I wouldn’t usually refer to major youth sporting events as buses but after having a prolonged period without one, two came along at once.

The first event was last month’s inaugural Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore which had all the glitz and glamour you might expect of such an event.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) members were out in force, the spectacular Opening and Closing Ceremonies took place on the world’s largest floating stage and ambassadors for the Games included current sporting legends such as Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and Yelena Isinbayeve.

The second event was the slightly less well publicised Sainsbury’s UK School Games which took place in the North East of England at sporting venues across Gateshead, Newcastle and Sunderland.

Just days after arriving back from the latter competition in Singapore and still struggling to shake of the effects of my lingering jetlag, I headed off to North East of England for the former not really expecting to be overawed by the event following my trip to Asia.

The annual UK School Games, which is organised by the Youth Sport Trust widely credited as being the brainchild of former Labour Sports Minister Richard Caborn, was inaugurated in Glasgow in 2006 meaning that the competition in the North East of England was the fifth edition of the event.

In the past, it has been unfairly labeled as a glorified school sports day but over the years, it has gradually grown in stature to become rather more respected.

This was the first thing that hit me upon arriving at Gateshead with the large posters of young athletes around the city reminding me of the ones I had witnessed in Singapore.

Another thing that quickly evoked pleasant memories of Singapore for me was the general buzz of emanating from the young athletes I spoke to. There was that same infectious excitement I encountered in seeing them and their bright faces at the prospect of competing in large stadiums and in front of large crowds for the first time. 

I must admit, I didn’t have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the UK School Games before heading to North East England so it was the little things that surprised me most such as the fact that there was an Athlete’s Village and an Opening Ceremony.

When I heard about the Opening Ceremony before heading to the event, I thought it would be one individual making a short speech in a small room about how great the UK School Games is so I was rather taken aback to find myself sitting in Gateshead International Stadium last Thursday (September 2) watching 1,600 elite school aged athletes parading in front of the assembled VIP’s and public.

The event was hosted by no less than BBC Sport presenter Jill Douglas and saw the Cultural Secretary Jeremy Hunt and triple jump world record holder Jonathan Edwards (pictured) speak before Vancouver 2010 winter Olympic gold medalist Amy Williams, who had also travelled to Singapore to help mentor the British athletes, took to the stage and declared the Games open.

There were ten sports on show on the packed four-day programme and of the admittedly small amount I did get to see, I was mightily impressed by the standard.

It wasn’t as high as the standard I saw from the young Olympians in Singapore, but I saw a couple of individuals who could give them a run for their money - not least the 100 metre sprint champion at the event David Bolarinwa who actually won a Youth Olympic silver and bronze medal in Singapore.

Before draw too many comparisons between the Youth Olympics and the UK School Games, I must add that there were a fair few differences. The North East of England, while surprising charming, does not provide the stunning backdrop of Singapore and the venues, while top-notch, were not the world class ones I sat in Singapore. I could also refer to the obvious factors such as the North East of England being a fair amount colder than South East Asia but I feel I would be straying from my point a little.

I guess in looking back at the two, the biggest surprise must be that there was any similarity between the two at all but there in fact many. Good sport, friendly volunteers, a huge excitement among the athletes a small selection of future stars who already have the look of being future Olympic medallists.

In fact, some of the first athletes’ to compete in the UK School Games will be representing Delhi at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds has gone on to do rather well since picking up a medal at the event.

I am not saying that Gateshead, Newcastle and Sunderland are anything like Singapore, but they do a rather good impression.

The UK School Games are set to run to 2012 in their current format until before they become the pinnacle of the new Olympic and Paralympic-style schools sports competition launched by Hunt and Education Secretary Michael Grove in May.



The 2011 event will be held in Sheffield while whispers suggest that the Olympic Park in Stratford could be a potential venue for the 2012 event but that is another story for another time.

The current dilemma is whether the UK School Games can retain its unique feel of being top class sporting event for youngsters when they become the new Olympic and Paralympic-style schools sports competition finals post 2012 but Hunt assured me that it would.

"We want to build on the structures we have," the Cultural Secretary informed me not long before he spoke at the Opening Ceremony. "We are not in the business of ripping everything up and starting again. I think the UK School Games has come a lot way in five years. I was just talking to Sue Campbell [the Chair of the Youth Sport Trust] on the way here and the way we describe it is that we can use the Schools Olympics to turbo-charge the UK School Games. They will essentially become the National Finals of the School Olympics.

"There are lots of things that we are thinking about that we can do which we think will help develop it. What we want to do is develop a project where this is the top of the pyramid and lots and lots of things further down.

"I’m incredibly impressed by this event though and it really is a mini-Olympics with the Village and the transport arrangements which gives the youngsters a flavor of what it is all about."

With the Cultural Secretary on side, it seems the UK School Games have half the battle won in ensuring their own long term legacy.

But in fairness, any sports event that can make North East England resemble Singapore probably deserves a lifespan past 2012. 

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames who covered the inaugural Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and the Sainsbury’s UK School Games

Customers wishing to buy crime fiction at the Waterstones store in Piccadilly this afternoon needed to be unusually patient.

One by one they arrived, heading, as perhaps so often before, for the shelves laden with the works of Jeffrey Deaver, Ian Rankin and Patricia Cornwell. One by one their expressions were first bewildered, then thwarted as they were ushered away from the "event" due to take place just behind a stand marked "Blue Murder" - a book signing by the global phenomenon known as Usain Bolt.

It has to be said that even the mention of the world’s fastest man did not instantly disperse the cross looks on some faces. "Looks frightfully complicated," announced one well-spoken mum as she ushered her two young children away from the expectant melee of photographers and TV crews corralled in front of the signing desk, and the phalanx of patient visitors, the most enthusiastic of whom had begun queuing outside the door at 6.30am - five-and-a-half hours before Jamaica’s pride and joy was due to arrive.

"We had some people here before I got here at 7.00am," said one Waterstones employee who had seen ‘em all come and go for book signings over the years: Pele, Bobby Charlton, Lewis Hamilton, Girls Aloud... "This is reaching those numbers," she added.

The first wave of Bolt fans awaited the signal to advance, many of them clutching copies of the book, logically titled "Usain Bolt – My Story", with little yellow post-it notes attached bearing the name which the famed sprinter would be asked to inscribe.

Downstairs, another battalion of Bolt lovers stood ready. Outside, further reinforcements had been marshalled into queues that stretched back down Piccadilly and round the corner into Church Place.

Right at the back of the queue - again, logically - stood the Last Person In The Queue. It was William, all the way from Whitehall. And he knew he was the Last Person In The Queue because the polite store employees had told him so.

William was so far back, he didn’t even have one of the little grey numbered raffle tickets staff had been handing out all morning. A few places in front of him, a Jamaican gent called Sheldon, sporting a nifty Usain Bolt cap in national colours with those twin peaks of world records emblazoned on it - 9.58, 19.19 - produced his ticket, merely out of the goodness of his heart. It was number 218.

Back inside, where the people with the smaller numbers stood, you could have cut the tension with a tension cutter - that’s if you could ever find a tension cutter. Although why are people always so set on cutting tension? Why can’t tension just be left?

Anyway. Faces were straining backwards now, towards the stairs, waiting for their Man.

Terri, a native of Florida who was staying in London on vacation, was one of several in the queue who had seen details about the signing on Bolt’s Facebook site. What a lot of friends this man has.

"I’ve had a quick look through the book already," she said. "It looks a very good read."

June, from Maldon, looked a little preoccupied, but it was fair to assume she was excited inside. "He’s amazing, all the records he sets," she said. Was it the records, or Bolt’s winning personality which had drawn her to Piccadilly on this fine autumnal afternoon?
"It’s both really," she said.

There was a ripple of uncertainty when several men in suits wandered up the stairs very obviously carrying newly bought copies of Tony Blair’s new book - I Was Right - in the manner of self conscious fourth formers who have just discovered Albert Camus or Hunter S Thompson.

Was the former Prime Minister about to stage a rival signing? Well no.

The only other signing due that day, an employee explained patiently, would be at 6.00. Dom Joly.

