BBC 2012 Sport programming

BBC One

19 May, 9 June, 14 July

The show which joins Britain’s Olympic hopefuls on their journey towards London 2012 begins its final countdown towards the Games.

Over the past 18 months British Olympic Dreams has featured athletes with fascinating stories from across the country, from gold medal favourites to those holding down a job while they hope against hope for a place at the main event.

With London 2012 just around the corner, there are three British Olympic Dreams programmes still to run.

In May’s edition, British Olympic Dreams will take a behind the scenes look at a range of sports, including the British women’s road race cyclists’ training camp, with some honest words from Nicole Cooke and Lizzie Armitstead on their very public rivalry; in competition with Britain’s dressage team, which includes a host of strong medal chances; and Christine Ohuruogu at her LA camp as she tries to return to her best form before attempting to defend her Olympic 400m title.

The final programme before the Games is a special Golden Edition packed with some of Britain’s biggest medal hopefuls, including Jessica Ennis and Rebecca Adlington.

British Olympic Dreams is presented by Sonali Shah and Ore Oduba.

World Olympic Dreams

BBC One, BBC News Channel, BBC World, BBC Radio, bbc.co.uk

World Olympics Dreams has followed athletes from around the world as they prepare for London 2012.

In the final programmes before the start of London 2012 Matthew Pinsent will visit Jamaica to examine the impact Usain Bolt has had on other sports there. He also catches up with some of the World Olympics Dreams athletes, including a report from Kabul where he met the taekwondo fighter Rohullah Nikpai; a last chance for the Iraqi rower Haider Hussein to qualify for London 2012; the latest news from Kosovan hopeful Majlinda Kelmendi; and the thoughts of Trinidadian 400 metre hurdler Jehue Gordon now the games are just a few weeks away.

There will also be reports on the News Channel and BBC World in the coming weeks from Michael Johnson’s elite training camp in Dallas; star gymnast Shawn Johnson’s mother on what it’s like to see your daughter struggle for success; and two young sportswomen from Iten in the Kenyan Rift Valley, where so many of the world’s fastest runners have emerged, whose Olympic dreams have had to be put on hold.

Pendleton Film (working title)

BBC One

Victoria Pendleton is one of the most compelling sportswomen in Britain. Brutally honest and revelatory on camera, Pendleton offers a rare insight into the way an otherwise ordinary life has been consumed by the sacrifice and intensity required to win an Olympic event. A bruising and intimate personal journey - full of extreme highs and lows - of an Olympic champion.

Usain Bolt: The Fastest Man Alive

BBC One

In the London 2012 Olympics Usain Bolt will try to retain his three Olympic titles and his three world records. On the night of the 100m final, over four billion viewers will watch him as he attempts to enter the history books by becoming the first man ever to retain the 100m gold medal. French producer/director Gael Leiblang secured exclusive access to Usain Bolt and has been filming up close and personal with Bolt over the past 12 months as he prepares for the biggest race of his life.

Usain Bolt: The Fastest Man Alive is an intimate portrait of the fastest man on Earth. Made with his complete co-operation it features Bolt in his home environment away from the cameras. It also features all the people who have helped get Bolt to the top of his profession - his relatives, his best friends and the Jamaican national coach.

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Tom Daley: Going For Gold

BBC One

Tom Daley is Britain’s Olympic poster boy. He’s dreamt of competing in the London 2012 Olympics for most of his young life but the final year of preparations have been his most challenging.

Tom’s father Rob, his constant companion in competitions around the world, has fought and lost a battle with cancer. His ever-growing commercial commitments have been questioned by his own sporting authorities. The growing dominance of a seemingly impenetrable Chinese opponent has seen him lose his World Champion crown. And on top of a strict training routine Tom has the everyday teenage issues of passing his A Levels and his driving test.

But Tom is fighting back. Against the backdrop of a series of incredible challenges he is fighting to keep his dream of Olympic glory alive. Award-winning film-maker Jane Treays has followed Tom for the past two years to observe this intimate story of Tom Daley and his family. As the pressure increases to win an Olympic medal she captures the remarkable story of an incredible teenage athlete.

Faster, Higher, Stronger: Stories From The Olympic Games

BBC Two

Taking its title from the Olympic motto, this four-part series explores the history of the modern Games through the stories of extraordinary athletes who have pushed performance to the limit and beyond in pursuit of Gold, in four disciplines: the 100 metres, gymnastics, 1500 metres and swimming.

The series opener is the history of the most anticipated and hyped event in any Olympics - the 100 metres final. Using special slo-mo footage, it tells the story of a hundred years of sprinting and how the event has been run faster and faster - from a time of 12 seconds in 1896 to Usain Bolt’s world record winning time of 9.69 in 2008.

The second programme tells the story of extraordinary Gymnastic genius at the Olympics, from the Melbourne Games of 1956 to the Beijing Games of 2008m, exploring how elite gymnasts have used the Olympics to search for ever greater daring, danger, skill and beauty in their ambition to win Gold medals.

It is the history of a never ending pursuit of perfection during Olympic competition - on the floor and high up on the apparatus.

