How To Find Great Available Domain Names

Finding great domain names for your site can be a very daunting tasks, specially if you are looking for a .com domain. Couple that by not using any domain suggestion tools and you are in for a treat. I know that it is complicated to find one good domain name nowadays with so many websites and domain investors out there. I myself spent quite a great of time last week when looking for one directly on my favorite domain registrar. Wow did I make a big mistake not using a domain name suggestion or generator tool for that matter. Fortunately I remembered one that I used in the past and I got some good ideas very quickly.

With that said, I want to share with you today two things.

First is an awesome slide presentation from Ana Hoffman of TrafficGenerationCafe.com. This slide presentation goes from telling you, among other things, the types of domain names you should be looking for, why they are important, how to choose them and most importantly 10 suggestions tools that you can use to ease up the pain. Many thanks to Ana for creating this slide.

Following Ana’s slide presentation, I then share with you my favorite domain generator tool that I had in my arsenal and of which I forgot about until last week. It really is a great tool by Automattic.com. One of the reasons I like this tool is because it only searches for the .com extension. Anyway, and to get this out of the way, this is not a sponsored posts. I simply find the tool great and wish to share it with you.

Let’s start with Ana’s suggestions, shall we.

Here’s the post that I wrote about LeanDomain in the past.

Goto LeanDomainSearch.com to find that name you are looking for. Good Luck”!

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Link Building Crackdown, New vs Old Domains, Black Hat SEO, Speedlink 5:2014

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great and productive week. Google continues on with its link building crackdown, taking down recently yet another link network, the French Buzzea. Although Buzzea is defending itself, saying that they always kept the ethical side of sponsored articles focusing on quality and natural links, Matt does not seem to agree based on his tweet.

Today we’re taking action on a French link network that violates our quality guidelines (Buzzea).

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) January 29, 2014

What’s more is that Matt goes as far as saying that next on the line for action will be a German link network. I think I know of one that might be a target, but I won’t say it just for now. Let’s see. In any event, this is just to show you that it is getting harder and harder to build links. Guest posting is being devalued (specially if it low quality and inbound links are from low domain authority), site wide links are a no no, and now, Matt tells us why you should steer away from article directories. Actually, this type of link acquisition has been long gone in my opinion, and yet for some reason, many still use it. As a matter of fact, the “link building” term is now being replaced by “link earning”. What do you think? What “link earning” strategies do you employ that you feel does work? I’d be interested in knowing your thoughts.

On a different front, Matt talks about another topic that may be of interest to those of you that have or acquire old domains as part of your SEO strategy. Matt explains why old or aged domains may not necessarily rank better than newer ones, despite the perceived value of an older sites, and provides some suggestions on how you can maintain your rankings.

Lastly, an interesting article published on SEMrush really caught my attention this week. When you see a title of a well established site saying “Why Black Hat SEO is Awesome“, you have got to read and see what that is all about. In the article written by Paul Bliss, he explains the difference between Black Hat SEO and sheer SPAM, and also provides some insights on why “black hat” tactics are still being employed by many. Head over there and read what he has to say and come back here to tell me what you think about it.

OK, I did say “finally” above, but this one should also be of interest to you, specially if you are into affiliate marketing. Another “warning” from Google about running affiliate programs on thin sites that don’t provide value. They warn of sites risking itself of being deindexed in case you violate their guidelines.

And as usual, in no particular order:

That’s it! Enjoy and have a great weekend!

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Page Layout Algorithm, New Klout, Suck At Marketing, Rich Snippets, Speedlink 7:2014

 

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great and productive week. Early this week Matt Cutts sent out a tweet saying that they made a refresh of an algorithm. That´s about it. One of those kind of tweets that you either click on it to read more, or it really does not say much, does it? Anyway, clicking on it will take you to a post that talks about the algorithm that looks at the layout of a webpage and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on a result. Essentially this one of for those “ad heavy” sites. I guess that those sites that have nothing really to offer (long landing pages for example) may start to see less organic traffic. What do you think about this move?

SEO folks: we recently launched a refresh of this algorithm: http://t.co/KKSXm8FqZW Visible to outside world on ~Feb. 6th.

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) February 10, 2014

Some few days ago Klout announced a new version that they say “takes the first step towards our vision of helping people be known for what they love.” By leveraging their massive trove of social data, their new content platform helps Klout users be better content creators. So did you see that? They now have a content platform. Essentially you can now create content, schedule it and share other people´s content too. The difference with other similar tools is that “Klout intelligently recommends content that will strike a chord with your unique set of friends, fans, and followers” as they mentioned in their post.

Anyway, if you are interested to know more, they published another posts clarifying some things that you may not know of. One that called my attention was that creating and sharing content on the New Klout does not help you increase your klout score. How about that? Do you use Klout? Are you even interested?

This week, Rand Fishkin of Moz.com published a video about The Best Ways To Suck in Marketing. If you a marketer, it may interesting to see what he has to say. I think that in a way, even if just a little, everyone (including me) is a bit guilty of some of these marketing practices that “suck”. Are you?

Finally and following the Rich Snippet issue that can get you into trouble with Google, here´s a great checklist to make sure you’re on the safe side.

And as usual, in no particular order:

That’s it! Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Rich Snippets, Blogging, SEO, Social Web, Speedlink 01:2012Rich Snippets and Authorship: Implementation and Benefits [infographic]Top SEO Tools and more, Google+ Nofollow Links, Rich Snippet SPAM, Speedlink 6:2014Google Privacy Changes, Trust Triggers, SEO, Speedlink 04:201263 Flares Google+ 2 '>Twitter 56 Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");'>Facebook 4 '>StumbleUpon 1 '>63 Flares ×

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The Penny Dreadful Picture Show 2013 720p WEB-DL H264-WEBiOS

WEBiOS released The Penny Dreadful Picture Show movie (produced in 2013). Get The.Penny.Dreadful.Picture.Show.2013.720p.WEB-DL.H264-WEBiOS to this place.

