SportAccord Convention Magazine 2012 by Dunsar Media Company Limited

www.insidethegames.biz SportAccord Brochure 2012 The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading source of independent news and information about the Olympic and Paralympic Movement.

Inside: London Pride Olympic Soap Opera Red is for Go Pyeongchang â&#x20AC;&#x201C; City of Mystery Olympic Stardust Canada Can Alright on the Night Happy Olympics, Mr President

Especially produced for the SportAccord International Convention 2012 in Quebec City

Contents Published: May 2012 by Dunsar Media Company Limited

Who are we? 4 Dunsar Media Company Limited

Editor: Duncan Mackay

Introduction 5

Managing and Commercial Director: Sarah Bowron

London 2012: London Pride

2020 Summer Olympics: Olympic Soap Opera

Russia: Red is for Go

Pyeongchang: City of Mystery

Sponsors: Olympic Stardust

Toronto: Canada Can

Brazil: Alright on the Night

International Federations: Happy Olympics, Mr President

Project Coordinator: Aleksandra Sersniova Design: Elliot Willis Willis Design Associates Pictures: Getty Images and iphoto Print: www.csfprint.com Dunsar Media Company Limited C222 MKTWO Business Centre 1-9 Barton Road Bletchley Milton Keynes MK2 3HU Great Britain +44 1908 263387 contact@insidethegames.biz www.insidethegames.biz No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without prior written permission of the publisher. Data is published in good faith and is the best information possessed by Dunsar Media Company Limited at the stated date of publication. The publisher cannot accept any liability for errors or omissions, however caused. Errors brought to the attention of the publisher and verified to the satisfaction of the publisher will be corrected in future editions, if any.

Duncan Mackay

Mike Rowbottom

Duncan Mackay David Gold

Duncan Mackay David Owen Tom Degun

Andrew Warshaw

Duncan Mackay

Play the Game! 42 Mike Rowbottom

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Who are we?

SARAH BOWRON MANAGING AND COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, DUNSAR MEDIA COMPANY LIMITED

insidethegames.biz The No.1 Olympic news website in the world. We break the news as it happens 24/7/365. We bring you the latest, most up-to-date news and interviews from the worlds of Olympic, Commonwealth and Youth Games.

insideworldfootball.biz The authoritative independent guide to the business, the politics and the bid process behind world football.

insideworldparasport.biz The world’s only source of independent news and information about the Paralympic Movement. Sharing with the world the great stories and journeys of the Paralympic athletes in addition to the politics and business behind the global Paralympic Movement.

insidesportjobs.biz The website to go to when you have a vacancy to fill or are looking for a new role. Reach the best candidates in the world of sport.

insidegamescollecting.biz We have created a website devoted to the number one spectator sport of the Olympics - pin trading. Initially cataloguing and covering the London 2012 pins, the website will eventually cover all Olympic collecting. Take a look and see if your favourite pin is there.

insidethesponsors.biz Especially created for all sponsors because the Games wouldn’t happen without them. Can you afford not to be included?

londonlaunch insidethegames An Olympics specific events and hospitality supplier directory – londonlaunchgames.com .

Inside World Football Forum

forum

We are proud to be partners with leading conference organisers Eventica. Together we launched the first ever Inside World Football Moscow Forum in June 2011. This brought together, for the first time, the key players involved in the 2018 FIFA World Cup - the Local Organising Committee, the Host Cities and Russian football governing bodies with a wide range of international specialists. This will become a regular event in Russia.

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We lead. Others follow.

DUNCAN MACKAY EDITOR, INSIDETHEGAMES

elcome to the second brochure prepared for our visit to SportAccord by the same team that brings you daily groundbreaking news on insidethegames.biz and insideworldfootball.biz. Can it really be a year since we were all in London for the 2011 Convention? Now, as we gather here in Quebec City, the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics are less than two months away. That fact is celebrated in this, our latest brochure, particularly with a major article from David Owen, the former sports editor of the Financial Times, who has investigated how the Games’ sponsors are preparing for the biggest sports event ever to be staged in Britain. Our brochure last year was widely praised as being the best-ever produced for SportAccord and we are determined to keep that standard up this year. Anyone who reads insidethegames.biz or insideworldfootball.biz will know that the kind of quality found in that brochure is just a small sample of what we produce everyday online. London 2012 is, of course, the focus of much of what we are currently producing, nevertheless we have a global perspective and that fact is reflected in the articles here. Brazil will soon be the focus of the world’s attention as it prepares to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics

and Paralympics. Andrew Warshaw, the chief football writer on insideworldfootball.biz, has travelled to Rio de Janeiro to find out how things are coming along. Looking even further ahead, I’ve recently been to Pyeonchang to assess the early stages of their preparations for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics after they were awarded the Games by the International Olympic Committee last July. Of course, memories are still fresh of the successful Winter Olympics and Paralympics staged in Vancouver in February and March 2010. Canada has now begun preparing for the Toronto Pan/Parapan American Games in 2015 and Tom Degun has been speaking to the key figures involved in those preparations to find out what we can expect. With David Gold’s report from Sochi looking ahead to the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, due to be held in Russia for the first time, we really believe we have all the bases covered. Finally, I know that you are a busy person who wants to keep up-to-date with all the news while you are on the move, so can I draw your attention to our web apps, accessible on all mobile platforms. And like everything else we do, it is free because we believe you cannot put a price on quality.

Duncan Mackay Editor

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Londonpride

The venues are built and the organisational work complete. insidethegames chief feature writer Mike Rowbottom eagerly anticipates the spectacle of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games visiting London.

shudder to think about the amount of my own personal GDP I have disposed of within the walls of British supermarket giant Sainsbury’s. This organisation makes a business of flagging up forthcoming merchandising opportunities at significant times in the calendar – such as Easter, Halloween, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and even Second Cousin Twice-Removed Day. Oh, and that other one – you know... carols from October onwards, lanky shelf-stackers wearing red and white night caps, robotic mothers dragging round frantic offspring and loading up their trolleys as if the countdown is about to sound out: du-dum, du-dum, diddley-dum-boom! Ah, yes! Christmas. Today, however, I noticed another significant marker within the aisles – one which will not be around next year, or the year after that. It’s a one-off, you see. Official London 2012 merchandising has arrived in the supermarkets – and can London 2012 be far behind? Like a giant, special Christmas it is coming… For the last few years, like millions of others, I have driven into London via the A12 and witnessed the Olympic Park building site turn into something to stir the soul with its functional, but still impressive, Olympic

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Stadium, an Aquatics centre with a groovy roof, and a glass and wooden sweep of a Velodrome as asymmetrically alluring as the Mona Lisa. The venues are waiting. Indeed, to the justifiable pride of London 2012 organisers and the Olympic Delivery Authority whose work is now largely complete with a big box ticked, they have been waiting for almost a year for the world’s Olympians to arrive to mark them in history. While London’s organisers may not have been told to slow down their efforts, as the hyperactive Chinese were in the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Games, they have delivered the physical superstructure of their Games with a comfortable timing a world away from the frantic, nerve-jangling brinkmanship of the Athens organisers in 2004. Athens got the job done – just – although the walk to the main stadium each day through its conspicuously un-landscaped surrounds made it clear how close the organisers had come to suffering something genuinely embarrassing. The period before an Olympic Games is almost like a symphony in media terms. Themes announce themselves, themes return. To use one of the favoured phrases of London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe, there is prevailing mood music.

MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES

The mood before London 2012 has been – by and large – buoyant and supportive with occasional dark undertones. The overall budget for the Games has been a constant debating point; indeed, a recent report by the influential Public Accounts Committee – charged with assessing if Government spending offers value for money – suggested the London 2012 accounts were “finely balanced”, and that the overall cost to the taxpayer could turn out to be closer to £11 billion rather than the £9.3 billion which has been established as the publicly funded construction budget. But London 2012 will not be the first, nor the last, Olympics for which unexpected costs have been incurred. At the heart of all this debate is the complex matter of separating costs for a sporting event and the massive improvements to infrastructure that such an event stimulates. The other theme that has threatened the buoyant swell of the mood music concerns the way tickets have been allocated and sold – with London 2012 being accused of secretiveness in the method it is conducting this operation. Coe has insisted the whole business of London 2012 ticketing has been “entirely transparent.”

