Tokyo’s hopes of hosting the 2016 Olympics were shattered Friday as the Japanese capital was eliminated in the second round of voting by the International Olympic Committee.

Rio de Janeiro was named the winner of rights to stage the 2016 Games, beating Madrid in the final round of voting to become the first South American Olympic host. Rio had 66 votes to Madrid’s 32.

Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting before Tokyo’s exit left the race down to the Rio and Madrid. Tokyo had 22 votes in the first round and 20 in the second.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama released a statement Saturday congratulating the Brazilian people on Rio de Janeiro’s win in a bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

‘‘I want to offer my heartfelt appreciation for the citizens of Tokyo and athletes,’’ said Tokyo Gov Shintaro Ishihara. ‘‘Let’s use this precious experience, while tackling environmental issues and contribute to the development of world cities. I pray for the success of the Games in Rio de Janeiro.’’

Under host city voting procedures, the city with the fewest number of votes in each successive round of balloting is eliminated until one city has reached a majority of the valid votes cast.

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The United States Olympic Committee reached a temporary compromise Friday with the International Olympic Committee in their heated dispute over revenue sharing.

Officials from both organizations met in Denver and agreed to wait until 2013 to discuss the issue. At that time, they will restart talks about redistributing the revenue from global sponsorship partners and television contracts. Any changes to the agreement would be instituted after 2020.

The U.S.O.C. now receives 20 percent of that sponsorship money and 12.75 percent of the TV money, but a group of angry I.O.C. and international sports federation officials had complained that the United States was receiving too much.

The groups were at loggerheads over the issue just as Chicago is trying to win votes to host the 2016 Olympics.

Bob Ctvrtlik, one of the main negotiators for the U.S.O.C., said he never thought the revenue-sharing dispute would affect Chicago’s chances. An I.O.C. evaluation committee is set to visit Chicago next week. The vote over which city — Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo — will win the Games is scheduled for Oct. 2.

“We never felt there was strong linkage,” Ctvrtlik said Friday, according to The Associated Press. “But in a room where one or two votes can make a difference, we’d rather have this issue behind us.”

But for the U.S.O.C., putting the revenue-sharing negotiations on hold comes at a cost: the I.O.C. said Friday that the U.S.O.C. has agreed to pay more of the fees related to the running of the Games, including fees related to doping programs and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Right now, the cost of the Olympics is sliced into thirds, with the I.O.C., the 35 Olympic federations and the 205 national Olympic committees paying the bill.

Jacques Rogge, the I.O.C.’s president, said he was not sure how much more the U.S.O.C. would have to pay, but said that it would be more than what he termed “rank and file” Olympic committees. He said the dollar amount would be discussed in the future.

Earlier this week, Hein Verbruggen, an honorary I.O.C. member and former president of the International Cycling Union, said the U.S.O.C. was greedy. The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations passed a non-binding resolution Tuesday urging the end of the U.S.O.C.’s current open-ended contract with the I.O.C. The association wanted to negotiate a new contract.

On Friday, Verbruggen was pleased.

“We’ve always said we just wanted to get them to the table, talking seriously,” he said, according to the A.P. “We’ve said ‘We need you guys at the table. It takes some heat off Chicago.’ ”

