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Portrait of 'relaxed' Oscar Pistorius without running blades goes on show in new exhibition

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:47:30 +0100

A portrait of Oscar Pistorius is among 200 paintings to go on show at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in London this week.

Baroness Sue Campbell: 'We have wasted the Olympic legacy'

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Britain has failed to use the Olympics to create a “transformational change” in society, the woman credited with masterminding Team GB’s record medal haul has told The Independent on Sunday.

Winter Olympics: Vladimir Putin insists on Sochi time

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:14:16 +0100

Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused to put the clocks back for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. The time switch would better suit Europe and the Americas.

Lord Coe cuts staff by half as post-London reality bites

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:14:16 +0100

Sebastian Coe has overseen a drastic 50 per cent cut in the number of staff employed by the British Olympic Association as the new chairman attempts to reduce the body's financial "fragility" in the wake of the London Games.

Rory McIlroy to represent Ireland at Rio Olympics rather than Team GB

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 01:00:17 +0100

Rory McIlroy is almost certain to represent Ireland at the Olympic Games in Brazil following the intervention of golf's ruling body, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. McIlroy, who represented Ireland in his youth yet carries a British passport, has previously said that the burden of choosing between Ireland and Great Britain when golf returns to the Olympic fold in 2016 might lead to his withdrawal.

Peers try to block 'political' Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Tory peers are trying to block one of Britain's most decorated Paralympians, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, from becoming chair of Sport England because they fear she would be "too political".

Winter Olympics 2014: Local council under fire after confirming plans to 'dispose' of 2,000 stray dogs and cats

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:26:22 +0100

A war is being waged on the streets of Russia before the 2014 Winter Olympics - a war against cats and dogs.

Sir Chris Hoy retirement - the reaction

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:47:03 +0100

Sir Chris Hoy had an “unparalleled impact” on his sport, British Cycling president Brian Cookson said today after the six-time Olympic champion confirmed his retirement.

Team GB's retiring heroes from London 2012

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:30:34 +0100

Six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy today announced his retirement from competitive cycling, becoming the latest British star of London 2012 to quit sport.

Six-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy formally announces retirement

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:14:08 +0100

After 19 years, 11 world titles and six Olympic gold medals, Sir Chris Hoy today called time on his cycling career. admitting that to compete at next year’s Commonwealth Games “would be a year too far”.

London Anniversary Games to snub murder accused Oscar Pistorius amid fears event would become a 'media circus'

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:43:27 +0100

Oscar Pistorius will not be permitted to take part in this summer's athletics event at the Olympic Stadium to mark the anniversary of London 2012 due to fears it would decend into a “media circus”.

Jessica Ennis granted the freedom of home city Sheffield

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:27:55 +0000

Olympic hero Jessica Ennis has been officially granted the freedom of her home city.

England's Rio friendly match against Brazil in doubt amid fears over stadium roof

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:00:15 +0000

There are growing concerns surrounding the viability of England’s prestigious friendly against Brazil going ahead in Rio de Janeiro this summer after the city’s Olympic Stadium was closed indefinitely amid fears the roof could collapse.

British basketball: The idea of a legacy from London 2012 is laughable, says John Amaechi

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:41 +0000

“The Olympic legacy stuff is so much b******s,” said John Amaechi. One of Britain’s most famous basketball players is talking about what was the Olympic handball arena, now known as The Copper Box.

Focus on Brazil: Will the Rio revolution be finished in time for the World Cup, then the Olympics?

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:46:56 +0000

The walkway from Maracana station curves across a busy road – few in Rio de Janeiro are not furiously well used – before dropping to ground level and ending abruptly in a brown puddle. Five palm trees stand as sad witnesses to its grubby finale in front of the iconic stadium it is supposed to serve.

Rio 2016: City's crime rate cut, but work still to be done ahead of World Cup and Olympics

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:44:53 +0000

A senior figure in the organising committee of the Rio 2016 Olympics believes the city has to do more to convince potential visitors it is a safe destination for tourists.

