Reuters Beijing organizers essentially shouted Chinese culture at their worldwide audience in 2008, spending $67 billion on the Olympics while presumably using “we’re gonna need a bigger boat” as the punch line of every meeting they held leading up to the Games.
On the other hand, London, seemingly content not competing against Beijing’s incredible spectacle, aimed to only spend about $15 billion – or less than a quarter of what the previous Olympics cost.
Somehow they still came in under budget.
“The work of the construction and delivery teams, from the ODA and LOCOG, has set a very high standard,” said sports minister Hugh Robertson of the somewhat abnormal surplus. “I have no doubt that London 2012 has set a new benchmark for the management of Olympic and Paralympic Games in future.”
LOCOG ended up with about $603 million left over when all was said and done, which is great news for the London Legacy Development Corporation since it plans to spend $467 million of that on redeveloping the now four month old Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London.
The update to what will essentially be a U.K. sports version of Disneyland will keep the aquatics, cycling, basketball, and handball venues intact, and will also include 2,818 new houses and apartments in five neighborhoods, as well as three schools, three health centers, nine nurseries, and a library.
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AP
The “early world” on British discus hurler turned NFL defensive end Lawrence Okoye is good according to ESPN analyst Michael Clayton, who recently noted how Okoye impressed onlookers at San Francisco’s rookie camp last week. “Okoye might have enough pure talent for the 49ers to consider him for the active roster,” Clayton wrote in a…
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WALDO SWIEGERS/AFP/Getty Images
Even after being spotted on a high school track in April, and being cleared to race at the Paralympic Worlds, South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius has ruled out competitive running in 2013. Instead, he plans to focus on his upcoming murder trial. “We have decided as a team we are not talking [about] any training…
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Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
Maybe USA Basketball CEO Jerry Colangelo isn’t satisfied with the list of willing candidates to coach the national team, or maybe Mike Krzyzewski is already getting the itch for another gold medal run, but apparently the two have been discussing the possibility of teaming up again through Rio. “There’s a chance,” Coach K told Sports…
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Wrestling officials implement significant rules changes at Moscow meeting
May 18, 2013, 10:34 AM EDT
John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
FILA, wrestling’s governing body, is spending the weekend in Moscow cleaning house before an upcoming IOC vote will determine if they end up on the 2020 Olympics schedule. And apparently the meeting has been productive. On Saturday, acting president Nenad Lalovic, who took over after the forced resignation of president Raphael Martinetti, was officially elected…
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Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The swimming world went a little nuts Friday when NBC Fort Myers anchor Peter Busch, son of U.S. national swim team director Frank Busch, tweeted that he confirmed what many of us have hoped: Olympic champ Michael Phelps was already “planning a return to competitive swimming” after only a year or so away from the…
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Amateur International Boxing Associating president C.K. Wu of Taiwan has also apparently thrown his hat into the ring in hopes of becoming the next IOC president when current leader Jacques Rogge’s tenure is up this September. “Dr Wu handed over a letter this morning to Dr Rogge informing him about his candidacy,” a source explained…
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After the Iranian national wrestling team put a 6-1 whooping on the U.S. at Wednesday’s “Rumble on the Rails” at New York’s historic Grand Central Station, the two teams were preparing to square off again in Los Angeles Sunday as part of the “United 4 Wrestling” event to help save the sport. But USA Wrestling…
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Nintendo Global
In addition to Olympic champs like Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, and Evan Lysacek all prepping for the Sochi Games next February, a couple other familiar faces are getting ready to compete as well: Mario the plumber and Sonic the hedgehog. Nintendo Global president Satoru Itawa announced Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter…
