Modern Pentathlon - 100 years at the Olympics

One hundred years ago in the 1912 Stockholm games spectators could for the first time view this sport that challenges the athletes to compete in five events in one day. The five events were chosen to represent the trials a french messenger went through in order to deliver his message: he had to ride, shoot, fence, run and swim. Women did not compete in this event before the 2000 Sydney games.

In London 2012 the athletes will start their event in the early morning with a fencing competition in a round robin style meeting all athletes once. The athlete that first lands a hit on their opponent wins the match and the matches last one minute and if no-one lands a hit both competitors lose. If an athlete wins 70 percent of his/her matches he/she gains 1000 points, every win or loss over or under 70 percent counts as +- 24 points. Throughout the first three events the athletes gather points that in the last two events turn into a time handicap.

When the fencing is finished the athletes are transported to the olympic swimming pool where they swim a 200m freestyle race in pre determined heats based on previous results in the year. A time of 2:30 for the swim gives the athlete 1000 points with +- four points for every 0.33 seconds they are under or over that time.

The riders then go to the show jumping arena where they will compete in a 400m course on a horse they have never ridden on before. Athletes start off with 1200 points each and 20 points are taken off for every jump they knock down, 40 points for refusal to jump or loss of control of the horse and 60 points for falling of the horse. There is also an extra four points taken off for every second they are over the alloted time. The interesting part is that if an athlete takes more than twice the time allotted they are out of the event.

The last event is a combined event which composes of a 3km run and shooting with a pistol. The athletes start in time intervals depending on their points from their previous events. The person with the most points start fiirst and four points equals a second advantage . The athletes run straight to the shooting range where they have to hit five targets in 70 seconds followed by a 1km run three times over and the first person to cross the finish line wins.

This sport requires an all-round set off skills to build up points for the final event, but a person who is strong in the final event can come up from way behind to take the gold medal.

In the womens event the big hope is that home favourite Mahiri Spence from the UK can win the same way she recently did in the world championships.

For the men the one to look out for is also a home favourite, Jamie Cook from the UK was the first athlete to qualify from GB and went on to win the World Junior Championship in Argentina. However he will face stiff competition from the big star of the sport Andrey Moiseyev who is looking for his third consecutive win in as many Olympics. I think these two will be on the podium or close to it.

I only watch this event during the Olympics, but I have to admit it is a thrilling sport and if you don't spend all day watching try to get a look at the finals which are always unpredictable.

Archery - Modern day Robin Hoods with a favourite whos almost blind?

Archery is a competition that has been used for centuries to find the best of the best, however in the Olympics it was first seen in the 1900 Paris games then in the 1920 Antwerp games. The sport then took a massive 52 year break from the Olympics before its return in the 1972 Munich games.

Most people know that the entire point of archery is to hit as close to the bullseye as possible as often as you can, but many don't know about the Olympic competition format. Men and women compete separete as individuals and in teams of three and all rounds are head-to-head elimination competitions. Before the start of the elimination rounds all athletes and teams shoot a 72 arrow ranking round which decides the line-up for the elimination rounds making sure that the best don't meet until the finals. In the elimination round all competitors shoot 72 arrows and the individual or team with the highest score moves on to the next round. Competitiors take turn shooting their arrows to make for a more interesting spectator sport shooting 6 arrows every turn. The targets are 70 meters away and are 122 centimeters in diameter with the bullseye measuring 12.2 centimeters.

The sport not unlike other shooting sports is as much a mental sport as it is a physical sport. Being able to remain cool under pressure, especially during the Olympics, is key to winning in this sport and it can come down to the last arrow to decide a winner making the pressure intense.

The Blind Archer

The favourite for the mens individual competition is without a doubt Im Dong-Hyun from South Korea. This athlete is already a two-time olympic team medallist who just days ago beat his own world record and helped his team to beat their record in the Olympic test event. This despite the fact that Dong-Hyun is so near sighted that he can't really see the target and is known in South Korea as the "Blind Archer". This year he is the red hot favourite to take his first individual Olympic medal. The South Korean team isn't just favourites to win they are expected to bring home a third consectutive Olympic gold medal.

The womens competition is very tough to predict a favourite, not because there isn't favourites, but because the South Korean team hasn't been picked yet and there are many women up for consideration. However my personal favourite is Park Sung-Hyun who will be trying to redeem her loss at the 2008 Beijing final where she lost to Zhang Juanjuan. It might just turn out to be a repeat of the Beijing final. For the team event again the South Koorean team is expected to take gold, but China will give them a good run for their money. It will be interesting to see how the South Korean athletes live up to the pressure they have from their home country to collect all medals in this olympic event.

The finals in this event will without a doubt be something to watch as I predict them to be very close and not decided before the last arrow.

BMX a new thrilling Olympic sport

In the 2008 Beijing games BMX was for the first time introduced as an Olympic event. The event was a huge spectator success giving BMX a permanent home in the Olympic games. The sport consist of riders cycling against each other on a short track filled with jumps and corners each race taking about 40 seconds. There are two gold medals up for grabs, one in the womens and one in the mens event. This event promises to give lots of excitement to the spectators both on the stands and at home. I look forward to seeing this highly unpredictable sport where anyone competing can come out on top and where hopes and dreames for a medal can be made or chrushed in a second.

