Who Sport What?

General Motors Hits Olympic Brakes

General Motors has announced an end to its sponsorship of the U.S. Olympic Committee. GM also announced it would no longer commit to buying exclusive automaker status for advertising on NBC's telecasts of the Olympics.

The car giant cited a need for flexibility. Ad industry pundits have pointed to a need to avoid long term commitments and a switch from traditional TV sports: the exact model that Olympic finances have been built on since 1984.

Sponsorship and sports TV rights are inextricably linked. Broadcasters count on ad revenue from sponsors to cover the enormous sums they pay for the rights to cover events and leagues.

The deal had initially been done in 1997, in the lead-up to Salt Lake City 2002. GM's pullout will leave the USOC down some $5 million, or 7.5%, of its rights income per annum. NBC will now have as much as $100 million per Olympics in ad revenue to go find another buyer for in order to help make back the billions it is spending on televising Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 .

Just losing a sponsor, even a big one like GM, is no clear sign that the sky is falling in. But sports professionals everywhere will be looking to see if this is the start of a trend away from long term commitments and away from the traditional sponsor-an-event-and-buy-TV-airtime model. Four years ago, the ink had long since dried on the key U.S. TV deal for 2012. Today, nothing looks certain for 2016.

The Olympic Games and the Wimbledon tennis championships share a rare position of not selling advertising via hoardings in stadiums, on uniforms and on equipment, forcing all the action to take place during ad breaks that are fast losing their effectiveness. How much longer will the model hold? More importantly still, where are the ideas for replacing it? 

Not A Heart Of Darkness

U.S. Olympic Committee media man Kevin Neuendorf was sent home in "disgrace" after a Brazilian newspaper ran a photo of him in front of a whiteboard saying "Welcome to the Congo!", in the press room at the Pan Am games in Rio. The whys and wherefores hardly matter. This kind of indiscretion is rarely pounced on in the normal give and take of sports journalism. But Rio is up against Chicago in the race for the 2016 Olympic Games and will be barred from direct criticism of the United States during that race. So it is hardly surprising to see the Brazilian media jump at this chance.

Neuendorf, meanwhile, has given years of his life to the service of sport. He is no Imus. Sure, go through the motions of "sensitivity training" and what-have-you. But let's be reasonable, here. The man's career should no more be defined by this storm in a teacup than Rio's Olympic candidacy be defined by crime in the favelas.

Newsflash: Olympic Bidding Still Corrupt

According to senior IOC member Gerhard Heiberg, the Olympic bidding process is still corrupt. "We have seen some things that shouldn't happen," the Norwegian Heiberg told Norway's TV news. "They use some methods that involve invitations and gifts," he explained. Heiberg ran the 1994 Lillehammer Games, widely considered the best ever Winter Olympics.

Coming on the eve of the election for a 2014 host city (a choice between Salzburg, Austria; Pyeongchang, South Korea and Sochi, Russia), Heiberg's comments will throw so much gasoline on a fire still smoldering after the reforms that followed the Salt Lake City 2002 scandal. Already, IOC members have been publicly questioning a system that has seen spending spiral, with bid cities even for the less prestigious Winter Games now spending upwards of $30 million on their campaigns.

Update: London Logo Floors People

Update: Seemed that London Olympics logo was a bit too good at jumping off the page. A movie clip based on the logo has had to be pulled after eight people suffered epileptic fits while watching it. News report.

London's New Olympic Face

A new logo was unveiled for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games today. Most people seeem to think it looks just horrible. Let's compare it with those that have gone before. London 1908 didn't have a logo, but the last London Games did:

More recent logos have sought to maintain that bold yet simple link with the host city. The running man Chinese script character in Beijing's logo is a typical example:

  Clearly a new departure, then. But resistance to change is not the only apparent source of dismay at the new design.

It's really not hard to see why many dislike London's new logo. The graphical link to London itself is not clear. It works much better in dynamic form than standing still. The logo does away with the tradition of incorporating the colors of the Olympic rings, too, and so might be said to dilute the Olympic brand itself. It's also too easy to knock the launch, with an lack of opportunities for easy interaction: there's  nothing to download and play with. Nothing to share. No screensaver for my mobile phone. Just a bunch of brand protection small print. Even London 2012's online press release had no logo link.

So the logo itself is resolutely, perhaps defiantly modern. To this extent it is reminiscent of the atonal, dissonant screeching and clanging that passes for that wonderful contradiction,   modern classical music. That's useful: the modern Olympic Games have not been modern for a really long time. As an ethereal and temporary event, the Olympic Games seem to have a more tangible past than future. But modernisation will only work if it directly helps youth reconnect with traditional sport, while making adults more active. That's the goal. To meet it, London's real challenge with the Olympic brand is not updating classical but recreating pop.