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While many were simply mourning the IOC’s recommendation to remove wrestling from the 2020 Olympics schedule, Billy Baldwin was busy doing something about it. And trust us, he went full Baldwin. Billy named himself Hollywood Point Man for the “Keep Olympic Wrestling” effort and has has asked Olympic champs, Hollywood friends, and strangers on the…
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Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE
After the World Baseball Softball Confederation was unceremoniously shot down by MLB commissioner Bud Selig, who said he won’t stop his season for the Games, the governing body is giving one last ditch effort to earn a spot in the Olympics before the IOC votes on its fate. Members of the WBSC met with the…
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For those intently waiting for the IOC to reveal the Sochi Olympics medals – and yes, we’ve received emails – you only have to hold out a couple more weeks. The medals will be unveiled by Sochi organizing CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko at the IOC’s meeting in St. Petersburg on May 30. “A record number of…
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NYWrestlingNews.com
A day after four-time NCAA wrestling champ Kyle Dake beat Iran’s Hassan Tahmasebi at Wednesday’s “Rumble on the Rails” – the lone American win against the world’s top team – Dake woke to a much simpler task: taking down Dan Patrick radio show producer Paulie Pabst. Dake pinned him in eleven seconds. Check out the…
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Q&A: Mark Ruffalo joins effort to “Keep Olympic Wrestling”
May 16, 2013, 12:00 PM EDT
Sue Schneider, MGP Agency
On top of all the incredible athletes wrestling at Wednesday’s “Rumble on the Rails,” many familiar faces showed up to the event in support of the Keep Olympic Wrestling movement, including champions like Dan Gable, Cael Sanderson, and Kurt Angle, NFL hall of famer Ronnie Lott, ESPN personality Mike Golic, and Hollywood point man Billy…
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VIDEO: Jordan Burroughs hopes the flair of events like “Rumble on the Rails” can save wrestling
May 16, 2013, 9:48 AM EDT
Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
Just ahead of Jordan Burroughs match against Russia’s Saba Khubetzhty, which Burroughs won to go 53-0 in his international career, the London Olympic 74kg champ chatted with NBC’s Jimmy Roberts about what events like “Rumble on the Rails” mean amid the effort to save Olympic wrestling. “Huge events like this are awesome. I think we…
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IOC Vice President Ng Ser Miang of Singapore officially entered the race for IOC president on Thursday, announcing his candidacy at the Sorbonne in Paris where the Games were originally founded back in 1894. Ng, 64, a former vice president of the international sailing federation, has served the IOC since 1998, including time spent as…
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AP Photo/Paul Sancya
After being suspended by the IOC last December for failing to comply with the Olympic Charter, India is on the road back to the Games. The IOA has agreed, during a meeting at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne Wednesday, to hold new elections and a new Annual General Meeting. “It was a good and fruitful…
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Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE
Because “nobody remembers losers,” and because winning a gold on his home ice in Sochi next February is something that might help that problem, two-time NHL MVP Alex Ovechkin is going to join his national team in Finland and Sweden for the IIHF World Championships. Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals were ousted from the NHL playoffs in…
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As part of Hollywood Pointman Billy Baldwin’s campaign to Keep Olympic Wrestling, he’s enlisting friends and former athletes to take part in an upcoming series of public service announcements. First up: Swimming legend and nine-time gold medalist Mark Spitz, who, despite earning every medal in the pool, admits in this new video that, “There is…
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AP Photo/Georgy Abdaladze
Despite spearheading Georgia’s recent unanimous decision to compete at the Sochi Olympics, newly elected Prime Minster Bidzina Ivanishvili said that received an invite to attend next February’s Winter Games just yet. “I haven’t received an official invitation,” Ivanishvili told R-Sport. “I don’t know if I’ll go to the Olympic Games. We will see how our…
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Matt Kryger-USA TODAY Sports
The U.S., Iranian, and Russian wrestling teams are set to square-off Wednesday at New York’s historic Grand Central Station for “The Rumble on the Rails,” in hopes that their competitive cooperation can save their beloved sport from being removed from the 2020 Olympic Games. “In this crisis, we all stick together. Wrestlers maybe can do,…
