There was a time when the British Olympic Association's (BOA) main contribution to the Games was booking the plane tickets and ensuring the athletes marched in step at the Opening Ceremony. But these days the blazers have been discarded and now muscles are being firmly flexed, although powers are limited.

The BOA's intervention in rightly refusing to allow British Wrestling to impose their gaggle of grapplers imported from Eastern Europe on 2012 and ordering GB Taekwondo to twice re-think the controversial omission from the Olympic squad of world number one welterweight Aaron Cook, who had elected to prepare outside their system, reflects growing concern over the administration of a number of publicly-funded sports as they finalise their Games nominations.

The selection process in fencing, where there have been allegations of favouritism (one of the fencers nominated for a host nation wild-card place, though lowly-ranked, is related to a leading sponsor of the sport) has also been questioned.

With appeals and threats of legal action from disaffected competitors, and embarrassing spats of mud-slinging, it is a scenario Britain could do without as the Olympic countdown quickens.

The most worrying case is that of Cook whose sport has been progressively successful. Yet he seems to have been given the sort of kick in the teeth he is more used to inflicting on opponents.

Three times now he has been knocked back by GB Taekwondo's five-person selection panel in favour of a Lutalo Muhammad, a fellow European champion but less experienced and lower-ranked globally than  Cook,  and from a different weight category.


At the time of writing Cook (pictured above) is expressing his understandable anger and astonishment, and the BOA considering just how much further their Olympic qualification standards panel can go in questioning GB Taekwondo's motives.

They may well have run out if ammunition.

GB Taekwondo insists its decision is not biased or politically motivated as Cook is no longer under its high performance aegis, having decided the system was not working for him.

They argue that changes to the way head shots are scored make Muhammad a better medal bet than Cook, who, in Beijing, came fourth as a 17-year-old but latterly has believed the most viable 2012 path for him was to go it alone.

That was his prerogative, and judged by his results he has been proved right.

But GB Taekwondo's high command obviously think otherwise, obviously making a choice which has shocked many not least the bookies, who had made Cook 3-1 favourite to win gold in London.

William Hill spokesman told insidethegames that rejecting Cook "is the equivalent of leaving out Sir Chris Hoy".

Well, that might be overstating it a bit, but you get the point.


Cook clearly had an outstanding chance of standing atop the Olympic podium. Has Muhammad (pictured above, left)?

Now I have a lot of time for taekwondo as a sport and the success it has achieved in Britain under performance director Gary Hall (who is understood to have wanted Cook in the squad). But I believe his co-selectors have got this one wrong big-time, and that the argument is as unconvincing as England manager Roy Hodgson's "for footballing reasons" as to why Rio Ferdinand has been left behind for the 2012 European Championship.

Wubbish Woy. Ferdinand is unwanted as you fear disharmony in the dressing room because of Rio's ongoing differences with John Terry over the alleged racist comments made to his brother.

Personally, I would have taken Rio rather than Terry both for footballing reasons and the fact that the Chelsea captain has forfeited the right to wear the England shirt despoiled by his past misdemeanours off the pitch.

What we have now as the Olympics approach is unseemly bickering over selection processes that bedevils Team GB at the worst possible time

Our sporting history that those who wear the blazers or even the tracksuits, are wary of rebels in their midst.


They do not know how to handle them. Then renegade runner David Bedford (pictured above) was a good example of this. So was Gazza.

The guvnors are uncomfortable when someone succeeds out of The Establishment, and drawbridges are hauled up.

At best GB Taekwondo has shown incredible naivety in assuming its action would not be interpreted as an injustice.

Whether it is also deemed to be illogical and unfair, or at worst, prejudiced, may well be for the BOA to determine, or eventually the courts if Cook decides, as is the sporting vogue, to enlist the assistance of m'learned friends.

It will be a tragedy for taekwondo, indeed all Olympic sports in this country should litigation become necessary.

Far better, as Cook suggests, to let him and Muhammad have a fight-off on the mat.

There are precedents for this, not least in amateur boxing.


Personally, I think that a lad who trains in his garage, without the benefit of public funding, and becomes the world number one and favourite for Olympic gold is what Olympism all about – or used to be before vested interests and conforming to the 'system' took over.

I rest my case.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire 

Tchoukball. Few will have ever heard of the sport, but Chris Huang, the President of the International Tchoukball Federation (FITB), is determined to make the sport more popular and spread its global appeal.

In his native Taiwan, the country's Government has been actively supporting Huang in his efforts to popularise the sport around the world. The FITB headquarters are based there, and the nation has had the world's best tchoukball team for the last 30 years.

Three year's ago, the World Games came to Taiwan, and to highlight the sport's importance to Taiwan, the Government's President Ma Ying-Jeou watched only four sports – among them was tchoukball.

Though Taiwan is the world's leading tchoukball nation, the sport was actually created by a Swiss man, Dr Hermann Brandt, in 1971. He was a biologist who was deeply concerned about the serious injuries sportspeople could pick up. As a result, he tried to devise a perfect sport that would be based around teamwork and cause less harm to players. In his paper, A Scientific Criticism of Team Games, Brandt observed: "the objective of human physical activities is not to make champions, but rather to help construct a harmonious society".

On this principle, tchoukball was created. The game looks like many other sports. There are two teams of seven players, a field of play and two goals. But in tchoukball, teams can score in either goal. The ball is thrown, as it is in handbal, and it is non-contact, like basketball. To score, the ball must be thrown at square net on a goal frame. It must then bounce into a semi circular area without being caught by an opponent.


Only then does a player score. The theme of "threes" is ingrained in tchoukball. So for example, no more than three passes can be made before shooting, and the ball cannot be carried for more than three seconds. And if a player wants to pass, they cannot be obstructed from doing so.

There was one major problem for the sport though. Dr Brandt passed away just after he created tchoukball in 1972, and although the first game had taken place in France between the hosts and Switzerland, few people knew its rules which were outlined in Brandt's paper, written in French. This kept the sport relatively unknown, but some 10 years later Taiwan decided to spread the sport's popularity and remedy the situation.

In 1984, they hosted the first international tchoukball tournament, involving France, Britain, Japan, China, South Korea and Switzerland. And the sport had its World Games debut just five years later in Karlsruhe, Germany.

"No one knows what tchoukball is and his [Brandt's] research is 300 pages and everything is in French," Huang told insidethegames. "That is why no one knows about tchoukball, and is why it is so hard to go forward. We have had problems in the past because we had 10 years of no tchoukball events. Now I have changed [translated] everything into English."

And so how did the sport get such a bizarre name? Huang explains: "When we put the ball in the net it bounces, there is a noise...thchouk! But now because the material changes the noise is not tchouk."

With a World Championship taking place every four years, tchoukball has a proper structure in place. The last Championship, in 2011, took place in Italy and attracted teams from Italy, Germany, Brazil and Britain among others. There were 20 participants in total – 13 in the men's category and seven in the women's. This made it the biggest World Tchoukball Championships to date.

As well as indoor tchoukball, there are another four variants of the sport. There is university tchoukball, which helps to encourage young adults to take up the game. There's youth tchoukball with three separate levels, for players aged up to 12, 15 and 18 respectively. Beach tchoukball is played on a smaller field with five players on either side. And then there is wheelchair tchoukball.


Huang's personal involvement in the sport began 21 years ago, when he played for fun at university. He then enrolled in the army for two years, but on his return, was given training by the world's top tchoukball coach.

Huang's enthusiasm for the game is infectious. He explained how the FITB has worked to increase the number of countries involved in the game, and how he hopes that tchoukball will become a part of the Sport Accord Convention (an annual event for leading representatives of international sport).

"In tchoukball we are going very fast. Taiwan's Government has supported me with airfare to go to whichever country. I have been President two and a half years and already during those years 12 new countries join FITB." The membership figure currently stands at 32, eight short of the required number for Sport Accord. "We hope next year we can join Sport Accord," he says.

"It is not easy to go so fast...we have 32 members already, but it is not easy to be our member," he adds, and to prove it, Huang explains his membership criteria. He does not want members just for the sake of it, to boost numbers. With a hint of Lord Sugar about him, Huang tells me "if you do not promote tchoukball, you're fired". This is done by a two thirds majority of votes at the FITB General Assembly, a fate that has befallen six members.

"If you do not want to promote tchoukball the FITB will cancel your membership. We need to teach other countries so tchoukball becomes more popular and so they can promote tchoukball.

"In the past there are members, but some countries are not active. If you do not want to promote tchoukball the FITB will find someone in your country who will replace you. I did research for tchoukball to be my master degree; the most important thing is to find the right people."

It is difficult to argue with a man who is so driven by one single goal. But Huang is certainly leading his organisation by example.

