- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Olympic medals under lock and key at Tower of London.
- Date: 2nd July 2012
- Summary: CHAIRMAN OF RIO TINTO, JAN DU PLESSIS, ARRIVING/ CARRYING CUSHION WITH OLYMPIC MEDALS, BEING GREETED BY LOCOG CHAIRMAN SEBASTIAN COE
- Embargoed: 17th July 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: United Kingdom
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVABZSNWOAT2BLHVUUNOCU58C8L7
- Story Text: The Tower of London, used by British monarchs for over 600 years to hoard crowns and jewels, took delivery of its newest treasure on Monday (July 2) when 4,700 gold, silver and bronze Olympic medals were handed over for safe-keeping until the Games.
Flanked by the yeomen guardians of the Tower in their traditional tunics and to the fanfare of trumpets, Sebastian Coe, a former Olympic gold medallist and chairman of organisers LOCOG, received two heavy-looking, shiny gold medals on a cushion.
Coe, sheltering under an umbrella on a drizzly London evening with Jan du Plessis, chairman of Rio Tinto, the provider of metal for the medals, disappeared into the imposing Jewel House to lock up the medals in vaults at the medieval fortress on the Thames.
The Tower, used over the centuries as a royal palace, place of execution and a prison for traitors, still holds Britain's crown jewels, and sits just up the river from where a giant set of interlocking Olympic Rings can be found newly hanging over Tower Bridge.
For the next 26 days, the medals will stay locked up until the first are presented on July 28 in one of the women's shooting events, followed by 805 other victory ceremonies.
The medals, crafted at the Royal Mint in South Wales, feature the Greek goddess of victory, Nike, on the front, a design dictated by tradition, and show the River Thames weaving through the London Games logo on the back.
Coe said he hoped the design would inspire Olympians battling for the rare honour of wearing one.
"You know you've got to remember that the odds of anyone winning an Olympic or Paralympic medal are way way stacked against them. It's given to very few people and we felt that we wanted to design something that really paid homage to the traditions of the Olympic movement and the extraordinary story of the Olympic Games but at the same time had a nod to the modernity of this city," he said.
Coe said he was talking to David Beckham, England's most capped outfield player who helped bring the Olympic flame from Greece, about a possible Games times role after the footballer was omitted from the British Olympic soccer squad - though he was tight-lipped over what the role could be.
"I'm not telling you but I'm talking to him about it...you know I'm not going ot breach any great confidences when I tell you that David has been one of our longest supporters, he was with us when we set on this journey, he was there when we handed the bid document over, he was with us in Singapore when we snuck across the line, he was there when we launched, when we hit many of our milestones along the way. He helped us with international inspiration, of course he's going to play a role," he said.
The choice of Rio Tinto to provide the metal for the medals has caused controversy and anger amongst green campaigners who accuse the company of pollution.
But du Plessis shrugged off criticism, saying athletes could be proud of the medals they would wear.
"Oh I'm convinced people can wear them with great pride. You know wherever in the world we operate, we always operate with very, very strict standards and we set very high demands from our people. Which is not to say we couldn't always do slightly better, I think we could always strive strive to do better. And we don't expect always to get the support of all the people we deal with but by in large I'm very proud of the way we work, and I think our engagament with the Olympics is a way of saying to people that we are proud of what we do for the world," he said.
The London Mining Network, which campaigns against Rio Tinto as an Olympic partner, said it has concerns over air and water pollution at the mines in Utah and Mongolia, where the medal metals come from.
Spokesman for the group Richard Solly said organisers hadn't done enough to check Rio Tinto's credential before accepting them as a sponsor.
"Poor health for people in the Salt Lake City area, disruption to livelihoods of traditional herders in Mongolia and when you take into account the whole of rio Tinto's operations it's contributing to bad treatment of unionised workers, bad treatment of subcontracted workers, violation of indigenous people's rights, association with human rights abuses and militarisation. Rio Tinto has a lot of skeletons in its cupboard," he said.
The London Mining Network has joined forces with other green groups campaigning against Rio Tinto's involvement with the Games to form the Greenwash Gold 2012 campaign.
Activists are being asked to vote on short animated films which illustrate why Rio Tinto, or other controversial companies such as Dow and BP shouldn't be corporate sponsors of the Olympics.
The "winner" will be awarded with the Greenwash Gold medal for what it calls "environmental destruction". - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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