Transparently not. But there is no doubt anticipation is mounting. That has certainly been the experience of those organising the big concerts in Hyde Park that will run in accompaniment to the London Games. BT London Live is responsible for the

Opening and Closing Ceremonies concerts – the latter headlined by Britpop heroes Blur (ironically!) and supported by Eighties bands New Order and The Specials – events that have transformed the response, and demand, for tickets. As you might expect. Blur’s presence has sharpened the focus. And a similar level of detail is now making the whole, theoretical business of the forthcoming Olympics start to feel real. London 2012 has gone not viral but anecdotal. It is already becoming part of people’s own experience. You now meet people who, unlike those who were more prominent in the news at the time, actually did receive Olympic tickets when the first tranche was released. I attended a pin trading event in the John Lewis department store at Westfield Stratford City, where all the swapping and chat took place in a long room enjoying a grandstand view of the Olympic stadium and the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower. On occasions you forgot the view – only to be reminded of it and of what it meant. It gave an additional buzz to the whole occasion. Indeed, for Kerstin Fletcher – one of the attending collectors – there was an additional buzz given

that she and her partner had secured tickets for the football at Wembley, volleyball and the women’s freestyle wrestling. Like one of those books one received as a child in which the blank pages turned to coloured pictures with the application of water, the

Main: The London 2012 Olympic Park featuring the Olympic Stadium and the ArcelorMittal Orbit to its left. Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images Above: London 2012’s Olympic Mascot Wenlock and chief executive Paul Deighton in Trafalgar Square for 2 Years To Go. Photo: Sarah Bowron Bottom Left: BMX riders test the BMX Circuit at the Olympic Park during the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup in August 2011. The award winning architecture of the London 2012 Velodrome is in the background. Photo: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images

London 2012 Games are vividly coming to life. A friend came round to dinner the other day and it turned out he was one of the 70,000 Games Makers who will be operating during the Olympics and Paralympics. As a keen cyclist and runner, and as a person who has dealt well with others in his business career, he will be great. There is one other big bonus for London 2012 as the Games itself draws near. The muchmocked and reviled London 2012 logo has become so familiar that people are now forgetting to mention it – and in some cases simply accepting it. Logos, however, are always a good early way to engage the general public in an upcoming sporting event. People always seem to have an opinion on them, even if for most British sporting followers of a certain age World Cup Willie has never been surpassed. We’re back to the supermarket aisle again – and the dubious, one-eyed Olympic and Paralympic mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville. Having canvassed opinion among shoppers and browsers at one of the first official merchandising sites to open, in Earl’s Court, Olympia, I can report that – surprise, surprise – most people preferred the more traditional

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MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES

kind of mascot, such as Pride, the red, white and blue-coloured lion which represents Team GB. I live in Hertfordshire – ‘County of Opportunity’ as it now likes to call itself. Each time I approach the M11 roundabout and head for London I see a sign announcing Hertfordshire with a purple Olympic logo on it and the proud boast: ‘Host County for the London 2012 Olympic Games Canoeing competition’. One event is enough for Hertfordshire to feel a part of things. Other areas of the country will have a similar connection: Weymouth, where the Olympic sailing will take place; Box Hill and Surrey, which will teem with activity during the cycling road races; and Glasgow, Coventry, Manchester and Newcastle will co-host the football with Wembley. I have already experienced my own special Olympics thrill, having been one of the invited media representatives to take a dip in the Olympic pool a year out from the Games. It was a surreal experience to surface at the end of 50 metres of diligent breast-stroke to see the suited and booted figure of Lord Sebastian Coe wandering past with the inevitable attendance of several other persons. Invited to join us in the water, the ambulant Lord smilingly declined: “I’ve got the best excuse in the world. I can’t swim.” You couldn’t argue with that. Although the doctoring and downsizing of the original Aquatics Centre design by internationally renowned architect Zaha Hadid – in particular involving the original conception of the roof that had been reduced from 3,000 to 1,000 square metres – had prompted some strong criticism, the ceiling of the pool is positively voluptuous, with dazzling spotlights studded into it like so much body jewellery. For Coe, the experience of this newly completed sporting arena was clearly intense. Asked to look forward to the way he will be feeling when London 2012 gets underway, he responded: “If it’s anything like I feel today then it will be exceptional.” In terms of the big picture, the authorities are preparing their air-to-

Above: An aerial view looking south west of the London 2012 Olympic Stadium with Canary Wharf and the River Thames in the background. The River Lea is bottom right. Photo: Anthony Charlton/Olympic Delivery Authority via Getty Images

ground missiles to protect the Olympics no-fly zone. On the opposite side of the fence, London 2012 and Transport for London are attempting to mollify those councils that are threatening to object to the imposition of such zones during the period of the Games, and to prevent them launching a late and wholly unwelcome legal challenge. Having attended the super-fortified, eyeball-bulgingly security-conscious Salt Lake Winter Games of 2002, which took place in the shattering aftermath of 9/11, I hope that overtness – understandable as it was at the time – is something London 2012 can avoid. As for transport, it will inevitably be frustrating for many. But come on – we’re not talking about a year here, or even a month. Provided London 2012 can ensure the proposed restrictions are not going to prevent people from getting to hospital appointments then surely, to borrow a phrase from a more stringent test the capital underwent 70 years ago, London can take it. So much for the bigger picture. The most important picture lies elsewhere. All over the world, prospective Olympians are working towards London 2012 while trying not to let the thought of it overwhelm their mind or undermine their training. A year ago it was possible to uphold the ‘each day as it comes’ approach when questioned about Olympic ambitions. Not now. The British swimmers who will put themselves to the test in that pool now know who they are. Before long, the favourite phrase of Team GB men’s head rowing coach Jörgen Grobler – “there are no names under seats” – will cease to be true. For them, the Olympic challenge is almost at hand. For us, the big show is about to begin…

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DUNCAN MACKAY EDITOR, INSIDETHEGAMES

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Soap

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clock arranged

opera The twists and turns of the race to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games resemble those of a TV drama as interested cities prepare their bids. The plot is thickening nicely, says Duncan Mackay.

very bid race to host the Olympics and Paralympics is a soap opera with its own plot, its own unique twists and turns that keep the audience captivated... until the carefully choreographed finale is revealed. The campaign for 2020 did not initially offer the prospect of a storyline to match the races for

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2012, when London upset the hot favourites, Paris, or 2016, when the United States was humiliated by Chicago’s first-round defeat as Rio de Janeiro raced to an historic victory. Indeed, for a long time we began to wonder if there was going to be any sort of race at all. For so long the only officially declared candidate was Rome, the Italian capital which had last staged the Olympics in 1960. Then, in the final weeks before the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) September 1, 2011, deadline, cities began to declare their interest. First Tokyo entered the fray and then Madrid – two cities which had also bid unsuccessfully for 2016. They were followed by Doha and Istanbul, and then, mere hours before the deadline, Baku. Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, had also bid for 2016 but failed to make even the shortlist, and so was quickly written off. Meanwhile, rumours

began to swirl that IOC President Jacques Rogge was less than keen on Doha’s candidature. More of that later. Like all the best soap operas there was soon a twist, however. Italy’s financial problems forced Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to step down last November and he was replaced by Mario Monti who formed a new technocratic Government. With Monti introducing new austerity measures designed to head off Italy joining Greece on the verge of bankruptcy, the writing was always on the wall for Rome’s bid. But it was a slow death, with Italian Olympic officials refusing to accept the inevitable until, just a few hours before the IOC deadline for cities to lodge the necessary financial guarantees, Rome was forced to withdraw on February 14, 2012 – it became clear Monti was not going to show this bid any love on Valentine’s Day.

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cities are arranged clockwise and alphabetically by country name.

Baku Doha, Qatar. Photo: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Baku, Azerbaijan. Photo: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

o y k o T

Tokyo, Japan with Mount Fuji in the background. Photo: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/ Getty Images

Mario Pescante, Italy’s former Sports Minister who had been leading the bid, was so ashamed that he performed the modern day equivalent of throwing himself off the Tarpeian Rock by resigning as the vice-president of the IOC. The fall-out in Italian Olympic circles is sure to continue for several months to come, but Rome’s withdrawal has fundamentally altered the dynamics of this bid race. Before Rome pulled out it was widely anticipated that the IOC’s ruling Executive Board, when it meets in Quebec City during this annual SportAccord Convention on May 23, would prune two of the bidders from the six to leave a shortlist of four which would go forward to be candidate cities. It was assumed one of these would be Baku while much speculation centred on the other being Doha. The Qatari capital had been controversially axed from the shortlist for 2016 – even though, technically, it scored higher than Rio de Janeiro, the eventual winner. The reason was because its proposed dates for the Olympics and Paralympics, had it been awarded the Games, were outside the specified window of July and August. This time the IOC

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Executive Board had granted Doha special dispensation to put forward dates outside the window – but Rogge is understood to still have concerns about the potential of hosting an Olympics in October in a city where the temperature can reach 35 degrees. It is also suspected that Rogge fears the gas-rich Qataris turning the contest into a cash race. He saw how the campaign for the 2022 FIFA World Cup was tainted by allegations of corruption – even though no evidence has ever been provided that the Qataris were successful because of anything other than the fact they ran a better campaign than their rivals. It is a situation the Doha bid team is, understandably, furious about. But Rome’s decision to withdraw may help it more than any other city in the race. There is no doubt the Olympic brand has been tarnished by Italy’s late withdrawal and Rogge may not want to harm it further. Baku could also be the beneficiary of Rome’s pull-out. Located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea, the professionalism of its bid –

conducted by Azerbaijani Sports Minister Azad Rahimov – has already caught many by surprise. Most first-time visitors to Baku are surprised by the beauty of the city, particularly the architecture, which fuses the ancient with the new in breathtaking style, and the friendliness of the locals. A city with only two million residents in a country that has been independent for only 20 years is still very much a long shot to host the Olympics, but just getting on the shortlist and being given candidate city status will be considered a major triumph for Baku. Rogge’s reluctance to cut a city may also be due to the fact that, with Spain’s economy in even more of a crisis than Italy’s, no-one can be really sure Madrid’s bid will not go the way of Rome’s before the final vote at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires on September 7, 2013. The Spanish capital, bidding for the third consecutive time having narrowly missed out on 2012 and 2016, insists the financial situation that has blighted Europe for so long now will not impact on its campaign. But many within the Olympic Movement still remain to

DUNCAN MACKAY EDITOR, INSIDETHEGAMES

Do ha Istanbul, Turkey. Photo: Sezayi Erken/ AFP/Getty Images

l u b n a Ist

Madrid be convinced. It leaves the race without a clear obvious leading candidate. British bookmakers have installed Tokyo as the early favourite, although this appears to be based on little more than sentiment. The Japanese capital launched its bid in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 that so devastated the country, killing more than 15,000 people and triggering a series of nuclear accidents. The Tokyo bid has been packaged as an opportunity to help rebuild the country and reinject some muchneeded joy. While undeniably a powerful message, the IOC is not known for awarding the Olympics on the basis of just sympathy. It is worth remembering at the start of the campaign for 2012 that many people were tipping New York on the basis that there would be a big drive to award the American city the Games following 9/11 in 2001. But, by the time of the vote in July 2005, the disaster was not even a factor and New York was eliminated in the second round with just 16 votes. Tokyo’s bid will almost certainly be as