Faster, Higher, Stronger (Thanks To Carbon Fiber)

Coverage by the New York Times has drawn fresh attention to the artificial limbs used by Paralympians. The athlete covered this time is South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius. He employs Cheetah carbon-fibre prosthetics to overcome having had both legs amputated below the knee as a baby. Pistorius's success in his category is clear, although his times are still well outside those required for full Olympic participation.

Jere Longman makes much of the fact that Pretorious's prostheses would disqualify him from the Olympics. Although of some scientific interest, this part of the debate is a red herring. Prostheses should no more be allowed among Olympic sprinters than wheelchairs among Olympic marathoners.

But the story does bring us smartly back to the question of body modification and the difficulties posed for sports ethicists and authorities. Sports authorities do need to give this stuff more thought. Where to draw the line? What about the Olympic shooter who has had LASIK surgery for the sole purpose of seeing better? Tiger Woods would have been legally blind by now but just went back under the laser. Is that fair to normally-sighted golfers?

During the search for answers, we'll be seeing more stories of athletes with prostheses and for all the wrong reasons. Landmines from former and ongoing conflicts continue to afflict poorer countries, such as  Sierra Leone.

(Photo: Issouf Sanogo / AFP)

Here in the U.S., the considerable numbers of amputees returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to swell the U.S. Paralympic team: the Paralympics are based on an event first held to encourage British WWII veterans with their physical rehabilitation.

To watch Paralympic sport, just point your browser at www.paralympicsport.tv. Far more inspiring than just checking out highlights of sports glories on YouTube (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Olympic Extremes: Fitter And Fatter

News from London that hosting the Olympic Games might not increase sporting participation merely echoes news from China of soaring childhood obesity and declining participation in school physical education (P.E.).

Unlike other nations, however, China's declining youth sports participation is likely to be masked in international sporting competition. While preparing to host the Games, China has concurrently developed a system of specialized sports schools, set to sustain the medal-table victory likely to be achieved in 2008.

(Photo: Mark Leong / Matrix)

That still leaves 15.1% of boys in Shanghai as "obese" (compared with 18% of boys in the U.S. as "overweight"). In an attempt to turn things around, the city authorities have mandated more P.E. and inclusion of P.E. grades in overall assessments of students' performances. Most Western societies would do well to flip the same switch.

Beijing 2008: Darfur, Human Rights Update

China has acted quickly to head off the burgeoning "Genocide Olympics" campaign linking its government, Darfur and the Olympic Games. In response to a letter to Premier Hu Jintao signed by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Tom Lantos (D. Calif.) and 106 of his colleagues, China has appointed Liu Guijin to the newly created post of Special Representative on African Affairs.

"It would be a disaster for China if the Games were to be marred by protests, from concerned individuals and groups, who will undoubtedly link your government to the continued atrocities in Darfur, if there is no significant improvement in the conditions," said the letter.

The rub lies in "significant improvement". Can China ever do enough to satisfy the protest groups? Will the Games simply give rise to debate on how much human rights progress China has made and whether it was enough to match their bid's promises to the IOC?

What's certain is that the "Genocide Olympics" story will run and run. Pro baller Ira Newble is gathering NBA signatures for an open letter that is sure to score another news hit in the coming weeks.

The Chinese, meanwhile, continue to crack down hard on activists in advance of the Games. The order has come from the top. Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang said in March: "We must make efforts to create a harmonious society and a good social environment for successfully holding the 17th Communist Party Congress and the Beijing Olympic Games[…]We must strike hard at hostile forces at home and abroad, such as ethnic separatists, religious extremists, violent terrorists and ‘heretical organizations’ like the Falun Gong who carry out destabilizing activities."

Beijing 2008, A Darfur Boycott?

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Beijing has been lobbying Washington D.C.in an attempt to head off an Olympic boycott predicated on China’s role in Sudan. Conflict in Darfur persists (by all reasonable accounts, over 300,000 have died). China continues to back the administration in Khartoum, which has been charged with war crimes.

Without oil from Sudan—70% of the country’s production goes to China—the next Olympic host would not be able to fuel its phenomenal growth. And with China placing little public pressure on Khartoum, activists and politicians have added Darfur to Tibetan independence, human rights, Taiwan and media freedoms as a reason for an Olympic boycott.

High-ranking members of the House, from both sides, are already talking boycott. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has called China’s actions in Darfur “despicable”. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo), has sponsored a boycott resolution since 2005. So it’s no surprise to see some Chinese diplomatic activity and its release of a “non-paper”. The paper says a boycott would contravene, “the universally recognized principle of sports being non-politics”. In the same paper, the Chinese defend their role in Darfur. They deserve credit for not pointing out that last time American lawmakers called for a boycott, it was because an evil superpower had invaded Afghanistan in the name of fighting terrorism...

Regardless of any boycott, Darfur seems certain to provide one more reason for protest during the Torch Relay, with Free Tibet activists already having taken their demonstrations as far as Everest base camp. As well as gathering steam, the activists also seem to have found a wicked sense of humour.