The BBC announces ambitious London 2012 World Olympic Dreams project
London,Monday26 July 2010. On Tuesday 27 July, the BBC's international news services launch World Olympic Dreams, an ambitious multi-platform project across TV, radio and online, to mark two years until the start of the 2012 Olympic Games. BBC World Service and BBC World News will track athletes from around the world as they strive to turn their hopes for Olympic success into a reality.
Over the next two years, World Olympic Dreams will follow the individual stories of athletes and teams as they prepare for 2012. The athletes are drawn from across all five continents and compete in a wide range of different sports.
Those featured include: Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt; American gymnast Shawn Johnson; Kosovan Judoka Majlinda Kelmendi; Afghani taekwondo fighter Rohullah Nikpai; Iraqi rowersHamza Hussein and Haider Rashid; Kenyan distance runners, Linet and Moses Masai; and Indian female boxer MC Marykom.
Viewers will be given an insight into each of the athlete's unique stories and different personal circumstances as they work towards the same goal of Olympic success: personal training regimes; coaches; diet; family; friends; their likes and dislikes and the sacrifices they have to make.
World Olympic Dreamscan be accessed online at bbc.com/2012 - a new dedicated site for all content, which also launches on Tuesday. The site will contain updates on the athletes' progress along with views from experts in the different sports.
BBC reporter and four-time Olympic Gold Medallist, Matthew Pinsent, will present World Olympic Dreams on BBC World News, bringing regular updates and reports on each of the individual stories. Every fortnight, a new story will air on BBC World News' GMT with George Alagiah and BBC World Service's Newshour, Sportsworld and The World Today. Regular documentaries will also be broadcast on radio, on TV and online.
To mark the launch of World Olympic Dreams, BBC World News will broadcast London 2012: Two Years to Go, a BBC News special live from the Olympic stadium in Stratford, East London. The programme, which is presented by Sophie Raworth and Jake Humphry,will air at 13:15 GMT on Tuesday 27 July.
From Sunday 1 August, Sportsworld on BBC World Service will be profiling all twenty six athletes every fortnight, to check on their progress and training in the build up to the games.
BBC World Service's language and regional services will also be broadcasting regular reports and uploading World Olympic Dreams content to their websites.