Olympic Shorts: Kenya sets it sights on a new goal: to host the 2024 Games
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Your support makes all the difference.Only last year, swathes of Kenya were wracked by drought and famine – logistical problems which make even those that faced London 2012 organisers pale by comparison. Yet, impressively, the country's Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, believes his nation will be in a position to host the Olympic Games in 2024.
"Kenya had the confidence as far back as 1968 to consider bidding for the Olympics," he told the Financial Times. "That is the spirit we need to recapture. We need to bring back that confidence and say we can do it." Should the bid succeed, Kenya would be the first African nation to host the Games. Argentina, Morocco and Egypt are also thought to be readying bids.
Adams and Taylor punch their way through prejudice
Nicola Adams and Katie Taylor were the toast of the Games yesterday. But there hasn't always been such enthusiasm for women in the ring. "Fleetwood Assassin" Jane Couch – Britain's most famous female boxer – was called "demented" for trying to fight professionally in the 1990s. Yesterday, she told The Independent: "All the doors that got slammed in my face have opened. You see Barry McGuigan hugging [Katie Taylor] – he used to say we shouldn't be allowed to box."
It's not easy wearing green
Lebanese sprinter Gretta Taslakian has become the latest Olympian to be banished in disgrace. According to L'Orient-Le Jour, she was summoned to a hearing by Lebanon's Olympic committee to explain why she had worn an Irish team jacket during warm-ups. She said: "I basically wore a green Nike jacket, but the officials decided it was the Irish team jacket. It's nothing like the Irish one, except for the colour."
Dressage horses are a tough crowd for Phil Collins
In the dressage, Anna Kasprzak of Denmark and Victoria Max-Theurer of Austria rode to Phil Collins tracks. Max-Theurer's horse showed what it thought of the Genesis classic "I Can't Dance" by defecating in time.
Missing: the Village people
It's a well-known fact that in West London you can sell anything. So it's a surprise to learn that the hospitality venue for African nations in Kensington Gardens – what should have been a prime location – has closed. Spokesman Laurent Bagnis told the BBC that Africa Village owes suppliers hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Quote of the day
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Nicola Adams on her celebration plans after winning boxing gold
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