While Londoners are asked to get fit before the 2012 Summer Games, Sochi’s mayoralty race is losing a contender who faces murder charges in Britain, avoiding any controversy ahead of the 2014 Games, and Vancouver is cutting funds for public parties during the 2010 Games.
A campaign to get Londoners fit before the 2012 Games was launched Tuesday. People are being urged to walk up escalators and to the end of Tube platforms, and to get off trains a stop early and walk the rest of the way to their destinations.
Ruth Carnall, chief executive of London’s National Health Service (NHS) said, “almost half of Londoners do little or no physical activity and this is a big issue for the NHS and health in the capital. Almost half of all journeys are walkable and even a short walk is a workout”.
Meanwhile the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee can breathe a sigh of relief. Interfax reports Tuesday that the ultra nationalist Liberal Democratic Party will not nominate State Duma Deputy Andrei Lugovoi, who faces murder charges in Britain in connection with the 2005 poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko, to run for mayor of Sochi, host of the 2014 Winter Games.
The party said it had decided not to nominate Lugovoi because he has no ties to the city.
One high profile candidate for the position, Boris Nemtsov, suggested in an interview with Silver Rain radio on Tuesday that Lugovoi’s bid was ended on orders from the Kremlin. He said the Kremlin would not want a man wanted by Britain on murder charges running for mayor of an Olympic city.
There won’t be any public parties during the Vancouver 2010 Games but the organizing committee is going ahead with plans for corporate events, reports the Canadian Press. Officials want to cut $5 million from a $23 million budget for public festivities, citing troubles raising sponsorship money.
A second report going before Vancouver city council recommends proceeding with $2 million to entertain politicians and corporate executives during the Games, including the purchase of more than 1000 tickets to the Games and hosting as many as five daily receptions. Officials are also considering construction of a $1.5 million “Vancouver House” to promote the city to the public and to dignitaries.