David Gold is a reporter for insidethegames 

History is repeating itself in the world of sport. You would be quite wrong to call it tragedy, and harsh to call it farce. But there is, surely, a farcical element to it.

Here is the news: reports are that the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has drawn up plans to change its rules so that doping offenders will automatically miss their next scheduled Olympics.

The new code, which is due to be approved in autumn 2013 and implemented in 2015, offers the possibility of upgrading the current standard ban for serious doping offenders from two years to four years.

Article 10.15 of the latest draft of the new WADA code states: "Where an athlete or other person has been sanctioned for an anti-doping rule violation other than under Articles 10.3.3 (Filing Failures and Missed Tests), 10.3.4 (Prohibited Association), 10.4 (Specified Substances), or 10.5.2 (No Significant Fault or Negligence), and Article 10.5.3 (Substantial Assistance) is not applicable, then, as an additional sanction, the athlete or other person shall be ineligible to participate in the next Summer Olympic Games and the next Winter Olympic Games taking place after the end of the period of ineligibility otherwise imposed."

Succinct, no. Welcome, yes.

The proposed WADA ruling is curiously similar to the position held since 1992 by the British Olympic Association (BOA), whereby serious doping offenders were prevented through a byelaw put together and implemented by athletes from ever competing for Britain again at an Olympics.

That was a position from which the BOA were obliged to retreat earlier this year, despite a huge groundswell of support in this country for the principle it enshrined. It was deemed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to be "non-compliant" with the WADA code, in that it represented an unjustified additional sanction upon competitors who, were they living elsewhere in the world, would be free to resume their Olympic careers once they had served their mandatory doping suspensions of, typically, two years.

The proposed WADA ruling is hugely similar to the International Olympic Committee's so-called "rule 45", which was also outlawed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport last year following a challenge from the American 400 metres runner LaShawn Merritt (pictured below right).


The Olympic champion, who returned after his two-year ban in time to compete at last summer's IAAF World Championships in Daegu, where he won a silver medal, and who is now preparing in earnest for the London 2012 Games, argued successfully that the rule acted effectively as a second sanction - a breach of the original WADA code.

So first CAS quashed the IOC, and then it quashed the BOA. The score after full-time was 2-0 to WADA. In both cases, there was an enormous amount of debate and bother and fuss, not to mention considerable expense. Many in Britain, notably athletes and ex-athletes, were deeply distressed at what they saw as an erosion of an honourable standard in a world that was very far from uniformly honourable in the same respect.

Call me churlish, but we now seem to be in almost the same position as we were. The second sanction, so offensive last year, is now on the brink of being enshrined. An awful lot of fuss and bother so that WADA can maintain their position of "do it our way, or don't do it at all".

Doubtless those in WADA might respond: "What are you bellyaching for now? We've pretty much restored what so many people seemed to want."

Don't get me wrong. It is welcome news. But it is replicating what the IOC already had in place a year ago.

Maybe there is something intrinsically British in my curmudgeonly view of this. After all, we don't have a proper constitution, but an accretion of laws and customs. The WADA world view is the world view which has to scrap anything existing and do everything according to its own way, from scratch. Otherwise, no go.

Am I being too simplistic in wondering why, if this was what was going to happen, WADA couldn't simply have told all the campaigners who got themselves worked up over the issue in the space of the last 12 months: "Don't worry. We'll change it all back as long as it can be us doing it, not you."?

Perhaps the dynamic has been different, and there has been a permeating effect from the vocal efforts of, among others, the BOA's chairman Lord Moynihan. If he does claim any credit for the shift, it is surely well deserved.

A BOA spokesman commented: "That's an important step in the right direction, and it's moving toward reflecting the higher standard that athletes want to see."

Whatever next? A WADA life ban?

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here. 

The past week has been one to remember, winning the Finn World Championships/Gold Cup. Then to be the first Olympic Torchbearer was something I'll never forget for the rest of my life, a once in a lifetime experience and I'm just very proud to be a part of it. Watch the latest behind the scenes campaign video "Three amazing days" here. 

The Finn Gold Cup

It was a fantastic weeks racing in the JP Morgan Asset Management Finn Gold Cup in Falmouth. Winning the worlds in Falmouth was special for me personally because it's where I grew up and learnt to sail and I have so much history there. It was great to see so many old friends and have such strong support.


We had a varied week of sailing conditions with every day being totally different. The stand out day had to be the Thursday; the conditions that day can only be described as 'epic'. It was a big day, with massive waves and 30 knots of winds. It was an amazing day's sailing for everyone, it's not often we race in conditions like that so it was great to have three competitive races, there was a lot of tired sailors at the end of racing but everyone that raced came ashore with a smile on their face. I'm very happy with the result and how the week went ahead of the Olympics. I would like to thank the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club for their excellent event organisation, the sailors couldn't have really asked for more from them.


The Torch

For the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay to start at Lands End is a great moment for Cornwall and a great moment for the whole country to have the Torch on its way, and again to see the atmosphere and see how excited everyone was, it was good to see.

After racing on the Friday night, I headed straight to Culdrose airfield to watch the Torch arriving in the United Kingdom. The atmosphere there was fantastic with a lot media interest, I think doing an interview with the Deputy Prime Minister with an Apache attack helicopter 50 metres overhead was one of the more challenging interviews I've ever done.

To get to Lands End on Saturday morning we had to be up pretty early, about half past four, which was quite tough because there was the prize giving the night before for the World Championships. It was a great honour to be asked to be the first Torchbearer. However, I was so focussed on the Worlds I didn't really have a chance to put much thought towards it. When I arrived at Lands End and saw all the crowds it suddenly hit me that this was going to be a special moment and not something I would ever forget.


Waiting for the Torch to arrive was quite a surreal serene moment, just standing there it was really quiet, everyone was waiting for the chopper to land, and just for a moment it so peaceful and calm, and then of course the Torch was lit and it was pandemonium, people were cheering, the reaction from the crowd was fantastic. I've never seen anything like it. I've been asked a lot if I planned to walk slowly and let the crowd touch the Torch, to be honest it just felt like the right thing to get close to people, let people touch the Torch and feel a part of it.

I then had to get back to Falmouth to be with the other Finn sailors who were meeting the Torch Relay in town. This is when the Olympic fever really started in the crowd and it was amazing to see. Somehow, totally unscripted, we ended up on the back of the Olympic Torch procession and got ushered through Falmouth centre where all the crowds had turned out and were seeing the torch as it passed through, there were some quite amazing reactions. People were cheering, crying showing all sorts of emotion; it was just great to see.

It's important that the public have taken the Torch arriving so well, that's going to be the difference between it being good games and great games, how the British people react and support this. If the atmosphere in Lands End and Falmouth and the rest of Cornwall is anything to go by then it's going to be an incredible Olympics.


I've just come back from a couple of land days as my spare Rita (Finn dinghy) was on display in London for a few days and it was great to see so many people interested in sailing and having a look around the boat, I'm now back in full training in the Weymouth Olympic venue ahead of next week's Skandia Sail for Gold regatta, it should be a great weeks racing.

Ben Ainslie is Britain's most successful Olympic sailor, with a total of three gold medals and one silver. His next aspiration is to bring back a historic fourth gold in the London 2012 Olympics. To find out more click here.

The SportAccord Convention has come a long way in a short space of time to firmly establish itself as the world's premier annual event for sport's key decision-makers.

But even by the high standards of the event that have been established over the last decade, the 10th anniversary edition of the gathering in the beautiful Québec City was particularly special, with several of the announcements made last week in Canada set to have a major impact on the global sporting landscape for many years to come.

It is hard to start without discussing the bid race for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. From day one, the lobby of the Québec City Convention Centre was a buzzing hive of activity with the five bid cities of Baku, Doha, Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid at the heart of things, delegates hurrying to talk to every single International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board member and key media outlets about the immense strength of their respective bids.

In an uncertain economic climate, which saw Rome pull out of the race earlier this year due to their lack of finances, it seemed for all the world as if all five would make the shortlist and sail comfortably through to the next phase of the process.

But as D-Day approached last Wednesday (May 23), whispers started to filter through, as only they can at an event like the SportAccord Convention, that only three had made it.


It was left to the Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli and the IOC director of communications, Mark Adams, to officially break the news that had already leaked out in the Convention Centre lobby – that only Istanbul, Tokyo (pictured below) and Madrid had progressed from the Applicant City to Candidate City phase.

Baku, Azerbaijan's foremost city, said the IOC Working Group report, simply didn't have the facilities or infrastructure at this stage in their development to host the Games while Doha's omission was far more of a grey area.

The report suggested in the small print that the Qatari capital did not have the backing of American television, the all-powerful, big-money providers, as they objected to the dates – outside the usual July/August window – proposed by Doha to stage the Olympics and Paralympics.