from: nytimes.com

Female ski jumpers continue to fight an uphill battle in their quest to compete in the Winter Olympic Games.
In an attempt to advance their cause, two elite jumpers — Katie Willis of Calgary and 2009 world champion Lindsey Van of Park City, Utah — appeared at a Wednesday media conference in Denver to urge International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge to meet with them.
“It was definitely frustrating,” Van said. “We didn’t get to meet with Rogge, but we got our idea across to the media that we want to meet and don’t really want to go ahead with a lawsuit, but that’s where we’re headed.”
Van and Willis are among 15 plaintiffs in a lawsuit that is to be heard April 20 in B.C. Supreme Court. The lawsuit was filed in May by female ski jumpers who maintain that they should be able to compete at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Male ski jumpers have been in the Olympics since the inaugural winter Games in 1924.
Rogge is in Denver for IOC executive board meetings, which began Wednesday and are to continue until Friday. The plaintiffs sent Rogge a registered letter last week, but he did not respond to their request for a meeting.
“That’s just how they work,” Van said. “The top guy in IOC is not going to make an appearance for some athletes that he doesn’t want to be in his Games, anyway.”
The International Ski Federation gave a resounding endorsement of female ski jumpers in 2006, voting 114-1 in favor of their inclusion in the 2010 Olympics. The IOC was not swayed, however, maintaining that ski jumping at the women’s level had not developed to the point where it was of Olympic caliber.
The lawsuit has been filed against the Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee. The suit contends that the exclusion of women is discriminatory and in opposition to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“The reason it’s not (filed against) the IOC is very simple: Nobody has any authority over the IOC,” Women’s Ski Jumping USA president Deedee Corradini said Wednesday. “They can do whatever they want, so we had to look for another way to get this done.
“As our lawyers took a look at what our options were, VANOC, we feel, is the right place.
Our belief is VANOC can control whether the women jump or not. If this goes our way, VANOC is just going to have to tell the IOC, ‘The women have to jump. You can’t break the laws of Canada and we are subject to those laws.’ ”
Vancouver organizing officials contend they should not be the defendant because the IOC dictates the composition of the Winter Olympics. The IOC has not budged.
“If you have three medals, with 80 athletes competing on a regular basis internationally, the percentage of medal winners is extremely high,” Rogge told reporters on Feb. 28, 2008. “In any other sport, you are speaking about hundreds of thousands, if not tens of millions, of athletes at a very high level, competing for one single medal.
“We do not want the medals to be diluted and watered down. That is the bottom line.”
Corradini said there are close to 100 women from 18 countries competing at the elite level. A total of 166 women are registered as active jumpers with the International Ski Federation.
Since 1991 the IOC has demanded gender equity from any sport it adds.
However, ski jumping has been grandfathered, or “grandmothered” in this case. Ski jumping and Nordic combined (which includes ski jumping and cross-country skiing) are the only male-exclusive sports in the Winter Olympics.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Willis, 17. “We’re doing whatever we can. We’ve gone through all the steps. This is the last step so hopefully this will be the thing we want.”
The first women’s ski jumping world championship was held Feb. 20 in Liberec, Czech Republic, with Van winning the gold medal.
The IOC has said it is amenable to adding women’s ski jumping for the 2014 Winter Olympics, earmarked for Sochi, Russia, providing its criteria can be met. Van is not prepared to wait that long.
“I need to get out and move on with my life if this isn’t going to happen,” the 24-year-old Van said. “I’m not going to wait for a bunch of old guys to decide my future when I can take it into my own hands and move on from ski jumping if it doesn’t happen now.”
For 2010, the women are asking for one event to be held on the normal hill in Whistler, B.C. The men’s event includes competition on the normal hill and large hill, as well as a team event.
Corradini — a former mayor of Salt Lake City — cannot understand why the IOC members are not open to that request.
“They would be heroes,” she said. “Everybody would shine. The lawsuit goes away. Why don’t they do something so simple?”

source: vancouversun.com

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Pressure on the United States Olympic Committee to renegotiate its existing revenue-sharing agreement with the International Olympic Committee rose to another level when an angry group of Olympic leaders voted to terminate the contract and renegotiate a new one.
The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations passed a non-binding resolution on Tuesday to end the U.S.O.C.’s current open-ended contract that agreement gives the United States 20 percent of the I.O.C.’s global sponsorship revenue — the same amount as all the other Olympic committees, combined — and 12.75 percent of the television revenue.
“The greed of this organization is unlimited. Totally unlimited,” Hein Verbruggen, the former chief of the International Cycling Union and an honorary I.O.C. member, said to The Associated Press. “It infuriates everybody and especially me.”
The international federations are meeting this week in Denver at a gathering called Sportaccord. Verbruggen is its chairman.
“The way they treat us, there’s no respect, no respect at all,” Verbruggen said. “It’s infuriating. I have no other words.”
The U.S.O.C., however, has emphasized that the United States generates a big chunk of the I.O.C. revenues and that U.S.-based companies provide most of the sponsorship money. The United States television contract is also far more lucrative than in any other country. To televise last year’s Beijing Games, NBC paid about $894 million. The European Broadcasting Union paid about $443.5 million. Chinese television networks paid about $7 million.
“We’re looking for a long-term solution, and it’s probably not best to do it in an emotional or pressure environment,” Bob Ctvrtlik, the U.S.O.C.’s vice chairman for international relations, told The Associated Press. “It’s not easy. It is complicated. I think we need to do that in a nice, calm manner.”
The impassioned debate comes at a delicate time for the U.S.O.C., with the bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago in 2016 ramping up. The vote on which city will host those Games is scheduled for October.
An I.O.C. evaluation commission will visit Chicago in early April. It will also visit the other three cities vying for the Games, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
Both sides in the revenue-sharing tiff deny that the Chicago bid would be affected by the revenue disagreement, which is not expected to be resolved this week.
Chicago 2016 chairman Pat Ryan said that the disagreement has nothing to do with the bid.
Even so, Verbruggen said: “I like the guys in Chicago. I really like Pat Ryan. I’d think they might be embarrassed with this whole thing.”

