Monthly Archives: July 2012

How universities allocated their 3 Olympic torchbearer places from Samsung {updated}

Posted on by

Following our post on July 6 on THES’s report on vice chancellors carrying the Olympic torch, we can provide further background on the processes used to allocate torchbearer places.

At Brunel University a spokesperson explains:

Two places were for students and one for a member of staff.  We took a different approach to selecting each Torchbearer.

Firstly, we invited the 16 highest achieving students from the 2011 graduating class to submit a 300 word piece on why they would be a suitable person to represent the University as a Torchbearer.  We chose Ainsley Bell from the ten applications.  His story can be seen on the relay website.  It was quite compelling and an easy decision to make.

The second place was awarded to Michelle Quaid by the elected committee of the Union of Brunel students who had asked the students to nominate their classmates who have gone the extra mile for sport.  Michelle’s story is also on the website. Continue reading →

Useful Olympic links for July 12th through July 17th

Posted on by

Here are the Olympic-related links we’ve been looking at over the last week from July 12th through July 17th:

  • Sam Fraser: The Torch Relay – The Olympic Ideal in Flames– And then arrives a convoy of coaches. One badged with Samsung logos, bearing pretty young girls waving and texting on Samsung phones. Next, a coach in the livery of Lloyds TSB bearing pretty young girls waving. No sign of any thanks for the bail out. Finally, a huge red float sponsored by Coca Cola, featuring a team of pretty girls waving and holding Coke bottles. They head up the drive where the coaches turn around and let all the pretty girls out for a loo break. Continue reading →

Investigation into today’s torchbearers in German daily Der Tagesspiegel

Posted on by

der Tagesspiegel's story on the corporate Olympic torchbearers

German daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel has published a story on German executives carrying the Olympic torch after spotting our list of ‘mystery torchbearers‘ on the Guardian’s datablog.

The story, entitled ‘The Olympics and Samsung: Questionable selection of torchbearers’, was published on Sunday. In it, Claudia von Salzen writes:

“As the list of German participants shows, those people nominated by Samsung have apparently been accepted. This means that at least 18 German torchbearers have been chosen out of business interests. And therefore actually not because they had “excelled at special merits in the spirit of the Olympic idea”, as the company had announced in May.”

We’ve translated the entire article into English below: Continue reading →

Identified: mystery German torchbearers in Bognor and elsewhere

Posted on by

A couple of newspapers recently reported on the number of Germans carrying the torch as it makes its way through Bognor – but neither identifies why they’re carrying the torch.

We can reveal that a number work for or have connections with Olympic sponsor Samsung.

Dirk Schafer carried the torch in Bognor. His image is the same as that used on a Samsung worker's LinkedIn profile.

Dirk Schafer carried the torch in Bognor. His image is the same as that used on a Samsung worker’s LinkedIn profile.

Dirk Schafer‘s profile on the official torchbearers site does not have any nomination story, but a poorer quality version of the same image is used in a social networking profile for the Sales Manager:

Continue reading →

Isle of Wight Olympic torchbearer mystery picked up by Ventnor Blog

Posted on by

The mystery of story-less Olympic torchbearer Aslan Khabliev has been picked up by Isle of Wight news site Ventnor Blog.

The site reports that although Khabliev – who is likely to be this director of Sky Media among other things – was originally-listed as taking part in the Newport leg of the torch relay.

Continue reading →

Full interview: how alternative torch relay Real Relay was organised

Posted on by

Earlier this month we wrote about the alternative torch relays springing up around the country. As part of that we interviewed Kate Treleaven of Real Relay – here’s that interview in full.

The costs of organising the relay were pretty minimal really. We had to employ our freelance web developer to create a Real Relay Facebook application and build a simple website. Since my boss Andrew Barker came up with the idea I’ve been working pretty much seven days a week co-ordinating the Real Relay so I guess by the time we reach London that will be 8 weeks worth of my salary – which isn’t very big! Continue reading →

Olympic tickets ‘for young people’ given away to universities – after students have gone

Posted on by

50 tickets to Olympic events will be given to every higher education institution in the country as part of an “extension” of the Ticketshare programme to get young people to the Games – even though most students will have gone home for the summer.

The allocation is managed by the Further and Higher Education Unit for the 2012 Games, Podium, which has a commitment “to ensure that as many young people as possible get to attend the Games”.

And it seems that the students aren’t the only ones on a break – phonecalls to three members of Podium’s media team this week went unanswered when we tried to contact them about the initiative.

The announcement comes in the wake of reports that two-thirds of Olympic football tickets at Hampden Park remain unsold and that thousands of unsold tickets have been offered to sponsors after sales as a whole slowed down.

50,000 other tickets will also be given away to sport clubs, charities and youth projects in Scotland.

Useful Olympic links for July 11th through July 12th

Posted on by

Here are the Olympic-related links we’ve been looking at over the last week from July 11th through July 12th:

Is this Olympic torchbearer another Aggreko director?

Posted on by

Philippe Boisaubert carried the torch in Hull with no nomination story. Could it be the same Philipp Boisaubert listed as Managing Director, Continental Europe? His profile on Viadeo lists his home town as Sucy en Brie – the same as that of the mystery torchbearer.

We previously reported on four out of seven executive board members from the company carrying the torch – as well as the chief executive’s PA.