Olympic Mountain Bike Park
The 2012 Olympic mountain bike course is open.
The venue at Hadleigh Farm,Essex, 50km east of London, was tested for the first time Wednesday when London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe and a group of riders from Team GB hit the course.
"This is one of the most beautiful venues in the world and I have seen a few in my career. It is finished and ready to go. I have 36 sporting venues to worry about and I'm happy this one is finished on budget," said Coe at the event.
Construction began in July 2010. The test event is scheduled for July 31.
The venue covers a 550 acre site that includes farmland owned by the Salvation Army; Essex County Council delivered the project in partnership with LOCOG.
"The 5km circuit is situated on open hillside – a new concept for Mountain Bike events, which are typically held in forested areas. The venue offers some fantastic gradients for Mountain Biking and superb viewing opportunities for spectators: large sections of the course will be visible from many locations across the site," says a statement from LOCOG.
The mountain bike course is the second venue for cycling to be completed. Last month the velodrome at the Olympic Park in London was launched.
NBC Sports Emmy Nominations
NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver received 11 Sports Emmys nominations.
ESPN/ABC earned 12 for their coverage from South Africa of the 2010 World Cup, the most for a single event.
Overall, ESPN leads all networks with 36 nominations. NBC received 22. NBCOlympics.com received two.
The lifetime achievement award will go to Al Michaels, who broadcast several Olympics. He said the famous "Do you believe in miracles?" line of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" Olympic hockey game between the U.S. and Soviet Union.
The winners will be announced at the annual Sports Emmys May 2 in New York.
The Sports Emmys award outstanding sports television in the United States.
More Funding for Canada’s Own the Podium
After winning 26 medals at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Canadian government decided to continue funding Own the Podium, a support programfor Olympicathletes.
As part of its most recent budget, the government will give another $22 million per year. The program also expanded to include Road to Excellence, which focuses on Canada being in the top 12 countries at London.
Own the Podium was set up in 2005. Its goal was for Canada to win the most total medals in Vancouver.
The country did not win the total most medals, but broke a record by winning 14 gold medals, the most in any Winter Olympics.
Olympic Obituaries
Nikolai Andrianov, 58
The second most-successful Olympian of all time, Nikolai Andrianov died on Monday.
A statement posted on the International Gymnastics Federation website says he succumbedto illness.
From 1976 until 1980 he won 15 medals, seven gold.
He died in his hometown of Vladimir, located east of Moscow.
The federation said he grew up "a street kid surrounded by poverty, Andrianov harnessed his strong personality and sacrificed much to climb to the top of his sport." It added "he performed his exercises with impeccable technical mastery and unheard of artistic expression."
Following his competitive career, he coached Naoya Tsukahara, son of Japanese rival Mitsuo. Naoya won a team gold at the 2004 Olympics.
He is survived by Liubov Andrianova, his wife.
Inge Sorensen, 86
Inge Sorensen, who won a bronze medal at the age of 12 in the 1936 Olympics died earlier this month. Her death was reported in The Copenhagen Post. At the Games, she also refused to salute Adolf Hitler while she stood on the podium.
When she arrived home, 30,000 supporters surrounded her train in Copenhagen and cheered her on her way to her hometown of Skovshoved.
She remains the youngest female swimmer to win a medal with her bronze in the 200m breaststroke.
She moved to the United States in 1951 with her husband, Janus Tabur.
Half of her ashes will reportedly be scattered in her New Jersey garden, and the other half in Denmark.
Written by Ed Hula III and Isia Reaves Wilcox.
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