Until this week, I had not been to the London 2012 Athletes' Village for nearly two years.

In fact, I remember the day of my last visit well – it was July 27, 2010 and it marked exactly two years to the start of the Olympic Games. Back then, which seems like an eternity ago, my colleagues in the media and I were driven through the location, which looked rather unimpressive to say the least.

I guess that was no major surprise given it was very much a building site at the time with scaffolding far more visible than the bricks of the premises.

But fast forward 23 months, and things are obviously very much different.

My visit this week coincided with London 2012 unveiling the Village's healthcare facilities: a polyclinic which will be used by residents, including athletes and team officials, during the Games.

My first thought was that getting into the Village has become more of an ordeal than I remember. After boarding a coach outside Stratford train station, we were forced to wait almost an hour at the gate while security checks were carried out. After getting off the coach, we then went through our own airport security-style checks and were forced to show our identification on more than one occasion before we were finally allowed back on the coach and through the gate.


However, it proved well worth the wait as we now had the chance to see the Village in all its glory.

The first thing the struck me was how green the whole area was given now that all the grass and trees are in place. From a distance, the apartments (pictured above) that will house the likes of sprint ace Usain Bolt and swim king Michael Phelps during the Games resemble upper-class student housing but there is no mistaking some of the stunning artwork on the balconies that will most likely be obscured by national flags once the athletes arrive.

But the colourful brickwork and patterns on the walls will fortunately remain on show for the world's cameras during the so-called "Greatest Show on Earth".


And what appears to be a typical kind of high street runs down the centre of the village which rather conveniently leads straight onto the Olympic Park less than 100 metres away.

It was not long before we arrived at the main polyclinic (pictured above) in the Village, which proved to be a pristinely clean, state-of-the-art building.

The world-class facility, created by London 2012 and Worldwide Olympic Partner GE, will be open 24/7 and boasts services for sports medicine, dentistry, optometry, podiatry and primary care. It boasts medical equipment, including an MRI scanner (pictured below), among the most sophisticated available in the country and it struck me as an ideal place for athletes to visit for free dental treatment and eye check-ups. I was assured, however, that only "serious cases" would be seen at the polyclinic.

"Even the most minor ailment can have serious implications upon an elite athlete's performance," explained London 2012 director of sport Debbie Jevans, who joined us on the tour.


"We have worked hard to equip the polyclinic to respond quickly and provide athletes with the treatment they require onsite."

The facility was built at a cost of £23 million ($36 million/€28.5 million) but the big boost is that after the Games the polyclinic will be taken over by the National Health Service (NHS) and reopened as primary healthcare facility for the new community coming to live in the area.

Residents then will receive a full range of services such as a doctor's surgery, dentist and pharmacy while community facilities are likely to include a gym, cafe and youth centre.

It is reassuring to know that such a facility will enjoy a long lifespan after the Games. But, for now, it stands proudly as the London 2012 polyclinic within what is a truly amazing Athletes' Village.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.

It was the summer of 1972, and I was in Dublin to cover a fight between Muhammad Ali and American Al "Blue" Lewis at Croke Park.

My friend Colin Hart of The Sun and I decided to take the opportunity to buttonhole Ali's trainer, the late Angelo Dundee, and quiz him about the United States boxing prospects in the upcoming Olympics in Munich, and in particular their heavyweight, a blonde bomber named Duane Bobick who was being hailed as the new white hope.

We told Angelo we intended to make an interview with Bobick a priority when we got to Munich.

"Don't bother," he retorted. "He's gonna get knocked out."

He added as he noted our raised eyebrows. "There's a Cuban kid who's as big and good-looking as Ali, and he has one hell of a punch. Go talk to him instead."

So, when we arrived in Munich, we did, and with the aid of an interpreter unearthed the story of the young man born of Jamaican immigrants in the Cuban village of Las Tunas who was to become arguably the greatest boxer in the history of the Games.

The Cuban kid's name was Teófilo Stevenson (pictured below) who, as Dundee had prophesied, duly KO'd Bobick, spreading his bloodied nose all over his face with one of the most fearsome punches I have ever seen.


I promptly dubbed him Castro's right hand man.

Stevenson, then 20, went on to win the first of three successive Olympic gold medals.

In Munich he had despatched the first of his three opponents, including Bobick, in a total record time of 7min 22 sec. He won the final on a walk-over when his Romanian opponent appeared with a massive plaster on his right hand, claiming he was unfit to fight. One wondered why.

Sadly 40 years on big Teo died last week, aged just 60, from a heart attack, leaving the world wondering just how great he might have been had he accepted a $5 million (£3 million/€4 million) offer from US promoters Don King and Bob Arum to turn professional and fight Ali.

Instead he bequeathed one of the most memorable quotes in the annals of the game. "What is $5 million worth compared to the love of eight million Cubans?"

This prompted Sports Illustrated to run the headline: "He'd Rather Be Red Than Rich."

Interestingly, it was because of Ali that Dundee had known so much about Stevenson (whose sailor father was said to have Scottish ancestry). Ali's long-time masseur, Luis Sarria, was an exiled Cuban who still keenly followed the island's burgeoning boxing scene. He marked Dundee's card about Stevenson, who might well have won a fourth gold medal had Cuba not boycotted the Los Angeles Games in 1984.

Apart from that thundering right hand Stevenson also had exquisite ring skills, moving with similar feline grace and fleet-footed dexterity to Ali.

What a match-up that would have been had he defected like many other Cuban fighters, though I suspect Ali's experience, guile and ability to absorb heavy punches would have resulted in an ultimate points victory.

In staying loyal to his country, to communism and his leader, who had declared professional boxing illegal, Stevenson has to be bracketed with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara as an iconic figure of the post-revolutionary Cuba.


He remained faithful not only to his political ideals, but the spirit of Olympism.

Stevenson won the 1986 world title at super-heavyweight, but retired in 1988 after another Cuban boycott – this time of the Seoul Olympics – cost him a further chance of a fourth gold. He ended his career with 302 wins and only 22 losses.

He then lived in relative luxury in Havana in a mansion given to him by Castro, becoming a coach with the national team, and vice-president of the national boxing federation.

But he liked the rum, and while travelling with the Cubans for a match against the US in 1999 he was arrested at Miami airport accused of butting an airline employee.

Released on bail, he returned to Havana, and never faced trial, but said that he had been provoked by the taunts of Cuban exiles.

Stevenson is not the only boxer to have won three Olympic gold medals. It was subsequently achieved by his  successor to the Cuban heavyweight dynasty, Félix Savón (1992, 1996, 2000) , another fine, legendary boxer who also won six world amateur crowns, though he lacked Stevenson's charisma and wrecking ball punch.

And earlier another all-time great, the Hungarian László Papp, a stylish, light-middleweight and middleweight southpaw had won in London (1948), Helsinki (1952) and Melbourne (1956).

Although also from a communist country, unlike Stevenson he did turn pro while not forsaking his homeland.

