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Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on July 28, 2012 at 3:56pm

Roger Federer & Serena Williams win Olympic openers

 

Roger Federer and Serena Williams both started their Olympic singles campaigns
with victories, although Federer was made to work harder than expected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19029439

 

BIG TENNIS Champions advance in Olympic competition. Wonderful? For me...NO! I still have a big problem with an important aspect of what the Olympic competition has become...an uneven playing field of the "Haves vs. the Have-nots".

Remember when it was actually illegal for paid professional athletes to compete in amateur athletics which the Olympic Games had proudly defended and actually punished violators of amateur status? That was up until TV rights proved too lucrative to pass up which ultimately led to amateurism requirements to be gradually phased out of the Olympic Charter in the 1970s (Wikipedia).

So today millionaire star athletes like Roger Federer, Serena Williams and LeBron James can compete vs. athletes many of whom have to do fund raisers at home to be able to afford the trip to the Olympic Games. To me this has debased the true fairness of competitive athletics in Olympic Competition. The majority of American athletes have to balance work, training and competing to reach the level of performance required to go to the Olympics. And most of them are not independently wealthy or have State sponsorship like many their foreign competitors.  Nor do they have corporate sponsorships because many are just out of college.     

Love to hear what you think…, 

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Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on July 28, 2012 at 9:10pm

PERSPECTIVE:

 

THE OLYMPIC MOTTO
A friend of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, Father Henri Martin Didon, of the Dominican order, was principal of the Arcueil College, near Paris. An energetic teacher, he used the discipline of sport as a powerful educational tool.

One day, following an inter-schools athletics meeting, he ended his speech with fine oratorical vigour, quoting the three words "Citius, Altius, Fortius" (faster, higher, stronger).

Struck by the succinctness of this phrase, Baron Pierre de Coubertin made it the Olympic motto, pointing out that "Athletes need 'freedom of excess'. That is why we gave them this motto ... a motto for people who dare to try to break records."

This phrase, "Citius, Altius, Fortius" is the Olympic Motto.

The Olympic Game is the international arena viewed by millions where the athlete's spirit, mind and body endeavour to excel and achieve the higher standard than the presently existing ones; thus fulfilling the Olympic Motto.

THE OLYMPIC CREED
Pierre de Coubertin got the idea for this phrase from a speech given by Bishop Ethelbert Talbot at a service for Olympic champions during the 1908 Olympic Games. The Olympic Creed reads:

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

The creed and motto are meant to spur the athletes to embrace the Olympic spirit and perform to the best of their abilities.

http://www.mapsofworld.com/olympic-trivia/olympic-motto.html

The Business Case....

 

WIN WIN...You be the judge.

London Business School

"Business Section

Win. Win.

Spring 2012:The worlds of business and sport are more closely related than ever before." Georgina Peters explores the mutual attractions.

The lure of sport

Sport is global and dramatic; people identify passionately with the participants; there are winners and losers. It is a source of constant fascination for all in the business world for two other fundamental reasons. First, over the last fifty years sport has become a huge, global business, employing some of the brightest and best people. The commercial numbers are impressive and growing. In the sporting world, brands can be created from next to nothing – witness the astonishing success of the cricket’s Indian Premier League where few eyebrows are raised when a lesser club such as the Rajasthan Royals is valued at some $33 million.

Second, excellence in sport has close and obvious parallels to excellence in business. The greatest sportsmen and women share the same focused, dedicated and passionate beliefs seen in those who are successful in the business world. Finance and performance are an irresistible combination.

Olympics Inc.

The commercialisation of sport is a relatively recent phenomenon. It hasn’t always been like this. Formula 1 drivers and cars are now festooned with the logos of their backers. But, commercial sponsorship was only introduced in 1968. In the mid-1960s Formula 1 cars carried national colours rather than a thousand brand names. Equally, shirt sponsorship on football shirts was not introduced in the English league until 1978.

If you wish to identify the moment when business and sport became inextricably intertwined as good a moment as any is the 86th Session of the International Olympic Committee in New Delhi in 1983. Horst Dassler of Adidas made a presentation to the 78 IOC members in attendance. “You, the IOC, own the most valuable and sought after property in the world. Yet the Olympic rings are the most unexploited trademark in existence. No major corporation in the world would tolerate such a situation.”

Dassler’s pointed observations set the IOC down a more commercial route. Soon after, it began bundling Olympic rights together into four-year exclusive marketing packages. This offered companies one-stop shopping for their global Olympic involvement.

The first four-year period with the Olympic Partners (TOP) programme operational covered the Calgary Winter Games and the Seoul Summer Games between 1985 and 1988. It involved nine partners and generated $96 million. The programme has gone from strength to strength ever since. Covering the Torino and Beijing Games, TOP generated $866 million for the Olympic Movement between 2005 and 2008 (up from $663 million during the previous four year period). From being on the brink of bankruptcy after the Moscow Games in 1980, the Olympic was re-invented as the ultimate sporting brand.

