But this is just one event in a fantastically busy period for Olympic sport; both in terms of domestic test events and international championships.

Some of the test events have been quite low key, for instance the World Junior Rowing Championships at Eton Dorney last month.

Others are big international competitions in their own right, for instance last week’s Hyde Park Triathlon, where GB won gold in both the men’s and women’s race.

Britain's Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone and London 2012 organising committee chief Lord Sebastian Coe at the launch of the London 2012 Olympic logo. PHOTO: GETTY

Then there are the international competitions in four big Olympic sports - the World Swimming in Shanghai last month where GB finished fourth in the overall medal table and top European nation, and the World Athletics Championships in Korea, World Rowing (including Paralympic disciplines) in Slovenia and World Road Cycling and World Para Cycling Championships in Denmark all coming up in August & September.

We wanted to share our Olympic sport coverage plans so you can see what is to come.
Below is the text of a media release we will be sending out later.
If you have any questions on our coverage, you can ask them here.

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BBC Sport will be bringing viewers all of the key moments from a number of Olympic Sports over the next couple of months as Team GB hopefuls attempt to stake a claim for a place at the London 2012 Olympic Games. There will be coverage across TV, Radio 5 live, BBC Sport online and BBC Red Button.

With many key qualification and test events taking place in August and September, this is a crucial time for many of Britain’s athletes, from all 26 Olympic sports, as they seek winning performances against the best in the world.

A special programme ‘Olympic Countdown’ will be aired on BBC Two, 1300-1730, Sunday 21 August. Clare Balding looks at how London is preparing for the Games. The programme will include:

• Highlights from the finals of the Women’s Beach Volleyball test event, held at Horse Guards Parade. This will include the progress of the two British pairs who are battling it our to claim Team GB’s one automatic 2012 spot

• The best of the action from the Men’s Road Race (London-Surrey Cycle Classic) as a top international field including Tour de France sprint champion Mark Cavendish test out the Olympic route in competition for the first time

• The key moments from the Basketball test event in the Olympic Park where Team GB, led by NBA star Luol Deng take on China, Serbia, Croatia, Australia and France. Team GB’s final two games, against China (1800, Saturday 20 August) and Australia (1800, Sunday 21 August) will also be streamed live on BBC Red Button

• Brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, fresh from a gold/bronze finish at the Hyde Park triathlon and women’s winner Helen Jenkins, are back in action in the World Sprint Championships from Lausanne

• Highlights from the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Hungary. World Champion Ed McKeever, Rachel Cawthorn and newcomer Paul Wycherley lead the way for Team GB.

Other coverage includes:

• Sailing: The Olympic Test Regatta: BBC One, 1300-1400, Saturday 20 August. Highlights from the Olympic Sailing test event in Weymouth, where will Britain’s top sailors have been in action against the world’s elite in the 10 Olympic classes

• European Hockey Championships: BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport, 20-28 August. England’s men’s and women’s teams in action in Germany in a key event in their build up to 2012. The men are defending champions, while Britain’s women won bronze medals at the World Cup and Champions Trophy in 2010, their most successful year to date

• Equestrian - Euro Eventing: Cross Country, BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport, 0925-1500, 27 August; Show Jumping, BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport, 1240-1430, 27 August; Euro Eventing, BBC Two 1515-1730 and bbc.co.uk/sport, 28 August. Reports also on Radio 5 live. Britain defend the team title they have won eight times on the trot

• World Judo Championships: video reports on bbc.co.uk/sport, 23-28 August. Coverage from Paris as GB’s top judokas Euan Burton, Karina Bryant, Ashley McKenzie and Craig Fallon compete against the world’s best

• World Athletics Championships: live across Radio 5 live and 5 live extra, daily video highlights and live text commentary on bbc.co.uk/sport, 27 August – 4 September. Action from Korea with Jess Ennis, Mo Farah and Phillips Idowu leading Team GB’s campaign

• World Rowing Championships: BBC One, 1400-1630, Saturday 3 September; BBC Two, 1545-1700, Sunday 4 September. Finals streamed live on bbc.co.uk/sport and on BBC Red Button (approx 1010-1230, Thursday 1 September; approx 0930-1245, Friday 2 September; approx 0930-1245, Saturday 3 September; approx 1100-1245, Sunday 4 September) and covered on 5 live Sports extra. John Inverdale presents coverage of the World Rowing Championships in Slovenia with special guest and five-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave. Britain will field boats in all the Olympic classes and three of the four Paralympic classes. The 68-strong team will aim to defend four world titles and arrive full of confidence having won 10 medal, including four golds, at last month’s Lucerne World Cup

• Men’s European Basketball Championships: Team GB’s opening five group games will be streamed live on BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport as will subsequent games should the team progress. Reports also on Radio 5 live. 31 August-18 September. Having been finally granted a host place at the 2012 Olympic Games by the world governing body earlier this year, GB’s men including NBA star Deng, will be eager to prove they deserve it, as they take on Lithuania, Turkey, Spain, Poland and one other team yet to qualify in their opening five games

• World Canoe Slalom Championships: BBC Two and bbc.co.uk/sport, 1400-1510, Sunday 18 September

• Triathlon World Series: BBC Red Button, 0530-0750, Friday 9 September; BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport, 0630-0850, Sunday 11 September

• Triathlon World Championship Final: BBC One, 1500-1630 and bbc.co.uk/sport, Saturday 17 September

• European Show Jumping Team Championships: BBC Two and bbc.co.uk/sport, 1510-1630, Sunday 18 September

• World Road Cycling Championships: BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport, 1300-1610, Tuesday 20 September; BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport, 1130-1605, Wednesday 21 September; BBC One, 1300-1400 and BBC Red Button and bbc.co.uk/sport 1230-1615, Saturday 24 September; BBC Two, 1515-1700 and BBC Red Button, 0900-1605 and bbc.co.uk/sport, Sunday 25 September.