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All Is Lost (2013) 720p BluRay DTS x264 MULTiSubs -HQMi

All Is Lost (2013) 720p BluRay DTS x264 MULTiSubs -HQMi

RELEASE INFO
Source……..: Blu-vision.Remux.AVC.DTS-HD.MA.5.1-KRaLiMaRKo
Release.greatness..: 5.50 GiB
Duration……: 1h 45min 44sec
Video.codec…: x264, High@L4.1
Resolution….: 1280×536
Aspect.ratio..: 2.35:1
FPS………..: 23,976
Video.bitrate.: 5300 Kbps
Chapter.menu..: Yes – Not Named
Audio.1…….: DTS 1510 Kbps 6 ch
Audio.2…….: AC-3 640 Kbps 6 ch
Language……: English

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Jailbait 2013 HDRIP x264 AC3 TiTAN

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Hatari 1962 720p BRRip x264 x0r

Hatari 1962 720p BRRip x264 x0r
Language: English / Swahili
Genres: Action / Adventure / Drama / Romance
02:37:32 | 2690 kb/s | 1280×720 | 23.98 fps(r) (eng) | ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo (eng) | 2.96 GiB

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http://www.imdb.com/style/tt0056059/

John Wayne and his the whole cast cavort over the African scene filling orders from zoos for unrefined animals. Bruce Cabot plays “the Indian”, a womanizing sharpshooter who is gored ~ dint of. a rhino in the opening scenes of the film. This becomes a running theme end the movie; their bad luck in infectious rhinos, and provides the climactic ending race. While Bruce is in the hospital, Elsa Martinelli shows up for the re~on that a woman photographer from a Swiss zoo, and John wants to delegate her packing. She strongarms the Duke into letting her stay ~ the agency of promising that her zoo will buy most of their animals this moderate if she’s allowed to ~ on foot along on the hunts and take photos. Hardy Kruger, Gerard Blain, Michelle Girardon and Valentin de Vargas circuitously out the group. They traipse from one side of to the other the African landscape capturing animals; Elsa moreover has a running gag where she collects infant. elephants as the movie goes onward. In the end she’s acquired three of them.

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20 Feet From Stardom 2013 720p BluRay x264-PHOBOS

Someone from PHOBOS leaked 720p BluRay translation of 20 Feet From Stardom description (made in 2013). Get 20.Feet.From.Stardom.2013.720p.BluRay.x264-PHOBOS hither.

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Category: movies-hd
Scene cluster: PHOBOS
Title: 20 Feet From Stardom

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Fear City 1984 720p BluRay x264-PFa

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Ian Thorpe admitted to rehabilitation for depression

Five-time Olympic gold medallist Ian Thorpe has been admitted to rehabilitation for depression treatment, his manager James Erskine confirmed on Monday. Thorpe was found lost and confused early on Monday morning in the Sydney street where his parents live, with residents having called police after the 31-year-old tried to get into a car which he mistakenly thought belonged to a friend.

"He became disorientated and he tried to get into what he thought was a friend's car, but it wasn't his friend's car at all," Erskine told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "Obviously someone saw it, or the owner of the car saw it, called the police and they came and realised it was Ian Thorpe."

Thorpe was then taken to Bankstown Hospital in an ambulance.

"There was no alcohol involved. He hadn't been drinking or anything like that," Erskine said. "The hospital then suggested - or more than suggested, I think - that he should go into rehab for depression and that's what's happened this afternoon."

Erskine says Thorpe had taken painkillers for a shoulder operation he had last week and also had antidepressants in his system.

Thorpe has been living in Switzerland but returned home over Christmas, including visiting Melbourne for the Australian Open tennis tournament. The former swimmer has previously detailed his experiences with "crippling depression" in his 2012 autobiography, as well as his use of alcohol "to rid [his] head of terrible thoughts".

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British Basketball stripped of all Olympic funding by UK Sport a year after winning it back

Like last year, the sport will be offered the opportunity to earn a reprieve when UK Sport invites it to make representations in the coming weeks.

Liz Nicholl, chief executive of UK Sport, said: "This is a very significant point on our journey to Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

"While there is a clear understanding now that our investment is based on merit and must be aligned behind our best medal prospects, it doesn't make the decisions any easier and I recognise it is a difficult time for the sports and athletes who have been withdrawn from funding.

"To continue funding sports where the evidence is telling us they cannot win a medal by 2020 would be a high risk strategy that compromises opportunities elsewhere."

British Basketball claimed UK Sport's system has a "bias" against team sports and that the decision will leave everyone involved in the sport "aghast".

British Basketball's performance chairman Roger Moreland said: "The basketball community at home and abroad will be aghast that this can happen again. It seems every barrier to progress for basketball originates in Britain; the very country that should be embracing the progress its basketball teams have achieved.

"UK Sport decided not to fund basketball in December 2012 and have done so again. As we asked then, we ask again - what price a legacy from 2012?"

A statement from the sport added: "The UK Sport funding system can clearly deliver medals, but it appears to show bias against team and emerging sports. Basketball falls into both categories."

Moreland has argued that the growth in participation numbers of the sport, and the fact it is attracting so many young people, should have been recognised.

The statement added: "How can a system abandon a sport where 70 per cent of the participants are under the age of 25 and where around 50 per cent of those that play come from BME [black and minority ethnic] communities?"

Several sports have been given an increase in funding with the big winner being triathlon, whose money goes up from £5.5million to £7.5million, a 36 per cent increase. Others with increased funding include canoeing, fencing, gymnastics hockey, judo, sailing, shooting and taekwondo.

Sports whose funding has been reduced are swimming and badminton, while all others sports' money remains the same.

In Paralympic sport, funding has been withdrawn from five-a-side football, goalball and wheelchair fencing, while para-canoe has received the biggest increase.