It was intriguing, given that Istanbul has problems with a potential Turkish Euro 2020 bid in the same summer that could derail their Olympic and Paralympic dreams, and that Spain's economy is in such a bad way that the country may not even be able to afford the Games, even if the IOC awards them to Madrid.


So could we get to the final vote in Buenos Aires in the summer of 2013 and see Tokyo awarded the event by default as the only bidder left standing?

It is highly unlikely, but only time will tell us if the IOC Executive Board decision to axe both Baku and Doha, the two bidders with the strongest financial resources to host the Games, was brave or foolish.

Just a day before the 2020 bid announcement came another significant piece of news in Québec City that the increasingly influential International Boxing Association (AIBA) President, C K Wu of Taiwan, had been elected to the IOC Executive Board by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF).

It came during an historic ASOIF General Assembly where Italy's Francesco Ricci Bitti, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) President, was unanimously elected as the successor to ASOIF President Denis Oswald of Switzerland.

But due to Ricci Bitti's age - he turned 70 this year - he will be forced to leave the IOC in December and another candidate was therefore required to take the organisation's seat on the IOC Executive Board.

After months of speculation, it was just Wu and International Cycling Union (UCI) President Pat McQuaid of Ireland who put themselves forward. But the race ultimately proved an anti-climax and Wu, the 65-year-old English-educated billionaire, crushed his only rival by 20 votes to eight.


It may yet prove significant when IOC President Jacques Rogge steps down from his role next summer, but if the talk in the corridors of SportAccord is to believed, one would not want to look far beyond the powerful Thomas Bach of Germany, the IOC's current vice-president and one of sport's most intelligent operators, as the Belgian's successor.

Speaking of Rogge, he was noticeably absent for the first few days of SportAccord, leaving it to Felli and Adams to make the key 2020 announcement.

But when Rogge finally emerged in front of the world's media on Thursday (May 24), he did so for arguably the most significant announcement at the event, and maybe in the world of the Olympics, for the last few years.

That announcement, of course, was that after years of painstaking negotiations, the IOC and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) had finally reached an agreement in their long-running revenue sharing row.

The issue has caused huge tension between the two powerhouses for several years, and this was illustrated big style when the IOC eliminated New York's bid for the 2012 Games in the second round of voting before humiliating Chicago by axing them in the first round of the race to host the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics.


But now, the "roadblock", as the USOC chairman Larry Probst (pictured above, on left, cementing the deal with Jacques Rogge) described it, for a successful American Olympic and Paralympic bid is now out of the way.

The removal did come at a cost to the USOC, however.

Under the previous deal, which was set out in an open-ended contract in 1996, the USOC received a 20 per cent share of global sponsorship revenue and a 12.75 per cent share of US broadcast rights deals, which the IOC believed was too excessive.

The new deal, which will begin in 2020 and run for 20 years, will see the USOC retain its 20 per cent share of global sponsorship revenue but have its share of US broadcast rights deals cut to seven per cent on any increases in broadcast deals.

The USOC's marketing share has also been slashed by half to 10 per cent on increases in sponsorship revenue.

In addition, the USOC has agreed to contribute to the administrative costs of staging the Games and they will provide $15 million (£9.6 million/€12 million) up to 2020 and $20 million (£12.7 million/€16 million) after 2020.

The new deal also covers issues related to the ownership of Olympic rights, trademarks and historic TV footage.

"We made financial concessions but I think we made them in a way that will still allow us to provide the same level of support to our athletes," USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun told me after the announcement, which we had known was coming a few days  before.

"But it demonstrates the commitment of the United States and the USOC to the worldwide Olympic Movement."

Alluding to any plans by USOC to host the Olympics and Paralympics in the future, he said: "In terms of a bid, this removes a barrier.

"I think it would have been difficult for us to mount a successful bid while this was still hanging over our heads, but now it has gone.

"So now I think we can have an open discussion and make the best decision for the United States."

The announcement came after Blackmun told me at the Team USA Media Summit in Dallas just a week earlier that "positive news" was on its way. The USOC chief executive deserves huge credit, having largely negotiated the historic deal with the IOC's top men by himself, leaving both parties very happy.

Denver has been touted as a possible 2022 Winter Games candidate but the 2024 Summer Games appears a more likely target for the USOC, with Los Angeles, New York and Chicago just some of the cities thought to be interested in staging the event.

So, as well as reshaping the race for the 2020 bid race, the 2012 SportAccord Convention has also given us a glimpse of what to expect in 2024 when America (most likely) comes knocking.

This news came amid numerous other announcements, including:

• Hein Verbruggen to stand down as SportAccord President next year
• Saudi Arabia's female athletes to be able to compete at the 2012 Olympic Games under the IOC Flag
• London 2012 preparations going well – in the worst-kept secret of all time!

However, all of these, and many other important declarations, all seem minor compared to the 2020 and 2024 bid announcements.

But major news at the top end of sport is no surprise when you're at SportAccord.

Roll on the 2013 SportAccord Convention in the Russian city of St Petersburg...

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.

The Olympic Flame, now traversing the country, is slowly but surely igniting an overdue national passion for the Games which will explode into a fiery fever on the night of Friday July 27.

But as it is passed from hand to hand by the 8,000 Torchbearers on its joyous journey the burning question – apart from whether the iconic torches, morally, should be a saleable commodity – is who will actually light the Cauldron in the Olympic Stadium on the night of the Opening Ceremony.

I have long held the theory that it won't be an illustrious name, more like an unknown. But of one thing I am reasonably certain: the fist that grips the final gold-coloured torch and dips it towards the Cauldron – if that is the orthodox way they intend to do it – will be young, black and probably female to fit in with 2012's avowed commitment to youth, equality and cultural diversity.


But whether it is actually to be an old Olympic Flame like Sir Steve Redgrave (pictured above), Dame Kelly Holmes or Daley Thompson, or a teenage athlete plucked from 2012's own Olympic heartland in East London, is in the hands of an independent panel in collaboration with London 2012, the British Olympic Association (BOA) and the Opening Ceremony's production overlord, film producer Danny Boyle.

I suspect the decision has already been made, but remains a closely-guarded secret.

I know who Lord Coe thinks it should be – and that is Daley Thompson – but he insists he has no vote and will not influence the decision in any way.

Whoever adds the final flourish to London's seven-year journey will have his or her name etched in Olympic history.

Which is another reason why London 2012 may plump for a Cockney kid. It would avoid bruising the egos of those who believe they should be The One, and would be miffed should it go to someone equally celebrated.

Also it would remove the worrying possibility of David Beckham trotting into the Stadium as the front runner.


What is it with London 2012's eternal love affair with "Sir" Becks (pictured above), who astonishingly was given the honour of bringing the Flame to these shores?

Yes, we know his presence and glad-handing was instrumental in helping London win the Games, and he is a decent ambassador for London 2012 because of who he is.

But his actual Olympic association is tenuous and Kelly Holmes is not alone among genuine Olympians in voicing opposition to football's matinee idol playing the starring role on opening night.

"He is a lovely man but he hasn't made his name or been involved in the Olympics," she argues. "This is one occasion that has to involve Olympians. Please don't even think of Beckham."

But up in London 2012's Canary Wharf eyrie some already have, though one hopes they will be outvoted.

Yet even without the Torch Beckham may still play a key part on July 27.

Assuming he is selected for the Team GB football squad – surely a no-brainer with the pressure being put on manager Stuart Pearce – I would not  be surprised to see him carrying the Union Jack when teams march into the Stadium.

As it happens the list of candidates for this particular task may be rather slim for several (Rebecca Adlington for one) will be ruled out because their coaches understandably do not want them burning the midnight flame in a late-starting Ceremony set to last into the early hours.


Sir Chris Hoy, Jess Ennis, Victoria Pendleton Tim Brabants and Tom Daley are obvious names in the frame – if available – but my choice would be the 40-year-old archer Alison Williamson (pictured above), who will be competing in her sixth Olympics.

But back to the crucial issue of who will light the Flame. I asked the bookmaker William Hill to quote odds on the following suggestions, from the worthy to the wacky.

Sir Steve Redgrave: Squeaky-clean persona and fistful of gold medals makes the renowned rower a clear the bookies' favourite, though he thinks it unlikely as he has been asked to run a leg on July 10 – 17 days before the Games begin. 1/2 on

Sir Roger Bannister: Also widely-tipped, the first sub-four-minute miler remains an iconic figure at 83 but his achievement came outside the Olympics and may have to light the Flame from a wheelchair. 3/1.

