British football's privileges are under threat. But don't blame Sir David Richards if Britain loses its unique status in world football. That will be the natural reaction after our Dave's extraordinary performance in Doha last week. But it will be wrong. Look to wider politics in the world body for the answer.

Not that the Premier League chairman covered himself with glory when he went to Qatar last week. His mission there was to tell the world what it can learn from the Premier League having become the most powerful League in the world. As has been well documented, he decided he would turn historian cum cultural commissar. And this was not helped by the fact that, having performed this curious, self-imposed role, he slipped and fell into an ornamental pool just as the assembled guests were sitting down for dinner. But that, it must be said, was not his fault. I was sitting a few feet away. There was no drink involved and it is the sort of accident that can happen to anyone.

Since then, much has been said about how Richards is a dinosaur and ought to go. I doubt that will happen since Richards knows his constituency very well – the 20 chairmen who make up the Premier League.

Remember that, when he took over as emergency chairmen following the defenestration of Peter Leaver, the former chief executive, and the departure of Sir John Quinton as chairmen, a Premier League rule stated that no one who was chairman of a club could be chairmen of the league. Richards was then in the Premier League as chairman of Sheffield Wednesday. But he was held in such high regard, the rule was amended and he was allowed to take over as chairman. He has remained there since his formal appointment in 1999, despite the fact that Wednesday have long since been out of the Premier League. He has kept his position because he understands what his 20 chairmen want. The rest of the world may find this strange, but that is how it is. Do not let his performance at Doha mislead you. Richards is a wily politician who knows how to keep his electorate happy.


And as for Britain's unique position being under threat, that has never depended on what Richards said or did. That is part of how FIFA is changing and where Richards is only a bit player. Consider who has suggested that Britain should lose the right to have a vice-president on the FIFA Executive Committee. Why, the German member of the FIFA Executive, Dr Theo Zwanziger. Now why should he do so? The answer, I believe, lies in how the Europeans are reacting to what is happening to the world body in the wake of its worst ever corruption crisis.

Recall that the world, led by Britain, is demanding that FIFA has to reform, has to be accountable, and has to come clean. It must, so goes the demand, be a body fit for the 21st century. FIFA says it doing its best to go down that route. This has already seen Jack Warner, Mohammed Bin Hammam and Ricardo Teixeira depart. These men were, until recently, considered the supporting beams of the house of FIFA that João Havelange (pictured left) started building many decades ago, and to which Sepp Blatter (right) has added further floors. FIFA is even ready to publish documents regarding ISL that it has kept secret for years. All in the name of accountability and proper democracy.


But this is where the British problem comes up. If you say FIFA should be democratic, then what is the most undemocratic thing in FIFA? Why, the British position.

Consider this: Britain has one vote at the United Nations like all other nations. And when it comes to the Olympics, there is a Great Britain team. Yet when it comes to world football, there is no country called Britain. Football just does not recognise it. There are four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Then take the International Football Association Board, which governs the laws of football: The four home nations each have a vote matching the vote that FIFA has. No other country has such a privilege. And, of course, the four home nations are allowed to nominate a FIFA vice-president. Again, this is a privilege unique to these isles. What could be more undemocratic, indeed quite ridiculous, in the 21st century? Of course sport has anomalies. So the West Indies has a cricket team when there is no West Indies nation. But at the International Cricket Council, the West Indies does not have 13 votes to represent the various islands that make up the team, but only one vote. British football has made one national state into four football states.

Now we all know how it came about. Britain shunned the world when Europeans wanted to set up FIFA back in 1904, as Richards (pictured) reminded us in Doha. Then for years, the FA played Box and Cox with FIFA, going in and out of FIFA and did not take part in the first two World Cups. It finally confirmed its acceptance of FIFA post-Second World War. Then it raised money to help a bankrupt FIFA and in return made sure the special privileges were part of a contract.


But if FIFA is to reform, can these privileges be defended?

Of course Britain is not the only country with privileges in FIFA. Europe is also ranked higher than any other continent. It gets as many places in the World Cup as the rest of the world put together, and in a 24 man Executive, Europe has eight members, twice the number that Asia and Africa have, and nearly three times what South America and North America have. This has always been justified on the grounds that Europe is the economic powerhouse of the game.

But with China catching up fast with America, and India also rising, how long can that position last? The Premier League, for instance, already derives more money from its sales abroad than from the UK.

And that is where I believe the German proposal is coming from. Europe does not want to lose its dominance in world football. Nor does it want the British home nations to be merged into one country as this would mean the number of UEFA members would fall by three and affect its ability to outvote other continents at FIFA Congresses.  The Germans clearly believe that sacrificing a British vice-presidency in FIFA is a small price to pay to help maintain the overall European position. It is part of an intricate power play where you give a dog a bone and hope it leaves you in peace.


Whether this will satisfy the non Europeans who want much more is hard to say. But Budapest is one FIFA session that anyone who follows this remarkable organisation should not miss. Expect to hear voices saying, "Yes, we in FIFA are ready to reform", but this reform cannot just mean opening the books of ISL. It must also mean removing colonial privileges as well. As Sir Dave Richards might have put it, they are ready now, having stolen our games, to remove our clothes as well.

Mihir Bose is one of the world's most astute observers on politics in sport and, particularly, football. He formerly wrote for The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph, and was the BBC's head sports editor. Follow Mihir on Twitter.

www.mihirbose.com

When it was announced this week that the superb Colorado Springs World Arena Ice Hall has been named as one of a handful of venues in the nation to earn distinction as a United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Official Olympic Training Site, the one for figure skating, the historic bond between the city and the USOC, now in its 35th year, was forged with even more steel.

It's the latest chapter in a book to be completed in the future by someone about a relationship that began in 1977, endured a series of jolts and bruises, and made the city at the foot of Pikes Peak a household word in the minds of millions of Americans who love the stories of athletes who chase and realise a dream like no other in sport.

America's Olympic city began its journey in unusual circumstances.

In 1977, Colorado Springs had wooed the USOC after only one other, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, had formally recruited the historic organisation, created in 1894, when it sought a new home after the 1976 Games in Montreal.


That move was made official on a blustery winter's day in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, when a group of civic and business leaders from Colorado Springs made a successful pitch to the USOC Board on behalf of the city to relocate from New York to the Rockies. The USOC had done its business at 57 Park Avenue in New York for decades, but the world was changing and it needed space and a new face.

The group had made the trek to Wisconsin on a Royal Canadian Air Force transport, recruited when commercial traffic had been shut down in Colorado Springs because of a major snowstorm. Former USOC vice-president Bill Tutt got the plane, and he was joined by Gordon Culver, Chairman of the Colorado Springs Industrial Foundation, public relations executive Nechie Hall, Mayor Larry Ochs, Dr Evie G Dennis of Denver, Shelby Dill of the Chamber of Commerce, business leader Ryer Hitchcock and the Commander of Fort Carson.

Culver made the presentation, which included an offer of the 34-acre former ENT Air Force Base/Norad Headquarters facility, $1 million (£630,000/€753,000) from the El Pomar Foundation, and the only thing that the USOC would be responsible for would be property and other taxes.

The USOC Board bought it, and Colorado Springs, not knowing what it would really be gaining, found itself with a small, struggling organisation that would grow, prosper and become the most powerful and influential National Olympic Committee in the world.


It was made official when El Pomar's Bill Hybl (pictured) presented a $1 million (£630,000/€753,000) cheque to USOC Executive Director Col F Don Miller at The Broadmoor. Hybl would become President of the USOC twice, steer the organisation through a pair of crises, and become its President Emeritus, an IOC member, and the power behind the city's commitment to the Committee. He is still the chairman of the US Olympic Foundation.

The Olympic Training Centre opened its doors in 1977 with Olympic hero Bob Mathias as its first director, and the first USOC inhabitants of the former headquarters building of the North American Defence Command arrived in Colorado Springs on August 1, 1978, to establish the city as the USOC's national headquarters.

As the years passed, the unimposing structure welcomed IOC Presidents Lord Killanin, Juan Antonio Samaranch and Jacques Rogge, President Ronald Reagan, Olympic legends like Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph, Donna de Varona, Willye White, Willie Davenport, Bonnie Blair, Micki King, Billy Mills, Bob Richards, sport leaders from the old enemy, the USSR, Diplomats, Governors, Mayors, Princes and the most powerful leaders of American business and the vital Olympic sponsors.

