Posts filed under 'Sport'
Yes Jordan, aka Katie Price, whose recent conversion to dressage is being used to inspire inner-city children to take up riding in time for the 2012 Olympics. She is the ‘face’ of Hoof, a campaign run by the British Equestrian Federation which wants to produce a generation of young city horse riders as a legacy of London 2012. Jordan/Katie has begun to compete in dressage events on a mount named Jordan’s Glamour and the Hoof promotion is certainly a victory for Jordan/Katie who was banned from the Cartier Polo Cartier Polo International tournament for (allegedly) being too chavvy.
Surely not? Well, perhaps … As you can see from the image, Katie/Jordan has created her own equestrian line and she modelled the hot pink T-shirt and velvet hot pants from her sportswear range beside one of her other horses, Candy, who was wearing a hot pink horse-blanket from ‘KP’, Katie’s new clothing label … for horses. And one of the committee organising the equestrian events for 2012 has said that Jordan is reputed to be a ‘rude and a foul person’ and hoped that she wouldn’t be invited to future events. The official preferred not to be named.
KP courtesy of RTE
September 5th, 2008
The American Politics Journal, which is a rather tongue-in-cheek publication anyway, has taken issue with the uniforms Ralph Lauren designed for US Olympic team members to wear during the opening ceremony. Or rather, they loved the uniforms, loathed the great big white polo pony plastered on the men’s jackets. As the journal puts it ‘Of course, this is typically American: create something combining taste and quality, and then reduce it to rubble it by advertising where you bought it – and how much you paid’.
Well maybe. But then, Ralph Lauren paid a pretty penny to become the licensed producer of Olympic replica wear – why shouldn’t the company get its brand in the camera’s eye? Possibly because the Olympics are claimed to be an advertising free zone, but come along, we all know that the sponsorship opportunities are heavily fought over – Ralph Lauren was just a bit more up front about its role and intentions than some of the other designers and is getting more publicity as a result – and isn’t that the point of promotional clothing?
August 19th, 2008
The Beijing Olympics are upon us and various nations and their athletes have taken the T-shirt route to expressing their views of the Chinese Government. Germany, since the 1940s, has had some of the most outspoken Olympic participants and this year they have strong feelings about human rights in China.
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One group of German athletes has designed and promoted wristbands that say Sports for Human Rights, with proceeds going to Amnesty International
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Yvonne Bönisch, gold medal judo winner in 2004, is boycotting the opening ceremony to protest human rights violations in Tibet
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During a send-off for the German Olympic team at the weekend, the German Olympic Sports Confederation was presented with T-shirts with slogans ranging from ‘Fair Games’ to ‘Sport for Human Rights’, ‘Free Tibet’ and even ‘Free China’! They were donated by former German athletes, including Dieter Baumann, 5,000 metres gold medal winner at Barcelona Games in 1992, and the sprinter Ines Geipel.
Australia’s Olympic team also seems to have a large percentage of athletes concerned about Tibet.
- More than 33% of the team declared in a poll that they wanted China to withdraw from
Tibet
- Tour de France cyclist Cadel Evans, who will compete at the Beijing Games, sported a ‘Free Tibet’ T-shirt during a race in Belgium earlier this year and he wore the same provocative T-shirt under the yellow jersey worn only by leaders in the Tour de France, when he won stage 15 of this year’s race. He finished second for the second time, but didn’t wear his T-shirt onto the winner’s rostrum.
Cadel Evans courtesy of midge
July 29th, 2008
So when you’re at the gym, what tells you when you’re really stretching your performance, going for the burn, pushing the envelope? Well, according to Jon Gilman, who’s a personal trainer, it’s a T-shirt that measures how much you sweat.
His Perspirometer is a T-shirt with a triangle printed on the front, with the point downwards. The widest part of the triangle measures a ‘light workout’, the next level down is a ‘good workout’ and the bottom, narrowest part of the triangle leading to the point is a ‘great workout’. Just below the point is ‘shower time’! The T-shirt is a bit of fun, but shouldn’t be used as a genuine measure of fitness for several reasons:
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Sweat is partly genetic – you might be a person who just doesn’t generate large volumes of fluid: that doesn’t mean you’re not pushing your body to the limits
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Sweat is also a learned response – fitter people who hydrate regularly, sweat more than unfit people or those who are fit and don’t drink as much fluid: in other words, your body learns to manage on the fluid you give it
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Women sweat differently to men – both different amounts and in a different pattern, so this T-shirt doesn’t measure women’s fitness in any way.