British Swimming said the decision to withdraw funding from women's water polo and synchronised swimming threatens their very future as Olympic sports.

British Swimming chief executive David Sparkes said: "It is an extremely dark day for women's sport in this country as today's announcement could well signal the death of these historic Olympic sports in Britain.

"The decision flies in the face of the massive legacy impact afforded by the investment previously and successfully made in these sports within the London cycle and beyond.

"We will now carefully look at our options and, in due course, may well consider a more formal appeal over these devastating decisions."

Twelve months ago both sports were awarded increased funding for the Rio Olympic cycle (2013-17) of £4.54million for women's water polo and £4.34million for synchronised swimming.

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Open thread:

Telegraph readers have been invited to contribute to The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Sport's cross-party manifesto for sport.

This could relate to how sport is funded, how physical activity is promoted and delivered in schools and beyond and the provision of facilities and equipment.

But they could also take advice over how to better improve integrity in sport, the relationship between sport and television and other commercial aspects of sport, such as gambling.

You could be a senior administrator in sport, someone who plays at any level, a parent, or simply an armchair fan with an idea about how to improve sport in the UK for those involved and those who watch, from the grassroots, all the way up to the elite level.

Ideas submitted below will be forwarded on to the all-party group and could also be published in the newspaper.

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Winter Olympics 2014: Team GB men's curling captain plots medal redemption in Sochi

David Murdoch, one of Britain’s biggest podium hopes when the Sochi Games open in seven days’ time, says it would be the fulfilment of a dream to parade through his home town with an Olympic medal around his neck.

That town is Lockerbie and last month’s 25th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack perpetrated on British soil brought home memories of how, as a young boy, he witnessed the downing of Pan Am 103 with his own eyes.

“I was about 300 yards away and I saw it come down,” he said. “I was in the car driving back home and we were on an adjacent street.”

Murdoch, who was 10 at the time, had only recently taken up curling but, in the days after the disaster, his local ice rink served a different, grisly purpose as a temporary morgue. A total of 243 passengers and 16 crew died in the atrocity, with a further 11 people killed on the ground by falling wreckage.

“Yes they used the rink as a morgue and a lot of troops were using our farm to land on,” he said. “There were lots of bodies scattered all over Lockerbie so they were using the farm to put the Chinooks down.”

A quarter of a century later, Lockerbie remains synonymous with the death and destruction that rained down on Dec 21, 1988, but Murdoch is hoping to bring the town some positive headlines in the way that Andy Murray’s tennis achievements have brought pride to Dunblane.

“Obviously, there was the anniversary with Lockerbie recently and there were tough times there,” said Murdoch. “But it’s a real nice town with a lot of good people in it and I’d love to walk through there with an Olympic medal.”

Although Murdoch now lives in Stirling to be close to his training base at the Scottish Institute of Sport, his parents still live in Lockerbie and remain leading lights of the curling club. His father has had several stints as club chairman while his mother is a long-serving coach.

“The rink was almost like the family home when I was growing up,” he said. “I was learning to curl a lot earlier than I should. Most people don’t learn until they’re 12 but because my parents were heavily involved in the rink and my brother and sister were older than me, I was in there running up and down the rink at seven or eight, just desperate to go curling.”

By the age of 16 he was a junior world champion, earning a gold medal as an alternate in 1995, and he won a second junior world gold a year later, this time playing as a lead.

In the senior ranks, he has won two world titles as a skip – in 2006 and 2009 – but he is the first to admit that his Olympics ambitions are unfulfilled after “heart-breaking” losses at the 2006 Games in Turin and in Vancouver four years later.

In Turin, he finished fourth after missing out on the final by a couple of centimetres, while in Vancouver he lost in a semi-final play-off to Sweden, having arrived at the Olympics as the reigning world champion.

“It’s unfinished business for me in relation to the Olympics with the couple of close ones we’ve had,” he said. “Obviously, the last time in Vancouver we were world champions and we just didn’t have a good week.

“I don’t think we suffered from the pressure. We never really had good form and if you don’t have that it’s a tough thing to get going. This year we actually have good form and we’re playing well.

“I’ve trained harder on ice for this than I did for the previous two Games and I think it’s paying off. I’ve got a higher percentage of consistency on ice now and also a bit more experience from another four years in the game. In curling, the older you get, the better you get, or at least I hope that’s the case for me.”

In Sochi, Murdoch will be joined by the same team-mates – Tom Brewster, Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews and Michael Goodfellow – who won bronze at last year’s World Championships.

If they can reach the podium, they will be the first male curlers from Britain to do so at a Winter Olympics since 1924 – an achievement for the whole of Lockerbie to celebrate.

“It’s something you dream about, especially after the heartbreaks of not winning and training all those years,” he said. “You put in a lot of work and sacrifice and you sometimes you feel that you want to get something out of it. That’s what’s been pushing me on.”

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Shambles behind the scenes at Sochi

Despite having more than seven years to prepare, four-star hotels such as the Hyatt Regency, which were meant to open in late 2013, are still full of workers cutting stone for the forecourt.

Meanwhile furniture still wrapped in plastic remains stacked in the lobby.

It is not clear how investors, contractors and organisers all fell so far behind, but the delay has meant many guests have been told to stay in one of the five cruise ships moored in the harbour until their rooms have finished being built.

A two-minute walk down the road, small independent hotels are trying to cash in on some of the bigger hotels' failure. Built on a patch of former waste ground behind an office block, one is charging up to £175 a night for bizarrely furnished rooms with no internet, patchy electricity, and a view of a blank wall.

The rule is money up-front and in cash. “We don’t take cards - its on the website,” the frowning manager informed one non-plussed guest who was asked to hand over 70,000 rubles - the equivalent of over £1,200 - for his week’s stay in hard currency. Failure to settle up immediately, he warned, would result in them revoking your local registration: an essential document in ring-of-steel Sochi.