Sebastian Coe: In any other situation he would be a no-brainer, the perfect candidate but as London 2012's head honcho he rules himself out – but might he be persuaded? Especially if he does it in tandem with old rival, Steve Ovett!  8/1

Daley Thompson: Arguably Britain's greatest all-round Olympian whose big admirer is a close friend Lord Coe. Interestingly, unlike Redgrave, he has not been nominated for a preliminary leg. 25/1

Dame Kelly Holmes (pictured below, left): Double gold medallist from Athens 2004 and inspiration for young athletes with whom she works and supports through her own Trust. Could well fit the bill. 10/1


Dorothy Tyler (pictured above, right): At a sprightly 92 she is Britain's oldest surviving Olympic medallist, winning high jump silver at the 1936 Games in Berlin and London 1948. Interesting outside bet. 66/1

David Beckham: With a GB football team competing again, the universally-recognised Becks would be a controversial choice but Coe speaks warmly of his contribution in helping London get the Games. Or could he carry the Team GB flag. 25/1

Kate and/or William: Just the sort of gimmick that the Games organisers might have up their sleeve to draw maximum gasps from a global audience. Otherwise there's always Prince Harry. 100/1

Princess Anne: A more logical royal choice as a former Olympic horsewoman (Montreal 1976), President of the BOA and member of the IOC. 66/1

Dame Mary Peters:  Another Coe favourite – heroic pentathlete gold medallist from Munich 1972 who has done much to make sport a unifying force in Northern Ireland. 50/1

Tessa Sanderson: Six times an Olympian and javelin gold medallist in 1984. Now runs her own academy for aspiring youngsters in Newham but has been overlooked in the build-up despite enthusiastically backing the original bid. 50-1

Denise Lewis:  The golden girl of Sydney 2000, where she won the heptathlon. Personable and popular with 2012 organisers with whom she has worked closely to promote the Games. 50-1


Boris Johnson (pictured above): Wouldn't we love to see him pedalling in with the Torch on a Boris bike on especially if he then sets own hair alight when lighting the Cauldron. 250/1

Unknown young athlete: That's my hunch, and Sir Steve Redgrave's too. A surprise touch, a kid (or kids) from an ethnic minority in East London who would fit London 2012's philosophy of legacy, youth and multi-culture. No odds available

(William Hill also quotes Tom Daley at 10/1 and Sir Chris Hoy at 16/1, though, as with Beckham, they are more likely to be candidates for flag-bearers as competing Team GB athletes).

So you pay your money and take your choice.

At least we can be reasonably sure the Flame-lighter won't be selling the torch. Unlike many of those now running with it.

Should people profit in this way? I really don't see how London 2012 can complain as they are the orchestrators of the most commercial Games in history.  London 2012 certainly admit they are powerless to stop it, indeed how can they when they themselves have sold the Torches to the bearers for just short of £200 ($314/€250) apiece?


As it happens I am the proud possessor of two previous Olympic torches, having run with the Athens torch and that for Beijing. I certainly wouldn't part with them as they are destined as heirlooms for my grandchildren.

But I cannot blame those now cashing in by hawking theirs on EBay or elsewhere.

The Torch Relay, created in 1936 to give Hitler's Nazi regime a makeover, is not a true symbol of ancient Olympia, but a commercial event designed to raise the awareness of sponsors as well as the Games themselves.

The Olympic Games long gave up their amateur status and that surely must apply to both the public as well as the performers.

It also leads to the likes of will.i.am (pictured below) being allowed to carry the Flame.  What possible connection does an American hip-hopper have with Olympism?


Except of course being associated with one of the corporate backers, Coca-Cola. But I suppose this is another example of how London 2012 is underscoring its determination to appeal to "yoof".

Let's just hope the Closing Ceremony is not all rap and R&B.

And that the gasps which greet the Flame-lighter will be born of genuine awe and not because of an outrageous gimmick.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire

How much is a London 2012 viewer worth?

It depends, naturally enough, on where you live.

What is remarkable, though, is the sheer extent of the discrepancy between, say, Ms Middle America in Peoria and Mr West African taxi-driver or Bangladeshi farmer.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will need to narrow the gap if it is to keep its lucrative broadcasting revenues surging ahead at anything like the rate achieved in the four years, culminating with this summer's London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

Consider these figures:

The London Games, we now know, have yielded a mammoth $2.635 billion (£1.682 billion /€2.105 billion) in broadcasting revenue for the Movement.

Getting on for half of this – $1.2 billion (£766 million/€958 million) – has come from the United States.

This is partly, though, a function of the US' status as the planet's third most populous nation.


If you break down the 20-plus London 2012-related broadcasting deals, insofar as is possible, by head of population, some very interesting details emerge.

One of these is that there is a country where the right to broadcast the London exploits of Usain Bolt, Victoria Pendleton (pictured below) & Co is worth more per head of population than in the US.

That country is sports-crazy Australia.

By my calculations – and it is worth bearing in mind with all these numbers that variables such as effective exchange rates, precise population levels and the apportionment of fees between the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and London 2012 will always leave some room for debate – the price of the right to broadcast the Summer Games in Australia works out at just over US$4 (£2.55/€3.19) per head of population.

This compares with $3.87 (£2.47/€3.09) for the United States.

Working down the next few places in the TV "medals table" for London 2012, we find Japan ($2.45 [£1.56/€1.95]), New Zealand ($2.05 [£1.30/€1.63]), Hong Kong ($1.85 [£1.18/€1.47]) and Canada ($1.85 [£1.18/€1.47]).


Western Europe begins to feature only in seventh spot, which is occupied by Italy, where rights have been sold for around $1.67 (£1.06/€1.33) per head of population.

This figure is sharply higher than that for the rest of the continent, including host nation the United Kingdom, which is covered by a 51-country deal between the IOC and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

The broad scope of the deal – which I understand includes parts of North Africa – makes the overall figure more tentative than most of the others.

Plus, I presume that different countries will contribute differing amounts, not necessarily commensurate with the size of their respective populations, to the $600 million (£383 million/€479 million) paid by the EBU.

But I would put the fee per head perhaps as low as 60 cents (38 GB pence/48 € cents) and definitely no more than $1 (63 GB pence/79 € cents).

It is, though, the difference between the rich, developed countries at the top of the pile and fees paid by the developing world that I find most thought provoking.

Take, for example, the deals covering 22 Asian countries – including highly-populous nations such as India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam.

By my reckoning, the value of these works out at about half a US cent per head of population; that is just over a tenth of one percent of the effective price tag to reach each potential Australian viewer.


If anything underlines the importance to the Olympic Movement of increasing its purchase in the cricket-mad Indian sub-continent (fans watching cricket on TV, pictured below), it is that statistic.

Per capita figures are similarly tiny in sub-Saharan Africa, where a recent deal covering Nigeria - the African country with the biggest population - works out by my reckoning at around a third of one US cent a head.

And then there are the likes of Brazil, Mexico, China, South Korea, South Africa – fast-developing countries with relatively large (in some cases very large) populations, increasing prosperity and global influence – and an avid interest in the Olympic Games.

The fees paid for broadcasting rights to these territories have started to increase significantly and will continue to rise.

But they would have to grow by several more orders of magnitude to catch up with Australia and the US, or even Italy.

South Korea – a past Summer Games and future Winter Games host – is probably close to the sort of level you might expect at around 60 cents (38 GB pence/48 € cents) per potential viewer.

So, arguably, is South Africa at 25-30 cents (15-20 GB pence/20-25 € cents).

But 2016 Olympic host Brazil (23 cents [14 GB pence/18 € cents]), 1968 host Mexico (18 cents [11 GB pence/14 € cents]), with the rest of Latin America at below 10 cents (6 GB pence/7 € cents), and above all 2008 host China (six cents [3 GB pence/4 € cents]) seem to me to exhibit plenty of scope for further growth.

In fairness, Brazilian rights for 2014-2016 have already been sold for a sum I estimate will push up the per capita amount for 2016 to at least 60 US cents (38 GB pence/48 € cents).


It will be interesting to see if that level can be maintained in 2020, when the country will not be the Olympic host.

The IOC, meanwhile, is far from the only sports rights holder whose finances would receive a big lift should they succeed in extracting more value from their Chinese properties.

But if you consider that hiking Chinese per capita rights fees to South Korean levels would raise more than $700 million (£446 million/€559 million), it gives you some idea of how significant the lift to the Olympic Movement might be.

That is not realistically going to happen any time soon.

But with US broadcaster NBC paying $2 billion (£1.3 billion/€1.6 million) for US rights to the 2014 and 2016 Games, compared with $2.2 billion (£1.4 billion/€1.7 billion) for 2010 and 2012, progress will need to be made in other markets if the IOC is to keep vital broadcast revenues steaming ahead.

