First Dope of The Season

Congratulations to Olga Pyleva of Russia, who has won the dubious Olympic distinction of being the first competitor during this year's Winter Olympics in Turin to be thrown out for a positive doping test.

She was one of the favorites in Thursday's 7.5KM biathlon event. She had won the women's 15KM on Monday. However, she tested positive for a banned stimulant carphedon, after winning the gold medal.

Nikolai Durmanov, the head of Russia's anti-doping committee, claimed that the test result was a mistake; and that it was caused by an over-the-counter medication given to Pyleva by a doctor last month, for an ankle injury.

The Olympics, ever keen to protect its "clean" image, had claimed that Pyleva's absence from the event was due to illness.

Olympics Tax Hike

The good citizens of London are now realising that winning the right to host the 2012 Olympics is something of a poison chalice.

Aside from the disruption and chaos that the Games will bring, there is also the none too small matter of financing it.

It seems that those who pay council tax in London are going to see a rise of at least £33.80 in their council tax bills, in order for the Games to be adequately funded.

That is the result of Mayor Ken Livingstone's budget that was passed yesterday.

Olympic Overload

Those visitors to Turin who are currently suffering from sporting overload, as the Olympics are in full swing, may take comfort from the fact that the hosts are providing some non sporting entertainment in the evenings.

Whitney Houston and Duran Duran are scheduled to appear with other acts, who perform at the Olympic Village's Medals Plaza after each night's awards ceremony.

Also on the bill are; Avril Lavigne, Andrea Bocelli, Anastacia and Ricky Martin.

British Goal - Come Fourth

It seems that Britain is maintaining its much lambasted policy of "it is the competition that counts, not the winning", by aiming not to finish first in the 2012 Olympics but fourth.

The British Treasury prepared a funding submission, A Sporting Chance for 2012, which was secret until it was leaked.

The report, which analyses medal targets, the size of the team and the quality of participating athletes, concludes that in order to achieve fourth place UK Sport requires a further £49.5M per annum.

Fourth place would require 120 medallists to win at least 60 medals, including 17 golds.

Hardly a noble aspiration is it?

Samsung Makes Full Use of the Olympics

Samsung is trying to make full use of its sponsorship of the Turni Winter Olympics, and has opned a showroom in Turin.

However, some local and global civic groups are not so impressed and have been criticising the International Olympic Committee and its official sponsors in Turin over the commercialisation of the Olympics.

A number of different anti-globalisation groups held demonstrations all over Italy during the Olympic torch relay, which was exclusively sponsored by Samsung and Coca Cola.

There was even an attempt to burn a Samsung flag, by students of Turin University, when the torch relay neared the city on Friday. The demonstration was intended to fight excessive corporate advertising in the Olympics, and the environmental damage resulting from the construction of the venues.

Big Bucks For NBC

NBC have announced that they have sold approximately $900M of advertising for its coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

NBC paid $613M for the rights to broadcast the Games.

NBC made a profit of $70M from the games in Salt Lake City, in 2002.