Christmas lights on Alcala Street, in Madrid, Spain. Photo: Pedro Armestre/AFP/Getty Images

technically excellent as its last one. But the city’s hopes of bringing the Summer Games back to Japan for the first time since it last acted as host in 1964 will be also be affected by the fact that the 2018 Winter Olympics are being held in Pyeongchang – and there may be unwillingness on the part of the IOC to travel to Asia for back to back events. In the opinion of many insiders the bid with the most to offer the Olympic Movement is Istanbul, which sits at the crossroads of the world dissecting Europe and Asia, leading Napoleon to once observe, “If earth were a single state, Istanbul would be its capital.” The city, the capital of Turkey’s financial industry, is a serial bidder having tried unsuccessfully for the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Games. Every one of those bids was launched more in hope than anticipation. This time, though, it is different. Istanbul is backed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, an increasingly influential figure on the world political stage who has the potential to be as powerful a force behind the campaign as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was during Rio’s successful bid three

years ago. And, just like Brazil, Turkey has been identified as one of the world’s fastest growing economies; and with more than 20 per cent of its population under the age of 25, it still has plenty of room to grow. A sign of Turkey’s growing economic muscle is that, according to one survey by Forbes magazine, Istanbul ranks fourth in the world for the number of billionaires who live there, behind only New York City, Moscow and London. Istanbul’s biggest obstacle might be that Turkey is too popular. Having narrowly failed by only one vote two years ago to be awarded football’s 2016 European Championships, UEFA President Michel Platini is courting the city to bid again for 2020; indeed, the Frenchman has stopped just short of saying it would be guaranteed the event, which is a powerful pull for the soccer-mad country that Turkey is. The outcome to that particular little battle may eventually help determine the eventual destination of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. About the only thing we can be sure of is that the storyline will keep us gripped to this particular soap opera for the next 16 months.

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Red is for

An exciting decade of top-level sport is the catalyst for a “new”Russia, explains insidethegames reporter David Gold. 14

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ew host cities of an Olympic and Paralympic Games can have gone through as drastic a renovation as Sochi. The host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics is being completely renovated, practically doubling it in size. Some of its spectacular new venues, such as the 12,000-seat Bolshoi Ice Dome, where the ice hockey will take place, will undoubtedly wow visitors. But the legacy of 2014 is what is most impressive about Russia’s only sub-tropical city – home to 400,000 inhabitants on the Black Sea coast near Russia’s border with Georgia. Sochi’s beach stretches for 145 kilometres across the coastline, but a vast amount of the city’s geographic area is taken up by spectacularly scenic mountains. Visitors in 2014 taking the 27-minute direct train journey from the coastal cluster of venues to the peaks could feel a temperature change of up to 30 degrees. This is why the Winter Olympics can transform Sochi and, to borrow the words of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, turn it into “a real year-round resort”. Indeed, Sochi 2014 President Dmitry Chernyshenko told insidethegames earlier this year: “People will come for the summer sun and the world-class

winter sports facilities. This will be a magnetic pull for big businesses and will create thousands of jobs.” Transport is perhaps the key non-sporting change as the city – the longest in Europe and the second longest in the world behind Los Angeles, according to estimates – is incredibly narrow. This poses a particular challenge as there is only one main road to connect most of Sochi. By 2014 that will have changed when a whole new road network, new rail line and increased air capacity will have been introduced. A number of hotels, in addition to a glorious ski resort and a stadium on the Black Sea coast, will complete the new, ultra-modern picture. “Sochi is probably the biggest construction site on the planet right now,” Chernyshenko says. “Over 55,000 people are working 24 hours a day – the scale, scope and speed of the work being done is truly fantastic.” That may be true but, right now, the roads are only half built and the skeleton of the new rail line is on view. The hotels remain unfurnished and without windows. But if it all ends up looking half as good as the projections in the Sochi 2014 promotional literature, the Russians will have done a stunning job.

DAVID GOLD REPORTER, INSIDETHEGAMES

Main: A general view of the construction of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Stadium. Photo: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images Above: IOC President Jacques Rogge, Sochi 2014 President Dmitry Chernyshenko and IOC Coordination Commission chair Jean-Claude Killy in Sochi. Photo: Mikhail Mordasov/AFP/Getty Images Right: Russia’s newly elected President Vladimir Putin and his predecessor Dmitry Medvedev during a visit to the Rosa Khutor apline ski resort in Krasnaya Polyana in March 2012. Photo: Dmitry Astakhov/AFP/Getty Images

What is certain is that by the end of this year all sporting venues will be ready as Sochi moves from construction to test mode. The chair of the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission, Jean-Claude Killy, described the city’s progress as “truly astonishing.” Having served as the co-President of Albertville 1992, Killy is a man who knows something about putting on a Winter Olympics. Of course, he is also someone who knows a thing or two about skiing, having scooped a triple gold haul at Grenoble 1968 – ensuring his place as one of the sport’s iconic names. “When we first came to Sochi [in 2008], the city and region was at the beginning of a process,” he told insidethegames. “I would say that today, with less than two years to go, the change has been incredible… we can see that Sochi is quickly making its mark on the world map of winter sports.” That view was echoed by competitors on the International Ski Federation Alpine World Cup circuit when it rolled in to Rosa Khutor, the venue in Sochi’s spectacular Krasnaya Polyana mountain range where ski events will take place in 2014. World Cup legend Bode Miller described the venue as “world class”, US

compatriot and Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn was similarly effusive in her praise and Swiss downhill specialist Didier Cuche called it “magnificent”. Chernyshenko is keen to point out that through their environmental work, efforts to boost volunteering and embracing of the Paralympics Movement, Sochi can set new standards and serve as an example to the rest of Russia which will have the chance to follow Sochi in the coming years. The World Athletics Championships arrives in Moscow in 2013, at the famous Luzhniki Stadium which hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics. Also next year Kazan will stage the Universaide while the World Swimming Championships will be held in the same city in 2015. Throw in the World Ice Hockey Championships in Moscow and St Petersburg in 2016 and football’s Confederations Cup the following year (the traditional dry run for the World Cup in 2018), and Russia is set to stage major sporting events for six successive years. In fact, Sochi will not just have the Winter Olympics to enjoy but also Formula One for six years from 2014 as well as 2018 World Cup matches.

Football’s showpiece event provides a significant opportunity for development across Russia as FIFA’s flagship competition stops off in this part of the world for the first time. Later this year the host cities for the World Cup will be confirmed; some 13 candidates are in the running, with 10 or 11 likely to be chosen, while the number of stadiums Russia 2018 plans to use has been reduced from the 16 set out in its bid book to 12, as FIFA prefers. One of those host cities will almost certainly be Yekaterinburg, the easternmost of the venues and, sited at the foot of the Ural Mountains, on the geographical border between Europe and Asia. It is vying with St Petersburg to host a semi-final although sits as second favourite in that particular race. The Luzhniki will host both one semi-final and the final of the World Cup, and is one of the few venues that will not require being built from scratch for 2018. It will, however, need to increase its capacity to 89,300 to meet FIFA requirements for stadiums hosting a World Cup final. Russia 2018 chief executive Alexey Sorokin has outlined the challenge faced, telling insidethegames that every single stadium will

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be either reconstructed or built anew. Indeed, Russia has wasted no time in beginning preparations, bringing forward the selection of the host cities with the World Cup law ready to be passed this year. This contrasts favourably with Brazil, the hosts of the 2014 World Cup, which effectively knew it would stage the competition in 2004 but still put off the decision over naming its host cities until 2009. Even at the time of writing, with just over two years to go, Brazil’s politicians are still arguing over the precise content of their country’s World Cup law. While these delays frustrate general secretary Jérôme Valcke, FIFA’s man in charge of the quadrennial spectacle, he has had nothing but praise for Russia since it was awarded the tournament. FIFA President Sepp Blatter has insisted that Russia is ahead of Brazil in some respects. Sorokin refuses to make comparisons with the South Americans, preferring to strike a diplomatic tone, but told insidethegames that he and the Organising Committee were pleased with the work completed so far. “There have been no indications that FIFA is in any way unsatisfied,” says Sorokin. “We think the progress we’ve made is quite satisfactory. We have no reason not to be pleased. We are steadily advancing. “There is a considerable amount of attention to what we are trying to do from federal authorities and a general understanding of the importance of this event. All the regions are eager to participate.” Not every region in Russia will participate, however, given that the country is the largest on earth – covering nine time zones. Although supporters travelling to Russia will not need to go through the time-consuming process of obtaining a visa, simply travelling around this vast country will prove a big challenge, despite matches only taking place in the European section. Russian Railways already has plans to create new rail lines to connect the host cities – and not just to each other but international locations, such as Berlin, Warsaw and Kiev. It has already launched a route to Paris and for those long journeys to places such as Yekaterinburg, promises there will be comfortable night trains. Air and rail transport was identified as the main challenge for Russia by FIFA’s inspectors during the World Cup bidding process. This is the most difficult challenge Brazil faces for 2014 although Russia has a similarly daunting task. But with plans to spend 300 billion rubles, it is certainly investing the sort of money required to meet these goals.

The country’s ability to host the tournament is still viewed sceptically by some, however, and racism in Russian football remains an issue. Russia’s Premier League, to its credit, has made steps in the right direction this season, ordering clubs to install video surveillance to pick out individuals guilty of racial abuse. “There are always stereotypes [about Russia],” Sorokin said. “The World Cup presents a huge opportunity for our country to change.” That is what this decade of sport is about – and nowhere sums up that change more than Sochi.