Not-so-private business:

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Sochi 2014: Jamaican bobsleigh team delayed after losing luggage

Jamaica's bobsleigh team have suffered a serious Olympics setback after their luggage and equipment went missing but insist they will still compete even if they have to beg gear from rival nations.

"We had bad weather going into New York JFK and had to go to Philadelphia first and we missed the flight to Moscow," Jamaican team pilot Winston Watts said.

Team Jamaica at Sochi (AFP/GETTY)

"We flew Tuesday almost all day long but after we came here we found out that our luggage got left back there. We've got nothing right now with us. Helmets, spikes, lycra suits, everything is somewhere between JFK and Sochi."

Despite the setback, Watts, who inspected the daunting course at the Sanki sliding centre on Wednesday, insisted his team will still make it to the first training session on Thursday -- even if they have to borrow equipment.

"I'm looking around and trying to get some helmets and stuff like that. Thursday is an official training session for people who've never been down this ice," he said.

"We'll make it tomorrow, I guarantee that. It's still a learning process and we have a lot more to learn. I've walked around the course today learning the curves. But when you're inside the bob there's a completely different feeling."

Jamaica's two-man team, who have qualified for the Winter Games after a 12-year absence, are hoping to represent their country with the same vigour and enthusiasm shown by their 1988 Calgary counterparts, who inspired the Hollywood movie "Cool Runnings".

"We're definitely not the Games favourites but we came here to represent our country with pride," said Watts, who also competed in the 1994, 1998 and 2002 Games.

"With the help of our friends, sponsors and Jamaica's Olympic Association we've raised around $148,000 for travel expenses and preparations for the Games and are set to spend it wisely."

He later added: "It is a tough way to start. We have a back-up plan. A lot of guys wanted to help us and we may race on borrowed blades."

Despite arriving in Sochi with only the clothes on their backs, Watts said he was still enthusiastic for the challenge ahead.

"There are no words to explain how it is being here. The atmosphere, the fans, the friends, the media; it's really exciting," he said.

Watts added that their qualification for the Olympics even received the full support of world sprint superstar Usain Bolt.

"We've got all possible support from our colleagues at home," Watts said.

"Everybody loves and supports us there. We've talked once to Usain (Bolt) and he also congratulated us on the Olympic qualification and wished us good luck at the Games."

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Sochi 2014 opening ceremony: Which world leaders will be staying away?

Some of those names are already known. International big hitters including Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, Recip Tayipp Erdogan of Turkey, and Japan’s Shinzo Abe have all accepted Mr Putin’s hospitality.
They join old Russian allies from former Soviet states including Alexander Lukashenko, the near-dictator of Belarus, Ukraine’s embattled Viktor Yanukovych, and Tajikistan’s Emomali Rahmon, who has presided over the Central Asian state for two decades.
Confusion abounds about other guests. Georgian officials previously said no government official would accompany the country’s three skiers and single figure skater to the games, but Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, caused a stir on Thursday when he said he “would not rule out” a meeting between Mr Putin and his Georgian counterpart.
It would be the first meeting between Georgian and Russian heads of state since the countries went to war over the break away republic of South Ossetia during the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
What’s not in doubt is some of the absences. There will be no Barack Obama, no David Cameron, and no Angela Merkel. François Hollande is also staying away, as is Canada’s Stephen Harper.
The big exceptions amongst western delegations are the Dutch - who despite outspoken support for gay rights, are sending not only their King and Queen, but also their prime minister and sports minister.
There are a gamut of reasons for the snubs from western leaders. The Americans are said to be particularly upset by the continuing presence of NSA leaker Edward Snowden in Moscow.
The leaking on Thursday of a sensitive and embarrassing conversation between Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and George Pyatt, the US ambassador in Kiev, apparently recorded by Russian intelligence, will not have improved relations.
But if one issue above all must be singled out for Western leaders' reluctance to attend, it is gay rights.
When Vladimir Putin signed the law banning promotion of “non-traditional” sexual orientations to minors last summer, it was intended strictly for domestic consumption: a consciously populist measure meant to galvanise support for the Kremlin amongst a perceived conservative majority of Russian voters.
The international backlash took the Russian government by surprise, and Kremlin watchers in Moscow believe if Mr Putin had been aware of the tarnish it would put on the Olympic sheen he may never have done it.
“They simply had no idea about the strength of feeling about this kind of thing in the West. They simply didn’t expect it,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor in chief of Russia in Global Affairs and a close watcher of Russian foreign policy.
While he has refused to withdraw the law, Mr Putin has done his best to back-pedal, defending the legislation simply as a child protection measure, publicly promising that gay and lesbian athletes and visitors will be welcome at the games, and repeatedly disavowing homophobia.
Those reassurances have not persuaded either Mr Cameron or Mr Obama to change their travel schedules, however.
Not that it makes much difference. One official speaking off the record confessed that relations with Western capitals are already at such a low ebb that the apparent snubs "certainly aren't going to make things worse than they already are."
Besides, compared to the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which was marred by full sporting boycotts in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the apparent snubs to Sochi are harmless. Well, mostly.
“It is not a protocol event. No one is obliged to come,” said Mr Lukyanov. “But it will probably be remembered the next time Mr Cameron wants some help with something.”
It is not only foreign dignitaries who have stayed away, however: the apparent lack of international spectators has also drawn the attention of the international media. Organisers have refused to reveal exactly how many tickets are on sale until the end of the games, and nor is it known how many foreign guests have made the journey to the Black Sea Coast.
But in Central Sochi most people seemed to be either Russian volunteers, journalists or policemen. A straw poll of passers by on Friday afternoon found only one foreign spectator - a very worried German who was trying to complete a bureaucratic paper chase in time to get to the opening ceremony this evening.
"I gave the receptionist at the hotel my passport, and it was a mistake. I thought they've just photocopy it and take the details they needed. But instead they've taken it to the police station," he said. "I can't pick up my tickets without it, and without tickets I can't get a spectator pass."
The hotel apparently claimed that the police had suddenly changed the rules on registration, demanding original documents rather than photocopies.
"Guess I'll try with a copy of my passport. I can't be the only one in this boat, can I?" said the German.

