do now," he writes. "My mind is busy and remnants of adrenalin surge through my body. There is absolutely no way I will sleep so I settle for this curious, lonely sensation, grateful that I am feeling an emptiness having won and not lost. The post-tournament comedown has fully taken hold; I have a sore throat coming on."

This feels genuine – although not having won an international squash tournament, or an international anything, I would not really know.

Matthew Pinsent would, however, and so when he commends the tome in the following words: "There aren't many sports books that I read and feel the sportsman himself jumps off the pages. James' book shows the stresses of top-level sport on and off the court. A great read" it is an opinion worth marking.

The devil is in the detail, and Willstrop retrieves detail with the relentlessness of.. well, a squash player.

The book can be ordered by clicking here.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

With the obvious exception of the brown Coventry City away strip of the 1970s, I am not one to get hot under the collar about kit designs.

So it was much to my surprise when I found that I really, really like the much-hyped Stella McCartney-designed Team GB kit for London 2012.

The red-free Union Jacks have, predictably enough, sparked much comment/criticism.

But I think this is the design's great strength.

In fact, the only items on display I positively did not like were triple-jumper Phillips Idowu's bright red socks.

It seems to me that McCartney has understood that the Union Jack's rather complex pattern makes it instantly recognisable regardless of the colour scheme.


This liberated her to design garments that were self-evidently representative of Britain, without sticking slavishly to the red, white and blue as they appear on the flag.

You couldn't do this with countries endowed with more standardised flag designs, such as the horizontal or vertical tricolour, or the cross, since with these the colour scheme is obviously key to identifying the country.

It would have been a step too far, and probably inappropriate, for McCartney to have used colours entirely absent from the flag.

But the Union Jack pattern would be just as recognisable in, say, pink or black.

The subdued blue and white Union Jack design that she has come up with should be much easier to incorporate into apparel that people might consider wearing as they go about their day-to-day affairs, rather than just when they are playing or watching sport.

So it may also be a savvy move from the perspective of merchandise sales.


Personally, I think it would even make a refreshing change for a supply of blue McCartney Union Jacks to be made up and tossed to medallists about to embark on their much-photographed victory celebrations.

Sadly, so much public money has been lavished on these athletes that I doubt there is the slightest chance of this actually happening.

The least politicians will expect is their legacy of a few months of Olympic-fuelled patriotism – and that means plenty of – red, white and blue – flag-waving.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

The trouble with drugs is that they make your eyes glaze over. Better make it clear we are not talking about the psychedelic effect of a quick snort or the odd spliff here but the reaction sparked when you bring up the ever-vexing question of doping in sport.

Most sports editors of my acquaintance – and I have been one myself on several occasions – tend to sigh with boredom at the mere mention of HGH, EPO or nandrolone. I rather suspect that the public, by and large, also think it a load of anabolics.

Yet the issue continues to bedevil the Olympics. Since a red-eyed Ben Johnson's steroid-raged run in Seoul 24 years ago seeing has never really been believing for many of us.

Sure, more cheats are being caught than ever before thanks to refined testing techniques, but one suspects just as many – if not more – are still getting away with it through equally refined means of masking or knowing exactly when to stop taking the tablets.

It is not just the testers who are taking the pee.

Just like the war in Afghanistan, this seems to be one that cannot be won. But the good guys have to keep on trying.

I just wish some would try a little harder.

We are told that Britain is at the front line in the battle.

But if this really is the case then why has there not been greater support from the now independent UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) for the British Olympic Association's (BOA) unilateral attempt to retain the rule which is surely the best deterrent of all putative sports junkies with Olympic aspirations – being banned from the Games forever.


We await the imminent verdict from the Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) on whether the BOA remains compliant with international doping rules. For 20 years, the BOA has maintained a bylaw that any competitor found guilty of a serious drugs offence is ineligible to represent Britain in the Olympics, and rightly so in my view.

The bylaw was passed in response to the wishes of the vast majority of British competitors, who had wanted to take part in the Games alongside clean athletes. In subsequent polls this continues to be heavily endorsed.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was originally set up in 1999 and then the Code passed four years later because there had been a lack of uniformity in sanctions. In the past, there had been appalling examples of serious positive drugs cases in a sport, notably football, resulting in players only receiving a few months suspension. WADA have pointed out that if there are "aggravating circumstances" then the period of suspension can be increased up to four years.

