First Sochi medals up for grabs after opening ceremony

First Sochi medals up for grabs after opening ceremony

 

[caption id="attachment_12087" align="alignnone" width="400"] (Norway's biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, seen during a training session at the Laura Cross Country Skiing and Biathlon Centre in Rosa Khutor, near Sochi, on 5 Wednesday February 2014 The Roman (AFP/File, Kirill Kudryavtsev))[/caption]

 

By Stuart Williams (AFP)

 

Sochi — Olympic athletes were on Saturday competing for the first medals of the Sochi Winter Games after Russia staged a thrilling opening ceremony that impressed even foreign sceptics.

 

President Vladimir Putin late Friday declared open the 22nd Winter Olympics in a ceremony that took 40,000 people in the Fisht Stadium and TV viewers around the world on a lightning tour through Russian history.

 

Thousands of fireworks exploded above the venue on the Black Sea coast in the ceremony.

 

"We missed this for so many years... a pride for our country, a feeling for her power, unity and greatness. Yesterday, we felt it," the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily said.

 

Five gold medals are up for grabs.

 

The first gold will likely come in the women's cross-country skiathlon, while Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, 40, will become the joint highest medal winner in Winter Olympics history if he makes the podium in the sprint.

 

Women will seek gold in the spectacular moguls freestyle event, the men's snowboard slopestyle will be decided after a succession of spectacular crashes while the endurance kings of speed skating will face off in the lung-busting men's 5,000 metres.

 

The high-octane ceremony, devised by the powerful boss of Russia's Channel One television Konstantin Ernst, got off to a rocky start when one of five illuminated artificial snowflakes that were supposed to morph into the Olympic rings failed to open, leaving just four rings.

 

But organisers brushed off the mishap, admitting that they covered up the glitch on Russian state television by quickly inserting footage of the segment they had recorded days earlier.

 

"There is a saying that you have to kick out the uneven part of a perfectly polished ball to understand how perfect it is," he said.

 

The Russian team won huge cheers as they entered to the song "Nas Ne Dogonyat" ("Not Gonna Get Us") by female pop duo Tatu.

 

In towards Russia's proud sporting past, the Olympic cauldron was lit by two triple gold-winning Soviet winter sports icons -- figure skater Irina Rodnina and ice hockey legend Vladislav Tretyak.

 

The flame had been brought into the stadium by US-based Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova and the final relay included Olympic rhythmic gymnastics champion Alina Kabayeva.

 

Even the foreign press, which have been hugely critical of Russia in the days up to the Games, heaped praised on the ceremony.

 

"For Russia last night it marked its revival as a post-Soviet powerhouse, confident of its seat at the top table after two decades of doubt and despondency," Britain's Daily Mail wrote.

 

'Keep politics out of Olympics'

 

But IOC President Thomas Bach made an impassioned call for politics to stay out of sport, saying "have the courage to address your disagreements in political dialogue and not on the back of your athletes".

 

The security concerns that have shadowed these Games were underlined when a Ukrainian man attempted to hijack an airliner en route from Ukraine to Turkey and divert it to Sochi.

 

But Turkish military jets forced the plane to land in Istanbul, where security teams overpowered the man, said to be drunk.

 

The United States has already announced a temporary ban on liquids and gels in hand luggage on Russia-bound flights, following a warning that militants could stuff explosives into toothpaste.

 

Copyright © 2014 AFP. All rights reserved.

 

(Agence France -Presse, 8 Saturday February 2014 The Roman)

 

 

 

Prime Minister David Cameron to announce extra sports aid for pupils until 2020

Prime Minister David Cameron to announce extra sports aid for pupils until 2020

 

Prime Minister to announce £150m-a-year fund for state primary schools will be extended until 2020 to secure the legacy of the London Olympics

 

[caption id="attachment_11851" align="alignnone" width="620"] (Prime Minister Cameron’s announcement has been endorsed by leading figures from the London Games, including Mo Farah and Johnnie Peacock (Photo: GETTY IMAGES))[/caption]

 

Children at state primary schools will have extra money for sport and physical education guaranteed for the rest of the decade, Prime Minister David Cameron will say on Thursday.

 

A £150-million-a-year fund will be extended until 2020 to secure the legacy of the London Olympics, the Prime Minister will announce.

 

Prime Minister Cameron originally promised, last year, that primary schools’ head teachers would be given extra cash to fund PE lessons and other sporting activities for two years.

 

Officials say that the money is worth £9,250 to the typical primary school with 250 pupils, enough to pay for a teacher or coach to oversee sporting activities two days a week.