View the original article here

Winter Olympics 2014: Britain's Nick Buckland and Penny Coomes lift off with miracle worker

Thirty years after Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean captivated the world with their gold medal-winning Boléro routine at the Sarajevo Olympics, ice dancers Nick Buckland and Penny Coomes are going to unusual lengths to bring back the glory days to British figure skating.

One of their training tools is watching reruns of the Disney film Miracle, which chronicles the so-called ‘Miracle on Ice’ at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid when an American ice hockey team made up of amateurs and college kids defeated the mighty Soviet Union. The message is that a ruthless work ethic can overcome the odds.

Watching repeats of the film is the idea of Buckland and Coomes’s Russian-born coach, Evgeni Platov, who has been working with them at his base in New Jersey since they made their Olympic debut in Vancouver four years ago and who describes himself as a “beast” in the way he pushes them so hard in practice – just like in the movie.

Platov remembers the real American ice hockey victory from when he was a boy growing up in the Soviet Union and, though it was painful to watch at the time, he believes it can inspire his young British charges.

“I was 13 when it happened,” Platov said. “I was crying. How they beat us? We were the best team in the world. Now we watch this movie. It is Penny’s movie. Before competition she watches that. I told her watch this movie.”

Buckland and Coomes, who make their first appearance of the Sochi Games on Saturday when they perform their short programme in the team competition, agree the film is inspiring.

“I love hard work,” Coomes said. “They do that in the film and they defy the rules and win the Olympic gold medal. That really resonates with me. I am not naturally the best skater in the world, not naturally talented. I have to get there through very hard work and because Evgeni has pushed me, I have improved so much in the last few years.”

Since moving to the United States in December 2010, Buckland and Coomes have been training six days a week, eight hours a day under Platov, with the majority of that time spent on the ice. It was a shock to the system compared with their previous regime in Britain.

“I love your country but it’s too nice,” Platov said. “You have to push harder. After 2010 I said to Nick and Penny: ‘Make a decision. Drop everything and come and train with me.’ That’s what they did. We have a connection, a bond, but I can be very strict. I told them: ‘You don’t have to like me. You don’t have to love me on the ice. On the ice I will be the beast. Off the ice I can be your buddy, brother, mother, father, whatever you want me to be.’?”

But Platov is more than just a hard task-master with a gift for tough talking. In his own skating days, he was one of the few who could claim to have toppled Torvill and Dean after he and his partner, Oksana Grishuk, won gold at the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994 when the British pair made their Olympic comeback and finished with the bronze. Platov and Grishuk also retained their Olympic title in Nagano in 1998.

Under his guidance, Buckland and Coomes are showing signs that the long wait for another world-class British ice dance couple may be coming to an end, despite a recent health scare for Buckland when he was diagnosed with tachycardia – or a racing heart that reached alarming levels of 270 beats a minute.

The condition was treated with keyhole surgery and he now has an electronic device implanted in his heart to measure its rate.

The problem was not as dramatic as it sounds, insists Buckland, and he showed no ill-effects at the European Championships last month in Budapest where, dressed in a one-gloved ‘Michael Jackson’ costume for the free programme, he and Coomes produced a lifetime-best score to win the bronze.

After Saturday’s team competition, where a miracle on ice even more improbable than the 1980 Olympic ice hockey final is needed if Britain are to make the five-nation final, Buckland and Coomes will turn their attention to the main ice dance competition on Feb 16-17.

Realistically, a top-10 finish would be a decent achievement at these Games, though they are being groomed – and Lottery-funded – to win a medal at the next Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018, when they will both be at their peak at the age of 28.

The hope is that one day Britain will have an ice dance couple to rival Torvill and Dean, though Platov injects a note of caution. “Nobody can touch Torvill and Dean,” he said. “They are untouchable.

Even with my two Olympic medals, even though I beat them. They did a revolution in ice dancing. To reach that level, that’s our absolute goal. Nick and Penny have so much potential but to reach an Olympic medal is going to be hard.”

View the original article here

Winter Olympics 2014: Jamaican bobsleigh team delayed after losing luggage

Jamaica's bobsleigh team have suffered a serious Olympics setback after their luggage and equipment went missing but insist they will still compete even if they have to beg gear from rival nations.

"We had bad weather going into New York JFK and had to go to Philadelphia first and we missed the flight to Moscow," Jamaican team pilot Winston Watts said.

Team Jamaica at Sochi (AFP/GETTY)

"We flew Tuesday almost all day long but after we came here we found out that our luggage got left back there. We've got nothing right now with us. Helmets, spikes, lycra suits, everything is somewhere between JFK and Sochi."

Despite the setback, Watts, who inspected the daunting course at the Sanki sliding centre on Wednesday, insisted his team will still make it to the first training session on Thursday -- even if they have to borrow equipment.

"I'm looking around and trying to get some helmets and stuff like that. Thursday is an official training session for people who've never been down this ice," he said.

"We'll make it tomorrow, I guarantee that. It's still a learning process and we have a lot more to learn. I've walked around the course today learning the curves. But when you're inside the bob there's a completely different feeling."

Jamaica's two-man team, who have qualified for the Winter Games after a 12-year absence, are hoping to represent their country with the same vigour and enthusiasm shown by their 1988 Calgary counterparts, who inspired the Hollywood movie "Cool Runnings".

"We're definitely not the Games favourites but we came here to represent our country with pride," said Watts, who also competed in the 1994, 1998 and 2002 Games.

"With the help of our friends, sponsors and Jamaica's Olympic Association we've raised around $148,000 for travel expenses and preparations for the Games and are set to spend it wisely."