There will be a further edition of British Olympic Dreams on BBC One, 1430-1500 on Saturday 17 September.

Viewers can follow the action from these events and keep up to date with the news in all the Olympic sports at bbc.co.uk/olympics.

For the full range of BBC London 2012 content: bbc.co.uk/2012

It’s something the IOC grappled with in one small form over the issue of whether to allow athletes to blog from the Games.

The main concern for the IOC was that of media rights – ie a blog could in theory be used to ‘cover’ the event as a journalist tool.

The way round this was to stipulate in new guidelines issued in February that: "The IOC considers blogging ... as a legitimate form of personal expression and not a form of journalism," and to allow bloggers only to do so from unaccredited areas.

Restrictions used to stipulate that only media organisations which were accredited rights-holders could use material recorded within Olympic venues.

But the Reuters report said those rules had now been relaxed so that:-

'Bona fide' news organisations will be allowed to broadcast via the internet all or a portion of news conferences that take place in the Media Press Centre with a time delay of 30 minutes.

The report says the IOC has gone even further in Australia where internet sites will also be able to show short videos of the actual action through a deal with Seven Network.

"Under the deal, non-official sites will be allowed to show three minutes of Olympic events a day, in 60 second clips, but will have to "geoblock" their sites so they cannot be seen by Internet users outside Australia," said the report.

It’s also interesting to see the IOC attempting to put pressure on the Beijing government over lifting the internet firewall that exists in China.

China has said it will lift the "Great Shield of China" during the Games – not least so the thousands of journalists in Beijing will be able to do their jobs properly.

But officials have always been very vague on the subject.

There was something of a major step forward last week when the block on the BBC News website in China was lifted (though the Chinese government would never admit the block existed).

We’re excited about the fact that Chinese people are now able to share their views though our comment pages.

Of course, as BBC's Asia bureau chief Paul Danahar writes today in his piece on the lifting of the block and the challenges of reporting in China, many will not necessarily be big fans of the West – or indeed the BBC - and may well be their government’s best defence against the accusations which many human rights groups level against them…

However, as the level of debate about China’s hosting of the Games increases as we get nearer to 08/08/08 and the protests mount (for instance at this weekend’s torch relay in London), one wonders whether China will re-introduce the block.

One also wonders whether the restrictions will be lifted for English language-websites – but remain for Chinese-language sites (the block on the BBC site still apparently applies to its Chinese language section or apparently any links in Chinese).

In this way they could ensure the majority of the population will still have their view of the Games effectively censored.

According to a report from Agence France Presse, the issue of censorship was raised on Wednesday at a three-day meeting between the coordination commission and Beijing Olympics organisers.

Officials were apparently asked by journalists whether state broadcaster CCTV, which routinely delays live coverage of events by up to a minute, could effectively censor the Olympics coverage.

The AFP reported that CCTV's “live” coverage of the Olympic torch’s arrival in Tiananmen Square on Monday was delayed and that last week, CCTV cut away from the flame-lighting ceremony in Greece as protesters tried to disrupt a speech given by China's Olympic organising committee chief, Liu Qi.

Overseas censorship seems highly unlikely as CCTV has no role in international transmissions from the Olympics – this is handled by the host broadcaster, Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, a joint venture between Beijing Olympic Games Organising Committee (BOGOC) and the IOC.

Sun Weijia, director of media operations for BOCOG, told AFP: "There will be no delay from Beijing. The transmission signal goes out to international broadcasters as events unfold."

But there is presumably nothing to stop domestic footage being delayed or censored as it is relayed within China…

In the past we might have waited until a month before the Games before launching a dedicated section. But this time we wanted to get in as early as possible.

Over the coming months, bbc.co.uk/olympics will be the home for our coverage of the build-up to the Beijing Games. It will receive an overhaul for the event when demands will radically change as we're suddenly thrust into our busiest sporting event.

Football World Cups may inspire more passion, but in terms of workload, there is nothing to compare to the Olympics, with non-stop action for about 15 hours and up to 35 finals a day across the 28 different sports for more than a fortnight.

The website will look very different when it switches into 'live' mode, with up to six streams of live video and a constant flow of stories, statistics and photos that will require us to bring in many new staff.

But that still, thankfully, seems a long way off and for now the site will allow us to create a more coherent journey to the Games themselves.

Olympic qualification (a complex process, with each of the 28 sports, and the disciplines within them, having their own set of events, criteria and timetable) is under way, but the real scramble for places will begin in earnest in early spring.

We will be following a series of candidates, at least one or two from pretty much every sport, on the site - we've set up a specific Team GB section where you can read their latest diary or scan the photos we hope they'll be taking for us.