The International Weightlifting Federation is using a maximum penalty in all instances and athletics has registered 32 cases where an athlete has received four years.

This begs the question that if someone can be suspended for longer than two years, then surely the WADA Code should have been changed in the past to accommodate the BOA eligibility rule.

Yet most serious doping offences still carry only a two-year ban. UKAD are pushing for changes in WADA's review next year, including a debate on the best way to prosecute coaches and support staff who are caught helping athletes cheat.

But WADA are reluctant have a blanket four-year ban, as proposed by many in sport to ensure that anyone caught intentionally doping is barred for a full Olympic cycle. They fear that would be open to legal challenge as excessive and put at risk the principle that athletes bear responsibility for anything found in their system.


The two Brits most likely to be affected, sprinter Dwain Chambers (pictured) and cyclist David Millar, were both fully aware when they took performance enhancing drugs what the consequences would be if they got caught; a two-year ban and lifetime ineligibility for the Games.

Of course it could be argued that if allowed to compete for Great Britain in London they would be in good international company as there are around some 800 'convicted' drugs cheats worldwide who have done their time and are now are eligible for selection.

Not least Chambers' rival Justin Gatlin, the Athens 2004 Olympic gold medallist and current world indoor champion who has twice been banned, first in 2001 for taking amphetamines, later rescinded on appeal, and in 2006 for four years after testing positive for testosterone.

But this doesn't make it right. The BOA should be applauded for trying to stick by their principle.

They were assured by WADA as recently as March 2009 that it was compliant with the Code. However, CAS ruled last year against the IOC banning anyone guilty of a serious drugs offence from competing in the subsequent Olympics, which led to the recent hearing by CAS to re-examine the BOA bylaw to see whether it is still compliant with the Code to which it is a signatory.


BOA chairman Colin Moynihan (pictured centre) says he is "optimistic" of the outcome but this sanguinity is not shared by most legal experts because it is felt CAS will see the lifetime ban primarily as an additional sanction and not as an eligibility issue.

There is no doubt in my mind that both WADA and UKAD have shown weakness in not fully supporting the BOA and its feisty chairman Lord Moynihan, who certainly holds the moral, if not the legal high ground.

It must also be a rather embarrassing dilemma for Sir Craig Reedie, Moynihan's predecessor as BOA chairman and still a Board member who also sits on the London 2012 board, is a member of the IOC Executive Committee – and treasurer of WADA.

UKAD, who receive £7 million ($11 million/€8 million) annually in public money, seem not only out of step with those who fund them but with the man to whom they are ultimately responsible, the Sports Minister Hugh Robertson. Like London 2012 chief Lord Coe, he backs the BOA stance.

Robertson, I understand, is also keen to look at the idea of making the possession and use of steroids a criminal offence, rather than just supplying them, as in several other countries.


He says it would need a recommendation from UKAD but so far this has not been forthcoming. Making possession of anabolic steroids a crime was originally a private Members Bill brought by ex Olympian Ming Campbell (pictured) in the late 1980s. Moynihan, then Minister, also tried hard but it was blocked by the Home Office.

Yet this is not just about elite sport. This is about ordinary bodybuilders using gyms (where there is virtually no testing) and buying drugs. Often crimes of violence have been committed as a result of taking performance enhancing substances. You don't need to look at those images of the Ben Johnson of 1988 to know they how much can alter moods, making the user disturbingly aggressive.

UKAD has introduced some worthwhile initiatives, such as the investigation of who is supplying the drugs to leading competitors. However, it is failing to give the leadership to the drive to stamp out drug-taking at both elite and grassroots level, and not fully supporting the BOA at this vital time is something that should open eyes, not make them glaze over.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title from Atlanta to Zaire.

The pop art styling of the Union Flag by Stella McCartney has prompted outrage as the predominantly blue Great Britain kit (pictured below) was unveiled. Many of the critics must have short memories. In Sydney, when Sir Steve Redgrave (pictured below, two down, second left) came home to win that historic fifth gold medal, the rowing kit he was wearing was mostly blue.