But he was only permitted to box professionally in Western Europe, mainly Austria, where he became European champion. Unfortunately the Hungarian regime reneged on the concession as he was about to box for the world title.

Papp died in 2003, aged 77, never having been defeated in 29, pro fights losing only a handful of 301 amateur bouts.


When Papp (pictured above) won his third gold in Melbourne it coincided with two Britons also becoming Olympic champions – flyweight Terry Spinks and lightweight Dick McTaggart.

If Stevenson is the world's greatest amateur boxer then surely McTaggart is Britain's post-war finest, though Spinks, who died recently, Chris Finnegan, James DeGale and even dear old Audley Harrison (who, for all his blemishes as a pro, knew how to work the super-heavyweight scoring system in Sydney) could be considered contenders.

Like Stevenson, Scotland's McTaggart never turned pro.  After his success in Melbourne, where he was awarded the Val Barker Trophy as the outstanding stylist, he went on to Rome four years later and returned with the bronze before going on to a third Olympics in Tokyo.

In 634 contests he lost only 24. He was European and Commonwealth champion and held five ABA titles. Some boxer.

So you might think he would have a place of honour at London's ExCeL during the Games.

Alas, all he was offered was, like every other British medallist, was a take it or leave it entry into a special lottery which, if successful, would, have allowed him to purchase tickets for around £250 ($393/€310).

McTaggart, now a 75-year-old pensioner, said he could not afford the tickets, let alone the travel expenses and accommodation in London.

"I'm more sad than angry," he says. "I would have loved to have been at the ringside, particularly if any of the British lads are going for gold.

"I don't want to make a fuss but I must admit I was hoping they were going to invite me to watch the finals."

I hear that Derek Mapp, chairman of GB Boxing, is now doing his best to work something out for someone who has given the sport a lot, without taking a penny out. Let's hope he succeeds.


On the subject of McTaggart (pictured above, right) I spoke recently with another former GB amateur star, Frankie Taylor, European bantamweight gold medalist who boxed in the same GB Olympic team as a young McTaggart in Rome in 1960.

Taylor tells me that, unlike today, when Team GB members have benefits and goodies ranging from cars to condoms showered upon them, in 1960 they each received a pair of blue suede shoes – and, would you believe, a carton of  200 Rothmans cigarettes!

"There was only one smoker in the team – Dick McTaggart – so we all gave them to him!"

As a fistic footnote on Olympic boxing, I also had a call from former GB coach Kevin Hickey, who reminded me that while amid the current selection controversies in a number of sports Hugh Robertson rightly says it is not a Sports Minister's job to interfere, it was not ever thus.

Hickey, 70, recalls that back in 1984 he named Clinton McKenzie at light-welterweight on his list submitted to selectors for the Los Angeles Olympics. When this was returned to him it had been replaced by that of Chris Davies, son of the team manager. A fuming Hickey, who threatened to quit, happened to mention it to the then Sports Minister, the peerless Denis Howell. Two days later he received call to say that McKenzie had been reinstated.


McKenzie (pictured above, right), later a British pro champion and brother of triple world champion Duke, went on to acquit himself well before being gamely outpointed by one Sugar Ray Leonard.

Yes, those were the days when Olympic rings rang true.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

"No compromise" is a phrase we refer to a lot at UK Sport. It represents not only our approach to investment in Olympic and Paralympic sport, but the mind-set and philosophy we believe is paramount to achieving greatness.

But compromise was exactly what British athletes and their coaches had to do to just make it to the start line before National Lottery funding came along.

Back in the early nineties, I was coaching cyclists in my spare time while working full time as a university lecturer. Some of the athletes I worked with were fortunate to have professional contracts with road teams, but many were claiming benefits or struggling to hold down a job while travelling the world to compete and earn ranking points to make Olympic qualification.

I have memories of struggling myself to balance travelling to competitions with athletes I was coaching, while trying to mark end of year exam papers from my students back at the university. In fact, I almost left some of those exam papers on a plane once and went into a mad panic until realising they were in my bag all along! Clearly I was not fully focused on either of my responsibilities at that point in time. Compromise.


Not to say the athletes of that time weren't successful. Chris Boardman, Steve Redgrave and Sally Gunnell (pictured above) to name a few are fine examples of athletes who did it alone without any kind of central funding, but they were the exception, rather than the rule; lone individuals working in remarkable isolation with their coaches, but capable of extraordinary achievements.

It's safe to say that the period around the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games was an absolute low point for British sport. One solitary gold medal and 36th place in the medal table from the Olympic team – Lottery support could not come quickly enough.

It's fair to say the level of ambition within talented British athletes and coaches was no different in those days to that today, but Lottery funding has hugely increased the probability and collective belief that British athletes can be the best.

They say that the Lottery can be "life changing" and for me that was certainly the case. Once funding became available for elite sport through UK Sport in 1997 I left my job in academia to set up British Cycling's Lottery funded World Class Performance Programme based at the Manchester Velodrome, where it continues to thrive today. Within weeks I had resigned from my job, sold my house, moved up North and written my business case to UK Sport for the funding – all in anticipation of the incredible opportunity this presented for my sport of cycling.


Now, I'm sure many of you will be aware of the progress made, and not just within cycling, but across all Olympic and Paralympic sports in this country. At the Beijing 2008 Games Team GB finished fourth in the medals table – their best overall performance in over 100 years – while ParalympicsGB have remained a force to be reckoned with in retaining second place for the past three Games.

Our best athletes no longer have to balance training with a part time job – they can commit full time to their sport and are supported to travel the world with the best full time coaches and sports science and medical specialists in tow. National Lottery funding has allowed us to ask the question "What does a British athlete need to do to be the best?" and provide the answer.

Currently, more than 1,200 of the UK's best Summer and Winter Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls are supported by the Lottery through the World Class Performance Programme. My job at UK Sport has been to oversee this investment and ensure it is underpinned by cutting edge coaching, innovation and science, built around a sustainable support system capable of generating the champions of the future.

It is hard to overstate the impact that Lottery funding has had on our sporting success as a nation and I have no doubt that our athletes will do us all proud at what is set to be the most fantastic Games this summer in London, but importantly, also for many years to come as we look towards future Olympic and Paralympic Games with the Lottery's continued support.


Thank you for your contribution; every ticket sold makes a huge difference. They are your athletes and you are helping to turn their ambition and raw talent into sporting achievement at the highest level, without compromise.

Peter Keen CBE is special advisor for performance at UK Sport, the nation's high performance sports agency. Find out more at www.uksport.gov.uk

Since I started writing this blog a little over two years ago, the theme I have returned to more often than any other is that of the paucity of quality strategy to service the participation legacy promised by the UK when awarded the London Olympics seven years ago.

It is a tale of poor strategy, of excuses and of blame. Most of all it is a tale of making big promises and then failing to plan for their delivery.

For all the political spin and media hype over the Olympic Legacy, there was one key legacy promise made on the nation's behalf which has not been delivered and all for the simple lack of quality planning, the absence of good strategy; that of a measurable increase in levels of participation in sport in this country.