Some of them - such as 21-year-old heptathlete Jessica Ennis, 19-year-old cyclist Shanaze Reade and 13-year-old diver Tom Daley, last night voted Young Sports Personality of the Year - are featured in a new TV series, Olympic Dreams, the first run of which goes out from Monday 19 December.

We're working with the show so chunks of the footage they film ahead of the next run post-Beijing, will appear on the site.

Those three in particular seemed set to be superstars by 2012 as far as I can tell - young, driven and in love with their sport and the thrill of competing (as Daley showed in his incredibly composed speech to the packed Sports Personality crowd in Birmingham on Sunday night).

With research by the IOC showing that young people in particular are less interested in the Games, seeing it as a distant, confusing event that only happens once every four years, young people have been telling us that they would like to see more about the competitors - usually also young like them - and more about how to get into the sports themselves, from our coverage.

So we're looking at building more of that into what we do on the web.

We want to take up the 'legacy' challenge so firmly issued by Seb Coe during the bid, and do our bit to help increase participation in sport and improve the health of the nation.

The government target is to increase the number of people playing sport by 2m by 2012. There are rumbles from a few people in sports administration that we are already some way behind in delivering this but for our part, we think one way to do that is to create content that can inspire young people to actually take up sport and to weave that content not only into our event coverage, but into other bits of the BBC, such as BBC Switch the new teen-focused strand, and indeed the wider web (so we've set up groups on Flickr and You Tube).

It is the kind of content we've been creating on our Sport Academy website since 2002; tips and tricks from stars and coaches designed to help young people learn more about sport and be inspired.

So, as the site goes live this week, all 28 Olympic sports will be firmly brought under the Olympic banner - making more of their Olympic status and the fact we are the Olympics broadcaster in the UK.

One small consequence of this is that we have moved some sports such as badminton from within our 'Other Sport' section on the website, into the 'Olympic' section. We hope this doesn't confuse too many of you for too long and are adding links around the site to direct people to the new location.

Anyway, as ever, let us know what you think.

So when I, a humble Sunday league hacker, was asked on the off chance, would I "mind" helping out by appearing in a new set of opening titles being filmed for the Women's World Cup, I leapt at the chance like Maradona on banned substances.

If only because I felt I could at least try to prevent the kind of dodgy pretend women's football performed by the likes of Dee Hepburn in Gregory's Girl.

My job, and that of a team-mate from my club (Acton FC), was to act the opposition to England stars Kelly Smith, Rachel Yankey and Faye White. You will see the results of our efforts when Match of the Day kicks of at 1250 BST today (on the red button and online) for the Germany v Argentina game (highlights on BBC TWO at 2350 BST) - that is unless I'm left on the cutting room floor...

The production company, Jump, who had won the pitch to create the titles, had impressed the MotD crew with their whizzbang storyboard of special effects and graphics.

In a nutshell, the sequence was to feature a set of Chinese characters morphing into animated footballers (Sin City style), morphing into the England players (performing a header, volley or overhead kick).

Because the sequence relied so heavily on special effects we filmed in a studio painted entirely green, so the graphics could be easily laid on afterwards.

The green light made it feel like a gold fish bowl as, feeling somewhat silly under the gaze of the eight-person crew (director, technical director, cameraman, sound engineer, lighting engineer, runner, assistant producers (2)), we ran through take after take using crash mats and trampolines to accentuate the action.

My job was to tackle White as she volleyed the ball.

Or at least "try" to tackle her in the same way Vincent (Tom Cruise) has to look as if he is trying to pot the eight ball while actually leaving it teetering on the pocket to convince his partner Eddie (Paul Newman) he is not throwing the game in the 1986 film Colour of Money.

In real-life, at 5ft 10ish to my 5ft 3ish, White would brush me off like a mosquito and dance on by. I was hoping that the camera would lie - but no, it makes me look like a small, dumpy gnome scuttling at the heels of this strapping Aryan athlete.

Because the director wanted the action to be as real as possible, we had to repeat the move over and over until he had the exact clip he wanted.

Often we would do it without the ball as it is apparently easier to "add the ball in the edit suite", when they can make it go wherever they like (as opposed to firing off into the ceiling lights or smashing the polystyrene reflector screens...).

So, after five and a half hours of filming in which we managed a total of five shots (header, tackle, overhead kick, volley, celebration) we were finally released to the late summer evening - Smith and her team-mates to leave for China and the World Cup and a potential TV audience of millions - me to get ready for the opening game of our season against Woking FC, in front of our usual crowd of one (someone's mum).

Anyway, you can see the finished article on MotD today.

A closed beta version is due to be launched at this weekend's annual Games Convention in Leipzig with a public beta said to be going live before the end of the year.

I’m not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination (I quit when I found myself dreaming in the character of Lara Croft ) so don't take this as any kind of expert view.

But for what it’s worth, I think I may have seen the future – and I can’t work out if it is very exciting, or very scary.

The game works like this. Users create their own character (avatar) within a virtual sports world (Sportopia) and then travel around training and competing against other people's avatars in a suite of multi-player games (eg, basketball, tennis, football, skiing, bobsleigh).

There are gyms (where you workout), shopping malls (where you buy the latest gear) and clubhouses (where you can kick back with your team-mates).

It is being developed by Infront Sports and Media (CEO Philippe Blatter) – a reasonably big player in the sport business industry (responsible for global media rights for the Fifa World Cup).