Barely had that bombshell exploded when the patient hordes had their wish.

The Man was here, loping quietly up the stairs as a very British reserve broke out all around him. Wearing a grey hoodie, with the
legend: Usain Bolt…To Da World - whatever that means - he strode up to the table and produced his trademark Firing The Bow stance for the flickering lightning of the cameras.



When the photo-opportunity had finished, and Bolt was allowed to relax the grin he has grinned all over the world in the last couple of years, he sat down at the desk and began the long business of signing with the care of an eager schoolboy.

Figures knelt before him, bearing mobile phone cameras. The Adoration of the Main Guy.

After they had been ushered to, and then away from, the centre of attention, Catherine and Lizzie were detained by the BBC cameras and asked for their impressions of the sprinter.

They were happy to repeat their views for insidethegames readers.

"He was nice," said Catherine. "He just said 'Have a nice day, hope you didn’t have to wait too long..'"

For these two, Bolt’s autograph completed a set. At last month’s Diamond League meeting in Crystal Palace, they had got the monickers of Linford Christie and the American who proved back in July that the world and Olympic champion was not unbeatable -Tyson Gay.

"Tyson Gay was really charming," Lizzie said. "We thought he might be all moody, but he wasn’t like that at all."

Yasmin Rashid and her friend Raj Patel, two 17-year-old club sprinters from East Grinstead and Crawley respectively, were also pleasantly disposed towards the Signing Man.

"We’ve seen him run at Crystal Palace, but it was weird to meet him," Yasmin said. "He had a very firm handshake," Raj added.

Darna was one of the few present who had met Bolt before - she had ended up sitting near to him last year when she was flying home to London after visiting Jamaica.

"He had some photos taken with me," she recalled. "He’s still in touch with his roots. He’s got time for the people."

As she spoke, Bolt was living up to her words, bent over book number one hundred and whatever with painstaking attention. It was going to be a long session for Usain. A 400 metres of a session…

Back outside, the queue had advanced. But only marginally. William from Whitehall was still there, hoping…

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last 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

Vitali Klitschko says the mere thought it makes him want to throw up and Amir Khan can’t bring himself to watch it, saying women should stick to tennis.

But like it or lump it, women’s boxing is here to stay, as several hundred female fighters from 70 nations will demonstrate when their world championships begin at the Garfield Sobers Stadium in Barbados next week.

The biggest-ever female fight fest since women first swapped lip gloss for gumshields is a prelude to the sport’s Olympic debut in London two years hence. You’ve come a long way, million dollar babies. Not least in this country.

In Barbados England have three representatives, at flyweight (51kg), lightweight (60kg) and welterweight (69kg). They are, respectively, Nicola Adams, 27, from Leeds and Amanda Coulson and Savannah Marshall, both from Hartlepool. All are members of the seven-strong GB squad which has been assembled to vie for the three Olympic berths. Two other members of the unit, Sharon Holford and Chantelle Cameron, will compete at the non-Olympic weights of bantamweight(54kg) and light-welterweight(64kg) respectively. Although the hard-hitting Marshall boxes at welterweight in Barbados she is being groomed to move up to the Olympic middleweight category of 75kg for 2012.

Whatever the detractors might say - and Klitschko and Khan are by no means alone in their chauvinistic shunning of ladies who punch -  women’s boxing is now flourishing, so much so that, as insidethegames revealed earlier, a girls’ tournament is on the cards for the next Youth Olympics in China.

All of which is particularly good news for 28-year-old Coulson, one-time suffragette of sock who helped clobber the early prejudice in Britain and is now rewarded for her pioneering spirit with a deserved place in the Caribbean sun.

Adams, who won a silver medal in the last World Championships, two years ago, has returned from injury and like Coulson, boxed with distinction in recent overseas tournaments. She may well win another medal.

No doubt the star of the show will be the redoubtable Irish girl, Katie Taylor, at 24 a two-times world lightweight champion and women’s football international. But it could be that one of the battling Brits will steal her thunder.

The 19-year-old Marshall (pictured) may be a woman of few words - that’s why they call her "The Silent Assassin" - but her fists certainly do any necessary talking.

She has stopped or ko’d almost half her 28 opponents, losing  only twice on points, the last time a couple of months ago when she forfeited her European Union title  on a narrow points decision in Hungary, winning the silver medal.

It was a bout that could have gone either way but Marshall acknowledges it as fair result and vows to do better in Barbados.

At least, that’s what we think she told us, because she doesn’t say much at all, and when she does it is in an almost inaudible whisper.

They say about young ladies that it is the quiet ones who usually turn out to be the tigresses, and they certainly don’t come any quieter than six-footer Savannah.

It isn’t that she is either timid or taciturn. She’s simply painfully shy, preferring the gift of the jab to that of the gab, a rarity in boxing where the ability to jaw as well as war is an inherent part of the game.

So more often than not it left to fellow Hartlepudlian Coulson and the Headland Club coach Tim Coulter to speak up for her. Says Coulson,  three-times ABA and European silver medallist (who incidentally looks more a candidate for the catwalk than a ringwalk). "When I started 13 years there was a lot of negative feedback, they didn't want girls in the gym. But they got over that initial shock that a woman wants to box and accepted her like they had eventually accepted me. I already knew Savannah through our families. She has been boxing for six years and is a natural hard hitter with real ability.

"She’s a fantastic athlete who tried most sports as a youngster and will naturally grow into the 75kg division. Really she’s just a kid at the moment and the fact that she is so shy and laid back could be a positive thing because there’s less pressure of you take it all in your stride as she does. Some people could fall apart thinking about the Olympics all the time. But to think that there are two girls from Hartlepool in the world championships and who are potential Olympians, well, that’s just amazing."

Coach Coulter adds: "When Savannah she first came to the gym I wasn't a fan of female boxing and I thought we'd soon get rid of her. So the next time she came in I put her in sparring with one of the decent lads and what surprised me the most was the aggression on her. When I got a glimpse of her face when she was going in for the attack it was a bit of a shock.

"None of the lads have held back on her. When they come from other clubs they say, 'I'm not sparring with a lass, am I?' But by the end of the first round they're trying to take her head off. You forget it's a female when someone's punching you hard in the face."

Marshall won all 10 of her junior fights, was European gold medallist in her fifth senior contest and once knocked down a leading male amateur, Steve Hart, in a sparring session. "She hits like a lad," Hart recalls ruefully, adding: "She certainly changed my mind about women’s boxing."

Marshall blushes modestly as you painfully extract the information that the punch was a body shot, her speciality. Clearly she doesn’t like to boast about her accomplishments, believing her actions in the ring, where she boxes with a maturity beyond her years, speak louder than any words. If it happens, she will embrace stardom reluctantly, baulking at the suggestion that she could become one of Britain’s biggest names in the Olympics. "I don’t know about that," she murmurs at the magnificently equipped GB squad training hg at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. "I don’t realty believe in the stuff people say. Whatever happens, happens. I’m still learning."

Marshall has put on hold a proposed Teeside University course in sports science, in which she has a BTEC national diploma, to concentrate on her boxing career. "I just live for boxing, there’s nothing else .I never did much of that going out and drinking so I don’t really miss it now."

For her, that was quite a mouthful. My hunch is that while we might not hear much more from this likely lass with fire in her fists. we’ll certainly will be hearing quite a lot more about her.

Hopefully, her silence will be golden.  

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered 11 summer Olympics, scores of world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire and has always been an advocate of women’s boxing

What a roaring success!

The 2010 Youth Olympics have come and gone in the blink of an eye and as the dust begins to settle on the 12 days of action, it appears that there is barely an ounce of criticism towards them.

The event, credited as being the brainchild of International Olympic Committee President (IOC) Jacques Rogge, has very quickly managed to establish itself as an important part of the Olympic Movement and although Rogge himself suggested there were big critics of his concept before Singapore 2010, they are no doubt few and far between now that the inaugural competition is over.

Some of the biggest triumphs of the Games involved the instances where new and exciting risks were taken, and seemingly all paid off. I refer in particular to the innovative 3-on-3 basketball concept that wowed the media as much as spectators. It was fast, furious and immensely fun and therefore deservedly won a huge amount of plaudits for the youthful enthusiasm it injected into proceedings.

