GAMES

The flame for the London 2012 torch relay and Olympic Games has been lit during a ceremony in Olympia, Greece.

It was kindled by actress Ino Menegaki, playing a high priestess, who caught the sun's rays in a parabolic mirror.

The flame went out briefly before being relit and transferred to the first torchbearer. The ceremony took place amid the Temple of Hera ruins, by the ancient Olympic Games stadium.

The flame flies to Britain on Friday 18 May for a 70-day relay around the UK .

At the temple ruins, actresses playing Olympic priestesses danced and men dressed as heralds put on a display symbolising athletic strength before the fire was ignited using the mirror.

The flame - an Olympic symbol meant to represent purity because it comes directly from the sun - was placed in an urn and taken to the stadium where the ancient Olympic Games were held.

It was transferred to a Greek torch which then "kissed" the London 2012 torch of Liverpool-born Greek world champion 10km swimmer Spyros Gianniotis.

He began to run with it on the first leg of its week-long journey around Greece.

Our correspondent James Pearce reported that the flame briefly went out while being held in an archaic pot at the side of the stadium, but the ceremony passed otherwise without incident in a country battling political and economic turmoil.

Chairman of the London games organisers, Locog, Lord Coe, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge and Hellenic Olympic Committee president Spyros Capralos were in Olympia for the moment that marks the countdown to London 2012.

Lord Coe told the BBC: "Today is the rallying call to the athletes - the best athletes of their generation - to come to London. That in itself is a big moment because it's the biggest sporting event in the calendar."

Liverpool-born Greek swimmer Spyros Gianniotis was first to run with the torch
In his speech to assembled Greek and Olympic dignitaries and a crowd gathered on the slopes of the stadium he said: "We are reminded this morning of sport's enduring and universal appeal, and the timeless Olympic values that transcend history and geography; values which, I believe, in these challenging times are more relevant than at any time before and particularly to young people the world over.

"In 1948, shortly after the Second World War, my predecessor stood where I am today and made the first tentative steps in turning the world from war to sport.

"We find ourselves in challenging times again and turn to sport once more to connect the world in a global celebration of achievement and inspiration."

'Peace symbol'

Mr Rogge said that like the messengers in ancient times who shared news of the Olympic truce - the laying down of arms for the Games - "the torchbearers who carry this flame to London will spread the message of sport's capacity to promote peace and to make our world a better place".

He said: "We have come to the ancestral home of the Olympic movement to light a flame that will soon cast its glow over the entire world.

"The flame that we kindle here, from the pure rays of the sun, is a powerful symbol of the tradition and values that underlie our movement.

"It is a beacon for the Olympic values of friendship, excellence and respect... a symbol of fellowship and peace."

The flame passed to first British torchbearer, Alex Loukos, with a torch "kiss"
First torchbearer Mr Gianniotis passed the torch on to Alex Loukos, 19, the first British torchbearer , a boxer and, in 2005, one of a delegation of east London schoolchildren who travelled to Singapore as part of London's final bid for the Games.

Mr Loukos said: "It feels like I'm coming full circle.

"I went out to Singapore and now I'm here, sort of kicking it off. It's a big honour and a privilege and I'm just trying to take it all in."

The torch is due to travel 2,900km (1,800 miles) through Greece, carried by 500 torchbearers, on a route circling the country and travelling out to the islands of Crete and Kastelorizo.

The Greek relay starts in Olympia and finishes in Athens, taking in Crete and Kastelorizo
Greece has seen huge demonstrations of social unrest in previous months, sparked by financial chaos and efforts to reach a deal with the European Union on a bail-out for its economy.

Talks to try to form a new government have been ongoing since elections on Sunday failed to produce a conclusive result.

And while Olympic leaders gathered for the pristine ceremony on Thursday, the economic crisis has hit Greek sport and games preparation.

Some Athens 2004 venues have fallen into disrepair and the country's athletics federation has suspended domestic events amid severe national funding cuts .

London 2012 - One extraordinary year

The BBC's home of 2012: Latest Olympic news, sport, culture, torch relay, video and audio

Several international companies including BMW have stepped in to help fund the torch's journey around Greece.

The Greek leg of the 2012 torch relay ends at the Panathenaic Stadium, Athens, on Thursday 17 May, where the flame is handed over to London Olympic Games organisers.

The stadium hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

The last torchbearers in Greece will be Greek weightlifter Pyrros Dimas and Chinese gymnast Li Ning - who lit the cauldron at the Beijing 2008 opening ceremony.

