Mismatch: a highly skilled executive has been told to place medals on cushions (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
The selection of 70,000 Olympic volunteers from 250,000 applicants has resulted in some curious placements. One highly skilled multi-lingual executive who deals regularly with royalty and heads of state was offered a role in the protocol area. The role was to place the gold, silver and bronze medals on the presentation cushions, far from the VIP areas of sensitivity, in an east London warehouse.
Better late than never
London 2012 Olympic Games organisers have secured nearly all their £2.15 billion revenue but insiders say that further down the organisational tree, some of Locog’s departments have budget issues.
Some sports divisions recruiting staff have told interviewees their start dates might be as early as March – or as late as June depending on cash flows.
Irish eyes smile on Lewers
England men’s hockey team head to the Euro Championships as defending champions, and have a new ‘rookie’ team member in Iain Lewers, the former star Irish player who has sat out of competition for two years specifically to qualify for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics. Lewers can now play for England and the first match in the championships is, yes, England v Ireland.
Fast, but not fasting
British distance medal hope Mo Farah normally fasts for Ramadan, but this time he has postponed some of the daylight fasting until after the Daegu World Championships to be at his strongest physically.
“I’m going to fast as soon as I finish my season. When I finish Daegu I will take my break and the days I’ve missed I will catch up then. It’s important that you stay hydrated and eat well – I don’t want to change anything, even have a shave!”
That’s not the way to do it
London 2012 organisers have taken a few hits about the Olympic Route Network and disruption to travel routes during the Games, so no surprise that they have booked live advertisement breaks in a local Punch and Judy puppet show at Weymouth.
The puppets act out increasingly bizarre ways of getting around the sailing venue during the time of the Games. But more bizarre was the official comment from ‘Mr Punch’. “I’ve already told Judy to look into renting bikes for next summer — we have to be on time for our fans.”
Curious then that the sailors competing in the Olympic test event this week have been banned from riding their bikes to the venue because of health and safety rules.
Communication breakdown
The British Rowing and Locog organisers of the World Junior Championships at Eton breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday as the first six races went ahead without a hitch, only to take it back when there was an unexpected communications equipment malfunction yesterday morning.
For unknown reasons, insulation around the cabling for some of the communications network had melted overnight on Wednesday and caused a complete breakdown, leaving spectators and listeners to the streaming website coverage unable to hear commentary from the cars following the races.
The commentators eventually restarted using an alternative radio system. Racing was unaffected, as was the on-course video coverage.
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