He later added: "It is a tough way to start. We have a back-up plan. A lot of guys wanted to help us and we may race on borrowed blades."

Despite arriving in Sochi with only the clothes on their backs, Watts said he was still enthusiastic for the challenge ahead.

"There are no words to explain how it is being here. The atmosphere, the fans, the friends, the media; it's really exciting," he said.

Watts added that their qualification for the Olympics even received the full support of world sprint superstar Usain Bolt.

"We've got all possible support from our colleagues at home," Watts said.

"Everybody loves and supports us there. We've talked once to Usain (Bolt) and he also congratulated us on the Olympic qualification and wished us good luck at the Games."

View the original article here

Winter Olympics 2014: Amy Williams ready for emotional Games in Sochi

She looks at her life now, with the anticipation of all the adventures that lie ahead, weighed down by just a couple of sadnesses. One, she says, that there is no man in her life; and, two, that there is no bobsled in her life.

Arthur, the trusty sled she piloted to that extraordinary runaway Olympic triumph in Vancouver at 80mph-plus, is no more. “He’s languishing in pieces today. Now I don’t have a sled at all. They [the governing body, British Skeleton] asked for it back. Some bits of Arthur are my own, like the runners and the specially fitted saddle. I’ve got my Olympic belly pan, the bit which is closest to the ice, up on my wall. But the actual sled, the workings of it, the Skeleton federation wanted.

“But nobody’s been using him. To be honest, he’s old now, a prototype sled that wouldn’t win many races now.” So why can’t you get him back in one piece? “Tell me about it! I’d even pay for it. It’s just sad not to have my own sled so that when someone says ‘hey we want to do a feature or a show, like the new Channel 4 series The Jump’, I’d have been able to do it on a sled that I know.”

It feels weird to her. A retired swimming or athletics champion can still pop to her local pool or track but what do you do if you are an ex-slider who just covets the pleasure of reliving the experience that once daily dominated your life?

“I just feel sad when I don’t have the opportunity to slide. I suppose that’s the unique thing in our sport; when you retire, you have to accept ‘that’s it, I may not be able to slide again’. I’ve never been back down in the 20 months since I retired and that is very hard when you’ve spent most of your adult life doing it.

“Of course, it’s an expensive world now, maybe £5,000 to £10,000 to make a sled now. I don’t know what the answer would be if I said now ‘hey, can I get one built up and made for me again and I’ll pay for it?’ Such is the hi-tech and secrecy around developments now, with even McLaren involved, it seems pretty unlikely.”

She misses it because, despite plunging into all sorts of post-career action woman antics, like appearing in adventure and survival TV programmes, nothing, she reckons, has ever quite rekindled the thrill of Olympic sledding.

The nearest experience, she says, was her recent foray into rallying when she was Tony Jardine’s co-driver in the Wales Rally GB, tasting victory in their class. Next time, she reckoned, she would love to be given enough tutoring to be in the driver’s seat itself because she remains hooked by a challenge.

“It’s an amazing feeling knowing my name is in the history books. That’s ‘wow’ but the Olympic victory is only something that will define one chapter of my life, not the whole story. I guess when you talk to champion athletes who went on to become a mother, then their Olympics disappeared into insignificance.”

In Williams’s perfect world, she would now have been married to Slovakian sledder Petr Narovec, the long-standing boyfriend with whom she shared her triumph in Vancouver.

“I would have walked down the aisle with him; he was the love of my life but, ultimately, there’s no hard feelings between us,” she says, sounding genuinely sad. “We split up on Valentine’s Day a year after the Games. It was ’hug, kiss, love you’ but we needed to split up. It was complicated; he has a son and knew I wouldn’t have gone to Prague so he had to choose between his life being a dad to his boy there or moving to the UK to have a life here.”

Subsequently, Williams went out with England rugby World Cup winner Josh Lewsey but that did not work out either. “There’s no man now. I wish I could tell you there was. Where are they?” she laughs, and you can swear you can foresee a queue forming at her doorstep in Bath.

“Obviously, I’d love to find someone to go through the next chapter of my life with but, hey what will be will be. You never know what’s round the corner.”

Williams’s immediate next turn will see her in Sochi this week, trying to do her inspirational bit as a sounding board for Team GB athletes.

“I know a lot of them now and feel like a kind of big sister,” she says. “On Twitter, some end up direct messaging me and pouring their hearts out. I think they see me as one of them, someone who’s been there, who’s known the joy of winning a medal in my first Games but also who understands an athlete’s pain, having not been selected for Turin in 2006.”

She is also confidant – and landlady in Bath – to Lizzy Yarnold, the World Cup skeleton champion she desperately wants to see emulate her in Sochi and, hopefully, enjoy the experience of being a golden Olympian as much as she has.

“It has been a wonderful experience. It opens doors, doesn’t it,” smiles Williams. What, to a new sled? Or a new romance? Or the chance to be “the first female Bear Grylls”? She laughs that anything is possible but admits that, just for an instant up at Sochi’s Sanki Sliding Centre, there will be one last pang of regret.

“Just wanting to be on that sled and competing myself,” she sighs. “There’ll be part of my heart dying.”

View the original article here

Plucky losers: the worst Olympians in winter and summer Games history

Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards (Great Britain)

At the Calgary Games in 1988, Cheltenham-born Michael 'Eddie the Eagle' Edwards became the first British athlete to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping.

He finishing last in the 70m and 90m events but won worldwide fame for his heroic failure (much to the annoyance of the ski-jumping community.)

As a result the International Olympic Committee created what became known as the “Eddie the Eagle Rule” establishing stricter minimum performance requirements for Olympic hopefuls.

Philip Boit (Kenya)

Philip Boit had never tried cross-country skiing (and had never even seen snow) until two years before he competed in the 1998 Winter Olympics.

He made switched from middle distance running to cross-country skiing and qualified for the Nagano Games to become Kenya’s first ever Winter Olympian.