I was therefore interested to hear of recent comments made by the Olympic and Sports Minister Hugh Robertson (pictured below).

Mr Robertson is the Minister who coined the term "Inititiveitis" shortly after the last election, a term he used, correctly, to describe the poor strategy displayed by the previous government when pursuing the participation legacy. In short, in place of quality strategy addressing the sports development continuum, the policy had been one of producing a seemingly endless number of initiatives in the hope they would somehow deliver on the promises made in Singapore on behalf of us all in 2005.


Unfortunately, since coining the term, the Minister has continued with more of the same, a stream of initiatives but still no clear, integrated strategy for the development of sport in the UK, which services the full sports development continuum. In July 2010, after claiming to have such a strategy, he was challenged to produce it. We still wait.

You will understand my interest, nearly two years on, to hear what sort of update Mr Robertson would provide recently.

He is still scornful of the previous Government's efforts to service the legacy promise. He rightly points out that the target of one million more people being active by 2012 was "just idiotic." Having an unattainable target gets in the way of quality planning as surely as having no target.

Over two years into his role as Minister for Sport and just under two years after promising he had a (still unseen) strategy for the development of sport in the UK, it was good to hear that he does at least have a clear aim.

"One of the things being in the Army taught me," Mr Robertson said, "was always have a clear aim. It is our absolutely clear aim to deliver a successful Olympics, and part of that is having a successful team."


This is good to hear. It is reassuring to know that he understands the need for a clear aim. However, knowing he understands makes the absence of any new target for the physical activity legacy baffling. He was right to get rid of the unachievable 'one million' target but what of its replacement? What is the new, realistic aim which will drive planning for this part of our nation's legacy promise?

Sadly, we don't know. Two years after getting rid of a bad target we still await news of its replacement. And, without that clear aim, quality strategy to achieve it cannot be put in place. Perhaps this is why we are still yet to see the strategy promised two years ago?

Two years (at least 40 per cent) into this Government, I do not believe it is unrealistic to have hoped for more from the Minister who recognised Initiativeitis for what it was and who professes to so clearly understand the value of a clear aim.

Two years into office, the lack of planning and any shortcomings within his own department and within its delivery agency [Sport England] cannot be blamed on the previous Government. The buck must now stop at his own Ministerial door.

If the advice he receives is flawed, it is time to change the advisers. If the lack of clear, quality strategy is the responsibility of someone - or some agency - under his direction, it is time for a clear-out and for new, more capable strategists to come in. And if the lack of clear progress towards an undefined participation legacy target is frustrating him, he should try being in our shoes!

Jim Cowan is a former athlete, coach, event organiser and sports development specialist who is the founder of Cowan Global, a company specialising in consultancy, events and education and training. For more details click here. 

A quick glance out of the office window, and the grey cloud and occasional heavy showers could fool you into thinking we are in February rather than welcoming in the start of the British summer.

It would be quite easy to get a little downcast about the weather were it not for the spectacular summer of sport we have coming up that will certainly go more than a little way to brightening up the outlook.

We are at a moment in time that is so important for sport.

The spectacle of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer will ignite an excitement and enthusiasm across the country that few will have experienced before.

Within schools there has been increased anticipation for many months about London 2012, with young people becoming ever more aware that the country is soon to host the greatest sporting event in the world.

The Olympic Flame that is travelling around the United Kingdom in front of thousands of spectators is energising communities up and down the country, and is just a taste of the hysteria we are likely to witness in the final days before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. While the Olympic party is about to start there is also much to celebrate in school sport this year.

Following the success of the Sainsbury's 2012 School Games (pictured below) last month, which saw 1,600 young people competing in the Olympic venues, we are now entering the busiest months for sport in the academic year.


There are some very important dates coming up in the calendars of schools, providing an opportunity to motivate young people through sport that deserves special mention and recognition.

More than 60 regional sports festivals are taking place across the country over the next two months, as part of the School Games, a nationwide school sport initiative which the Youth Sport Trust (YST) has been commissioned by Sport England to deliver and is backed by National Lottery and Government funding.

These celebrations of sport are giving young people the chance to experience a range of sports and compete against their peers; they also provide a platform to learn some life lessons about the dignity of winning and the grace of accepting defeat. Many of these events will have their own opening or closing ceremonies which will give the children taking part a very special experience.

Lloyds TSB National School Sport Week, from June 25-29, is run in partnership with the YST, and is using the excitement of London 2012 to encourage more young people to take part in sport.


Over four million young people are expected to get involved in Olympic and Paralympic events during the week and schools across the country will be holding opening and closing ceremonies, torch relays and inter- and intra-school competitions. London 2012 World Sport Day, on June 25 is the opening celebration for Lloyds TSB National School Sport Week and a chance for schools to get involved in celebrating the athletes and cultures of the teams that will be coming to the UK to compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Alongside these great opportunities we will also see Sir Steve Redgrave going in to schools as part of our work on Matalan Sporting Promise. Elite athlete mentors will be carrying out dozens of motivational school visits for Sky Sports' Living for Sport, and BUPA Start to Move will continue to offer some really positive experiences at primary school level.

These highlights are just a few examples of the impact that sport that will have on our young people over the coming months. The Olympic and Paralympic Games will dominate the news and sport headlines this year, and rightly so.

However, it is the dedication of those working in school sport that is developing our future leaders and sporting champions that may well be making the headlines in years to come.

Whatever the weather this summer we will do our utmost to ensure the future of school sport is looking bright.

John Steele is the chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust.

In 1996 League of Wales team Llansantffraid FC won the Welsh Cup and thus qualified for the following season's European Cup Winners' Cup. At which point an enterprising computer firm from nearby Oswestry, Total Network Solutions, provided a £250,000 sponsorship which, among other things, enabled them to include their name in the club's title.

So it was that the Polish Cup winners, Ruch Chorzow, took on the mighty – in name at any rate – Total Network Solutions Llansantffraid FC, and beat them 6-1 on aggregate. In 1997, the club's name shifted again, to Total Network Solutions FC, making it the first in the UK to rename itself after a sponsor's name only.

It is a trend which, in more recent years, has applied to stadia rather than teams. Thus Bolton now play at the Reebok Stadium. And Manchester City play in what has already become known – even better from a sponsor's point of view – as "the Etihad".

Thus the Ireland rugby union team now plays at the Aviva Stadium, which, as its marketing term makes clear in a rather double-sided reference, is Built on Greatness. That is, on the site of the venerable and venerated Lansdowne Road stadium.

It's the way of the world. It's business. Any company willing to invest millions in sport naturally wants more bang for its buck, and naming teams and stadia directly is simply the extreme end of a logical position.

But there is also an emotional element involved in such shifts. And as was recently evident in the commotion when Mike Ashley, owner of Newcastle United, reaped a whirlwind of outrage after re-naming St James' Park as Sports Direct Arena, in honour of his company, a move which was flatly repudiated, not only by home supporters, but also Newcastle City Council.