Another success story was that of the male and female mixed team events in the sports of triathlon and swimming. All the races seemed to produce extraordinary tension and nail-biting finishes which in sport, is only a good thing.

Away from the field of play, it was the cultural and education programme, in which all the youngsters participated, to which the majority of praise was directed. The programme included the athletes talking to elite competitors, such as Olympic gold medallist pole vault stars Sergei Bubka and Yelena Isinbayeva, in a "Chat with Champions" series as well as workshops on the value of friendship, the dangers of doping and benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

The success of 3-on-3 basketball, mixed relays and the cultural and education programme were in fact such as success that the IOC have stated there are plans to introduce all three to the senior Olympic programme as early as Rio 2016, although the culture and education programme will obviously be adapted for the different age category.

There were other great successes at the Games, not least the camaraderie shown between young athletes who bonded not through the spoken word, but the through the language sport.

But for me, the real hero of the Games was the Republic of Singapore itself.

The IOC’s choice of host for the inaugural Youth Olympics was always going to be crucially important for the long-term success of the Games as they required a city that could essentially organise and mini-Olympics to such as standard that it was not simply dismissed as a glorified run-around for kids.

On February 21, 2008, Rogge announced Singapore as hosts for the Games in a heated bid process that saw the city-state see off Athens, Bangkok, Turin and Moscow. The bad news for Singapore though was that it had just over two years to organise the competition and given that London has seven years to plan 2012, it puts things into perspective.

However, Singapore rose magnificently to the challenge and the thing that struck most during the Games is how much importance was place on the small details. You simply couldn’t get lost because there were too many helpful volunteers stationed at every corner and it was difficult to be late to any event on the small island because buses, and the wonderful air-conditioned tube - or Mass Rapid Transit as it is officially known - runs like clockwork.

The venues were first class as was the sporting action that took place inside them but best of all for me was the location of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies which was no less than world’s largest floating stage in the stunning Marina Bay.

There are few Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies that aren’t spectacular but there was something truly unique about being in a location that overlooks Marina Bay and its iconic skyscrapers a night as oppose to sitting in a stadium.

My one complaint was that the weather was far too hot and humid but I feel it is hardly fair to blame Singapore for that. This can also be coupled with the fact that this is an accusation levelled at Singapore by a typical Briton whereby anything over 22 degrees is blistering in temperature.

Overall, I found Singapore to be beautiful, clean, tidy and very friendly and I even located a number of superb, lively spots to purchase a refreshingly cold beer after a day of hard work!

The concept of the Youth Olympic Games were inspired and it might be that the inaugural event would have been a success wherever it was staged but Singapore have got them off to a perfect start and rightfully written their place into the history books by exactly what their motto said they would, Blazing the Trail".



Rogge perhaps summed up the event best in his remarks at the Closing Ceremony.

He said: "Congratulations and thank you Singapore for a job superbly done.

"You rose brilliantly to the challenge of combining elite sport, modern education and culture.

"Throughout these 12 days, we all enjoyed the warm hospitality of the public authorities, of the very successful Organising Committee and of the 20,000 wonderful volunteers.

"These Games will leave a great human legacy in Singapore and around the world

"These were truly inspirational Games.

"Thank you."

The biggest problem now could be that Singapore has set the bar so high, they have created an event that will not be easy to follow.

I can therefore only sign off by saying good luck to Innsbruck in hosting the inaugural Winter Olympics in 2012 and to Nanjing in hosting the second Summer Youth Olympics in 2014.

I feel they will need it.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames who covered the inaugural Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore

With all the excitement around the recent London 2012 Olympic Games "Two Years To Go" landmark, it’s very encouraging to see major announcements in the Paralympic world ahead of this key date.

The record attendance at this year’s BT Paralympic World Cup showed that the appetite and understanding of Paralympic sport in the UK is growing. 

The announcement earlier this month that BT has signed up to a major sponsorship of Channel 4’s Paralympic programming also demonstrates that huge steps forward are being made in Paralympic sport.  Channel 4’s commitment to Paralympic programming starts now and goes right the way through to the Paralympic Games. 

I was lucky enough to be asked to take part in the filming for the Inside Incredible Athletes documentary that will air on Channel 4 this Sunday (August 29) at 9pm as part of their launch weekend.  Part of the documentary focuses on the science of our disabilities.  I have always had an understanding of my cerebral palsy and the reasons behind it.  Basically, the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and vice versa. 

However, because the left side of my brain was damaged since birth, the right side of my brain effectively does extra work and controls both sides of my body, but to less effective physically on my right side. The scientist that we met as part of the documentary looked much deeper than this, even taking brain scans and mapping where the damaged areas are. 

Amazingly, he also told me that given the extent of the damage, I should technically have much less mobility than I actually have. It’s fascinating to get an insight into why I am the way I am and also to see other top Paralympic athletes on the programme go through the same process.

This documentary, along with other Paralympic programming on Channel 4, such as the new That Paralympic Show, will be incredibly important in highlighting the quality and skills of Paralympic athletes.  We are athletes with a disability, rather than people with a disability who, as a result, become athletes. These programmes will allow people to see that we train as elite athletes and have to make all the commitments and sacrifices needed to get to, and stay, at the top of our field.

Also airing on Channel 4 this weekend will be highlights from the IPC World Swimming Championships that took place in Eindhoven. I gained a bronze medal in one of my events and, although I would have liked to have featured higher up the medal rankings, I’m also having to be patient and stick to my race and development plans. 

Since I won gold in Beijing I have made a lot of changes to my training and lifestyle, all with the aim of becoming a faster swimmer.  This all forms part of a longer programme and once all the ingredients come together I am confident that it won’t be long before I really start hitting some impressive times.



All this hard work has a lot to do with London 2012. The fact that there are only two years to go to the Paralympics is a real reminder as to why I’m working so hard to become the best athlete I can be. A tough winter of training is coming up - it gets difficult to wake up on dark mornings and spend massive chunks of the day indoors. The lack of daylight and intensity of training over winter is always a difficult time for me, and a lot of other athletes, especially as for me this is when the hardest period and type of training is. It’s exhausting, but the thought of competing at a Paralympic Games on home soil acts as the best possible driver towards achieving my goals. 

It’s not just the athletes that can use the Two Years To Go landmark to inspire them. Since London was announced as the winning bid, public support for the Games and GB athletes has steadily increased and now it’s clear that excitement is building. 

It’s great to see so many people showing interest in being spectators or volunteers. I hope that this enthusiasm and increased understanding of the Paralympics and the associated sports will create a longer lasting legacy for disability sport in the UK and beyond.

Liz Johnson is a BT Ambassador, and will also be appearing on Inside Incredible Athletics, sponsored by BT (Sunday August 29, Channel 4, 21.00). Highlights from the IPC Swimming World Championships will be shown on Channel 4 on Monday August 30 at 11.50. BT is the official communications services partner for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. BT is long term supporter of Paralympic sport in the UK, from partnering ParalympicsGB until 2016, to its title sponsorship of the BT Paralympic World Cup. For further information click here.

Dear insidethegames

Two weeks into the Great Britain Men’s Volleyball team tour of Africa, and I have great news to report.

First, let me tell you about our matches against Tunisia. We didn’t know much about the Tunisians apart from that, on paper, they’re miles better than us. In our first official match we lost in three very close sets.

However, we had our chances and sensed that we could be in with a shout for the other matches.

A win against one of the top two teams from Africa would be very nice when it comes to the 2012 Olympics and the pools are being decided.

The next day we played a friendly match and promptly won 3-0. Result! We also made some GB volleyball history when the youngest guy on the tour, Chris Frost, appeared on court. He became the youngest player ever to play for Great Britain, at 17 years and a few months. Well done, Chris!

After two days’ training with the Tunisians, we played our second official match. This was the big one. Guess what your little GB team did? We only went out there and won 3-0! Against a team ranked 22nd in the world. The match was live on TV, the local Mayor and his entourage were in attendance and we got some cake at a reception afterwards. What more do you want, eh? Perhaps more detailed match information? Allow me to direct you to www.britishvolleyball.org.

