Year in Review: South Korea Olympics: Parachute fails to deploy in new bobsled long jump competition

Year in Review: Sochi news station censors Olympic men's doubles luge highlights

World Cup: Brazil President: 'We're in big event mode right now, firing on all cylinders. Can we just do 2016 Olympics this summer?'

Citing high costs to repair floors, schools across country banning popular bobsled shoe fashion trend

Minneapolis--The XXII Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, ended nearly one month ago, but the games' ability to set global trends is running (er, skating) at full speed. One of the bigger fashion trends to emerge from the seaside resort town, in the shadow of the Caucus Mountains, was the bobsled shoe as casual footwear. Yes, the same shoes designed to provide built, sprinting athletes pushing bulky sleds with traction on ice are being worn by the "average Joe" to carryout everyday activities. One major problem has resulted, however, from school-aged children sporting the spiked gear.: floor damage. "We're not talking a few scrapes here," said Edward Johanson, principal at Bloomington Middle School in Bloomington, Minnesota. "I absolutely love that our children were inspired by the fantastic Winter Olympic Games. I love their passion. But the spikes are wreaking havoc on floors, and nearly all of the flooring in the school now needs replacing. Let's not even talk about the basketball court." This is not an isolated incident, as schools--malls, restaurants, and offices--across the country and around the world have started banning the metal-spiked bobsled shoes.

Latvian bobsled team blaming 5th-place finish on Latvian film crew's 'enormously impractical' front-mounted camera

"The documentary crew had an all-access pass to [the team] while in Sochi, we just had no idea the camera would be that large. It absolutely slowed our run times, but, to be honest, some of the footage is breathtaking," said one team member. "It was all worth it."

                            

Winter Olympics: Freestyle skiing grounds crew member stockpiling keys, wallets, change, chapstick in cramped locker

Winter Olympics: Controversy dampens Two-man Aerial Bobsled finals in Sochi

Canada takes home gold, but Norway and Russia each claim a third person was aboard the Maple Leaf sled.

Winter Olympics: Warm Sochi: Skiing events to be completed using all-terrain inline skates

Winter Olympics: Luge Doubles: For past three years, teammates each thought the other was steering

2020 Olympics go to Tokyo: Madrid now regretting taking two IOC officials to run with the bulls

French magazine agrees not to publish Kate's topless Olympic cheering photos

NBC: Yellow WR swimming line drew millions of N.F.L. fans to Olympic broadcast thinking graphic indicated first down

American football fans strongly related to the moving yellow world record pace line, which appeared during the men's and women's Olympic swimming broadcasts. NBC announcers, in an effort to lure more N.F.L. viewers, referred to the line as the first down line. 'The swimming guy kept almost getting a first down,' said one fan. 'It was great.'

Red Bull, coffee, and 'dangerous' amounts of 5-Hour Energy unable to keep Cast of Cirque du Soleil awake during coverage of Olympic gymnastics

Olympics: New Zealand Men's beach volleyball team Turner and Hooch growing tired of movie references

Australian twins ready to dominate at London Paralympic men's synchronized diving

Above: Paralympic synchronized divers Brendan and Brandon Stevenson of Australia take a practice dive yesterday at the Aquatics Center in London's Olympic Park. The native suburban Melbourne twins dominated the Paralympic Games in Beijing four years ago, taking gold in all three diving events. The two are heavily favored to occupy the top spot on the medal stand at the conclusion of this year's games, which run from August 29 to September 9, 2012, in London.

Sustainability at the Olympics: What happens to all the pommel horse manure?

Above: A Japanese gymnast narrowly misses a large pile of pommel horse manure after dismounting from the pommel horse. Gymnasts lose points for coming in contact with the manure. Clean up crews have had a difficult time keeping pace with the absurd amount of solid waste produced by the pommel horse.

London--The host of the Summer Olympics has yet to miss an opportunity to remind viewers and visitors that this 2012 version of the games is the most sustainable ever. Yes, even more so than the 1948 London games, in which the city constructed no new venues when it welcomed the world shortly after WWII ended.

Solar panels provide power for lighting the ExCel Center where fencing and table tennis competitions are held. Geothermal eases the energy demand for climate control in the Basketball Arena. And, roof-mounted wind turbines give life to Earls Court, a 20,000-seat arena, home to the volleyball matches. The city planted over 30,000 new trees near the gleaming sporting venues, which reduces the amount of stormwater runoff destine for the Lee River, a tributary of the Thames, and the Hertford Union Canal. Giant rain barrels strategically placed throughout the park provide water for the elaborate, royal-like (and very thirsty) gardens dotting the landscape.

But it doesn't end there.

So green are these Olympics that the pommel horse manure, usually discarded into a local landfill or discreetly (or often not so discreetly) unloaded into a nearby waterway of a host city, is being recycled and stored energy extracted to lessen the demand on the power grid.

Four years ago, Beijing dumped over three million tons of pommel horse manure into the moat surrounding the Forbidden City and the far-away Yangtze River at the conclusion of the games. In 2004, an economically-challenged Greece called on (pleaded?) other European nations to accept some of the manure produced by the apparatus. And, in 2000, the Australian government disposed of the pommel horse manure by, first rounding up, then filling the pouches of thousands of kangaroos, who then hopped into the expansive Outback.

These cities are kicking themselves now after seeing what London has done with pommel equine droppings. "Beijing considered harnessing the power but never followed through," said Hillary Cartwright, an engineer with Cooper-Sinclair, an energy consulting company that worked closely with the British government when planning the summer games. "One piece of manure can power a four-inch flat screen television for twenty-seven seconds. We thought, 'Imagine what tons of manure can do?'"

Above: Predicting when the pommel horse will relieve itself has been a real headache for gymnastics organizers. 

"Pommel horse manure is just a simple fact of the Olympics," said Gary Thomas, London 2012 vice president of sustainability. "We knew this when we bid for the games and we wanted to find a suitable use for the, excuse my language, horse shit. We think we did."

The pommel horse manure is being used to fuel the entire Olympic Village, the compact city within a city in East London's Olympic Park, where the athletes call home during the two-week competition. During breaks between performances, the manure is gathered from beneath the pommel horse by local homeless volunteers in three-gallon, Union Jack-emblazoned buckets, brought to the loading dock of North Greenwich Arena, then transported by container truck to the Olympic Village Dung Power Generating Plant, located along the north side of the high-rise residential towers near Temple Mills Lane.

I.O.C. still investigating why Mickey Rooney appeared with Indian delegation of athletes

Argentina pulls athletes from Olympics after Brits dedicate 45 minutes of Opening Ceremony to reenactment of Falklands War

Above: The British created a Falkland War flag solely for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. "We certainly didn't intend to offend anybody with the nearly hour-long tribute to the 1982 war with Argentina," said one British official. "This year was the thirtieth anniversary of the victory." 

Opening Ceremony: U.K. proudly reminds planet that global warming began with them

Above: The Industrial Revolution is depicted during the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Summer Olympics. "Global warming is a big topic today," said Queen Elizabeth, following the elaborate production which highlighted select portions of the United Kingdom's history. "And, you have us to thank for kick-starting the whole damn thing."

U.S. Men's basketball team still adjusting to smaller Olympic ball

LeBron's new 'slider' and 'change-up' passes have kept opponents on edge. Kobe's 'knuckleball' three-point shot still needs work.