London 2012 Olympics: Power and the glory spurring on Aaron Cook

Aaron Cook believes he can go from watching Power Rangers as a youngster to taking his place on the Olympic podium, despite splitting from the British squad set-up.

The British mat-ador: Aaron Cook has plenty of confidence in his new training set-up (Pic: PA)

The 20-year-old competed at his first Games in 2008 but lost out in controversial circumstances to Zhu Guo of China for a bronze medal.

That has only increased his  determination to go and win gold in London next year. But, as Cook reveals, his rise to sporting success stems from an unlikely source.

The Dorchester-born athlete watched Power Rangers as a child, leading his parents to take him to a local taekwondo club which was opening in his home town.

‘It could easily have been karate or judo, it just so happened to be that the taekwondo guy put a flyer through our letterbox,’ admits Cook after appearing as a life-size Power Ranger at the Westfield shopping centre in West London.

‘But that programme is the reason why I got into the sport – I just wanted to do what they did, be an “action man”. It’s amazing that they’ve done this for me now because I’m a big fan.

‘To be dressed as one for them was amazing! It’s pretty cool to be known as the Power Ranger of taekwondo now – maybe they can get me a job when I’ve finished competing!’

Behind all the fun, though, there is a tough challenge ahead of Cook, who last month quit the British squad set-up to go it alone ahead of the Olympics.

The single-minded youngster,  now based in Manchester, made the decision following an earlier-than-expected exit from the world championships in South Korea.

Having crashed out in round two, Cook considered his options going into the biggest year of his life and opted to train with his own coach at the gym he has in his back garden.

Cook said: ‘I’m still on track, I’m still good enough, I’m just doing my own thing. This way I’ll get better sparring partners and do more competitions.

‘I’ve always wanted to have my own team, as boxers do, and I feel I can go and win the gold medal in London but sometimes you have to do things the hard way.

‘We parted on good terms but their way does not work for everyone.’

He added: ‘It was a tremendous disappointment at the worlds but I had to go back to the drawing board after that and it’s now about qualifying for London.

‘It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity but I have to keep my head down and focus now.

‘I’m training on my own at home at times and that can be lonely.

‘But I have friends all over the world I can go and train with and spar with, and that is what I plan  to do.

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London 2012: Ten best of the web

Twitter guidelines for athletes; Olympic Stadium controversy and a new tune at the All England Club

What song will Andy Murray pick if tennis players are allowed to enter court to music during the Olympics? Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

385 days to go: Here are 10 of the best pieces of London 2012 Olympics content on the web this week:

1. The 'second chance' ticket round

The much anticipated "second chance" ticket round closed on Sunday, with a further 750,000 tickets sold to 150,000 applicants who had not obtained any tickets in the opening ballot. During the first two frantic hours of the second ballot, there was such a high demand for the 40,000 remaining athletics tickets on the official website that a minority were wrongly led to believe that they had been successful in their application.

• Bookmark this page for all the latest Olympic tickets news

2. High praise

The International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge, praised London's "faultless" ticketing process and the "amazing" ticket sales. The three-times gold medallist Bradley Wiggins, by contrast, described the process as "a shambles".

3. Insufficient interest in the beautiful game?

It might be our national sport but it appears few people are desperate to see football at the Olympics next summer. There are still 1.5m tickets available for the men's and women's football – the third round of sales began on Friday morning at 6am – and it is one of only three events that has yet to sell out, the other two being volleyball and freestyle wrestling. That fact alone, however, is a little misleading: after all, football is played in larger venues and hence more tickets were available to start with. In fact, football accounts for more than 2.5m of the 8.8m Olympic tickets produced in total.

• Richard Williams on why we shouldn't sneer at Olympic football

4. More controversy over the Olympic Stadium

There is fresh controversy surrounding the Olympic Park Legacy Company's awarding of the Olympic Stadium to West Ham rather than Tottenham Hotspur, after it emerged that an employee, Dionne Knight, had been undertaking paid consultancy work for West Ham. The dispute between the two London clubs looks set to continue, with West Ham planning to take legal action against Spurs and the Sunday Times.