So with that incredible result tucked under our belt, we flew from Tunisia to Cairo for the next leg of the tour. We were keen to continue to impress. And what a fantastic week in Egypt we’ve had! After a short drive to our hotel, we had our first brush with security, what with metal detectors and X-ray machines. For most of the tour group, this was their first foray to Egypt, and I think they were especially impressed when we got our own plain clothes security man who had two guns, one of which apparently fired 650 rounds a minute. I suppose you can’t be too careful.

We spent the first full day training for the official match against Egypt. There was a good deal of pressure on us to start getting some results for all our hard work over the past few years. There’s been a lot made recently about the funding situation for "minor" sports, and volleyball has been no exception. But we’re only athletes. We can’t change any decisions and we have no say in how those decisions are reached. The only thing we can do is put in performances on the volleyball court. If we keep working hard, making strides and winning, the behind-the-scenes issues will take care of themselves.

When we toured Egypt three years ago, we were allowed to play against only the junior Egyptian team, whom we struggled to beat. So here we were again, desperate to prove ourselves and earn some respect, competing against one of the better sides in the volleyball world. Also, we were lucky enough to be invited to play against Egypt during the week when one of the bigger sporting clubs in Cairo were having the grand opening of their new gym. These are facilities we can only dream about in the UK - absolutely fantastic.

The match was very late starting. You can’t plan for these problems, but you can prepare your team to be ready to deal with anything. So, over the years, we’ve learned how to stay calm and adjust on the fly. In fact, we were so well adjusted that we only went out and won the match! Yes, against Egypt. A truly remarkable result. After a tight first set, which our opponents won, we were determined to make good in the second one. It was virtually a carbon copy of the first set, except that this time we were on the winning side.

The match continued in this fashion for another two gruelling sets, much to the delight of the packed gymnasium, but I think even the guys with the drums were flagging a bit towards the end of the fourth set. The match went to the shorter fifth set to break the tie. We could see the panic set in on the faces of the Egyptian players as they realised we weren’t going to fade away. Sure enough, we used a couple of their errors and won a close fifth set. What a fantastic result! 

Let’s put this into perspective. This Egypt team is ranked 14th in the world, are perennial African champions and are the African representatives at the Olympics and World Championships. They’ve just played a great World League, where they beat Finland and ran the United States and Russia very close indeed.

Some of their players are truly world-class operators and play at the very top of club volleyball. But in walks the GB volleyball team, which didn't even exist a few years ago.

What's our world ranking, you ask? Well, the way the ranking system in volleyball works is a bit strange. Points are accrued only at major events and not for wins in friendly matches. When you look at the list of teams that regularly miss out on major events, owing to the near-impossible task of qualification from the Europe region, it then makes sense that good-quality teams are ranked 50+ in the world. Team GB is ranked in triple digits.

Seriously. For us to go to Egypt, in a raucous gymnasium and beat their full national team, which ranks nearly 100 places higher than us, is some feat. We’re sending out messages that we’re not to be taken lightly, that we’re working really hard towards London 2012 and that we’re not going just for the 24-hour, all-you-can eat buffet in the athletes’ village. 

This was indeed a banner day for volleyball in Great Britain and one that no one will forget quickly. Three years ago we could barely beat a team of Egyptian kids and now we’ve just beaten their best team fair and square. Being a volleyball player is extremely hard hard work and isn’t very often fun. We’ve suffered so much pain and agony, so many defeats, so many humbling experiences and so many sacrifices, but we’re on a journey and no one is going to stand in our way. This Egyptian team will almost certainly be at London 2012, and here in 2010 we’ve beaten them. There’s no such thing as a guarantee in sport, but we’ll have that extra bit of confidence against them at London’s Earl’s Court – and that alone is priceless.

But, as we’ve so often been told by our coach Harry Brokking, in volleyball there’s no time to be sad and there’s less time to celebrate. This match against Egypt was only the first engagement of a week-long tour in which we would play various matches and have combined training sessions. We got back to the hotel around midnight, and nine hours later we were already back on the training court.

It’s no accident that this tour is three weeks long. It’s intended to test us both on and off the court during a similar time-frame to that of the Olympic volleyball tournament. We have to deal with injury and illness during a tournament and this is all a learning experience for us. That’s why it’s so important to have a talented squad that has depth, because the matches won’t stop come 2012.

Right now, we’re at the airport, waiting to fly to our third and final destination on this tour - Doha, Qatar. I’ll write again soon.

All the best 
Andy 

Andy Pink, who plays for Bassano in Italy, is Britain's vice-captain

British Volleyball is represented by davidwelchmanagement.com

It is difficult to compare Singapore to England - there is the stifling humidity for one thing - but after being in the former for the last two weeks, I have begun to notice more than a few similarities between the host country of the inaugural Olympic Games and the one that will host London 2012 in just under two years time.

For a start, English is the native tongue of both while the two share the system of driving on the left side of the road.

Both have a commendable public transport system - though I must admit that Singapore’s is far cleaner and more efficient from my relatively brief experience here - and the shopping malls appear to feature largely the same retail outlets and fast food chains with McDonalds being ever-present in both countries.

Amongst the finer details, the majority of natives of the two follow English Premiership football religiously and you can even use English plugs in Singapore without having to purchase an adapter despite the countries being more than a 13-hour flight apart.

But perhaps the similarity between the two that has surprised me most is that 16-year-old British diver Tom Daley, the boy from Plymouth who is predicted to win gold at the London 2012 Olympics, is as big a star here in Singapore as he is in England. If not bigger.

Occasionally, Daley has had to share the spotlight with other figures here such as Singaporean junior sailing world champion Darren Choy, the 16-year-old who lit the Olympic flame at the Opening Ceremony but has not been in the best of form at the Games so far. However, for the most part, the media glare has been on Daley and Daley alone.

It is not hard to figure out why he is a popular figure in England. After all, he’s young, good looking, charming and a charismatic talker both on and off camera. Add to that the fact he is one of the world’s greatest diving talents, the reigning world champion in the 10 metre platform event and likely to be one of Britain’s most successful sportsmen over the next decade and the logic is clear.

However, it is perhaps a little more difficult to put your finger on why, at the biggest sporting competition Singapore have staged in their history, Daley is the face of the Games.

True, the reasons I have listed regarding Daley’s fine attributes probably make him a figure of interest at any sporting event he attends and diving is a big sport in Singapore, especially at Youth Olympics where it is one of the few sports featuring athletes who are actually the best in their sport even when there are no age restrictions.

But having a Briton as the poster-boy of a global sporting event in Southeast Asia? Curious? And I feel that England will not return the favour by having a Singaporean as the star attraction at London 2012. In fact, it will perhaps only be the likes of global sporting superstars such as sprinter Usain Bolt and swimmer Michael Phelps who are even allowed to share some a portion of the limelight with Britain’s big names come 2012.



The Beijing 2008 Olympian is so big here, he has featured at sometime or another on all 22 channels in my hotel room in the past 14 days.

There are giant posters across the country with his image on, local magazine columns featuring his comments and despite finishing in ninth in the men’s 3m springboard last night - an event he accurately describes as “not his best by a long-way” - Daley’s performance has received more media attention in the newspapers here and on-line than that of the competition’s winner, Qiu Bo of China.

Arguably Daley’s biggest fans in Singapore are young teenage girls who could be heard screaming at a defining pitch at the Toa Payoh Swimming Complex yesterday whenever the Briton took to the board.

It was faintly reminiscent of when David Beckham visited here in 2005 as part of the London 2012 delegation that successfully bid for the Olympics and Paralympics and was accompanied by a soundtrack of screaming females wherever he went.

And all this came after Daley nearly missed the competition because, earlier this month, he suffered a triceps tear following a mistimed dive. The injury forced him out of the European Championships in Budapest and word here was that he may have to miss the Youth Olympics altogether.

