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Concerns and controversies at the 2012 Summer Olympics

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A number of controversies and concerns associated with the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, UK have emerged which have been the subject of public debate and media commentary. Issues have included sponsorship, housing, social media and political issues such as the Falkland Islands dispute and the Bahraini uprising, as well as criticism of the budget, ticketing, security and the logo.

Olympic rings
Part of a series on
2012 Summer Olympics

Sponsorship issues

Brand protection

The protection of the Olympic brand has been the subject of some criticism. The Olympic rings themselves are protected under the Olympic Symbol etc. (Protection) Act 1995, and under provisions set out by the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006, LOCOG are empowered to prevent the misuse of Olympic branding leading up to the 2012 Games. The acts aim to prevent unauthorised commercial association with the games by traders (such as using the Olympic rings in a shop window) and to prevent attempts at ambush marketing at games events, but the constraints detailed in the guidelines issued by LOCOG have been criticised by some commentators as a form of censorship.

The guidelines specify a range of trademarked logos and designs as well as certain "Listed Expressions" and "protected words" that advertisers may not use, which include the words "London" and "2012". Even if an advertiser does not mention the Olympics or use any of the listed words, any visual or audio respresentation of London and sports may be considered by a court to be an infringement of LOCOG's rights and subject to a fine of £20,000 or possible imprisonment. A number of individuals and businesses have fallen foul of the restrictions including a lingerie shop in Leicester, a grandmother knitting for charity and a Plymouth café selling Olympic torch baguettes. An exception to these rules was successfully negotiated by the restaurant chain Little Chef, who have been permitted by LOCOG to continue to sell their fried "Olympic Breakfast" on account of the item having been named thus on their menu since 1994.

In an interview with BBC journalist Evan Davis, Lord Coe emphasised the need to protect the rights of official sponsors such as Vauxhall, Carling and Nike who had contributed large amounts of money to the Games. His suggestion that visitors to the London games would not be admitted if they were wearing a Pepsi-branded T-shirt was later retracted by LOCOG, who stated that such rules would apply only to large groups of spectators wearing "visibly branded" clothing.

Food and drink

There has been criticism that companies that produce 'junk food' or otherwise unhealthy food and drink – notably McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Cadbury and Heineken – are major sponsors of the Olympics, in conflict with the Olympics' ideal of healthiness. Critics have included the Chief Medical Officer of Wales, Dr Tony Jewell, and the head of sports science of the GB Team. The London Assembly passed a motion calling for a ban on junk-food sponsors.

Criticism has also focused on the exclusive rights held by some sponsors to serve and advertise food at and near to Olympic venues. McDonald's hold sole rights to sell chips throughout the games, preventing independent food outlets from serving chips with any meal, although an exception was negotiated with McDonald's to allow the sale of traditional British fish and chips. Food sellers must also comply with food outlet specifications which require prominent display of Coca-Cola branding with limited space for their own products. Locog's policy for food provision states a number of aims including diversity, hygiene, health and nutrition and sustainability.

The sponsors were defended on the grounds that they provide a significant income for the event. Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC, acknowledged concerns but noted the importance of sponsorship money and said that the issue of obesity had been raised with such sponsors. McDonald's and Coca-Cola also defended their involvement, stating that healthy eating was the responsibility of the individual to make their own purchasing choices.

Dow Chemical's sponsorship

The IOC and LOCOG have drawn criticism for accepting Dow Chemical Company as a partner for the London Games. Human Rights activists have been campaigning to get Dow Chemicals to clean up the contamination in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, where gas leak at a Union Carbide plant in 1984 killed 2,259 people. In an email response in March 2012, LOCOG refused to withdraw Dow as a sponsor and stated "Dow is an industry leader in terms of operating with the highest standards of ethics and sustainability... has received several awards and accolades in this regard over the last few years." Dow said it was surprised by the controversy because Dow never had a plant in Bhopal, and did not acquire any of the connection with Bhopal. Dow acquired Union Carbide in 2001, 12 years after Union Carbide had settled with the Government of India and Bhopal victims.

Housing

In February 2012, the housing charity Shelter alleged reports of landlords in east London raising rents or writing clauses into new rental contracts so tenants must be away during the Olympics, but as of 2 February 2012 the Department of Communities and Local Government said it had no evidence of the practice. However, an 8 May news report by the BBC noted that Shelter had seen "more evidence of landlords acting unscrupulously and evicting people illegally. One estate agent said properties typically rented for £350 per week were being marketed for £6,000 per week." The BBC report noted that, "The potential profits are leading to some private landlords telling their tenants they have to leave their homes, with little notice."