West Ham confirmed as future tenants of Olympic Stadium - now the £160m revamp begins

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:09:23 +0000

West Ham United have been confirmed as tenants of London's Olympic Stadium, which will be dramatically refurbished. They will move into their new home at the start of the 2016-17 season after an estimated £160m has been spent on reducing its capacity from 80,000 to 54,000, installing a new cantilevered roof to cover all the seats, and installing retractable seating over the running track.

Olympic Stadium timeline

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:47:50 +0000

West Ham 'agree Olympic Stadium' deal

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:01:17 +0000

West Ham have finally agreed a deal to move into London's Olympic Stadium, sources close to the process have confirmed.

Sixty British companies banned from publicising their involvement with London 2012

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:41:00 +0000

Almost sixty British companies have been banned from publicising their involvement with the successful London Olympics to protect the interests of major international sponsors, an investigation has found.

2012 ghosts fade as Olympic Park is given new life

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:26:34 +0000

As most Londoners will agree, the sense of euphoria during last summer's Olympics disappeared more quickly than Lance Armstrong after a call from the doping inspectors. No sooner had the athletes flown home than the festival sites packed up, and commuter life was duller without a tracksuited Games Maker in every rail carriage.

Alex Zanardi: next stop Rio 2016 for the comeback kid who never gave up

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 23:26:20 +0000

He provided the London Paralympics with one of its defining images; a man with no legs, face flushed with joy and paracycle thrust heavenwards by one strong arm. For Alex Zanardi it was the latest chapter in an extraordinary life story and a sporting one that is still not complete.

Kauto Star 'too old' to compete at Rio Olympic in 2016

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:14:46 +0000

Kauto Star will not compete in the dressage at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, it has been confirmed.

Jessica Ennis heads Olympic stars collecting honours at Palace as Cherie Blair slips away quietly with hers

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:24:20 +0000

Jessica Ennis and other stars of the 2012 Olympics were at Buckingham palace today receiving their gongs from the Queen.

Wrestling may be back in the rings

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The attempt to throw out wrestling, one of the original Olympic sports, from the Games has sparked an international row resulting in the unlikeliest of coalitions, with Russia, the United States and Iran joining forces to declare war on the International Olympic Committee.

Detectives 'not certain' boxes found in bedroom of Oscar Pistorius contain testosterone

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:58:17 +0000

Claims that detectives investigating the murder of Reeva Steenkamp found performance-enhancing drugs in Oscar Pistorius's bedroom were dramatically withdrawn today.

Swimming: Australia's Games included 'drinking, drugs, bullying and deceit,' report finds

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 21:08:51 +0000

Australia's already battered sporting reputation has taken another hiding with the publication of a damning report into the country's worst Olympic swimming performance in 20 years. It identified a "culturally toxic" environment that went unchecked by coaching staff and included athletes "getting drunk, misusing prescription drugs, breaching curfews, deceit and bullying".

Australian swimmers were crippled at London 2012 Olympics by 'toxic culture'

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 10:17:53 +0000

The review into Australia's swimming team at the London Olympics has uncovered a 'toxic culture' that was not reined in by team leadership.

Trial by media of Oscar Pistorius: facts, guesses and spin surround Reeva death

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 06:30:51 +0000

Today, Reeva Steenkamp's family will gather for her funeral in Port Elizabeth. The media is barred; only those who knew her best will attend the private ceremony. It is also a significant moment for Oscar Pistorius, who will appear in court for his bail hearing 600 miles away in Pretoria. The sprinter has no control over the media – and nor does anyone in his team. The reporters will gather outside in huge numbers as they have ever since his arrest. Soon he will be in the dock again to face a murder charge, but in many ways his trial began as soon as news of his lover's death reached the media. The only difference here is that the facts of the case carry a much lower burden of proof.