Female Ski Jumpers Ask to Meet With I.O.C. President
A group of international female ski jumpers have asked the I.O.C. president, Jacques Rogge, to meet with their representatives in Denver this week, in hopes of convincing the committee to allow female ski jumpers into the 2010 Games. In a 2006 decision, the I.O.C. barred women from participating in the sport at the Vancouver Olympics.
The athletes said that participation in their sport was growing quickly, outpacing several other Winter Games sports.
“We’re ready,” Lindsey Van, a world champion and American national team member, said in a statement. “Our sport has developed incredibly in the three years since that decision, and we would really appreciate the opportunity to tell our story to him personally.”
Fifteen female ski jumpers, including Van, have brought a lawsuit against the Vancouver Olympics organizing committee, citing gender discrimination. A hearing is scheduled for April 20 in British Columbia Supreme Court.

source: nytimes.com

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Sport’s long-term popularity will suffer badly if governments redirect funds away from its grassroots during the global credit crunch, International Olympic Committee (IOC) chiefs warned on Friday.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said top-tier events like the Olympic Games and soccer’s World Cup were not suffering too much from the worst economic downturn in almost 80 years, though sports at local level were struggling to cope.

“If the financial crisis continues any longer than we expect … the popularity of sport will be severely damaged in the long term as grassroots and local games find it harder to survive,” Rogge told reporters in Brussels.

“I think the main place for the crisis is at grassroots level, the small clubs, national federations, some national Olympic committees. They say it’s getting extremely difficult to find sponsorships.”

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With their venue plans now having received the necessary approvals from the 26 international sports federations, Chicago 2016 bid officials now can focus entirely on the issue that will have the greatest impact on their chances to win the Summer Games.

Money.

But the thorniest part of that issue is out of their hands.
It will be up to Chicago 2016 to do two things:

1.) Convince International Olympic Committee members that it has sufficient guarantees to cover operating expenses in case of possible shortfalls in projected revenues – especially if the recession drags on.

2.) Convince the same members, who will choose the 2016 host at an Oct. 2 vote in Denmark, that it can find developers willing to build a $1-billion Olympic Village just south of downtown Chicago.

Given the financial problems that have hit village plans for both the 2010 Winter Games and 2012 Summer Games, the IOC wants as much certainty as possible from all four candidates, despite – or because of – the global recession.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Olympic Committee must resolve the hot-button financial issue, the ongoing dispute over the USOC share of global sponsorship revenues and U.S. broadcast rights.
USOC chairman Larry Probst, who took over that position from Peter Ueberroth in October, traveled this week to Lausanne, Switzerland, to introduce himself personally to IOC president Jacques Rogge and officials of several international federations that also have headquarters in Lausanne.
The revenue issue apparently was not discussed during Probst’s trip, described as a “meet-and-greet” by someone familiar with its purpose.
Exactly what role Probst is playing in the interminable USOC-IOC negotiations on the matter is unclear.

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Singapore 2010 Youth Olympics logo

On Saturday January 10th, about three months delayed, The Singapore Youth Olympics 2010 logo was unveiled, and the results of the public logo competition were announced.
A new emblem is born. On Saturday, Singapore 2010 launched its official emblem for the 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games. “The emblem embodies the spirit of the Youth Olympic Games and represents the blending of the IOC’s and Singapore Organising Committee’s vision to bring the youth of the world together,” said IOC President Jacques Rogge in his message.

Colourful and vibrant
The emblem illustrates in a colourful and vibrant way the passion of sport with the champions in its centre. It will be a strong ambassador for Singapore 2010.

