Do you remember the very first episode of The Day Today when Chris Morris interviewed the woman from the jam festival which included celebrity jams from the likes of Glennis Kinnock and Sebastian Coe?
Sebastian Coe? I hate Sebastian Coe! £1500 is a pathetic amount of money... you could make more money auctioning dogs! You could make more money sitting outside a tube station with your hat on the ground, even if you were twice as ugly as you are, which is VERY UGLY INDEED!
Well today you can add "long-jump legend" Bob Beamon to the list of people who hate Sebastian Coe.
You see Bob is a little upset that Seb decided to include a picture of him in a promotional brochure for the London 2012 bid.
The brochure was supposed to show "great Olympic moments" but someone neglected to ask Bob's permission, and there's also the small matter of Mr Beamon's close involvement with the New York Olympic bid.
Bob's written a letter to Seb, outlining his greivances and it goes like this:
“I was surprised to see that you used my image to promote London 2012 without any consent or consultation. This is not just a discourtesy but is, I believe, a fundamental breach of any Olympian’s right to determine how his or her name and image is used for promotional purposes. Given the IOC’s recent correspondence prohibiting the bids from including the images of IOC members from countries other than their own bid promotion I would think that you would treat fellow Olympics with some respect. I urgently request that you, as a fellow Olympian, promptly issue a public apology and advise IOC members that we in fact support New York’s bid, not London. The brochure must be withdrawn”
In return London 2012 have stated that "The use of the photograph was in no way meant to imply support for the London bid but rather to celebrate great Olympic moments which are recognised across the globe."
In other bid-related news (and there's going to be a lot of this over the next week or so), the Strategic Rail Authority have said that they have signed a £250 million contract for the delivery of 28 new high-speed trains, which will provide the seven-minute, ludicrously-neamed “Olympic Javelin” service between King’s Cross and Stratford International station.
