The 2012 Games were over budget while existing stadiums like Crystal Palace have been allowed to become dilapidated relicsThis summer marks the 10th anniversary of the London 2012 Olympic Games. It is customary here to suggest that decade has simply flown by, that the years have passed in a blink. In reality this already feels like an event from a different timeline altogether.It’s not the actual Games, which will remain a wonderful thing, tenderly guarded. It’s more the staging. Looking back there is something jarring about the uniformly joyful and empowered response to the opening ceremony, with its ragbag of nostalgia and self-mythologising. Kenneth Branagh pretending to be Brunel. Musical Youth playing croquet. Roger Moore inside a phone box surfing...
The IOC’s decision to keep 2012 Olympics samples for 10 years has led to a steady drip of retrospective failed tests that have given the London Games an unwanted recordTen or so years ago the Evening Standard ran the billboard headline “London Fashion Week Cocaine Shock”. Presumably the twist was that there was someone alive surprised to find it was going on, since the revelation seemed just about as startling as the fact they were playing baccarat in Rick’s place. Over Christmas, the International Weightlifting Federation dropped another bombshell when it announced that five Olympics weightlifters have just been provisionally suspended because some “adverse analytical findings” were discovered when the International Olympic Committee recently retested samples provided in 2012.There were...
After London’s mayor Sadiq Khan ordered an inquiry into the inflated cost of the stadium, a look at how the Hammers got there, and who’s footing the billThe total cost of converting the Olympic Stadium from an athletics stadium into a multi-use venue has soared to £323m, taking the overall cost of West Ham United’s new home to £752m – largely borne by taxpayers. How did we get here? Related: London mayor Sadiq Khan orders inquiry into West Ham stadium costs Continue reading...
Described as Tadpole by her peers and racially abused as a junior, Ennis-Hill – who retired on Thursday – rose beyond her frame to conquer the heptathlonJess Ennis-Hill had her first hangover when she was 16. She had been out at a friend’s house, acting like any other teen. Someone spilt a drink, someone else tried to clean the stain with raw bleach. It was that kind of party.When she woke the next day she pulled a pillow over her head to try to make the daylight go away. But she had to go and compete in a junior athletics meeting. She threw up once before she got into the car, and then again when she got out of it...