The Torch Relay runs into controversy

‘It’s about ordinary people who’ve done extraordinary things.’
Paul Deighton LOCOG on The Torch Relay.

Now something that really is extraordinary is the fact that a genuine Olympic Torch is for sale on eBay and just went for over £100,000. There are more on there now in case you’re feeling flush. LOCOG charged Olympic Torch bearers around £200 to purchase their individual torches. This was a first or so I believe, for an organising committee to profit from the torches.

Rightly or wrongly, it’s not the greatest example to set for the so-called inspirational people Paul Deighton describes. But if you’re going to make £100,000 from your little piece of history and pay off your mortgage in austere times, maybe you really are inspirational. You’re certainly entrepreneurial. One torch on there appears to be raising money for a cancer charity. Another torch is just a picture of a torch ¬and doesn’t exist at all. Be careful what you bid for, and all that. I just hope the communities who nominated the runners don't mind...

There will be more press about this issue, I’m sure – check out the Independent for more information. All that keeps springing to my mind are the Olympic values: Excellence, Friendship and Respect. Pierre de Coubertin would be spinning in his grave.

100 days until the London Olympics

It’s all too much. I’m so excited by the prospect of the London Olympic Games that I think I’m going to give birth. Oh yes, I am! I’m due in a matter of weeks and this can only mean one of a few things:

1. I’m considering calling the baby Seb.
2. I’m in for a marathon not a sprint.
3. I’m not going to get to the Olympics.

Well, one of the above is definitely true. And although a new baby didn’t make any difference to my prospects of tickets, it does mean I may have more trouble getting to some of the other wonderful things going on in and around London.

So if you’re still in the camp that this headline is aimed at (London Evening Standard, yesterday), I beseech thee to wake up and smell the elixir of fun.

I know it’s not a natural thing to do. I know you have concerns. But come on people, this is the sparkle that makes life good – the times you look back on and think, bloomin’ heck that was great! Times like when you queued forever to see your first gig at Wembley Old Stadium. You got sun burnt, your bag got nicked and you missed the last train home. But you were only two people away from Prince (insert relevant idol of youth)!

Hopefully, you’ll look back on this in years to come and forget about the money stuff and remember with fond happiness the way Team GB picked up medals like they were hot cakes. And in the same way we lament the passing of 1966 in world cup football trophy terms, it’s likely to be a moment in history that doesn’t come around again any time soon. This is our greatest chance to get behind our athletes and embrace what lies ahead. C’mon!

Getting into the spirit of the Olympics

It’s a fact of life that some things are more ‘newsworthy’ than others. No one really wants to know what you had for breakfast or whether your child just did their first poo in a potty on Facebook. They’re just being polite.

So when I heard about a massive Catholic youth event celebrating faith and the Olympics at Wembley Arena this weekend, it was hardly surprising (although a shame) that I had difficulty finding news about it on Google. Turns out Sebastian Coe gave a video address to nearly 10,000 teenagers about sport and the commitment of the Olympic values: friendship, respect and excellence. He joked that this was the only time in his life that he’d be asked to be the Pope’s warm up act.

It sounded like a highly successful day with Jason Gardener (not the Dancing On Ice judge – the Olympic sprinter) addressing the crowd, along with Stef Reid, pin up girl of the Paralympics, a speed skating nun and other Olympic and Paralympic medal winners.

I have to say, I was taken by the idea of so many young people listening and reflecting quietly on the meaning of the Olympics, the links between sport and faith and what it is to be self-motivated in 2012. And given that so much attention is focused on the logistics of London 2012 at the moment, it was a great reminder that actually, the Olympics are about much more than just Big Macs and lycra.

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