While virtual worlds like World of Warcraft (the world’s largest MMORPG with 9m players worldwide), Habbo Hotel and Second Life were invented by creative computer geeks, Empire of Sports has been conceived and built primarily as a sports marketing tool.

“This gives sponsors and sports-rights holders the opportunity to reach their consumers again,” was how the two marketers I met last month put it.

The sports media industry is worried that changing consumption habits mean old business models are no longer working (eg, broadcasters are stumping up millions for football rights but the kids just watch 'em on YouTube, minus the ads and channel branding).

But the aim is not just to create a successful game, but a new interactive platform - via which for instance one could watch live sport in a mind-blowingly fun environment.

As Christian Müller, the managing director of EoS puts it on the company blog, this could be "the future of PvP" and "the birth of a new genre".

If they meet their target of several million users, and have the right geo-blocking technology and security in place, they could presumably have rights holders licking their lips to pipe live sporting action directly into the virtual world.

Stuff like this is already happening in Second Life, where Radio One streamed their Big Weekend last year.

So where’s the threat?

Fans of MMORPGs claim they are “the most instantly gripping, involving and demanding entertainment technology ever invented. The addiction rate appears to be about twice that of crack Cocaine”.

So with obesity rates in overdrive and participation rates in freefall, could such seemingly attractive online community gaming further usurp real sport among the next generation of teenagers?

Not necessarily. Indeed, it could be used as a means of boosting sport participation. For instance, what if users were sent a GPS-enabled computer chip they attached to their trainers to measure their distance/speed when they ran – and the data was fed back to their avatar.

But equally, while EoS say the game's integrity and its community are their main priorities, the merchandising and consumer elements could create a monster..

For instance, while the main ways to progress your avatar are to train, eat and drink well, and develop good game skill (with the mouse/keyboard) - the fourth is to use the right gear.

So, if you buy the latest trainers, you will play better. Or if you fly first-class to a tournament then you will arrive more rested – and are more likely to win.

If the brands take over, could Sportopia turn into a sinister, elitist, survivalist world where mercenaries, as skilled with their keyboard fingers as Ronaldo with his feet, fly round in their Lear jets up for hire to the highest bidder?

(A bit like the Premier League then...).

I guess the world really is their oyster.

In fact, the Games will already be under way as the Olympic football tournament always starts a few days ahead of the opening ceremony.

Brits have not had a team to cheer since 1960 (thanks to the petty politics of the home nations’ football associations) but that will hopefully change by 2012 – and earlier if the England women’s team do well at this year’s World Cup.

Next year however, I am predicting a lot more people in this country will be watching the football – mainly because of the fantastic rights portfolio we have, coupled with the time difference.

And they will all be available on the web (UK only) too.

With most of the action taking place between 2am and midday UK time – and a lot of the finals in the 9am-10am slot - we’re anticipating high demand for video on the web in particular.

Especially as the event will follow football’s European Championships – for which we also have web rights (as we did for some World Cup games last year) which will drive up usage and knowledge of the service.

We did it for the 2004 Olympics but video on the web was in a different place then - broadband figures were a fraction of what they are now and You Tube did not even exist.

These days the majority of households have broadband (60%) and high enough connection rates to make viewing video a pleasure not a trial - and that will only grow.

Of course the time difference means many people are likely to be in the office and some companies’ firewalls may prevent access - not that we would encourage people to get distracted from their work anyway…

The “new” thing about next year is that we will also have some rights to show some video on mobile phones as well.

And we are really interested to see what the demand is here.

There are more than 2bn phones in the world and they are now ubiquitous especially among the under 30s.

I was recently quoted a survey which claimed the majority of young people would rather lose access to TV than their phone – and that if we lose a wallet we report it in 26 hours; but if we lose our mobile phone we report it in 68 minutes!

However, most people still use their phone for one of only four (comparatively) basic things (text, phone call, photos and as an alarm clock – I pity the world's alarm clock manufacturers who must be suffering a similar fate inflicted by the internet on Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Internet access and watching video remain unchartered waters for the majority, even though the functionality is there.

For instance, the 2006 Olswang convergence survey found that whilst 66% of the 1500 people questioned listened to music whilst commuting, and 45% listened to radio, respondents said that they would rather sleep or do nothing than watch music videos, TV programmes or films.

But despite all this confusing and contradictory information, the projection that mobile phones will eventually overtake computers as the prime way of accessing the internet does seem pretty convincing.

The commonly cited mantra is that the mobile phone market is about where the internet was 10 years ago – so while so much of the detail is unclear, one can be pretty certain of the overall trends.

The fact most people do not use the full array of their phone's functionality yet is not because they won’t – but because of a combination of confusing charges and misguided approach from the service providers - as well as lack of ease of use.

The latter is definitely changing fast – with the turnover of new phones incredibly high the latest models can penetrate very quickly (unlike bulky hardware devices such as TVs or computers which we change far less frequently).

It will be interesting to see how Apple's iPhone – with its touch-pad screen and sexy look (and hefty price tag) – raises the bar when it launches in the UK later this year.

It will also be interesting to see when the phone operators are forced to start changing their pricing models in the way ISPs have so that we now all regard the internet as free (even though we do invariably pay for it via our cable or phone packages).

