Olympic Spillage

Another edition of Olympic Spillage and John Joe Nevin takes to Facebook to thank fans, we look at the first time London held the games and a stupid Daily Mail column.

Classy on many levels: John Joe Nevin

First off the bat today John Joe Nevin took time off from his schedule to let everyone on Facebook know how much their support is appreciated.

The Mullingar man bantamweight boxer blew his Danish opponent Dennis Ceylan out of the water to progress to the round of 16 and only two wins away from a guaranteed medal. He won the fight 21-6 to get the much-fancied Irish boxers off to a flying start.

Despite being cloistered away in the Olympic Village he took time to personally thank his supporters:

After his great showing as an 18-year old in the 2008 games, where he nearly eliminated the eventual gold medallist in the round of 16, we reckon Nevin can more than match the best boxers at London.

It’s also great to see the Irish athletes interacting with fans.

The Daily Mail acting the maggot

Okay giving out about the Daily Mail for being the Daily Mail is a little easy we admit, but this column really takes the biscuit.

When not giving out about Asylum-seekers, lefties or poor people, the UK paper have somehow managed to give out about the Opening Ceremony that was widely lauded as colourful, inclusive and spectacular.

Aidan Burley, a Tory MP and former ministerial aide (he was sacked from that position last year  after attending a Nazi-themed stag party-go figure) has already been at the centre of a row for suggesting on Twitter that the Opening ceremony was “leftie multicultural crap.”

That seems to pale in comparison to the Daily Mail article which borders being racist saying:

This was supposed to be a representation of modern life in England but it is likely to be a challenge for the organisers to find an educated white middle-aged mother and black father living together with a happy family in such a set-up.

Almost, if not every, shot in the next sequence included an ethnic minority performer. The BBC presenter Hazel Irvine gushed about the importance of grime music (a form of awful electronic music popular among black youths) to east London. This multicultural equality agenda was so staged it was painful to watch.”

The Mail has since surreptitiously completely altered this fragment of the column as John Walker has pointed out.

In the meantime the incident means we can introduce you to the joys of the Daily Mail Headline Generator.

Cool London Retro Video

Let’s get away from nasty negativity, back to a simpler time - the first time London held the Olympics game was way back in 1908 and there’s some fantastic footage of the Edwardian-era games below.

Nike being clever

Adidas shelled out a bomb to be the official brand of sports gear associated with the games, but Nike have been bombarding the games with ambush marketing and may have got more good publicity with their latest move.

Egypt’s Olympic Committee Chairman had admitted recently that all their athletes only received counterfeit gear as they didn’t want to spend up to €400 on official gear.

Many Egyptian athletes had taken to Twitter to give out, until Nike said that they’d provide the Egyptian side with free gear in what is a nice public relations move.

Egyptian synchronised swimmer Yomna Khaliaf was venting on Twitter

Major General Ahmed Fouly, the head of the Egyptian delegation in London has congratulated Nike on their beneficence and denied that the fake gear was a plot to get some free kit from the sportswear giant.

We can only imagine the hell on earth Roy Keane would have unleashed if the FAI pulled a stunt like that when he was playing.