Oscar Pistorius 'involved in freak gun accident' weeks before Reeva Steenkamp shot

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:37:05 +0000

The disabled Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, who stands accused of murdering his girlfriend in a Valentine's Day shooting, was involved in a freak gun accident just weeks before Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead, it emerged today.

Oscar Pistorius murder trial: Reeva Steenkamp's body returned home for funeral on Tuesday

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 15:47:52 +0000

Reeva Steenkamp's family have announced her funeral will take place on Tuesday, five days after her mysterious death.

Bloodied cricket bat found at Oscar Pistorius' home is key evidence in murder case, newspaper claims

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 13:55:38 +0000

Local reports say a bloody cricket bat was found in Oscar Pistorius' home, where his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was killed on Thursday.

Reeva Steenkamp's father: 'There is no hatred in our hearts' for Oscar Pistorius

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 11:56:16 +0000

Reeva Steenkamp's father has broken his silence since her death, saying "there is no hatred in our hearts."

'The Golden Touch - fencing at the Olympics': Sabre-rattling drama takes photo prize

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This arresting image from the London 2012 Olympics, entitled The Golden Touch – fencing at the Olympics, shows the Men's Sabre Team Placement 5-6 match between Nicolas Limbach of Germany and Jingzhi Wang of China. The shot, taken by Russian photographer Sergei Ilnitsky, has secured him second prize in the sports category for Sports Action Stories in the 56th World Press Photo Contest.

After Oscar Pistorius weeps in the dock, family insists he is no murderer

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 14:18:34 +0000

After a tearful appearance in court yesterday, the first outlines of Oscar Pistorius’ defence emerged as the Paralympian’s family said he "was happier in his private life than he had been for a long time."

Oscar Pistorius murder trial: TV show featuring Reeva Steenkamp will still air tonight

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 11:51:07 +0000

A celebrity TV show featuring Reeva Sneenkamp, the model allegedly murdered by athletics superstar Oscar Pistorius, will still air tonight.

Wrestling president quits after omission of sport from Olympics

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 10:58:45 +0000

The president of the international wrestling federation has quit in the wake of the IOC's decision to remove the sport from the 2020 Olympics.

James Lawton: How vigilant must we be over the effects of all the adulation received by the likes of Oscar Pistorius and OJ Simpson?

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:41:38 +0000

He was standing on his own in a famous old restaurant off Las Ramblas in Barcelona, busy waiters pushing him aside, and there was a look of bewilderment on his face.

Oscar Pistorius' British training partner sends sympathy to all involved after alleged murder

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:51:57 +0000

British athlete Martyn Rooney has sent his sympathy to all involved in the tragedy surrounding Oscar Pistorius' alleged murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Reeva Steenkamp: Glamour model, law graduate, and girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:10:17 +0000

South Africa's Olympic and Paralympic hero Oscar Pistorius has allegedly shot his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp. She died from gunshots to the head, chest and arm.

Oscar Pistorius: The boy who fought the odds to inspire millions

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:05:44 +0000

It was at London's Paralympics last summer when Oscar Pistorius's mask first slipped.

Oscar Pistorius: from the blocks to the dock

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:01:09 +0000

It was at London's Paralympics last summer when Oscar Pistorius's mask first slipped. The South African sprinter, whose heroic effort to compete against able-bodied athletes had seen him take part in the Olympics the month before, responded to his first defeat in a 200m final by rounding on the man who had beaten him. "We aren't racing a fair race," he complained.

Pistorius: police reject claims he mistook model for burglar

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:30:06 +0000

When South African police were called to an upmarket gated community in Pretoria, the address was familiar to them. It was not the first time they had been summoned to the home of one of the world's most recognisable athletes, Oscar Pistorius, to deal with domestic disputes.

