Olympics

US Olympic Committee apologises after demanding end to “disrespectful” knitting competition

One of the world’s biggest Olympic committees has apologised after it demanded that a knitting and crochet community change its biannual “fibre craft events” because it felt that they were “disrectful to our country’s finest athletes”. Fak’s thoughts reported earlier … Continue reading

The story so far – a Telegraph guest post

The following is cross-posted from the Telegraph’s new Olympics data blog: How many stories can a set of data hold? When it comes to Olympic torchbearer data, after three weeks I’m still counting. From company bosses exchanging ‘torch kisses’ and … Continue reading

Pricing of LOCOG’s Olympic torch relay bunting beyond some councils

At least two councils hosting parts of the Olympic torch relay have not been able to buy official bunting from organisers LOCOG because of high prices – while the cost of bunting in a third local authority was quoted at … Continue reading

Stansted torchbearers investigated by David Morgan

A cluster of Chinese torchbearers with stories of business success have been identified by Stansted resident David Morgan. The Herts and Essex Observer reports on his findings, and includes a reaction from LOCOG who say “the Chinese nationals were nominated through … Continue reading

Public didn’t get “90%” of torchbearer places, figures reveal {updated}

Updates follow original post below The commonly-quoted figure that 90% of torchbearer slots were “available to the public” is wrong, an analysis of official figures suggests. According to LOCOG statistics published by ITV News, torchbearer allocations were distributed as follows: “33% of … Continue reading

Stoke Sentinel on Help Me Investigate: “Collaboration is king”

This Is Staffordshire’s digital publisher David Elks has written about Help Me Investigate in the Stoke Sentinel’s ’DaviddotElks’ column following his involvement in our investigation into corporate torchbearers. He writes: “Collaboration is such an obvious idea because it allows people to focus … Continue reading

Daily Mail pick up our torchbearer photo story

The photo and story we published last week on the ‘torch kiss’ of two retail bosses has been picked up by the Daily Mail. The newspaper combines the story with one previously reported in This Is Staffordshire (but not credited): … Continue reading

Photo: the ‘torch kiss’ of two retail bosses

This appears to be the moment two retail executives exchanged an olympic ‘torch kiss’ on Wednesday as they carried the Olympic torch through Staffordshire. As revealed previously by Help Me Investigate Olympics, and now reported in The Independent, Daily Mail … Continue reading

Olympic torchbearer investigation picked up by Guardian

The Guardian have now published their story on the corporate torchbearers, following a tip-off last week from Help Me Investigate the Olympics. James Ball writes: “More than 1,200 spaces were allocated to the International Olympic Committee, the British Olympics Association, … Continue reading

How we investigated Olympic sponsor torchbearers

Cross-posted from The Guardian Datablog: Our investigation into Olympic torchbearer stories has unearthed some surprising choices by sponsor organisations. But how did we get to that point? The answer is a combination of curiosity, cynicism and knowing when to ask … Continue reading