In fact, since Barcelona 1992, red has tended to be the minority colour on all designs for Great Britain's kit. In 2004 and 2008 it was white and blue with just a touch of red for Dame Kelly, Sir Chris and the rest.


When Britain first competed at the Olympics, the look was anything but coordinated. At the first London Games in 1908, the athletes (pictured below, two down) wore all white, emblazoned with a coat of arms of the home nations, whilst cyclists wore an outsize union flag on their vests. As for tracksuits, they were all but unheard of. Athletes, cyclists and swimmers went to their positions wearing their raincoats, to be discarded at the last moment.


At the opening ceremony "the competitors all wore the costume and badge of the respective association with which they were identified" wrote the correspondent of The Sporting Life. The British flag bearer was "the famous light-blue" Kynaston Studd. Many of the team wore the light blue of Cambridge University or the dark blue of Oxford. Even then it seems, blue was the colour.


Not until 1920 were the likes of Harold Abrahams (another light blue incidentally) able to strut around in blazers and flannels, topped off with a boater trimmed in the red white and blue.

In 1948, the British team marched into the stadium in Kangol berets, the height of street fashion a generation later thanks to Samuel L Jackson. With strict amateur rules and even stricter rationing in force, the team had nothing like the range of kit offered to the class of 2012. Boxer Tommy Proffitt recalls that "my sister made my shorts out of a pair of blackout curtains".


Even so, the British Olympic Association Secretary Evan Hunter still claimed "the 1948 Olympic team outshone any previous British team in appearance".

Stella McCartney is by no means the first fashionista to dip her toes into the Olympic world. In 1968, Sir Hardy Amies, the Queen's dressmaker designed the parade uniforms for the team which went to Mexico and was described as the team's "fashion coordinator".


The familiar British uniform white vest with a red and blue hoop was by now well established and later worn by the champions such as David Hemery and Mary Peters. ln 1980, the supplier was Bukta, but athletes sponsored by rivals wore the modified vests. In today's marketing speak, "brand neutral" kit. Amongst them, Sebastian Coe (pictured above number 254 with Steve Cram, number 257 and Steve Ovett number 279).

By 1984, Adidas had taken over as kit suppliers (pictured below, vest worn by Daley Thompson) and brought with them a more cohesive approach. In 1988 in Seoul the uniforms of competitors across the board incorporated a red and blue "zig-zag" across the front. Even the red shirted hockey players wore shirts with this design.


By 1992, the designers were going to town. Out went the hoops in came a predominantly white and blue uniform but with piping of tiny union flags and a red flash under the arms.

It is not just the British who've had grief about team uniforms. At the Sydney Games, the Aussies switched from their green and gold for the opening ceremony. They turned up instead in reddish brown jackets designed to chime in with the colours of Uluru (Ayers Rock) though many traditionalists were unhappy.


Pre-war medallists such as high jumper Dorothy Odam Tyler Dorothy spent evenings before the Games sewing the British flag onto their uniforms. Today's team have no such chores and are even issued with a special tracksuit for use at medal ceremonies. In 2004, the 4x100m of Darren Campbell, Jason Gardener, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis (all four pictured above) apparently forgot theirs on the night of the final in Athens. Few but the marketing men noticed or cared as they stepped up onto the podium in the blue tracksuits they used for training. The only thing anyone was bothered about was the colour of the medals, in this case gold.

Philip Barker, a freelance journalist, has been on the editorial team of the Journal of Olympic History and is credited with having transformed the publication into one of the most respected historical publications on the history of the Olympic Games. He is also an expert on Olympic music, a field which is not generally well known. 

From the torch relay to the flurry of scare stories about the security budget, Summer Olympic and Paralympic year has its own pre-ordained choreography.

My own small contribution to this lexicon of Olympic rituals is to pay my quadrennial visit to a well-known department store to buy my Olympic work shorts.

This is when it sinks in that the Olympics and Paralympics are really coming.

Well, with 120-odd days in hand, I have accomplished this arduous mission.

And to show it has sunk in that the Olympics and Paralympics are coming, may I offer the following London 2012 predictions?