The 2008 Olympic torch relay, which travelled the globe, was dogged by pro-Tibet, democracy and anti-China protests.

The 2012 flame will travel straight from Greece to the UK on 18 May, flying into the Royal Navy airbase at Culdrose, near Helston in Cornwall.

The torch will travel 1,8000 miles through Greece and 8,000 in the UK
The UK torch relay begins at Land's End the following morning when three times Olympic gold medal-winning sailor Ben Ainslie will be the first to carry the torch on British soil.

He wrote in the Daily Telegraph: "It is a privilege for me to be asked but, more than anything, it is an exciting moment for the country.

"The arrival of the torch on home soil really brings home how close the Games are."

Olympic gold medal-winning track cyclist Sir Chris Hoy will carry the Olympic flame in Manchester on 23 June , he announced on Twitter.

Carried by 8,000 torchbearers, the Barber Osgerby-designed torch will cover 8,000 miles across all of the country's nations and regions.

It is due to reach the Olympic Stadium in Stratford on 27 July to light the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

For the ancient Greeks, fire was a divine element believed to have been stolen from the Gods.

A flame was first lit at the modern Olympics at the Amsterdam 1928 summer games, but it was not until Berlin 1936 that a torch relay route was set out from Greece to Germany.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

By Claire Heald

The Court of Arbitration for Sport's (CAS) ruling against the British Olympic Association's (BOA) policy of lifetime bans for serious doping offenders has polarised opinion within British sporting circles.

The BBC pundit and former world 110 metres hurdles champion Colin Jackson says he has "no doubt" that Dwain Chambers (pictured top and below), who served a two-year doping ban, will now be part of the British Olympic team in London.

"Dwain is in the top tier of sprinters in our country," he told BBC Sport.

"There is no doubt that he will be at the Olympics."

Jackson added: "Fans are used to him being in the team so already he has been accepted and it has no relevance to the other athletes."

But Jackson could not be more wrong. It is clearly of relevance to many athletes and former athletes.

European and Commonwealth 110m hurdles champion Andy Turner tweeted:  "Either make lifetime ban for drug cheats worldwide or scrap it completely.

"The world won't follow Britain's rules so I'm happy 4 Dwain.

"I know my opinion will annoy people but I don't care.

"I see convicted drug cheats competing on the world stage all the time"

Chambers was Britain's fastest 100m runner in 2011 and the 33-year-old won bronze in the 60m at the World Indoor Championships in Turkey last month.

Fellow British sprinter Tyrone Edgar has welcomed the possibility of Chambers running at this year's Olympics.

Edgar was part of the relay squad at the 2008 Olympics and the 2009 World Championships, where Britain won bronze.

"Good news we can now have D," he said on Twitter.

"Chambers in our 4x100m for Olympic Games.

"We need all our big guns running if we gonna win a medal in London."

Daniel Caines, the former world indoor 400m champion and past Olympian, also tweeted in favour of Chambers and others affected by the latest ruling: "Anyone else wanna argue lol... goalposts need to be the same for everyone.

"Let's all change the record and wish the athletes well."

Chambers' friend and Team GB team-mate, Christian Malcolm, said: "He has served his time now."

Malcolm, the 2010 European silver and Commonwealth bronze medallist, paid a considerable personal price for Chambers' cheating.

The 32-year-old and Chambers made up half the GB 4x100m relay team, also including Darren Campbell and Marlon Devonish, that raced to silver at the 2003 World Championships in Paris.

But the British quartet had its medals taken away as a consequence of anchor-leg runner Chambers testing positive for a banned substance six months later.

"When he first failed the drug test I was the first person he called," Malcolm told the BBC Sport Wales TV programme.

"But what I heard in his voice was the disappointment and the fear.

"I was angry at him but I knew he was hurting and needed me.

"He came to stay with me for six to eight weeks during that period to get away from the media.

"He apologised and we had our discussions, and I have forgiven him for what he has done."

Malcolm, hoping to qualify for his fourth Olympic Games in London, added: "He was misled at the time.

"He was young, vulnerable and has learned from a hard mistake.

"Dwain has a good heart but went through a stupid period in his life where he was naive.

"There should be redemption and I like to see drug cheats come back because I like to see what they can do without the drugs.

"Are they really talented enough to perform well or did the drugs help them?

"If they come back without the drugs in their system and don't do well, that is a real punishment."