5. Equestrian site has the wow factor

A competition featuring 40 riders got under way at Greenwich Park, south-east London on Monday. It is the first large-scale event in the test series preparing sites for the Games. Despite recent protests against using the world heritage site for the Olympics, the test event drew praise from William Fox-Pitt who said the site had the "wow" factor, adding: "The surface was fantastic, better than anywhere we've seen. It was fantastic to ride on." But other eventers criticised the arena as "dead" and "nowhere near good enough".

• Browse Tom Jenkins's gallery of the equestrian test event

6. Tweet away!

The IOC has published guidelines for athletes wanting to blog and post on Twitter during the Games. Postings ought to be "first-person, diary-type" entries, "dignified and in good taste" and "not contain vulgar or obscene words or images".

And so to the tweet of the week: "No!!! I just tore my lucky undies!! :( and I need them today! Have a KILLER track session. 400m 300m 200m flat out. Now what!?" – The South African paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius finds himself in a spot of bother.

7. A new tune at the All England Club

Locog, the 2012 Olympic organising committee, wants the tennis staged at SW19 to have a contrasting atmosphere to the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, which will have finished 20 days earlier. The organisers are eager to make the event a more rousing affair, with athletes coming on court to songs of their choice. Goodbye strawberries and cream. Hello Queen and Tina Turner.

8. Good week/bad week

It was a good week for British rowing as four of the crews hoping to win gold at 2012 won against fierce opposition at the Henley Regatta. The highlight was a record-breaking victory for the men's four against the USA, beating them by two-and-a-half strokes.

It was a bad week for Great Britain's women's hockey team, as they finished fifth in the Champions Trophy in Amsterdam. Great Britain had been hoping to build on their bronze medal in the competition last year, but were unable to replicate their achievements.

9. Spinnin' for 2012

Spinnin' for 2012, produced by Tinchy Stryder and Dionne Bromfield, is the first song released in association with the Games and will provide the soundtrack to the Olympic flame's 8,000-mile journey around the UK.

10. What you may have missed on guardian.co.uk

• Donald McRae interviews the swimmer Fran Halsall

• Read the latest interviews with British Olympic hopefuls

• Browse Olympic posters between 1896 and 2008

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2012 London Olympics torch revealed

The torch for the 2012 London Olympics has been revealed, a golden aluminum tube featuring a lace-like mesh with 8,000 holes that represent the number of bearers and how many miles it will travel in the 70-day relay across Britain.

The triangular shape of the torch symbolizes the three times the British capital will have staged the Summer Olympics, after the 1908 and 1948 London Games.

The flame is set to arrive from Greece on May 18, 2012. It will be used to light the cauldron at the opening ceremony in the Olympic Stadium on July 27, 2012.

Designed by a London-based studio headed by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, the torch was presented on Wednesday.

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Anger mounts over London Olympics ticketing

London 2012 chairman Lord Coe has defended criticism over corporate ticket allocation after tour operators including Thomas Cook began selling Olympics tickets at significantly inflated prices.

Lord Coe said people must not be “coy or naive” about the funding provided by businesses that have been given tickets, and that corporate allocations accounted for only 8 percent of the total number of tickets available.

He said: “The corporates are responsible for about 8 percent of the tickets, the high end ticket packages are actually only 1 percent of tickets.”

Thomas Cook was allocated 300,000 tickets in return for a rumoured £20 million sponsorship deal of the games. The tour operator has now started selling packages ranging from £99 to £6,499.

A £99 package with the company ensures entry to see the volleyball at Earl’s Court plus a one-night stay in the two-star Ibis London Heathrow.

