Nigeria Is Africa's Third Best At London 2012 Paralympic Games

As the 2012 Paralympic Games rounded off in London on Sunday, no fewer than 10 African countries made the medals table, winning a total of 112 medals over the 11 days of the Games, Aug. 29 to Sept . 9.

Nigeria: Dollar Rain for Country's Paralympic Medallists

The Team Nigeria London 2012 Paralympic Games medallists have been momentarily rewarded with cash donations in London for their outstanding performance and lifting the image of the country high during the games.

Armstrong to Lose Seven Tour de France Titles, Gets Life Ban

Armstrong says won't fight charges; will lose 7  titles

Seven-time Tour de France championLance Armstrong said on Thursday he would no longer fight doping charges by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which said it would strip him of his titles and ban him from competitive cycling.

Olympics: Closing ceremony review

The Spice Girls perform during the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium August 12, 2012.

LONDON -- With a little British pomp and a lot of British pop, London brought the curtain down on a glorious Olympic Games on Sunday in a spectacular, technicolour pageant of landmarks, lightshows and lots of fun.

The closing ceremony offered a sensory blast including rock 'n' roll rickshaws, dustbin percussionists, an exploding yellow car and a marching band in red tunics and bearskin hats. It was all delivered in a psychedelic mashup that had 80,000 fans at Olympic Stadium stomping, cheering and singing along. Organizers estimated 300 million or more were watching around the world.

Why Team Nigeria Failed at London Olympics – Minister of Sports

We haven't won even one medal so far! And we all know why, but let's hear what the Minister of Sports and Chairman, National Sports Commission, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, has to say! :-). Full text of his speech yesterday Thursday August 9 at the Nigeria House in Stratford, London

The New York Times profiles Nigeria’s brave basketball Olympics team

Bruised and Beaten, but Nigerians Are Unbowed

By Greg Bishop

LONDON — The buzzer sounded the end of the fairy tale, and the Nigerian team limped off the court in slow motion, unwilling, unable to let go. As they filed into the tunnel, the crowd stood in unison and cheered the team they call D’Tigers.

Tony Skinn, the Nigerian point guard who went to George Mason University, wound up in a hospital, having surgery for a torn quadriceps Monday.

D’Tigers lost against on Monday, this time to France, standing ovation notwithstanding. To their list of firsts — first Olympics appearance, first Olympics victory — they had added something less historic: their first Olympic exit.

London 2012: Seven Cameroon athletes go missing

YAOUNDE—Seven Cameroon athletes have disappeared while in Britain for the London Olympics, the 

Ministry of Sports and Physical Education said on Monday evening.

The seven—five boxers, a swimmer and a soccer player—are suspected of having left to stay in Europe for economic reasons.

“What began as rumour has finally turned out to be true. Seven Cameroonian athletes who participated at the 2012 London Olympic Games have disappeared from the Olympic Village,” David Ojong, the mission head said in a message sent to the ministry.

Nigerian basketball team win first Olympic game

The Nigerian basketball team this morning won their first game at the 2012 London Olympics, making the basketball team the first in Nigerian sporting history to win a match at the Olympics. They beat Tunisia 60-56 and need just one more win to get through to the next round. With this win, D’Tigers has become the first basketball team in Nigeria’s sporting history to win a match at the Olympics. 

The team needs just one more win to get through to the next round. Go team Nigeria!

Meet the Nigerian Team at the 2012 London Olympics

Team Nigeria has a total of 116 members: 55 athletes, 12 coaches, 29 administrators officers, 9 medical officials, 5 contingent officials and 6 secretariat officials.

Nigeria will be featuring in 8 games: basketball, table tennis, athletics, weightlifting, canoe slalom, boxing, wrestling and taekwondo. List of all the members of the Nigerian Team at the 2012 Olympics when you continue...

London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony (Review)

Forget oohs and ahhs, think wows and wide eyed excitement. A £27m budget, a cast of 15,000 plus some very familiar faces ensured the audience remained gripped for the duration of last night's opening ceremony in London.

The opening ceremony carried viewers on a musical and literary journey through Britain’s heritage, from feudal to future. The show featured a recreation of the British countryside, including live farmyard animals, and covers key events including the industrial revolution and the creation of the NHS (National Health Service).

That narrative was wrapped around the story of two girls defying their parents for a night on the town aided by social media, their foray takes them through nightclubs playing music from the great decades of British pop starting in the 60s to the noughties. The show was a riot of color, noise, lasers and pyrotechnics but despite a near three hour running time, it still managed to surprise and entertain at most turns as musical sequences, light shows, audience interaction and video interludes ensured continuity between the scenes but the sheer scale of the production, the actors, the sets, the machinery, makes this a stunning spectacle.

The proud heritage of Britain and London was exposed on center stage and didn't fail rouse me into a patriotic stupor, and where Beijing dazzled with the detailed synchronization of what seemed an endless army of actors, London’s show cleverly emulated that Beijing effect with clever use of technology. Boyle's opening ceremony was the equal of Beijing and more.

He had the spectacle, non for important than an inspired vision of the five Olympic rings being forged by the workers of the industrial revolution. Boyle also had jokes and laughs; he had narrative, of a cheerfully loopy kind, with some anarchic fun, and cheeky comic turns from Daniel Craig, Rowan Atkinson and the Queen. 

The final half hour in which the semi-forgotten Arctic Monkeys played a genuinely incendiary two song set, Doreen Lawrence carried the Olympic flag and Steve Redgrave used the Olympic flame to light a giant cauldron made of torches did actively threaten to be perfect. But then good old Paul McCartney came along to play a faintly horrific but reasonably endearing version of ‘Hey Jude’ – Britishness restored.

In his wild, wacky and often hilarious Games kickoff, Boyle kept his promise, delivering something unique that acknowledged the nation’s people and its innovative creative spirit more than its leaders or its past as a grand empire. The director’s stock got a major boost when he won an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, but this audacious show should bump it even higher.

All eyes on London

A global audience of up to 4 billion people is expected to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics

The eyes of the world will be on Britain today, for the opening of the 30th Olympic Games. The 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony will have an extremely difficult task to outdo the stellar and absolutely breathtaking performance put on in Beijing four years ago, but as usual, it'll make for must-see television. The Olympics celebrates both the pinnacle of human physical achievement and the coming together of nations, rich and poor however, the success of the event depends on the efforts of volunteers as much as anyone.

I of course, will be rooting for both the Canadian and Nigerian athletes and wish them every success. The success of London 2012 will be judged on the smooth running of the event itself, and the mark it leaves behind it. I believe London Olympics is already a triumph in at least one way as for the first time, every competing nation including the repressive Saudi Arabia is represented by at least one female athlete.

The opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics begins at 4pm ET and ends more that three hours later, the three hour showcase created by Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle and will be watched by a projected crowd of 60,000 in the main stadium built in the run-down area of London's East End and a global audience of more than one billion.

Spectators will be urged to join in sing-a-longs and help create spectacular visual scenes at an event set for the sporting extravaganza when the 16,000 athletes form the 204 countries share the thrill of victory and despair of defeat with about 11 million visitors.

So it's that time of the year for everyone to to sit back, relax and get into the Olympic spirit. LET THE GAMES BEGIN.