Kriss Akabusi, the former European 400m hurdles champion, writing on www.akabusi.com, said he was not in favour of the BOA life ban.

"I do not hold that view, and like Jonathan Edwards [Sydney 2000 Olympic champion and world record holder for the triple jump], I do believe in a world of second chances – but we are very much in the minority.

"Chambers has paid a very heavy price socially and economically, and shown enough contrition and remorse to be given a second chance in life full stop, in my humble opinion."

Akabusi's old training partner Roger Black, twice European 400m champion and Atlanta 1996 Olympic silver medallist, disagrees, and his views have been backed by numerous competitors within British sport.

Black told the BBC: "It's a sad day.

"It's hard to cheer someone on who's purposefully tried to cheat other athletes.

"I'm not going to boo him, I'm just going to be indifferent."

He added: "I like Dwain – I think he's remorseful, but it's easy to be remorseful when you're caught out.

"He didn't have to do it in the first place, because most of us didn't."

World marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe, in a message retweeted by Olympic heptathlon bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton, said: "So now the biggest deterrent in our sport for cheating other athletes yourself and the public is two years."

Sotherton herself tweeted: "2nd chances/forgiveness... all the sports people who have been cheated out of medals etc can have that too, sadly no, who supports them? Me."

Gail Emms, Olympic silver medallist in the mixed doubles badminton at Athens 2004, was another to tweet: "100m final could be interesting for commentators. Lane 1 – haven't seen him for a few yrs cos of drugs ban. Oh yeah, same for lanes 3 and 7!!

"Sometimes the 'British' attitude to sport annoys me, but today I was proud that our Britishness stood up to the world over drugs in sport.

"People can have 2nd chances. But, for me, their 2nd chance should not be in an Olympics.

"Wrong actions need consequences otherwise why bother??!!"

Emms' partner in Athens, Nathan Robertson, was of the same opinion, calling the decision "disgraceful", and added: "Terrible day for British sport... so now our very own British rules and standards mean nothing!

"For those who believe people should get a 2nd chance, performance enhancing drugs help athletes forever not just when they are on them!"

Steve Backley, four-times European champion and former world javelin record holder, reacted by tweeting: "The British vest was devalued with this news.

"WADA: overly reasonable people policing the unreasonable; fairness offered to the grossly unfair. The world's gone soft."

Former European champion swimmer Steve Parry also added his voice to Twitter: "Sad day for Olympic sport.

"Cheats from any and all nations should not be allowed to compete in the Games.

"Well done @BOA for having a go!"

British winter Olympian Kristan Bromley tweeted: "I am totally dismayed at the Dwain Chambers ban lift!

"I remember watching an interview on BBC before he was caught when he lied to us all."

Even Piers Morgan, former Daily Mirror editor, had an opinion: "Oh great," he tweeted.

"Drugs cheats have had their lifetime bans overturned and can represent GB at the Olympics, how heart-warming."

-Mike Rowbottom

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

Dwain Chambers and David Millar will be cleared to compete for Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics on Monday after the British Olympic Association’s life ban for doping offenders was ruled to be illegal.

Telegraph Sport can reveal that the Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) has ruled that the BOA’s life ban does not comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code and is therefore unenforceable. The judgment will be formally published at 3pm on Monday.

As a result the BOA is powerless to prevent sprinter Chambers, cyclist Millar and possibly shot putter Carl Myerscough, who has also been banned for a doping offence, from competing in London this summer if they are selected.

The BOA chief executive, Andy Hunt, has said Chambers and Millar will be given “100 per cent support” if they are selected despite his organisation’s opposition. CAS is understood to have ruled against the BOA on the grounds that its life ban was an additional sanction on top of the penalties that were handed down to Millar and Chambers.

Under the terms of the Wada code, doping penalties must be uniform around the world. As a national Olympic committee the BOA is a signatory to the code and therefore bound to comply.

Both Chambers and Millar received two-year bans for doping offences. Chambers was banned in 2003 after failing a drugs test, while Millar was excluded from cycling in 2004 after admitting using the blood-booster EPO following a French police investigation.

Both Chambers and Millar have competed regularly in international competition for Great Britain at World and European Championships.

Myerscough failed a drugs test in 1999, though he has denied taking banned substances.

The ruling also potentially clears the way for Rio Ferdinand to play in the Olympic football tournament were he selected as an over-age player by coach Stuart Pearce. Ferdinand was banned for nine months in 2003 for missing a drugs test, an offence that would previously have made him ineligible for Team GB. If he misses out on the Euro 2012 squad he could now feature in Pearce’s selection.