● Great Britain will beat its Beijing 2008 medals haul of 47, but may, nonetheless, fail to hang onto fourth spot in the medals table.

My thinking is as follows:

Host nations almost always experience a bounce in their medals totals, but Team GB has already delivered a portion of this through its outstanding result of four years ago.

If absolutely everything that could go right did go right, a tally of as many as 70 medals might not be out of the question, partly because of the unusually wide range of sports – football, for example – where Team GB should be competitive.

I think a total of between 55 and 60 medals is more likely – however, not enough to overhaul any of the top three countries from Beijing.

Of these, I would foresee China experiencing a significant decline from 100 to around 70 medals, with Team USA registering a strong improvement, perhaps to as many as 130 – they mean business, these 2012 Americans.

Russia should edge up towards 80, but probably no higher.


Britain's main challenger for fourth spot is likely to be Germany, which managed 41 medals in 2008, but should do better this time.

I am also expecting a jump from France (2008: 40 medals), again partly because of the wide variety of sports where French athletes could make the podium.

Sliding down the medals table, I expect to see Australia and, possibly, Japan.

Also Kenya, whose long-distance hegemony looks under greater threat than for many years, and Jamaica, which fared, I would say, as well as it could possibly fare in China.

Medal table climbers should include Cuba, whose tally of golds was unusually low in 2008, Brazil, the next Summer Games host, and Kazakhstan, whose boxers may rival Cuba's for supremacy at the ExCel.

● Britain's Paralympians will top their medals table by a country mile

China headed this table too four years ago, but will probably suffer a sharp decline this time.

Team USA should improve on their 99-medal haul from 2008, but not by enough to overtake the host nation.

I expect there to be a real buzz about these Games, which should help home athletes to perform out of their skins.

Brazil and South Korea may rise up the rankings.

● Britain will win more Olympic medals at Eton Dorney than in the Velodrome

Bike fans have no need to worry: Britain's track cyclists look well set for another outstandingly successful Games.

But new rules limiting countries to one athlete per event will affect them and there are, when all is said and done, only 10 gold medals up for grabs in the Velodrome.

Britain's rowers, meanwhile, have been performing impressively and their sport boasts a total of 14 Olympic medal events.

Add to that a further 12 medal events in flat-water canoeing, in some of which Team GB, is well capable of making the podium, and Eton Dorney, west of London, could yield a very impressive return for home athletes.



● Britain will win more Olympic medals outside the Olympic Park than in it

This might seem like a daft prediction at first glance, but when you add traditionally strong British sports such as sailing and equestrianism to the likelihood of a rich rowing haul, the numbers soon stack up.

Tennis at Wimbledon, boxing and taekwondo at ExCel, gymnastics in North Greenwich and, despite everything, football at Wembley should contribute further medal-winning opportunities.

I'd be very surprised if this prediction turned out to be wrong.

● Surprise hit of the Games: women's Boxing

This is partly because of the historic return to the Olympics, which should ensure a good level of interest at the outset, partly because the host nation looks to have a strong team, with at least one medal highly likely, and partly because of the zeitgeist, which demands equal opportunities between genders.

Opponents of the idea of women boxing (or indeed anyone boxing) will no doubt raise their voices from time to time, but I expect this merely to ratchet up interest.

● Britain's women footballers will do better than the men

Reaching the final, in front of a huge crowd, will be a tall order, but a medal for Britain's women's team is by no means out of the question.

The controversy that surrounds the very notion of a men's team, quite apart from the small detail of who is actually going to be allowed to play for it, looks destined to strangle the side's chances at birth.

I would love to be wrong on this one; a genuine British team containing top-drawer players that really clicked would be one of the stories of the Games.

Sadly, it is becoming harder, week by week, to envisage this happening.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times (FT) in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup and is now freelancing. Follow him on Twitter here. 

Everyone involved in sport knows that team kit is a hugely important and emotive subject. Receiving and wearing your team kit is a very special moment and the kit you wear is a key part of what binds you together as one team and it enables supporters to show their pride and passion for the team.

Our challenge was to deliver a Team GB kit that brings together 550 Olympic athletes from 26 sports, 750 support staff and inspires 60 million people across the UK to get behind Our Greatest Team.

