Category — United Kingdom

Diver Tom Daley will be Great Britain’s second youngest male Olympian when he goes to Beijing this August. Tom is currently the British and European 10-meter platform champion.

How will he fare against the Chinese divers who’ve consistently come up on top in this event? Let’s wait and see what August will bring.

AP report:
BOSTON – Cecilia Colledge, an innovative figure skater who was the youngest athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics, has died.

Colledge died at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said Ben Wright, vice president of The Skating Club of Boston where Colledge was a teacher for nearly four decades. She was 87.

Colledge was 11 years and 3 months old when she competed for Britain in the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

She won a silver medal at the 1936 Olympics in Germany, second to Sonja Henie. She was world champion in 1937, British champion five times and European champion on three occasions.

Colledge was the first woman to execute a double jump (a salchow) and is credited with inventing the camel and layback spins and the one-foot axel jump.

[Read more →]

From the BBC:
Mark Lewis-Francis is almost certain to miss out on the 2008 Beijing Olympics after suffering an Achilles injury.

The 25-year-old sprinter partially tore his tendon training in Cyprus and now needs an operation to limit the damage.

Read the rest here.

According to Australia’s ABC News, the United Kingdom may be spending around one billion dollars (we assume we’re talking Australian currency here) to land in fourth place during this upcoming Beijing Olympic Games.

They’re gonna spend that much money? We’re all for Olympic pride and glory but isn’t there such a thing as too much spending?