The vast discrepancies in per capita fees paid from market to market, together with technological advances that should help rights-holders to generate more of their own revenue from their Olympic rights, suggest this may be achievable, although growth is most unlikely to match the 52 percent jump in broadcast income racked up in the quadrennium now drawing to a close.

But the relatively small sums raised from the vast majority of countries suggest that Olympic broadcasters across many zones – particularly in countries with competitive TV marketplaces – may have to resign themselves to stumping up more if they are to retain their status once the cauldron is extinguished in London.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here

I've known United States Olympic Committee (USOC) chief executive Scott Blackmun for over 15 years, and I have seen him, on occasion, enjoy a glass of good wine.

I've also witnessed him enjoy a round of golf and a rugged game of squash with his friends, or mountain biking with his son.

But those moments have been rare in the last 30 months for Blackmun (pictured below), since he was chosen to lead the organisation's staff and programmes in January 2010 by the USOC's Board of Directors – almost a decade after frighteningly narrow-minded USOC volunteer leaders had shoved him aside for the top job to choose former Maytag chief Lloyd Ward.

Blackmun left the USOC and Colorado Springs with his family to become a top executive with the Anschutz Entertainment Group in Los Angeles, a move that honed his many skills and leadership qualities before he moved to a law firm a few years later.

He was the right man at the right time for the USOC this time, however – and what went down in Québec City during the 2012 SportAccord Convention proved it beyond measure.

Blackmun and USOC chairman Larry Probst signed a new revenue-sharing agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that brought to a halt a protracted period of rancour, bitterness and unwarranted criticism of the USOC over its share of American network television fees and worldwide sponsorship revenues.


By rights, Blackmun and Probst should be celebrating by enjoying a glass of Domaine Romanée-Conti - regarded as the most expensive win in the world - or Petrus, served at their table by the smartly dressed sommelier, IOC President Jacques Rogge.

The new agreement – which benefits both organisations – is, to be truthful, a huge "get" for the IOC, because it needs the USOC and its athletes, as well as the power of American television and its corporations, along with a future Games on United States soil, no matter what rhetoric the IOC has used.

The old agreement, forged in the mid-1980s, gave the USOC a 12.75 per cent share of US television rights fees and 20 per cent of TOP (The Olympic Partner) sponsorships.

Trust me: the USOC deserved every penny of that deal, signed at a time when the organisation faced an uncertain future, and was steamrolled over and over by the IOC.

The new deal, which begins in 2020, now opens the doors to a possible US bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics or a shot at the 2024 Summer Games by cities like Denver, Reno-Tahoe, Salt Lake City, Bozeman or Montana, or heavyweights like New York, San Francisco, Dallas or Los Angeles.

Blackmun has protected the USOC's vital revenue sources and secured funding for American athletes and member organisations through to 2040. He knew from the start that whatever the USOC gave back, it needed to preserve its revenues as the only National Olympic Committee in the world that does not enjoy Federal Government support.


IOC and USOC officials declined to give specific figures of the agreement at the resulting news conference, but details of the terms have been published on insidethegames.

The USOC will retain the revenue it currently receives but its television rights share will be reduced to seven per cent on any increases in broadcast deals and its marketing share cut in half to 10 per cent on increases in sponsorship revenue.

The USOC agreed to contribute to the administrative costs of staging the Olympics –$15 million (£9.6 million/€12 million) through 2020 and $20 million (£12.7 million/€16 million)after 2020, the officials said. The contract also covers issues related to ownership of Olympic rights, trademarks and historic television footage.

The old agreement, created at a time when the USOC was facing huge revenue challenges and burdened by US television agreements which hindered its own domestic fund raising and sponsorships, was crafted by men who, like Probst and Blackmun, were resourceful and intelligent leaders: William E Simon, F Don Miller, John Krimsky, George Miller and Robert Helmick. They had a much different world to operate in then.

The income-sharing agreement reached at that time helped the USOC in its ability to raise funds, and followed the successful 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles (pictured above) which arguably saved the Olympic Games and the IOC for the future.

The younger USOC had ponied up a guarantee of $25 million (£16 million/€20 million) in 1980, that it really did not have, to keep the Games in Los Angeles when citizens threatened the Games' funding. It had also endured the boycott of the Games in Moscow in 1980, forced on it by the Carter Administration, which damaged the USOC's ability to raise its needed funds and its sponsors. America had carried out a great 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid and produced the best moments of those days: the famed "Miracle on Ice" victory for the US men's ice hockey team over the all-conquering Soviet Union (pictured below) and speed skater Eric Heiden's unprecedented five gold medals. In fact, the boycotts almost bankrupted the USOC – and if it had where would the IOC and the Games be now?


American television and corporations became the backbone of IOC revenues, and the nation proved its worth over the years by staging successful games in Los Angeles in 984, Atlanta 1996 and Salt Lake City 2002.

All that the USOC and the US had done for the Olympics was seemingly forgotten all at once, and the truth of history was shoved aside. America has hosted the Summer and Winter Games eight times, the most of any nation, and its athletes have given the Games some of their greatest moments and memories.

In recent years, the targeting of the USOC as greedy and selfish, out of touch with the rest of the world, and accompanied by a steady drumbeat of criticism over its share of the money grew to a cacophony of noise; it came at a time when the USOC was especially vulnerable and in disarray because of management and leadership turnover and scandal.

The issue was blamed by some as a huge reason that bids by New York for 2012 and Chicago for 2016 were thrown under the bus by the IOC in early round voting.

But now, it's all warmth and positive feelings between the USOC and the IOC.

"This is a very happy moment," Rogge said. "This agreement will definitely strengthen both sides."


Probst called it a "terrific arrangement for both the IOC and the USOC, a great outcome for the Olympic Movement around the world."

IOC vice-president Thomas Bach, a leading contender to succeed Rogge when he steps down in 2013, approached Probst in the lobby of the convention hall and said: "Hey, partner. Congratulations," according to reports.

Blackmun, who inherited the mess of a decade lost when he came aboard in 2010, was typically quiet in the aftermath of one of the most significant moments in the grand history of the USOC, which was founded in 1894 in a smoke-filled New York City club.

He and Probst (pictured above together) have travelled the world for the last two years, forging new friendships and rebuilding others lost. They have created a new image for the USOC as a partner in the Olympic Family.

Whatever.

The IOC and the USOC, but most importantly American athletes, are all winners.

And Blackmun can come home to Colorado Springs, maybe this weekend, and enjoy a glass of wine and a nap before he leaves again in the run-up to the Games in London.

He now joins another Colorado Springs guy, USOC President Emeritus Bill Hybl, in the ranks of those who stood up for the USOC when it needed them the most.

Mike Moran was the chief spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee for a quarter of a century, through 13 Summer and Winter Olympic Games, from Lake Placid in 1980 to Salt Lake City in 2002. He joined the USOC in 1978 and served as the senior communications counsellor for NYC 2012, New York City's Olympic bid group, from 2003-2005. He is now a media consultant.

A little over 24 hours ago, I was approached and asked "do you want to speak to someone about yoga?" It was an easy question to answer. Yes. I certainly did want to speak to them. I had many questions that I wanted to ask.

Why are they at SportAccord for one? How is yoga even a sport? And if it is, how is it judged? For most, yoga is a bunch of people moving very slowly on the spot in a gymnasium. I'm sure many people will be equally perplexed at the concept of it as a sport, but listen to Rajashree Choudhury and Raj Bhavsar, the two people at the front of yoga's push for recognition, and it starts to make sense.

Choudhury is the President of the International Yoga Sports Federation (IYSF) and a former Indian yoga champion who won successive titles between 1979 and 1983.

"I was a champion in India but there were no world competitions," she says. "It has been maybe over 40 years for me doing this."


Bhavsar (pictured above) is an American Olympic gymnast who won bronze in Beijing four years ago. He is also a double world champion and became involved with the IYSF after NBC did a feature on him, leading to a call to enquire whether he was interested in becoming involved with promoting the sport worldwide. "As a gymnast you stretch, and performing an aspect of yoga is one of the oldest forms of physical movement and a precursor to any larger form of exercise." Bhavsar adds: "I see a lot of similarities between the sport of yoga and gymnastics."

To understand yoga, first is the history. The first evidence found of people practising yoga actually goes back to around 3000 BC, as archaeological evidence from the time on stones found shows people in yoga poses.  For some added context, this was around the time of the construction of Stonehenge in the south of England. This probably makes it the world's oldest sport.

Originating in its modern form from India, Yoga first started to be practised in the western world however far more recently, in the 19th century. Swami Vivekananda (pictured below) took a tour of the United States and Europe in the 1890s to spread its appeal.


Now, yoga is popular all over the world, as it is said to help fight against stress and illness, as well as a variety of other potential ailments. OK, so how does it work as a sport?