In the executive office at the southwest corner on the second floor, respected and capable USOC leaders met, talked and made decisions that shaped the future for America's Olympic teams and the galaxy of stars that would represent the United States at the Games.


The structure almost went dark in the days after the horrendous American boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games, when the USOC was bankrupted by the decision forced on it by the Carter Administration. But it basked in the sunshine of the first Golden Era of the USOC from 1985-2000, when it became a thriving, financially-sound and acclaimed body. In its myriad of small offices and cramped meeting rooms, decisions were made that garnered billions of dollars to support America's athletes and successfully pursued Games that would come to Los Angeles, Atlanta and Salt Lake City.

It's not a secret to those who know that there have been attempts over time by some within the volunteer leadership of the USOC, men who don't live in Colorado Springs, to create an effort to move the organisation elsewhere.

These individuals, gone now from the circles of power, imagined a USOC and an Olympic House in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, New York and Denver, but their efforts were stymied by loyal staff and Colorado Springs leaders who knew that this city was the best place to be, the only city that had welcomed the USOC when nobody else would.

Now, the USOC has committed to Colorado Springs for at least the next 30 years and enjoys a superb new downtown headquarters to do its worldwide business. The Olympic Training Centre is undergoing magnificent improvements to its athlete facilities and will also provide a rich new experience for thousands of visitors to the city and its populace.

It has a chief executive, Scott Blackmun, who has lived in the city for almost all of the last three decades and raised his family here. He has made the USOC reach out to the city in countless ways to extend its gratitude for the warm embrace it receives.

The USOC has staged high profile events in the city under Blackmun's direction that have brought prestige and economic impact, like the annual US Olympic Assembly, the Warrior Games, and the IOC International Athletes Forum. The USOC staff has landed spots on the boards of substantial civic and business organisations or charities such as Alicia McConnell, the USOC's director of athlete services, who is the chairman of the board of experience Colorado Springs, the city's convention and visitor's bureau.

The USOC and its family of affiliated governing bodies now generate a yearly economic impact of over $215 million (£135 million/€162 million) and employ over 2,100 people in the city.


And, it has a new strong Mayor, Steve Bach (pictured), who admires what the Olympic presence means to the city and what it represents.

"I'm here today representing almost a half a million people, the citizens of the city of Colorado Springs, and I just want to tell you how proud we are to be the home of the United States Olympic Committee, Colorado Springs," Bach said at the announcement this week. "They bring great prestige to our community and they do so much, really, behind the scenes to help our city."

So now, Colorado Springs, the hometown of the USOC and a place where more than 350,000 athletes have lived, trained and chased their Olympic or Paralympic dreams since 1977, adds another jewel to its crown with the designation of the World Arena Ice Hall as an official training site for figure skating.

The city's sports-minded citizens have a series of great events coming up to be part of the Road to London and the 2012 Olympic Games in a big way.

On Friday, May 18, the Colorado Springs Sports Corp will present its Second Annual Salute to the Olympic Family Luncheon at the Doubletree by Hilton, with Olympic basketball great Teresa Edwards (the USOC's chief of mission for the American delegation in London) as the guest celebrity. It's a pat on the back for the USOC and the National Governing Bodies who are preparing the best athletes in the nation for their chance at Olympic and Paralympic glory in the UK, as well as special recognition by the community for being solid partners in the city's quality of life.

And on Friday evening, July 27, thousands will have a chance to head downtown to celebrate the Opening Ceremony in London, televised on big screen television and the highlight of a full day community celebration to honour America's athletes and the Colorado Springs Olympic family.

It's important to note that this is not happening anywhere else in America.

Only in Colorado Springs.

Mike Moran was the chief spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee for a quarter century, through 13 Games, from Lake Placid to Salt Lake City. He joined the USOC in 1978 as it left New York City for Colorado Springs. He was the Senior Communications Counsellor for NYC2012, New York City's Olympic bid group from 2003-2005 and is now a media consultant

Shooters have always been there to be shot at. Not just by successive Governments whose domestic gun laws made them pariahs with pistols, but those who deem the sport politically incorrect and its practitioners the biggest bunch of outlaws since Jesse James and Billy the Kid were on the rampage.

The 1996 massacre at Dunblane, when 16 children and a teacher were shot dead by a deranged gun collector, led to a ban on handguns which, although partially rescinded by the Home Office as a concession to the Olympics, has left Britain struggling to stay on target with the rest of the world.

Measured in international medals, shooting has been one of the most successful British sports. The crackling sound of gunfire as you arrive at the National Shooting Centre in Bisley suggests you might be in a war zone but in recent years the battle has been between the shooters and Whitehall.

Most felt the ban was a knee-jerk reaction and illogical because there is no of evidence that the sort of pistols used in sport target shooting have ever been used in any criminal activity.

Now at least elite pistol shooters are able to train under strict security at a couple of defence establishments but it is unclear whether this will remain so after the Olympics.

When the ban came in with the 1997 Firearms Amendment Act many competitors simply gave up because of the expense in having to train overseas in countries like Switzerland but numbers are on the increase again, notably among women. More and more Annies are getting their guns.

And young guns too. Apparently the Scouts now have a proficiency badge for marksmanship. Bit of a change from the days when we were dibbing and dobbing for our handicraft badge in the 36th Mitcham!

But now another shooting controversy has been triggered off.


Britain's most celebrated marksman, Mick Gault (pictured), who came out of ten months retirement last year to take a pot shot at an Olympic place this summer, looks likely to miss his target on a technicality, despite the concern of the former Sports Minister, Kate Hoey, who as President of the British Pistol Club and did so much to whip up all-party support get the ban on pistol practice here eased.

Record-breaker Gault, 58, awarded the OBE after becoming the nation's most prolific Commonwealth Games competitor in any sport– 17 medals including nine golds – achieved a qualifying score for the free pistol but has now been told that the only host nation quota place available is for the air pistol, for which he does not have the required mark.

Yet as he points out the irony is that should he be selected for Team GB, under Olympic rules he would be permitted to shoot in both categories. Even though Hoey, one of his greatest admirers, has made representations on his behalf to British Shooting, who will be sending only one pistol shooter to the London Games, 27-year-old Georgina Geikie (pictured), a part-time Devon barmaid who is known as Britain's Lara Croft for her prowess with the 25 metres sport target pistol.


Gault a civil servant with the RAF in Norfolk tells insidethegames he is "disappointed and gobsmacked" that GB are returning three host nation quota places (one for rapid fire and one for both ladies and men's air pistol).

"It seems a shame for myself and other British shooters, particularly as the sport is struggling to recover from the training restrictions that were impose for so long. I don't want to cause a stink but it does seem rather an injustice."

Hoey who has approached the British Olympic Association on Gault's behalf has been given this explanation: "Shooting received nine host nation places in events determined by the international federation (ISSF). In order for an athlete to be considered by British Shooting for nomination to the BOA for one of these places they had to meet the minimum consideration score.

"This score was set by British Shooting and agreed with the BOA. In three of these events that the ISSF granted us places, an athlete did not meet the minimum score. Therefore we have handed these back to the ISSF. "However, as agreed with the ISSF, we are able to exchange one of these for another event. The event that we have requested the exchange in is considered the event in which we have the greatest chance of success. This is after analysis of results across all events.

"We are continuing to request they consider the exchange of the two other host nation places that we have handed back. In the unlikely event we are successful with this, further analysis of results over the Olympic qualification period will determine where the next best chance of meeting British Shooting's performance objectives lies."

In this light one wonders if Gault's situation may be comparable to that of Britain's rhythmic gymnasts who have successfully appealed to the arbitration body Sports Resolutions against their exclusion from the Games by British Gymnastics on a qualifying score technicality.

But his coach Tom Redhead says: "It is unlikely we can go down that route because British shooters like Mick are largely self-funded and we don't have that sort of money."

Gault himself points out that he spent £1,500 on entry fees for the European Championships this year where he was top gun, though still fractionally shy of the qualifying mark for the air pistol. "I understand the gymnasts were privately funded. My private funding is an occasional few bob from my mum – and she's a pensioner!"


