Dispatches from the North: Wait, the Winter Olympics are on?

I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t realize the Winter Olympics had started until about two days after the opening ceremonies. I still haven’t even watched a single minute of them. Coverage of the Winter Olympics is being aired live on BBC2 but I haven’t tuned in even once. I used to love watching the Winter Games as a kid, especially the figure skating and ice dancing competitions. The Winter Olympics just aren’t a big deal for most Britons and I don’t even see reports about the games in the news. Its a huge contrast to the summer of 2008 when the country was abuzz with “Team GB” spirit. It seems to me that the only time that Britain pays attention to the Winter Olympics is when there is a competitor in with a good story or good chance of winning, like Torvill and Dean at the 1984 Winter Olympics or “Eddie the Eagle” in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Eddie the Eagle has a fascinating tale which really would only happen in Britain (or the movie Cool Runnings). Michael “Eddie” Edwards was a downhill skier who didn’t make the team for the 1984 Olympics, but since winter sports aren’t a huge deal in Britain it gave Eddie an idea. He switched to an event that had no other competitors in Britain- ski jumping. Eddie was completely unfit for ski jumping being a bit pudgy and not very aerodynamic and severely far sighted requiring him to wear glasses while competing which fogged up and made him barely able to see. Eddie still managed to squeak by and qualify for the Olympics and after less than 4 years training as a ski jumper he competed in the 1988 Winter Games and finished last in every event. The ski jumping community wasn’t very happy about Eddie’s show at the Olympics or the media coverage because they thought it made a mockery of their sport. After his embarrasing show at the 1988 Winter Olympics, the IOC introduced a new rule , known as the “Eddie the Eagle Rule” which tightened entry requirements and stipulated that competitors finish in the top 30% or top 50 competitors in an international event to qualify to compete in the Olympic Games.

This year Team GB has sent 50 athletes competing in 8 sports, compared to 216 American athletes that are competing in 15 sports and the 311 athletes that Great Britain sent to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. So far Team GB has only claimed one medal by Amy Williams who won the gold in skeleton

She’s had Enough: Cheryl Cole Dumps Footballer Husband Ashley Cole

Well, it’s probably been a long time coming and she’s finally done it – British pop star Cheryl Cole has dumped her footballer husband Ashley Cole.

There are various reports out there that Ashley Cole has not been faithful to Cheryl and that he was very open about it, making it easy to get caught (texts were found).

Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole, 29, has recently ankle surgery earlier this month but England club manager Carlo Ancelotti expects him to be fit to play in the World Cup which starts in South Africa in June.

From the BBC:

The 26-year-old X Factor judge married the Chelsea and England player in 2006 during a lavish ceremony in London.

The pair met in 2004 and were engaged a year later after the footballer proposed in Dubai.

Glossy magazine OK! covered the wedding, despite Cole’s earlier insistence that the ceremony would be a “quiet affair”.

In 2008, the couple’s marriage was rocked by tabloid speculation about Ashley Cole’s fidelity. The Girls Aloud star fled the country and was pictured without her wedding ring.

In a later interview with Jonathan Ross, the singer sported the wedding band and joked: “I was tempted to put it back on his head!”

British Radio: More Choice for Premiership Soccer Fans In the USA and the World

UK Immigration: Inspired by Vancouver Olympics to Work for London 2012?

Has watching the Vancouver Olympics inspired you to want to work for London 2012? They’re on a hiring spree right now and will be for the next couple years as they ramp up for the games in London in August of 2012.

If they hope to fill all their open positions, they’ll need to recruit from abroad. So, I shot them an e-mail and asked them what their policy was on sponsoring qualified Americans for a UK Points System Tier 2 Visa.