The balancing act

“From a marketing point of view, the Olympic Games are beyond value. No wonder, then, that companies are prepared to go to enormous lengths to be associated with the Olympic rings. For the official sponsors and the TV companies that possess the broadcast rights to the Games, the rewards can be spectacular,” says WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell. “But it is because they remain true to the Olympic ideal that the rings retain their magical aura. The Olympic brand, in all its associations, has to strike a delicate balance between financial stability and selling out to the god of mammon. That it has managed to do so is testament to the way the brand has been developed, nurtured and protected over the past two decades.”

As Sir Martin Sorrell points out, the relationship between sport and finance is a delicate one. The growth of the Indian Premier League in cricket has been accompanied by an explosion in betting. Three Pakistani cricketers were jailed in 2011 for a betting-related incident. In this and other ways commerce can be seen as a pernicious influence. In a number of sports the demands for more product to put on the world’s television screens is drowning out the athletic realities that sports people on the line for the sake of ratings.

The Olympic Games remains the benchmark. It appears to have blended modern-day commercialism with abiding core values. Olympic stadia remain free of advertising for example. But the balance is always difficult and will become ever more so as sport and finance become more truly global.

But how

The financial side of sport is one thing, quite another is the practicality of making sport happen and the nature of great sport.

For those in business, the event is an impressive feat of logistics. Organising an Olympic Games or any large scale sporting event is a massive undertaking. They offer compelling lessons in project management, supply chain management and logistics. The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games cannot be delayed by a week or two. It has to happen on time – though, it must be said, not always on budget.

In an interview with Business Strategy Review, Lord Sebastian Coe, one of the leaders of the London Olympic Games, gave some idea of what is involved in winning the Games in the first place and then delivering them: “A successful bid is, essentially, a successful communication programme. You need to be able to explain exactly how you are going to deliver, in the space of 28 days, 26 simultaneous world championships — and then do pretty much the same with 20 Paralympic world championships. The host city has to cater to 10,500 athletes, 4,500 Paralympians, 800,000 visitors and 22,000 journalists. As part of doing that, I believed that we had to answer the question: Why are we doing this? And it wasn’t until we started to articulate, internally as an organisation, that it was about using the games to inspire young people to participate in sports that we each understood what we had to do.

“Of course, a bid is very different from the delivery stage. For the delivery, you start out with the bid team and then you build on that. You determine the skills sets you need to manage: the siting and building of the venues, the marketing of the games, ensuring the infrastructure needed for moving people around — and the people with those skills tend to come from outside of the world of sports. My chief executive was chief operating officer at Goldman Sachs for many years. My human resources director ran HR at the BBC. My communications director was, essentially, doing pretty much that job at the Sydney Games. Our commercial director was one of the founding fathers of Sky Television. And we have a Paralympic director of integration who has won more medals than any other Paralympian in history. We’ve brought the best of the best to the table.”

Leading by example

As Sebastian Coe powerfully illustrates, the human side of sporting performance is the other abiding fascination of those in the business world. Teamwork, the need for excellence, the relationship between the individual and the team, leadership and motivation are among the constant themes of both business and sport.

Sporting leadership has become more complex and subtle. Players are rewarded as never before and under constant media scrutiny. Faced with an under-performing group of multimillionaires, the old ways of leading and motivating no longer work.

In their book, Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?, Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones tell the story of an incident when Glenn Hoddle was the coach of the England soccer team. David Beckham was practising a particular skill. Despite trying it repeatedly he couldn’t master it. Hoddle, once a great player himself, took the ball and perfectly demonstrated what was needed. Great leadership? In some situations the fact that the leader could actually practice what he preached would be seen as a good thing. Not so in the eyes of the English team. They regarded Hoddle’s behaviour as a personal insult to Beckham. He had shown Beckham up in front of his team mates. This confirmed their view that the coach was full of self importance.

Of course, the case for subtle forms of leadership may be overstated. In the football world, research by Deloitte proves that the higher a team’s wage bill, the more likely it is to be successful.

Whatever happens at the 2012 London Olympic Games, drama and personal achievement can be guaranteed, but so, too, can unprecedented logistical, financial, marketing, organisational and human resource achievements.

 

http://bsr.london.edu/lbs-article/645/index.html

 

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Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on July 29, 2012 at 3:38am

MY INITIAL EXPOSURE TO THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS:

Interestingly, my first exposure to the formal recruitment process was related to my athletic accomplishments and prowess for continuous improvement in my event—the Discus Throw in track & field competition in high school. 

Having broken several stadium records; the District & State High School Discus Throw record at the Class “A” Level at the New Mexico State Championship Track Meet—I became  the target of a recruitment effort by several area universities.  It was a new experience for me and besides being flattered the experience was instructive regarding the wooing process. 

