LOCOG loses track of Binstead’s Wheelz

Binstead and Martin, London Mini Marathon
Binstead and Martin, London Mini Marathon.  Jack Binstead (U14) and Collette Martin (U17) in the Wheelchairs Mini Marathon on 17 April 2011. Taken from Birdcage Walk by Snappa.

For the book 8,000 Holes: How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Lost its Way Carol interviewed the mother of wheelchair racer Jack Binstead. Here we publish a more in depth interview with Jack and his family.

Wheelchair athlete Jack Binstead is now aiming for the 2016 Paralympics after the disappointment of missing out on being a torch bearer in his home town of Kingston-on-Thames.

Jack got through to the final stage but the story of how the fifteen year old Kingston kid known as Wheelz to his 3,000 Twitter followers, was overlooked by LOCOG, is heartbreaking.

“I have raced the London mini-marathon five or six times and I have won about three times. Obviously I wanted to be selected and I understand, but I was told that the people who are carring it aren’t actually from the Borough and that is one thing that isn’t good,” Jack said. Continue reading

The 21% of torchbearer places that were allocated outside of public campaigns: 8,000 Holes Part 4

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 fourth 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 what happened to the thousands of torchbearer places that were allocated outside of public campaigns. 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 4: The 21%

Between December 2011 and June 2012 the numbers of torchbearer places being awarded by bodies other than the Presenting Partners and LOCOG increased by a third. The International Olympic Committee‘s share of places saw the biggest change, going up by half – from 71 according to a December press release to 117 six months later, while commercial partners other than the three presenting partners – dozens of companies including Dow Chemical, G4S, Atos and BT – saw their share go up from 678 places to 913. Continue reading

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

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

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

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

8000 Holes - book cover

As the Olympic Torch Relay enters its final week we are today publishing Help Me Investigate’s first ebook8,000 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