British Shooting say: "This is nothing personal. We don't have a home quota place in free pistol, only air pistol. As no one has achieved a qualifying mark in that event we have asked the British Olympic Association if we can change that place for one in a discipline where we have achieved it, like rifle or trap shooting. It seems only fair to allow someone who has the qualifying criteria to compete."

They also insist GB will have a strong team when the Olympic guns start blazing in Woolwich, including current world number one double trap shot Peter Wilson and Richard Faulds, who won gold at the same event in the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Shame though, that someone of Mick Gault's calibre has to bite the bullet. Pistols at dawn?

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title from Atlanta to Zaire.

So this is how the Olympics works. First of all you hear about a possible bid by London for the 2012 Games, and you think – "No. It will be Birmingham and Manchester all over again. It will be 'You have a strong bid' before 'And the winner is...Paris." Same old story.

Then Seb Coe arrives on the scene and new possibilities seem to be in the air. But Paris is still favourite. And then, in Singapore, the envelope containing the IOC members' vote is opened by their President Jacques Rogge, who seems to have a little smile to himself before announcing the word which sends one relatively small but very important part of the world potty: "London".


There follows years of wrangling, slowly transforming building sites, scare stories, warnings, ballooning budgets, more wrangling, people taking grave offence, local traders protesting, transport groups prognosticating gloomily. Rows emerge over the future of the Olympic Stadium. And all this is marked by a series of countdowns. Five years to the Olympics. Three years to the Olympics. One year to go to the Olympics.

As that year turns into mere months, like one of those colouring books where blank pages spring up at the application of water, details start to flare into life.

So the swimming pool is finished, and it is possible to go and splash around where Olympians will strive in the opening days of the Games. And the velodrome gets finished, with its wonderful warp of a roof. And the main stadium itself becomes accessible – as it will be later this month when a lucky few will be able to conclude a five-mile race within its upright arena. And the Athletes Village is built, and it is possible to go and have a look at some finished apartments and sit on beds in rooms that will be occupied by Olympic and Paralympic athletes only a few more months down the line.

Names start to arrive which turn general events, such as the Closing Ceremony concert in Hyde Park, into specific events. The announcement of Blur sharpens the focus on a key part of the Olympic experience beyond the Park.

People all over the country learn that the Olympic Torch Relay, bearing a sacred, sporting flame all the way from Olympia, will pass through their general neighbourhood. In November, for instance, the announcement of key points for the event includes the fact that, on Saturday, July 7, the Torch will be carried from Hertford and Ware to Bishop's Stortford – Bishop's Stortford! That's where I live! – and thence to Stansted, Newport and Saffron Walden, and thence, ultimately, to Stratford in East London...


And now, this week, we hear details of the exact routes that human Torch transport will take. The Olympic Torch will come down the Much Hadham road, past the rugby club and the Bishop's Stortford Swifts clubhouse, curving round the Causeway, then making its way up Hockerill to the crossroads – where they used to hang people, as it happens – and turning left into Stansted Road, where, after about 100 metres, it passes THE END OF OUR ROAD.

Whatever next? First Samuel Pepys stops off at a hostelry in the town, and now this. It's all go in Bishop's Stortford!

But seriously. Having covered Summer and Winter Games as a journalist, there have been occasions when I have felt the mass voltage thrill that can be generated by the greatest sporting spectacle on earth – and I say that as a football lover.

Odd fragments of memory come back. Taking off from Heathrow, bound for Barcelona, hosts of the 1992 Games, looking across to a colleague and hearing him say: "Here we go!" Being in that stadium at Montjuïc in Barcelona for the Opening Ceremony and leaving the stand to go down to the press room, passing as I do so massed ranks of schoolchildren waiting for their cue to race into the arena and take part in something they will remember forever. If you could have harnessed the mass excitement of those children, you could have powered the Catalan city for the night.


Being at the Ogden Ice Sheet during the Salt Lake Winter Games of 2002 as Rhona Martin (pictured), skip of the British women's curling team, prepares to send down the stone of destiny which will decide whether it is to be the gold or silver medal. Watching that stone slide inexorably into the perfect place, knocking and jolting the opposition away as it does so.

Excitement. And the idea that the Olympic Flame will be carried just past the church at the end of our road en route to igniting the London 2012 Games is something I also find exciting, astonishing even, although I know that this is how the Olympics works. You could say it brings the Olympic experience home.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

So now I can add to the privilege of swimming in the London 2012 pool the experience of sitting in one of the rooms in the Athletes Village, thanks to London 2012, who opened some of the first completed apartments to the view of the media this week.

As I looked out of the window towards an Olympic Park that is now almost totally ready for the influx of 16,000 athletes – and a further tranche of 6,000 for the Paralympics – I wondered who might be staring out of this window in a little over four months' time.

Usain Bolt, perhaps?

Of course, the Jamaican phenomenon would be getting a somewhat different view, given his 6ft 5in height – just slightly taller than me. One of the first questions asked and answered during our tour was the question of whether the likes of Bolt would end up with his feet sticking out of the bed.


Of course not! Bolt may have to bend a bit to fit himself into one of the very nice baths in each of the apartments, but he should be able to get a decent bit of kip as the beds are extendable and great lengths have also been gone to in ensuring that the black-out blinds drop sufficiently far and completely cover the windows.

And if Usain wants to mosey on down to the Food Hall he can ask, as a variant to his favourite Olympic tucker of chicken nuggets, for chicken or fish grilled on its own, sans sauce.

Just as it takes a thief to catch a thief, in terms of Olympic Villages, it takes an athlete to anticipate an athlete. So in this respect the competitors who will throng these 11 smart tower blocks which will, from 2013, become East Village with a postcode of E20, are lucky.

For the last couple of years London 2012 has had some very picky and very articulate former athletes concentrating their attention on every little detail of these Village plans as part of an Athletes Committee chaired by Jonathan Edwards – the former Olympic triple jump champion whose world record of 18.29 metres has yet to be seriously challenged almost 17 years after it was set – and assistant chaired by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, who has 11 Paralympic gold medals to her credit.

As Edwards explained, he, Baroness Tanni and the six other members of the Committee have taken a very hands-on attitude to their task.


"We really have given attention to the nitty gritty," Edwards insisted. For instance, the mattress on which I had recently parked myself and my laptop – covered in a bright bedspread with Olympic logos and suitably uplifting message: "Excellence, friendship and respect" – felt firm but comfortable, and so it should have done given that it had been the subject of an exhaustive trial by Edwards and co.

"We had a choice of eight mattresses, and each member of the committee tested each mattress and ranked it before we made our choice," Edwards said.

The lifts – particularly vital for Paralympians needing to get going in a hurry. They have all been timed; none, apparently, takes longer than a minute to arrive.

A similar approach was taken with the proposed food – it was not enough to read the menus; food was tasted, and strong recommendations made.

"There was some discussion about letting athletes taste the best of British cooking, but athletes don't care about dining experiences," Edwards told insidethegames as he strolled through one of the green and pleasant courtyards that stand within each of the blocks, offering competitors a little quiet space to sit and reflect.

"They want fuel – carbohydrates, protein, vitamins. And they don't want their food covered in sauces. That is why we will be making sauces optional, but offering fish or meat plain grilled. It's a small detail, but it is important."

Edwards, of course, became involved in a certain amount of controversy on the eve of the 2000 Sydney Games when he wrote in a website column about how some of Britain's Olympic swimmers loved to party, with an inference that some might be more interested in partying than medalling.

The triple jumper was promptly rapped over the knuckles – "Don't drag the truth into it!" – and obliged to write a letter of apology to all 41 members of the swimming squad. He didn't let it put him off when it came to his event, however, as he claimed the gold medal which he had been under such immense pressure to earn four years earlier having arrived at the Atlanta Games as the world champion.


Twelve years on, Edwards has a philosophical attitude to the Athletes' Village. "It's not quiet," he says as he sits on one of the child-like bedspreads. "It's a compromise.

"When I competed at the World Championships I was in a single room more often than not with an en suite bathroom.

"One of the beautiful ironies of the Olympic Games is that this is the most important competition of your life but you live in an environment which involves compromise. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Even if people are trying to be quiet, it only takes someone to slam a door at one in the morning and they will have woken someone up. But this is the atmosphere that makes the Olympics different."

Edwards looks reflective for second. "In Sydney there was a bed there, and a cabinet there, and I was nose-to-nose with Steve Backley. Snoring. What can I say?"

