Why anti clockwise on a running track

The earliest is from an Australian newspaper in The first example of "to podium" in the dictionary's database is a story in the Denver Post relating to a skiing article.

The writer uses the reference "to podium" and adds an explanation "to finish third or higher". Turning a noun into a verb is something that's been going on for centuries - it was Shakespeare's Hamlet who says Claudius "out-Herods Herod". Every Team GB gold medal winner gets their own stamp, and a postbox in their hometown painted gold. But how are the stamps made so quickly?

As sailor Ben Ainslie won his gold medal in the men's Finn class on Sunday, a team of eight Royal Mail designers was on stand-by. Photographers emailed in a selection of the best images, and the design team then had one hour to review them, find the best picture, crop and refine it, add Ainslie's name, then position it within the template of the six-stamp sheet. As they rolled off the printers a fleet of 90 Royal Mail drivers loaded them on to their vans and drove off to deliver them to over Post Offices to be on sale by Monday lunchtime.

At the opening ceremony, all the main speeches were first given in French, followed by English. But why? Is it because French is still considered to be the language of diplomacy? For centuries, political delegates from around the world learned to speak French.

French was the first language of the Olympic movement - which is based in the French-speaking city of Lausanne - thanks to Frenchman Baron de Coubertin, who developed the modern Games in the s. Today, both English and French are official languages of the Olympics. At ceremonies French is spoken first, then English, then the language of the host nation.

If it's an English-speaking country, it's just French first then English. If it's a French-speaking country, it's English first then French. Of course, some would say the first language of the Olympics should be Greek.

The focus is always on the athletes, but at this Games parents have become stars too. How many people have watched Chad Le Clos's father Bert pay tribute to his "beautiful boy" in the aftermath of swimming gold. Bert almost seemed to forget he was on television. Bert burst out: "Look at him, he's crying like me.

I love you. Look at him! I love him. By then, he had won the heart of the nation. The mother of American gymnast Aly Raisman was less eloquent, shouting "stick it, stick it" throughout her daughter's performance on the uneven bars last weekend.

No-one could argue that watching your own child perform isn't agonising to watch, Lynn's peculiar facial and body contortions really caught the eye. Dad Ricky joined in. They squirmed, they gyrated and the video went viral.

Olympic athletes are under extreme pressure. But where the men in the m final might once have stared straight ahead, now when the camera passes down the line, each does a small performance. In Sunday's men's m final, Asafa Powell of Jamaica squinted while pouting slightly. America's Justin Gatlin walked off and saluted the crowd. Yohan Blake, who likes to be known as "the beast", shook his whole body before growling at the camera. The eventual winner Usain Bolt danced as if listening to music before putting two fingers on each side of his head, as if wiping sweat away.

He then pointed both fingers to the camera before putting them away into invisible gun holders. Also included in his ritual were a spot of mock DJ-ing and waggling two fingers as if to mime a runner. Go to about of this video in the UK only to relive the full routine. While it was made clear before the games that any attempts at ambush marketing - non-sponsor's efforts to smuggle their branding into the games - would not be tolerated, at least one firm has easily circumvented the rules.

A number of Olympics watchers have picked up on the prevalence of rapper Dr Dre's Beats headphones at the Games. Their ubiquity has been at least in part to free distribution to athletes. They've been particularly noticeable during the swimming, where the camera often lingers on competitors as they "get into the zone".

Why is it standard that gold medallists will bite their medals while posing for the cameras? The gesture apes the age-old test for checking whether a coin is gold. If it's really gold, the teeth should leave a small indentation. Some say the test was primarily for a lead-based fake, which would be even softer than gold. Now it's become the equivalent at the Olympics of a victorious FA Cup player using the trophy lid as a hat.

So why do they do it? Largely, they are responding to requests from photographers to "kiss it" or "bite it". Many now anticipate it. American Marti Malloy, who has earned a bronze medal for judo at the current Games, offered to strike the traditional pose. The gesture goes back a long way. John Regis remembers doing it at the world championships.

I was just making sure it wasn't chocolate," jokes Regis. But there are dangers. In February , during the winter Games a German luger broke a corner off his front tooth after biting down on his medal. And while the medal might be one of the biggest ever, the "gold" one only contains 1. We are now used to seeing athletes' body adorned in coloured tape , but German volleyball player Katrin Holtwick intrigued spectators with her elaborate display.

Eight turquoise strips fanned out over her stomach in her match against the Czech Republic on day one of the games. Her team mate Ilka Semmler opted for fluorescent pink tape across her left buttock. I think the tradition goes back to the Olympic Games, circa BC.

The ancient Hippodrome appears to be based on an anti-clockwise race with competitors coming up to the finishing line at the end of the straight see the booklet Olympia, Altis and Museum, by Nikolaos Yalouris, Verlag Schnell and Steiner Munchen.

Later, in Rome, the chariot races in the Circus Maximus must also have been anti-clockwise. The Circus was overlooked by the emperors on the Palatine hill, so the finishing line was on the eastern side of the north, where the spina ended see the model of ancient Rome in the Museo della Civilta Romana. Perhaps an expert can confirm my speculation?

Bernard, Gillingham, Dorset. NOW that chariot races have been mentioned, is it not possibly due to the predominant right-handedness of our species? Overtaking with a long whip in the right hand would be less likely to cause havoc by whipping the wrong horse or rider! Roger Franklin, Stroud, Glos. ON AVERAGE athletes have stronger right legs, while horses, though leading with the left foreleg, exert greater power through the right hind leg than the left, so it is rational to require the stronger legs to cover the greater distance.

This is why both infantry and cavalry commanders have always preferred, if possible, to execute encircling tactics in an anti-clockwise direction. John Veale, Woodeaton, Oxford. THE ancient Greeks may have run anti-clockwise round their stadia, but it is a mistake to assume that the tradition was unbroken until modern times. Contemporary illustrations show that when running on tracks was revived in the nineteenth century, clockwise running was probably just as common. Oxford and Cambridge universities ran clockwise - Oxford until , Cambridge until some time later.

The first modern Olympic Games in Athens and and Paris used the clockwise direction, but in there were complaints, as many countries had by then settled for the anti-clockwise practice. From the Games have all been run 'left hand inside'. Peter Lovesey, Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts.

It is also worth remembering that the Romans drove on the left. If that is the tradition, you would expect people to run anti-clockwise. The anti-clockwise track is shorter. Quentin Langley, Woking, UK When the athlete runs, the Earth's spin, the direction of wind, the centripetal acceleration come into act.

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