When the news emerged, the Main Media Centre at Marina Bay Sands’ Expo went into overdrive speculating on Daley’s fitness while there was a genuine sense of panic in Singapore that the hero of the Games might not make it. On more than one occasion, presumably due to the fact that I am easily identified as being from England in Singapore, I was approached by a variety of journalists with a real sense of urgency demanding, "What’s happening with your guy Daley?"

Despite my truthful response that I only knew as much as they did, it didn’t stop them continuously pestering me until to my relief - and the whole of Singapore’s, or least its young teenage female bit - it was announced that the teenager would compete in his weakest event, the 3m springboard, but forgo the 10m platform, the event for which he was crowned as world champion in Rome last year and favourite to win in Singapore.

Daley held a press conference that same day which was full of media from around the globe bombarding him with questions ranging from his diving form and his injury to his favourite food. Having fielded questions from the media since he was a nine-year-old, Daley put in an extremely polished performance by answering each question engagingly and underlining to the media here his undoubted star quality.  

After the press conference, I had a few minutes to talk to the boy himself who I found to be one of the genuinely nicest teenagers I have met. In our few minutes together, I asked him what he made of being the superstar of the Games. He smiled.

"Well I wasn’t really aware of the fact that I was in the media here because I know that there are a few Singaporean divers competing," he said.

"But it was kind of weird because all the volunteers are coming up and asking for photos and I didn’t think that diving was that big in Singapore until now.

"It’s nice though because people come up to you and they respect you for what you do and they support you so it’s been good so far."

Shortly after, Daley headed off to training but not before signing a Youth Olympic Games programme for my nine-year-old brother. He said goodbye and it is then that the penny drops and I realise why Daley is poster-boy of these Games. He is not just a British star, but a world-wide star and, because he is so young, he won’t be allowed to legally buy a beer in England or Singapore for nearly two years; you can expect to see him around for a while.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames covering the inaugural Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore

For the late afternoon drinkers and smokers at the tables outside the Imagine bar within the main concourse of Zurich’s central train station, very little was left to the imagination.

Bang in front of them stood a temporary structure, liveried in the blue and yellow colours of the Samsung Diamond League athletics event.

The Hauptbahnhof’s lofty arches were filled with the smell of cooking bratwurst and the booming sound of, bizarrely, Cotton Eye Joe. Yes. It was time. For the “Kugelstossen Frauen”.

Those citizens not moved to enter the steep, transitory stands which surrounded a gladiatorial patch of marked sand had the action relayed to them via a giant screen. Truly, this special setting for the climactic women’s shot put competition was bringing athletics to the people.

And as the post-release roars reverberated all the way up to the dusty windows and steel roof girders, the people - a mixture of aficionados, curious drifters and sceptical teenagers - began to warm to the action.

In front of them, 10 women were competing for a final prize of $40,000 and a nice, sparkling diamond trophy for their mantelpiece began to warm to the spectacle.

Correction. Two women were competing for that prize, as only New Zealand’s statuesque Valerie Adams-Vili had enough points to overhaul the smaller, and it has to be said not obviously athletic figure of Nadezhda Ostapchuk, the Belarus thrower who had won all five of her previous Diamond League gigs.

But 10 women were competing, sure enough. And this novel setting meant that competition, instead of being a distant statistic in a corner of a foreign field, was a living, breathing, striving spectacle.

For those who had chosen to step inside the charmed circle, there was an opportunity to observe the caged tigers as they paced up and down their narrow corridor beside the throwing arc.

It was hard to believe that ten sizeable athletes could manage to avoid each other so completely in such a cramped space, avoiding each other’s gaze like commuters on a packed Tube train.

Each of the athletes in turn made their way to the little plastic shell  containing what looked like a block of chalk amidst a sea of chalk, spreading the white powder onto their hands and smearing it liberally around the side of their necks, into which one of the shots - lined up in a long tray like tenpin bowling balls - would nestle.

The mighty Cuban, Misleydis Gonzalez, her wild hair corralled in a white headband, sent her shot arcihng into the air with a huge grunt of effort. You could hear the thud as the weight hit the sand, and see and hear the satisfaction it provoked in the means of its propulsion.

As she returned to the shun sector Gonzalez had to brush past the even taller figure of the European champion, Nadine Kleinert, The German made no great effort to move aside, staring directly forward with a look that might have been turning everything in its ambit to stone.

There was a tangible stir when Adams-Vili (pictured), the woman who has ruled this event for the last two years, came to the circle. After releasing her throw, she skipped backwards, full of nervous energy. 19.59 metres. Good - but probably not good enough to hold off Ostapchuk, who seems only to operate in 20 metres plus territory nowadays.

And here was the leader in the clubhouse, much less obviously powerful than her New Zealand rival, with a little curtain of brown hair hanging down over her pale face.

There was no grandstanding. All was swift and direct. Pick up the shot, get into the circle, shuffle, turn, release.

It was only in the moment of release that something extra seemed to happen as the shot was sent on its way with mysterious power. In the speed of her action, Ostapchuk brings to mind the Czech Republic’s triple Olympic javelin champion Jan Zelezny, a relatively slight man who dominated a generation of giants with the excellence of his technique.

20.08. The leader in the clubhouse made her way back to retrieve her top from the bench where she had left it. In doing so, she passed the seated figure of Adams-Vili, who maintained a steady forwards stare.

But if much of the body language was saying tension, the nature of the event was starting to change. Emotions were leaking out. Kleinert, for one, was clearly not happy with her form, and as she returned to the holding area she gestured with frustration and shook her head in the direction of her coach in thestand. The woman with the stony glance suddenly looked meek and vulnerable.
Vilii, too, was not settled, twisting and tilting her body as she passed her coach, trying to understand what it was he had just seen in her action which had prevented her from gaining the required distance.

After Ostapchuk’s second throw, that required distance was 20.63m, and although Adams-Vili managed to get over the 20 metres mark with 20.02 there was nobody equal to the challenge of the Belarus thrower. The PA system, constantly filling the space with noise, began to play a song with the chorus “Get your money on.” Perhaps it was coincidental.

Emotions of joy also began to colour the event. A personal best and national record effort of 19.09 saw the compact and magnificently named Cleopatra Borel-Brown (pictured) of Trinidad and Tobago pogo her way back to the bench, and back again, in loud exultation.

The crowd responded - as did fellow thrower Jillian Camarena-Williams, of the United States, who hugged her prancing fellow competitor.

Soon Camarena-Williams, her hair tied in a girlish yellow ribbon, was exulting in her own right. A personal best of 19.18m send wails of joy echoing through the concourse. And when she improved that to 19.50 to take third place there was boundless joy on her face as she skipped and bounced around what space there was.

There was even a show of emotion from the habitually impassive Ostapchuk, as a mighty chuck, her best of the day she later said, was given a red flag because she had stepped marginally outside the circle in delivering it. Had she not done so, she would have had an extra $20,000 coming her way as the Weltklasse meeting’s bonus for a season’s world best.

Shortly afterwards, however, Ostapchuk looked pleased enough with her lolly, diamond trophy and bouquet of yellow flowers.

Those who had witnessed her successful final act were satisfied too. A good idea all round from the organisers, transforming a distant statistical blur into sharp and memorable lines.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last 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

Fifty years ago next week the world of sport was to change for ever. A lippy young teenager from Louisville, Kentucky named Cassius Marcellus Clay arrived in Rome as light-heavyweight representative in the United States Olympic boxing team of 1960.

Even before he pulled on his headguard and gloves he was prophetically proclaiming: "I am The Greatest".

Within a couple of weeks he was the Olympic champion, giving us a taste of the mouthy magic that was to come just under four years later at 22 when, as he had threatened, he "shook up the world" by psychologically disheartening and physically dismantling the bullying ogre that was Charles ‘Sonny Liston’ to became the heavyweight champion of the world as well as the word.

As an Olympian the young Clay was already exhibiting some of the nimble fleet-footedness and sleight-of-fist that was to become his inimitable trademark. In his semi-final he outpointed the 30-year-old Aussie Tony Madigan, who was boxing in his third Olympics and during a stay in Britain has become the 1954 ABA middleweight champion. The final saw another decisive victory, a 5-0 points shutout of the seasoned Polish southpaw, 26-year-old Zbigniew Pietrzykowski who, in the previous Olympics in Melbourne had lost in the semi-finals to the Hungarian Laszlo Papp, arguably the greatest-ever Olympic boxer.

