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London Gets Free WiFi Before the Summer Olympics

Kelly Schwarze — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:59:13 PST

Ahead of this year's Olympic Games, free WiFi is coming to millions of London residents. Mobile company O2 is providing the Internet access throughout the Westminster, Kensington, and Chelsea boroughs of central London.

At no cost to locals, O2's wireless system will be powered by devices installed on street furniture. The city's Internet access is expected to be the largest WiFi zone in Europe. Get ready to tweet and mobile upload to your heart's content if you're part of the crowds headed to London for the Summer games.

Susan Sarandon Taking Her Love of Ping-Pong to TV

FitSugar — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:00:05 PDT

Susan Sarandon, Scarlett Johansson, and Edward Norton are just a few of the celebs who love playing ping-pong. But Susan - who already owns the ping-pong social club, SPiN - is taking her love for the sport even further. While at a two-day "World Champions" event at SPiN this weekend, the actress told People that she is developing a ping-pong reality show, which she calls an "episodic documentary."

"It won't be like the Jersey Shore . . . We're trying to invent something you haven’t seen before that follows a bunch of people in this crazy little subculture."

Susan said the show will follow the happenings at SPiN, while also highlighting the young players there - especially the Olympic hopefuls. Calling herself the "Johnny Appleseed of ping-pong," Susan said that the show is in the early stages of filming and will be "quite different than anything else that anybody's seen before."

Sporting a leg cast and crutches from a recent injury, Susan was joined at the SPiN event by celebs like Heather Graham, Judah Friedlander, and Olivia Munn. With Susan's show in the works, it looks like ping-pong is set to become the next big fitness trend - are you already playing?

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Yoga to Become Olympic Event in 2012

FitSugar — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:30:04 PDT

When I first heard about yoga competitions, where yogis compete against each other to see who has the most grace, balance, and flexibility in challenging poses such as Inverted Locust pose, I was a little taken aback. I mean, yoga is supposed to be about union between your body and your mind, not about how bendy your spine is compared to Peggy Pretzel.

But yoga competitions are part of a movement to have yoga become an Olympic event. When asked what you thought of this idea, many of you were against it, saying that yoga is spiritual, not competitive. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news here, but it looks like come 2012, yoga will in fact become an Olympic event, just as Bikram Choudhury, the founder of Bikram Yoga, has always wanted.

To hear more details about how athletes will be judged,

read more. April Fools! Did I get you or did you know it was a joke all along?

Olympic Libido Demands 100,000 Condoms

TresSugar — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:00:12 PST

In the innocence of my youth I guess I never imagined that my heroes at the games were, well, for lack of a better word, shacking up (so much). Now, I can't imagine that I never put it all together - I mean, putting thousands of Olympic athletes with some of the most toned, attractive bodies on Earth all in the same complex for just a couple of weeks means people are bound to start hooking up.

Even if I never realized till now the full extent to which sex goes on at the games, it seems Olympic officials were always in the know - and a mass distribution of free condoms for athletes at the Olympic games has been standard practice since the '92 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. In fact, for some the Olympic games are "as much about sex as [they are] about sport."

So, I suppose now that we're all on the same page, it shouldn't come as any real surprise that at this year's Winter Olympics, over 100,000 condoms were sent for the 6,500 athletes in Vancouver - that's about 15 condoms a person - a record in condom distribution, at least for the Winter games, with 8,500 additional "emergency" condoms brought in as supplies ran scarce.

While health officials claim the condoms are provided to help raise awareness for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases for a global audience, there's no denying the first-hand account of Olympic athletes who claim the games can be an all out "sex fest." There is in fact so much sex in the Olympic Village that former Olympic athlete, Matthew Syed, sums up the Olympic officials' attitude on the matter with this: "Organisers have realised that such prohibitions [against sexual activity] are about as useful as banning breathing and have, instead, handed out thousands of free condoms to the athletes."

Get the rest of the story after the jump

Happy Hour: Hot Rum, Pineapple, and Maple Toddy

YumSugar — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:00:41 PST

Ever since two Fridays ago, I've been chained to my television watching the Vancouver Olympics. I'm not much of a sports spectator, but I have a soft spot for stories of sacrifice and redemption, and the Winter games have plenty of those.

Last night, I watched the USA face off against Canada in the hockey rink. The match had plenty of excitement and energy - plus those Canadian hotties in their maple leaf uniforms weren't too hard on the eyes, either.

I took it all in with a tipple that couldn't have been more fitting: a play on the hot toddy that's laced with cinnamon, pineapple, and the country's oh-so-emblematic maple syrup. To be the best Olympics couch cheerleader you can be, get the recipe.

Top Beauty Tip from Olympic Figure Skater Tanith Belbin

BellaTV — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:14:06 PST

US Olympic Ice Dancer Tanith Belbin's number one beauty travel tip is something easy to do on and off the ice: hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Here are some creative ways to squeeze in those 6 - 8 glasses.

Happy Hour: The Gold Medal

YumSugar — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:00:31 PST

After ringing in Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year in a big way, I decided to celebrate the Winter Olympics. Unlike the rest of this month's holidays, it only comes once every four years! To commemorate the USA's first gold medal victory, I busted out the ingredients to make this cocktail, aptly dubbed The Gold Medal. Initially, I was wary of the Goldschlager - the last time I had it was freshman year of college, and it didn't go over well - and the unusual flavor profile of cinnamon, bitters, and lemon. But the result turned out to be surprisingly good. Make a winning cocktail when you read more.

Psych Up For the Winter Games With Movies!

FitSugar — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:00:10 PST

As if you couldn't tell, I am pumped for the Winter games. With the opening ceremonies slated for tomorrow night, I have a list of flicks you can pop into your DVD player tonight to psych up for the Olympics while hanging out on your couch.

Do You Prefer Watching Female Olympians?

TresSugar — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:30:40 PST

The Winter Olympics are about to do a triple axel into our living rooms, and if I don't catch anything else, I'll be sure to tune in to the female figure skating competition. But apparently while I'm watching, I won't hear much about the athletes' skills.

A new book, Olympic Women and the Media: International Perspectives, reveals that instead of focusing on female competitors' sporting skills, the media prefers to talk about their appearances and the shape of their bodies. And most of the time the media ignores the women altogether. the book says that during the 2004 Olympics in Athens, female athletes received only 5 percent of the pre-Olympic coverage internationally and 25.2 percent of the media coverage during the games. Since the female events are some of my favorites, this surprises me. What about you?

IOC to Come Up With Better Guidelines For Ambiguous Sex

TresSugar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:00:00 PDT

The treatment of 18-year-old champion runner Caster Semenya by the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) left me scratching my head. How could officials publicly call into question Caster's sex, knowing the profoundly personal nature of the matter? Their actions were so degrading that Caster was rumored to be in hiding after the tests reportedly revealed that she was intersex. Well here's one way to understand how officials could take such an irresponsible approach: international bodies that govern competitive sports lack appropriate guidelines for dealing with ambiguous sex cases.

Hoping to address this problem, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will gather medical experts at an international conference charged with creating guidelines for such cases. It might be a difficult task, but at least they can look at Caster's case as an example of what not to do.

This meeting will be held during the World Conference on Hormonal and Genetic Basis of Sexual Differentiation Disorders, and IOC officials say that there should be a focus on the privacy of competitors whose sex has been called into question. Let's hope so.