Category Archives: Data

Adidas’s torchbearers share a common story

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If adidas’s own representatives are any indication, the way to get your hands on the Olympic torch in 2012 is to be “engaged in the business of sport for a number of years”.

An analysis of nomination stories on the London2012 site has found that 7 8 [UPDATE – see below] torchbearers were nominated with the same ‘nomination story’: Christos Angelides, Clare Ennis, Lucy Speakman, Simon Chapman, Chris Caddick, Jay Boey and Tom Foley – and now Mark Newton-Jones:

“Carrying the Olympic Flame is a once in a lifetime experience and I am grateful to be selected. To carry it on behalf of adidas, a company with a history of encouraging participation in sport, is an added bonus. I have been engaged in the business of sport for a number of years and I hope I have also contributed to the development of sport in our country.”

So who are they?

Most interesting is Christos Angelides – could this be the same Christos Angelides who is Group Product Director for Next, ranked 15th in Drapers Powerlist 2011 with a pay packet of £900k? Next are the official clothing and homeware supplier to the London Olympics, but a phonecall is needed… UPDATE: Confirmed.

And is that the Tom Foley that is general manager of Intersport? UPDATE: Confirmed.

Adidas torchbearers Tom Foley and Christos Angelides share the same nomination story

Adidas torchbearers Tom Foley, Christos Angelides, and 5 others share the same nomination story

Are Chris Caddick, and Jay Boey Adidas’s Warehouse Systems Manager and Category Manager for adidas respectively? UPDATE: Confirmed.

Continue reading →

Nottingham torchbearers – mapped

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With Nottingham punching above its weight in being the second largest source of torchbearers, I thought I’d show where Nottingham folk will be carrying the torch.

The full data is available here. If you can do anything with it, let us know.

The map below adds 16 further torchbearers from Nottinghamshire towns, and colour codes the results based on age band: green for under 20s, purple for over 60s, and yellow and blue respectively for 20-40 and 41-60.

UPDATE: Featured on Sport Nottinghamshire.

Who are the torchbearers?

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A 101-year-old former marathon runner and multiple world record holder will be the oldest man to carry the Olympic torch, according to an analysis of data on over 6,000 torchbearers.

Fauja Singh announced his retirement from marathon running shortly before competing in the London Marathon last month, his last race.

A Facebook page campaigning for his nomination has gathered almost 3,000 ‘Likes’, which helped contribute to the announcement of his participation in the torch relay last weekend. Previously the oldest participant was reported to be Diana Gold, who will be 100 when she carries the torch through Barnet.

11-year-old Dominic Macgowan from Birmingham can claim to be the most youthful torchbearer named on the London 2012 website – although almost 2,000 of the 8,000 torchbearers are yet to be announced.

The analysis also reveals that the median age of torchbearers is 35, but teenagers dominate the field, with the most common age of torchbearers being 17, and almost a quarter of torchbearers aged 19 and younger.

And London boasts by far the most torchbearers: its 355 torchbearers account for five times as many as the second most popular home town: Nottingham, with 66.

Nottingham does particularly well for its population of around 285,000, less than a twenty-fifth of Greater London’s 7.2 million, although London’s 355 torchbearers do not include those who are more specific about their hometown, naming London suburbs such as Ealing and Harrow.

Cities feature heavily in the top ten, including Glasgow and Aberdeen, Belfast, Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol, Leeds and Bournemouth. Wales is the only part of the UK unrepresented, with Cardiff’s 31 torchbearers putting it at 14th.

We’ll be publishing further analysis of the torchbearers later this week.

Thanks to Zarino Zappia and Scraperwiki for helping with the collation of data.

Hacking #citizenrelay at Future Everything

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We’ve been spending the morning finding datasets around the games and the torch relay in particular. Here’s what we’ve got so far:

The first step was to map out exactly what it was we wanted to do, and the elements that were involved. The games involve so many aspects that it’s easy to get sidetracked into various explorations. Here’s the image rounding up the elements: Continue reading →

Data: Newham Council’s spending

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The Council has incurred costs relating to the Bidding stage of £103,980.20. All of these costs will be included in the Stadium Company costs, and will therefore be recouped by the Council. (whatdotheyknow) Here are some of the incurred costs to date that was requested by Mike Law:

The Council has paid £38,447.50 for financial due diligence and LBN advice on the Stadium Company Business Plan development, and committed for costs of up to another £12,725 of advice as part of the Process. This advice has been provided by KPMG. Continue reading →

Data: Help me find the mis-information being spread at #socialympics

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This morning a Social Media Week, London event looking at the social media around the Olympic games called “#socialympics” was stirring a lot of interest on twitter relating to discussions of big data, history of new media and mega events and the revolutionary effects of social media and production/distribution of the games. Speakers include (from the site):

Our panel will feature Chris Tomlinson, record-breaking British long jumper and double Olympian; Gordon Lott, Head of London 2012 Partnership and Group Sponsorship at Lloyds TSB, the London Games’ first domestic sponsor; Hugh Chambers, Chief Commercial Officer of the British Olympic Association; Paul Kelso, Chief Sports Reporter of the Daily Telegraph; Alex Miller, CEO of Engine’s social media agency Jam, Engine’s social media and mobile agency; with myself in the chair. (3)

All individuals who have an invested interest in the Olympics and/or their brand sponsorship.

Abi Sawyer drew me the this tweet made by @SynergyCarsten:

This suggests that social media (or web 2.0) was not present during the Athens 2004 games. This claim is hard to believe, seeing that it only takes a quick google search to find blog posts still available around the time from independent (or citizen) journalists which makes me think that there is a lot of misinformation being spread about what really happened on the web during the last 12 years of games.

I’ve extracted the data from twitter (using @mhawksey‘s archive spreadsheet too) of what was said at the event and how and who was sharing it – I think it would be benefitial going through the comments to see what is being promoted as an authoritative opinion of social media and the Olympic Games. Can you help me?

The data is available here.

Data: Local Profiles and Insight on Culture and Sport in England

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Thanks to Tony Hirst for pointing that the Department of Culture, Media and Sport have some core data available on culture and sport in England. It is available national and regionally and ranges from investment, education, tourism, health and so on. Is there anybody using this relating to the Olympics; and/or are their any instances of visualisations of this data?

The data tables are available here.