"To us, along with the majority of fans, the home of Newcastle United will always be called St James' Park," said a Council spokesman. It is an emblematic quote which emphasises clearly the part which tradition and emotion play in our sporting life.

In elite modern day sport, sponsorship is not so much desirable as essential, and the companies who have taken over the names of long-established sporting arenas, or who cover all available footage within such arenas with their branding and logo, can reasonably argue they have paid for the privilege.

But let's not pretend that there is not a loss with this gain, a loss to the intrinsic nature of the sport or institution. As we look ahead to the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics which are now but six weeks away, we as a nation will focus our attention on the flagship sport of athletics as perhaps never before.

Aviva, the insurance and finance group, have in one form or another – previously through Norwich Union, of which they are the parent company - provided excellent sponsorship for British athletics. The company's distinctive yellow and blue branding is all over UK Athletics, its stadia and its athletes.

The very team we will be enjoined to cheer on will be the Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team. It's a well-merited triumph of marketing. But, from the point of view of a sport, every time it involves itself so intrinsically with a named sponsor in terms of a team or a stadium, it loses a vital bit of equity, of identity.

There has been speculation recently that UK Athletics, whose most recent four-year deal with Aviva comes to an end this year, may be investigating other possible models of sponsorship involving several equal companies rather than one big, top-tier naming rights company.


It would be idle to suppose that UK Athletics have not at the very least considered their options in a year when, if all goes well with the likes of Jessica Ennis, Phillips Idowu, Dai Greene and Co in the Olympic stadium – no naming rights there – their commercial stock could rise higher than ever.

While it may yet turn out that UK Athletes remain with the big, generous institution which has underwritten its ambitions for a decade and a half, an alternative model clearly has potential advantages. Having a "family" of sponsors can create an accompanying phenomenon whereby there is mutual support – the kind of synergy that BT and Sainsbury's have operated in maximising their connection with the 2012 Paralympic Games.

A more "democratic" approach also obviates any feelings of frustration a lower tier sponsor might harbour over the relative blank canvas enjoyed by a top tier sponsor. McCain decided not to renew their £1 million sponsorship of UKA this year. Who is to say that part of that decision was not down to a sense that they could not make their brand stand out sufficiently amid the yellow and blue of Aviva?

A year from now, UK Athletics may be sponsored by several, "equal" sponsors, of whom Aviva may be one. Or it may be sponsored, once again, by Aviva. Before either scenario becomes a reality, however, there will be a vigorous debate over the pluses and minuses of a Big Sponsor.

A vigorous debate, however, that no one is even thinking of starting until after the 2012 Games are successfully completed.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here. 

First a kick in the teeth for Aaron Cook, now a bullet in the back for two top shooters who claim they been unfairly excluded from Britain's 11-strong Olympic squad in similar circumstances to taekwondo's world number one. One of them, also named Cook, is the Army's crack marksman.

A petition on behalf of serving soldiers Morgan Cook and Ian Jack is to be presented to the Defence Minister Philip Hammond at a military function this weekend pointing out that both pistol shooters have achieved the Olympic qualifying score yet have been told there is no place for them at London 2012, despite  host nation slots being available.

The ex-Labour Sports Minister, Kate Hoey, has also stepped into another major Olympic selection row that has created a war zone between the Army and the sport's governing body, British Shooting. A former president of British Shooting, she says she is investigating "what seems to be a terrible situation".

Cook, 39, a Warrant Officer in Military Intelligence, where 27-year-old Jack is a corporal, were formally told last week that they had failed to gain places  in the men's Olympic rapid fire free pistol, leaving Britain with no representatives in the event.  Cook says they are 'devastated', claiming: "There seems to be a personal as well as a political agenda.  You must wonder if there is some sort of prejudice against Army people and pistol shooters in particular."

Last March we revealed that Britain's most celebrated marksman, Mick Gault (pictured below), OBE, had also missed out on the Olympics despite being the nation's most prolific Commonwealth Games competitor in any sport– 17 medals including nine golds.


He had achieved a qualifying score for the free pistol but was told that the only host nation quota place available was for the air pistol, even though he could have competed in either discipline under Olympic rules. After Hoey unsuccessfully made representations on his behalf Gault, 58, a civil servant with the RAF, professed himself "gobsmacked".

Britain will be sending only one pistol shooter to the Games, 27-year-old Georgina Geikie, a part-time Devon barmaid who is known as Britain's Lara Croft for her prowess with the 25 metres sport target pistol, one of four handgun disciplines.

British Shooting says the qualifying scores attained by the two soldiers were not eligible as they were made in practice and not designated events, a criteria agreed with the British Olympic Association (BOA).

They strongly deny any bias against service personnel or pistol shooters, who became pariahs after the Dunblane massacre in 1996 when 16 children  and a teacher were shot dead by a deranged gun collector, leading to a ban on  handguns.

This was only lifted and domestic training facilities for the Olympics restored, though restricted, following representations to the Home Office from Hoey and other MPs.


Cook (pictured above, right), a Bedfordshire-based Scot who holds the record as the all-time most successful British Army marksman, four times British Forces champion and winner of the Queen's Medal, says  bitterly: "It seems they would rather return the host nation quota places rather than give one of their only two qualified athletes the opportunity to compete."

Jack (pictured above, left) also won a major international championship in Berlin six months after taking up the sport.

Says Cook: "British Shooting have been less than helpful from the start. They have never provided us with facilities or funding. We have had to rely on the Army for support and they have been very good. But it has personally cost us around £15,000 ($23,000/€19,000) to make this progress in two years.

"Financially it has been hard and I have had to sell my watch and golf clubs."

Cook has a copy of a scorecard signed by a GB coach Hugh Hunter which shows he had a practice score of 587 out of 600, 19 more than the mark set by British Shooting and four points higher than the Olympic record.


"To put it into perspective, the men's rapid fire pistol Olympic champion of 2008, Oleksandr Petriv (pictured above) (a captain in the Ukraine Army) has achieved the British Shooting qualifying score of 576 only twice in his last five major events.

"It is outrageous that the British public are covering the cost of the Olympic Games yet are witnessing potential Olympic champions being denied the opportunity to compete.

"Why was the cut-off point made so made so early, almost 12 months before the Games? We pleaded with them give us more chances to qualify in competitions – and there were several more right up until this month – but they didn't want to know."

Cook likens the rejection to that of his taekwondo namesake: "Like Aaron, both Ian and I believe we have genuine podium chances but we are being discriminated against on a technicality."

Supporters of the 'outlawed' duo have organised a petition to the Defence Secretary and Cook is to send a written protest to the president of the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF).


No doubt the Sports Minister, Hugh Robertson, a former Army major, will, take more than a passing interest.

Phil Scanlan, Team GB Shooting team leader responds: "I totally refute any suggestion of prejudice. The situation is simple; they haven't made the qualifying score in competition.  Because these are a home Games, in discussion with the BOA we decided on a specific qualification for the GB team, never mind about the International Federation mark.