The Ultimate Race is the story of the blue riband event of any Games – the 1500 metres or 'metric mile'. This was the race that gave Britain its finest Olympic hour in Los Angeles in 1984 when three British world champions competed for Gold - Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram. With contributions from some of the greatest Olympians ever to run the 1500m -Kip Keino, Herb Elliot, Peter Snell, Sebastian Coe and the current world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj - The Ultimate Race shows that to win 1500m Gold athletes need the stamina of marathon runners, the explosive speed of the best sprinters and the tactical brains of chess masters.

In the final programme of the series, Faster, Higher, Stronger takes to the water to explore how swimmers have swum faster and faster to win Olympic Gold. From its earliest beginnings in chilly waterways open to the elements, the Olympic swimming competition has driven the development of technique in all the four strokes.

Combining cutting-edge filming techniques to analyse performance, period reconstruction and unique archive footage from the very earliest Olympics onwards, the programme includes interviews with great Olympic champions such as Mark Spitz, Dawn Fraser and Ian Thorpe, as well as contributions from British medal winners Sharron Davies, David Wilkie and Adrian Moorhouse.

Faster, Higher, Stronger

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Iron Maidens (working title)

BBC Three

Zoe Smith, Hannah Powell and Helen Jewell have dedicated their lives to the ultimate Olympic dream, representing Team GB at London 2012. BBC Three has been following these young teammates as they hone their skills, resist temptations and watch their weight in order to secure one of the two female spots on the British Weightlifting Squad.

We see how they cope with living away from home for the first time, serious injury, a relentless training schedule, travelling the world and being under the spotlight; finding out if it’s possible to balance being a serious athlete with growing up, getting an education and falling in love.

This film follows the countdown to the London Olympic Games for three young girls with an extraordinary talent. But will mental strength prove just as important as physical strength in the battle to become Britain’s strongest girl?

Olympics Most Amazing Moments

BBC Three

Over the decades the Olympic Games have seen heroic displays of bravery, golden moments of glory - and more madcap shenanigans than a primetime soap opera. So, what could whet the appetite for London’s 2012 bash better than a countdown of the most stunning and unbelievable moments that the Olympics have rewarded us with over the years?

Frankly, nothing, and so, with that in mind, Olympics Most Amazing Moments plans to treat viewers to a countdown of the stunning and the unbelievable and will relive those treasured moments from the Games of the past.

The show will revisit Games from Montreal 1976, when Japanese gymnast Shun Fujimoto’s secured a gold medal for Japan - with a broken knee; to Beijing 2008, when Usain Bolt’s astonishing 100m saw him blaze across the line in 9.69 seconds with his shoelaces undone; to the moment in Barcelona 1992, when Derek Redmond tore his hamstring 18 seconds into the 400 metres semi-final and heroically hobbled on as his dad rushes to his rescue, helping him across the finish line to a standing ovation of 65,000 people.

Olympics Most Amazing Moments will capture the Games at their most bizarre, most entertaining, most tragic and most human in a celebration of those incredible moments which captivated the world.

Ashley: The Bad Boy Olympian (working title)

BBC Three

Ashley McKenzie is one of Britain’s most successful young judo fighters and he’s in line for a place at the London Olympics. But there’s a problem. Severe ADHD has got Ashley into trouble all his life and in the last three years he’s been banned from the British judo squad four times for misconduct. One more ban and his chances of fighting at the Olympics will be gone.

Ashley has six months to prove that he is good enough to compete for Britain at the London Olympics. He needs to win a medal at the toughest international judo competitions in the world. He also needs to make sure his behaviour doesn’t let him down.

To try and keep him on track Ashley is moving out of his childhood home and leaving his mum to go and live with his tough, no-nonsense, ex-Olympian coach where the new level of discipline required will push him to the limit.

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Beating Bolt

BBC Three

Can anyone really catch the fastest man who has ever lived?

This intimate, entertaining film asks that simple question as it follows the fortunes of five extraordinary athletes all chasing the dream of winning the 100m at the Olympic Games in London.

Four of our characters are relentlessly and obsessively hunting down a man the world believes is superhuman and simply unbeatable. The fifth is that man. He has his own obsession, to become the greatest living legend in sport. Hunters and the hunted.

The film is an hour-long journey of discovery where the viewer is introduced to our central characters as they build mentally and physically towards a series of dramatic confrontations ahead of that day of destiny in London.

By the end of the film, our characters’ strengths and weaknesses will have been exposed, realities dawned, myths shattered - and the scene will have been set for the greatest clash.

Beating Bolt: featuring: Tyson Gay - fastest American in history; Asafa Powell - two- time World Record Holder; Yohan Blake - reigning 100m World Champion; Christophe Lemaitre – 100m and 200m European Champion; Usain Bolt – reigning Olympic Champion 100m and 200m.

The Race

BBC Four

The Race examines the legacy of the 1988 Seoul Olympics 100m men’s final, when gold medallist Ben Johnson tested positive for anabolic steroids and scandal reigned. For the first time ever, the eight athletes who ran that infamous race tell their story.