Clay used the Olympics to launch himself towards the global celebrity he was to become as Muhammad Ali.

Alas, I never saw him win the gold medal he later claimed he had thrown into the Ohio River when he was refused service in a diner because of his colour (a story he later admitted was apocryphal – he simply lost it).

My first Games came four years later in 1964 when my claim to fame,  was that I actually put the Olympic heavyweight champion  of that year on his back. It happened when I was strolling through the Olympic Village in Tokyo (in those security-lax  days journalists had virtually unfettered access). Hurtling around corner on  a bike came a young black guy, his enormous thighs pushing down furiously on the pedals. He  swerved to avoid me, and crashed to the ground. "Sorry man," gasped Joe Frazier as he picked himself up. "You ok?" I was, and fortunately so was he.

The next time I saw "Smokin" Joe on the deck ws in Kingston, Jamaica in 1973, where he was sent five times in two rounds by a successor as Olympic and world heavyweight champion, one George Foreman.

As Olympic boxing champions go, Clay, Frazier and Foreman were among the finest, along with Lennox Lewis. But the one who impressed me most was the Cuban, Teofilo Stevenson (pictured), whom I dubbed Castro’s right hand man because of his phenomenal punching power. The first of his three gold medals was acquired in Munich in 1972. Just before those infamous Games, my good friend Colin Hart of The Sun and I happened to be talking to Ali’s trainer, Angelo Dundee, and mentioned that we got to Munich we planned to interview a heavyweight boxer Named Duane Bobick, who was being hailed as America’s next white hope. "Don’t bother," said Angie. "Go and see a Cuban kid named Stevenson. He’s sensational. He’ll knock out Bobick." He did, too.

As a true disciple of Casto’s communisn, Stevenson rejected all offers to turn pro -what an fight he and Ali would have been. Though as always, my money would have been on the great Muhammad.

Well, not quite always. I confess when  the then Clay fought Liston for the first tine at Miami Beach in February 1964 I did not give him a prayer. Liston was the most terrifying individual I have ever encountered in boxing. There was nothing sunny about Sonny. A sullen, brooding hulk who had served time for armed robbery and who had clubbed most opponents senseless, including another great Olympic champion, Floyd Patterson. I thought Liston would annihilate young Cassius and I was not alone.

The first fight took place three months after the assassination of John F. Kennedy when the whole of America was in turmoil. Liston was a fighter run by racketeers, his manager having close association with two of the mafia’s most infamous hit men, Frankie Carbo and ‘Blinky’ Palermo who, at the time, had their claws into boxing and had been known to profit from betting coups on fights.  Clay, the loudmouthed  braggart was not to America’s liking either. It was a fight with no hero but two villains.

The late Harold Conrad, the fight publicist, had said: "Liston scared the shit out of Patterson just by looking at him and here comes this big-mouth kid.  He [Liston] didn’t train at all for that fight. He worked out a little and went to the gym. He would hang out at a beauty parlour, banging on some of the chicks. I’d tell him, ‘This kid is big and strong, he’s fast and he can hit.’  Sonny would just answer, ‘Ah you’re kidding.  I’ll scare the shit out of that nigger faggot … I’ll put the eye on him.’"

But as it happened, it was Clay who put the eye on Liston. Learning that Sonny, who claimed to be 32, but was probably nudging 40, had a phobia about madness, he put on an act at the weigh-in, foaming at the mouth and screaming like a dervish. It seemed to scare Liston witless and by the end of the sixth round of a baffling fight he quit his stool, bemused and battered, saying he had a shoulder injury.

The crowd screamed "Fix" but I have always believed Ali, as he was to become after the fight, psyched him out of it, and did so again  the even more bizarre return at Lewiston, Maine, when  Liston fell in the first, caught of balance by the so-called ‘phantom punch.‘

Again they said it was bent. But I believe Liston, knowing he would be cut to pieces by the arrogant youngster hovering over him and yelling, "Get up you bum, get up you bum and fight!" simply bottled it, fearing he was again going to be humiliated and probably sliced to pieces. In the months following their first fight Ali had grown up while Liston he had simply grown old and like all bullies, he was a coward at heart.

Their two-fight saga is is brilliantly recaptured by the boxing historian Bob Mee in the first book to dissect and debate two of the most controversial heavyweight title fights in history*.

Was Liston told to take a dive by his mob paymasters? I think not – after all, why would the Mafia want to surrender the richest prize in sport to the Muslims?

Seven years later Liston was found dead in mysterious circumstances at his Las Vegas home. The official autopsy said natural causes despite syringe marks on his body and heroin in his blood. And needles had always been another of Liston’s phobias. Whether he was deliberately injected with heroin by gangsters as a belated reprisal for his abject performances against Clay-Ali we will never know

As for Ali, he has always maintained both fights were on the level and I think so too.

He rarely remembered names, but he recognised faces especially those who had been warmly supportive of him over the years, particularly the British writers with whom he had a genuine affinity. Now the horrendous effects of too many punches and Parkinson’s Syndrome have wracked his body though not his mind.

The lips that once spoke volumes are sadly silenced now. The last time we spoke was at ringside in Las Vegas over a decade ago.  I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see the shuffling, shaking figure of Muhammad. He bent and whispered in my ear "It ain’t the same any more, is it?"

"No champ," I replied. "It ain’t."

Sadly, it never will be again.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered 11 summer Olympics and scores of world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

* Liston & Ali – The Ugly Bear and the Boy Who Would Be King by Bob Mee  is published by Mainstream at £10.99

As I well know, the life of an athlete is full of highs and lows. Whereas the highs are often shared with others, the lows, whether they be injuries, a lull in performance or a loss in self belief, can be lonely times for any athlete and the impact can last far longer.

Great athletes are those who are able to deal with setbacks and the unexpected, using the experiences to fuel their hunger and determination. That ability comes from experience and illustrates why every competition on the path to an Olympic or Paralympic Games is a valuable stepping stone.

With this year’s Sainsbury’s UK School Games, a major multi-sport event managed by the Youth Sport Trust, just a matter of weeks away, I cannot stress enough how valuable a part this event will play on the learning curve of these up and coming athletes. 

One of my earliest experiences of performing on a large scale was at the English Schools Athletics Championships when I was younger.  In all honesty, it was a hugely disappointing event for me. It was one of the first times I found myself on a national stage and I had no idea about the pressure that would come bring, let alone how to deal with it.  I was completely unprepared.

Although disappointing in terms of results, it made me understand how important it would be to learn how to perform under pressure and deal with whatever was thrown at me.  It was one of the most valuable lessons I could have learnt and I was able to come back more prepared, more focused and even more hungry to achieve.

For some the Sainsbury’s UK School Games will go exactly to plan, for others there may be stumbling blocks in the way - but it will be those who come up against challenges and find it in themselves to overcome them whose triumph will carry a little more value. 

To be able to perform at an elite level requires not only talent, but also preparation, experience and the ability to bring with you lessons learnt from past events. Whatever their results, everyone will leave this year’s Games having learned a little more about themselves.

The lessons I learned through my career were really put to the test during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens when, during the final of the 4x100m relay, I made a rare mistake and suffered a false start. I didn’t want to look back on my career with regrets and I didn’t want my name against a disqualification, denying GB the chance of a medal.



As I walked back to the blocks, I knew I had to be disciplined.  I regained my composure and focused back on what I was doing.  What had happened was now in the past.  I believed in myself and my abilities and knew that I was one of the best sprint starters. I was at the place I felt most at home - on the track - and, from experience I knew I had it in me to bounce back and prove my ability – which I did. 

With all the distractions that will surround the athletes - staying in the athletes village, mixing with likeminded people and managing their own time; the Sainsbury’s UK School Games will provide athletes the perfect opportunity to prove what they are made of and their ability to be true to themselves and their goals.

When the event is over, if they are hungry for more they will assess not only how they performed but how they coped with the pressures and the distractions; and how they bounced back from setbacks and disappointment and put that into practice next time.