An event in itself
The emblem launching ceremony was accompanied by sports demonstrations based on the new disciplines of the 2010 Games sports programme (like basketball 3 on 3) and a 2010m run with many Singaporean youngsters participating.

Singapore 2010 Logo

Sport, Culture and Education
Some 3,594 athletes from all 205 National Olympic Committees will compete in Singapore in 26 sports comprising 201 events. Besides the sports competitions programme, the YOG will feature an extensive Cultural and Educational Programme (CEP), which aims to introduce, in a fun and festive spirit, the young athletes to Olympism and the Olympic values, and to raise awareness of important issues such as the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, the fight against doping and their role as sports ambassadors in their communities.

source: olympic.org

Singapore Youth Olympics 2010 logo

A new emblem is born. On Saturday, Singapore 2010 launched its official emblem for the 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games. “The emblem embodies the spirit of the Youth Olympic Games and represents the blending of the IOC’s and Singapore Organising Committee’s vision to bring the youth of the world together,” said IOC President Jacques Rogge in his message.

Colourful and vibrant
The emblem illustrates in a colourful and vibrant way the passion of sport with the champions in its centre. It will be a strong ambassador for Singapore 2010.

An event in itself
The emblem launching ceremony was accompanied by sports demonstrations based on the new disciplines of the 2010 Games sports programme (like basketball 3 on 3) and a 2010m run with many Singaporean youngsters participating.

Singapore 2010 Logo

Sport, Culture and Education
Some 3,594 athletes from all 205 National Olympic Committees will compete in Singapore in 26 sports comprising 201 events. Besides the sports competitions programme, the YOG will feature an extensive Cultural and Educational Programme (CEP), which aims to introduce, in a fun and festive spirit, the young athletes to Olympism and the Olympic values, and to raise awareness of important issues such as the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, the fight against doping and their role as sports ambassadors in their communities.

source: olympic.org

IT’s a strange world in which Michael Phelps can win a record eight Olympic gold medals and still be challenged for pre-eminence in the year of the Beijing Games.

But a bolt from the blue Caribbean, in the shape of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, managed to drag the spotlight from the Water Cube to the Bird’s Nest, as two of history’s greatest athletes framed the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge declared the two men the “icons of the Games”.

In a record-breaking year for records, the pair were also the foremost exponents of the art of going where no athlete has gone before.

Appropriately for the first Olympics staged in China, Phelps and Bolt represented the Yin and Yang of great champions — the swimmer and the runner, water and earth, a diet of 12,000 calories a day versus chicken nuggets for breakfast. Phelps lit up the Games by day (thanks to NBC’s insistence on morning finals in the pool) and Bolt by night.

But where Phelps’ triumphant march was expected, even demanded (NBC was counting on it), Bolt’s sudden rise to superstardom was a joyous gift for his troubled sport, beset by doping scandals which had tarnished its credibility along with some once-great names.

It takes a huge talent to hold 90,000 people in thrall but Bolt captured them at the Bird’s Nest from the moment he dashed down the straight to win the 100m in a world record 9.69sec, becoming the fastest man on the planet, despite a side-stepping celebration over the last 20m that may have cost him up to 0.1sec.

But Bolt’s Calypso rhythm and youthful exuberance brought much-needed star quality to the main stadium.

The only time that 21-year-old Bolt was deadly serious was when he stepped onto the blocks for the 200m final. A 200m specialist as a junior competitor, he was desperate to break his hero Michael Johnson’s lauded world record of 19.32sec from Atlanta in 1996.

Bolt ran the half-lap with his eyes only on that mark and every fast-twitch fibre straining forward, stopping the clock in an astonishing 19.30sec.

And he wasn’t finished there. The showman of the Games then combined with former world 100m record-holder Asafa Powell and his Jamaican team-mates to set a third world record in the 4×100m relay.

His name was attached to three of the five world records to fall at the Bird’s Nest.

If Bolt was the king of the track, Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva was the queen of the air, after she soared to a world record of 5.05m in the pole vault to clinch her second successive Olympic gold medal.