Essentially, each of the seven postures a 'player' strikes in competition is judged out of 10. They can be given an additional score of '0 to 10' for their overall grace. So 80 points is the maximum any competitor can be given, while at junior level it is 70.

Each posture must be performed within three minutes in sequence, with any postures not completed in the time allowed resulting in zero points for each lost pose. Judges will assess a range of factors, including balance, strength, flexibility and timing. Conversely, wobbling, hesitation or reversals can lead to point deductions. And if a posture is attempted twice, then only five points can be awarded at most.


So what is its appeal? "I not only fixed some of my physical injuries and setbacks in loosening up my leg joints but that kept me training in the gym for longer hours," explains Bhavsar. "I saw all my teammates who after three or four hours were done and could not handle any more; I was able to go on.

"Mentally, it is discipline and focus. You stare at yourself in a mirror and it demands focus. I was delivering good food for my soul, it is the all encompassing aspect of being a solid human being, and that is why I love yoga. It is one of the truest forms of athleticism." Bhavsar also attributes "50 per cent" of his success in gymnastics to yoga.

Another key aspect of yoga's appeal lies in its simplicity. Most people over the world probably do some basic form of yoga each and every day, in all kinds of places. Including the home – and how many other sports would we be able to play at home? As Choudhury says, "You cannot kick a ball in the house – how many times have a kid's parents told them they will break something."


It's a leveller, in the same way that football is, as the costs to entry are so low. But as Choudhury (pictured above) points out, in yoga you do not need a field, a ball or a stadium either. This year, 24 countries will be going to the Yoga Championships in Los Angeles, and the 46-year-old explains that one of the attractions of the sport is how unpredictable it is with new countries coming through – the United States, Japan and Mexico have all enjoyed success in recent times.

And so, then, what precisely are they doing at SportAccord, here at the Québec City Convention Centre? "The ultimate aim is to be introduced as a sport in the Olympic Movement," says Choudhury. No pressure then. The first steps, she adds, are "the World Games and the Pan American Games." The World Games could be achievable, with rugby sevens relinquishing its spot after 2013 to make their Olympic bow at Rio 2016. That means Wroclaw in 2017 would be their first chance to appear at the quadrennial event.

"Very soon we will be [in the World Games], that is why we are here," she adds. "We are very organised with our world federation, right now we have to challenge people's minds about yoga and understand it. Hopefully it will be very soon."

I would say I'm a convert, but it turns out I was already a fan – just without realising it. The mission now for Choudhury and Bhavsar is to spread that message, and maybe, one day, they could take their place at an Olympic Games.

David Gold is a reporter for insidethegames

I arrived in Midland, located in the centre of the American state of Michigan, with no prejudices as I prepared for my visit to the headquarters of Dow Chemical Company (pictured below).

Since signing their sponsorship with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2010, the second largest chemical manufacturer in the world has faced a barrage of protests from campaigners looking to associate Dow with the Bhopal 1984 disaster that saw a toxic gas leak from a chemical plant kill thousands of people in one of the world's worst industrial accidents.

Following the Bhopal disaster, Union Carbide, who were involved with the plant, settled its liabilities with the Indian Government by paying $470 million (£310 million/€351 million) to Bhopal victims and even though Dow bought Union Carbide several years after the compensation deal, they have come under fire from protesters who say their Olympic sponsorship money should go to victims, not the Games.

It was a story I was obviously aware of.

I've now heard several different versions of it, but I pulled into Dow's headquarters, for my tour of the facility, with a blank sheet of paper and ready to listen.


Joining me on the tour was no less than Dow's vice-president of Olympic Operations George Hamilton (pictured below, right), who himself had a fascinating story to tell.

He joined Dow in 1977 as a seller of plastics to the automotive industry and has held a variety of positions in sales, marketing, application development and business operations during his 35 years with the company.

Shortly after meeting with Hamilton, I was taken on a whistle-stop tour of some of Dow's laboratories, where I was shown the advanced technology that has gone into making the London 2012 Olympic Stadium wrap, sponsored for £7 million ($11 million/€8 million), that will encase the key venue – the Olympic Stadium – during the Games.

I wish I could recite all the information I was given for you science buffs out there, but unfortunately, due to a combination of jetlag and the fact that science was never my strongest subject, some of the technicalities were lost on me.

But I did just about manage to get the gist of what was going on.

The wrap has been designed in groundbreaking fashion to be completely sustainable, with 100 per cent of the material being reusable. I was told that one possible idea is to turn the special material into tents for the Red Cross following the conclusion of the Games.

I had a chance to feel the wrap material, and to be honest to a mere journalist like me, it didn't feel overly different from an ordinary plastic sheet. However, I can assure you that some of the complex science and chemistry involved in making, perhaps, the most sustainable material in history has taken months of work by several geniuses. Come London 2012, I will probably be one of the few to realise that the plastic surrounding the Olympic Stadium is actually a hugely complicated piece of sustainable kit – consisting of various different particles that I have already forgotten the name of.


The point of the wrap, Hamilton explained, is to demonstrate how Dow's chemistry and technology contributes to sustainability. Their innovations are actually in the walls and ceilings of almost every Games venue; the wrap is more of exhibition, if you will.

"There are too many applications that have Dow chemistry at London 2012 for me to discuss, but none of them are as visible or as iconic as the wrap," Hamilton said.

"It is great that it is going to encircle the most iconic, visual property of the London Games and everybody who sees the Games, either in person or on television, will at some point see that wrap. Although there is obviously no branding on it, everybody is going to know that is the wrap provided by Dow.

"But it is not just the fact that it is produced by Dow that is the most important thing; it is what is behind why we did it. We did it to demonstrate a more environmentally friendly way of bringing innovation and solving a problem. The wrap is just one area where we can apply our scientists and demonstrate our belief that science and humanity can solve any problem. The wrap does give us that great visual and visible ability to tell that story."

The wrap's colour, I am informed, will be added by London 2012 to fit with the "look and feel" of the Games, and will be unveiled shortly before the Opening Ceremony on July 27.


More laboratories, more explanations about the technology involved in the wrap, and then finally, a surprising but pleasant trip to Dow's special InVision Zero home (pictured above) down an ordinary looking road full of houses in Midland. I'm guessing, you might be wondering what an InVision Zero home actually is?

In a nutshell, Dow recently teamed with Cobblestone Homes to make a net-zero energy home to educate the public and homebuilders about the possibilities of energy efficiency. It uses approximately 70 per cent less energy than a conventional home. It is not at all related to the Olympics and Paralympics, but similar to the wrap, it is an exhibition piece from Dow to show how their green technology can help the world.

It was here that I got to ask Hamilton that burning question about Bhopal and the disaster (victims pictured below).

"The Bhopal issue is a terrible incident," he said.

"It was one of the worst industrial incidents in history. Many, many people tragically died. Many people are still suffering. I get it. I really do get it. I feel for those people who have to deal with that. But to go from there, to saying it is Dow's issue, is irresponsible.

"There is a clear line between Union Carbide entering into an agreement with the with Carbide India Limited, which is the company that actually designed, built, owned and operated that plant in Bhopal. Union Carbide was an investor. They entered into a settlement agreement, overseen by the Supreme Court of India, reviewed by Supreme Court of India, and upheld twice.

"Union Carbide divested all of their investment in Carbide India Limited in 1994 and sold it. There is a company that bought the plant and it is still there operating. Union Carbide exited India and Dow purchased them seven year afterwards.


"So for people to try and associate and bring Dow back into this issue, it is irresponsible.

"I feel bad for that issue personally. It is a terrible issue. But it is not Dow's issue."

And after everything, was it worth becoming a Worldwide Olympic Sponsor up to 2020?

"Even through all of the issues with Bhopal inappropriately being associated to Dow, we never slowed down in our commitment to and contributions to the Games," said Hamilton.

"The Olympics touches people in a way that I don't know any other organisation does. Using sport, to bring the world together, to make the world better. Dow is about using our chemistry and humanity to solve many of the world's problems so we think our objectives and what we stand for connects very, very well. I have now had the chance to see how the Olympic Family works together to make a successful Games and they work collaboratively in a way that I have not really seen in any other organisation. The Games makes a lasting impact both on people and areas. Knowing that we are part of that; it is pretty great."

With just an afternoon at the Dow headquarters, it was a short trip to Midland.

As a journalist, I have reported on this issue and on the protests for some time.

I will continue to do so, so I will stay neutral.

But what I will say following my trip to the state of Michigan is that Dow does make a strong case in its defence; and they do appear to be trying to do some good for the Games.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames

They say about young ladies that it's the quiet ones who often turn out to be the tigresses, and they certainly don't come much quieter than Savannah Marshall.

The shy six-footer from Hartlepool (pictured below) may be a woman of few words – that's why they call her "The Silent Assassin" – but her fists certainly do any necessary talking as she demonstrated on her 21st birthday last Saturday when she made history as Britain's first-ever female world boxing champion.

Her victory at middleweight (75kg category) over Elena Vystropova of Azerbaijan indicates she may well be Britain's biggest hit when women's boxing makes its Olympic debut in July in what will be the most significant female fight-fest since girls first swapped lip gloss for gumshields.

Marshall is one of the trio of battling Boadiceas now qualified for the London Games, alongside the Leeds flyweight Nicola Adams who won a world silver for the second time, and bronze medalist lightweight Natasha Jonas from Liverpool.

All three could now reach the Olympic podium. Marshall will start as favourite while Adams is capable of reversing the decision she lost in Quinhuangdao on Saturday as this time she will have home advantage instead of China's Ren Cancan.

Jonas has the most difficult task as she is in the same division as the world's outstanding female fighter, Ireland's phenomenal Katie Taylor, tipped to be the star of the Olympic tournament.


But it could be that Marshall will steal Taylor's thunder – although you won't hear her dare suggest this, because she doesn't say much at all.

It isn't that she is timid or taciturn. She's simply painfully shy, preferring the gift of the jab to that of the gab, a rarity in boxing where the ability to jaw as well as war is inherently part of the game.

Marshall has put on hold a proposed Teesside University course in sports science to concentrate on her boxing career. "I just live for boxing, there's nothing else," she says. "I never did much of going out and that stuff so I don't really miss it now."

For her, this is quite a mouthful. While we might not hear much more from this lanky, likely lass with fire in her fists, we will certainly be hearing quite a lot more about her as London looms. Her silence could be golden.

It is heartening to see how women boxers have punched a hole through old prejudices – even the Boxing Writers' Club, the last remaining all-male bastion in sports journalism, has at last reversed a 60-year ban on  admitting women to  its annual dinner (albeit on a split decision), something for which, as a former chairman, I have consistently campaigned.


A timely, if overdue, move in Olympic year. Moreover, the club will also have its first female as principal speaker at the awards dinner in October – Tory MP Charlotte Leslie (pictured above), chair of the All Parliamentary Boxing group.

Welcome to the real world, chaps, increasingly a woman's one in sport.

All in all, this has been a pretty good week for boxing after the battering it has taken of late.

Recently we have seen the world's finest fighter, Floyd Mayweather jnr, heading for jail after assaulting a former girlfriend; Lamont Peterson failing a drugs test before a scheduled world title return with Amir Khan; and those ungracious merchants of menace, Dereck Chisora and David Haye, booked to resume their affray in an unwelcome Olympics curtain-raiser at Upton Park, which suggests the professional sport may well be beyond anyone's control, not least that of the Boxing Board.

Thankfully, a few hours after the heartening news from China on Saturday we had another welcome indication that boxing is not just about hooks and crosses, but swings and roundabouts.


Former Olympian David Price, the big Scouser who won super-heavyweight bronze as British captain in Beijing 2008, graduated to the British and Commonwealth pro title and impressively pole-axed Sam Sexton in four rounds at Liverpool's Aintree Racecourse.

This was one of the most significant results in the domestic heavyweight division for some time because, like his promoter Frank Maloney, I believed the Klitschko-sized Price is developing into potentially the best British heavyweight since Lennox Lewis.

Price (pictured above, with Maloney on left), who has now ko'd 11 of his 13 opponents, looks every inch of his six feet eight inches frame as a future world heavyweight champion.

He has the punch, the temperament and the pleasant, clean-cut demeanour to give the bruised old game the makeover it so desperately needs.

Providing he isn't rushed into fighting either of the Klitschkos, with whom he has sparred regularly and who, understandably, would like to take him on while he is still learning the ropes.

The one downside is that it is an indictment of the state of boxing when a British heavyweight championship, the first in Liverpool in over a century, merits little more than a passing mention in the sport-in-brief columns of the public prints whereas Chisora and Haye continue to generate acres of dubiously deserved publicity.

No matter. I can offer another antidote to those sickened by recent events in heavyweight boxing.

On Monday I attended the London premier of one of the most enthralling fight movies ever made.

Called simply Klitschko, it is brilliantly documented story of what makes the Ukrainian brothers, Vitali and Wladimir, arguably the most remarkable sports figures of our time.

Forget Rocky, this is for real, an illuminating insight into the dual world domination of the heavyweight division by the multi-lingual sons of a former Soviet Air Force colonel who combine intellect, sensibility and dignity and, in homeland freedom-fighter Vitali's case a political conscience, with destructive power in the ring.

There's no sex, no sleaze, no scandal – and no actors – but there's poignancy, warm-hearted humour and considerable legitimised violence which, like the blood, isn't faked.

It is the unique story of brotherly glove, their literal ups and downs from a harsh, brainwashed communist upbringing to ring riches in the West via Chernobyl (the effects of which eventually killed their father) and the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, where Wladimir won super-heavyweight gold.

Some of the close-ups are not for the squeamish, notably the cut eye sustained by Vitali against Lennox Lewis which required 180 stitches.

Mobbed on their red-carpet ring walk at Leicester Square, they are the modern Cain and Abel. But unlike the Biblical pugs, they will never fight each other, revealing how they turned down a $100 million (£63.4 million/€78.6 million) offer from Don King do so. "Remember you have the same blood flowing through your veins," their mother had begged them.

So the giant siblings restrict their rivalry to chess, where they invariably fight a draw!

Both have PhDs and unprecedented brainpower to match their brawn and business acumen.

The film, now on general release and available on DVD from next Monday, may not change your mind about boxing – but it will about boxers.

It is in the genre of the Rumble in the Jungle epic When We Were Kings. The difference is they still are.

However, it is back to the bittersweet stuff this weekend, when the redoubtable Carl Froch – whose trainer Robert McCracken also masterminds both the GB men's and women's squads – attempts to become a three-times world super-middleweight champion against undefeated IBF title-holder Lucien Bute.

Hopefully home advantage in Nottingham should give Froch the edge over the unbeaten Romanian-born Canadian in the Sky-televised bout on Saturday.

The night before, 40-year-old Audley Harrison surely reaches the end of a tortuous road that began top of the Olympic podium 12 years ago in Sydney.

He pitches up at Brentwood, Essex, against an Iraqi heavyweight named Ali Adams. No TV cameras there for Audley, last seen on screen trying to stay upright in Strictly Come Dancing. Now he's strictly an opponent. How sad.

But that's blow business for you. Swings and roundabouts.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world titles from Atlanta to Zaire.

Usain Bolt has been dubbed "the man who saved athletics".

And while there are those who might try to argue the point, there is no doubt  that the brilliant Jamaican has reignited public interest in a sport which had slipped into the doldrums, largely bereft of personalities and operating under an ever-present haze of suspicion of cheating through doping.

Bolt changed all that. His world record breaking performances at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships in Berlin ushered track and field into a new era. Its totem was a man who was not simply a stupendous athlete but undeniably cool as well. Here at last was an athlete the kids could identify with, a man who delivered a DJ set in Berlin after securing his dold haul.

Bolt's brilliance makes him a magnet for media attention and his personality and youth appeal make him pure marketing gold. On the back of it he signed a world record personal endorsement deal with Puma and has since developed a portfolio of work including that for Virgin Media in the United Kingdom where he appears on television spots, online and in print alongside the company's high profile boss Richard Branson extolling the speed of its broadband service.


So far, so good, but it is worth looking beyond the immediate and obvious at the impact which Bolt (pictured above) is having on the world of sport and sports marketing.

Bolt is a cult figure and has become a massive brand in his own right. He has also arrived on the scene at exactly the right time for his brand to be developed through social as well as traditional media, making him an extremely attractive vehicle for sponsors. This is where the difficulty creeps in. Bolt as an individual is probably a more valuable asset for brands than the sport he graces, potentially putting him in commercial competition with the IAAF.

Of course brands are well aware of some dangers of focusing their strategies and spending on individual athletes.  The dangers of an athlete being blighted by personal scandal - a la Tiger Woods - or suffering a massive and unexplained loss of form each carry dangers for the sponsor brand.


But in a changed media environment where the power of communications lies in the hands of the talent, personality deals are becoming more prevalent and valuable.

So just imagine a situation where Bolt is not the only superstar in track and field. Say there are 10 athletes whose personalities and talent enable them to become established as major brands in their own right. Each would have the capability to hoover up commercial deals making life ever more complicated for the governing body which sets out to sell deals around its own events.

The question is why a brand would want to become a partner of an event when high profile competitors are bringing their own sponsors into the picture, cluttering the environment and almost inevitably cutting across event sponsors' category exclusivity.


