UK News

from Newsmaker:

Thomson Reuters Newsmaker with Sebastian Coe and Hugh Robertson

To mark the one year countdown to the London Olympics, Thomson Reuters held a Newsmaker event on July 21 with four-time Olympic medalist and chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, Sebastian Coe and Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson MP. Below are highlights from the evening.

Legacy of 2012 includes economic dividend: Robertson

Transport system ready for 2012 demands: Coe

Olympic ticket sell-out is coup for London: Coe

from Newsmaker:

Tick, tick, tickets – defusing an Olympic PR bomb

-Adrian Warner is BBC London's Olympics Correspondent. The opinions expressed are his own.-

The morning after his surprise 800 metres defeat by Steve Ovett at the 1980 Moscow Olympics,  Seb Coe was sitting in his bed in the Olympic village when former decathlete and close friend Daley Thompson stormed into the room. Thompson went straight to the curtains and opened them up.

"What's the weather like?" Coe asked.

"Oh, it all looks a bit silver to me," Thompson replied.

Coe smiled but the comment hurt a bit. He had been favourite to beat his British rival in the 800 and was waking up to the disappointment of having missed out on an Olympic title. But Thompson's comment helped him to bounce back and produce one of the most memorable comebacks in Olympic history when he won the 1,500 a few days later.

Today Coe is facing the most challenging days he has faced as chairman of London 2012's organising committee. He is going to need some of that determination again with just over a year to go to the opening ceremony.

The way the tickets have been sold has not gone down well with the British public. With only one in 12 households in London estimated to have received tickets for the Games, Coe knows he has to get more people into the venues to keep the Olympic buzz in the capital. More than 1.2 million of the 1.9 million applicants missed out in the first round when the most attractive tickets went on sale. One survey by London's Evening Standard recently suggested more than half of the public thought the system was unfair.

from Newsmaker:

Send your questions for Seb Coe and Hugh Robertson

To mark the one year countdown to the London Olympics, Thomson Reuters will hold a Newsmaker on July 21 at 18:30 BST with four-time Olympic medalist and chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, Sebastian Coe and Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson MP.

The event will begin with a speech by Coe, who won gold in the 1500m at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, followed by a Q&A session with both guests, moderated by me, Global Sports Editor Paul Radford. The Newsmaker will be streamed live to the Reuters website and we'll provide rolling coverage of the event as it happens.

As well as questions from the audience, you also have the chance to put your questions to Coe and Robertson. Please join us on the day and leave your comments and questions below. You can also post your questions on the Reuters UK Facebook page or send them over Twitter using the hashtag #newsmkr or via @ReutersSports

Image -- The Chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), Sebastian Coe, poses with a prototype of the London 2012 Olympic Torch at St Pancras station in London June 8, 2011. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

More than just an autograph

Frederique Jamolli’s job is to prise the most treasured items from the hands of newly-crowned Olympians.

Her job is to ask sprint champion Usain Bolt for his Jamaican vest or the pair of brightly coloured spikes worn by Cathy Freeman after her 400-metre win at Sydney in 2000.

Jamolli and her team of about five tour the Olympic villages asking for memorabilia to help fill the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. Some sportsmen are anxious when approached, but many know their items will be well looked after.

“Most of the time they are very open, but we have to be  very respectful because for them the sports equipment is something that is part of them, especially because we are asking for, if we can, the sports equipment used during the competition in which they won the medal,” she told Reuters.

“We try to explain to them what we can do with their donation, because we can of course organise exhibitions anywhere in the world. We can have educational programmes. We will conserve them in the best situation, so this is why sometimes they say ‘they are better in your museum than in my apartment, in my house’.”

It is not just winners she is interested in, but those with a story. One of the items she prizes most are the swimming trunks of Eric Moussambani, the swimmer from Equatorial Guinea, who was nicknamed “Eric the Eel” for his particularly slow time in the pool at the 2000 Olympics.

“If a story is important, maybe we will have concrete testimony of that. It is not only about the champion, but also the spirit of the Games,” she said.

The London 2012 Paralympic Games is already changing lives

- Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson is Britain’s most successful Paralympic athlete, with a total of 16 medals, including 11 golds. She is part of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and Vice-Chair of the Sports Advisory Group. The opinions expressed are her own. -

One of the best parts of being involved in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is that I get to see for myself how hosting the London Games is already changing people’s lives across the world.

In the weeks before today’s 1,000 days to go milestone I was in Jordan for the launch of International Inspiration. I had been asked to come and see what the London 2012 Games are doing for children there.

