To mark 100 days to go until the start of the London Games the International Olympic Committee has launched a social media platform where fans can ‘connect’ with their favourite athletes and former Olympic stars.

The Olympic Athletes’ Hub aggregates the verified social media feeds of more than 1,000 current and former Olympians. It will post content directly from their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Users will be able to access exclusive training-tips videos and gain virtual and real-world prizes according to how many athletes they like and follow online.

All the athletes’ accounts are verified by a couple different agencies, so all the updates, pics, and videos you’ll find at the Hub will be certifiably genuine.

Read the rest of this entry →

Wednesday marked 100 days until the Olympic Games and events were held around the world to celebrate the countdown to the Opening Ceremony Parade in London.
In New York City, the US Olympic Committee transformed Times Square into an Olympic Village for the exclusive unveil of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s new “Raise Our Flag” program. Fans were invited to join U.S. athletes for the Team USA Road to London celebrations. As part of the festivities, Olympic competitors across a variety of sports provided a sneak peak of Team USA’s Olympic fashions designed by Ralph Lauren.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic closing ceremony parade uniforms and village wear were unveiled in a Today show segment.

Olympic taekwondo medalists Diana and Steven Lopez revealed the men’s and women’s Closing Ceremony parade uniforms.
The women’s closing ceremony uniform pairs a white button-front blouse (emblazoned with a red, white and blue Team U.S.A. logo and the label’s Big Pony logo in navy) with a knee-length skirt that also buttons down the front to create a shirt dress look. The men’s version pairs a similarly logofied white button-front sport shirt and white pleat-front trousers, and both outfits are accessorized with silk repp-stripe belts in red, white and navy blue pattern, that, for the women, also appears on a silk scarf that ties at the neck.

Olympic decathlon champion Bryan Clay, Olympic swimming champion Rebecca Soni, 2012 Olympic gymnastics hopeful Aly Raisman and three-time Olympic water polo medalist Tony Azevedo modeled from the Ralph Lauren village wear collection including the mesh polo, Create Your Own USA polo, Olympic tank and tunic.

The opening ceremony looks will be revealed later on; in the meantime, selected pieces from the Ralph Lauren 2012 Team USA Olympic Collection are already on sale at RalphLauren.com.

The London Underground Map has been redesigned for the Olympics, with each of the 361 stations named after an Olympic icon.

As part of London’s Olympic celebrations, the London Underground Map has been transformed, with stations renamed after legendary Olympic superstars.

The new map brings in famous Olympians from a variety of sports, including US swimmer Michael Phelps, gymnastics great Nadia Comaneci from Romania, Spaniard and five-time Tour de France champion Miguel Indurain and 1992 US Dream Team basketball players Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.

Tennis players included on the map are: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Fernando Gonzalez, Laurence Doherty, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Nicolas Massu, Mark Woodforde, Todd Woodbridge, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Boris Becker, Michael Stich, Justine Henin, Serena Williams and Venus Williams.

The Underground Olympic Legends Map was designed by Alex Trickett, international editor for the BBC sport website, and sports historian David Brooks.

The map not only celebrates multiple gold medal winning athletes but also features other extraordinary athletes who may not have won an Olympic gold medal but are recognised for their abilities or in some cases, famous defeats

To view an enlarged version of the map, click here.

Via insidethegames

We already showed you the Great Britain and Australian Olympic kits, let’s have a look at the Danish Olympic kit, which will be worn by Caroline Wozniacki this summer.

The official Danish Olympic wardrobe was presented for the first time to athletes and the public at the Danish Sports Awards in early January.
The collection is designed by JACK & JONES and VERO MODA together with the two Olympic kayakers Henriette Engel Hansen and Kasper Bleibach and future Olympic swimmer Rikke Møller Pedersen.

Check out this video showing the work behind the Olympic wardrobe:

Read the rest of this entry →

adidas and the Australian Olympic Committee were joined by several outstanding athletes including Sally Pearson, Mitchell Watt, Craig Mottram, Jess Schipper, Bronte Campbell, Henry Frayne, Cate Campbell, Jenna O’Hea and Natalie Cook to unveil the lightest and fastest team uniform ever worn by the Australian team.

adidas focused on lightwright, stronger and cooler fabrics, incorporating its ClimaCoolTM technology in all key apparel. The footwear is also said to be 25% lighter than the shoes worn in Beijing in 2008, thanks to adidas adizero concept.

Beyond the technological benefits of the London 2012 range, Australian athletes will look the part as they take the stage thanks to adidas’ country DNA project. This DNA design thread was established to create an innovative and visual identity that best captured and celebrated Australia’s personality and then incorporated throughout selected items within the range, with design elements and motifs placed according to the motion of the athlete in their discipline. The Kangaroo was chosen as a motif for the Country DNA because of its meaning and value to the nation.

Here are twelve posters that have been created by leading British artists to celebrate London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The artists were asked to create imagery that celebrates the Olympic Games coming to London and expresses the values of the Olympics and Paralympics.

The images will go on show at Tate Britain in a free exhibition as part of the London 2012 Festival this summer, full details can be found on the festival website www.london2012.com/festival. The images will also be featured as part of a high profile campaign to promote the London 2012 Games.

The posters (at a cost of £7) and a small number of limited edition prints are available to order on the London 2012 online shop.

Rachel Whiteread – LOndOn 2O12
For her print, she has composed a pattern of overlapping rings in the Olympic colours. The rings explore the emblem of the Olympic Games, and also represent marks left by drinking bottles or glasses. They act as memories of a social gathering, such as the athletes in the stadium during the opening ceremony or the spectators of the Olympic Games.

Read the rest of this entry →