Monday Memo - Flame Handover; U.S. Media Summit; Hockey, Boxing World Champs
5/14/2012
Open water swim champion Spyros Gianniotis carries the flame out of the ancient stadium in Olympia last week. (ATR)
Olympic torchbearers are busy crisscrossing Greece ahead of Thursday’s flame handover at the Panathenaic Stadium from the 1896 Athens Games.
The flame will be given to London 2012 chair Sebastian Coe that night for its transfer to England for the start of the Olympic Torch Relay across the U.K.
LOCOG’s team will head from the sundown ceremony to the airport for a chartered flight to carry the flame to Land’s End in England’s west, where the U.K. leg of the relay kicks off Saturday morning with three-time Olympic sailing champion Ben Ainslie as the first torchbearer.
Special Guest for USOC Media Summit
Michelle Obama is the wife of President Barack Obama. Getty Images) and
Tencent will be on the scene Monday in Dallas as First Lady Michelle Obama speaks about her “Let’s Move!” initiative, designed to fight childhood obesity in the U.S.
Obama’s appearance comes on the penultimate day of the Team USA Media Summit, a four-day opportunity for journalists to conduct interviews and photo sessions with Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls ahead of London 2012.
Around the Rings is on the scene in Sweden and Finland. (ATR)
Helsinki and Stockholm share hosting duties for the 2012 IIHF Men’s Ice Hockey World Championship ending this week. Group play runs through Tuesday with medal matches to follow Sunday.
Women’s Boxing World Champs
AIBA’s biennial women’s world championships continue through Sunday in Qinhuangdao, China and are the only opportunity for athletes to qualify in advance of women’s boxing’s Olympic debut at London 2012.
Collectors Fair
The 18th World Olympic Collectors Fair runs Thursday to Sunday at the historic Zappeion Megaron in Athens.
Zappeion Megaron is known as the first building in the world constructed to serve Olympic needs. (Zappeion.gr)
All participants will receive free accreditation passes, compliments of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, to attend Thursday’s flame handover ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium.
The fair is also being held in conjunction with a weeklong Olympic memorabilia exhibition.
Written by Matthew Grayson.
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