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Sailing scored a major coup as its television coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games was recognized as ‘The Best Sports Coverage by the Host Broadcaster’ at the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) “Olympic Golden Rings” ceremony, held last night (16 December) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The IOC’s Olympic Golden Rings ceremony recognises the contribution made by the world of television to the success of the Olympic Games. Sailing won the gold award for The Best Sports Coverage by the Host Broadcasting Organisation, the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB). IOC President Jacques Rogge was amongst the leading figures from both the sporting and broadcasting world who attended the awards ceremony held at The Olympic Museum in Lausanne on Tuesday evening.

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The Beijing Olympics were an “indisputable success” that brought change to China in areas as diverse as press freedom, the environment and public health, according to an assessment released by the International Olympic Committee that activists criticized as ignoring human rights violations that occurred during the Games.

The review, released by the Olympic committee during meetings in London this week, credited the Beijing Games with attracting broader participation and larger audiences than any other Olympics.

“The Games expanded and strengthened the Olympic movement by advancing the universality of sport,” the three-page fact sheet said. “They also brought many tangible and intangible benefits to China, especially in terms of public infrastructure improvements. While some of the positive benefits were immediately apparent, others will emerge with time.”

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The Beijing Olympics were an “indisputable success” that brought change to China in areas as diverse as press freedom, the environment and public health, according to an assessment released by the International Olympic Committee this week that activists criticized as ignoring human-rights violations that occurred during the Games.
The review, released by the Olympic committee during meetings in London this week, credited the Beijing Games with attracting broader participation and larger audiences than any other Olympics in history.

“The Games expanded and strengthened the Olympic Movement by advancing the universality of sport,” according to the three-page fact sheet. “They also brought many tangible and intangible benefits to China, especially in terms of public infrastructure improvements. While some of the positive benefits were immediately apparent, others will emerge with time.”

The document praised the Beijing organizers’ nearly flawless execution of the Games, detailing the successful coordination of half a million volunteers and maintenance of a complex transportation and security system. It noted that the media facilities were “widely praised as the best ever,” and that the Chinese government has indefinitely reduced restrictions on foreign media who report in the country.

But it made no mention of several highly publicized crackdowns on would-be protestors, or of Internet censorship at the media center and harassment of foreign journalists during the Games.

“I think the I.O.C.’s fact sheet is missing a lot of salient facts,” said Minky Worden, media director for Human Rights Watch. “What is missing in this document is the extent to which the International Olympic Committee lowered its standards on human rights around the Beijing Olympic Games.”

Thousands of people were evicted from their homes to make way for construction of Olympic venues, and some activists were detained before the Games began. Although authorities set up “protest zones” during the Olympics, no demonstrations took place, and several people who applied for protest permits were detained, including two elderly women who were initially sentenced to up to a year of “re-education through labor.” The sentence was later rescinded.

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THE high command of the Olympic movement is to meet in London to discuss what lessons can be learned from the Beijing Games.

Up to 70 VIPs will attend the “Beijing debrief” this month in a week-long summit which will begin with a lecture by Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee.

Mr Rogge is expected to tackle the issue of how the scale of the Olympic Games can be adapted to cope with a worldwide recession. Last month he sparked a row when he said that to avoid the main 2012 stadium becoming a “white elephant” after the Games, the athletics track could be removed. Officials from the Beijing Games organising committee, Bocog, will brief their London counterparts on issues ranging from transport, catering and security. Bocog earned praise for the organisation of the Games and the sports venues, especially the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube.

However, the London organising committee, Locog, will be keen to improve on public catering at venues and the poor atmosphere in the Beijing Olympic Green.

Meetings will be led by Hein Verbruggen, head of the IOC’s team overseeing the Beijing Games, and IOC chief technocrat Gilbert Felli.

Future Winter Olympics hosts Vancouver and Sochi will also attend, as will cities bidding to host the 2016 Games – Rio, Madrid, Chicago and Tokyo – who will also be given a tour of the Olympic Park. They will be discreetly trying to lobby the dozen IOC members in attendance, ahead of the 2016 vote next year in Copenhagen.

?BORIS Johnson has rejected claims that Olympic chiefs will struggle to put on the 2012 Games because of the financial downturn.

“Not only can we cope, but we can do a fantastic job,” he insisted, adding that this would be done within the £9.3 billion budget.

However, the Mayor admitted that Games organisers may have to attract more foreign investment, particularly from China, as a result.

The Standard reported last month that he was holding talks with some of China’s leading universities to establish a new campus in the Olympic Park.