This rises to £3,299 for a deal that includes the entry to the blue riband 100m final and £6,499 for a three-day stay at the five-star Hyatt Regency Churchill Hotel and includes the closing ceremony.

But Coe argues that corporate funding is an essential part of hosting the games.

He told the BBC: “The corporates in large part pay for the Games, we shouldn’t be coy or naive about that. Twenty five per cent of the operating budget for the staging of the Games comes from ticket sales, and the corporates are probably collectively contributing about £1.5 billion to what we’re actually doing.”

He said organisers were obliged to give one million tickets to overseas federations, including football governing body Fifa.

He said: “A percentage of those tickets go to international federations and governing bodies. Fifa is an international federation. We are obliged to do that.”

The international allocation is not “out of perspective”, he said, and 75% of tickets will go to members of the public.

“We wanted to make sure people from all over the country could come,” he said. “If you’re coming down from the north-east or Scotland, it’s difficult to come down just for the day. So we wanted to make sure there were packages available with a hotel.”

More than half of the 1.8million who applied for tickets in the first round were left empty-handed as popular sports and cheaper tickets were heavily oversubscribed.

A second ballot will be held but more than 6 million of the 6.6 million tickets on sale directly to the public were included in the first round.

Details of the second round will be announced on or before June 24, and will be based on a first come basis.

Among the most popular one-night packages are athletics, gymnastics, volleyball, and water polo.

A quarter of all Olympic tickets – 2.2 million – have been reserved for the media, sponsors and various officials.

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London 2012 Celebrates 500 Days To Go As Tickets Go On Sale

London 2012 began its 500-days-to-go celebrations yesterday with the unveiling of the OMEGA countdown clock in Trafalgar Square. As official timekeeper for the London 2012 Games, OMEGA has provided a large countdown clock that will allow Londoners to see the days, hours, minutes and seconds until London’s big day on 27 July 2012 – the day of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In addition, Olympic tickets have also gone on sale around the world, with sports and Olympic fans now able to apply to see the world’s best athletes compete at the Games.

The Greatest Tickets on Earth

Described by London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) Chairman Sebastian Coe as the “greatest tickets on earth”, now is your chance to apply for tickets to the London 2012 Olympic Games. UK and residents of designated European countries can apply through London 2012’s ticketing website at any time during the 42-day application period. It is not a first-come, first-served system within the UK, so take your time and decide which events you want to try and attend with your family and friends. Fans living outside the UK (including in the designated European countries) will be able to apply for tickets through their local National Olympic Committee (NOC) and/or its Authorised Ticket Reseller (ATR). Sales processes may vary according to territory, so fans are encouraged to contact their NOC and/or local ATR for more details. We are proud to work with Worldwide TOP Partner Visa as the exclusive payment services provider.
Be There

Summing up what fans can expect in 2012, LOCOG Chairman Coe said, “London will be a fantastic place to be in the summer of 2012, with a unique atmosphere, and we look forward to welcoming the world to our city and to the UK. There is a huge range of tickets available, to see the best athletes in the world competing. My message is simple – be there.”
Counting Down

The OMEGA countdown clock was unveiled by four Olympic gold medallists from Team GB - rowers Pete Reed and Andy Hodge and sailors Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson. It stands 6.5 metres high, is 5 metres long and weighs around 4 tonnes. Its design reflects the look of the Games, with the beams of light on the clock being inspired by London and its connection with the Meridian Line in Greenwich, the home of time. The final countdown has now well and truly begun for those athletes looking to be at the London Games in 500 days’ time.
LONDON 2012

London was elected as the host city for the Games of the XXX Olympiad on 6 July 2005 at the 117th IOC Session in Singapore. London eventually succeeded in the fourth round of voting, taking 54 votes from a possible 104. London faced stiff opposition during the vote from the other four candidate cities: Paris, New York, Moscow and Madrid. There will be 26 sports on the Olympic programme in London in 2012 and around 10,500 athletes.