International Inspiration aims to changes the lives of millions of children throughout the world by giving them better PE lessons and sport and play opportunities. It’s absolutely core to LOCOG’s (the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) commitment to use the London Games in a transformative way.

But it’s not just kids and young people around the world who are already getting involved and benefitting from London hosting the Games.

Millions of people here in the UK are already inspired by and involved, through the many sports participation programmes going on, by playing the National Lottery and by helping build the Olympic Park.

Once finished the Olympic Park will welcome people of all cultures, faiths and ages and be accessible to disabled people.

Minister warns against “contaminating” 2012 Olympics

Clerics and police have expressed concern, and now the Olympics minister has – London could see a proliferation in prostitution and human trafficking during the 2012 Games.

Some have warned the Olympics could see a repeat of the ”mega brothels” set up in German cities for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Tessa Jowell said: “I am concerned about that. I certainly became aware of it in the run-up to the World Cup.

“We need to send the strongest possible message that our Olympics will not be contaminated by this exploitation.”

In January, two Church of England dioceses set down a motion for discussion at the General Synod, or clerical parliament, for a government crackdown on human trafficking in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics, saying “anything like slavery is wrong”.

They pointed to the World Cup in Germany, where they said city officials adopted a “pragmatic” approach towards catering for the sexual desires of the estimated three million football fans who attended the tournament.

“Sex huts” or “sex garages” for prostitution were set up, filled with 40,000 extra prostitutes, while special licences were issued allowing prostitutes to offer sex on the street, they added.

from The Great Debate UK:

Government must deliver on Olympic legacy promise

- Hugh Robertson is the opposition Conservatives' Olympics spokesman. The views expressed are his own. -

With three years to go, it is remarkable that London 2012 is going so well.

London’s Olympics were launched with a massive government miscalculation that resulted in the budget having to be increased threefold, were based on a plan that required us to build two Terminal 5s in half the time and have had to contend with the worst economic recession in living memory.

Despite this, the construction process remains on time and nearly on budget, the organising committee have raised more than £500 million in sponsorship and our athletes have given London 2012 a considerable boost by winning a record haul of medals in Beijing.

However, among all the plaudits, it is sensible to sound a note of caution.

The construction process is only just over one third complete and much remains to be done to a tight and immoveable deadline. Many of the major operational challenges for The organising committee lie ahead such as balancing the budget, finalising the venues, ticketing and the content of the opening and closing ceremonies. Finally, it is a considerable challenge to get our athletes to replicate, or exceed, their performance in Beijing.

In short, if you were writing a school report, you would probably conclude that London 2012 has started well but much remains to be done. You would also warn against too much self congratulation!

Can Team GB beat 2008 medal tally?

Team GB has had a glittering Olympic Games in Beijing, with its best showing in the medals table for a century.Performances by the country’s cyclists, sailors, swimmers and rowers have resulted in a gold haul of at least 16 golds, with a few days still to go.Cyclist Chris Hoy, who became the first British athlete to win three gold medals in an Olympics, was one of a clutch of stars to make history.Ben Ainslie became Britain’s most successful Olympic sailor, while Rebecca Romero became the first British woman to win two medals in two summer Olympic sports.London 2012 chiefs had targeted fourth place in the medals table in four years’ time, but Team GB was already holding third place in 2008 ahead of Russia and arch rivals Australia.Will Team GB be able to perform so well in 2012? Or has it peaked? What needs to happen to help it maintain expectations?

Should women box in the London Olympics?

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Boxing chiefs are to press for the inclusion of female fighters in the 2012 London Olympics.

They say theirs is the only sport in the Olympic programme without women and they await a decision from the International Olympic Committee by December.

Women did actually box in the 1904 Olympics and the sport has developed a higher profile in recent years thanks to boxers like Laila Ali and Jaqueline Frazier-Lyde, the daughters of old rivals Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier.

The International Boxing Association women’s commission vice-chairwoman Bettan Andersson believes having women’s boxing at the Olympics would help improve the overall image of the sport.

“If women come in, people will feel the sport is more common, not so dangerous, and that would be a very good thing for the image of boxing,” she says.

Who’s the star so far?

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Who do you think is shaping up to be the biggest star of these Olympics?

After a week of stirring achievements, there is no lack of candidates — Usain Bolt’s almost casual 100 metres win, Michael Phelps’ record haul of gold medals and Rebecca Adlington’s first women’s double gold swimming feat for Britain are obvious headliners.

But what about cyclist Rebecca Romero who has become the first British woman to win medals in two different Summer Olympic sports? In fact the entire teams of the Brits on the bikes and in the boats have done us proud.

What has been the standout performance for you?