Monthly Archives: July 2012

A very specific “general” public? How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay lost its way part 3

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Get the free ebook for the full story: 8,000 Holes: How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Lost its Way - Leanpub.com/8000holes

In the third part of a serialisation of Help Me Investigate’s first ebook – 8,000 Holes: How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Lost its Way we look at the claim that 90% of torchbearer places would be available to the general public. You can download the book for free – or choose to pay a donation, with all proceeds going to the Brittle Bone Society – at Leanpub.com/8000holes

Part 3: A very specific “general” public

Although news reports at the time said that 90% of all torch relay places would be “available to the general public”, a careful reading of LOCOG’s language and figures suggests that this was not entirely accurate. The chief executive of LOCOG was careful to say that places “were made available to the public through a number of channels, including the four public nomination campaigns run by Locog, Coke, Lloyds TSB and Samsung.”

With fewer than three quarters of places available through those four public nomination campaigns, the remainder would be allocated through other channels which restricted their availability to the ‘general’ public to varying degrees. Continue reading →

Twitter’s UK general manager nominated to carry Olympic torch by IOC {updated}

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Twitter's Tony Wang Olympic Torchbearer tweet

UPDATE: A spokesperson for Twitter says:

“I’m not sure why the nomination paragraph on Tony isn’t on the site. That’s probably a question for LOCOG. Tony wasn’t nominated by a company, he was asked by the IOC to represent Twitter and its role in bringing athletes and fans closer together.”

The general manager of Twitter in the UK got to carry the torch today – and, naturally, tweeted about it too.

It’s not clear why he carried the torch, as Wang not only doesn’t have a nomination story – he is not even listed on the official torch relay website.

Twitter recently announced a partnership with NBCUniversal to “serve as a hub for digital communications” about the Games. Last month the social network closed a satirical account following a request from Locog.

We are awaiting a response from Twitter with more details on the reasons for Tony’s nomination.

Samsung, Locog and the IOC have all invited journalists and media executives to carry torches this year.

H/t Lyra McKee

How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay lost its way part 2: The presenting partners

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Get the free ebook for the full story: 8,000 Holes: How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Lost its Way - Leanpub.com/8000holes

In the second part of a serialisation of Help Me Investigate’s first ebook – 8,000 Holes: How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Lost its Way we look at how the presenting partners’ allocation of torchbearer places was handled. You can download the book for free – or choose to pay a donation, with all proceeds going to the Brittle Bone Society – at Leanpub.com/8000holes

Part 2: Getting your money’s worth

Once the Presenting Partners were able to start awarding torchbearer places, each handled their allocation differently.

As the only national presenting partner, Lloyds TSB allocated their places through two UK-wide campaigns: one through Lloyds TSB itself, and another through Bank of Scotland. The bank said they would give the opportunity to “people who have made a difference in their community”.

An analysis of the data on both banks’ official torchbearer sites, however, finds almost 500 of their 1,360 places unaccounted for, and when pressed, the bank admits that: Continue reading →

Who’s running instead of Jack Binstead today?

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The following is a short extract from the final chapter of 8,000 Holes: How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Lost its Way:

“On the day that Jack’s family flies out, the Olympic torch will be carried by Chai Patel – a former Labour Party donor and now one of the largest donors to the British Olympic Association. Sujith Weerasinghe, Olympics Operations Manager for BP, will carry the torch too, having written his own nomination story. The CEO of the BFI and Samsung’s UK Vice President were listed to carry that day, but as they have since disappeared from the site it’s not clear if they will. Joe Hemani has also disappeared from the site: he was due to carry the torch with the simple nomination story “Joe Hemani is the founder and single shareholder of Westcoast Ltd which was established in 1984.” Westcoast is a technology distribution company. The vice president of Visa Europe runs with a story written by herself, as does the assistant manager of Carphone Warehouse Leeds – it says “Using video technology, I took it upon myself to enhance and personalise the service customers get at Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy Europe.” The head of the company designing the Coca Cola pavilion carries a torch on that day, and while chefs who graduated from Jamie Oliver’s inspirational apprentice programme Fifteen are running – so is the Marketing and Commercial Manager for Jamie Oliver Ltd. And running without any story at all is Paul Eccleston, managing director at techhnology distributor SDG.”

Help Me Investigate interviews Jack Binstead for The Guardian’s Writers Relay

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Carol Miers’s interview with wheelchair racer Jack Binstead is published today in The Guardian.

Today is the day that Jack was most likely to have carried the torch, had his nomination by 20 people been successful.

Instead he and his family are flying out of the country. Continue reading →

Useful Olympic links for July 23rd through July 24th

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Here are the Olympic-related links we’ve been looking at over the last week from July 23rd through July 24th:

How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay lost its way part 1: Jack Binstead’s story

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Get the free ebook for the full story: 8,000 Holes: How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Lost its Way - Leanpub.com/8000holes

This is the first part of a serialisation of Help Me Investigate’s first ebook – 8,000 Holes: How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Lost its Way. You can download the book for free – or choose to pay a donation, with all proceeds going to the Brittle Bone Society – at Leanpub.com/8000holes

Part 1: Where did the torchbearer places go?

Jack Binstead is one of the UK’s most promising young athletes: a wheelchair racer in with a chance of competing in the next Paralympic Games. Born with brittle bone disease he has, says his mother Penny, broken 64 bones in his body over just 15 years.

“At the age of nine he was a very down young boy,” she explains. “He was very overweight – he didn’t know which way to go. But when he went to a taster session for children with special needs, the borough’s Head of Sports saw in Jack that he would be good at wheelchair racing. He recommended that Jack try wheelchair racing at a local track in Kingston called Kingsmeadow.”

Continue reading →

New details in ebook from HMIO: How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Lost its Way

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8000 Holes - book cover

As the Olympic Torch Relay enters its final week we are today publishing Help Me Investigate’s first ebook: 8,000 Holes: How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Lost its Way.

A longform report, the book details how the 8,000 torchbearer places were allocated – and how that process made it impossible for Olympic torch relay organisers LOCOG to meet key promises about the numbers of places available to the public, and to young people.

Continue reading →

Useful Olympic links for July 19th through July 23rd

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Here are the Olympic-related links we’ve been looking at over the last week from July 19th through July 23rd:

  • Police rapped for wasting time on Olympic protest calls | This is Cornwall – "I can confirm that 18 people were visited or spoken to in relation to the policing
    of the Olympic torch relay through Devon and Cornwall, in order to ensure that
    the force could support its obligations in relation to the facilitation of peaceful
    protest as well as the safety and security of the Olympic torch and bearers."
    After a positive response from Devon and Cornwall, the campaign group
    followed up by asking other forces if they had done likewise.

    • Continue reading →