I eventually made a selection and I have to admit that besides the key aspects of the university I chose—the influence of the recruitment process experience factored into my final decision.  So much so that it was mentioned as part of a research paper I wrote in graduate school entitled: “The Influence of the Recruiter on the Recruited in the Employment Process” by Valentino Martinez.

Photo - Discus Throw Article - Record Still Tops the Charts - Tino Martinez New Mexico State Class AAA Record set in 1967 Still Standing  1987 - Albuquerque  Sunday Journal.2JPG

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Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on July 29, 2012 at 4:03am

Abby Wambach of USA battles with Nataly Arias of Columbia during the Women's Football first round Group G match between United States and Colombia on Day 1 of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

 http://www.london2012.com/photos/latestpictures.html#abby-wambach-c...

Abby Wambach rose to the occasion.  The USA's Womens Soccer Team won this hard contested game.  Interesting note:  For the first time in history there are more women competing for the USA then men.

 

Michael Phelps of the United States in the Final of the Men's 400m Individual Medley

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 28:  Michael Phelps of the United States competes in the Final of the Men's 400m Individual Medley on Day One of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre on July 28, 2012 in London, England.  (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

http://www.london2012.com/photos/latestpictures.html#michael-phelps...

Michael Phelps failed to medal in this race...but has many more opportunities to make his mark at the London Olympics.

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Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on July 29, 2012 at 12:45pm

Found a valid appraisal of the Olympics Security Debacle for Talent Acquisition...

• Opinion

3 Lessons from the Olympics Security Debacle for Talent Acquisition...

by

Linda Brenner

Jul 25, 2012

http://www.ere.net/2012/07/25/3-lessons-from-the-olympics-security-...

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Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on August 3, 2012 at 8:19pm

Michael Phelps - London Olympics - Considered the Greatest Olympian

 

Michael Phelps of the United States competes in the Men's 100m Butterfly Final on Day 7 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre.
http://www.london2012.com/photos/latestpictures.html#michael-phelps...

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Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on August 4, 2012 at 6:33pm

Usain Bolt...fastest human.  Big deal...Fastest Cheetah Breaks World Record (VIDEO)

The record-breaking run took place on a course designed by the Road Running Technical Council of USA Track & Field. Sarah chased a fluffy toy lure around the course, breaking the record on her very first run.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/03/fastest-cheetah-breaks-rec...

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Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on August 4, 2012 at 11:26pm

Valentino Martinez said:

Michael Phelps - London Olympics - Considered the Greatest Olympian

 

Michael Phelps of the United States competes in the Men's 100m Butterfly Final on Day 7 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre.
http://www.london2012.com/photos/latestpictures.html#michael-phelps...

 

First -- really great photo using a "Fisheye lens...from an underwater vantage point at London Olympic Swimming Competition.

Second, kudos to Michael Phelps.  His accomplishment of winning over 18 Olympic Medals has exceeded the record which stood for 48 years.

“In a Los Angeles Times poll, more than 65 percent of voters say Phelps in the greatest Olympian. Jesse Owens comes in at a distant second with just under 14 percent of the voters. And Carl Lewis, a 10-time Olympic medalist, including 9 gold, and who won 10 World Championships medals, including 8 gold, came in third with around 7 percent.“

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/professional/michael-phelps-swam-h...

Michael Phelps is certainly the most decorated Olympic Athlete.  Whether he's the greatest Olympian ever depends on how one regards "greatness" in the context of the Olympic Games.  For me Michael Phelps is certainly the greatest Olympic Swimming Athlete to-date.  However, his records, medals and impact is in one discipline--swimming.  And some of his medals depended on a team effort.

For me the Greatest Olympic Athlete is the Decathlete and Hepthlete because these champions excel in a grueling multi-event competition of running, jumping and throwing events that test an individual through a greater variety of totally unrelated events that have to be mastered to the degree to be the best in the world. 

Larisa Latynina

Female Olympic Gymnast Champion with Olympic highest medal count held for 48 years...recently exceeded by Michael Phelps on July 21, 2012

Larisa Semyonovna Latynina (Ukrainian: Лариса Семенівна Латиніна, Russian: Лари́са Семёновна Латы́нина; born December 27, 1934) is a former Soviet gymnast. Between 1956 and 1964 she won 15 individual Olympic medals and three team medals. Her total of 18 Olympic medals was a record for 48 years until surpassed by American swimmer Michael Phelps on July 31, 2012. Although Phelps broke her total medal count record, her record for individual event medals (14) still stands. She is credited with helping to establish the Soviet Union as a dominant force in gymnastics.^[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larisa_Latynina

 

Since Michael Phelps is now considered by some the "Greatest Olympian Ever" -- I don't remember hearing anywhere that Larisa Latynina was considered the "Greatest Olympian Ever" when she held the record for the most Olympic medals for 48 years.  The discussion never came up because "greatest" has too many variables.

As I said earlier -- I consider Michael Phelps the highest decorated Olympic Swimmer ever, just as Larisa Latynina was considered the highest decorated Olympic Gymnast ever...which she still is.

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