One thing we do know – is that the appetite for sport on mobiles is very high. The BBC Sport WAP site is the most popular BBC WAP service by far.

Our live text commentary of the Federer v Nadal game topped 100,000 page impressions on mobile (aided by a rare sunny day and a five-set thriller) – which would have put it among the top-hitting web pages on bbc.co.uk/sport when we launched it in 2000.

Anyway – we think all this means that the real moment for mobiles will be the 2012 Games. But I would like to hear what kind of service you’d like us to offer next year. Let me know.

Calls to the press office this morning met with replies that appeared to confirm that this was not a publicity stunt – as some feared/(hoped?) - but a genuine attempt to break new ground.

More than 200 people commented on my post yesterday; our 606 debate garnered more than 3,000 comments and our online vote showed a consistent level of about 80% against the logo (until it malfunctioned and reset itself to zero - nothing sinister I assure you. But apologies for the annoyance).

On my blog post, Michael Sutton-Long (commenter number 117) was an almost lone voice of support for the Wolff Ollins-designed icon.

I thought, as a first-hand witness to the launch, I would pass on what it was Seb Coe & co were trying to convey.

1. Different.
Virtually every other logo has featured a city skyline + Olympic rings + date.
Two of the ones that didn’t – Mexico 1968 and Munich 1972 (interestingly my personal favourites from the past) – must have caused quite a stir at the time one imagines.
These logos undoubtedly describe the event – but London 2012 wanted something that went beyond that.

2. Dynamic.
The logo animates and flashes in different colours (there has been some concern from opponents that the flashing lights and bright colours may spark epilepsy).
After a chat with one of our TV editors he was quite enthusiastic about how it would work on television and it does look good on mobile phone screens. Then again the head of our web design team was not a fan..

3. Bold.
The company behind the logo were apparently responsible for the Orange brand – which was also very bold and controversial in its time – and ultimately successful.
Coe was keen to emphasise this was “not just a logo” and that behind the brand is London 2012’s genuine belief that the Games can be used to change the country for the better – and not just through better transport links and stadiums that will remain in the east end of London.
Sadly what got lost in yesterday’s logo controversy was an ambitious, enthusiastic and powerful message to the country:
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity from which we can all benefit. This is your invitation, these are your Games.”
One-by-one, several stars got to the stage to make their pledge for 2012.

* Tanni Grey-Thompson: “I promise to help 2012 become the best Paralympic Games ever”
* Kelly Holmes: “I pledge to inspire every person I meet to follow their dreams and never give up.”
* Jose Mourinho: Not sure I took this down exactly right as he mumbled but something like: “I pledge to live the Games in a special way so in 2012 I will, probably, be a Londoner.”
* Andy Murray: “I pledge to help inspire kids to take up sport and stay active”
* Jamelia: “I pledge to teach my two daughters how to swim”

Later this year 2012 will be launching a pledge website where they will be encouraging members of the public to make their five-year promise, the aim being we all use the catalyst of the Olympics for our, and social, good. If what 2012 are hoping to achieve comes off, this will be a better country. We could join in, rather than carping from the sidelines.

4. Not just sport/not just London
2012’s head of marketing Chris Denny explained to a few of us at a seminar recently that the 2012 Games were:-

Not just about sport but sport + culture + education + health
Not just about London but London + UK + the whole world
Not just a six-week event but every day
Not just about spectating but participating
Not just for those aged 35+ but for anyone aged 5+
Not just worthy – fun

In this context one can see they are trying to make the logo ‘neutral’ in the sense that it is not about sport, London, or even the Olympics – while at the same time it is all of those things.
Now I know this sounds like a load of old mumbo jumbo but think of how the Nike swoosh (which was designed by a student for $35) says sport/cool/go-ahead – not just sports gear. Or how Apple seems to say simple/good/good for you – not just computer.
The sentiments above seem entirely in keeping with what young people in particular have told me they want from the games.

Unfortunately it seems the end result – the brand – has flopped, and the garish colours – Rhubarb and Custard meets Mister Blobby – seem the opposite of a blank canvas.
Then again, maybe we all just need to catch up with the brand…
Yesterday’s reaction reminded of that to the latest Damien Hirst sculpture or Tracy Emin piece (“my five-year-old son/cat/big toe/teapot could have done better”) – indeed the Telegraph sent one of their video journalists down to the Tate Modern to get this vox pop.

So perhaps, like modern art, the joke is on us and, like Impressionism, we will eventually grow to love it, or what it comes to symbolise anyway.
My problem is that once you see Lisa Simpson in there, you can never not see her.
Anyway, I’m a not a designer (like these guys) - but the badge does look nice on my blue jacket..

A page we set up asking for opinions on our 606 site smashed the 1,000-comment barrier, a record, and was heading towards 1,500 comments last time I looked.

Sadly for the organisers of the new brand launch, most of the reaction seems pretty negative, and not just with our punters either.

“I have vomited better logos,“ was one of the harsher assessments on 606, while others seemed willing to at least give it a go and attempt to find creative meaning in the jagged shapes beyond the "obvious"..

These ranged from:-

* A long distance runner on the start line
* mainland Britain
* Lisa Simpson
* a broken swastika
* car parks surrounding a small stadium in the middle
* Vicky Pollard in a pink tracksuit getting down with the Elephant Man in a pink tracksuit
* A window I recently kicked a ball through
* A pink Larry Grayson doing the "I'm a little tea pot" dance.