"We came up with a score which is equal to finishing half way up the field in the Beijing Olympics.  We felt this was the fairest way across all the disciplines and decided on a series of major international events in 2011 and early this year where it could be achieved.

"It was quite clear to everybody, including the two soldiers, what the requirement was. No-one protested at the time.  It was exactly the same with Mick Gault.  It is absolute nonsense to say there is any bias against them as servicemen. Or pistol shooters.  It is quite simple for us; they did not make the qualifying score in competition despite having ample opportunities to do. They may have achieved it in training but that's like a golfer not making the cut and then saying, 'but you should see my form on the driving range'.

"This is based purely on performance, there is no prejudice.  If they had made the score, they would have been in."


This is not the only selection controversy in which British Shooting has been involved over the Olympics. There was an appeal to the Sports Resolutions arbitration panel by Olympic Trap shooter Abbey Burton who argued she was in better form than preferred choice Charlotte Kerwood (pictured above).

Scanlon acknowledges it was a close call.  "Inevitably in any selection process someone is going to be disappointed.  We were asked to reconsider but came to the same decision.

"I understand these situations because a home Olympics could be a life-changing event, but what I don't understand is why these Army guys, knowing the criteria and not having made it, are making a fuss.

"The taekwondo thing has opened things up with everyone saying, well, we've got a chance now."

At a time when selection squabbles are the names of the Games – yet another Cook, men's foil fencer Keith – claims the sport's governing body have blocked an appeal at his exclusion in favour of Husayn Rosowsky, it seems the Army's hot shots have been out-gunned in this deadly pistols-at-dawn duel.

Were they shot in the back? Or have British Shooting shot themselves in the foot?

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

Wednesday June 13 marked a rather symbolical day in the world of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as it was the day that the Government gave its last quarterly economic report before the start of the Games on July 27.

That basically means it is the last time before London 2012 that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will release the figures showing exactly how the money has been spent on the Games so far, where savings have been made and where costs have overrun.

Seemingly to mark such an occasion, the briefing was moved from its usual location at the modest DCMS headquarters to the grandiose Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO, pictured) located just around the corner from the Houses of Parliament.

After a minor ordeal in getting through security, my colleagues and I then had our laptops and phones confiscated at reception before being allowed to proceed any further.

It was some time later that we were finally taken through the elegant corridors at the FCO and eventually into a giant room with a large square table that was probably more appropriate for a state dinner - which I'm sure it has hosted before.

Sat at the top end of the table were Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson (pictured below) and Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) chief executive Dennis Hone (pictured bottom, on right with Jeremy Hunt), looking slightly relaxed in such a formal setting.


It was soon clear why, as Robertson revealed that London 2012 was running £476 million ($741 million/€590 million) under budget.

"With only a matter of weeks to go before the Olympics, it is fantastic news that there is still £476 million [$741 million/€590 million] of contingency funds left," said Robertson, clearly proud of such a considerable achievement.

"At this stage, we look set to come in under £9 billion [$14 billion/€11 billion] and that is a truly remarkable achievement that I honestly don't think that any of us expected at the beginning of this project."

Despite the magnitude of such an achievement, which should not be understated, it was not unexpected given that we had been told at every single Quarterly Cconomic Review that huge savings were being made.

But it is still an impressive feat and one which Robertson himself deserves great credit for.

Since he was appointed to his post in May 2010, the 49-year-old Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent has quietly gone about the business of fighting the sports corner at every turn.


A clear example was in the Coalition Government's first Comprehensive Spending Review in October 2010, when he managed to secure vital money from the National Lottery for sport to ensure that, for the short to mid-term at least, the future looks bright.

Unlike the majority of his colleagues in the Coalition Government, Robertson has also refused to blame the previous Labour Government when any problems emerge over London 2012 – even though it would present the easy way out.

During the briefing, he continually described himself "as an unashamed cheerleader of London 2012 from the outset" and has a very friendly relationship with Tessa Jowell, the former Culture Secretary and current Shadow Minister for the Olympics, who Robertson himself admits was vital in helping secure London the Games back in Singapore in 2005.

In tough times, Robertson has been the Government's transparent face of the Olympics and Paralympics, always ready to face tough questions from the media when any Olympic-sized challenge arises – a skill he undoubtedly mastered while serving as a Major in the British Army before his political career began.

His achievement is made all the more impressive given that his boss, the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, still faces a battle to keep his job after allegations surfaced in the Leveson Inquiry earlier this year over his supposed secret deals with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation during its bid to take over BSkyB.


In a recent conversation with London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton, the topic of the Government's role in delivering the Games came up.

"People seldom give the Government credit but they have been fantastic and they have been consistent in their support of the project as they have provided money and operational support throughout," he told me.

"Figures like Hugh Robertson deserve real recognition for that."

He certainly does, and although there is still the Games itself to be judged before we can start showering him with praise, it is perhaps time to give Robertson real credit for London 2012's phenomenal preparations.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.

The day started in the ordinary way with tough water work before becoming quite extraordinary. We each got handed a brand new Stella McCartney tracksuit and headed for Windsor Castle for the Olympic rowing team announcement. It seemed like a very apt location after a weekend of Great British Jubilee celebrations.

For me, selection is a massive milestone on the way to the Olympics but it is still not enough. On the day Jacques Rogge announced London as the host city for 2012, I think the first seeds of my comeback were sown. I was running a workshop – we had a group discussion about 2012 and someone asked me what I visualised myself doing at the Games. I said my dream was to be an athlete and that anything else would seem second best to me.


Now it's confirmed I will compete, barring injury, I still want more.  I am proud to say that I have retained a seat in the eight, the boat I have competed in since my return in 2010. Having won two silvers in the World Championships I am hungry to make it gold in London.

Back in January, Jürgen Grobler told me that, as long as I maintained my level of performance within the team, I'd done enough to claim my seat. It was a very emotional moment for me, particularly as I was having a bit of trouble with my back at the time, so his faith in me meant a lot. I actually welled up when he shook my hand as I'm not sure up until then if even I had realised how much this meant to me.

So far this season has been a bit frustrating as we have had to race both World Cup regattas with substitutes.  Despite doing well to come away with silver twice, we still do not know how fast we can go with our full crew.  Yesterday we only announced seven names plus the cox for the eight. All being well our injured man will recover in time for the Olympics. Watch this space to see who claims that final seat in the end.


We learnt a huge amount during our races in Belgrade and Lucerne. As we expected, the Germans are still very strong, but we have also now had a chance to race Canada, the reigning Olympic champions, and Australia, plus the Americans are yet to join the field. We compete in the final World Cup regatta in Munich next weekend, which is our last chance to test out race plans before we head off for our final training camps and then the final showdown at Dorney.