May 23rd, 2008
It seems that inappropriate clothing is catching people out all over the world at present. In the USA the Papa John’s pizza chain has apologised to the Cleveland Cavaliers after it produced a T-shirt with LeBron James’s number on it, and the word crybaby underneath. The T-shirt commemorates a nasty incident in a recent games between the Cavaliers and the Washington Wizards – after leBron James complained about overly hard fouls during the play off between the two teams. This led to Wizards’ player Brendan Haywood, calling James a ‘crybaby’ and gave rise to the unfortunate promotional T-shirt – it’s going to cost the chain a packet too, as a wider apology they are selling 23 cent pizzas to Clevelend residents – 23 is leBron’s shirt number!
And future Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been given notice of a fight in the making. He plans to appoint Roberto Calderoli to his cabinet, but the far-right MP has cause literal death and riots in the past, as a result of being interviewed on television wearing a T-shirt bearing a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad. As a direct result of this appearance the Italian consulate in Libya was set on fire, 11 people were killed and another 69 injured in riots. Now the son of General Ghaddafi has warned that the same thing could happen again if Calderoli is give a cabinet post.
Lebron James in the 23 shirt courtesy of ChrisChappeleur
May 6th, 2008
No, not another post about whether the Pope or George Clooney is more popular, because the answer is becoming increasingly clear: it’s the Pope. As well developing his own line of snazzy T-shirts to celebrate his US tour, he’s featured on a goalie’s front … there’s just one problem, it’s the wrong Pope!
Celtic’s goalkeeper Artur Boruc caused another storm of controversy last week (it’s not his first storm, he attracts them like Wimbledon fortnight does) dividing Scottish football fans into two unequal, and very noisy, groups. As the Pole took the applause of the home faithful at the end of the Hoops’ 3-2 Old Firm victory over their most bitter rivals, Rangers, he removed his player’s shirt to reveal an immediately controversial T-shirt underneath. It showed not Benedict XVI, the current pontiff, but Pope John Paul II and read ‘God bless The Pope’.
Gordon Strachan poured oil on the fire in his after-match comments. The Celtic manager laughed off the incident with the peculiar comment, ‘He’s not a bad lad, to be fair,’ without making clear whether he was referencing the former head of the Catholic Church or the goalie. ‘If it was “God bless Myra Hindley”, I might have a problem,’ he concluded, leaving us all to wonder exactly what goes on in the average footballer’s, or football manager’s, head!
Celtic fans celebrating in their usual style courtesy of dustpuppy
May 2nd, 2008
A team of scientists in Portugal have designed a t-shirt that could save lives. The Vital Jacket, designed by BioDevices, continuously monitors heart rate and ECG waves so that those living with acute heart problems can be constantly updated on their physical condition. And it’s expected to transfer to the fitness market too - especially in upmarket gyms. There are two versions, one that stores all its heart monitoring data on an SD memory card for further analysis on a PC later on, whereas people wearing the HWM200 boasts can keep track of their vital signs in real time via a smartphone or PDA. There’s only one downside – all that complex technology means you can’t put it in the washing machine.
If you’ve had a breast cancer diagnosis, you probably spent some time feeling less than great about your appearance. But now you can be a supermodel on the catwalk at the Breast Cancer Care Scotland fashion show. The Daily Mail in Scotland has partnered the charity to search for two truly super models - one female and one male - to represent the Sunday Mail at the show. They and eighteen others with breast cancer will strut their stuff at this glittering fundraising event. There will be two shows on Thursday, September 25, at Glasgow’s Radisson SAS Hotel. If you want to show how look and feel great, despite your diagnosis, please download an application form from http://events.breastcancercare.org.uk/server/show/nav.75 or call 0141 221 2244. Hurry up though - the deadline is tomorrow!
Gym courtesy of combust