Jason Gardener is a School Sport Ambassador for the Youth Sport Trust. The highlight of his career came when he won Olympic gold as part of the British 4x100m relay quartet at the Athens Games in 2004. Other achievements include a gold medal over 60m at the 2004 World Indoor Championships and a hat-trick of 60m European Indoors Championships title, as well as being made an MBE in 2005.  The Sainsbury’s UK School Games take place September 2-5. For more details click here.

Every American Olympic athlete who has mounted the podium to receive a medal from Lake Placid to Vancouver should pause today to take a moment to remember former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who died last weeka tragic plane crash in a remote area of the state he loved and served for six terms in Washington.

Stevens authored, sponsored and delivered the most important piece of legislation in the history of the American Olympic movement in 1978, the Amateur Sports Act, now named after him. The historic legislation is the blueprint by which the United States Olympic Committee gained its pivotal, central role in carrying out its mission and assuring that every American athlete, no matter their lot in life, can dream and have the right to compete for the chance to realise their goal.

Simply put, Ted Stevens had the back of hundreds of thousands of men and women from every state, city, town or hamlet who wanted to achieve something special. Most failed, but many others have made up our Olympic and Paralympic teams, Pan American Games teams, and scores of others who earned the right to represent our nation at World Championships or Trials leading to the ultimate recognition.

Acting on the findings of the President’s Commission on Olympic Sports from 1975-77, Stevens took on the decades-long dysfunction of American amateur sports and delivered a document ending years of turf battles between the NCAA and the once-powerful AAU over control of our athletes and their right to compete.

It ushered in a new era for amateur and Olympic sport, and it created a system of rights for the athletes and gave birth to the new USOC, placing the organisation squarely in the driver’s seat for the task of managing the Olympic movement.

Stevens, who is due to be buried at the Anchorage Baptist Temple tomorrow, was aided by Olympic greats like swimmer Donna de Varona, who worked tirelessly from 1976 to 1978 as a consultant to Stevens and the Senate on behalf of American athletes and their rights, and what they brought home was monumental.

It not only guaranteed the rights of athletes in critical areas, but it created a USOC with power and influence, giving it the protection of the coveted Olympic marks and terminology vital to its fund raising.

It brought the system of individual national governing bodies for each Olympic or Pan Am games sport with those same guarantees built into their charters, and it installed a brand-new system of appeal and arbitration for our athletes they would never have dreamed of under the former good old boys network now demolished.

As a product from this massive reform came the reborn USOC, which had been little more than an Olympic travel agency for decades, selling lapel pins and belt buckles to help finance  the trips to the Games, its board dominated by the AAU and its cronies, doing business in some smoke-filled back rooms in New York City.

Now there were to be Olympic Training Centers where athletes could develop their skills at no cost. A new national headquarters was opened in Colorado Springs in August, 1978, where the USOC grew from a dozen staffers like me, to the mature, diverse and efficient, prominent force that it is today.

Training centres came alive in Colorado Springs, Squaw Valley and Lake Placid, and later Chula Vista. And the stage was set for what has now become reality, the United States is a power in both the Winter and Summer Games and we have, because of the strength of the National Governing Bodies, a  deep and resilient talent pool.

The Amateur Sports Act is not perfect, and it has been challenged, criticised and amended over the years to meet the needs and changes in American sport, from the rapid growth of the Paralympic movement to issues like women’s representation in the USOC and the NGBs, but is continues to sustain the complex nature of Olympic sport.

Stevens never let down in his vigilance on behalf of American athletes. He was the watchdog of the USOC, and any number of meetings I endured in his Senate offices over 25 years are unforgettable. He could be charming or he could be a bully when he wanted to make a point, but we listened and we obeyed.

The last time I saw him in person was in February, 2003, when he was in a gym at the Olympic Training Center in front of more than 500 USOC employees, waving a binder of documents in the air that he had gathered during a long investigation into charges of mismanagement and systemic problems since 1999. It ended with the departure of the USOC’s chief executive, humbling, rancorous hearings in Washington, and a massive reform in 2004 that reduced the Board of Directors and changed the way the USOC conducted itself internally.

To the end, he was the Man in Washington for American athletes, and the guardian of the flame for the USOC.

His Senate career ended in 2008 and he endured problems and issues since that have made some overlook his triumphs for his state and for Olympians and those who dream of being one.

He opposed the clumsy, destructive boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games forced on the USOC by the Congress and the inept Carter inner circle, and he would open his office to any aspiring Olympic athlete who felt unheard or ignored. He was at the front of the line when we brought our Olympic teams to the White House after every Games to welcome these special athletes.

He sat at the head table, front-row, at every one of the grand Olympic Dinners we staged in Washington through the years with his arms crossed and a frown on his brow until it came time for me to introduce the athletes and bring them to the stage for their recognition.

Eerily, he had survived another plane crash in Alaska in 1978 that took the life of his first wife, Ann. His untimely death comes only weeks after the passing of another of the USOC’s most influential figures, George Steinbrenner, who also brought needed change and direction to the Movement at a critical time in 1989 and who was also a friend to Olympic athletes and their plight.

Not much of the reporting about Stevens’ life and death will mention his massive contributions to America’s athletes or the USOC, but it will never be forgotten by those of us who were part of the rebirth of the organisation in 1978, it’s move to our cherished Colorado Springs and the Rockies, and by thousands of athletes who had a dream of greatness, and those who are just now beginning to create their own.

Mike Moran was the chief communications officer of the USOC for nearly 25 years before retiring in 2003. In 2002 he was awarded with the USOC's highest award, the General Douglas MacArthur Award. He worked on New York's unsuccessful bid to host the 2012 Olympics and is now director of communications for the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation.

Situated in the heart of Singapore’s busy major shopping belt at Orchard Road, the *scape Youth Space is a two-hectare space of land that has been set aside as an iconic community space for youths.

And it is this futuristic looking venue that is quickly becoming the place to be at the 2010 Singapore Summer Youth Olympic Games.

The reason being is that this location is playing host to the basketball. Not basketball as you and I recognise it though because this basketball has revolutionary new and exciting format that you would expect at an inaugural Youth Olympics.

Rather than the usual 5-on-5 format you might be use to watching, it is 3-on-3 basketball debuting in Singapore. This is not the only exciting new move as in addition to this; the adrenaline-packed game is played on half a court with just one basketball hoop to aim, a system you would expect to use if you were playing basketball in the park with your mates.

With 14-18-year-olds going at it full throttle, some so talented that you can expect to see them in the NBA in the near future, the matches consist of just five minute sessions each. The first team to score 33 points - or the team leading the game after regular time - is the winner.

But it is not the changes made to induce fast-paced action that make this event so interesting. It is the brightly coloured stands that provide a view of the urban road outside as well as the court, the non-stop music blearing out from the loud speakers that seems to dictate the speed of the action and the young, screaming fans you might expect to be in attendance at a community space for youths that really bring this buzzing arena to life.

While the majority of the sports at these Youth Olympics are no different in structure to their counterparts at the senior Olympic Games, basketball has decided to be different.

Radical changes have been made to reflect the fact that were are actually at a Youth Games and basketball is reaping the rewards. Wherever you are in Singapore, the local people, particularly teenagers, are either talking about the action at the *scape Youth Space of flocking there in their droves to see it first hand for themselves.

The 3-on-3 games undoubtedly look great on television but when you are there in person, you really do feel the passion, energy and youth on display. When the Singapore teams are in action, these feelings only intensify as the home crowd are so deafening, your truly believe your eardrums are in real danger of imploding. Everyone is caught up in it though and even the "old guys" in the crowd - like London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe who was among the spectators today - can be seen rocking from side to side as the hip hop, R&B and dance music plays.

It is fun, it is fast and the five minute matches are so quick, that you will one by simply blinking.

Come to Singapore and this is where the party’s at.

On the court, the skills on show are everything you would expect from a high quality game of basketball only more high-octane due to the fact that these short games are sprints rather than marathons.

In perhaps the only similarity to basketball at the senior Olympic Games, the United States is the dominant force and look like early frontrunners for the gold medal in both the male and female discipline.

