The Mens contest for Ice Hockey Gold at this years Winter Olympics is undoubtedly the main event. It is Ice Hockey’s answer to football’s World Cup. Such is the intensity of winning Gold, that back in 1980, the USA and the then named Soviet Union fought what many seen as a mini battle during the infamous Cold War period. The USA were victors that year, but have since failed to replicate their 1980 Winter Olympics success.

When most people think of International Ice Hockey they tend to think the sport is dominated by the top three teams : USA, Canada and Russia. Ice Hockey, however, especially at the more recent Winter Olympics, has seen Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic win more of the medal share than the much more fancied big three.
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Tomorrow (Friday the 2nd of October 2009) will see the announcement of the successful host city for the 2016 Olympics. The grand presentation ceremony will be held in Copenhagen and the bidding cities are Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. Such is the feverish energy behind the Chicago bid that President Obama is flying into Copenhagen prior to the announcement. Many 2016 Olympics betting pundits are claiming that Obama’s appearance will indeed swing the decision in favour of Chicago.

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You have to hand it to Katie Price AKA Jordan, not content with being a mother of three, a reality TV star, author and former glamour model (we’ll skip the singing bit if you don’t mind) here is a woman determined to be part of Team GB at the 2012 London Olympics. Katie has been taking part in the Dressage trials since early summer and it seems her dream may come true as she continues to do well in the prelims.

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The credit crunch is leaving its mark on everybody and everything, even future developments. The building work for the London 2012 Olympic games is no different. The banking collapse has seen developers take the strain and put the building of the Olympic village and many other centres tied into the 2012 Olympics on the line. The matter is so serious that there is talk that the Government may have to step in and become guaranteer, for bank loans for the developers.

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The 2008 Beijing Olympics was a stunning show by the Chinese to the International community highlighting that when it comes to putting on a show the Chinese spare no expense. From the glitzy, phenomenal, opening ceremony to the beautiful purpose-built venues, Beijing did itself proud. Sure, there were some hiccups along the way with little girls being replaced by prettier, miming counterparts, Chinese Olympic judges developing a new points scoring system where only the Chinese athlete picked up points and not their opponent. But those are easily brushed under the big red carpet when looking back fondly at the 2008 Olympics. You wonder, just how-on-earth, London 2012 is supposed to follow that!

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ThereÂ’s been at a lot of talk among the Olympic commentators about TeamGB and the relative strength of the Beijing GB squad compared with our national efforts in previous years. Some sports betting fans might be revelling in this while others, and I include myself in this, are feeling a bit uneasy about commandeering the success won from years of effort and self-denial put in by individuals and somehow attributing it to our qualities as a nation.

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Sporting achievement and British success are not normally found in the same sentence together. But something wonderful is happening in Beijing at the Summer Olympics 2008. Unbelievably, Team GB has climbed to third in the overall medals table sitting comfortably with 15 Gold medals in 11 days of events. Only China and the USA sit above Team GB. And to put things into a greater perspective, if the USA had not the amazing Michael Phelps, who has won 8 Gold medals in the swimming, on their team, Team GB would be sitting 1 medal ahead of the Americans (at the time of writing).

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The Olympics sits in a strange position in our collective view of great sporting events. Clearly, to some, it is a much anticipated and glorious pageant of sporting excellence, celebrating the dedication of committed athletes the world over. To another, more bemused group of observers, it seems little more than an overblown exercise in the self-promotion and expression of nationalistic pride of both the host nation and the main medal contenders, usually the richest countries, to demonstrate dominance over their rivals.

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It’s Day 4 at the Beijing Summer 2008 Olympics and Team GB is already in amongst the mix for Olympic Gold. There has been some astonishing performances, especially from the women, in Team GB’s early events. Here we highlight some of the athletes for Team GB and why their magnificent performances is really an inspiration for the rest of the team and Olympic betting fans alike.

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The 2008 Beijing Olympics finally get under way today with an eagerly anticipated opening ceremony expected to be a spectacle on a scale never seen before. Of course, every Olympic opening ceremony is bigger than the last as each host country attempts to outdo the one before but this time the billions watching can expect a display which will reach new levels in the art of blowing away the rest of the world.

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