I am looking forward to collecting my full Olympic kit on the day after Munich before we fly to Austria for altitude training then Portugal for final honing and tapering. I feel slightly sad that we will be out of the country for the build-up to the Games as I think there will be a real sense of anticipation and excitement as the Torch continues to head to its final destination in the stadium. We have also decided not to march in the Opening Ceremony as we race the next morning so, unless they ask me to light the Flame and offer a helicopter back to our hotel, I will be watching it from the comfort of my bed.


If you want to follow our races then the World Cup will be live on BBC2 on Sunday, June 17. Our Olympic races are Saturday, July 28 for the heats, then Monday, July 30 if we have to go through the repechage - we are aiming to avoid this by winning our heat - and the finals are Wednesday, August 1. That date has been imprinted on my brain since the schedule was announced and now I can't wait to get there.

Greg Searle is a BT Ambassador. BT is the official communications services partner for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. For more details click here.

The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) computing equipment sponsorship for 2013-16 is going down to the wire.

With less than seven months to go until the end of 2012 – and, perhaps more pertinently – a mere 20 months until the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics – we still don't know who is going to follow Taiwan's Acer in this important role as one of the Movement's main kit suppliers.

It may even be Acer itself.

When I caught up with Gerhard Heiberg, influential chairman of the IOC's Marketing Commission this week, he told me there had been no "definitive conclusion".

The situation remained "open".

Heiberg went to Taiwan a couple of months ago and spoke to JT Wang (pictured below), Acer's chairman.


It seems that all options remain possible – from an Acer extension, to a broader partnership with one of the IOC's other technology sponsors, an agreement with a new sponsor, or even, Heiberg indicated, allowing Sochi to decide.

That last option would no doubt boost the stellar domestic sponsorship earnings that the Russian city has generated still further.

However, it might leave the IOC struggling to match the $957 million (£615 million/€760 million) in cash and value-in-kind goods and services that its so-called TOP worldwide sponsorship programme has brought in over the current Olympic quadrennium, culminating with London 2012.

I wanted to make sure I wasn't making too much of the apparent lateness in striking a deal, so I looked up when Acer, and, before it, China's Lenovo, were unveiled as TOP sponsors.

In Acer's case, this happened in December 2007, so around six months earlier in the cycle, even if the new deal were announced today.

Lenovo's status was confirmed in late-March 2004, so – to date – only two-and-a-half months earlier.

In practice, I imagine that the new deal may well now be struck, or at least agreed in outline, during London 2012, when key decision-makers will be in the same place.

There is a looming problem with Olympic technology sponsorships and I can't help wondering if the lingering uncertainty over the new computing equipment deal isn't bringing the day closer when it will need to be addressed.

This is that the pace of technological innovation has moved on so rapidly in recent years that individual machines can perform functions that fall into more than one sponsorship category.

How many of us don't now use our mobile phones as computers when on the move, or our computers as televisions?


The arrival of tablets and now smart TVs is blurring the lines still further.

The corollary of all of this is that companies can shell out millions on an Olympic sponsorship, while only being able to use it to promote a portion of their product range.

Indeed, they might have no way of telling when they sign the deal what the items that turn out to be their hottest product-lines over the latter part of the sponsorship term will actually do.

At any given Olympics, there are also loads of technology sponsors jostling for attention.

At London 2012, the IOC's TOP sponsors will include Acer, Samsung (wireless communication equipment), Panasonic (audio, TV and video equipment, including car navigation) and Atos, which manages and integrates the technology supplied by the others.

But then you will also have Cisco, London 2012's official network infrastructure supporter, and BT, communications services partner.

At Sochi 2014, domestic sponsors include MegaFon, the mobile phone operator, and Avaya, official supplier of network equipment.

I can't help wondering if sponsors wouldn't get more bang for their buck – and the IOC more bucks for their, well, bang – if some of this clutter weren't stripped away.

Timo Lumme, director of IOC television and marketing, has conceded to me in the past that there could be change in the categorisation of technology products.


"With technology changing every day, it is quite clear there will be some challenges with traditional categorisation by product category," he told me.

"I do foresee having to have a pretty good review of how we keep clear daylight between the partners in this area."

I had previously thought that this might be part of the wide-ranging review that the IOC appears to be making space to conduct before embarking on deals covering the 2021-24 Olympic quadrennium.

Now I incline towards the view that it would ideally happen sooner.

Indeed, perhaps this is the plan: while seven TOP sponsors have committed right through to 2020, when the Summer Games will be staged in Istanbul, Madrid or Tokyo, the deals covering technology sponsors, except for Acer, are booked until 2016.

I wonder if changes could be in store ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics, to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea?

We'll endeavour to keep you posted.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

As I stepped into the Railway Tavern pub in East London's Olympic home of Stratford, I could be forgiven for thinking that football was the only "sport" the melee of fans filling up the pub were here for.

But my colleague Dale and I weren't here to witness the Championship Playoff final, we were walking into the phenomenon that is "the pin world" at the Unofficial London 2012 pin meet. We were easily recognised in our green insidethegames polo shirts, and at once warmed by the friendly ambiance of Paul and the fellow members.

I was first approached by Vic – an enthusiast who told me how he had travelled a staggeringly long journey from the Midlands, filled with delays and mishaps to be at the pin meeting. This showed me the distances people were willing to travel and how dedicated the pin societies were.

As we exchanged stories of how long we had been pin collecting, I revealed that I was making my debut in the pin world, and with this Vic very kindly took me under his wing and began to tell me about the dos and don'ts of pin trading, and what I should be looking out for when trading our insidethegames puzzle pin. I was heartened by the time he spent sharing the tricks of the trade with me and how knowledgeable he was.

I meandered in and out admiring everybody's collections, fascinated at how each person had presented their pins, categories ranging from sponsored, to LOCOG 2012 pins, USA pins, to Coca-Cola pins, and I spent some time talking to people individually to hear their stories. It was interesting to find out that in many cases, the pins laid out on the tables were only a small percentage of their collections, as each collector had many more prized pins at home hidden under a veil of secrecy.


I went in for my first trade with James, who works for BP, one of the official partners of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He had some great sponsored pins on show, ones in which he had managed to get his hands on through working for the company. I chose a BP Team GB pin, and we exchanged and shook hands with true pin trading etiquette. I walked away feeling very patriotic and pleased – a fair trade.

Suddenly a wave of noise came from the West Ham football fans in the room next door, emotions were running high, and so as the day went on the football created a turbulent atmosphere where the excitement of meeting new friends and trading our pins really flourished.

Dale and I spoke to Mohan, a collector who I instantly felt on the same wave length with because he told me that "collecting pins is like collecting shoes!" While it was a little sexist I knew what he meant and could definitely relate to the feeling of having a pair of shoes and wanting more! If only I could have thousands of pairs of shoes like these guys have pins I would be a happier girl. But nevertheless I could see how collecting pins becomes almost like an addiction.

