Beijing's Paralympic Games kick off shortly, hot on the heels of the Olympic Games where Team GB (and those Londoners within its ranks), did us proud. The Paralympics are a very different kettle of fish. Britain has traditionally done very well at these games, and now that there has been sustained investment from the lottery in elite disabled sport - to the tune of £30m - there is an expectation for the team to......

Well, who would have thought we'd reach our fourteenth and final London Olympic Timetable worried that a fluffed handover in the women's 4x100m relay might let the Russians chase Britain down in the overall medal table? The good news is Team GB could yet strike more gold in the final 48 hours of the game and one man in prime position to achieve just that is West London middleweight boxer James DeGale who defied......

Gold! Gold, I tell 'ee. Gold, in them thar doldrums, damn yer eyes! Ahh, hahahahahaha! We 'opes you'll forgive us old sea dogs splicin' the mainbrace in honour of our crew what's brought treasure back to these shores. Aye, aye! It's first mate Andrew Simpson o' Chertsey and his cap'n Iain Percy takin' our golden haul to five in the Star class sailing. Ahh, hahahaha... [That's enough piracy - Scurvy Landlubbing Ed] The excellent......

More medals for Britain, and "Team London", yesterday, but the seemingly relentless success in some sports is causing a nervous shuffling of feet in others. After Twickenham's Mo Farah slipped out of the 5,000m heats Brendan Foster, BBC commentator and former Olympic medallist at 10,000m, could contain himself no longer: I just feel Mo Farah ran a very poor race. He needs to be taught how to run tactically. He's got a good finish......

And it came to pass that Team GB didst look upon their works and, behold, they were good. And on the twelfth day they rested. Well, comparatively speaking anyway. Today there are only eleven gold medals available across the whole games, the fewest on any official competition day except the opening Saturday where events were barely getting started. Even on the final day of competition twelve golds are up for grabs. Just like the......

Even though we're ten days into the Games of the 29th Olympiad there are still some competitors yet to get their campaigns underway. Two such athletes are pre-Beijing Londonist interviewees Jessica Walker (above left) and Anna Hemmings who, at 11am precisely (all times BST) will have about 1 minute and 40 seconds to paddle their kayak over the 1000m course at Shunyi, recently vacated by the rowers, and qualify for Thursday morning's semi-finals. They've......

Please sit down before reading this. Great Britain is third in the Olympic medal table. There's only China and the US ahead of us at the moment. Such lofty attainment is almost certainly unique in the years since we last held the Games ourselves in 1948. It's getting to the point where hard won silver and bronze medals in particular are having to fight to be noticed amongst headlines dripping with gold. Team London,......

If you, like the people above in Trafalgar Square, kicked back in front Olympic TV yesterday you will have enjoyed Saturday's festival of British medal winning which included "Team London" adding significantly to Emma Pooley's silver. Top of the bill was the men's four who stayed true to the tradition of Redgrave and Pinsent in delivering gold. The image of Chiswick's Andy Triggs-Hodge trying to celebrate through utter exhaustion will endure to London 2012......

As we pen this latest despatch from the land of Olympia we are hunched over our table, bracing ourselves for the avalanche of must-see denouments and prospective medals set to sweep us away on this middle Saturday of the Games. So far London can lay claim only to a share in Emma Pooley's road cycling silver, but over the next few hours the medal chances come thick and fast, not least in the rowing......

But hark! Is that the sound of the William Tell Overture in the distance? It is! And with it comes a marauding horde of London track and field competitors poised to take over the Olympic show as, for a lot of casual observers, the Olympics get properly underway. We at Londonist, as you know, look to wider horizons, but it was a bit difficult yesterday as both the sailors and the oarsfolk were forced......

Before we go any further let this column give up a "Hip! Hip!" and a whopping helping of "Hurrah!" for Emma Pooley's silver medal ride in yesterday's individual time trial. Regular readers will know that we are by no means arrivistes where Emma is concerned having brought her to your attention on no fewer than three occasions before now, particularly in relation to her selfless front running on behalf of gold medallist Nicole Cook......

Like us, Boris must be happy with Team GB's quest for glory in Beijing, where we are currently sitting rather pretty at 9th place in the medals table. (TOP TIP - Watch out for 'Super Saturday' coming up - there are a number of sports where Team GB are well-placed to win more medals, so we might sneak up the table a bit.) Like us, we presume that Boris has also noted that London's......

With each of these posts that goes by we become increasingly aware that Wandsworth is, in fact, the epicentre of London's Olympic effort. Windsurfer Bryony Shaw was born there, Andy Murray lives there (occasionally) and Judoka (yup, we just learned that one, too) Winston Gordon was born there and trains at the local Lightning club, though home is now Tooting. Gordon, who, like boxer James DeGale fights at middleweight (90kg limit) was on the......

Ben Hawes made his international debut at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and has now made more than 140 appearances for England and Great Britain. He scored in Britain's opening 3-1 win over Egypt at the Athens 2004 Olympics, but the team could only go on to finish 9th. Having tasted club hockey in the Netherlands he's now back playing for Surbiton and has fought his way back from injury to be named......

2008 Olympians above, left to right: Bradley Wiggins - track and road bicycle racer, John McFall - Paralympic sprinter, Heather Fell - modern pentathlon, Tom Daley - diving (10m platform), Victoria Pendleton - track cyclist, Liz Yelling - marathon, Chris Tomlinson - long jump. The right costume can make all the difference. When people think of Princess Leia popular culture suggests that it's the metal bikini from the Return of the Jedi that she's......