Campaign to ban Prince Nasser of Bahrain

In June 2012, the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) urged British authorities to ban the president of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa from entering the UK during the games. Prince Nasser, son of Bahrain's King Hamad and the commander of the Royal Guard has been accused of torture and human rights violations during the 2011-2012 Bahraini uprising. The ECCHR claimed that Prince Nasser launched "a punitive campaign to repress Bahraini athletes who had demonstrated their support (for) the peaceful pro-democracy movement". It said that, following his directive, "more than 150 professional athletes, coaches and referees were subjected to arbitrary arrests, night raids, detention, abuse and torture by electric cables and other means". The call to ban Prince Nasser from entering the UK was supported by global activist group Avaaz, and British Member of Parliament George Galloway, who warned that he would attempt to make a citizen's arrest of the prince if he comes to London.

IOC policy regarding social media

The IOC has drawn criticism from Sweden and Denmark for its social media guidelines, which, those commentators argue, infringe athletes' right to free speech. The guidelines prohibit athletes from commenting on other participants, from posting pictures of other athletes without their permission, from promoting their own sponsors, and from using the Olympic rings. The IOC has also created a website intended to allow the reporting of suspected breaches of the guidelines.

Prior to the official commencement of the Games, Greek triple jumper Paraskevi Papachristou was sent home by the national head of the delegation, Isidoros Kouvelos, for a Twitter post that read: "With so many Africans in Greece... the West Nile mosquitoes will at least eat homemade food!!!" Though she apologised later saying "My dream is connected to the Olympic Games and I could not possibly participate if I did not respect their values" and was supported by some fans, the Greek political party DIMAR, which is a part of the ruling coalition, issued a statement that read: "She can make as many vile 'jokes' as she likes on social networking sites when she watches the Olympic Games on TV" and pushed for her explusion from the delegation representing Greece.

Argentine Olympic advert

On 2 May 2012, in regards to the Falkland Island dispute, on the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the Argentine ship General Belgrano, Argentina released an advertising film depicting the captain of Argentina's hockey team, Fernando Zylberberg, training in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, under the slogan "To compete on British soil, we train on Argentine soil." The film was criticised by the United Kingdom Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, as "tasteless", while an IOC statement said "the games should not be part of a political platform." Subsequently the Argentine Olympic Committee President Gerardo Werthein, stated: "The Olympic Games cannot be used to make political gestures." Zylberberg was not selected for the Argentine Hockey squad.

1972 Munich Olympics memorial

A campaign was launched by "volunteers at the Rockland County JCC in suburban New York" to urge the IOC to include a minute of silence during the Opening Ceremonies in memory of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Black September at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. U.S. President Barack Obama publicly supported the campaign, along with the United States Senate, the German Bundestag, members of the Canadian and Australian parliaments, about 50 MPs in the British Parliament and about 140 MPs in Italy's parliament. In rejecting the lobbying efforts for this occassion, Jacques Rogge noted that the IOC "has paid tribute to the memory of the athletes who tragically died in Munich in 1972 on several occasions and will continue to do so."

North Korea – South Korea flag confusion

In the first day of the Olympic events on 25 July, during the women's football tournament the match between North Korea and Colombia was delayed by a little over an hour because the flag of South Korea was mistakenly displayed on the electronic scoreboard in Hampden Park. The North Korean team walked off the pitch in protest at seeing the South Korean flag displayed by their names and refused to warm-up whilst the flag was being displayed. They also objected to the South Korean flag being displayed above the stadium, although the flags of all the competing countries were being displayed. The game then commenced after a delay and rectification of the error.

Earlier, the Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore said:

"The Olympics is of huge importance and the fact Hampden will be front and centre as the world turns it attention to the U.K. is great news for Glasgow and Scotland as a whole. The Olympics is our chance to show the world what we are capable of as a nation and the hard work of people across the country is helping ensure the success of the games. I am looking forward to watching the game and hearing the first-ever Olympic roar at Hampden later today."

Andy Mitchell a spokesman for the London Organising Committee (Locog) said afterwards:

"Today ahead of the Women’s football match at Hampden Park, the South Korean flag was shown on a big screen video package instead of the North Korean flag. Clearly that is a mistake, we will apologise to the team and the National Olympic Committee and steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again."

