Useful Olympic links for July 12th through July 17th

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

Identified: mystery German torchbearers in Bognor and elsewhere

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

Who are the mystery torchbearers? Crowdsourcing with Guardian users

UPDATE: Now over 60% complete.

The Guardian have published our list of the 500 torchbearers lacking a nomination story, with an appeal to users to help identify the 400 or so yet to be identified. Of the other hundred or so that we’ve already looked at, around a third share names with senior figures at sponsor organisations and commercial partners.

But we figured many eyes on the problem would help.

Among those already ticked off the list thanks to contributions via email and Twitter are Vegard Killingland (nominated through the Coca Cola campaign), David Heeley (a well known blind marathon runner whose nomination was originally turned down but later awarded following a public campaign), and fundraiser Derek Chisnall. There’s also a Mexican rock star – and more leads to company directors. UPDATE: One German daily newspaper used the list to find executives nominated by Samsung.

Many commenters on the article have pointed out the more obvious sportspeople and celebrities, such as Gordon Banks, Gethin Jones and Ruby Walsh. These were identified in the article itself or the linked HMI spreadsheet (not The Guardian’s), but it’s clear we should have been more explicit about the fact that those had already been identified, and that the focus was on the names that weren’t immediately recognisable.

You can access the full data here – post a comment, tweet @HMIolympics or email paul@helpmeinvestigate.com to add details.

Russian executive carried the Olympic torch under someone else’s story

A 40-year-old Russian executive carried the Olympic torch through the Welsh resort of Towyn under the nomination story of a 61-year-old art director – despite having a different name.

Russian torchbearer Konstantin Geskin is named in both the BBC relay liveblog and The Voice of Russia as Konstantin Raykin, a film and theatre actor and director of a Moscow theatre. Continue reading