He finished 92nd and in last place in the 10-kilometre classic race – 20 minutes behind the gold medal winner – and in 2002 in Salt Lake City he finished 64th, beating three competitors. In 2006 at the Turin Games he finished 92nd, beating five people.

Robel Teklemariam (Ethiopia)

Robel Teklemariam became Ethiopia’s first ever Winter Olympian after taking up skiing soon after arriving in the United States at the age of nine.

He was so determined to compete for his country he decided to set The Ethiopian Ski Federation himself to get the sport recognised.

In 2006 he competed in the 15km cross-country event where he finished 104th.

Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong (Ghana)

'The Snow Leopard' started skiing in 2004 while working as a receptionist at the indoor ski slope in Milton Keynes and became Ghana’s first ever Winter Olympian, taking part in the Vancouver Games of 2010.

He eventually finish 53rd out of the 54 skiers who finished the race.

The Jamaican bobsleigh team

The team, who were the inspiration for the 1993 film Cool Runnings first gained fame during their debut in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta.

They had had little practice on a bobsleigh track before, and had to borrow spare equipment from other countries to compete.

They did not officially finish after losing control and crashing during one of their four runs but they went on to field bobsleigh teams in 1992, 1994, 1998, and 2002 with mixed success. In 1994 they finished 14th, ahead of the USA, Russia, and France, and in 2002 their two-man team set an Olympic record for their push-start.

One of these two - Lascellas Brown - later emigrated and won a silver and a bronze for Canada in 2006 and 2010.

Team Italy in 1948

At the 1948 Winter Olympics in St Moritz Switzerland, the Italian ice hockey team etched its name in legend, losing 22-3 to Czechoslovakia, 16-0 to Switzerland, 31-1 to the USA, 21-1 to eventual gold medallists Canada, 13-7 to Poland, 16-5 to Austria, 23-0 to Sweden, and 14-7 to Great Britain.

Goals for 24. Goals against 156.

Eric 'The Eel' Moussambani (Equatorial Guinea)

Moussambani, the swimmer from Equatorial Guinea nicknamed 'Eric the Eel' by the media, won fame at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney when he swam his 100m freestyle heat in a very languid 1:52.72 - winning the race thanks to the disqualification of two false-starting fellow competitors.

His time was more than twice that of his nearest adversary, and outside even the 200m world record. However, he set a new personal best and Equatoguinean national record.

The only other Equatoguinean to compete there fared no better. Paula 'The Crawler' Barila Bolopa's last placed time of 01:03.97 in the 50m freestyle was double that of the next worst competitor.

George Stuart Robertson (Great Britain)

in 1896 plucky Oxford graduate Robertson paid £11 to travel to Athens for the inaugural modern games after seeing an advertisement in the window of a London travel agent.

On arrival he learned that his preferred discipline – the hammer throw – was not an official sport there so he entered for the discus – where he registered the worst Olympic result ever in the event with a distance of 25.20 metres.

He later said: "Greek classics were my proper academic field, so I could hardly resist a go at the Olympics, could I?"

View the original article here

The shambles behind the scenes at Sochi

Despite having more than seven years to prepare, four-star hotels such as the Hyatt Regency, which were meant to open in late 2013, are still full of workers cutting stone for the forecourt.

Meanwhile furniture still wrapped in plastic remains stacked in the lobby.

It is not clear how investors, contractors and organisers all fell so far behind, but the delay has meant many guests have been told to stay in one of the five cruise ships moored in the harbour until their rooms have finished being built.

A two-minute walk down the road, small independent hotels are trying to cash in on some of the bigger hotels' failure. Built on a patch of former waste ground behind an office block, one is charging up to £175 a night for bizarrely furnished rooms with no internet, patchy electricity, and a view of a blank wall.

The rule is money up-front and in cash. “We don’t take cards - its on the website,” the frowning manager informed one non-plussed guest who was asked to hand over 70,000 rubles - the equivalent of over £1,200 - for his week’s stay in hard currency. Failure to settle up immediately, he warned, would result in them revoking your local registration: an essential document in ring-of-steel Sochi.

Not-so-private business:

View the original article here

Sochi 2014: Why the Winter Olympics are better than the Summer games

The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics start in Russia on Thursday with events such as snowboarding and ice skating kicking off the snowy spectacular, where 98 gold medals will be handed out over 16 days of competion.

However, once the action gets underway the Winter Games promise thrills, spills and enough curling yo outdo anything in the warm weather version, at least that is according to Amy Williams, Britain's gold medal hero in the skeleton bob at the Vancouver Olympics four years ago.

View the original article here

Sochi 2014: Jamaican bobsleigh team dalayed after losing luggage

Jamaica's bobsleigh team have suffered a serious Olympics setback after their luggage and equipment went missing but insist they will still compete even if they have to beg gear from rival nations.

"We had bad weather going into New York JFK and had to go to Philadelphia first and we missed the flight to Moscow," Jamaican team pilot Winston Watts said.

Team Jamaica at Sochi (AFP/GETTY)

"We flew Tuesday almost all day long but after we came here we found out that our luggage got left back there. We've got nothing right now with us. Helmets, spikes, lycra suits, everything is somewhere between JFK and Sochi."

Despite the setback, Watts, who inspected the daunting course at the Sanki sliding centre on Wednesday, insisted his team will still make it to the first training session on Thursday -- even if they have to borrow equipment.

"I'm looking around and trying to get some helmets and stuff like that. Thursday is an official training session for people who've never been down this ice," he said.

"We'll make it tomorrow, I guarantee that. It's still a learning process and we have a lot more to learn. I've walked around the course today learning the curves. But when you're inside the bob there's a completely different feeling."

Jamaica's two-man team, who have qualified for the Winter Games after a 12-year absence, are hoping to represent their country with the same vigour and enthusiasm shown by their 1988 Calgary counterparts, who inspired the Hollywood movie "Cool Runnings".