As one 606 user Willyhonda asked:

Is this supposed to be one of those picture puzzles that eventually makes sense after slowly refocussing your mind's eye? It has gone beyond the acceptable limits of effective communication by trying to be too clever. It represents already-dated grafitti (even grafitti can be contemporary art) and is like a Channel 4 title sequence gone wrong. Worst of all, it's been trademarked - who on earth would want to copy the thing?! It's stimulated debate nonetheless so the cleverness hasn't been lost there.

While some with more vivid imaginations suggesting viewed in a certain light, the logo was reminiscent of an unsavoury sex act. Ridiculous..

Anyway, as I said last week, 2012 organisers are keenly aware of the onslaught of the digital age.

Indeed the way the logo will fit neatly onto the screen of a mobile phone - the default gadget of all young people - is one of the things going for it.

They also feel the fact the logo "is never static and will always be moving", is another plus (ie in digital media it flicks through the gamut of its four garish colours and - if the video is anything to go by - gives a little animated shiver now and again) - though I thought animated web graphics had been proved to be intensely annoying in usability studies.

However, the marketeers perhaps did not anticipate the way "new media" would be so quickly turned against their new brand:-

Within a few hours of the launch an online petition calling for the old logo back was doing the rounds on 606 and social networking site Facebook - and had surpassed 3,000 signatures.

While a vote on the news story on bbc.co.uk/sport did not make palatable reading, with more than 80% opposed to it last time I looked.

And many people took the trouble to design their own and send them to bbc.co.uk/news - something the official 2012 website is also encouraging (or is this one giant media double bluff - launch dodgy logo then "withdraw it" due to public demand and reveal a new "user generated" one, to use the jargon...)

As it is, unfortunately it seems 2012’s attempt to connect with young people appears to have been perceived in a “dad at the disco” kinda way - or as 606 user AnotherWestie described it:

It looks like a logo designed for young people by old people who don't understand young people.

I was at the launch of the new logo. And while 95% of what was said was powerful, admirable and genuinely inspiring – sadly the logo simply did not seem to meet the level of expectation raised by Seb Coe & co in the preamble.

Coe, Denise Lewis, Kelly Holmes and Ade Adepitan each talked brilliantly about how the Games could be used to inspire the nation to social, structural and cultural change.

Whether it was the 62-year-old gran who kicked smoking by taking up karate (and winning her black belt), the young boy gymnast hoping to win a gold medal at 2012 or the kid hoping to overcome his love of sausages to become vegetarian - the message was that 2012 could be used by everyone as the catalyst to change their life for the better.

Lewis took to the Roundhouse stage spouting tempting phrases such as “it's not a badge or a stamp but a state of mind” and “be the change you want to see” – in a manner which seemed more in keeping with an Anthony Robbins self-help rally.

So I was expecting something more sophisticated, more slick, more corporate that what was revealed.

To me – a teenager in the 1980s - it seemed more like a throwback to that era of fluorescent T-shirts, stone-washed jeans, big hair and those two nasty bedfellows - cheap & tacky.

A bit like Swap Shop meets Tomorrow’s World meets (la-la-la-la-la) Look In meets Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Relax (the 12 inch remix doublemix version).

Instead it was, as one 606 user put it: “Like the 2012 Committee had a student intern who said he could use Photoshop and they said ‘Great, you can design the logo’."

Maybe the 2012 organisers will have the last laugh and their logo will capture the hearts and minds of the kids they’re after. Or maybe this very debate will run and run and provide more bang for their buck than any paid-for advertising campaign - and that’s what they’re after all along.

In the meantime, just tell me this:- what is that square bit in the middle?

Those who sign up at www.london2012.com are being given one clue per day (it is day two today) which leads them to a blog or social networking site where there is a video trailer which gives a hint to the “story of the brand”.

In the words of the PR guy who emailed me to tell me about the campaign, “the 2012 brand will embrace a lot of the principles of participation and democratisation familiar to those us in the blogosphere and in keeping with that, the 2012 people have agreed to launch the brand into the blogosphere before it is unveiled to an auditorium full of VIPs and the world's media.”

For yesterday’s clue I had to find: “the London-based blog (which) is passionate about its unique, biting brand of music, movie, TV, videogame and celebrity news, gossip and reviews”.
I was introduced to Hecklerspray as a result – but couldn’t find the video though I didn’t have time to try very hard I admit.

The idea is somewhat contrived – and I realise probably not aimed at someone at the wrong end of the 30s like myself…

But it is an interesting attempt to do something innovative that taps into the proliferation of new types of websites and functionality (known in the jargon as web 2.0).

I know in America, similar marketing methods are being increasingly used to some effect (although there is also some scepticism at perceived manipulation in some cases which has led to dos and don'ts for those trying to do it properly).

And after speaking to the guy leading 2012’s new media set up - Alex Balfour, who has an impressive web pedigree having been instrumental in the set up of the Guardian websites and Cricinfo – it is clear the organisers – like BBC Sport as the official broadcaster - are acutely aware how the changing digital landscape may radically affect our experience of the Games in 2012 - and the journey towards them.