CAS was asked to rule on the issue after Wada declared that the BOA was “non-compliant” with the code, a major embarrassment to the United Kingdom as the Olympics loomed.

The BOA had argued in its submission to CAS that it should be free to select whoever it chooses for the team, claiming that its by-law was a matter of eligibility rather than a sanction.

CAS appears to have rejected that argument and ruled in line with the recent precedent of the American sprinter LaShawn Merritt, who successfully challenge the International Olympic Committee over its similar law last year.

Under its 'Rule 45’ the IOC banned athletes from at least one Olympic Games in addition to their doping ban. Rule 45 was ruled illegal by CAS last November, and the same panel, chaired by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, has now reached a similar decision on the BOA by-law.

The decision finally settles an issue that has hung over London’s preparations and stirred fierce debate among present and former athletes.

The BOA has repeatedly said it was acting out of principle, and has been able to claim the support of a majority of its present athletes, who said they supported the ban in the most recent survey of opinion.

Following the CAS hearing in March, BOA chairman Lord Moynihan said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the outcome of the case, though privately the BOA accepted that it was unlikely to win.

“Our selection policy is there with overwhelming support from the athletes. That simply says that we will only accept clean athletes, we won’t select those who have knowingly cheated clean athletes out of a place on the team,” Moynihan said at the time.

He has received support from the chairman of the BOA Athletes Commission, Sarah Winckless, and leading Olympians including London 2012 chairman Lord Coe and Sir Steve Redgrave.

Others have taken a less hostile position, with Sydney triple jump champion Jonathan Edwards and Kriss Akabusi arguing that former cheats who have served their time deserve a second chance. He said: “Athletes should get a second chance [but] two years is simply not enough. The world needs to unite and introduce four-year bans.”

BOA spokesman Darryl Seibel refused to comment or confirm the contents of the CAS judgment, which it received on Sunday afternoon.

In a statement the BOA said: “The British Olympic Association can confirm that today, it has received from the Court of Arbitration for Sport the written decision in the arbitration between the BOA and the World Anti-Doping Association.

“As the decision is to be announced first by CAS, and out of respect for CAS and the Arbitration Panel, the BOA will be offering no comment today.”

By Paul Kelso, Chief Olympics Correspondent

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

April 28 - A total of 18 Olympians, including nine-time Olympic gold medallist Mark Spitz, are suing worldwide Olympic sponsor Samsung, claiming that the South Korean company's London 2012 Facebook app uses their names and images without permission.

The app works through your Facebook profile to build a "family tree" of Olympians you're connected to.

Samsung claims its database for its Olympic Genome project includes more than 10,000 past and present Olympians and Paralympians.

But the athletes who also include Greg Louganis, the four-time Olympic diving champion, and Janet Evans, another four-time Games champion, have filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles claiming that Samsung is using their names and faces to create the impression they endorse Samsung products, including Galaxy tablets and phones.

Along with Spitz, who won a record seven gold medals at Munich in 1972 to add to the two he claimed at Mexico City in 1968, Evans and Louganis, 13 other swimmers are named, including Amanda Beard, Jessica Hardy, Dara Torres, Jason Lezak, Cullen Jones and Eric Shanteau, who allo hope to compete at London 2012.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the double Olympic heptathlon champion, and Phil Dalhausser, a Beijing 2008 beach vollyeball gold medallist, are also named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Samsung is profiting from the app and "denying plaintiffs compensation for the use of their names and images," according to the suit.

"They're using names and images to sell products, and they've admitted in interviews that they're trying to create a more positive image for Samsung," said Richard Foster, the athlete's attorney.

"California law says you can't use anybody's name or image to market a product unless you have their consent."

Foster claims that "these athletes survive on endorsements," and some have deals with Samsung's competitors.

Being associated with the Samsung app creates ongoing problems, he said, because "once you use a celebrity's name or image to sell a product, they're tied to that product category.

"It makes it difficult for them to get an endorsement deal with other companies in that product category."

The suit also accuses Samsung of violating Section 3344 of the California civil code, which makes it a crime to use someone's name, voice, signature, photograph or likeness for commercial purposes without the person's explicit permission.

The athletes claim Samsung did not get their permission.

Samsung claim they are "disappointed by the lawsuit" and that they worked closely with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) for more than year in developing the app.

"Athletes have had the opportunity to voice their opinions on the programme and to control their participation," the company said in a statement.