In offering an apology, the media manager at Hampden Park, Andy Mitchell, said: "The South Korean flag was shown in the video package on the screen before the kickoff and the North Koreans were naturally very upset about that. We have made a full apology to the team and the North Korean NOC . A genuine mistake was made for which we apologise. Steps will be taken to ensure it does not happen again." British Prime Minister David Cameron added that it was an "honest mistake" and efforts would be undertaken to ensure such a mishap does not recur. However, North Korean manager Sin Ui-gun expressed reservations about whether the incident was a mistake of intention and said: "We were angry because our players were introduced as if they were from South Korea, which may affect us greatly as you may know. Our team was not going to participate unless the problem was solved perfectly and fortunately some time later, the broadcasting was corrected and shown again live so we made up our mind to participate and go on with the match. If this matter cannot be solved, we thought going on was nonsense. Winning the game cannot compensate for that thing."

Security

Main article: Security for the 2012 Summer Olympics

A number of issues surrounding security at the 2012 Olympics have been the subject of public debate. Among these, the decision by the Ministry of Defence to station surface-to-air missiles on top of the Lexington building, a residential apartment block in Bow. The decision was challenged in court on 10 July by residents of another tower Fred Wigg Tower in Leytonstone, east London, where missiles were to be cited, under Article 8 and Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, over concerns the missiles made them a terrorist target. The judgement from Mr Justice Haddon-Cave was in favour of the citing of the missiles on Fred Wigg Tower. He stated in his judgement

Residents were under something of a misapprehension regarding the equipment and risks.... The MoD's voluntary engagement with the community over the plans was "immaculate" and the residents who challenged the missile sites had misunderstood the facts.

The Solicitor representing the resident David Enright said after the judgement:

The clear implication of today's judgement is that the Ministry of Defence now has the power to militarise the private homes of any person.

In July 2012 the private security firm G4S, which had been contracted to supply security personnel for the Olympics, revealed that it had failed to recruit and train enough staff for the Games. The shortfall was made up by deploying 3,500 British Army soldiers. Reports in the media also alleged that G4S recruits were too young and inadequately trained, and that some were not able to speak adequate English.

Policing prior to the Olympics has also been a matter of comment in the media. Darren Cullen, a Graffiti artist who had been commissioned by Team GB to produce artwork for the Olympic and Paralympic village, was arrested by the British Transport Police and banned from Olympic venues and from travelling by train and Underground for a period of six months for alleged "incitement to commit criminal damage". His arrest was criticised by human rights campaigners.

In the week before the Games began, a group of political activists in the GreenWash Gold 2012 group taking part in a street theatre protest in Trafalgar Square against the choice of Olympic sponsors were arrested by London police on a charge of criminal damage; according to reports, during their act they spilled custard on the paving stones which the police assumed to be paint. The police action was criticised by Meredith Alexander, a former member of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012.

Traffic and public transport

The 48 kilometres of designated "Games Lanes" on London thoroughfares to be used between 6:00 and midnight by athletes, officials, journalists, emergency services and sponsors were blamed for causing traffic jams. Londoners were advised to use public transportation to get to work, but on 25 July significant delays were experienced due to electrical and signal problems on the Central and Hammersmith subway lines. The new River Thames cable car froze for half an hour on the same day, stranding passengers above the river. London taxi drivers protested that the traffic problems hampered their services to paying passengers trying to travel around the city. Lee Osbourne of the United Cabbies Group said: "We're not going to be able to drop passengers where they want to go. Traffic in London is pretty bad as it is, and now passengers are going to suffer with the meter just ticking away. Even on a normal day, driving in London is rarely a smooth experience. For a city of its size, it has surprisingly few highways or wide thoroughfares, which means that most roads have multiple traffic lights and pedestrian crossings." The head of road policy at the British Automobile Association Paul Watters said: "Drivers do have somewhere to go, but it's been a bit confusing. We know it's going to be tricky and difficult, and it's bound to be full of teething problems. We're almost there now so hopefully it will be better." Driving in the lanes could be penalised by up to 130 pounds.

Eligibility of athletes suspended for doping

The IOC amended the Olympic Charter in June 2008 in order to bar athletes suspended for at least six months for a doping offence from competing at the Olympic Games following the end of the suspension. This provision, known as the Osaka Rule or Rule 45, was challenged before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In October 2011 the court found that the provision was not an eligibility rule, but a sanction not mandated by the World Anti-Doping Code and thus invalid. This was followed by a ruling in April 2012 where the court found that a British Olympic Association by-law preventing the selection of athletes sanctioned for doping for participation in the Olympic Games was invalid for similar reasons. The rulings have led to calls from the IOC and the BOA to include a provision similar to the Osaka Rule in the next Anti-Doping Code, which will be in effect by the 2016 Summer Olympics.

See also

References

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