And in particular the need to engage with young people (who this element of the campaign is undoubtedly aimed at I guess), who studies apparently show feel very removed from the Olympics, seeing it as a very distant, once-every-four years multi-discipline event.

Still, my best understanding of the brand to be launched on Monday came from a plain old face-to-face conversation with the marketing chief Chris Denny.

The brand ambition will be “to boost the image of the city and the country, to change people’s attitudes about sport and this country, to move people, to leverage change in the way we deliver sport - to create a new kind of games.”

You will also probably hear a lot about the L word - legacy. Legacy for the country, for east London and for each of the 26 sports being contested.

Denny said unlike many previous Olympics where competitions had been used to find the winning logos, London 2012 had been through a lengthy and painstaking brainstorming process before identifying theirs.

He said they were after something "that would capture the hearts and minds of everyone, give them an emotional attachment" - in the same powerful way Apple were perceived to have done so successfully with their simple apple logo.

I am genuinely intrigued to see what they come up with - call me naïve, but I really am excited already.

Despite being a golf lover, I’m ashamed to admit I fell asleep before the closing stages – (I hasten to add I was not on duty at the time) which was a shame as it meant I missed Johnson ‘turning into a spigot’, as one writer put his emotional greenside celebrations.

That would have given a nice weepy symmetry to my weekend - have any of you ever seen so many grown men cry as in Saturday’s edition of Joseph?.

In my defence, I took the decision to head for my bed after watching a seemingly iron-willed Tiger smash his club round a tree on the 11th while refusing to slip to bogey and then sink the putt for his eagle at the 13th, convinced that I had just watched the turning point of the final round.

I was sure that with one more par five to come, Woods had finally made the decisive move that would lead to his fifth Green Jacket.

Which was a shame, because I missed the drama that unfolded – though the nice thing about our website is you can go back and read the blow-by-blow accounts in a way you can’t in newspapers.
And in a way that also documents the true, gloriously unpredictable, nature of golf.

This from my colleague Matt Slater on Friday night, the halfway stage.
“If you are in the Augusta area tonight, stay away from Zach Johnson. He is likely to explode. From having a short putt for a two-shot lead at 16, he actually managed to bogey the last three to finish on level par. Ouch.”

Anyway, hats off to Matt and Rob Hodgetts for their entertaining commentaries, which - like many of you out and about this fine Bank Holiday weekend - I followed on my phone. Indeed, the volume of live sport and fine weather combined to produce a record-equalling day on Saturday for our WAP service (more than 200,000 people).

One of those people, Kevin, emailed us to say: “How crazy is this - I am working four hour drive from Augusta and the best way to keep up-to-date real time is on my cell phone with the BBC! Thank goodness for the BBC! Keep up the good work!”

Anyway, unlike me, many of you did manage to stay awake for Sunday night’s thrilling climax – our peak audience was up from 3m in 2006 to 3.7m in 2007.

Indeed, the TV viewing figures for each day were all up on last year - sometimes by quite a margin. For instance on Friday, the average increased from 1.8m to 2.3m.

One suspects the figures might have been higher had we been able to show more of the action.

But the Masters organisers, who have worked hard to keep the tournament as special as it undoubtedly still is, are very strict in what they allow to be shown and we were only allowed to start our live coverage from 9pm on Thursday and Friday, 8.30pm Saturday and 7.30pm on Sunday.

However, we did take quite a big step forward this year as we were able to stream that video coverage live on the website (but only from the time our TV coverage started). (And you can still watch the highlights).
And for the first time we were also able to show a live stream exclusive to the web from the famous Amen Corner (11th, 12th, 13th holes).

Tens of thousands of you took advantage of this service – such as David James Green who wrote to say: ‘Hi just found out how to download the software to watch the Masters live on the internet. Can’t wait til 17:30 to watch the golf from Amen Corner then I will watch the coverage on BBC ONE & TWO tonight. Great work, Cheers.”

Still, we were forced to include a few restrictions to our video coverage which some of you found frustrating.

It was only available for UK users as the BBC only has the rights to show the Masters in the UK. And the feed was only available in broadband in the Real player format.

This is because the pictures were encoded on location in Augusta which meant only one stream was available. In keeping with BBC online guidelines, whenever there is only one feed of an event it will always be provided in the Real format. And having a single stream is also why we were unable to provide a narrowband alternative.

From a technical point of view the coverage worked very well, with the feed only suffering minimal interference between 1530 and 1600 on Thursday.

For those of you who still have more questions, here are details of minimum system requirements to access our content, plus links to download both Real and Windows media players.

Lastly, switching to tennis for a moment - an apology to those of you expecting to see the last two ties of the Davis Cup match between Great Britain and the Netherlands on TV and on our website on Sunday.

Previous viewing figures have shown that broadcasting the remaining matches of a tie that is already won (ie, “dead rubbers”) attracts only a very small audience so we opted not to screen them.

Apologies if you missed out on seeing these games, but editorially we took a decision based on previous experience and a belief that the British public would not be that interested in seeing them as the tie had already been won 3-0.

There's a fair amount of agreement that the four best ties of the round are Preston v Man City, Fulham v Spurs, Arsenal/Bolton v Blackburn and Man U v Reading.

We'd have liked Preston to be our 5.15 Saturday game - but, as Roger Mosey mentioned in one of his earlier postings, we always have to take police advice. In this case, Lancashire police have requested a lunchtime kick-off.

