Meet the Olympic 2012 opposition

In Flipside 34 we visit the UK’s leading sports science centre to find out what part their work played in Britain’s recent Olympic success and how they are gearing up for London 2012.

Who are the targets for team GB to beat in the 2012 Olympic Games? Here are four world beating record breaking living legends that will still be around in four years time…

With an egg on top

Super swimmer American Michael Phelps is extraordinary in more ways than one. Not only did the 23 yr–old swimmer win eight gold and trash seven world records in Beijing, Speedo handed him $1 million (about £550,000) for his efforts. Now he is giving the dosh to various charities to promote water safety and encourage young swimmers in America.

But you wouldn’t want him as a guest…

During training, Phelps’ intake is a stomach-boggling 12,000 calories a day, about six times what is recommended as your daily intake. But if you are swimming five hours a day, you need the fuel. ‘Eat, sleep and swim, that's all I can do,’ said the US swimmer.
Phelps isn’t one to skip brekkie instead he wades into three fried egg sandwiches, with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onions and mayonnaise, followed by three chocolate-chip pancakes; a five-egg omelette; three slices of French toast, with sugar and a bowl of porridge, washed down with two cups of coffee.

When lunch comes around its half a kilo of pasta, two hefty ham and cheese sandwiches on white bread smothered with mayonnaise and plenty of glugs of energy drink.

For dinner it’s a chance to load up with carbs for the following day with the other half of the kilo of pasta with a creamy sauce, a large pizza and more energy drinks.

Lighting likely to strike twice

Everyone is well aware that the gangly Jamaican sprint machine, Usain Bolt, nicknames Lighting, is the fastest man on earth having clocked 9.69sec striding through the 100m. Could he go faster? Expert opinion certainly says yes but maybe not too much; turning to look sideways with 20m to go may only have meant slowing by a couple of 100ths of a sec. However, a study by the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo, estimated that Bolt could have finished in 9.55sec had he not slowed to celebrate before the finishing line.

Those who watch the world of athletes have known about Bolt for several years; he won the world junior championships 200m at just 15.

Now 22, his 6ft 5” frame means he has huge strides but also he’s not a very good starter his legs are just too long to get working properly. But once he’s moving, wow, and he only needs to take 42 strides compared to most athletes that would take 48 for the 100m. At the 60m mark Bolt had reached his top speed of 43.9km/h mark and maintained it until that sideways look at 80m.

Not for Bolt that large intake of food though, this is Mr Chilled.

‘I woke up at 11, sat around, watched TV, then I had lunch, some (chicken) nuggets, then I pretty much went back to my room and slept for another three hours, went back, got some more nuggets, and then I came to the track,’ says Bolt about his preparation for the 100m.

At the Olympic Games 20 years ago, another 100m sensation Canadian Ben Johnson broke his own world record in 9.79sec. Three days later after a positive urine test for drugs, he was stripped of his title. Thankfully, Bolt looks super clean. ‘We've been tested a lot,’ says Bolt ‘I was tested four times before running in Beijing. I had my urine and my blood tested. I was tested after all my competitions too. I've been tested so many times I've lost track. I have no problem with it. We work hard. We're clean. Any time they want to test us, it's fine.’

Bolt took three world records at the Olympics; the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. ‘I made it look easy, but it was hard,’ he says.  ‘I think the 100 will be broken over and over and over but I think the 200 will be hard to beat.’

Double duo

They may not have grabbed the headlines in quite the same way as Bolt and Phelps but the achievements of Ethiopian long distance runners Kenenisa Bekele’s and Tirunesh Dibaba’s were no less impressive.

26 year-old Bekele won the 10,000m in 27:01.17, setting a new Olympic Record in the process. He sped through the final 400m in less and a minute, leaving his competitors trailing. Six days later he cleaned up in the 5000m also setting a new Olympic record of 12:57.82, though that’s 20sec slower than his world record.

Bekele was born in 1982, just before the terrible famine that ravaged his country. ‘We were lucky,’ he says. ‘My father was a barley farmer and there was enough food in our village. Many died. We now want to make the world see Ethiopia in another way.’

23 year-old Dibaba won 10,000 metres in Beijing in an Olympic record time of 29:54.66 enough to break the old record set by her cousin at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Like Bekele, a week later, 2008 Dibaba won the 5,000 metres but in a time that was way off her current world record. The 5,000m and 10,000m double made her the first ever woman to win both events at the same Olympics.

Very nice Medals

Gold-silver-bronze medals for the first three places dates from the 1904 Olympic games. Previously there was silver for first and bronze for second.

The gold medal isn’t solid gold, unfortunately. Each medal must measure at least 70mm across and 6mm thick. Both gold and silver medals must contain at least 92.5% silver, and at least 6 grams of 24-carat gold must coat each gold medal. Bronze medals contain copper, zinc, tin and a very small amount of silver.

The design for the Beijing broke with tradition; for the first time the medals featured a circular inset ring of Chinese jade on the reserve side. IOC president Jacques Rogge described the medals as ‘very nice’. Hmmm, clearly impressed then.