There it is. But for all the snoring and door slamming, the world's athletes should have an experience to remember warmly in these London 2012 halls of residence.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

Rivalries are the spice of sporting life. In boxing you can go back to Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier (and the ever-warring post-war promoters Jack Solomons and Harry Levene) via golf's Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, tennis' Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, plus Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, snooker's Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor, decathlon's Daley Thompson and Jürgen Hingsen, triathlon's battling Brownlees, Alistair and Jonathan, not forgetting surely the track's most iconic double act of all, Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett.

Now there is another British duelling duo who, if they were in a higher-profile sport, would be regularly commanding the back pages. Squash stars Nick Matthew and James Willstrop are both gritty Yorkshiremen with a long-running racket rivalry as bitter and intense as that of Coe and Ovett. Like the Brownlee brothers they are remarkable in our national sport as respectively the world numbers one and two, yet live within a few miles of each other, Matthew in Sheffield and Willstrop further up the M1 in Leeds. However there is little neighbourliness in their frequent title-swapping confrontations in pulsating, combative and sometimes argumentative finals.


Unlike Coe and Ovett, who cannily kept their distance until the seismic Olympic collisions of the eighties, they have faced each other over 40 times at domestic, Commonwealth and world level. Matthew (pictured left), who became the first Englishman to win the World Open Squash men's title in December 2010, subsequently topped the world rankings throughout 2011 before Willstrop (right) replaced him in January but he later reclaimed pole position in the first-ever final of the PSA World Series Tournament of Champions at Grand Central Station in New York.

He currently boasts a 32-9 record over Willstrop and is enjoying an unbeaten streak of 19 wins since December 2007. Interestingly, the last time Willstrop beat him was in Matthew's home city of Sheffield.  But 31-year-old Matthew has already beaten Willstrop twice this year – in the Tournament of Champions final in January, and the British National Championship final in February.

Next week squash's biggest hitters clash yet again in the Canary Wharf Classic at the East Wintergarden in London's Docklands, starting on Monday, an event designed to help showcase the sport's attempt to gain long-overdue Olympic recognition in 2020.

It is a bid of which I wrote supportively here recently for in my view squash – which personally I have never played and rarely covered – embraces worthier Olympic commodities than other ball games now included like big brother tennis, football and now golf, which makes its debut at Rio 2016.


When squash made its last presentation to the International Olympic Committee in 2009, it was out-manoeuvred by an appearance from Tiger Woods (pictured). It is hoping for better luck and a shrewder strategy this time, with a little help from Matthew, who is one of the bid ambassadors.

He told insidethegames: "Last time the IOC went for the commercial option but squash can now claim to be truly global. To get into the Olympics would be the pinnacle for the sport.  I think we tick a lot of boxes.  There is the health aspect – it keeps you really fit – and the youthful and global nature of it. We have all the traditional Olympic ideals and many of the modern ones too. The sport has also become more televisual."

Few British sports figures deserve such acclaim as Matthew. Here is Andy Murray without the scowl, one who actually wins major tournaments. In a mainstream sport he would he lauded as a British superstar and while he enjoys his niche status he admits: "If we had the sort of profile of the tennis guys we would be over the moon."

Three years ago he had such major surgery on his right shoulder that he could barely lift his racket for weeks after the operation. He could easily have walked away from the game. "It was the worst thing that happened to me and the best thing," he says now. "It gave me a chance to step away from the game and see what I was doing wrong. I had been up to number five in the world, and had beaten the big players, but I wasn't doing it regularly.

"Basically I was relying on my stamina too much, which meant that when I got to the finals of tournaments I was short of energy. Squash has been described as a cross between chess and boxing, and I was using a lot of boxing and not enough chess. I had to sharpen up mentally and technically and learn to finish the points more quickly."


Matthew has been a professional since he was 18. "There was an option to go to university but I was determined to make a go of squash and I've never looked back really.

"I got into squash through tennis because the local club I attended had squash courts as well.  My dad had played a bit of squash and I liked the one on one nature of the sport and the competitive element.

"It makes you think for yourself and there seems to be a million and one areas that you can work on and get better.  I did play a lot of team sports as well but squash seemed to suit my personality.

"It got to the point where I knocked the football on the head because it interfered with my squash tournaments.  But it wasn't until I was 15 or 16 that I realised you could play it professionally and it dawned on me that I might be good enough to have a career in it.

"At a lot of tournaments now we get relatively good crowds, often playing in front of a few thousand people.  Last year the British Nationals in Manchester was packed out.  Around the 360 degrees of the court you can get a great atmosphere.

"These days we tend to take the game to the people, even playing in shopping malls and great locations like the Pyramids in Egypt and Grand Central Station.  This year's British Open will be at the O2."

So how did the rivalry with Willstrop develop?  "He was the golden boy of British squash, coming up through the juniors and a former world junior champion, and number two in the world seniors by the time he was 21 or 22.  I developed a little bit later.  We are very different characters and we had a very tempestuous British final.

"Our relationship has never been that strong, we have never been the best of friends and it's a healthy rivalry and it's good for the game (sounds even more like Coe and Ovett).  We'll always congratulate each other but we don't socialise, go out for dinner, anything like that, even though we play in the same England team.  We have both got friends we are much closer to."


Sheffield, which terms itself the City of Sport, has produced great sporting names – Coe, Naseem Hamed, John and Sheila Sherwood and now Jessica Ennis. Says Matthew, whose girlfriend is, Esme Taylor, a physiologist with the British cycling team: "I've always been amazingly well supported here and I've been fortunate enough that I have never really had to move from home.  I think Jessica is in a similar situation.  She could have moved to Loughborough or London but she dug her heels in and said, 'I've got fantastic facilities here.' And she is right.

"The EIS (English Institute of Sport) is brilliant.  I think I am the same really.  I have got a court in the city named after me and my picture is on the wall at the EIS along with Jessica's and many others like Shelley Rudman, the Olympic bob skeleton silver medallist who now lives and trains here.  In fact she lives just down the road from me.

"We have a great tradition of squash in this country dating back to Jonah Barrington and the future looks quite rosy at the moment with a bunch of more than a dozen young players on the verge of the top hundred in the world, which is good because myself and James won't be around forever.

"Of course, if squash does become an Olympic sport in 2020, it will probably be a bit late for James and me, so it's good to have a sort of conveyer belt.  I'll be 39 then (and the 6ft 4in, four inches taller and three years younger Willstrop 36).

"Historically it's always been a sport when you peak in your mid to late twenties.


"I got to world number one for the first time just before I was 30, so I was quite a late developer but to be playing at the top level in 2020, when we hope to get into the Olympics, would be pushing it a bit.

"If I can play some sort of role on the TV side of things then that would be great, but the short term is getting the sport in there.  The big one this year for us is the British Open, which is our Wimbledon, and we are hoping this will really put the focus on the bid."

I'll drink to that. And with Matthew and Willstrop racketing up their rivalry, make that a double.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title from Atlanta to Zaire

Last weekend I raced in the GB Rowing trials on the Olympic course at Eton Dorney.

Along with the rest of the eight and the GB team I was pretty excited and tense about the event. All the rowers were in coxless pairs racing against each other and all the scullers were in singles. We had spent two weeks in Portugal preparing and then we moved into a hotel near the course. 

Unfortunately, my regular partner Cameron was injured in Portugal and had to fly home.

I thought I would have to race a single until Noddy also fell ill and I was teamed up with Tom Ransley with about a week of preparations left. This was far from ideal but did provide enough time for us to get together.

In the heat it became clear that Tom and I couldn't qualify directly for the final so I called for us to conserve our energy and we trailed in last. This didn't look or feel that good but turned out to be a wise decision. Four hours later we competed in the repechage with the bottom five pairs vying for two places in the final. 

Tom and I got away well and led the field through the first 500 metres. We were then attached by a good combination who consistently do well in our trials.  They got through us but we continued to hold off the rest of the field. In the second 1,000m we stepped on and moved well. We clearly established ourselves in second place and held that qualifying position to the finish line. I felt pleased to have made the top six pairs particularly given our lack of time to prepare.


After the race our coach was pleased and confirmed that anything better than sixth would now be a bonus. The next day I felt confident that we would continue to improve our performance in the final. The weather on Sunday was very good and the organisation was excellent to mirror what we will experience this summer.  As one of the last qualifiers we were on an outside lane closest to all the supporters. 