As some of Britain's most well-known athletes took to the stage at the official unveiling of the Team GB kit for London 2012 at the Tower of London yesterday, they were taking the last few momentous steps at the end of what has been a three-year long journey for the British Olympic Association (BOA) and our longstanding sportswear partner, and performance technology expert, adidas.

The kit reveal is another exciting step towards Olympic Games readiness for Team GB and the initial reaction from the athletes has been fantastic. This does not come as a surprise to us as the insights and views of the athletes have been absolutely central to every stage of this journey.

Over the past three years we have worked in partnership with adidas, our National Governing Bodies and the British Olympic Association (BOA) Athletes Commission, led by Sarah Winckless, to ensure the competition and training wear met and exceeded the expectations of the athletes from a performance point of view.

The one thing that we heard loud and clear from the athletes was this: they wanted kit that enables them to perform at their very best and they wanted to look great and feel proud in the kit they have worked so hard to earn the right to wear at the London 2012 Olympic Games.


We knew that, at a home Games, our athletes had to stand out from other teams, which is not easily achieved when many teams have national colours of red, white and blue. As adidas' creative director of the project, Stella McCartney has delivered a very unique fusion of best of British style, combined with performance excellence from adidas.

We believe this is the first time that a world leading fashion designer has been fully involved in the development of competition wear for an Olympic team and the resulting look and feel is tremendously original.
We wanted the kit to be truly inspirational for the athletes and the broader Team GB delegation. As Phillips Idowu said yesterday "looking good is psychologically important."

At the BOA, we are in the business of focusing on the all the small details that could make the big difference between silver and gold at Games time. That's why it is important to provide our athletes with the psychological edge and added confidence of looking and feeling great in their Team GB kit.

But looking great is only part of the equation. Crucially, we also needed the very best in sportswear technology if we were to meet the 'Performance First' test that we use in all our decision making at the BOA in planning for the Games.

Throughout our 28-year partnership with adidas we have benefitted greatly from their outstanding performance technology expertise and the London 2012 kit, with its PowerWEB and Climacool technology, is undoubtedly the most advanced ever.

We were also pleased to be able to draw upon research and innovation support from our counterparts at UK Sport. While speaking to the athletes yesterday morning, they expressed their pride in the collective identity brought by the kit and the importance of being seen as members of a singular One Team GB.


That singular team concept also brings a common design with the ParalympicsGB kit for the first time, as part of Our Greatest Team at London 2012.

The operation of kitting out Team GB is a major one and will take place at the Preparation Camp at Loughborough University during June and July. In total, 175,000 units of adidas kit across 23 sizes and 349 items will be delivered.  Each athlete will receive approximately 70 items of adidas kit, not including their competition or formal wear.

For the very first time, Team GB replica kit will be available for the British public to buy to show their support for the team. I can think of nothing more motivational for the athletes than walking into their Olympic venue to be met by a wall of Team GB supporters wearing the distinctive design, complemented of course by the ultimate supporters item – the official scarf – as worn by HRH The Duchess of Cambridge when she met the GB hockey squads in the Olympic Park earlier this week.

All funds raised from the sale of the scarf at www.next.co.uk go directly towards supporting Team GB and ParalympicsGB at London 2012 and I'm looking forward to seeing the many creative ways that the British fans will find to wear and wave the scarf this summer.

I experienced first-hand the incredible lift given to Canada's athletes by the passionate visual and vocal support given to their athletes who produced their best ever performance during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The streets were full of Canadian maple leaf kit and the impact on the athletes cannot be underestimated. Hopefully, the scarf and our Union Flag inspired kit can do the same for Team GB this summer.

You've heard me say it before, and you'll hear me say it again; our commitment to the Team GB athletes and sports is to be the best prepared British Olympic team ever. We are confident that the Team GB kit will present us as the best equipped, most stylish, and most instantly recognisable team at the Games.
 When future generations look back on London 2012, we believe the Team GB kit will take its place in history and be remembered as bold, stylish and proudly patriotic.

Andy Hunt is Team GB Chef de Mission and chief executive of the British Olympic Association (BOA). Follow him on Twitter here.