Mr Johnson’s remarks on Channel 4 News come after Olympics minister Tessa Jowell said the Government would not have bid for the Games if it had known a recession was on its way.

source: thisislondon.co.uk

Stocks markets and oil prices may dip and dive, but Olympic organizers with preparations under way for three games in the next six years aren’t breaking a sweat.

The reasons? Time and television money. The global economic downturn has squeezed private financing for venues that will be a part of London’s 2012 Summer Games and Sochi’s 2014 winter edition, but with brisk ticket sales for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and most of the sponsors locked in, the IOC can afford to hold off making new deals for television rights and sponsorships.

“All of us feel this,” said Gerhard Heiberg, head of the International Olympic Committee’s marketing commission. “Of course, this has an impact for everyone in the world. It never comes at a convenient time. But we don’t feel we are affected too much in general. Things are moving everywhere in the right direction. Some things may take longer than originally hoped.”

The financial pinch comes as IOC president Jacques Rogge seeks another term that will keep him in office until 2013. He says the committee is closely monitoring the financial situation.

“It would be naive and shortsighted to say that nothing will happen,” Rogge said last week, confirming his plans to seek re-election next October, when he is expected to be unopposed. “Yes, the situation is so volatile that it is too soon to draw conclusions.”

Rogge said the Olympic movement is in “excellent financial health.” Total Olympic TV and sponsorship revenues for the 2005-08 cycle – covering the 2006 Turin Winter Games and 2008 Beijing Olympics – totalled about US$3.5 billion.

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In a highly unusual show of discord between Olympic leaders, IAAF chief Lamine Diack sharply criticized IOC president Jacques Rogge on Friday for displaying “a lack of respect” for track and field.

Diack, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, issued a strongly worded statement vowing to fight for the “rightful place of athletics at the summer Olympic Games.”

He assailed the International Olympic Committee president for criticizing Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s celebrations in Beijing and for suggesting the Olympic track in London could be ripped up after the 2012 Games.

“Destroying the track would be totally unacceptable,” Diack said.

Diack is scheduled to meet with Rogge in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Nov. 17.

Diack took issue with Rogge for accusing Bolt of excessive showboating and showing a lack of respect to other sprinters after his world-record performances in the 100 and 200 meters.

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IOC president Jacques Rogge foresees no immediate threat to the Olympics from the global financial crisis and says the fight against doping will be a key priority for a second term in office.

Rogge, a 66-year-old Belgian who has led the International Olympic Committee since 2001, notified members last Friday that he will seek re-election next October for a final four-year term that will take him to 2013.

He spoke in a telephone interview with The Associated Press ahead of a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday where he publicly announced his candidacy for another term at the helm of the IOC.

No challengers are expected and Rogge’s re-election is considered a formality at the October 2009 assembly in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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GE, a worldwide partner of the Olympic Games, is kicking off a number of new marketing and sales efforts in advance of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and London 2012 Olympic Games.
For the London 2012 Olympic Games, GE has launched a ground-breaking moving image campaign on the side of London taxi cabs featuring a technique known as ‘motion lenticular technology’, never before used on the exterior of a taxi cab. The campaign, which runs until February 2009, features 300 London cabs displaying the new Olympic Games designs as side panels. Two creative executions have been developed – one that depicts an Olympic hurdler, the other a cyclist. As a result of the printing technology used, as the cab moves along the streets, the images appear to be animated.

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Rupert Murdoch’s media group scored another Olympic coup Friday when it was awarded the Turkish broadcast rights to the 2014 and 2016 games.

The International Olympic Committee announced the deal with Fox Turkey, part of the Fox entertainment network owned by Murdoch.

It is the IOC’s third Olympic deal with a Murdoch channel in Europe this year, and second this month. On Oct. 21, SKY Italia was awarded the 2014 and 2016 rights in Italy, following the contract announced in February for the 2010 and 2012 games.

Fox Turkey will provide coverage on free-to-air television, pay channels, and through the Internet and mobile phones.

The value of the contract was not disclosed. It covers the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Olympics. The 2016 host city will be chosen next October, with Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro the finalists.
“Fox Turkey presented a comprehensive package that will allow not only the broadest coverage of the Olympic Games but also the promotion of Olympic sports and Olympic values beyond the 16 days of competition,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said in a statement.

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