Security guards, electric fences and CCTV could not stop cold-blooded killing

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:11:09 +0000

Behind a three metre high cappuccino-coloured brick wall topped with an additional metre of electric fencing, neat rows of nearly identical houses stretch down manicured streets, interspersed with sprinklers and palm trees. Golf carts chug by, as dozens of security guards patrol in navy uniforms.

Chris McGrath: Murder accused Oscar Pistorius - another fallen idol mocks our hunger for demi-gods

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:42:17 +0000

So perhaps those will turn out to be blades of clay. The man who was less than a man, shorn of both feet in infancy, had become superhuman. Now it seems as though that paradox may yet be horribly inverted, disclosing a far more grotesque mutation in Oscar Pistorius.

Shock for Oscar Pistorius' friends in London after Reeva Steenkamp is found dead

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:42:17 +0000

As news of Oscar Pistorius' arrest on suspicion of murder reverberated around the athletics world, nowhere – nowhere apart from South Africa, naturally – was left more stunned than London. The city where the 26-year-old Blade Runner made his ground-breaking double appearance in the Olympic and Paralympic Games last year is home to one of his closest friends in athletics and to his international media agents.

Usain Bolt back at the Olympic Stadium? UK Athletics chiefs in bid to lure world's fastest man to London this summer

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:03:28 +0000

Usain Bolt could be in line to compete at the Olympic Stadium this summer, one year on from his record breaking achievements at London 2012.

Tributes pour in for Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:11:48 +0000

Twitter is awash with tributes to Oscar Pistorius and his now dead girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Oscar Pistorius 'had revolver at his bedside and machine gun by his window'

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:07:23 +0000

Oscar Pistorius, who has been arrested over the fatal shooting of his girlfriend at his home in Pretoria, had a revolver at his bedside.

Andy Hunt quits as BOA chief

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:35:44 +0000

Andy Hunt is stepping down as British Olympic Association chief executive at the end of the month just six months after he guided the host nation to its most successful Games medal haul in 104 years. Britain won 65 medals at the London 2012 Games and finished third in the medals table behind the United States and China.

Paralympics: Esther Vergeer quits at the top

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:52:02 +0000

Paralympic gold medallist Esther Vergeer has retired after going more than 10 years unbeaten. The last time she lost was to Daniele di Toro in Sydney in January 2003, and her subsequent winning haul totalled 470 matches.

Wrestling to be thrown out of Olympic Games

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:52:02 +0000

Wrestling, which was in the first modern Olympics of 1896, is on the verge of being dropped from the Games. The IOC recommended that the sport be excluded from 2020 and it is unlikely to get a reprieve when that is voted on in Buenos Aires in September.

Wrestling dropped from the 2020 Olympic Games

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:06:00 +0000

Wrestling has been dropped as a sport from the 2020 Games by the International Olympic Committee's executive board, it has been announced.

Winter Olympics: Women lead in the run-up to Sochi

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

With the Winter Olympics in Sochi exactly one year away, the story of London 2012 is being repeated, with British women setting the pace on the fast track to gold.

Swimming: British Olympic hope Chloe Waddell, 16, dies after cardiac arrest

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:33:32 +0000

The devastated parents of gifted swimmer Chloe Waddell, who was aiming for the Rio 2016 Olympics, said they will always remember her smile.

Stars of 2012 head for the Olympic job centre

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Tom Daley ended his mentoring role in the ITV1 diving reality series Splash! last night, tucking a six-figure cheque into his Speedos. For his erstwhile synchro sidekick Pete Waterfield, reality is somewhat different. He is struggling to keep his head above water, having lost his UK Sport funding.

Basketball wins Olympic funding reprieve

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 14:53:28 +0000

British Basketball's campaign to have its Olympic funding restored resulted in success today as UK Sport agreed to a reprieve.

Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis to return to Olympic Stadium as it hosts the British Athletics London Grand Prix

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:44:42 +0000

Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis will be back in the Olympic Stadium, on the anniversary of the Olympics Opening Ceremony, which is to host a Diamond League Athletics Grand Prix.