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London 2012 Olympics: sponsors take up the running

The airline with the support of the Olympic Games the biggest ever sponsorship, and the new campaign marks the strengthening of the visibility of business support in London in 2012.

Construction work will slow down the groups in Stratford, London 2012 business focus is to move increasingly important trading partner, signed the increase LOCOG, the organizer.

Sponsorship contracts have already raised around £ 670 for the organizers of the Olympics, just below the goal of 700 pounds, and are a vital source of funding for the 9.3 billion pounds cost of implementing the Games.

But companies are also providing key products and services that are fundamental to the Olympic Games to London a reality.

BA paid £ 40m for a sponsorship level and scope of his campaign has been led by the British Great program, which provides travel grants for talented individuals and groups. The new campaign will see Heston Blumenthal, Richard E. Grant and Tracey Emin offering tutoring sessions for aspiring chefs, writers and artists. It will also feature 2,012 athletes, including Ben Ainslie, sailor, a graduate in media advertising with the slogan: "They're going to fly."

Buenos Aires is one of the partners signed on 1 September in the LOCOG Olympic Games, the others are Adidas, BMW, BP, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB. Lloyds has also worked in community programs such as their heroes to help local youth athletes, but has increased its visibility as the official banking and insurance partner in sponsoring the ticketing process.

But in addition to the partners of level one, LOCOG has registered 33 supporters and suppliers. These include pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline for drug testing facilities, G4S Security, network infrastructure, Cisco, Heineken for alcohol, and later to Rio Tinto's gold, silver and bronze used in the medals.

As logistics and express delivery supporter, UPS has initiated discussions with LOCOG on how deliver the 1 million parts of sports for the Games. It just opened its first store dedicated in 2012 at Stevenage, which will celebrate sports before being transported to the respective headquarters. An important center of Tilbury is also expected to increase warehouse space of 880,000 square feet

Alan Williams, director of sponsorships from 2012 and the operations of the company, said: "Staging the Olympics and Paralympics are functioning in peacetime the largest logistics hub in the world, which means there a huge amount of operational planning necessary to ensure that everything goes well. "

At the same time Hornby is a very different role to play as the official merchandise licensee of the 2012 London Olympic Games. It produces the Corgi collectibles, such as taxis and buses in London, and Hornby train javelin trains which will travel to St Pancras Stratford, Scalextric and the velodrome track.

"Our inspiration was a London bus, Boris Johnson and the team used in [closing ceremony] Beijing," says Frank Martin, CEO of Hornby. "When we saw that we thought we had, at least, to produce the Corgi version of the line."

Hornby plans to have 150 products available for the opening ceremony in July 2012. Currently, the company is to ensure the conservation area with retailers, but expects 25pc of its sales for Olympics later this year. Martin says he is "strong" demand in the outskirts of London for 70PC products with sales outside the British capital.

As part of its preparation, Hornby pay for the real London taxis to be decorated in the style of the Olympic events, which justifies their conversion models. "I do not think it's fair to sell these taxis taxis do not exist in real life. Many of our clients are collectors, so the models must be credible," says Martin.

Hornby has signed a contract provider, 2009 Olympic organizers and get royalties for each unit sold.

"We did it for nothing because we thought it would be our profile," said Martin. "We could not get through the door in some sports stores without the Olympics, the same thing with stands memories and service stations. "

The environment around the Olympic sponsors are positive at present, but the offers will be financially advantageous? Heather Hancock, London 2012, Deloitte accounting partners, the first part and two sponsor, thinks so. "For us, the value of the Games has already been demonstrated by a large impact on recruitment and retention," he said.

"Many of our people had the opportunity to work with the Organizing Committee and other Olympic bodies through the secondment or consultancy projects. These roles have been in great demand, with nearly all the company 10PC has requested a paper LOCOG commission. I've also heard countless stories where our sponsorship is mentioned in the interviews as a reason to join Deloitte. "

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