London 2012: Excitement Mounts, Athletes Protest, and Poetry

Some of the athletes at the London Olympics are up in arms.

They’re unhappy at the restrictions on sponsorship.

The rules are very strict: only official Olympic sponsors are allowed to promote their brands at the games. So, for the duration of the competition, athletes are prohibited from promoting their non-Olympic sponsors in any way, including online, in tweets or blog posts.

Some participants have been using the twitter hashtag, #WeDemandChange2012, to campaign for change.

Olympic President Jacques Rogge earlier this month said: “We have to protect the sponsors because otherwise there is no sponsorship and without sponsorship there is no games.”

Meanwhile, Britain is still buzzing from Friday’s opening ceremony.

The World’s Alex Gallafent, who is in London for the Games, says there was near universal acclaim for the show in the British press: no mean feat given the ingrained cynicism of journalists over here.

But on the streets it’s a little different.

“In all honesty, it’s kind of hard to tell,” says Gallafent, “a friend of mine was at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver two years ago, and she told me the whole place was kind of transformed into a giant Olympic Village. That’s not the case here.”

“London is so huge,” he says. “You see directions to the various venues on public transport, but everywhere else, unless you’re actually at the Olympic sites, you could wander round and not know the Olympic Games were going on.”

Read the Transcript
The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Aaron Schachter: There’s more to these Olympics, of course, besides the empty seat saga. The World’s Alex Gallafent is also in London following the games and Alex, what’s been catching your eye?

Alex Gallafent: Well, Aaron, given what you’ve just been talking about it’s interesting there’s actually more resentment at the privileges accorded to certain sponsors, and this one is from athletes at the games. Some of them have been using the Twitter #WeDemandChange 2012. It’s in informal campaign to loosen restrictions on athletes who are sponsored by companies who don’t sponsor the games themselves.

Schachter: And what are the rules for those athletes?

Gallafent: Well, as with anything related to the International Olympic Committee, the rules are very strict. Only official Olympic sponsors are allowed to promote their brands at the games and for the duration of the competition, athlete competing in London are prohibited from using their participation in the Olympics to promote their nonOlympic sponsors, and that includes tweets, blog posts, anything…t-shirts, the works.

Schachter: Is London still buzzing from Friday’s opening ceremony or has that excitement dissipated now that the sports are underway?

Gallafent: You know, I think people are still pretty excited. I mean there have been some really memorable performances. Today, a Chinese weightlifter Xueying Li broke the Olympic record by lifting almost 2-1/2 times her bodyweight, so you know, we’re seeing incredible performances already. As for Friday’s ceremony, everyone loved it here, you know, even cynical journalists. People are still excited, sure.

Schachter: And the city itself, I mean the, Britain’s excited, but Londoners, what are they saying?

Gallafent: You know, it’s weird. A friend of mine was at the winter Olympics in Vancouver two years ago and she told me back then that the whole city of Vancouver was kind of transformed into a giant Olympic village. That’s just not the case here in London. The city is so big, so spread out that the Olympic glee hasn’t really sort of penetrated every corner of the city. I mean you see signs and directions for the various venues on busses and down in the tube stops, but everywhere else unless you are actually at an Olympic site you could wonder around and not know that the Olympic games were going on. It’s kind of odd.

Schachter: Right, now there’s no medal for poetry or sculpture in the Olympics, but there actually used to be as our listeners may know, tell us what you’ve been digging up on that front.

Gallafent: Well, the last time the medals were awarded at the Olympics for art competitions — painting, sculpture, literature and poetry — the last time that happened was at the last London games in 1948. And I asked a poetry performing on someone called Live Canon, they’re based in here London, to give us a taste of some winning verse from that year. So the gold medal winning poem in 1948 was called Laurel of Hellas. It was written by a Finnish poet called Aale Tynni and she was the only woman to have won poetry gold at the Olympics, and here’s one Live Canon’s performers, Alex Bartram.

Alex Bartram: Laurel of Hellas noble-born you tree of honoured name, reaching over unnumbered years your leaves extend their fame and branches high proclaim the pride of one who never bowed except to place your crown upon the victors brow. Laurel of Hellas…

Gallafent: So you get the idea, that was the gold medal poem, solid stuff, like the tree. The silver that year went to a South African poet and the bronze, well, here’s Alex Bartram again with a nice little story.

Bartram: Gilbert Prouteau was a Frenchman. He was competing in 1948. He was due to compete in the triple jump. People thought he was going to get a medal, but he got injured just before, so he couldn’t. So he decided to compete in the poetry event instead. And he won a bronze medal for a poem of which this is an extract: [speaking French], which roughly translates as “We made it. I’ve won! I’ve won! The world is mine, madness is within me. I have won.”

Gallafent: What do you think of that?

Schachter: That’s great!

Gallafent: Madness is within me, that’s part of Gilbert Prouteau’s poem “Rhythm of the Stadium” which won the bronze medal for poetry at the London games of 1948.

Schachter: And we’ll have some more of Olympic themed poetry from the performance group Live Canon as the games go on. Alex, what do we have to look forward to tomorrow at the games?

Gallafent: At the Olympics, every day is an embarrassment of riches. Tomorrow we see the women’s team final in autistic gymnastics. There’s lot of swimming and in the equestrian events there’s the last component of the team eventing competition, and a member of Britain’s royal family, Zara Phillips, will be jumping on her horse, High Kingdom.

Schachter: Alex Gallafent, with just a bit of madness in him from London, thank you, Alex.

Gallafent: Thanks, Aaron.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.