It was good to have a decent crowd which included my brother and Garry Herbert, who followed alongside on their bikes. In the race we got a good start again and were very much in contention for the first 500m. In the second 500m as we settled into pace the field started to creep away from us. We again pushed on into the third 500m but couldn't improve our position as we hung onto the coat tails of the field. In the final 500m we again moved on but couldn't overall anyone else. So we ended in sixth place but in touch with the rest of the field.

I feel like the big race for us was the repechage and under some pressure we delivered a decent performance. The final was a step on for us but it is good to see how strong the rest of GB team is looking for 2012.


The trials are an important race in the calendar for us, but only part of the jigsaw which will determine the makeup of the team for the Olympics.  In the next few weeks we will do more testing in fours and combinations of crews that might race next year.  By the end of March I hope this process will be complete and then we will name crews for the first races in the summer. 

These won't necessarily be what races at the Games but will be a very strong indication.  So for now, it's more testing, lots of resting and generally keeping myself at my best.

Thanks for your support and if you want to know what happens day by day then follow me on Twitter.

Greg Searle is an Olympic rowing gold medallist and a BT Ambassador. BT is the official communications services partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Britain's Olympic rowers and would-be rowers converge on the London 2012 venue of Eton Dorney this weekend for the final trials – a last chance to establish themselves in a pecking order which will soon be picked over by head coach Jürgen Grobler and his team.

Graded grains have certainly made finer flour for Britain since Grobler arrived to oversee the coaching in 1992. Under his direct charge, the lead boat – either a pair or a four – has won gold at five consecutive Games. Steve Redgrave and Matt Pinsent won the first of those two as a pair in 1992 and 1996 before combining with James Cracknell and Tim Foster to win the four in the Sydney 2000 Games.

Two further victories were earned in the four, which looks like being the lead crew once again this year given the frustration Andy Triggs Hodge and Pete Reed – two of the Beijing 2008 four gold medallists – have encountered in trying to better the New Zealanders Eric Murray and Hamish Bond.

As the rowers set out in pairs onto the Olympic course this weekend, Triggs Hodge will have a seventh successive trials victory in his sights. But it will not necessarily guarantee him and Reed a crack at the Olympic pairs title this year against the Kiwis who have beaten them 14 consecutive times. Which in turn means Britain's world champion four of Alex Gregory, Tom James, Ric Egington and Matt Langridge will be under pressure to show they deserve the chance to seek Olympic glory without having to accommodate Triggs Hodge or Reed.


Meanwhile, as Britain's women look ahead to a Games on home water which they believe can yield their first Olympic gold, the world double sculls duo of Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins (pictured) will once again be pitted against each other as scullers will take part in the single at these trials. At the winter trials held at Boston in December it was the younger rower, Watkins, who came out on top. It would take a lot to undermine the Grainger-Watkins team given their outstanding record, but even Grainger, who can claim to be Britain's most distinguished female rower of all time, will know she cannot afford to relax or underperform.

As Grobler likes to say on such occasions: "There are no names under seats." All, or much, is still to play for. It's an exciting, nervy time for international exponents in a sport which has become something of an Olympic banker for Britain in recent years.

But while the internationals have been preparing themselves for Trial by Grobler, those just a little further down the rankings have been busying themselves with one of the most taxing of staging posts in the rowing season, the Head of the River Races on the Tideway course.

A week after the British trials have finished, the men's Head of the River race will take place on the stretch of Thames from Mortlake to Putney – the Boat Race course in reverse.


And last weekend, at the 72nd running of the Women's Eights Head of the River Race, top quality club rowers had the chance to contest the Head of the River title minus the usual international contingent.

Having covered the women's event on the day, I can bear witness to the fact that British Rowing has massive and growing strength in depth. And if you want a stirring reminder of the quality of British club rowing, I suggest you look at this video which has been put up on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRc3EnJtGAA&feature=youtu.be

This is the eight which claimed the Head of the River title for Thames Rowing Club for the first time since 2011. According to their cox Hannah Burke, from whose head cam we view the race – with the attention for much of the time on the lean, strong facing figure of Sophie Slaney at stroke – when the crew crossed the finish line several members were in tears because they felt they had not had a good row.

For this crew on this day – and in particular for the number seven, Emma Windham, who had twice been in crews which had finished runners-up – having a good row meant only one thing: winning.

But despite carving through the field – the Head of River Races are effectively time trials with crews going off singly at intervals – the Thames crew could not seem to make any impression upon the crew in front of them from the Zurich club in Switzerland.

When news came through that they had earned the Head title, having gained almost five seconds on Zurich, who were the second fastest crew on the day, champagne was already being drunk. But as Burke was happy to admit, drinking the rest of it "felt more worthy".


The video – put together with artful words and sound track by Thames vice-president Guin Batten (pictured left), who won Olympic silver in the quadruple scull with Grainger, sister Miriam and Gillian Lindsay in 2000 and is, among many other things, chair of the Head race committee – offers a stirring sense of what it takes, not just to win the women's Head of the River race, but what it takes to achieve in sport.

As the crew pass under the popular viewing position of Hammersmith Bridge, just over a mile and a half from the end of the 4 miles 374 yards course, the voice of the cox can be heard quite clearly.

"You've got to make a choice now whether we want to win this club pennant, whether we win the Head, and it's happening...right...NOW..."

Watch this. You will find your heart beating. It is what sport is about.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

Whilst many facets of the promise of sporting legacy are debated and discussed, one area which is already proving to have been positively impacted by the Games and offers a legacy beyond it is that of Sports Medicine.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the English Institute of Sport (EIS) being established as a network of experts across the country - ie so not new - but there's no denying that London 2012 and the increased funding commitment into high performance sport as a result has served as a catalyst to the development of infrastructure around high performance sport in terms of the elite sport science and medical expertise available.

When considering the non-elite population, in January, Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health, announced £30 million funding for a National Centre of Excellence for Sport and Exercise Medicine, as part of the London 2012 legacy.

The aim of this is to help more people to be more active, treat injuries caused by exercise and conditions associated with lack of exercise as well use exercise for those with ongoing conditions.   

Having been a part of discussions for this new centre since its inception in 2009, it highlights just how far the whole area of sports medicine has come since it began being practiced in the UK 20 years ago. Dealing with elite athletes at the EIS, we employ a team of 19 Sport and Exercise Medicine Doctors, 12 of which are on the GMC register in SEM, more than any other organisation in the UK.

Regionally, the links to investigative teams offering X-rays, MRI's and surgeons at the end of the line are a key element to the support we offer to athletes; quickly diagnosing and understanding issues, offering leading expertise to address them and a comprehensive support team to get athletes back on form, which uniquely at the EIS will be a mesh of sport science and medical support- such as psychology, nutrition, strength and conditioning, physiotherapy etc.



As sports have had increased performance funding through UK Sport Lottery funding, they have had the capacity to invest in the sport medicine and sport science support at the EIS as well as independently.

Through regular sessions held by the EIS with not only our own medical team but others from the high performance system, we've discussed current and future treatments and performance medicine issues to ensure the network is working together to deliver the best support to elite athletes. The National Centre of Excellence for Sport and Exercise Medicine, will hopefully further extend our reach and provide leading expertise in all sorts of areas which may benefit athletes –such as orthotics for example.

Solving problems around injuries or a particular condition, sourcing the best expertise to diagnose and treat them and most of all learning from them so we can prevent them in future is what we are all striving to achieve.

When an athlete faces an injury or condition, more than anyone else in society they have to deal with things very publicly and often their injuries and recovery is discussed very openly in the media. Ensuring athletes have the best support around them to get them back on their feet is vital and recent examples of the blend of expertise working to achieve that include Serita Shone, the bobsleigh athlete who suffered a serious spinal injury and is now back at home working with both EIS physiotherapy and psychology support; British diver Monique Gladding, who is back on the high board after a terrible accident in Russia; and Jessica Ennis (pictured) who returned to form after a fractured foot meant she needed biomechanical support to learn to jump off her other foot.


Recent high profile injuries such as taekwondo's Sarah Stevenson and triathlon's Alistair Brownlee, are involving support teams from both the EIS and their national governing bodies to ensure they have the best opportunity for recovery ahead of London 2012.