Top: Sochi 2014 Ambassador Svetlana Khorkina, a two-time Russian Olympic champion, with Sochi 2014 mascots – Snow Leopard and Hare. Photo: courtesy of Sochi 2014 Bottom: Sochi 2014 volunteers celebrate working at the recent Sochi 2014 test event, the FIS Ski World Cup 2012, which was held in Rosa Khutor, Krasnaya Polyana.

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City of

Mystery

Most people know very little about Pyeongchang but no one was surprised when they were awarded the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Duncan Mackay, insidethegames’ editor, who has visited Pyeongchang on three occasions, throws some light on the South Korean host.

ew Olympic cities are as mysterious as Pyeongchang. For starters, it is not even a city – it is a county located in Gangwon Province, about 177 kilometres east of the country’s capital Seoul – and was chosen as the 2018 Olympics and Paralympics host by the International

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Olympic Committee (IOC) last July, even though most of its members have never been there. Its successful candidature was built on the promises of its previous 2010 and 2104 failed bids to build facilities to host the Games and a brilliant campaign called “New Horizons”. The campaign worked on the premise that if the Winter Olympics and Paralympics were to continue to grow in popularity, then it needed to explore new geographical locations, rather than just bounce between established ski resorts in Europe, North America and Japan. Even though it is nearly a year on since that memorable day at the IOC Session in Durban, South Africa, when Pyeongchang’s host status was announced, my two-and-a-half hour bus journey from Seoul to Pyeongchang features roadsides still littered with reminders of the successful campaign. The giant posters of Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yu-Na continue to dominate the landscape and flags featuring the

colourful Pyeongchang 2018 bid logo still flutter in the cold wind. Bringing the Games here has been a personal dream for Kim Jin-Sun for more than 10 years, first as the Governor of Gangwon Province and then as a special ambassador for the South Korean President. Now his dream has come true, Jin-Sun has been handed the opportunity as President and chief executive of the Pyeongchang Organising Committee for the Olympic Games to ensure it comes to successful fruition. “During our bid the ultimate goal was to get the Games,” he told insidethegames. “Our joys were beyond words when that happened. Now we have a new target – to host [a] great Games. “I feel more responsibility because it has been a personal project of mine for so long and I will be working as hard as I can to make them a success. I initiated the idea of bidding for the Olympics and spent 10 years of my life trying to get the Games. “So, yes, I do feel a sense of fulfilment, but

DUNCAN MACKAY EDITOR, INSIDETHEGAMES

Main: Pyeongchang supporters celebrate being awarded the 2018 Winter Olympics. Photo: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images Above: Pyeongchang should have plenty of snow during the Games. Photo: Steve Haag/Gallo Images/Getty Images Right: IOC President Jacques Rogge announces that Pyeongchang have been chosen to host the 2018 Winter Olympics. Photo: Photo: courtesy of Pyeongchang 2018

there is also a heavy sense of duty for me, now we have the Games, because I know they will influence the future of the region and, indeed, the nation.” Strong memories of how Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in 1988 have helped pave the way for change in a country still feeling the impact of recent war, martial law, political unrest and economic uncertainty. In 1950, the country’s per capita income was a mere $62. Thirty years on, when starting to pay for the hosting of the Seoul Olympics, it was about $1,200 . Now, it is $25,000. Less than 20 years before hosting the 1988 Games, Seoul suffered national embarrassment when it was forced to give up hosting the 1970 Asian Games because of financial problems. Now South Korea is one of the world’s economic powerhouses. Many Koreans I spoke to now attribute the country’s “can do spirit” to hosting the 1988 Summer Games.

“Before hosting the [1988] Olympics, Korea’s international competition was relatively weak. Its goals were quite humble,” said Yoon Kang-Ro, the former deputy secretary general of the Korean Olympic Committee. “After hosting the Olympics, the goals became much higher.” Jin-Sun hopes that, 30 years after Seoul, Pyeongchang 2018 can have a similar affect on Korean society. His dream is to turn the area into a Asian Mecca for winter sports centred round the Alpensia Resort, a ski resort and a tourist attraction which already has six snow slopes for skiing and snowboarding with runs of up to 1.4 kilometres long for beginners and advanced skiers, and an area reserved for snowboarders. The Alpensia Ski Jumping Stadium in the small town of Daegwallyeong-myeon is also part of the Resort and will be the location for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. The ice events are due to be held in Gangneung, a coastal city about 30 minutes drive from Daegwallyeong-myeon, where last year members of the IOC Evaluation Commission inspecting Pyeongchang’s bid were greeted by hundreds of local supporters wearing masks of the chair Gunilla Lindberg, a slightly surreal experience for everyone involved. The early preparations have not been without controversy following confusion over plans to connect Pyeongchang to Seoul via a multi-billion dollar high speed rail link, which it had been claimed would cut travel

times from Incheon Airport in Seoul to Pyeongchang to only 68 minutes, one of the key selling points of the bid. South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs then said that it never planned to build the dedicated railway, but instead proposed to build new express railroads connecting Gangwon Province city Wonju and Gangneung via Pyeongchang. The row could have proved embarrassing to Pyeongchang but Jin-Sun shrugged off the controversy, claiming it was a simple misunderstanding and that they had not reneged on any promises. “We are going by our bid book,” he said. “Our planned work on the railway is true to our word.” This all adds to the mystique of Pyeongchang, a place still relatively unknown even to most Koreans, with many of those who do know the area associating it only with Winter Sonata, a popular Korean soap opera. There is even confusion over the spelling of its name in English, with some people

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DUNCAN MACKAY EDITOR, INSIDETHEGAMES

capping up the “C” in Pyeongchang while others keep it as lower case. But as well as being an up-and-coming winter sports resort, Pyeongchang is also a good place for fishing, cycling, swimming and golf in the summer and is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeong Temple, whose history dates back to 643. Pyeongchang may be ahead of many other cities who have hosted the Winter Olympics and Paralympics at this stage of preparations, but it still has a long way to go before it matches the facilities of the more traditional European and North American ski resorts, where the opportunity to party is as big a

part of the atmosphere as the quality of the snow. The two hotels at the Alpensia Resort – an Inter-Continental and Holiday Inn – are comfortable enough, but, like just about everywhere else in the area, they close by 10.30pm. And there are plenty of opportunities for miscommunication due to the lack of English spoken here. Jin-Sun is aware that it is a problem and promises to tackle it. “We are at the start of our journey but by the time of the Games everyone will feel welcome and have a great time,” he says. One thing that visitors will not have to

Above: The Alpensia Resort, which will host most of the snow events and be the base of the 2018 Games. Photo: courtesy of the Alpensia Resort

worry about during the Games, it seems, is snow – or lack of it, as happened at Vancouver in 2010 and which some fear could blight Sochi in 2014. All three of my visits here since 2009 have seen me caught up in record snowfalls. Pyeongchang may remain a mystery to many but by 2018 it is set to be a Winter Olympic Wonderland like no other.

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Olympic

stardust

London 2012 is gearing up to be a “malleable” marketing fest like no Games before. David Owen, insidethegames’ chief columnist, explores how the big brands plan to maximise their multi-million-pound sponsorships.

ore than 50 companies have paid, between them, well over £1 billion in cash and value-in-kind goods and services for sponsorship rights to the London 2012 Olympics. Actually making use of those rights will cost untold millions more. What are they hoping to achieve from this investment and how are they setting about achieving it? If you sat down and put that question to each individual sponsor I have little doubt you would end up with 50-plus different answers. At root, though, the aim of every commercial sponsorship I have encountered is to boost the turnover and/or profit margin of the sponsoring entity. An aim of every Olympic sponsorship, I think it is fair to say, is to scatter a little Olympic stardust on the sponsoring entity’s brand or brands. By this, I don’t mean necessarily getting your corporate marks into camera-shot with Jessica Ennis or Usain Bolt. But establishing a link with the Olympic Movement’s own famous five-ring logo and trying to attach some of the values associated with it – fair play, universality, excitement and so on – to your brands. Domestic sponsors can also tap into the relatively wholesome sense of patriotism that hosting the Games inspires. The really interesting part is the endless creativity with which sponsors have devised ways to exploit their status, taking account of the nature of their businesses and the qualities already associated with their brands, along with the specific bits of the Olympicvalue set they most want to absorb. Indeed, if there is one thing besides the

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exceptionally widespread respect accorded the five-ring logo that explains the success of Olympic sponsorship in the modern era, it is probably what an International Olympic Committee (IOC) insider once described to me as the “malleable” nature of the Olympic marketing platform. We have come a long way from the first London Summer Olympics in 1908 when the marathon, famously not won by Italy’s Dorando Pietri, had an official caterer – The Oxo Company, maker of meat extract products. In this role, the company supplied a flask containing Oxo to competitors free of charge as well as other items including Oxo and soda, rice pudding, raisins, bananas, soda and milk. Nowadays, while sponsors cannot display advertising on athletes’ clothing or on the field of play, they can do – and have done – just about everything else. This includes using Olympic trademarks in their own corporate advertising, entertaining their customers at the Games, and using tickets and other rewards in consumer promotions and employee incentive schemes. Sponsors have also become adept at using purpose-designed venues adjacent to Olympic arenas to showcase their products and company ethos. Meanwhile, for B2B sponsors, in particular, the Games also provides an opportunity to demonstrate the company’s ability to undertake complex

projects in one of the highest pressure environments imaginable. As Bill Caplan, managing director of the Europe and Middle East region at Aggreko, recently told me, acting as a supplier for big international sports events gives the electrical power and temperature control specialist “a tremendous amount of credibility with our customer base.” Or as Michael Payne, the former IOC marketing director, puts it in his book Olympic Turnaround: “With the whole world watching, the Olympic Games has become a unique platform for companies to launch new technologies, new ideas, new thinking, and to prove that they can perform and deliver under the most difficult and testing of environments.” The Big New Thing that sponsors have had to take into account in devising their activation strategies for London 2012 is, of course, the wildfire spread of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, since the last Summer Games in Beijing in 2008. Get your approach right and these new tools can open a path to the sort of sustained and in-depth