"We're definitely not the Games favourites but we came here to represent our country with pride," said Watts, who also competed in the 1994, 1998 and 2002 Games.

"With the help of our friends, sponsors and Jamaica's Olympic Association we've raised around $148,000 for travel expenses and preparations for the Games and are set to spend it wisely."

He later added: "It is a tough way to start. We have a back-up plan. A lot of guys wanted to help us and we may race on borrowed blades."

Despite arriving in Sochi with only the clothes on their backs, Watts said he was still enthusiastic for the challenge ahead.

"There are no words to explain how it is being here. The atmosphere, the fans, the friends, the media; it's really exciting," he said.

Watts added that their qualification for the Olympics even received the full support of world sprint superstar Usain Bolt.

"We've got all possible support from our colleagues at home," Watts said.

"Everybody loves and supports us there. We've talked once to Usain (Bolt) and he also congratulated us on the Olympic qualification and wished us good luck at the Games."

View the original article here

Plucky losers: the worst Olympians in winter and summer Games history

Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards (Great Britain)

At the Calgary Games in 1988, Cheltenham-born Michael 'Eddie the Eagle' Edwards became the first British athlete to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping.

He finishing last in the 70m and 90m events but won worldwide fame for his heroic failure (much to the annoyance of the ski-jumping community.)

As a result the International Olympic Committee created what became known as the “Eddie the Eagle Rule” establishing stricter minimum performance requirements for Olympic hopefuls.

Philip Boit (Kenya)

Philip Boit had never tried cross-country skiing (and had never even seen snow) until two years before he competed in the 1998 Winter Olympics.

He made switched from middle distance running to cross-country skiing and qualified for the Nagano Games to become Kenya’s first ever Winter Olympian.

He finished 92nd and in last place in the 10-kilometre classic race – 20 minutes behind the gold medal winner – and in 2002 in Salt Lake City he finished 64th, beating three competitors. In 2006 at the Turin Games he finished 92nd, beating five people.

Robel Teklemariam (Ethiopia)

Robel Teklemariam became Ethiopia’s first ever Winter Olympian after taking up skiing soon after arriving in the United States at the age of nine.

He was so determined to compete for his country he decided to set The Ethiopian Ski Federation himself to get the sport recognised.

In 2006 he competed in the 15km cross-country event where he finished 104th.

Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong (Ghana)

'The Snow Leopard' started skiing in 2004 while working as a receptionist at the indoor ski slope in Milton Keynes and became Ghana’s first ever Winter Olympian, taking part in the Vancouver Games of 2010.

He eventually finish 53rd out of the 54 skiers who finished the race.

The Jamaican bobsleigh team

The team, who were the inspiration for the 1993 film Cool Runnings first gained fame during their debut in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta.

They had had little practice on a bobsleigh track before, and had to borrow spare equipment from other countries to compete.

They did not officially finish after losing control and crashing during one of their four runs but they went on to field bobsleigh teams in 1992, 1994, 1998, and 2002 with mixed success. In 1994 they finished 14th, ahead of the USA, Russia, and France, and in 2002 their two-man team set an Olympic record for their push-start.

One of these two - Lascellas Brown - later emigrated and won a silver and a bronze for Canada in 2006 and 2010.

Team Italy in 1948

At the 1948 Winter Olympics in St Moritz Switzerland, the Italian ice hockey team etched its name in legend, losing 22-3 to Czechoslovakia, 16-0 to Switzerland, 31-1 to the USA, 21-1 to eventual gold medallists Canada, 13-7 to Poland, 16-5 to Austria, 23-0 to Sweden, and 14-7 to Great Britain.

Goals for 24. Goals against 156.

Eric 'The Eel' Moussambani (Equatorial Guinea)

Moussambani, the swimmer from Equatorial Guinea nicknamed 'Eric the Eel' by the media, won fame at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney when he swam his 100m freestyle heat in a very languid 1:52.72 - winning the race thanks to the disqualification of two false-starting fellow competitors.

His time was more than twice that of his nearest adversary, and outside even the 200m world record. However, he set a new personal best and Equatoguinean national record.

The only other Equatoguinean to compete there fared no better. Paula 'The Crawler' Barila Bolopa's last placed time of 01:03.97 in the 50m freestyle was double that of the next worst competitor.

George Stuart Robertson (Great Britain)

in 1896 plucky Oxford graduate Robertson paid £11 to travel to Athens for the inaugural modern games after seeing an advertisement in the window of a London travel agent.

On arrival he learned that his preferred discipline – the hammer throw – was not an official sport there so he entered for the discus – where he registered the worst Olympic result ever in the event with a distance of 25.20 metres.

He later said: "Greek classics were my proper academic field, so I could hardly resist a go at the Olympics, could I?"

View the original article here

The shambles behind the scenes at Sochi

Despite having more than seven years to prepare, four-star hotels such as the Hyatt Regency, which were meant to open in late 2013, are still full of workers cutting stone for the forecourt.

Meanwhile furniture still wrapped in plastic remains stacked in the lobby.

It is not clear how investors, contractors and organisers all fell so far behind, but the delay has meant many guests have been told to stay in one of the five cruise ships moored in the harbour until their rooms have finished being built.

A two-minute walk down the road, small independent hotels are trying to cash in on some of the bigger hotels' failure. Built on a patch of former waste ground behind an office block, one is charging up to £175 a night for bizarrely furnished rooms with no internet, patchy electricity, and a view of a blank wall.

The rule is money up-front and in cash. “We don’t take cards - its on the website,” the frowning manager informed one non-plussed guest who was asked to hand over 70,000 rubles - the equivalent of over £1,200 - for his week’s stay in hard currency. Failure to settle up immediately, he warned, would result in them revoking your local registration: an essential document in ring-of-steel Sochi.

Not-so-private business:

View the original article here