British football's privileges are under threat. But don't blame Sir David Richards if Britain loses its unique status in world football. That will be the natural reaction after our Dave's extraordinary performance in Doha last week. But it will be wrong. Look to wider politics in the world body for the answer.

Not that the Premier League chairman covered himself with glory when he went to Qatar last week. His mission there was to tell the world what it can learn from the Premier League having become the most powerful League in the world. As has been well documented, he decided he would turn historian cum cultural commissar. And this was not helped by the fact that, having performed this curious, self-imposed role, he slipped and fell into an ornamental pool just as the assembled guests were sitting down for dinner. But that, it must be said, was not his fault. I was sitting a few feet away. There was no drink involved and it is the sort of accident that can happen to anyone.

Since then, much has been said about how Richards is a dinosaur and ought to go. I doubt that will happen since Richards knows his constituency very well – the 20 chairmen who make up the Premier League.

Remember that, when he took over as emergency chairmen following the defenestration of Peter Leaver, the former chief executive, and the departure of Sir John Quinton as chairmen, a Premier League rule stated that no one who was chairman of a club could be chairmen of the league. Richards was then in the Premier League as chairman of Sheffield Wednesday. But he was held in such high regard, the rule was amended and he was allowed to take over as chairman. He has remained there since his formal appointment in 1999, despite the fact that Wednesday have long since been out of the Premier League. He has kept his position because he understands what his 20 chairmen want. The rest of the world may find this strange, but that is how it is. Do not let his performance at Doha mislead you. Richards is a wily politician who knows how to keep his electorate happy.


And as for Britain's unique position being under threat, that has never depended on what Richards said or did. That is part of how FIFA is changing and where Richards is only a bit player. Consider who has suggested that Britain should lose the right to have a vice-president on the FIFA Executive Committee. Why, the German member of the FIFA Executive, Dr Theo Zwanziger. Now why should he do so? The answer, I believe, lies in how the Europeans are reacting to what is happening to the world body in the wake of its worst ever corruption crisis.

Recall that the world, led by Britain, is demanding that FIFA has to reform, has to be accountable, and has to come clean. It must, so goes the demand, be a body fit for the 21st century. FIFA says it doing its best to go down that route. This has already seen Jack Warner, Mohammed Bin Hammam and Ricardo Teixeira depart. These men were, until recently, considered the supporting beams of the house of FIFA that João Havelange (pictured left) started building many decades ago, and to which Sepp Blatter (right) has added further floors. FIFA is even ready to publish documents regarding ISL that it has kept secret for years. All in the name of accountability and proper democracy.


But this is where the British problem comes up. If you say FIFA should be democratic, then what is the most undemocratic thing in FIFA? Why, the British position.

Consider this: Britain has one vote at the United Nations like all other nations. And when it comes to the Olympics, there is a Great Britain team. Yet when it comes to world football, there is no country called Britain. Football just does not recognise it. There are four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Then take the International Football Association Board, which governs the laws of football: The four home nations each have a vote matching the vote that FIFA has. No other country has such a privilege. And, of course, the four home nations are allowed to nominate a FIFA vice-president. Again, this is a privilege unique to these isles. What could be more undemocratic, indeed quite ridiculous, in the 21st century? Of course sport has anomalies. So the West Indies has a cricket team when there is no West Indies nation. But at the International Cricket Council, the West Indies does not have 13 votes to represent the various islands that make up the team, but only one vote. British football has made one national state into four football states.

Now we all know how it came about. Britain shunned the world when Europeans wanted to set up FIFA back in 1904, as Richards (pictured) reminded us in Doha. Then for years, the FA played Box and Cox with FIFA, going in and out of FIFA and did not take part in the first two World Cups. It finally confirmed its acceptance of FIFA post-Second World War. Then it raised money to help a bankrupt FIFA and in return made sure the special privileges were part of a contract.


But if FIFA is to reform, can these privileges be defended?

Of course Britain is not the only country with privileges in FIFA. Europe is also ranked higher than any other continent. It gets as many places in the World Cup as the rest of the world put together, and in a 24 man Executive, Europe has eight members, twice the number that Asia and Africa have, and nearly three times what South America and North America have. This has always been justified on the grounds that Europe is the economic powerhouse of the game.