DAVID OWEN CHIEF COLUMNIST, INSIDETHEGAMES

interaction with customers that global brands could only have dreamt about before they were developed. Get it wrong, and you might face worldwide ridicule by nightfall. Payne added: “In terms of creating a real dialogue, as opposed to making a passive brand statement, if you can find the magic key there, that’s quite precious.” For Tim Crow, chief executive of Synergy, the London-based sponsorship consultancy, the rise and rise of social media has not changed all the rules of the game for Olympic sponsors. “You still need a great idea that is relevant and entertaining,” he said. What has changed beyond all recognition, though, is what you do with that great idea once you have devised and polished it. “The key question now,” Crow said, “is this: Okay, we have got interesting content, so where do we put it for best effect? Everybody is a publisher now. The game has changed from being just about paid media to being about owned and earned media as well. “Nowadays, you might seed your ad online to get a buzz going, then do a premiere on network TV. That might be the only time it gets shown on a network. There is always going to be a role for paid media, but its role is no longer all-powerful. The key questions once your content has reached the outside world are: Did it entertain? and Did people pass it on? If that happens, it’s working.” This radical and lightning-fast

fragmentation of the media landscape may well have consequences for the IOC, whose business model relies even more heavily on the auctioning of broadcasting rights than on sponsorship. But it is having a more immediate impact on sponsors which now face what is tantamount to a worldwide people’s court passing judgment on each and every external marketing initiative. The interactive capabilities of social media clearly open a wealth of new possibilities to Olympic sponsors as they strive to capitalise most effectively on the rights they have acquired. These are still early days, but one rule of thumb seems to be that you are more likely to make consumers more favourably disposed towards your brand by doing something for them than by preaching at them. Giving them Olympic tickets would be perhaps the most obvious example of this. But, of course, sponsors will be able to delight only a tiny proportion of consumers in this way. Because of this, ticket offers are perhaps most useful to sponsors for assembling virtual communities of sportsminded people they can liaise with in other ways, knowing in advance that they are likely to find the messages interesting. Olympic sponsors, after all, can do far more for sports-minded consumers than dole out much-coveted tickets. Inform them at exactly what time and where the Olympic torchrelay will pass closest to their front door is one thing that comes to mind. Lloyds TSB, the UK bank, last year took a prototype London 2012 Olympic torch on a tour around 80 United Kingdom communities, offering participants an opportunity to download photographs of themselves with the torch. According to Gordon Lott, head of group sponsorship and Olympic marketing at Lloyds, 20,000 people logged on to Facebook to do so in what he describes as “a really lovely activation”. The direct connections, real and imagined, that social media facilitates between sports fans and their heroes have, meanwhile, opened up a new route through which Olympic sponsors can potentially derive benefit from powerful product endorsements. I still remember US swim phenomenon Michael Phelps bringing down the curtain on his participation at the Athens Games in 2004 (after just the six gold medals and two bronzes) with the immortal words: “It’s McDonald’s time.” Today, Phelps would have no need for a media conference to get that, or any other, message out; he could simply Tweet the 20 characters to his 148,000 (and

counting) Twitter followers. What made the comment memorable was that it seemed spontaneous; you didn’t feel that the company had put Phelps up to it. This naturalness is all the more important in the social media age; there is nothing lamer – and therefore more counterproductive – than a product endorsement that rings false. “People are very, very quick to sniff out ‘corporate’ content,” said Synergy’s Crow. “If it is at odds with the actual behaviour of the company, look out.” He describes this as a “massive paradigm shift” between 20th and 21st century marketing. Then again, social media provides a big helping hand for companies looking to choose brand ambassadors. As Crow said: “If someone does it well and has a lot of followers, that’s a big advantage versus someone who doesn’t.” Consumer products group Procter & Gamble (P&G) has signed up no fewer than 11 British brand ambassadors, including household names such as Mark Cavendish, Paula Radcliffe and Sir Chris Hoy. Much of its London 2012-related marketing is focusing on athletes’ families, in particular their mothers, under its Proud Sponsor of Mums campaign. The company seems to have absorbed the point about naturalness and asks the mothers to talk about their experience rather than trotting out corporate slogans. “All they have to do is talk about being a mum,” says Nathan Homer, P&G’s Olympics project director. “We put that in our P&G Proud Sponsor of Mums space and we think that will work.” 

Main: Samsung’s first torchbearer nominee Gabriella Roseje, Samsung’s Global Olympic Games Ambassador David Beckham and London 2012 Chairman Lord Sebastian Coe attend the launch of Samsung’s London 2012 campaign at Canary Wharf. Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Insert: Baby wearing branded nappy with P&G’s United States Olympic Committee sponsorship. Photo: courtesy of P&G Above: Worldwide Olympic Sponsor Panasonic host the 2 Years To Go event at Trafalgar Square, London. Photo: Sarah Bowron

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DAVID OWEN CHIEF COLUMNIST, INSIDETHEGAMES Below: British distance runner Paula Radcliffe with Deborah Phelps, Michael’s mum, at the P&G launch as a Worldwide Olympic Sponsor in London in July 2010. Photo: Phil Cole/Getty Images for P&G Bottom Right: British long jumper J.J. Jegede performs an exhibition jump over three new London 2012 BMW Minis. Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images for BMW

The athletes also seem to genuinely appreciate the way their mothers are getting some reward and recognition for their years of unstinting support. Consequently, the endorsements that they, in turn, articulate via social media and elsewhere, seem genuine. Consequently, effective use of social media is likely to be an important ingredient of the best London 2012 marketing campaigns. But, in such a new and fast-developing domain, the potential for mistakes is high. “I think you will find every sponsor will claim to have a digital strategy,” Payne predicted. “It will be very interesting to analyse afterwards: How much did they invest? Did they get a return?” The dominant role of network television in delivering ‘eyeballs’ may be eroding, but it is still there – particularly at Games-time when the Olympic events themselves will attract massive audiences in country after country throughout the world. One peculiarity of London 2012 for domestic sponsors, in particular, to bear in mind is that the television rights-holder in the host market is the BBC. So they will not be able to schedule television advertisements to run while events are in progress – at least not on the same channel. This will not, however, be the case with the Paralympics, which will be broadcast on Channel 4.

This situation seems to be encouraging a trend that might well have manifested anyway, given the steadily rising profile of Paralympic sport – a tendency towards increasing integration of Olympics and Paralympics-related material. Interestingly, the first of four sumptuously produced short films, available on YouTube and exploring parallels between British athletes and London 2012 sponsor BMW’s approach to making motor cars, focused on Paralympian David Weir. “Equal priority is the way we have approached the two [Olympics and Paralympics] from the outset,” said Lloyds TSB’s Lott. He points out that the bank is the only 2012 sponsor acting as a presenting partner for both the Olympic and Paralympic torch relays. Another area in which Payne expects to see significant advances at London 2012 compared with the most recent Summer Games in Athens and Beijing is so-called ‘showcasing’ whereby sponsors use purposedesigned venues and events to display themselves to best advantage to people inhabiting and visiting the host city. “I think the London experience really will be a street celebration,” he said. “Showcasing will probably set a new standard, although as it only takes place while the Games are on, sponsors are amortising their costs over a much shorter window than other types of marketing.” Coca-Cola is one sponsor that appears to be pulling out all the stops for its Olympic Park pavilion. The beverage company has commissioned London practice Pernilla & Asif to design The Coca-Cola

Beatbox, a building that will also act as a musical instrument. The fusion of music and sport is at the heart of Coke’s Move to the Beat London 2012 campaign. The company asked Grammy award-winning music producer Mark Ronson and British chart-topping vocalist Katy B to write a new song, Anywhere in the World, which incorporates some of the rhythms and sounds produced by athletes as they perform. Table tennis player Darius Knight’s grunting, for example, put Ronson in mind of James Brown. In a textbook case of how one event can provide material for distribution via a range of media, a carefully planned gig at Hackney Wick in East London is yielding TV ads of varying lengths that could be used in any market in the world, a single and even a documentary. In an initiative likely to be widely replicated as companies become more comfortable with social media, teenagers invited to the gig were encouraged to share photographs and video with versions of their experiences accessible online – helping to build anticipation before footage of the event was officially unveiled. And, since we now know that the Olympic Closing Ceremony will incorporate a “symphony of British music”, I would not be in the least surprised to see Ronson popping up there as well. One of the most surreal Olympic-related events I have ever attended – right up there with track cycling’s Madison, which put me in mind of what rush hour in Amsterdam might be like – was a Big Mac-making competition in Beijing in 2008. Held in what was then

