I was faced with a dilemma: as a photographer for a newspaper, am I allowed to digitally alter my pictures? Am I distorting the truth? Should I leave them straight and show how they are in real life? I suppose it depends on the context in which the pictures are appearing.

Tom Jenkins on digital photojournalism, and the dilemmas he faced when he returned to shoot the Olympic Park six months after the Games.

Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

He’s the republican who got the Queen to turn Bond girl, the avowed leftwinger the Tories chose to open the London Olympics, the Oscar-winning director determined to remain an ‘equal citizen’: meet Danny Boyle the ultimate idealist

Photograph: Kalpesh Lathigra for the Guardian

In the first video of the Guardian’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year hustings, Ian Prior gives his reasons for Jessica Ennis, London 2012 poster girl and under-pressure Olympian, to win the gong. With her image on billboards all over the city, Ennis was British athletics’ greatest hope of gold at the London Games, but the style with which she achieved her goal surely makes her a favourite for the prize

‘Kids from Kilburn aren’t supposed to win the Tour’ - Bradley Wiggins

Read the full - and very entertaining - interview by Simon Hattenstone here.

Photograph: Jay Brooks for the Guardian

guardianolympics:

Just the victory parade to go, and then Britain’s summer of love will be over. London 2012, the capital’s greatest party in living memory, is done. At the risk of using up the entire annual quota of Guardian editorial schmaltz in one go, this past month it feels as if most of us have been (as Boris Johnson would have it) cropdusted with serotonin, the happiness hormone. 

Read the Guardian’s editorial this morning on the Paralympics and Olympics summer of love.

Here’s the review of the closing ceremony from our Olympics editor Owen Gibson, and Jonathan Freedland looks back on the summer of 2012

Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images Europe

What an amazing night - relive the closing ceremony & look back on the summer of 2012 with the Guardian

Asked if he could one day envisage himself competing for Britain, should the right circumstances evolve, he replied: “I still very much love my country and it’s the harsh conditions and lack of basic human rights which has compelled me to seek asylum.”

“Who knows what the future holds but for now I’m taking things one day at a time and I hope to continue to pursue my first love which is athletics.”

- Weynay Ghebresilasie, Eritrea’s flag-carrying runner, is seeking asylum in the UK, along with three other Eritrean athletes. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

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This is amazing. I want to be able to do this when I’m 91!

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guardiandata:

Most popular baby names in England and Wales, 2008-2011

Harry and Amelia top the charts in 2011

Jessica also up into the top five again. Ennis effect?

guardianolympics:

Today’s G2 cover: What is it like to be an Olympic athlete’s parent?

Extreme highs and crushing lows are part of an elite athlete’s life. But what do mothers and fathers go through while their kids toil away in search of glory?

Amazing stories from the mums and dads

guardiancomment:

Fresh from his double Olympic gold wins, Mo Farrah has been spending a lot of time running away from things. Including Batman.

Brilliant