"Samsung will continue to support Team USA and the spirit of the Olympics in our efforts."

Foster claimed that the communication consisted of an e-mail sent to each athlete, informing them of the app and telling them to return an attached letter if they wished to opt out.

He claimed not all of his clients received the e-mail, while others may have deleted it without reading it.

At least "three or four" returned the opt-out letter but were still included, claimed Foster.

"Samsung essentially said, 'If we don't hear from you, you've entered into a contract,'" Foster said.

"Silence is not acceptance of a contract."

But spokesman Patrick Sandusky said the USOC and Samsung began the Olympic Genome Project so Americans could find connections with American athletes and not as a way to commercialise athletes' names.

"We have honoured the requests of the athletes who have filed suit to remove their names, as we offered to do months ago, and of course we will remove any athletes that do not wish to be listed,'' he said.

-Duncan Mackay

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

The British Olympic Association could be landed with legal costs of up to £200,000 if, as anticipated, it loses its attempt to bar Dwain Chambers and David Millar from competing in this summer’s Olympics.

The BOA is increasingly resigned to its policy of life bans for convicted drug users such as Chambers and Millar being overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), though it may have to wait up to another week for confirmation.

While the BOA is anticipating a ruling from the CAS next week, Telegraph Sport understands the verdict may not be handed down until handed down until Friday of next week, or sometime the week after.

The CAS has already postponed its own deadline of mid-April to give it more time to rule on the case, brought following a challenge from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

Neither party has yet received a copy of the CAS judgment, and the CAS agreed not to publish the verdict this week after the BOA requested any verdict avoid London’s '100 days to go' celebrations.

The CAS was asked to mediate after Wada ruled that the BOA’s life ban does not comply with the global doping code, under which the maximum ban for serious offences is two years, or four in aggravated circumstances.

As Millar and Chambers have long-served their initial bans, and have both appeared in British teams at global events, they would be free to compete in London if the BOA is defeated. The BOA argues that it should be free to choose who it selects, and to consider “character” issues such as doping when doing so.

Lord Coe, the chairman of the London organising committee, on Friday backed the BOA’s stance. “I think it is right for sporting organisations to have the autonomy to decide who they want to see in their teams,” he said.

The cost implications of the case are among the issues the CAS is considering, with the losers potentially liable to meet the fees of the other side as well as their own.

Both the BOA and Wada employed some of the most experienced and expert figures in sports law to argue their cases, and the total costs have been estimated at £100,000-£200,000. With the BOA’s budgets under constant pressure it is a cost it can ill afford as it prepares to send its largest-ever team to an Olympic Games.

Any costs will be mitigated by the fact that the BOA’s counsel in the case, Adam Lewis QC and David Pannick QC, are understood to have agreed to appear for significantly reduced rates.

As well as who meets the parties’ costs, the CAS panel is also considering who should pay for the cost of the arbitration as a whole. In normal sports arbitration cases the CAS is a free service for governing bodies and agencies, but the court is thought to have ruled that this case may not qualify.

The BOA’s life ban has looked vulnerable since last November when, following a challenge by US sprinter LaShawn Merritt, the CAS ruled that an International Olympic Committee’s rule banning doping cheats from at least one Games in addition to its ban was incompatible with the Wada code.

Following a hearing before the CAS last month, the BOA has had little reason for optimism, with those close to the case on both sides predicting that the bye-law would be overturned.

The judgment may not be clear cut, however, with suggestions that even if Chambers and Millar are cleared to compete there will be significant comfort for the BOA in the ruling.

The CAS panel is likely to restrict itself to the legal issue of compliance with the Wada code, and could offer support for the BOA’s desire to preserve team places for clean athletes.

That CAS ruling in favour of Merritt exposed the gap between the desire of the Olympic movement to be tough on doping, and the rules of the agency it founded to police them, Wada.

Wada relies for its legitimacy on a single global standard for doping supported by all its signatories, including on sanctions. Currently it operates a standard two-year ban, and argues that the BOA and IOC rules represent additional sanctions.

Chambers’ lawyer, Siza Agha, said he would not comment on the outcome of the case until it has been published.

Meanwhile, Dave Brailsford, performance director of British Cycling, said he would consider selecting Millar, the British team’s “captain on the road” when Mark Cavendish won the world title last year, if he was eligible.

“My job is to pick the fastest team, the best team that can win that race in London,” Brailsford said. “I will get shown a list of people who are eligible, then I will look at performance and decide.”

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk