London Latest - BOA Unveils Torchbearer Names; Moynihan on WADA Dispute

BOA Unveils Torchbearer Names

British Olympic Association chiefs tell Around the Rings that parents of Olympians are the "unsung heroes" and should enjoy a share of the limelight in the lead-up to London 2012.

BOA chief Colin Moynihan and chef de mission Andy Hunt spoke to ATR at Wembley Stadium in front of the London 1948 Olympic Cauldron where they unveiled Tuesday their nominations for Games torchbearers.

The unconditional support from parents was the theme of the BOA’s message as Moynihan nominated Team GB diver Chris Mears’ father Pal Mears and Hunt nominated former 400-meter athlete Derek Redmond’s father Jim.

Commenting on their nominations, Moynihan told ATR: "Parents are often the unsung heroes – they devote their lives to developing sporting talent in their children. They make huge sacrifices in terms of time and financial support."

"It’s right and proper that for one day at least, we say a massive thank you to parents who without whom, Team GB would not exist. Those sacrifices and contribution is not talked about enough, I’m glad we have today to sing their praises."

Hunt told ATR that the inspiration for nominating Jim Redmond came from remembering him leaping onto the track at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics to help his son Derek –who was competing in the 400m semi-final but collapsed due to a torn hamstring –complete a full lap.

"That moment when 65,000 people stood up in an ovation absolutely captures and epitomises the Olympic spirit and also says a lot of what its about to be a parent of an Olympian or indeed any athlete. It’s about being there at the good times and the very difficult times," Hunt said.

With 199 days to go until the opening ceremony, Moynihan stressed that the focus of the BOA would be "supporting the performance of the athletes" so that Team GB would achieve its hopes of a record medal haul.

Moynihan: WADA Dispute No Distraction

The former Olympic coxswain admitted it's a "great pity" that there would be attention focused on the BOA’s dispute with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) over its eligibility bylaw. The issue will come to a head at the Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing on March 12 with a verdict due a few weeks later.

If CAS rules in favor of WADA, the BOA wouldhave to drop its Olympic lifetime ban for athletes sanctioned for drugs violations. This would open the door for athletes such as cyclist David Millar and sprinter Dwain Chambers to make the team to compete at the London Games.

"It’s a great pity that WADA should choose this time to distract us from our principle focus of supporting the athletes for the Games in under 200 days. We’ve had a bylaw in place for 20 years, and it’s disappointing they’ve made this decision," Moynihan said.

"But we have a duty to defend our athletes, to defend our selection policy and to ensure that the wish of our athletes to select clean athletes… is a matter of great importance to the BOA, our team and our athletes."

But Moynihan dismissed any notion that the dispute would have any bearingon the BOA's preparations for the London Olympics.

"We have a very strong legal team that have come in from outside the BOA so as not to distract the members of the BOA management team from their focus on supporting the athletes," he said. "The last three weeks have been a huge amount of work to prepare what we know is a very strong case for the resolution of the dispute before CAS on March 12."

Gymnastics Test Event

Great Britain's men’s artistic gymnastics team is hoping to seal London 2012 qualification at this week's Visa International Gymnastics, which kicked off Tuesday at the O2.

The team failed to qualify at the Tokyo 2011 world championships and must bag a top four spot to qualify for this summer's Games.

The artistic gymnastics and trampoline competitions run through Friday, followed by the rhythmic gymnastics event next week from Jan. 16 to 18.

The competitions are part of the London Prepares series of test events.

LOCOG 's director of sport Debbie Jevans said: "Visa International Gymnastics is LOCOG’s biggest test event to date.

"Not only is it vital for us to test our operations, but the competition will be fierce as the gymnasts who have yet to qualify for London 2012 battle it out for Olympic qualification. The event will be used to test our workforce in an already established venue and to test the field of play as it will be at Games time."

Reported in London by Christian Radnedge

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