It's not unusual for our team to receive texts with images of X-rays or rashes from athletes overseas and, within the limits of modern technology, we are able to work with athletes both domestically and overseas and uniquely, often when time pressures exist, address the whole support team along with the athlete to get the treatments and solutions up and running as soon as possible. I don't know of anywhere else where this exists in medicine, as it's such a unique way of working.

Already we are seeing sports medicine integrating with a whole breadth of support services at the EIS to get athletes back on form. This, along with the new centre of excellence as well as the experience and lessons to learn from the breadth of EIS staff who will work directly with sports or as part of Team GB at the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, what we will be left with in the UK is a enviable network to provide athletes with enhanced care when they need it most.

The English Institute of Sport (EIS) works as the "Team Behind The Team", delivering 4000 hours of Sport Science and Sport Medicine to Olympic and Paralympic sports every week. For more information click here. 

Short of Usain Bolt testing positive after running the 100 metres final in 9.4sec or false-starting following a massive betting scam (I jest of course) only one thing could really strike terror into the hearts of the London 2012 organisers. A real strike. And that would be no joke, turning the Games from their anticipated triumph into utter disaster.

A couple of years ago I suggested to Lord Coe that the best thing he could do to ensure the Games did not suffer any disruption through strikes or other industrial action, was to give union leaders like Bob Crow a couple of VIP tickets apiece for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and other blue riband events. He smiled knowingly, and it was even seriously suggested in Parliament.

Presumably it hasn't happened because Britain's biggest union, the two million-strong Unite are threatening to wreck the Games as part of its stand-off with the Government against cuts to public sector pensions.


Len McCluskey (pictured), the 61-year-old general secretary of Unite is also urging other unions opposing the Coalition's pension plans and other austerity measures to target the Olympics, suggesting that the Games are fair game. It would be, he reckons, an ideal way to bring the grievances to the attention of as many people as possible.

He argues thus: "The attacks that are being launched on public sector workers at the moment are so deep and ideological that the world should arrive in London and have these wonderful Olympic Games as though everything is nice and rosy in the garden is unthinkable. The unions and the general community have got the right to be out protesting. If the Olympics provide us with an opportunity then that's one we should look at."

Naturally his observations have been condemned by the Prime Minister and even the opposition leader Ed Miliband, to whose Labour party Unite are the biggest donors, has been spurred to utter his disapproval.

Now I have no idea whether McCluskey has any great sporting passions, although he comes from Liverpool, so he might be a footy fan (presumably a Red), but he obviously cares little for the Games. His threats suggest he is not a good sport, but definitely a spoil sport.


He knows – as indeed does Crow (pictured) and his merry men – that the Olympics are a licence to hold the nation to ransom. Widespread action by Unite and Crow's Transport and General Workers Union could bring chaos to the Games as the membership covers not only rail and tube staff, but airline workers, tanker drivers, electricians, even the NHS.

Transport for London have already acceded to a form of blackmail by offering up to £500 for tube staff as a bonus for working during the Games. Now the underground drivers have added an Oliver Twist to this tale by demanding more.

The truth is, the unions have got LOCOG by the proverbials and they know it. They could cripple the Games and make London 2012 the laughing stock of the world.

As a long-standing unionist myself – I am a Life Member of the National Union of Journalists – I abhor such treacherous, mealy-mouthed tactics.

Not that I object to the Games being used as a genuine vehicle of protest when merited. I would support, for example, those who wish to register their disapproval of the continued presence of Saudi Arabia and other nations who practice sexual apartheid by blatantly discriminating against women in sport while the International Olympic Committee conveniently turns a blind eye.

But do we really want to see spectators having to cross industrial picket lines to get into the Olympic Stadium to cheer on Jessica Ennis, or the Velodrome to roar home Sir Chris Hoy?


As Tessa Jowell (pictured), Labour's Shadow Olympics Minister, who herself did so much to bring the Games to London, points out, such disruption would be totally counter-productive. London 2012 is the biggest shop window the nation may ever have to show off the best of British to the world, bringing in tourists whose spending will help lift the economic gloom. A paralysed, strike-hit Olympics would only demonstrate the worst of it.

Yes, the Olympics are costing us plenty, but they will be worth it and as Brothers McCluskey and Crow are well aware, they have created thousands of jobs, many of them for members of their unions.

It may well be that certain union bosses resent the lavishness of the Olympics, especially the OTT red carpet treatment meted out to bigwigs of the IOC. That may be understandable until you learn just how high some of their own salaries are and how royally they expect to be treated themselves.


McCluskey's predecessor at Unite, Derek Simpson (pictured) for example, regularly used London's Waldorf Hotel as a watering hole and received a pay-off of over half-a-million pounds when he left.

The Wildcats will certainly be in good company alongside the Fat Cats in the best seats if Coe and co can sort out a few.

Otherwise the only solution might be for the Government to bring in a Bill banning strikes and other industrial action immediately preceding and during, the Games. Radical, perhaps, but it is time for a reality check.

For as things stand the unions have brought back an old Olympic event, the tug-of-war, but the rope they are pulling is a scandalously political one which could eventually choke the Games.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title from Atlanta to Zaire.

The Dow Chemical Company has a problem.

Quite how big a problem it is frankly hadn't occurred to me until a conversation I had a few days ago with a sage of the corporate image-making industry.

"Dow has become the Chinese Torch Relay of this Games," argued said sage.

"It's not going away."

Personally, I'm not sure things have reached quite that stage.

However, it will be interesting to see how many of the mainstream news articles about the company's Olympic sponsorship that appear between now and August do not contain the word "India".

My guess is not many.

The issue, of course, is the way Dow's relatively new status as one of the International Olympic Committee's worldwide – or TOP – sponsors has been used to heap pressure onto the company over the Bhopal toxic gas disaster of 1984.

Michigan-based Dow had nothing to do with that disaster, which killed thousands of people.

But it later acquired the company, Union Carbide, at whose plant the leak occurred.

A great deal of time has passed and Union Carbide settled its liabilities with the Indian Government by paying $470 million (£298 million/€358 million) for Bhopal victims long before the Dow acquisition.

So I don't think Dow has a legal problem, but I do think it has a perceptual one and perhaps a moral one.

Let me just say at this point that, while I have no deep familiarity with the chemicals industry or indeed Bhopal, I have met George Hamilton (pictured), vice president of Dow's Olympic operations, and he struck me as an individual worthy of considerable respect.

I don't believe for one moment Hamilton and his colleagues are bad people, though they are subject to the usual raft of pressures that come with working for a hyper-efficient, publicly-quoted, multibillion dollar corporation.

Dow, you will probably recall, is producing the wrap that will encircle the Olympic Stadium during London 2012.

The perceptual problem, I think, is this: a bunch of predominantly poor families living pretty hard lives had those lives made 10 times harder by the consequences of a leak from an industrial facility owned by a company from the rich, powerful United States of America.

Notwithstanding Union Carbide's $470 million (£298 million/€358 million) payment, the lives of many people in the immediate vicinity remain, as I understand it, extremely hard.

From the momentum gathered by the present anti-Dow campaign, there seems to be a perception that the rich, powerful United States of America could and should do more to improve lives devastated by the leak.

In this context, Dow's understandable stance – that it had nothing to do with the catastrophe – though factually correct, appears to be doing little for its international image.

The moral argument runs like this:

Dow was able to acquire Union Carbide in part because, as the New York Times put it in reporting the deal in August 1999, "Carbide's investors have seen their investment stagnate in recent years".

It seems reasonable to think that this, in turn, was partly explained by the damage to the Union Carbide brand dealt by the Bhopal disaster.

If you accept this, then you could argue that Dow was able to acquire its rival at an attractive price partly because of what had happened in India.


And if you accept that, it does not seem all that much of a leap to argue that a portion of any value created by the deal ought perhaps to have been channelled to the Bhopal victims.

Dow's IOC sponsorship runs until 2020 and if this issue is not to risk undermining other benefits the partnership can undoubtedly deliver, then I think the company seriously needs to consider changing tack.

If it could show it was taking meaningful steps to help improve the lives of those affected by the catastrophe – as a matter of charity not obligation – the dividends to Dow in terms of international goodwill could far outweigh the cost of setting up and funding the initiative.