While a governing body has the ability to control these clashes and this confusion when it comes to individual event promoters of host cities/Organising Committees, this is not the case with individual athletes who, because of social media, have the power and are in the ascendancy.

Patrick Nally is the entrepreneur and specialist consultant widely acknowledged as the founding father of modern sports marketing. He is arguably the principal pioneer of today's sports business industry.

Seats A1 and A2 on the front row of 17.00 BA Flight 2012 from Athens attracted unusual levels of interest this afternoon. It was the occupants causing all the fuss - four golden lanterns, each bearing a little yellow portion of an Olympic Flame bound for Britain en route to the igniting of the London 2012 Games.

The last container of the Flame, which is traditionally split for the purposes of prudence and practicality, had been carried aboard from through the rain which had been drumming down upon the troubled land of Greece for two days. The bearer was the Princess Royal, described yesterday by Sport and Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson as "one of the unsung heroes" of British sport in general, and the London 2012 Games in particular.

The Royal progress up the steps to the yellow and orange liveried "Fire Fly" – or, as the Mayor of London called it at the previous night's post-ceremonial bash at the British Embassy, the "custard coloured comet" – was witnessed by a BBC news crew perched on a gantry, soaked in the line of duty.

As the Princess Royal took her place across the aisle from the precious cargo, the other VIPS, including Robertson, Boris Johnson, Sebastian Coe and that very antithesis of the unsung hero, David Beckham – plain David, not Sir, as the man on the tannoy had announced a little before time during the Handover ceremony  – packed their hand baggage into the overhead lockers, for all the world like ordinary mortals.

"Unless you happen to be an Olympic flame I'm afraid there's no smoking on this flight," japed the Captain as the plane prepared for the first of its destinations – RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall, whence the Torch would start on its 70-day journey towards the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, passing, according to the official information, within 10 miles of 95 per cent of the UK population.

It had been the Princess Royal sitting amidst her own and the Flame's dedicated Metropolitan Police guards clad in pale grey, Olympic branded tracksuits, who had received the Torch from the president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee in the marble marvel of the Panathenaic Stadium.

But it was the lean, tanned, smiling, super-coiffed figure sitting three rows behind her who would be involved in the significant Torch action at the other end – the man whom the British Ambassador had described ruefully the previous evening as "still more popular than anyone else in the country".

The very mention of Beckham's name had perked up the bedraggled Athenians who had attended the previous evening's ceremony, raising cheers that rose above the polite level accorded to all the other VIPs announced. It was nice to know the Greeks have forgiven him for that England free kick just over a decade ago.


His presence at the Embassy – silent, smiling – had set the marquee in which the VIP speeches had been made into a surging ferment. His exit was slowed by a mass of suited and booted attendees whose inhibitions about pushing, elbowing and taking lots of pictures on their mobile phones diminished in proportion to the patient superstar's distance from them.

A little later in the evening, one male guest maintained loudly to a group of others: "He was lovely with the kids, too..." There could surely have been only one person to whom that remark applied.

Earlier in the day, Beckham had visited children at the Experimental University School of Athens, which sounded like an artistic movement but was in fact a compact and relatively long-established educational establishment near the centre of the city.

Before his arrival, the media stood around in a courtyard playground surrounded by flats, cramped but sheltered from teeming rain under awnings and umbrellas. Children in red, yellow, blue and green shirts, all wearing white caps bearing the logo Olympic Truce, stood ready for football action with their famous guest. Inside the main school building, a group of young girls in dancing outfits awaited their own moment to shine.

After a while, the children started bouncing up and down on the spot, having given up any hope of remaining dry. Rain began to pool in the untenanted goal at the edge of the courtyard playground – and it was announced that all football and dancing was cancelled. What a shame.

A poster in one of the classrooms read: "Your friend from London, UK is coming to visit you in Greece. Make suggestions about things to do in Athens."

Sadly, their recently arrived friend, wearing an orange red t-shirt, tracksuit bottoms and the requisite adidas trainers had only one thing left to do once he had had a brief chat with them in their classroom, and that was to say goodbye and leave. But at least he could claim there was important work he needed to do.

He had confessed to the media during the trip that he was a little concerned about his forthcoming task of lighting the cauldron at the British end with the Torch. "I hope it doesn't go out," he said with an uneasy smile.

In the departure lounge at Athens airport, as the crew posed for a serious of increasingly athletic posed pictures with the golden Olympic Torch – empty, of course, at this point – one of the designers of those Torches, Gary Lansdowne of Tecosim, had explained how the special method by which the propane tank operated meant that would not happen.

"Once it's lit, you can wave it around like a Jedi sword and it won't go out," he said. "I've tried it."

On arrival at the location of RNAS Culdrose, the destination, the plane circled for a while to ensure perfect synchronisation with the plan – fitting for a Games that always seems to have had time to spare.

Now we were taxi-ing in. A small, very British crowd – excited young faces, waving hands, flags, a marquee, a brass band. The Princess and VIPs at the front made themselves ready for an exit that was going live to the nation via BBC. Beckham stood, gaunt under the tan, looking like a player in a tunnel.

Then the Princess Royal was out, with Nick Clegg waiting to greet her, and the noise – enthusiastic rather than overwhelming – rose. The Princess Royal stepped gingerly towards the waiting plinth and cauldron, bearing the lantern in her left hand like Florence Nightingale.

The flame looked perilously small. But none of Beckham's fears were realised as he first lit the torch, then the cauldron, before holding the lit torch up for general view. No upsets. Another moment for him to shine. A new moment for others...

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here. 

No-one escaped the downpour, not the Princess Royal, David Beckham or Lord Coe, But nothing could dampen the enthusiasm as London received the Olympic Flame in the Panathenaic Stadium where weightlifter Launceston Elliot became Britain's first Olympic champion all of 116 years ago.

Although London will host the Games for an unprecedented third time, this particular ceremony was a first for London. The  flame is traditionally taken to Athens before it is passed onto the next host city, but  this did not happen in 1948, because of civil unrest in Greece.

Although a stop in the Greek capital had originally  been planned, organisers were forced to cancel plans at the eleventh hour. The  flame therefore headed by sea from Katokolo to Corfu and then to the Italian port of Bari to begin its overland journey across Europe. Only once since has there not been a handover ceremony, curiously that was in 1984 after a dispute between the Greeks and the organisers of the Los Angeles Games who wanted to charge $3000 to run a kilometre.

Though some remain unhappy that runners in the UK will be charged to retain their torches, logistical details make it an expensive undertaking. For example, there were 16 vehicles in the convoy just in Greece.

Beneath darkening skies, the impressive Presidential guard of Evzones paraded into the stadium wearing the traditional Fustanella or pleated skirts. The Athens Philharmonic Band sounded the Presidential welcome for Karolos Papoulias and offered a pleasing link back to the first Games of the modern era. Their predecessors had been part of the massed orchestra which premiered the Olympic hymn by Spiros Samaras. Here it was performed by a children's choir.


Children were a key theme throughout, just as they had been in London's bid for the Games themselves. Local youngsters trooped giant Greek and Union flags into the stadium.

They were joined by five other Greek children, all of whom had participated in ceremonies at  Olympia. These including brothers Karolos and Errikos Tsezanas who presented olive branches to their British counterparts, before five white doves were released in a gesture to symbolise the desire for peace.

Given the conditions, it was probably a smart choice of the organisers to choice Greece's world lightweight rowing champions Christina Giatzitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou to carry the flame into the stadium.

Hellenic Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos might well have found his background as a water polo player of use, had conditions got any worse.

As it was, a rainbow appeared as legendary Greek weightlifter Pyrros Dimas joined China's triple Olympic gymnastics gold medallist Li Ning to light the cauldron. They had been chosen to symbolise the continuity from Athens to Beijing to London. This time, after his exploits on a trapeze to light the cauldron in the Birdsnest, Li Ning kept his feet on the ground.


The Princess Royal became the first member of the Royal family to hold a 2012 torch, though the Queen used the 1948 model to light the first celebratory beacon at her Silver Jubilee in 1977.

Stadium announcer Alexis Kostalas, a regular Greek television host of the Eurovision Song Contest, even conferred a knighthood on David Beckham who escorted the flame from the stadium, but no-one really minded.

Then to the sound of traditional Greek drums which recalled the Opening Ceremony of Athens 2004, former World and Olympic windsurfing champion Nikos Kaklamanakis led the crowd in a rallying call for the Greek Olympic team of 2012. They will lead all the other teams into the Olympic Stadium at the Opening ceremony in London, just as they have done every year since 1928.

Philip Barker, one of the world's most renowned sports historians, is the author of The History of the Olympic Torch, published by Amberley last month. To order a copy click here.