Saturday 17 February

Manchester United v Reading (5.15 GMT) - Live on BBC One

Arsenal or Bolton Wanderers v Blackburn Rovers (12.15) - Live on BBC One

Sunday 18 February

Preston North End v Manchester City (1.10) - Live on BBC One

Fulham v Tottenham Hotspur (4.00) - Live on Sky

The show's passing was cause for plenty of comment and debate in the media over the weekend.

By and large the general mood was similar to how one might mourn the death of a fine old great aunt, with affection and sadness but some resignation that its time had come.

We highlight some of the views here.

Sport now arrives, like trains, on "platforms" - not just on terrestrial television, but cable, satellite, on the internet, live to your mobile phone. And, like trains, it arrives at all sorts of unpredictable times. The notion of sitting down after lunch on a Saturday and having the best stuff presented to you by the BBC over three predictable hours is now redundant. Which, no matter how sentimental you may feel about dear old Grandstand, makes sense. There is absolutely no logic in yoking together the gentle precision of indoor bowls with the rap soundtrack of snowboarding, separated on yesterday's Grandstand by five minutes. You don't have to be a marketing genius to realise that the crossover between the two audiences is close to zero.

Giles Smith, in his TV column in the Times, takes a similar standpoint commenting that decision to end the programme was a necessary one:

Increasingly, sport was happening elsewhere, at other times, on other, dedicated channels. Grandstand began to look like a cash-strapped cornershop, clinging on grimly as the hypermarkets opened all around it. The amazing thing is that it managed to stay in business so long. We'll miss a lot about it, of course. But the truth is we've been missing a lot about it for years. Its enforced passing yesterday was bound to feel sad, like the passing of any loved and respected institution, but it was, in many ways, a merciful release. Or maybe, not. Grandstand wasn't what it was, but then neither was Saturday afternoon - no longer straightforwardly the focal point of a sporting week.

One of the show's most famous presenters, Des Lynam agrees in an interview with the Sun that Grandstand's time was up:

In the Fifties and Sixties people were happy to sit down at 1pm on a Saturday for five hours of watching whatever sport was put in front of them. Today, there is much more choice when it comes to live sport. I know one or two of my colleagues will rue the passing of Grandstand and I can understand how they feel. But I like to look forward and to me the Grandstand format had run its course. People are no longer impressed by the Grandstand banner - they want to watch, say, the FA Cup Final, not FA Cup Final Grandstand.

And a leader in today's Independent pays tribute to the contribution that the much-loved show made to sports broadcasting over the last half-century.

But for any programme to have survived almost 50 years in a media and sporting climate that has changed out of all recognition is a singular feat. Grandstand was past its view-by date; some would say well past. But its diverse menu introduced many to sports they would never otherwise have encountered. In an age when we can choose to watch any one of a whole range of sports at our convenience (but football's money often calls the shots), it would be a pity if Grandstand's variety were lost. There is merit in offering armchair athletes, along with what they already know and love, something less familiar as well.

Many of you told BBC Sport's director, Roger Mosey, what you thought of the decision in his post on Friday.

And on the BBC News website, readers were invited to send in their views. Reaction was mixed - a summary is below:

Good riddance! Now, let's get more David Attenborough on TV so people can actually learn something
Armchair Inactivist, Blackburn, United Kingdom

The BBC ought to be ashamed of having let it simply fade away. Its demise is only a sad reminder of what it used to mean to millions of families across the country for whom the BBC and Grandstand WAS sports television.
Graeme Johnston, Chackmore

People seem to be moaning about the show being axed but admit to not watching it much anymore. The same thing happened when Top of the Pops was axed!
FireFoxed, United Kingdom

The fact that most comments suggest that the theme tune, rather than content, is the thing they will miss most says it all really.
Reg Shoe, Ankh-Morpork

The right decision by the BBC. If like me you grew up watching sport on Saturdays then the end of Grandstand is truly the passing of an era. However, with 'sport-on-demand' rapidly becoming a television reality it's time to face up to challenge of the new armchair sports people. Onwards and upwards.
John Ormrod, Hampshire

And the good news is the BBC will have live TV coverage of the event from 0830 GMT every morning via the red button and streamed on our website (UK only), as well as live commentary on Radio Five Live Sports Extra.

(We will also have all the usual text coverage including live scores, results and the draw, on Ceefax, digital text and our website).

So we will be able to show one of the top matches from the evening session in Australia, every morning - and we will also make sure that Andy Murray's match(es!) will be transmitted.

Former players Chris Bailey, John Lloyd (Britain's Davis Cup captain) and Sam Smith will be commentating, together with contributions from Five Live's Jonathan Overend and Alastair Eykyn.

Let's hope Andy does better than last year when he went out in the first round.

Since then he has rocketed through the rankings to world number 15 - and tennis legend Bjorn Borg is among those who feel Murray has what it takes to be the closest challenger to world No 1 Roger Federer.

He has certainly toughened up - and will need it in Melbourne, where the heat combines with late scheduling of many matches to make life on court hard.

His mum Judy, a respected coach, has written us a piece about how her son and the other will players cope.

It is posted on the BBC press office website so we haven't repeated it here, but feel free to comment on this blog.

Apologies for the confusion.