This years favourite in the womens competition is the home favourite Shanaze Read from the UK. At the 2008 Beijing games she fell and lost her chance at the gold medal after being the big favourite. She has four world championships under her belt, but can she live up to the expectations on home turf?


The big favourite for the mens cometition has to be the defending champion Maris Strombergs from Latvia that is a two-time world champion and has shown promise after coming back from an injury in 2010 taking the silver medal at the last world championship. Can he be as calculating this time as he was in Beijing or will the pressure to defend his gold medal make him make a mistake? Only time will tell how these favourites fare in the games, but one thing is certain there will be a battle for the gold medals and nothing is a given.

I think this event will be one of the things people talk alot about after the Olympics are done and I can't wait to see how the finals will go.

First olympic competition for GB handball team

So to start off with the sport of handball is one of the less well known of the olympics, but also one of the more exciting. It's a game of teams of seven that can be dated back centuries in different  formats and has been an olympic event since the 1936 Berlin games. It is also one of my own favourite sports and there will be updates about in on this blog.

In the 2000 Sydney games it was voted the most exciting sport and many people watched as the newly formed Australian team entered the competition. Because of the success of the sport in later olympic games it was decided that when London was awarded the 2012 olympics that there should be GB teams in both the mens and womens competition. At first the teams were funded by the government, but sadly lost funding later on, but luckily Visa stepped in and saved the day so that the teams could compete in the olympics. At first there was a severe lack of players and players from other sports were invited to training camps. Now after a couple of years of work there are actually British players to be found in some of the worlds toughest leagues.

So what hopes can these first time olympic teams have? Well my hope is that team GB at least might be able to not finish in last place and hopefully win a couple of games,, but they will be far from medal positions. If the sport catches on we might see teams that in future competitions will give the bigger handball nations a run for their money. My favourites to win the London 2012 games are Croatia for the mens, and Norway for the womens competition.

I wish the GB teams the best of luck with their Olympic debut and hope to see them again in future competitions :)


To learn more about handball check out:
http://www.ihf.info/

For more info on handball in the UK:
http://www.britishhandball.com

Torch relay finally made British soil

Yesterday the olympic torch landed on British soil and today the torch relay starts from Lands End travelling through the country before arriving in London for the 2012 Olympics. It's now only 69 days to the opening ceremony of the games and I for one can't wait to see the turn out of people to see the torch relay all around Britain. The big question at hand as the days till the opening ceremony gets closer is who is going to light the flame at the ceremony? Who is the big hero that gets to light the flame in front of all the world, myself I would love it if the Queen herself turned up in a track suit and ran up the steps to light the flame.

To find out where the flame will be if you happpen to be in the UK check out:
http://www.london2012.com/torch-relay/

Here you can also follow the torch live across the UK.

Lets get more views

As I'm a technological disaster this is unfortunately the only way I know how to implement this code in my blog :p

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School kids and free tickets

London school kids have been given tickets to all of the Olympic disciplines with only one exception. Shooting sports will not see London school children with free tickets. The reasoning comes from the fear that seing these sports will lead to kids using firearms against each other.

I have a fundamental issue with this. In my opinion showing the kids of London that firearms are meant to be used in a safe environment and giving them an insight into a sport they probably didn't know existed. I think that there is a much bigger chance that sending kids to watch martial arts competitions will lead to them bringing violence into the schoolyard then watching a shooting competition. I myself have followed shooting sports for most of my life and have recently taken up the sport. It teaches kids discipline, concentration and the importance of having confidence in your skills.

I know people have supported this, but I think that many people shy away from everything related to firearms when in reality the sport could help bring forward a discussion in families about how this is where firearms should be used.

Taking a look to Norway where shooting sports are the second biggest sport in the number of practicing people there is almost never any use of firearms in conflicts. There is an open debate about firearms and no stigma against those that choose to compete in the sport. After incidences of firearms being used in conflicts the shooting clubs are the first to speak up for even stricter regulation of who can own firearms.

Before you leave a comment about how I couldn't possibly know the hurt of lsoing anyone to firearm related crime and the damage that firearms can do I can share that I lost a good friend in the Utøya massacre on the 22nd of July 2011 and had other frieds that barely got away alive. I still believe that showing kids and adults shooting sports is a good thing and not a bad thing because it makes discussions and teaches safety.

If you are in London for the Olympics or at home take a look at shooting sports and don't be afraid to watch it with people of all ages.

Another Olympic Games around the corner

So it's time for another Olympic Game :)

This time it's Londons turn and as I'm currently living in Scotland I thought that I might share my passion for all things Olympic. The most interesting thing about the Olympics are all the sports you normally don't see and the stories about trials overcome to get there. This blog will give you results from weird sports you might not even know about to my own viewpoints on aspects of the games.

My first viewpoint on the 2012 London games is if they will be able to live up to the standard of the Beijing games that were spectacular? Will this be the games without any doping scandals? and will the unpredictable British weather play a part in determining outcomes of the games?
My prediction is that the people of the UK are taking great pride in making this the best possible games it can be. What's your opinion?

I hope you like the blog and if you have a sport you think isn't covered enough and I will use my little blog to give you all the updates.




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