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DAVID OWEN CHIEF COLUMNIST, INSIDETHEGAMES the world’s biggest McDonald’s restaurant (though I gather this title is about to fall to London), and featuring three Olympic gold medallists, this was a race between four teams of McDonald’s employees from around the world to make as many of the company’s flagship products as they could in three minutes. To be honest, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. There was one thing even I found it impossible to be cynical about, however, and this was the absolute glowing pride of the employees, or crew members, involved. So I wasn’t surprised that the company has expanded its Champion Crew scheme for London 2012, selecting 2,000 top-performing employees to serve those in town for the Games, be they athletes, officials or spectators. In another major London 2012 initiative called Champions of Play, McDonald’s is inviting 179 children from 32 countries to the Olympics, selection being via essay contests and sports competitions. The company is using Dara Torres, the US swimmer who, for my money, is one of the most genuinely inspiring Olympic athletes active today, as its Champions of Play global ambassador. Improved employee motivation is an important part of what Olympic sponsorship can deliver to many companies – and sometimes the sponsor needs do no more than sign on the dotted line to benefit from it. George Hamilton, the vice-president for Olympic operations at The Dow Chemical Company, which joined the IOC’s TOP worldwide sponsorship programme in 2010, described it as “one of the gems” that the group did not initially realise it would get with its new status. He tells the story of an employee who has found it helpful to be able to talk to his children about venues Dow is contributing to, such as the Olympic Stadium. “I can finally explain to my kids what daddy does at work,” the employee told him. Dow has also found that its sponsorship is helping with recruitment, where it frequently finds itself competing for the best talent on college campuses with rivals from industries with cool images. “Now, the opening line from students is often ‘So I hear you are an Olympic sponsor’,” Hamilton said. Another company that has clearly put a lot of thought into its activation programme is British Airways, which roped in actor Richard E Grant, chef Heston Blumenthal and artist Tracey Emin to act as celebrity judges for its Great Britons initiative. This saw people

invited to apply for one of three opportunities focused on fields that are important both to the company and its customers. These were a) to draft a short film script to be produced and shown on board flights, b) to devise a London 2012-inspired menu to be served during flights, and c) to design an artwork livery for aircraft. According to Luisa Fernandez, BA’s sponsorship manager for London 2012, “One of our objectives for sponsoring the Games is to have a significant positive impact on how British Airways is perceived by consumers in terms of preference for the airline. We want to make sure we receive a higher consideration among consumers when they are planning to travel. We want to reinforce brand loyalty, which we hope to do by showing our integral role in the Games.” Will Europe’s economic and financial problems – which have been felt particularly keenly in London and the rest of the UK – affect the way Olympic sponsors exploit the rights they have acquired? Yes, seems to be the feeling, but more in the tone of their activations than the amount of money spent. “The people you are talking to have less money in their pocket and are anxious, so it affects the tone of the message,” said Synergy’s Crow. “But people also want to escape from their day-to-day worries, so it is entirely natural to see so many brands today using assets such as the Olympics to encourage escapism.” Crow backs up this view with the example of Seabiscuit, the

Above: Top: The marathon at the 1908 Olympics in London, where Italy’s Dorando Pietri crossed the line first but was disqualified because he was assisted over the line after collapsing towards the end of the race. Photo: Popperfoto/Getty Images Insert: The London 2012 Olympic countdown clock in Trafalgar Square, presented by Omega, taken on December 30 2011. Photo: Sarah Bowron

racehorse which became the unlikely darling of Depression-era America. As Seabiscuit’s biographer, Laura Hillenbrand, wrote: “In 1938, near the end of a decade of monumental turmoil, the year’s number-one newsmaker was not Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hitler or Mussolini… The subject of the most newspaper column inches in 1938 wasn’t even a person. It was an undersized, crooked-legged racehorse named Seabiscuit.” If an equivalent claim can be made about London 2012 come the end of this year, there are going to be an awful lot of satisfied sponsors.

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Canada Can

Canada expects another show-stopper as the Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games edge closer, says Tom Degun.

hen it comes to major sporting events, Canada certainly knows how to put on a show – a point made in spades at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The sport was spectacular, the setting wonderful. But perhaps the most impressive point was that every man, woman and child in the city seemed to get so passionately behind the Games it became regarded as one of the best Winter Olympics ever. International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge was the first to declare as much at the time: “The way Vancouver has embraced these Games is extraordinary. This is

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really something unique and it has given a great atmosphere for these Games.” Vancouver 2010 has slowly begun to fade into a pleasant memory, but it inadvertently left an ominously high bar for the next major global sporting competition in Canada to match. That event is the Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games. The task ahead is clearly daunting given that the Pan American Games claims to be the second largest multi-sports event on the planet after the Summer Olympics. But if any Canadian city is up to taking on the formidable challenge and stepping out of the huge shadow cast by Vancouver it is Toronto.

After all, Toronto is Canada’s only city with representation in seven major league sports with teams in the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, Canadian Football League, Major League Soccer, Canadian Women’s Hockey League and Women’s Soccer League. The National Football League’s Buffalo Bills also plays select home games in Toronto at the magnificent Rogers Centre. The Toronto 2015 story actually started after the city failed to land the 1996 and 2008 Olympics, which were awarded to Atlanta and Beijing, respectively. It moved to bid for the 2015 Pan Am Games and was subsequently

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plans for the competition but Toronto 2015 chief executive Ian Troop is confident it will still prove a success despite there being no mention of such an idea in the original bid. “The reality is that a Games’ plans do change dramatically between bid books – the basis for winning the bid – and the plan that is executed at Games time,” Troop explained. “Since we won the bid in 2009, we’ve been working with all of our funding partners to improve the venue plan,” he said. “There’s a natural evolution as organising committees look at the plans they inherit from the bid phase and evolve them appropriately so they can deliver the best event possible within the budget parameters. “Clustering is not a new concept. It’s something the Olympics has used for a number of Games and it’s become a best practice. Essentially, clustering means you bring sports together in one location. With venue clusters, you create economies of scale; there are cost-savings by creating operational efficiencies in areas such as transportation for moving athletes and spectators. There are more ticketing options whereby spectators can potentially see multiple sports and cultural activities in one location in one day. It also shows up in a richer spectator experience.

awarded the event in 2009 at the Pan American Sports Organisation Session in Guadalajara, Mexico. Preparations are now well underway with the Toronto 2015 Organising Committee, along with all three levels of Government, set to spend around $1.4 billion in upgrading and building new venues in the region. The Provincial Government in Ontario and the Canadian Federal Government will provide 35 per cent each of the funding, with the municipalities covering the remaining 30 per cent of the cost. A separate amount of $1 billion is also being spent on building an Athletes’ Village in the West Don Lands area of Toronto. Eyebrows were raised last year when Toronto’s contribution to the Games almost doubled from $49.7 million to $96.9 million due to a number of factors, including venues having to be moved and an increase in inflation. But the major surprise came at the beginning of this year when it was revealed that 60 per cent of the planned venues had been scrapped in favour of a cluster system. The move marked a fundamental shift in the

“Here’s an example: a family enters a venue hub, listens to Latin or Caribbean music, has some food it’s never tried before and meets athletes who have finished competing. All this happens in a festival atmosphere that celebrates the Pan American countries. We want people to say they’ve got their money’s worth, even before they see a sport.” But despite a good defence of the cluster system, Troop and his Organising Committee continue to face criticism that they are behind schedule and overbudget from a very highprofile source: Paul Henderson. Henderson, the former President of the International Sailing Federation and the man who led the unsuccessful Toronto 1996 Olympic bid, has accused Toronto 2015 of ignoring simple solutions to save money. Among other suggestions the 77-year-old, who served as an IOC member from 2000 to 2004, says that the Pan American Games and Parapan American Games should be held simultaneously rather than back to back. Troop has responded emphatically to the criticisms. “He’s wrong,” retorted the Toronto 2015 leader. “What he’s doing is wrong and it’s got to stop, or the athletes he purports to serve and the legacy he wants to create he’s going to Main: Official brand launch for Toronto 2015, September 2010. Photo: courtesy of Toronto 2015 Left: Ex-Toronto Mayor David Miller celebrates with a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer after the city wins its bid to host the 2015 Pan Am Games. Photo: David Leah/AFP/Getty Images

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TOM DEGUN REPORTER, INSIDETHEGAMES

Above: Official brand launch for Toronto 2015, September 2010. Photo: courtesy of Toronto 2015 Right: Toronto 2015 Chief Executive Officer Ian Troop at the official brand launch for Toronto 2015, September 2010. Photo: courtesy of Toronto 2015 Below: Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto, at the handover during the Closing Ceremony of the XVI Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico in October 2011. Photo: Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images

destroy. We are completely on schedule, we are on budget and we are therefore tracking right where we need to be.” But the biggest challenge for Toronto is that it must afford Canada another major success in 2015 to keep the sporting future bright for the country. Canada has already stated its intention to bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and if everything goes to plan Toronto may well present a fresh bid to host the Olympics and Paralympics in 2024 or 2028. With the majority of the venues and infrastructure in place, Canada will be hoping it is third time lucky after the narrow failures of 1996 and 2008. “We have had two very well-prepared Olympic bids in recent years and we certainly put up a real challenge in both,” Troop insisted. “As we look at it, our focus is obviously on staging a terrific Pan American Games but we really hope our contribution will demonstrate Toronto’s capability to host major sporting events, such as the Olympics – something people perhaps don’t realise. “We want the people of Toronto to say, ‘Wow, wasn’t that a tremendous event? Now let’s go and get an Olympic Games.’” Troop continued: “We obviously have a major multi-sports event to put on and there is a lot of

work to do, so we are going to be focused specifically on that challenge. “But if we can put on a fantastic Games in front of the whole world, including the IOC, we will be setting a fantastic platform and a fantastic base for any future Toronto

Olympic bid. “I mean, this is the second biggest multi-sports event in the world and it will be the biggest ever Games in Canada, including the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, which shows you the sheer scale.”