But with China catching up fast with America, and India also rising, how long can that position last? The Premier League, for instance, already derives more money from its sales abroad than from the UK.

And that is where I believe the German proposal is coming from. Europe does not want to lose its dominance in world football. Nor does it want the British home nations to be merged into one country as this would mean the number of UEFA members would fall by three and affect its ability to outvote other continents at FIFA Congresses.  The Germans clearly believe that sacrificing a British vice-presidency in FIFA is a small price to pay to help maintain the overall European position. It is part of an intricate power play where you give a dog a bone and hope it leaves you in peace.


Whether this will satisfy the non Europeans who want much more is hard to say. But Budapest is one FIFA session that anyone who follows this remarkable organisation should not miss. Expect to hear voices saying, "Yes, we in FIFA are ready to reform", but this reform cannot just mean opening the books of ISL. It must also mean removing colonial privileges as well. As Sir Dave Richards might have put it, they are ready now, having stolen our games, to remove our clothes as well.

Mihir Bose is one of the world's most astute observers on politics in sport and, particularly, football. He formerly wrote for The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph, and was the BBC's head sports editor. Follow Mihir on Twitter.

www.mihirbose.com

When it was announced this week that the superb Colorado Springs World Arena Ice Hall has been named as one of a handful of venues in the nation to earn distinction as a United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Official Olympic Training Site, the one for figure skating, the historic bond between the city and the USOC, now in its 35th year, was forged with even more steel.

It's the latest chapter in a book to be completed in the future by someone about a relationship that began in 1977, endured a series of jolts and bruises, and made the city at the foot of Pikes Peak a household word in the minds of millions of Americans who love the stories of athletes who chase and realise a dream like no other in sport.

America's Olympic city began its journey in unusual circumstances.

In 1977, Colorado Springs had wooed the USOC after only one other, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, had formally recruited the historic organisation, created in 1894, when it sought a new home after the 1976 Games in Montreal.


That move was made official on a blustery winter's day in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, when a group of civic and business leaders from Colorado Springs made a successful pitch to the USOC Board on behalf of the city to relocate from New York to the Rockies. The USOC had done its business at 57 Park Avenue in New York for decades, but the world was changing and it needed space and a new face.

The group had made the trek to Wisconsin on a Royal Canadian Air Force transport, recruited when commercial traffic had been shut down in Colorado Springs because of a major snowstorm. Former USOC vice-president Bill Tutt got the plane, and he was joined by Gordon Culver, Chairman of the Colorado Springs Industrial Foundation, public relations executive Nechie Hall, Mayor Larry Ochs, Dr Evie G Dennis of Denver, Shelby Dill of the Chamber of Commerce, business leader Ryer Hitchcock and the Commander of Fort Carson.

Culver made the presentation, which included an offer of the 34-acre former ENT Air Force Base/Norad Headquarters facility, $1 million (£630,000/€753,000) from the El Pomar Foundation, and the only thing that the USOC would be responsible for would be property and other taxes.

The USOC Board bought it, and Colorado Springs, not knowing what it would really be gaining, found itself with a small, struggling organisation that would grow, prosper and become the most powerful and influential National Olympic Committee in the world.


It was made official when El Pomar's Bill Hybl (pictured) presented a $1 million (£630,000/€753,000) cheque to USOC Executive Director Col F Don Miller at The Broadmoor. Hybl would become President of the USOC twice, steer the organisation through a pair of crises, and become its President Emeritus, an IOC member, and the power behind the city's commitment to the Committee. He is still the chairman of the US Olympic Foundation.

The Olympic Training Centre opened its doors in 1977 with Olympic hero Bob Mathias as its first director, and the first USOC inhabitants of the former headquarters building of the North American Defence Command arrived in Colorado Springs on August 1, 1978, to establish the city as the USOC's national headquarters.

As the years passed, the unimposing structure welcomed IOC Presidents Lord Killanin, Juan Antonio Samaranch and Jacques Rogge, President Ronald Reagan, Olympic legends like Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph, Donna de Varona, Willye White, Willie Davenport, Bonnie Blair, Micki King, Billy Mills, Bob Richards, sport leaders from the old enemy, the USSR, Diplomats, Governors, Mayors, Princes and the most powerful leaders of American business and the vital Olympic sponsors.

