London Latest - Dow Clarifies Lack of Stadium Branding; BOA, WADA Update

Dow Clarifies Lack of Stadium Branding

London Olympics organizers and Dow Chemical are dismissing as misleading several reports claiming the 2012 sponsor has withdrawn branding from the fabric wrap that will encircle the 80,000-seat main stadium.

British newspaper The Sunday Express claimed that campaigners angry at Dow's links to the 1984 gas tragedy in Bhopal, India were celebrating after the company waived its sponsorship rights to put its logo on the one-kilometer wrap that will enclose the seating bowl.

LOCOG told Around the Rings there were never any plans to have Dow branding on the stadium before, during or after the Games.

Dow spokesman Scott Wheeler said in a statement that under Olympic "clean venue" guidelines, the stadium would have no sponsor branding it during the Games.

"Company logo branding is not and never has been permitted on the stadium for any Olympic Games," he said.

"The agreement between Dow and LOCOG was limited to branding of five "test panels" that were to be removed in the months before the Games and were not part of the final design. However in mid-summer, LOCOG and Dow agreed that Dow would defer the rights to these five panels to allow free and full execution of the design as determined by LOCOG," he added.

Over the weekend, V.K. Malhotra, acting president of the Indian Olympic Association, reacted to news that Dow was apparently dropping its branding, restating again that the Dow Chemical sponsorship was "unacceptable."

"We are not happy with the move and will continue to press for total removal of Dow Chemical as a sponsor of the London Olympics," he told India Real Time.

The IOA’s executive board last week decided to write a letter to the IOC in protest against Dow's sponsorship of the Olympics but the Indian Olympic body has said it will not boycott the Games.

Other Indian activists are still calling for Dow Chemical to be dropped as a sponsor.

"We want the sponsorship withdrawn. There should be no association between the London Olympics and Dow," said Rachna Dingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, according to Indian media.

In 2001, Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide, which owned the majority of the stocks of the company responsible at the time of the 1984 gas disaster that killed over 15,000 people and injured tens of thousands more.

Activists continue to urge Dow to shelve its London 2012 sponsorship and use the money to compensate the victims of the tragedy. But Dow, backed by LOCOG, has insisted it was not responsible for the gas leak.

BOA Chief to Welcome Drugs Cheats if CAS Bid Fails

British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan has said the BOA will fully embrace Dwain Chambers and other convicted drugs cheats into Team GB, if the Court of Arbitration for Sport rules against the BOA's lifetime ban for dopers.

The BOA is challenging the World Anti-Doping Agency decision to find it non-compliant because of its long-standing anti-doping bylaw, with a ruling expected from CAS by the end of April.

Interviewed on BBC radio Sunday, Moynihan admitted that if the BOA's legal appeal fails, sprinter Chambers and cyclist David Millar - who have served two-year bans for doping violations - as well as other former drugs cheats would get the "the same treatment as anybody else and we will wish them luck".

"They will, rest assured, be fully embraced into the team," Moynihan said.

"We are going to CAS to try to win this case, we believe we need to do so on behalf of clean athletes and reflect the 90-95% of athletes who consistently ask for this selection policy."

The BOA believes it has a good chance of winning at CAS.

He added: "We have full autonomy to decide who we are going to select and we believe that is a very strong position in front of CAS. This is not a sanction or double jeopardy, this is a selection policy. The right of team selectors is the basis for a strong appeal."

Legacy Company Shortlists Developers

The Olympic Park Legacy Company on Monday announced a shortlist of six developers to build the first neighborhood on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park after the 2012 Games.

The shortlisted bidders are: East Thames and Countryside Properties; Barratt Homes and Le Frak Organisation; St James Group Limited (Berkeley); Swan Housing Association, Urban Splash, Yoo & Mace; Notting Hill Housing, United Housing and HTA; and Taylor Wimpey and London & Quadrant.

They will be asked to submit outline proposals by the end of February. The OPLC aims to appoint a development partner by the summer in order for the first homes to be ready in 2014.

"We have received an extremely strong response from developers interested in building Chobham Manor. This reflects the strong market appetite to develop family housing in the first neighborhood to be created in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park," said OPLC chief executive Andrew Altman.

Chobham Manor, located between the athletes’ village and the velopark, will be a return to London’s traditional family neighborhoods of terraced and mews housing and duplex apartments within tree lined avenues, intimate streets and open squares. Addressing local needs, 70 percent of the 800 homes are to offer much needed family housing.

The new neighborhood is one of five scheduled for development on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, with up to 8,000 new homes being built over the next 20 years, in addition to the athletes' village that will be converted into 2,800 flats after the Games.

Art Work for Olympic Park

A public art commission will see a collection of large trees – each supporting a bespoke metal ring weighing up to 500kg - planted to mark the entrances to the 500-acre Olympic Park.

The work was developed by renowned British artists Ackroyd and Harvey and funded by the Olympic Delivery Authority and Arts Council England.

The rings on the trees will be six meters in diameter and engraved on the interior face with text capturing an archive of history in nine of the ten locations.

"The Olympic Park has been built with sustainability at the heart of its design. These ten trees will become a strong symbol of the Games and reinforce a commitment to the creation of Britain’s largest urban park for over a century," said ODA chairman John Armitt.

"They will act as fantastic meeting points for both spectators next summer and visitors for generations to come."

Reported by Mark Bisson

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