He began collecting while working in Sydney during the 2000 Olympic Games, and it was the style and quality of the pins produced in Sydney which interested him. The curious thing is that while musing over Mohan's pins, Dale and I were both unwittingly drawn to his Sydney ones, and it was intriguing to understand just a little of what Mohan must have felt on that warm Sydney summer's day 12 years earlier. After much negotiation, a deal was struck by Dale – very impressed with himself for managing to bag a "2 for 1" agreement with Mohan for our part one puzzle pin.


This made up for our rookie mistake in the beginning – when Dale and I discovered we had been fooled by a pin trader! Dale had also been talked into trading our puzzle pin with James, oblivious to the fact I had already made this trade 10 minutes earlier, and had picked out the exact the same BP Team GB pin. A mistake we can only put down to being amateurs!

After meeting many new members during the day I was surprised by the diverse careers each of them had. There was Anthony, who had begun pin collecting following his previous career as a sports journalist, and was very much an avid collector having over 10,000 pins! Then there was Anthony R, a torchbearer for this year's London 2012 Olympics, who had been given a pin for volunteering back in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester 2002. Of course Mohan took a shine to the pins at the Sydney 2000 Games, and Mark Kass, one of our blog writers, an entrepreneur and director of a small East London business support agency, who had attended a pin meeting and caught the bug for it. It's remarkable to see the different paths in life that people follow, and nonetheless they all lead to the craze that is pin collecting. Whether it was IT, logistics, or retired, somehow this unusual love had brought together the most diverse collection of people, bringing out the best in human nature.


One of my particular highlights of the day was meeting Cherry from Honav as we have a new partnership with the company, it was nice to talk to her about the promotion of our "My Favourite Pin Story" competition, and we had a chance to see the Honav retail pins which are being released soon. To learn about the manufacturing element to the pin collecting process was another side to the story I had overlooked. She was genuinely impressed by our insidethegames puzzle pin, and with this I felt a thoroughly rewarding feeling because so much work had gone into designing and producing our pins!

In amongst the twinkling silver and golden pins was a small film crew recording the day's events. Photographing and interviewing Paul and fellow members about what it is that they love about pins.  Although Dale and I first cringed at the thought of being filmed for television, we soon realised that it would actually be a great documentary to be involved in. Their aim was to highlight the multitude of different and exciting elements that go hand in hand with the Olympic Games. I think something that is special about pin collecting this year is that the passion is perhaps driven by the fact the country is hosting the Olympic Games, which brings home the Olympic flame, and with it even greater meaning to every pin they collect.


A great pin, one which was unveiled like a schoolboy in the playground holding a rare Merlin Premier League football sticker, was just a tiny, gold, torch-bearing pin that David Beckham was seen wearing as he brought the torch home from Athens a day earlier. Although my first impression was wow that's a small pin, the rarity surrounding this pin was evident. Along with this, something that made me realise the hype of rare pins was the fact I had only just the day before published a story about the Coca-Cola Olympic Torch Relay pins being released, and then there they were at the event ready for trading!

I chose my favourite pin, one from the LOCOG 2012 collection – a beefeater. I won't lie, I chose this pin from the many which were on display on the day because I thought the beefeater was really cute, and for no other reason. I was later told that this pin was manufactured in America and not very often seen in the UK – I'm a pinhead and I don't even know it – Vic should be proud. Liking all things sentimental, I'm very excited by the thought that in many years to come I will pull this pin out of my memory box at home and it will take me back to this day, an event that was so different to me and different to anything I have been to before. I think this is what is so unique and endearing about pin collecting, and I would not have realised unless attending this pin meeting.

I entered as a novice and left a heart warmed pinhead, a thoroughly enjoyable day.

To find out more about pin collecting visit insidegamescollecting by clicking here.

Or you can join our dedicated collecting facebook page by clicking here.

To enter "My Favourite Pin Story" click here.

Lauren Mattera is a reporter for insidethegames

Honav is the official manufacturer of pins for London 2012

This week marked another important milestone in the countdown to the London 2012 Olympics. In under 50 days time, 204 nations and over 10,000 athletes will descend on the Olympic Park as the curtain is raised on the Greatest Show on Earth. While we have come incredibly far in reaching this milestone, the remaining days ahead, though few, are among the most important as we put the finishing touches on delivering a truly memorable performance at our home Olympic Games.

Last weekend's fantastic Diamond Jubilee celebrations were a fitting preview of what to expect come July 27, and indeed throughout the entirety of the Games. To me, the support shown by the British public for Her Majesty the Queen was breathtaking and I was truly impressed by the level of patriotism on show. It fills me with pride and excitement to know we are in the process of delivering another large-scale event which promises to unite the United Kingdom in such a special way. London wholeheartedly embraced the Jubilee celebrations, and I know it will do the same with the Olympics.

Another event which has galvanised the support of the British public is the Olympic Torch Relay, and the mass crowds welcoming the runners along each leg of the route are a true testament to this. I was honoured to be able to run with the Torch through my home town of Cheltenham on May 23, and did it on behalf of all the passionate and dedicated staff at the British Olympic Association (BOA) and National Governing Bodies (NGBs), who are working round the clock to deliver the team. Watching Zara Phillips (pictured below) carry the flame into a packed Cheltenham racecourse while riding her horse, Toytown, was an iconic moment and one which I felt incredibly privileged to be a part of.


While support for Our Greatest Team continues to grow, so does the team itself. We have now selected 178 athletes across 14 sport disciplines to represent Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics, and this number continues to rise. Royal Windsor was a fitting venue for the Team GB rowing team announcement, and a fine reflection of the sport's strong British heritage and tradition.

Our rowing team is the largest and strongest we have ever assembled for an Olympic Games, leading Team GB's quest for medals at London 2012, just as the rowing boats led the Diamond Jubilee Pageant along the River Thames last Sunday. The team includes a number of young athletes who have graduated from British Rowing's acclaimed Start Programme, reflecting its success in both attracting greater grass-root level participation, and delivering elite athletes capable of performing at the highest level. The programme, overseen by British Rowing performance director David Tanner is a blueprint for success and deserves praise for what it has achieved, and continues to achieve.


Rowing is not alone in delivering excellence. Across the Olympic sports, British athletes continue to dedicate themselves in training and preparation for the 16 days of competition this summer, which will define their sporting careers. We will be there to support them every step of the way in the vital final days and weeks to ensure that when they reach the start line in London they are fully prepared, focused and ready to inspire the nation with their performances.

Our ambition remains to win more medals, from more sports at London 2012 than we have done in more than a century. With fewer than 50 days to go, we are confident that we are on track to deliver.

Andy Hunt is Team GB Chef de Mission and chief executive of the British Olympic Association (BOA). Follow him on Twitter here.

There were some outstanding performances at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Oslo yesterday, but in retrospect perhaps the most impressive effort of the week came on the day before the athletics action as Britain managed very successfully to beat the London 2012 drum with the assistance of two Jamaicans on Norwegian soil.

Well, okay, strictly speaking not Norwegian soil as this particular enterprise, assisted by a marvellous switch in the weather from gloom to sun, took place within the grounds of the British Embassy on the outskirts of Oslo, a creamy wedding cake of a building set in rolling lawns stocked with fir, horse chestnut and oak.