One possible approach would be for Dow to announce it was setting aside a meaningful sum of money over the balance of its term as a TOP sponsor for projects that would see it work in tandem with grass-roots charities in Bhopal.

Dow should insist that these local partners acknowledge in writing that the company has no legal responsibility for the disaster and stand up in public every once in a while to extol its efforts to help some very underprivileged individuals.

The company could derive further benefit by integrating Bhopal projects in the training programmes of its brightest young managerial prospects, for whom such schemes could act as highly stimulating proving-grounds.

It seems to me very important that assistance provided in this way should go as directly as possible to the victims of the catastrophe.

One hopes the Indian public authorities would recognise this as well and help Dow to ensure that its cash, materials and expertise were deployed as effectively as possible.

With events taking place in Sochi, Nanjing and Rio de Janeiro in the next four years, the Olympics should provide sponsors with an enviable vehicle for pursuing their ambitions in the fast-growing and populous BRIC economies we have heard so much about.

While this may help Dow to accelerate its growth in Brazil, Russia and China, it is hard to see it making any headway in the fourth BRIC – India – until this boil is lanced.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed by clicking here.

Like many others, I am not completely sold on the London 2012 Aquatics Centre.

The gleaming silver venue on the Olympic Park in Stratford is certainly Olympian in terms of size and scale but it is those two giant temporary wings that emanate from the main pool building that I just find difficult to warm to.

The wings themselves remember, were never meant to be there in the first place when multi-award winning Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid won the right to design the venue in 2004 before London actually won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics - due to the fact that the venue was going to be built regardless of whether the capital hosted the Games or not.

The stunning wave design, shown off in all its glory in computer-generated images, was hailed by all and it was seen it was quickly predicted to be the iconic venue of the Olympic Park as well as one that could rival the majestic Water Cube creation for Beijing 2008.


London subsequently won the 2012 bid on that famous day in Singapore on July 6, 2005, and construction quickly began on Hadid's latest masterpiece.

However, it was soon discovered that turning the stunning design into a reality was far easier said than done and, after spiralling costs, it was found that the best solution to get a 17,500 capacity venue for the Games was simply to put two huge wings on it at the cost of having an aesthetically pleasing or even iconic venue.

Incidentally, the actual cost of the Aquatics Centre is £269 million ($422 million/€321 million) which is three times over the original estimated.

After the Games, the wings will be removed as the venue reduces to a 2,500 capacity and finally becomes the structure that Hadid, who is unsurprisingly unhappy with the two protruding structures, originally envisaged.

"The stands were only ever seen as something temporary," Hadid explained.

"The final legacy mode will integrate the building more into the landscape - and that is how I wanted it."


But the fact remains that when the eyes of the world fall on London and the Aquatics Centre during the Olympics and Paralympics the wings will be in place and that is big shame.

However, things dramatically change once you walk through the doors and into the magnificent interior.

I have now been inside the Aquatics Centre on several occasions, the first of which was when it was officially completed on July 27, 2011, on one year to go to the Olympics, but never had I (or indeed anyone) seen it in operational mode until the Olympic diving test event late last month.

That competition though, has proved just to be a taster because it was at the swimming test event, the 2012 British Gas Swimming Championships, that the venue truly came into its own and gave a real glimpse of what to expect at London 2012.


The Championships, which also act as the Olympic and Paralympic trials for Britain's swimmers, saw thousands cram into the venue to create an atmosphere which can only be described as electric.

Despite who was competing, the noise level reached a deafening pitch as the UK's best swimmers reached the final few metres of their race and, such is the nature of the sport, that just centimetres often separated the winner from last place.

Excitement increased when it became apparent to all in attendance that only the top two placed athletes secured their spot at the Olympics and there were some truly spine-tingling moments when three swimmers were seen fighting down the home stretch with only two in sight of achieving their dream of returning to the venue in six month time.

Day one was magical, with Hannah Miley proving the star of the show by posting the fastest time in the world this year in the 400 metres individual medley to book her spot at the Olympics.

But despite the huge ovation she got, it was absolutely nothing compared to day two when the steel roof nearly caved in due to the noise from spectators that greeted the arrival of Britain's double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington.

The 23-year-old from Nottingham has also been an endearing individual with her "girl-next-door" attitude being seen as hugely refreshing in a world of shameless superstar athletes.

She unintentionally drew even more attention and support on the eve of the Championships after she admitted that she was extremely nervous about failing at the event and missing out on the Olympics.

"I'm so worried it's unbelievable," she said, in her typical candid way. "The amount of weight on my shoulders is killing me. It's just going to be such a relief if I do make it. You have to do it on the day, that's the most scary thing. You've only got one opportunity to do it - eight girls all going for two places and a time - it is a scary thought. I hope I qualify – that's the biggest thing, I just want the chance to go and race at my home Games."

Competing in the 400m freestyle event, against rivals Joanne Jackson and Eleanor Faulkner, the crowd were keen to show their support for the golden girl of British swimming.

But she appeared so nervous on the blocks that there were real worries that she might choke under the pressure.

But just seconds into the race, everyone quickly realised that there was little to be concerned about. As usual, Adlington quickly stormed into the lead and never looked back. By the final length, she was well out in front and the crowd rose as one in an emotional moment to greet her as she touched to claim gold and a London 2012 berth, which by now felt as if it was never in doubt.


It was an additional bonus to see Jackson, who won bronze in the event at the Beijing 2008 Olympics behind Adlington (pictured), finish second to also secure the selection criteria for the Olympic Games. Jackson, a close friend of Adlington, has had asthma and medical conditions have plagued her in recent years and they forced her to miss the World Championships last year in Shanghai. This moment meant redemption and it was a touching moment for all to see the pair hug following the race.

"I have so much relief and happiness right now," said Adlington following the victory. "I was crying my eyes out. Joanne and me have been through so much together, through four years of training and I missed her last year. The Olympics here will be the biggest thing I will experience. Now that I'm going it is the best feeling in the world.

She also admitted that it was the fans that had made the moment so special.

"The atmosphere was fantastic and everyone in the pool was feeling the pressure.

"It's an unbelievable venue and it was so nice to have my family in the stands. I am definitely reminded of Beijing and to be here with Jo is extra special. I am so happy and a bit too emotional. So many months preparing, four years, you can't imagine how good it feels."

Following the stunning race, the fans slowly began to depart and I found myself looking up into the giant wings. They are actually closed off for the test event, but certain gaps in the curtain cladding in front of them allow you to see the endless rows of seats that seemingly go on forever. Perhaps if just a few thousand can create such a special atmosphere at a test event, a full 17,500 will create something truly extraordinary at London 2012 when Adlington returns and the likes of American icon Michael Phelps grace the beautiful pool.

Maybe then, the wings won't seem so ugly and we will find that despite the criticism, the Aquatics Centre could yet prove the blue-ribbon venue on the Olympic Park.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames 

Often when I think about the forthcoming London 2012 Games I am put in mind of that old game you could – and perhaps still can - play in seaside amusement arcades.

No, of course I don't mean the shove halfpenny machine where you invest coin after coin to earn either baubles or nothing.

No, of course I don't mean the mechanical grabbers with the imperfectly co-ordinated joints which transport soft toys towards a point of exit before failing to deliver them.

Honestly, what are you like?

What I am thinking of is the horse racing game where you put your money on a gee-gee which slides mechanically towards the winning post and looks about to win only to allow a rival, or rivals, to pass it shortly before the line.

Putting aside the disappointment of losing 10p, which is not too hard, there is a residual fascination with seeing the late runners arrive to claim their triumph, just as there is a special satisfaction in witnessing Olympic victories which go to competitors or teams who, effectively, time their run to perfection.

Ann Packer (pictured below left), Tokyo, 1964. Arrives with 400 metres gold in mind, and has to settle for silver. Then, after seeing her fiancé Robbie Brightwell miss out on a medal by one place in the men's 400m, she cancels a shopping trip and enters the 800m, a distance she has raced only five times previously. Slowest of the eight finalists, she is sixth after 400m and third after 600m. The other gee-gees have got it! No they haven't...


After 800m, the young Briton is first, having accelerated clear down the home straight and crossed the line with a beatific, dawning smile.

