Royal Mail : Bradley Wiggins Gold Medal Stamp

Hold the vans! Hard on the heels of the women’s rowing success Bradley Wiggins scores an Olympic gold medal in the men’s cycling time trial.

Royal Mail will have a Gold Medal stamp to celebrate Bradley’ gold medal win ready to buy by tomorrow. The fleet of 90 Royal Mail vehicles has been held back and will deliver the stamps across the UK to over 500 Post Offices to be on sale by lunchtime tomorrow.
Bradley won Gold less than two weeks after becoming the first British rider to triumph in the Tour de France. He is now Britain’s most decorated Olympian with seven medals, including four Gold.
Royal Mail will also paint a Post Box gold to celebrate his win and the commemorative stamps will be available tomorrow at the Post Office on Cleveland Street in Bradley’s home town of Chorley. An additional 4,700 post offices will receive the Gold Medal stamps within a week.

Royal Mail : Helen Glover & Heather Stanning GB Gold Medalist Stamp

Gold Medal stamp to celebrate Helen Glover and Heather Stanning’s gold medal win in the Women’s Pairs rowing final.

A fleet of 90 Royal Mail vehicles will deliver the stamps across the UK to over 500 Post Offices including in Helen’s home town of Penzance and Reading, Berkshire where the pair live. Royal Mail will also paint a much-loved red post box gold in each of their hometowns of Lossiemouth, Moray and Penzance, Cornwall to celebrate their gold medal win.
As well as Helen and Heather’s achievement a fantastic first as never before has a women’s team won an Olympic rowing event, but it’s also the first all-women sports team ever to appear on a Royal Mail stamp. It is also the first stamp that Royal Mail has ever produced within 24 hours, normally it takes anything up to two years from conception to the finished stamps appearing on sale to the general public.
As soon as Helen and Heather won their gold medal, Getty Images, the official Photo Agency of the IOC, submitted a selection of the best images from that moment to the eight-strong Royal Mail design team. The Royal Mail design team had just one hour to review all the images sent, locate the most fitting and atmospheric image, crop and refine the photo, add Helen and Heather’s name, then position within the templated design of the six-stamp miniature sheet.





Romania : 2012 London Olympic Stamps

Saina Nehwal wins bronze medal in London 2012

Saina Nehwal today created history by becoming the first Indian to win an Olympic Games bronze medal in badminton, though under fortuitous circumstances, as her world number two Chinese opponent retired from the play-off because of a knee injury.
The 22-year-old Saina was trailing 18-21, 0-1 in the high-voltage bronze medal play-off match when her second seeded opponent Xin Wang retired hurt, giving India an unexpected medal without having to sweat much.
Saina also became the second Indian woman to win an Olympic medal, after Karnam Malleswari's weightlifting bronze in 2000 Sydney Olympics.
With the addition of Saina's bronze, India's medal collection in the ongoing Olympics has gone upto three with pistol shooter Vijay Kumar (silver) and seasoned marksman Gagan Narang (bronze) being the other medal winners.
The packed Wembly arena, which had a seizable chunk of vociferous Indian supporters cheering for Saina, were taken by surprise when the script suddenly changed with Wang getting injured towards the very end of the first game.
Wang got herself medical attention and even went in for the second game but conceded the match after just one point. A thunderous roar greeted Saina when it was announced that she had won the bronze medal and Wang had retired.
"I still can't believe that I have won a medal. In badminton, I never believed that India could win a medal because the competition is so tough. It is a dream come true for me," Saina said after the match.
"I had trained hard and there was a lot of expectation. I initially thought that she was just taking rest as she was tiring, but then I realised she was injured. It's sad that she got injured, but I was confident of beating her as I was coming into rhythm," she said.

Tanzania : 2012 London Olympic Stamps