It was here in the welcome glare of a returning summer that the British Ambassador Jane Owen (pictured below, centre) – very bright, very touchy-feely – stood on a winding gravel pathway awaiting the two particularly special guests to her party – Messrs Asafa Powell (pictured below, right) and Usain Bolt (pictured below, left).


This was no ordinary party. It was, as Owen later said, the first time in 37 years that the traditional Strawberry (and champagne) Party welcoming athletes and press alike to the annual Bislett Games had been held on "foreign" soil.

The reason for this unusual state of affairs, as Owen also later explained to the throng assembled on the stepped terrace which hosted the buffet, was to celebrate the links between Bislett – where so many British athletes such as Seb Coe and Steve Cram had helped write glorious track history over the years – and London, where, just in case those present had been unsure, the 2012 Games were to be celebrated.

"We think the Games are going to be a hugely successful event and a magnet for London," said Owen after thanking "so many of our business partners in Norway" for attending. She added that she had been glancing at the most recent trade figures between Norway and the United Kingdom expecting them, as you do, to be around £20 billion ($30 billion/€25 billion). But glory be, they were worth £25 billion ($39 billion/€31 billion).

After mentioning the Torch Relay and the fact that it was due to get around to within an hour of every UK citizen, and also making the point that the Games had precipitated the creation of the biggest area of urban parkland in 150 years in the capital, she enjoined everyone who could to take advantage of the Games on their "doorstep" by visiting it and enjoying it.


But this all came later. As she stood on the driveway expectantly in front of a branded sign reading Green is GREAT Britain, the invited guests had come trailing up the gravel – a mixed bunch. Elegant couples. Smart family units. A number of self-satisfied men just a little old for the jeans they were wearing, some accompanied by women just a little too thin.

One father announced darkly to his son as he steered him through the waiting crowd of snappers and scribblers: "This is the Press."

The flutter of shutters presaged the arrival of the sprinters, who found themselves briskly arranged in front of the branded sign alongside the Ambassador and holding Olympic and Paralympic mascots the size of small children in their arms. "How are you enjoying Oslo so far," enquired the Ambassador brightly of Powell, her head swivelling up to look at him. The response wasn't discernible.

Suddenly, Jessica Ennis was there alongside them in the photoshoot. Suddenly, she wasn't, and nor was she at the subsequent press conference held, bizarrely, on the tennis courts near the end of the garden and witnessed by a fascinated tranche of roped-off guests. They were agog at a media spectacle which has been repeated all around the world over the last four years since Bolt thudded slap-bang into the centre of the world's sporting consciousness with his Beijing 2008 Olympic wins.


Was Bolt still interested in playing for Manchester United? (No). Who did he think would win the 2012 European Championship? Who did he want to win? (Polite response). Had his life changed since winning at the 2008 Olympics? He paused for a moment at this one, clearly trying to work out how even to start to begin to approach an answer, finally settling for: "I haven't changed as a person, I don't think. I can afford to buy more stuff now though."

At the conclusion of this event, the amplified voice of the Ambassador, who was shortly due to meet David Cameron at the airport as he arrived for a swift visit to discuss affairs of state with the Norwegian Prime Minister, was heard inviting everyone up the little hill to the stepped terrace, where strawberries, champagne and speeches awaited.

You have to say, as an exercise in diplomacy and the promotion of London and the UK's cause, it was impressive.


Not that everything stayed on-message, however. Asked at the press conference for their thoughts on the Olympic mascots they had briefly nurtured, Powell responded: "A bit fat..." (Has he been talking to someone at UK Athletics?)

Bolt's response was equally ambivalent. "Only one eye. Kinda weird."

Know what he means...

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

Anyone based in Europe who has managed to lift the income of a multimillion-dollar business by more than 50 per cent over the past four years of economic turbulence must be doing something right.

So the International Olympic Committee (IOC) must be delighted with its achievement in raising revenue of $3.914 billion (£2.515 billion/€3.108 billion) by selling broadcasting rights to the Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Games – up a remarkable 52 per cent from the $2.57 billion (£1.65 billion/€2.04 billion) generated from this source in the previous quadrennium.

More than four years away from Rio 2016, it is already possible to deduce that Lausanne will achieve nothing so spectacular this time around, when domestic marketing revenues from hosts Russia and Brazil look set to be the main growth engine.

Yet broadcasting income in 2013-2016 is still set to smash comfortably through the $4 billion (£2.7 billion/€3.2 billion) barrier.

This in itself is quite a feat, given that the eventual total will include essentially no increase in the contribution from the United States, which chipped in no less than $2 billion (£1.2 billion/€1.6 billion) of that 2009-2012 figure and will replicate that in 2013-2016.

An insidethegames analysis of 11 broadcast deals for 2013-2016 that are already concluded, shows that the IOC has already raised a cool $3.62 billion (£2.32 billion/€2.87 billion) from the United States, Europe (minus Great Britain which has just gone to tender), Japan, Korea, Brazil and the Arab states.

Look at this another way, and they are less than $300 million (£193 million/€238 billion) short of the total achieved in the current quadrennium with deals covering perhaps four to five billion people still to negotiate.

Such is the global appeal of Olympic sport – and the appetite of broadcasters for content that is guaranteed to draw a mass audience even in an age when we can, increasingly, watch what we want when we want - that the Movement has been rendered impressively recession-resistant.

Part of the secret of the IOC's commercial success in recent times has come from its ability to extract more cash from growth markets such as Brazil and China.

But it is securing more from some mature markets too.

Take Europe: by separating out the biggest markets, rather than – as in 2009-2012 – doing a single deal covering 51 countries with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), it looks very much as though the IOC will succeed in 2013-2016 in pushing European broadcast revenues through the $1 billion (£642 million/€794 million) barrier.

With only the UK still outstanding, European broadcast income stands at $929 million.

This is comprised of Italy $203 million (£130 million/€161 million), Germany $171 million (£110 million/€136 million), France $115 million (£74 million/€91 million), Spain $94 million (£60 million/€75 million), Turkey $31 million (£20 million/€25 million) and others (except for the UK) $315 million (£202 million/€250 million).

The 2013-2016 period looks set to bring another commercial milestone for the Olympic Movement: the first time in many, many years that less than 50 per cent of broadcast revenues will be generated from the United States.

As recently as 2001-2004, the quadrennium culminating with the Athens Games, but also featuring the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the US accounted for 60 per cent of income from broadcasting rights, so this is an important shift.

The IOC would no doubt have preferred to reach this milestone with US revenues still rising, rather than pausing for breath as they will do temporarily in 2013-2016, prior to resuming their upward march in 2017-2020, as spelled out in the latest four-Games deal with NBC.

Nonetheless, the improved geographic balance in broadcasting revenues, with the overall sums raised still heading in the right direction, can only be healthy for the Movement.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed by clicking here