RobH

Boats of marines and Royal Navy helicopters have been carrying out drills on the River Thames in preparation for the London 2012 Olympic Games.



Elite British security teams took to the River Thames as part of a massive security rehearsal to foil terror disaster at the Olympics.

The Metropolitan Police's Marine Policing Unit took to the water in rigid inflatables and fast response boats whilst military personnel flew above in a Lynx Navy helicopter.

Armed officers dressed in black were seen racing up to a Thames cruise vessel in their inflatable boats, before storming it and climbing onto its roof.

A helicopter circled close above the boats during the practice operation.

Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, head of the force's security operation for the Games, said: "All of our planning is designed to mitigate against potential risks during the summer of 2012, and this is an example of where we will be using specialist military capability to support us.

"This exercise is not in response to any specific threat, but is part of our planning to pre-deploy certain specialist assets to bolster our operation."

http://www.telegraph...ver-Thames.html

The #IOC confirm that an unexplored second-world-war bomb was discovered in the centre of Innsbruck this evening.

The #IOC postpone tonight's medal presentations in the centre of Innsbruck as a precaution. Bomb disposal squads are on site & working now



https://twitter.com/#!/NickHopeBBC

So, it's 2012, and another F1 thread. But before we get into predicting whether the German Wunderkind will sweep all before him again, it seems there's a bit of a strange love in going on....

Formula One's governing body announced on Wednesday it had joined the Olympic family, although there was no suggestion that motor racing could ever be part of any future Games.

The International Automobile Federation said it had been recognised provisionally for a two-year period by the International Olympic Committee and had agreed to respect the Olympic charter.

It added that the IOC had asked the FIA to introduce as soon as possible an athlete's Commission in order to make the recognition permanent.

"I am delighted the FIA is now part of the Olympic family as this is a confirmation of the strength of our sporting credentials as well as a recognition of the values of respect, excellence and friendship which we actively share with the Olympic movement," said FIA president Jean Todt in a statement.

Formula One and the Olympics will come together, of sorts, in 2014 when the inaugural Russian Grand Prix is scheduled to take place in Sochi after the Winter Games there.

That Grand Prix has been put forward by local Olympic organisers as one of the additional legacies of the Games in the Black Sea resort, using some of the same facilities and providing a use for the Park.

http://www.moneycont...ily_649449.html

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Athletics great Michael Johnson will work with the Williams Formula One team to help its crew speed up drivers' pit stops.

Williams F1 said Michael Johnson Performance Inc., the training company founded by the retired 200m and 400m Olympic champion, will devise a training programme for its pit crew and evaluate the whole team's regime.

Shaving even a tiny amount from the time needed to change tires and make repairs can make a huge difference to a driver's race performance.

"I am confident that the experience and biomechanics expertise of the MJP staff that has benefited numerous American football athletes, Premier League football teams, and Olympic federations, can also benefit the Williams F1 Team pit crew in their goal to cut hundredths and even tenths of a second from their pit stop times," Johnson said.

http://www.stuff.co....lliams-pit-crew

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To celebrate this new found friendship, I thought we could relive Badoer's finest moment...



Now back to the F1....

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http://www.iol.co.za...-debt-1.1204684

I don't think anyone can really argue the Olympics contributed greatly to Greece's current problems - they're more symbolic of unchecked spending than a root cause of the debt crisis. What I'm more interested in is Rogge's point of view that things could have been done at "much lower cost", and whether the IOC has responsibility for the lavish path the Greek's took when they hosted.

I'm asking partly out of ignorance - how similar was the Greek Games to their bid plan? Did the Greeks do more than the IOC asked of them, would the IOC have been happy with a cheaper Games, if the Games was broadly similar to their bid would they have won with a less lavish bid or did they feel compelled to go overboard with their visions to impress the IOC? And how much of the cost is down to the delays which Greece brought upon itself in the lead up to the Games?

Two new FIFA threads in one day! First ISL now this:

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http://www.bloomberg...ghts-for-1.html