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Team GB's Olympic Games By The Numbers
Over the next 16 days, 312 British athletes will run, swim, fight, ride, jump, row, paddle, sail, dive, shoot, throw, serve, tumble, play and lift their all in the name of Team GB.Here we bring you a selection of statistics from the upcoming festival of sport …
70,000 is the amount in pounds that it costs to transport Team GB’s sailing boats to Beijing and back.
6,519 athletes have represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games before the start of
Beijing 2008.
2008 At eight minutes past eight o’clock on the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of the new millennium, the Opening Ceremony for the Beijing Olympic Games began. It may not surprise you to learn that eight is considered a lucky number in China.
313 members named in Team GB for the Games in China.
312 athletes in the GB squad once the Olympic flame was lit on Friday evening (August 8). Boxer Frankie Gavin left the team after failing to make the weight for the lightweight competition.
110 kilogrammes of weight for Britain’s heaviest competitor, boxer David Price. Perhaps unsurprisingly he will contest the super heavyweight category.
92 items of Team GB kit were provided by adidas for each British athlete.
75 per cent of gold medallists over the last five Olympic Games failed to win a medal in their first Games. Experience counts.
60 millimetres in diameter is the minimum that an Olympic medal can be.
54 years and three days is the age of John Whitaker on the day of the Opening Ceremony for Beijing 2008 (August 8). He is Britain's oldest competitor.
37.5 kilogrammes is how much gymnast Hannah Whelan weighs. She is the lightest athlete in Team GB.
20 of the 28 sports represented at Beijing 2008 will be contested by British athletes. The sports Team GB will not compete in are: table tennis, wrestling, football, basketball, volleyball, handball, softball and baseball.
14 years and 82 days. The age Britain’s youngest competitor, Tom Daley, will be when he dives for the first time in the Olympic Games on Monday 11 August.
10 metres is the height of the platform from which Daley and his British diving team-mates Blake Aldridge, Tonia Couch, Stacie Powell and Pete Waterfield will plunge during competition, hitting the water at around 35 miles per hour on each occasion.
9 gold medals, and nine silvers, for Great Britain in the last Olympic Games, in Athens in 2004. Team GB also picked up 12 bronze medals.
8 British boxers qualified for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, compared to two in Sydney 2000 and one in Athens four years ago. Only seven will compete following Frankie Gavin’s withdrawal.
7 point 26 kilogrammes is the weight of the shot and the hammer in men’s field events. Team GB do not have an athlete entered in either event.
6 storeys of an apartment block at the Olympic Village have been taken over by Team GB for the duration of the Olympic Games.
5 British athletes will be competing in their fifth Olympic Games in Beijing. They are: Mark Foster (swimming), Mary King (equestrian), John Whitaker (equestrian), Michael Whitaker (equestrian), Alison Williamson (archery).
4 Team GB has four athletes in the canoe flatwater/sprint event. They are: Tim Brabants, Anna Hemmings, Lucy Wainwright and Jessica Walker.
3 Sets of brothers are competing for Team GB in China – Richard & Simon Mantell (hockey), Andy & Jamie Murray (tennis) and John & Michael Whitaker (equestrian). There are no sisters in the squad.
3 medals for GB’s most decorated Olympian competing in China. Sailor Ben Ainslie has previously won two golds (at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004) and one silver (Atlanta 1996).
2 metres, seven centimetres is the height of rower Josh West, the tallest athlete in the British team.
1 athlete of each sex representing Team GB in the new Olympic discipline of BMX. Liam Phillips and double World Champion Shanaze Reade will be pedalling for the medals.
0 Olympic Games – summer and winter – that have not been attended by Team GB since the modern Games began in 1896.
0 Olympic Games will take place between the end of Beijing 2008 on August 24, and the start of London 2012 on July 27, 2012.
Source: British Oympic Association
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
When home advantage goes bad (or "The curse of expectation")
Du Li, the defending champion in the women's 10m air rifle shooting fled the arena in tears, after only manging 5th place (in an event won by Katerina Emmons of the Czech republic.Li blamed the pressure of competing at home for her failure in the competition saying, "she wasn't fully prepared for the pressure of competing at home". Expectations can be very tough to deal with.
I wonder how many Chinese athletes will be affected like this and, importantly, how many non-Chinese athletes will be free by the lack of expectation in many events?
(On a different note, I read the story this week of how Katerina met her husband Matt Emmons of the US, by consoling him after he missed out on his second gold in Athens - by hitting someone else's target when all he needed to do was make any kind of a hit on his own. D'oh!)
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
