London 2012 Archives – The Oxford Student

Lighting the flame for Oxford

23rd May 201323rd May 2013Charley Turton

Charley Turton speaks to Aidan Reynolds, a fresher at University College, about lighting the flame at the Olympic opening ceremony

Tech Perspective: The Olympic Opening Ceremony

9th September 20129th September 2012Douglas Perkins

Whether you thought the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony was a triumph of Britishness or an embarrassing compilation of the country’s history it was, without doubt, a feat of technical brilliance. Nick Jones was the lighting designer and overall technical manager and was responsible for all of the effects on show. It was an incredible display of some of […]

The science behind Bolt’s effortless sprint

16th August 2012Aqil Taiyeb

Everybody has watched Usain Bolt casually breeze past the finish line in his races – a little grace, a little smile and he’s done it again, the gold dangled mercilessly in front of his fellow competitors only to adorn Bolt’s neck on the podium. A little science can help us analyse Bolt‘s technique. One cannot […]

What is the point of school sport?

12th August 201213th August 2012Dom Gilchrist

Indian dancing has borne the brunt of David Cameron’s criticism of school sports. In return, he’s received considerable flack and even accusations of casual racism and cultural ignorance. Cameron’s point here isn’t, however, something specific about Indian dancing. His criticism is of non-competitive and non-traditional sports in general, and it could be a perfectly valid one. To work […]

Our greatest sporting day?

5th August 20125th August 2012Tim Williams

The day our heroic little island got close

Former Dark Blues take Olympic gold

4th August 2012Charles Walmsley

Oxonians lead GB’s charge to gold in the Olympic coxless fours at Eton Dorney

Going for gold (in controversy)

3rd August 20123rd August 2012Michael Zhang

Korean squatters, dirty judges and racism -and this is not the plot to some new ITV drama called EDL Housing Court. It is, instead, the Games of the XXX Olympiad. What better way to spend our brief respite from academia -recovering from monstrous fact-cramming sessions and post-exam inebriation – than to stay glued to our screens with […]

Will Olympicene spur 2012 success for Team GB?

30th July 20121st August 2012Saranja Sivachelvam

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single molecule in possession of an interesting structure, must be in want of an image”. [David Fox] UK chemists Anish Mistry and David Fox of the University of Warwick have thrown chemistry’s share into London 2012 with the synthesis of Olympicene, a molecule resembling the five interlocking […]

Queensmen centre stage at opening ceremony

29th July 201229th July 2012Dom Gilchrist and The Queen's College

Two former students of The Queen’s College, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Rowan Atkinson, featured centre stage in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Actor Rowan Atkinson’s famous alter ego Mr Bean was seen playing second keyboard in a rendition of the iconic theme from Chariots of Fire, under the baton of Sir Simon […]

The Malcontent on: the Olympics

28th July 20123rd August 2012James McKean

Officials estimate around ten million people will attend the 2012 Olympic Games, and I hope every single one has a thoroughly miserable time. Don’t get me wrong; when London first won the games, I was overjoyed. Any occasion when we beat the French is worthy of celebration. But have we really trumped the Parisians, or […]

Olympics: Let’s enjoy these Games for sporting achievement

28th July 20121st August 2012Charles Walmsley

‘Part of the experience of being colonised is having images of yourself made up by outsiders stuffed down your throat’ – J.M. Coetzee It is inevitable that culture and nationhood are intertwined in sporting achievement, no more so than in the brave new world of 2k12 and Team GB’s inevitable march towards our screens. To […]

Playing Games with our future

12th July 20123rd August 2012Nathan Akehurst

The 2012 Olympics are not simply a sporting event, but a festival of repression and corporate propaganda. Let’s try and undo the myth that sport is apolitical, and least of all, the Olympics. From the 1936 Berlin Olympics to the sporting boycott of apartheid South Africa to the Olympic massacre in Mexico to the human […]