In the executive office at the southwest corner on the second floor, respected and capable USOC leaders met, talked and made decisions that shaped the future for America's Olympic teams and the galaxy of stars that would represent the United States at the Games.


The structure almost went dark in the days after the horrendous American boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games, when the USOC was bankrupted by the decision forced on it by the Carter Administration. But it basked in the sunshine of the first Golden Era of the USOC from 1985-2000, when it became a thriving, financially-sound and acclaimed body. In its myriad of small offices and cramped meeting rooms, decisions were made that garnered billions of dollars to support America's athletes and successfully pursued Games that would come to Los Angeles, Atlanta and Salt Lake City.

It's not a secret to those who know that there have been attempts over time by some within the volunteer leadership of the USOC, men who don't live in Colorado Springs, to create an effort to move the organisation elsewhere.

These individuals, gone now from the circles of power, imagined a USOC and an Olympic House in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, New York and Denver, but their efforts were stymied by loyal staff and Colorado Springs leaders who knew that this city was the best place to be, the only city that had welcomed the USOC when nobody else would.

Now, the USOC has committed to Colorado Springs for at least the next 30 years and enjoys a superb new downtown headquarters to do its worldwide business. The Olympic Training Centre is undergoing magnificent improvements to its athlete facilities and will also provide a rich new experience for thousands of visitors to the city and its populace.

It has a chief executive, Scott Blackmun, who has lived in the city for almost all of the last three decades and raised his family here. He has made the USOC reach out to the city in countless ways to extend its gratitude for the warm embrace it receives.

The USOC has staged high profile events in the city under Blackmun's direction that have brought prestige and economic impact, like the annual US Olympic Assembly, the Warrior Games, and the IOC International Athletes Forum. The USOC staff has landed spots on the boards of substantial civic and business organisations or charities such as Alicia McConnell, the USOC's director of athlete services, who is the chairman of the board of experience Colorado Springs, the city's convention and visitor's bureau.

The USOC and its family of affiliated governing bodies now generate a yearly economic impact of over $215 million (£135 million/€162 million) and employ over 2,100 people in the city.


And, it has a new strong Mayor, Steve Bach (pictured), who admires what the Olympic presence means to the city and what it represents.

"I'm here today representing almost a half a million people, the citizens of the city of Colorado Springs, and I just want to tell you how proud we are to be the home of the United States Olympic Committee, Colorado Springs," Bach said at the announcement this week. "They bring great prestige to our community and they do so much, really, behind the scenes to help our city."

So now, Colorado Springs, the hometown of the USOC and a place where more than 350,000 athletes have lived, trained and chased their Olympic or Paralympic dreams since 1977, adds another jewel to its crown with the designation of the World Arena Ice Hall as an official training site for figure skating.

The city's sports-minded citizens have a series of great events coming up to be part of the Road to London and the 2012 Olympic Games in a big way.

On Friday, May 18, the Colorado Springs Sports Corp will present its Second Annual Salute to the Olympic Family Luncheon at the Doubletree by Hilton, with Olympic basketball great Teresa Edwards (the USOC's chief of mission for the American delegation in London) as the guest celebrity. It's a pat on the back for the USOC and the National Governing Bodies who are preparing the best athletes in the nation for their chance at Olympic and Paralympic glory in the UK, as well as special recognition by the community for being solid partners in the city's quality of life.

And on Friday evening, July 27, thousands will have a chance to head downtown to celebrate the Opening Ceremony in London, televised on big screen television and the highlight of a full day community celebration to honour America's athletes and the Colorado Springs Olympic family.

It's important to note that this is not happening anywhere else in America.

Only in Colorado Springs.

Mike Moran was the chief spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee for a quarter century, through 13 Games, from Lake Placid to Salt Lake City. He joined the USOC in 1978 as it left New York City for Colorado Springs. He was the Senior Communications Counsellor for NYC2012, New York City's Olympic bid group from 2003-2005 and is now a media consultant