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Alright

the night Brazil’s preparations for the World Cup in 2014 have been causing concern among FIFA’s hierarchy. But, insists insideworldfootball’s Andrew Warshaw, the country’s football chiefs are more optimistic.

t has won the tournament a record five times, is the only nation to have appeared in the finals on every occasion and has produced many of world football’s household names. But, off the pitch, can Brazil’s creaking infrastructure deliver the goods when the country finally gets the chance to host the World Cup in 2014, for the first time in over

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half a century? No one in their right mind could argue that Brazil’s preparations have been plain sailing. Unless you have been living in an igloo you will have read reams of column inches about the political infighting, corruption allegations and the at times less-than-cordial – to put it mildly – relationship between the local organising committee and FIFA. Nevertheless, in terms of a carnivalstyle atmosphere, neutrals everywhere are whetting their appetite for what is bound to be an iconic tournament in a country that knows how to party and is revered worldwide for its glorious footballing pedigree – but which, remarkably, has not staged the World Cup since 1950. The fact that Brazil was the only candidate to officially bid for 2014 after Colombia withdrew its interest inevitably led to concerns about its appreciation of the immense challenges that lay ahead. Unlike

in 1950 – when just six cities, all in the south and south-east of Brazil, staged matches – this time the whole nation will be involved. From Manaus in the heart of the Amazon, a city which can only be reached by air or water, to Porto Alegre in the far south, organisers want to ensure as many cities as possible enjoy a piece of the action. Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo, Curitiba, Recife and Porto Alegre are all host cities again while the green light has also been given to Manaus, Fortaleza, Salvador, Cuiabá, Natal and the capital, Brasilia. Seven stadiums are being built from scratch. The other five, including the Maracanã, which had 200,000 spectators through its gates for a decisive match against Uruguay in 1950 but will have a capacity of only 82,000 in 2014, are being revamped. Sander van Stiphout, general manager of Amsterdam ArenA Advisory, the world’s leading stadium consultancy and management organisation which has been consulting with the Brazilians on all aspects of construction, thinks it will be alright on the night. Van Stiphout expects the country to deliver on time but not without a number of headaches on the way. “The stadiums are outdated and oldfashioned,” he said. “Many of them are unsafe and have poor access. They will certainly need to take a giant leap forward but it can be done. Not so long ago in Africa

ANDREW WARSHAW CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER, INSIDEWORLDFOOTBALL

there were no fixed telephone lines to speak of. But everyone made the jump to mobiles pretty quickly. I envisage the same kind of situation with the stadiums.” Getting fans to the grounds has always been one of Brazil’s most notorious problems, hence a thriving television culture. Another debate is whether Brazil actually possesses the necessary expertise at technical level to oversee such projects. Van Stiphout thinks it does. “Don’t underestimate Brazilian technology,” he adds. “Some contractors have built power plants, harbours, all kinds of things. They certainly have the knowledge.” The same cannot be said, perhaps, for safety and security. By law in Brazil the police are responsible for security inside the stadiums. European-style stewarding is non-existent; that will change for the World Cup. As will selling beer inside grounds, abolished by the Brazilian authorities to prevent hooliganism but one of the guarantees required by FIFA to stage a World Cup. With individual states across Brazil all making decisions based on self-interest, it is no surprise progress has at times been so laboured. The 2014 World Cup is not the first to be sucked into the white elephant debate and certainly will not be the last. “Brazilian stadiums are big and obsolete but people are used to them,” says one prominent architect. “Many of them are built in lower-middle-class neighbourhoods and hardly conducive to multi-functional use.

Brazil may be the fifth richest country in the world and football is a passion, but there is still poverty everywhere and considerable opposition to spending millions of pounds on new stadiums – especially ones that will have no use after the World Cup.” Somewhat controversially, FIFA has performed a U-turn on promises to cluster teams during the first phase in order to minimise travel distances. Instead, countries will play each group match in a different city – some of them up to 2,000 miles apart; a three-and-a-half-hour flight. Add to that the fact that some games won’t start until 10pm local time and you get some idea of why there is anxiety about the logistics. The knockout stages will be more palatable with the latest kick-off time being 5pm in Brazil. The final in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã Stadium will take place at 4pm. FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke, who has had his fair share of frustration in his efforts to get everyone connected with the organisation to sing from the same hymn sheet, explained that FIFA thought it only fair that as many fans as possible should get to see the top teams. “The teams will travel around so the host cities will have all the teams, and you can have the best, seeded, teams,” he said. Anyone who thinks the host nation has been singled out for favouritism should think again. Brazil will open the tournament in Sao Paulo in the south-east, move up to Fortaleza in the north-east for the second game and conclude its group programme in the middle of the country, in Brasilia. That is a combined distance of 3,920 miles. Another reason for moving teams between the different areas of the country is partly to ensure that no one nation benefits from playing all its games in the cooler climate of southern Brazil. Ricardo Trade, head of operations, said with some justification: “The climate is so different you do not want to give an advantage to one country over another.’’ No sooner will the World Cup be out the way, of course, than Brazil will turn its attention to the Rio Olympics and Paralympics two years later. Crucially, the

Far Left: Brazilians play football on Ipanema beach, Rio de Janiero. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images Main: The Mario Filho Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro, being re-built ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Photo: Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images Bottom Right: Sand artist Ubirajara Mota makes a sand sculpture on Copacabana beach. Photo: Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images

World Cup has given Rio 2016 a head start in terms of planning and preparation. In fact, so did the 2007 Pan American Games which enabled Olympic organisers to select many of the same top personnel. In terms of infrastructure the 2016 Olympic stadium, which will stage both the Olympics and the Paralympics, is already in place – a contrast to Stratford which has had to build a stadium from scratch for London 2012. Opened in June 2007 at a cost of $192 million, the stadium – a 45-minute drive north of central Rio, past the port area and bisecting clusters of corrugated-roofed favelas that rise steeply upwards – is known both as Engenhão, after the local neighbourhood, and the João Havelange stadium, in tribute to Brazil’s former FIFA President. One of Rio’s biggest plus points is that every Olympic sport, other than part of the football tournament, will be within the city itself, covering four venue clusters – unlike London where, for instance, sailing is held at Weymouth on the south coast. The whole idea is to try to get as close as possible to the original concept of the Games – to the “soul” of the Olympics, as one insider puts it. “Luckily the airport will be ready by the [time of the] World Cup but there are, of course, some areas that will only be ready for the Olympics,” said Carlos Villanova, Rio 2016’s communications director. “Luckily again, if there is any need for further development we’ll have another two years.” All the signs, so far, is that they will need them.

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INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ATHLETICS FEDERATIONS

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DUNCAN MACKAY EDITOR, INSIDETHEGAMES

Happy Olympics,

Mr President This summer’s Olympics is shaping up to be one of the most spectacular ever – in terms of competition, organisation and venue quality. Here, each International Federation President, and International Olympic Committee President, Jacques Rogge, relates what London 2012 will mean for their particular sport and the Olympic Movement. Aquatics

Julio C Maglione

“From everyone’s feedback on the London 2012 Aquatic Centre in this exciting city, this facility is amazing and will certainly constitute an asset for the success of FINA’s disciplines at Games time. I am looking forward to some exciting contests.”

Archery

Professor Dr Ugur Erdener

“Lord’s is a very prestigious venue so we are very happy. I believe London 2012 will be another very important milestone in the progress of archery. I am expecting everything to be fantastic.”

Athletics

Lamine Diack

“The sporting masterpiece that will unfold in London 2012 will be the perfect celebration for a sport founded in the aftermath of the Stockholm [Olympic] Games 100 years earlier. A

sold-out 80,000-seat stadium and billions of TV viewers around the globe will witness the heroes and heroines of our sport with all their talent and charisma.”

Badminton

Kang YoungJoong

“Wembley Arena has a long history of hosting badminton events and we look forward to seeing great badminton being played there again. The Olympic Games is the pinnacle of sporting achievement and the BWF [Badminton World Federation] owes our athletes and its members the responsibility to showcase badminton to the media and the world in the best possible way.”

Basketball

Yvan Mainini

“With our brightest stars and best teams battling for Olympic supremacy, the London Games will serve as the perfect platform for basketball to demonstrate why it is one of the most popular sports in the world. The show put on by these amazing athletes will no doubt grab

the attention of sports fans not only in Britain, but all around the globe.”

Boxing

Dr C K Wu

“The addition of women to the programme for London 2012 makes it a very important year for the AIBA [Amateur International Boxing Association], especially as the popularity of the sport for females is rising. I am committed to the development of boxing for everyone across the world and I’m sure London will be a spectacular success.”

Canoeing

José Perurena López

“I am confident these Olympic Games will supersede all others. Changes have been made to the canoeing programme and the positive impact will be evident. The newly introduced 200 metres distance is bound to be a crowd favourite, and the new Olympic Games broadcasting features will ensure spectators at the venue and those watching from home will experience canoeing like never before.”

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DUNCAN MACKAY EDITOR, INSIDETHEGAMES

Cycling

Gymnastics

Pat McQuaid

Bruno Grandi

“The quality of the facilities that will host the Olympic events, the excellent arrangements made by LOCOG [London 2012 Organising Committee] and the unique atmosphere of the test competitions in the Velodrome give the best possible guarantee of success for the six days that will be devoted to the Olympic track programme.”

Equestrian

Princess Haya

“We are really proud to be celebrating 100 years of Olympic equestrian sport at London 2012 and it’s wonderful that we will be doing that at an iconic venue like Greenwich Park. Demand has been so high for our sport that tickets for all the equestrian disciplines were sold in a matter of weeks, establishing us as one of the most popular sports at the Games. This is a real milestone for our sport and is worthy of celebration.”

Fencing

Alisher Usmanov

“I am convinced that London 2012 will be held at a high level and will display a truly noble spirit, which characterises our sports discipline. Fencing enjoys great popularity among the fans and that is not by accident; any fencing bout is full of high speed, passion, unpredictability and beauty.”

Football

Sepp Blatter

“England is the home of football and the Premier League, one of the strongest in the world. I am sure that the stadiums will be full of cheering, enthusiastic supporters who will cheer on not only Team GB but all the other participating teams.”