This was their response:

Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, there is no short answer to your query – however, you should find the following useful:

VISAS

• British and EEA (and Swiss) Passport holders are eligible to work in the UK
• If you are Canadian or from a Commonwealth country e.g. Australian and have a Grandparent who was born in the UK, individual can apply for an Ancestry visa and qualify for UK working
• If you are Canadian and qualify for the Youth Mobility Visa, this is only valid for a maximum of 2 years and you cannot then switch to another UK immigration permission on an in-country basis. Therefore, this type of visa would only work for a 2 year time-frame, e.g. 2011 and 2012.
• In order for LOCOG to sponsor you to obtain a visa (points-based visa schemes), we need to satisfy a number of criteria to obtain the required number of points: e,g, satisfy the resident labour market test (e.g. prove we have advertised a role within the UK) and justify why we want to appoint someone who is not a British or EEA passport holder due to the specialised nature of the role requirements, minimum salary requirements, qualifications and knowledge of English language.

For further information visit the UK Border Agency’s website: http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/

Thanks,

HR & Recruitment team

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd
One Churchill Place, 22nd Floor
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LN
www.london2012.com

So, essentially, they are open to sponsoring someone qualified for a certain position. However, they have to make sure there is no one in the UK who can do the job first. That means there’s a chance – a lot of the positions they’re looking to fill are very specific so the UK job market may not have someone suitable.

If you fancy giving it a go, check out the current London 2012 job openings here.

Good luck!

Dispatches from the North: Becks Faces Man U

A special Tuesday edition of Dispatches from the North can only mean one thing: David Beckham v Manchester United.

If you have paid any attention to British sport news you will have already heard that tonight David Beckham will face his old club Manchester United for the first time in seven years. Now if like me you pay more attention to the OK Magazine side of Becks’ life you might be wondering first of all “I thought Becks played for LA Galaxy, why is he playing for AC Milan?” and “Why is Manchester United playing an Italian football team?” Let me explain to you the unique aspects of Becks’ football career as it stands now and attempt to make sense of it all from my uniquely female I-couldn’t-care-less-about-football perspective.

The Major League Soccer season starts in mid-spring and runs through to November whereas a Premier League player in Britain has a seemingly never-ending year round season with only a couple weeks off in August. I found this out the disappointing way when my husband grumbled that his team Hartlepool United was playing the last game of the season and I had a glimmer of hope when I thought I had a couple months off from football. I was sadly mistaken.  The truth is that with the number of leagues in Europe football in England never ends. It is a perpetual cycle of regular season league games as well as Champions League games and of course World Cup qualifier games plus all-star games and friendly (scrimmage) games between seasons.

Playing for the LA Galaxy meant that Becks wouldn’t be playing competitively for about 4 months out of the year while the rest of the top players in England continued to play virtually year round. Also the level of play in the American MLS league is feeble compared to the skill level of the players in the Premier League teams of England which are generally regarded as some of the best teams in the world despite England’s inability to win a World Cup in decades.

In order to remain competitive, the England team manager Fabio Capello required Beckham to keep up the same level of play as the rest of the team and the solution is that Beckham is on loan to AC Milan during the MLS off-season.  It works out quite well for the Beckhams, Posh gets a few months to play in her fashion mecca and Becks can keep up his end of the deal to remain on the England national team.

As I mentioned above, European football seems to be an endless tangled web of leagues. This particular game tonight is a UEFA Champions League game. The Champions League is an association of all the top teams in Europe and the Champions League Cup is one of the most globally sought after prizes in football. I know very little about football and all the various leagues kind of confuse me, so I won’t reinvent the wheel and just give you the link to the Wikipedia article about this league if you want to know more about it.

The press has been buzzing for days speculating how Becks will behave at tonight’s game.  The papers are rehashing his history with Man U and manager Sir Alex Ferguson but I have a hunch that despite all the hype about tensions between Becks and his old club, tonight’s game will be relatively uneventful. First of all, Becks tends to keep his eye on the ball (pun intended) and takes his playing seriously enough not to let any bad blood or controversy off the field distract him during an important game.  Also, seven years have passed and as professionals who constantly have to play alongside rivals and against friends, it is more than enough time for them to get over it. I am sure the tabloids would love to see a spat at tonight’s game but I just don’t see it happening. Regardless, the eyes of England will be on this game tonight and Becks’ every move and word will be analyzed and reported in tomorrow’s papers.

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