Jack Beresford and Dick Southwood, Berlin, 1936. The British double sculls pairing have arrived in Germany without their newly made boat, which has been held up in transit. Before a final at which Adolf Hitler is due to be present to witness an expected victory for the home favourites, the "missing" boat is discovered in a railway siding. Film footage of the race shows the German pair more than a length clear with 500m remaining before the camera pans away to a stand filled with excited spectators waving Nazi flags. When it pans back, the British pair are ahead and they extend their lead to claim what Beresford – who won three Olympic golds and two silvers – later described as the sweetest race he ever rowed.

Dave Wottlen (pictured below), Munich, 1972. The thin, pale young American had emerged from nowhere to make his mark at the Olympic trials. In a final where the Ukraine's Evgheni Arzhanov was the favourite, Wottle – sporting the golf cap he continued to wear out of superstition despite the fact that his hair was no longer of a length to require its restrictive grip - dropped 10 metres behind the rest of the field in the first lap, and was still last at the bell.

Halfway down the home straight he was in fourth place, but moving faster than the two Kenyans ahead of him, Mike Boit and Robert Ouko, and Arzhanov, who was five metres clear. Two strides from the line the cool cat in the hat had reached silver medal position; and in those two strides he exchanged silver for gold as Arzhanov collapsed at the finish.


In retrospect, there are those who seem destined, fated, to win Olympic titles. Of course, it's a lot easier in retrospect.

But for those making their final preparations for the looming challenge of the third London Olympics, all is to play for, and all is to worry about. Have they done too much? Have they not done enough? That omnipresent event which all Olympians must enter – the test of nerve – is already well underway.

Speaking this week to Richard Mantell (pictured below left), who has been a regular member of the England and – as far as London 2012 is concerned – Great Britain hockey teams since 2005, the topic soon turned to Olympic prospects.

Early last December Mantell and his team-mates had had to settle for sixth place out of eight in the Champions Trophy held at Auckland, New Zealand, losing four of their six matches, and enduring an 8-1 defeat by Spain, who eventually lost the final 1-0 to Australia.


That underwhelming performance contrasted markedly with last month's glorious Champions Trophy effort by the British women, who earned silver in losing 1-0 to the hosts, Argentina, having beaten Germany in their semi-final.

So which is the right approach? Will the women simply charge on? Or are the men proceeding according to a plan which will see them peak, Wottle-style, at the Olympics?

Mantell pointed out that the expectation had not been great for the men ahead of Auckland, given that they were in the middle of the hardest and most gruelling part of their London 2012 preparation.

"We did a lot of heavy training at the back end of 2011 – lots of long runs and heavy lifting to create the fitness base we needed," he said. "We hadn't done any of the shorter, sharper work.

"We knew we had to get out physical preparation right for the Olympics, which meant doing the hard work then. We had discussed it as a group and we were very clear about it."

Certainly no one could have accused the men's head coach, Jason Lee, of heaping pressure on them beforehand. "We're miles off our peak, so I'm guessing it will be the poorest we play all year," Lee announced in one of the more unusual statements issued by a head coach on the eve of a big tournament.

Having said that, Charles van Commenee, head coach of UK Athletics, has adopted a similar approach to the forthcoming IAAF World Indoor Championships, making it clear that he has not set any medal targets for British athletes competing there.

Mantell, one of the more experienced members of the side at 30, readily recalls the occasion in 2009 when England's men – who comprise the main part of the British team - claimed their first major hockey title since the 1920 Olympics.

He scored two penalties as a side which had finished the Bejing Games in fifth place the year before excelled themselves to beat the Olympic champions, Germany, 5-3 in the European championship final.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, veteran hockey correspondent Pat Rowley suggested that Lee deserved a special award for "bringing his team to a peak at exactly the right time", adding that there was little doubt Britain's men would be serious Olympic contenders in 2012.

Mantell, as you might expect and hope, concurs with that sentiment. "The experience we had in 2009 is vital to us," he said.

Having recently returned with his team-mates from a training break in South Africa, he has found himself with a certain amount of time to please himself before entering the final straight in terms of Olympic preparations.


Part of the R and R has been a motorised assault-course of a race in Minis against two prospective Olympians who, like him, are partly supported by BMW – high jumper Martyn Bernard and 400m hurdler Perri Shakes-Drayton. The activity, on a racing circuit, involved slalom courses and barrages of wet sponges – but obviously nothing too risky with London 2012 in the offing.

Mantell, meanwhile, is confident that the British men's hockey team will time their London effort as they did in 2009. "We know we are definitely on track," he said.

The Olympic test event at the Riverbank Arena in the Olympic Park from May 2 until 6 will offer the next big opportunity for that confidence to be put to the test. Before then, however, there are matches in prospect against South Korea and – Spain.

So will the Spanish fixture see a spot of table-turning as far as the hosts are concerned. An 8-1 win, perhaps. "9-1" replies Mantell. "That's the plan..."

Watch Richard Mantell, Perri Shakes-Drayton and Martyn Bernard take a break from training for the London 2012 Olympic Games and compete against each other in a MINI track day challenge. To watch the 400m hurdles, hockey and high jump Olympic hopefuls getting competitive on the MINI assault course, find out who clocks the fastest lap, and win exclusive signed MINI merchandise, click here.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

The Queen will set an Olympic record of her own when she speaks the traditional sixteen words to open the 2012 Olympic Games this summer.

Her Majesty, who is patron of the British Olympic Association (BOA), will be the first head of state to open a summer Olympic Games on two separate occasions.

In 1976, she performed the opening of the Montreal Games, and unusually made the declaration in French  to reflect the heritage of Quebec. She had been invited to do so on the advice of the Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau. For the Queen, there was another reason for this to be memorable. As her daughter Princess Anne, an eventing competitor, took part in the march past as part of the Great Britain team. In 1992, King Juan Carlos of Spain had a similar experience and reviewed a parade that included his son Prince Felipe.

In 1956, The Queen had attended the opening of the Olympic equestrian events held in Stockholm because of difficulties with quarantine regulations in Melbourne. She watched her own horse Countryman ridden by Bertie Hill (pictured), play his part in Great Britain's gold medal winning three day event team. They were received on the Royal Yacht Britannia before leaving Stockholm.


That November, Prince Philip, dressed in full naval uniform, opened the main part of the Games before a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground. On that occasion he represented the Queen.

In 1948, then still Princess Elizabeth, she had been an expectant mother at the time of the London Games. A matter of days before the opening she had been presented with the Lychnos or lamp used at the lighting of the Olympic flame. This was a gift from the Hellenic Olympic Committee. Much later she used a 1948 Olympic torch at the 1977 silver jubilee celebrations to light the first of a chain of beacons.

At the opening ceremony on a scorching day, her father George VI made the opening declaration and Prince Philip later acted as the starter for the cycling road race in Windsor Great Park, offered as a venue by the King.

The Queen's own involvement this year in both Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies sets the seal on over a century or Royal involvement with the Games.

When he revived the Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin solicited the support of the Prince of Wales at the establishment of the International Olympic Committee in 1894.

Within seven years, the Prince had become King Edward VII, and in 1908, he performed the ceremonial opening of the Games.


After the dramatic conclusion to the marathon when the Italian Dorando was disqualified, Queen Alexandra (pictured) presented the runner with a special cup by way of consolation.

After the first world war, the Queen's uncle David, Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) was an enthusiastic supporter of the Games and travelled with Prince Henry to the 1924 "Chariots of Fire" Olympics in Paris. He led the British team to the Arc de Triomphe and laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

He was guest of honour at a BOA banquet for 200, including Marshall Foch. At one point, leapt to his feet and handed glasses of champagne to the pipers who were serenading the guests.

At the opening ceremony in the Stade de Colombes,he sat alongside Baron Pierre de Coubertin and the French President Gaston Domergue.

Coubertin later recalled how "one afternoon the Prince looked at his watch and asked anxiously, 'I would very much like to go and play polo in the Bois de Boulogne but if there is an Englishman due to compete I cannot go'."

There was, and the Prince stayed in his seat " without the slightest sign of annoyance."

At least the events in 1924 were all complete by early evening. By the time the Queen is invited to speak on July 27, it will be almost midnight.

Philip Barker, a freelance journalist, has been on the editorial team of the Journal of Olympic History and is credited with having transformed the publication into one of the most respected historical publications on the history of the Olympic Games. He is also an expert on Olympic music, a field which is not generally well known