“Gymnastics is one of the most closely followed sports in the Olympic Games. I am persuaded that London will provide our gymnasts, the media, the public and our technical staff with an optimal training environment, an efficient reception and impeccable working conditions.”

Handball

Dr Hassan Moustafa

“Our game has not only become faster but more goals have been scored, which has increased the attractiveness. With regard to the Olympics, men’s and women’s handball has now become firmly established. All this should be reason enough to pause for a moment and to reflect on the achievements with joy.”

Hockey

Leandro Negre

“This is an exciting time for the FIH [International Hockey Federation] to see the Riverbank Arena and the blue pitches in use at the Olympics. We feel confident that the spectators, both in the stands and on television, will enjoy a fantastic visual experience.”

Judo

Marius Vizer

“The judo tournament of the London 2012 Olympic Games will be an extraordinary worldwide event. The Organising Committee, assisted by the IJF [International Judo Federation] technical team, deploys a great organisational energy. Since the Beijing Olympics, in 2008, the world of judo has profoundly changed. The running of the final block will be different in London since all the repechages, the semi-finals, the repechage finals, the bronze-medal matches and the

finals will take place on a single mat – so that everybody will be able to follow the most important fights.”

Modern Pentathlon

Dr h.c. Klaus Schormann

“The year 2012 is already a milestone in the history of the modern pentathlon. The sport is completing 100 years of Olympic Games, a trajectory that began at Stockholm 1912 and will culminate with an edition filled with expectations for London. Changes in the competition format and a likely third victory in a row for Russian Andrei Moiseev have helped it to become one of the first five sports with tickets sold out.”

Rowing

Denis Oswald

“I am looking forward to seeing some fantastic performances at Eton Dorney, where everything has been thought through very carefully. There is a very high standard of volunteers who know about rowing and are dedicated to the sport – it makes all the difference. People will be impressed to see the world’s best athletes competing in all the outstanding new venues as well as in front of some of the most iconic buildings in Britain. The Games will create a unique atmosphere around the country and I believe we will truly see a ‘great’ Britain.”

Sailing

Göran Petersson

“Weymouth is an excellent venue. It is big enough, it has the access to the water, very good shore facilities and is within walking distance of the Athletes Village – that is the closest to a stadium that we can get. With the course outside by the slope everybody can see [the action] and there will be big screens there as well to present the races.”

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DUNCAN MACKAY EDITOR, INSIDETHEGAMES

Shooting

Olegario Vázquez Raña

“The ISSF [International Shooting Sport Federation] strongly supported the selection of the Royal Artillery Barracks site because it sits in the heart of the Olympic venues and, for our athletes, will be only 20 minutes from the Olympic Village. We are extremely impressed with the design, plans and arrangements for the venue. It will provide a splendid stage upon which to showcase our athletes and sport to the world.”

Table Tennis

Adham Sharara

“We are under the roof with six other sports at the ExCeL centre. It means we will not welcome only table tennis fans but also those people who want to enjoy a general Olympics experience, and who want to see table tennis in addition to other sports like judo, weightlifting and wrestling. The Organising Committee wants each sport to be shown in the best possible way so they are helping us with this. It will be very, very good.”

Taekwondo

Chungwon Choue

“These Olympic Games in London are very important for the WTF [World Taekwondo Federation]. The number

of medals won by any particular country will not determine the success of these Olympics. The only factor that is important is a fair and transparent competition, upholding the principles of Olympism. This will help ensure taekwondo’s position as an Olympic sport and uphold the excellence of our sport to the world, especially the youth.”

Volleyball

Wei Jizhong

“We are sure that the London Olympic Games will be a wonderful competition that will meet the expectations of athletes and participating sports organisations.”

Tennis

Weightlifting

Francesco Ricci Bitti

“I believe there is not one player who doesn’t consider the Olympics important. We only came back as a medal sport in 1988 and we have achieved that [aim] much earlier than expected. I think tennis needs the Olympics and the Olympics needs tennis. When I talk to the players, a grand-slam win is the pinnacle; but in terms of memories I know Rafael Nadal regards winning the gold medal in Beijing as one of his most special ones. It’s not like a usual tennis tournament and it’s great that these top players feel like that.”

Triathlon

Dr Tamas Ajan

“There may be many sports embodying one or another element of the famous Olympic motto of ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’. But few are able to comprise the three expressions like weightlifting – an ancient yet modern sport that expresses the ultimate Olympic ideal. I am confident the Games will bring success to a wide range of nations and we shall witness exciting performances and new records. We know weightlifting will enjoy the benefits of perfect organisation by London 2012 and trust that the audience will be just as captivated as in previous Games.”

Wrestling

Marisol Casado

“Hyde Park offers the ideal venue to host an event of the magnitude of the Olympic triathlon. The course is very spectator friendly and will no doubt make the event one of the most memorable of the 2012 Games.”

Raphaël Martinetti

“Beijing 2008 was the most beautiful Olympic Games for us. In the wrestling venue the atmosphere was fantastic and each day it was full with 8,000 spectators enjoying the music and competition. I hope that London 2012 can match that in the ExCeL. If it does it will be another special Olympic Games for wrestling.”

International Olympic Committee

Jacques Rogge “London has raised the bar on how to deliver a lasting legacy. We can already see tangible results in the remarkable regeneration of East London. This great historical city has created a legacy blueprint for future Games hosts.” www.insidethegames.biz

MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES

Play the Game! There are right and wrong ways of behaving at the Olympic Games, as insidethegames chief feature writer Mike Rowbottom knows from bitter experience...

he well-intentioned questionnaire given recently by London 2012 to the 70,000 Games Volunteers, sorry Games Makers, has – surprise, surprise – been the subject of satirical reports in the British press. Little wonder. Take question three, for instance, relating to gender/gender identity: “A spectator approaches you asking politely where the nearest toilets are. You are not sure if the spectator is male or female. What do you do?” a) Panic: you are not qualified to make this decision – explain politely that you do not know and sadly cannot be of assistance; b) Just in case tell them where the male, female and accessible toilets are; c) Ask the spectator politely if they are male or female, so that you can direct them appropriately.” I wonder how many other responses were considered? How about: d) Pretend to be deaf; e) Fake a heart attack; f) Reply politely that you do, and then move away. The correct answer, in case you were wondering, is b). Good to get that sorted out in advance, I think you’ll agree. But then so much can go wrong at an Olympics. From my experience of covering Summer and Winter Games since 1992 I can offer the following handy hints that may help to

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avoid embarrassment – or worse – for London 2012: Transport 1: If a member of the media or a competitor wants to access an Olympic venue, try not to turn the exercise into a test of sanity. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, reaching the rowing lake was akin to seeking the Holy Grail thanks to a complicated and inflexible system that required at least one change of bus on the journeys in and out. Oh yes, and buses that did not turn up... I will always cherish an epic journey out of that venue in a commandeered school bus whose driver uttered the memorable phrase “I’m going to take you people where you want to go.” This ambition, startlingly novel at the time, was followed through as far as humanly possible until we were tantalisingly close to Atlanta city centre – at which point, obviously, another checkpoint declined to let the driver actually take us where we wanted to go. Transport 2: Mentally stunned by this experience, I ordered a cab in advance to take me to the beach volleyball venue the following day. My taxi dropped me off in good time and I walked into the venue in a sunny mood that clouded over swiftly with the emergence of a man with a sheriff’s badge on his breast. He uttered the memorable phrase “Sorry, sir. No walk-ins.” For a moment I thought he meant that there was no entry to the venue unless you had come direct from the central bus hub in Atlanta about 30 miles distant. Then it became clear this was exactly what he meant. There followed one of those strange passages of time when it seems as if one has been transported into a story by Lewis Carroll, and I began to feel a little what I like to call murderous. I had started down the shockingly short route between civility and incivility when I noticed an officially badged car full of Japanese photographers had turned into the entrance and

Left: Ethiopia’s Ibrahim Jeilan performs his memorable celebration after winning the 10,000m at the World Championships in Daegu last year. Photo: Adrian Dennis/ AFP/Getty Images Bottom Left: London 2012 Games Maker Emma Dore tries to find the answers to those awkward questions. Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/ Getty Images

was waiting to enter the car park that lay perhaps 20 metres beyond us. “If I get into this car and drive through the entrance,” I asked, “will I be allowed to go in?” Affirmative. Not a walk-in, was it? Volunteering: At which point I was greeted by a motherly volunteer who asked me in a loud and cheerful voice if I was having a nice day. I told her what kind of day I was having. General point to Games Makers: if you notice a journalist with steam coming out of his ears do not ask him if he is having a nice day. For then, verily, you become a Cross Maker! Accommodation: Try not to arrange for media to stay in a big block of buildings without any place to congregate for a coffee or beverage of a stronger kind. This will make them grumpy and disinclined to report favourably upon your Games. Try also not to house them in a building where, on occasion, they are warned not to go out into the street because there is a man out there brandishing a handgun. As happened to me and others in… Atlanta. Local customs: One much-respected wordsmith from The Guardian got into rather a lot of bother in Atlanta when returning laden with clothes from a trip to the laundry. He was unceremoniously accused of “jay-walking” by two policemen who were presumably on “foreign journalists jay-walking watch” and bustled down to the nearest police station. Try not to make journalists cross – especially journalists who are crossing the road – as they will be disinclined to report favourably upon your Games. Footnote for athletes: If you are trying to establish your ‘trademark’ victory celebration a la Usain Bolt, do not do what Ibrahim Jeilan, the surprise Ethiopian winner of last year’s world 10,000 metres title, did in Daegu... and adopt so many different stances that you look as if you are filming a calisthenics video.

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