The men’s team in particular never seem to miss and their star player Sterling Gibbs is so outrageously talented, it looks like he could soon be earning the big bucks back home with the likes of Lebron James, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

All-round, it’s a great Youth Olympic Games so far but the *scape Youth Space is in danger of stealing the show here.

Yes, the Opening Ceremony was spectacular and expect big stories to come from a variety of the sports in Singapore over the next two weeks, but when it is all said and done, basketball will be the will be the real winner of these Youth Olympics and others disciplines should take note of their brave approach to making their sport appeal to the young.

No risk, no reward.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames

Nobody could say Andy Turner wasn’t ready and willing.

After years of being a nearly man, and two years of being a shunned man, at least as far as Lottery funding was concerned, Britain’s high hurdler was determined to relish his new status as a European champion - and all the publicity that went with it.

Which was why he found himself on an open top bus on Thursday crawling through central London’s mid-afternoon traffic with a BBC TV crew in attendance - and a host of media representatives becoming increasingly agitated about the time it was taking for the transport to take them from the lofty headquarters of the Aviva insurance company, sponsors of the London Grand Prix for which these publicity wheels were in motion, and the hotel from which the bus had set out oh so many hours earlier in the morning. So they could get on with their work. For deadlines.

You couldn’t blame the bus.

Well, you could blame the bus.

In that it was the kind of bus you see in black and white Ealing comedies, with a chirpy Cockney sparrer of a conductor on board shouting "Room for a little ‘un inside!" before ringing the bell - ding ding - and winding another ticket out of the little machine slung round his neck.

Which meant that it was small and cramped. No doubt by the standards of 1952, when this particular London Transport model had been constructed, it represented state-of-the-art comfort for the capital dwellers who hopped on and off it on all those distant, smoggy mornings and evenings.

Perhaps people were smaller in 1952. Maybe a population still enduring rationing simply took up less space. I’ve noticed that about cars, too. When I was the eldest of three children, in a family of five, we used to manage to get up and down the M1 in a cream and red Wolseley 1500. I saw a Wolseley 1500 the other day. It looked like a toy.

But I digress.

So here was Mr Turner, looking as casual as anyone could be who had been asked to be interviewed on the top of a bus by BBC TV. And as we rattled through the City in a northerly - northerly? Weren’t we supposed to be heading back down to the hotel in Croydon? - the interviewer and camera lady concentrated their attentions on the hurdler, asking him a question that was drowned out by the sound of a jackhammer from a passing high rise construction project.

The sound was very loud, and it went on for a long time.

After everybody felt it had gone away, the interview resumed.

To be interrupted by the continuous clamour of an alarm.

And...we were back. 

"Just to elaborate Andy, how do you build on that European performance going forwards?"

As Andy put his mind to the request - at least he hadn’t been asked how he could build on it going sideways, which would have been a much trickier question - might even have required planning permission - the bus remained static in one of those mysterious accumulations of traffic that can occur in the capital at any time.

Years later, sorry, only half an hour or so later, we had passed the Blind Beggar pub, where I recalled there had been some shooting incident back in the 60s over the choice of record on a Juke Box - what’s so bad about The Sun Ain’t Going To Shine Any More anyway, I’d like to know?

And we had passed a Porsche dealership, where the hyperactive David Oliver - didn’t I mention that the world’s fastest high hurdler was also on the bus to discuss his imminent race? - seemed to have gone at least part of the way to arranging delivery of a shiny new model to his home with a bloke standing in the forecourt before the driver disobligingly set the ancient motor into juddering progress once again.



Oliver was clad in the tracksuit top of the team he has supported vehemently on television, Arsenal. And he was talking animatedly about how much he was looking forward to seeing them in real life when he went up to see them play Liverpool at Anfield the day after his race.

Off this bus by Sunday. You had to love the man’s optimism.

It became clear that the unexpected northerly diversion was in fact the main point of the exercise for what the nearest thing to the bus conductor called "the client." The Olympic Park was to provide the imposing backdrop to their Oliver interview.

But without agreed access to the site, finding that backdrop proved to be a long and increasingly unpopular process.

At one point we slowed with the stadium in view, only to have that view blocked by a very large McDonalds restaurant.

After circling the Olympic park at least once, the bus juddered to a decisive halt.

A tiny sliver of the Olympic stadium was visible between warehouses with Rose Bay Willow herb growing out of them. To the right, out of sight when the transmission went out but very much in sight at the time, was a billboard featuring the swarthy face of Eric Cantona and the slogan: "The unmissable should be just that".

As the French Big Brother stared frankly down, the bouncy Oliver - Tigger in human form - was persuaded to angle his large frame into the frankly inadequate space of a top deck seat so that questions could be put to him of an Olympic persuasion.

The questions continued.

Oliver stayed as still as he could and answered them.

After a while, one of the young ladies working for the sponsors very kindly visited a nearby Shell garage and came back bearing bottles of water.

We were parked by Autumn Street. Hadn’t it been Spring Street when we had first arrived?

In retrospect, the journey didn’t take a long time - when compared, say, to the average lifetime. An hour and a half later, after a leisurely, juddery progress from the north to the south of the capital, we had almost arrived! A PR triumph.

Tyson Gay, who had taken the original bus ride up from Croydon to the press conference which had been organised at HQ Aviva, was apparently not a happy bunny when he arrived - and had elected for swifter, quieter transport for the return journey.

As it turned out, we were close to arriving with only one competitor on the bus.

Our departure from the Olympic Park offered  another fleeting glimpse of stadium which caused Oliver, who is not a small man, to rise from his seat in order to take a picture on his mobile phone.

A low bridge loomed in front of our open top bus.

Had the world’s third fastest high hurdler not sat down immediately after deeming his snap satisfactory, there might have been a different story to tell about this magical mystery tour.

In which case, of course, none of this would have been written.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last 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

The challenge for Youth Olympic Games organisers in Singapore has been to make them distinct, and yet still Olympic. Nowhere more than at the Opening Ceremony.

Olympic Founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin once said "the Olympiad should include solemnity and ceremony" to make it distinct from "mere world championships".

What then ,would the Baron have made of events on the waterfront in Singapore?  

The changes were apparent from the very start.This was first Olympic Opening ceremony held not in a stadium, but  in the heart of the host city.

A long parade of nations was avoided. The teams entered in a style more reminiscent of a Closing Ceremony and settled in to enjoy the entire show.

The 204 flag bearers followed later. Led according to long established tradition by the Greeks, their entry was accompanied by music synonymouis with previous Olympic Games. Hand in Hand for Seoul 88, Amigos Para Siempre ( Barcelona 92) Reach (Atlanta 96) Sydney's theme song The Flame and  Forever Friends from Beijing.

The Olympic flag was trooped  into the stadium by eight great champions from the past, including Youth Olympic Ambassador Yelena Isinbeyeva. But in another break with tradition, the colour party were met by eight Singaporean Youth Athletes.The flag was thus passed to the young generation .

The Olympic Anthem is the only part of Olympic ceremonial which dates back to the 1896 Games.

Here, as at the 2005 IOC Session in Singapore, the hosts performed it  in the original Greek as intended by composer Spyros Samaras and lyricist Costis Palamas. London 2012 please note!

The Olympic oath offered something new. Introduced in 1920 and first taken by Belgian.Fencer Victor Boin, the ceremony has incorporated a similar oath for judghes since 1972. 

Here for the first time, David Lin Fong Jock took the stand on behalf of the coaches: "Committing ourselves to ensuring that athletes combine sport, culture and education in accordance with the fundamental princilples of Olympism."

The  use of the harbour was not entirely withour precedent. In 1988 the Opening Ceremony Seoul Olympic Games began with a display from the Han river, and in 2000, the flame itself made the last stage of its journey to Sydney's Stadium Australia up the Paramatta river.

Appropriately then, the flame was lit by a local hero in Sailing,  Byte world champion Darren Choy. The only other sailor to light an Olympic cauldron was Greece's Worid Champion windsurfer Nikos Kaklamanakis in 2004 Olympics in Athens.

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.