 

Ministers say the money should allow heads to maintain or increase activities which have been reduced in some schools.

 

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers warned in December that schools were being forced to “sideline” art, music and physical education in the race to meet government targets for literacy and numeracy.

 

The original scheme was launched after The Telegraph began its Keep the Flame Alive campaign in the summer of 2012, calling for greater support for school sport after the Games.

 

Prime Minister Cameron’s announcement has been endorsed by leading figures from the London Games, including Mo Farah and Johnnie Peacock, who both won athletics gold medals.

 

Prime Minister Cameron said: “Sport is so important because it encourages children to be active, lead a healthy lifestyle, make friends and, of course, have fun. But quality school sport has benefits that spread right across the curriculum and beyond – it develops confidence and a sense of achievement, it teaches young people how to rise to a challenge, and nurtures the character and skills that will help them get on and succeed in life.

 

“It’s an important part of our long-term plan to deliver the best schools and skills for young people. That is why I am committing to guarantee the primary school sports funding until 2020.”

 

Farah, who won two gold medals in 2012, said that school sport had been vital to many professional sporting careers.

 

Prime Minister said: “The help I got at school was a key part of how I got to where I am today and so it can make a big difference.”

 

Lord Coe, the Tory peer who oversaw the London Olympics, said: “I am delighted that the Prime Minister has made this commitment to continue to invest in school sport until 2020.

 

“We wanted to use London 2012 to inspire a generation to choose sport, and ensuring that children get a positive and engaging experience in primary school of physical education and sport is key to this. A long-term commitment to continue this funding can only help to achieve this.”

 

As well as funding PE lessons, money will be available to pay for initial teacher training to produce a generation of primary teachers specialising in PE.

 

English primary schools will be able to apply for a share of an £18 million fund to adapt their grounds and make them suitable for sport.

 

--The Princess Royal has complained that glitzy Olympic opening ceremonies are marginalising the athletes.

 

She told fellow members of the International Olympic Committee that the balance had swung too far from the days when the ceremony only involved competitors.

 

(The Telegraph, 5 Wednesday February 2014 The Roman)

 

 

Putin takes Olympic officials to meet Sochi leopards

Putin takes Olympic officials to meet Sochi leopards

 

[caption id="attachment_11926" align="alignnone" width="375"] (Russia’s President Vladimir Putin caresses a Persian leopard cub as he visits the Persian leopard breeding and rehabilitation centre in the National Park in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on 4 Tuesday February 2014 The Roman (AFP Photo/Alexei Nikolsky))[/caption]

 

Sochi (Russia) (AFP)

 

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday took senior members of the IOC to meet leopards that are to be re-introduced in the Sochi region, in an attempt by Russia to show the Games are positive for the environment.

 

However one of the leopards called Grom (Thunder) took none to happily to the arrival of the large group of guests and attacked two journalists inside the cage, state Russian media said.

 

Putin took Jean Claude Killy, the French skiing legend who has been the International Olympic Committee's pointman for Sochi, and IOC Executive Director Gilbert Felli in his own jeep to the nature reserve above Sochi.

 

Russia is working to reintroduce the Persian leopard to the mountains above the city as part of measures aimed at showing that the Olympic Games will benefit and not hurt the environment.

 

"The ecological situation has improved many times over," said Putin.

 

"According to some estimates, it has improved by a factor of four."

 

"There are questions which always crop up during such huge construction but in general the situation has not worsened but improved."

 

However environmentalists scoff at such claims, saying that the Games have irreversibly damaged once virgin environments by the sea and in the mountains.

 

After six-month old Grom had lashed out at journalists, state television noted that the media left the cage and Putin went in himself to calm the animal.

 

One reporter was scratched on the hand and one lightly bitten in the knee, the RIA Novosti news agency said.

 

State television showed Putin cradling Grom on his knee with the animal now seemingly at ease.

 

"I like animals, it seems I have a feeling for them," said Putin.

 

"We liked each other."

 

Putin is well known for his meetings with wild animals which he uses to burnish his hardman image.

 

As well as leopards, in the past he has met beasts including a tiger and a polar bear.

 

Three pairs of adult leopards being kept in the big cages of the reserve have already given birth to four leopards in the last months.

 

Leopards have been extinct in this part of Russia since the 1950s.

 

To start the reintroduction programme, Russia received two male leopards as gifts from Turkmenistan and two females from Iran.

 

The first two offspring come from another leopard pair who came from Lisbon zoo.

 

But then a Turkmen-Iranian partnership then produced two more leopards.

 

(Agence France-Presse, 4 Tesday February 2014 The Roman)