Concerns and controversies at the 2012 Summer Olympics

A number of controversies and concerns associated with the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, UK have emerged which have been the subject of public debate and media commentary.

Prior to the games

IOC policy

Brand protection

The protection of the Olympic brand has been the subject of some criticism. The Olympic rings themselves are protected in the United Kingdom under the Olympic Symbol etc. (Protection) Act 1995, and under provisions set out by the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006, LOCOG are empowered to prevent the misuse of Olympic branding leading up to the 2012 Games. The acts aim to prevent unauthorised commercial association with the games by traders (such as using the Olympic rings in a shop window) and to prevent attempts at ambush marketing at games events, but the constraints detailed in the guidelines issued by LOCOG have been criticised by some commentators as a form of censorship.

The guidelines specify a range of trademarked logos and designs as well as certain "Listed Expressions" and protected words that advertisers may not use, which include the words "London" and "2012". Even if an advertiser does not mention the Olympics or use any of the listed words, any visual or audio representation of London and sports may be considered by a court to be an infringement of LOCOG's rights and subject to a fine of £20,000 or possible imprisonment. A number of individuals and businesses have fallen foul of the restrictions including a lingerie shop in Leicester, a grandmother knitting for charity and a Plymouth café selling Olympic torch baguettes. An exception to these rules was successfully negotiated by the restaurant chain Little Chef, who have been permitted by LOCOG to continue to sell their fried "Olympic Breakfast" on account of the item having been named on their menu since 1994.

In an interview with BBC journalist Evan Davis, Lord Coe emphasised the need to protect the rights of official sponsors such as BMW and Adidas who had contributed large amounts of money to the Games. His suggestion that visitors to the London games would not be admitted if they were wearing a Pepsi-branded T-shirt was later retracted by LOCOG, who stated that such rules would apply only to large groups of spectators wearing "visibly branded" clothing.

Criticism has also focused on the exclusive rights held by some sponsors to serve and advertise food at and near to Olympic venues. McDonald's hold sole rights to sell chips throughout the games, preventing independent food outlets from serving chips with any meal, although an exception was negotiated with McDonald's to allow the sale of traditional British fish and chips. Food sellers must also comply with food outlet specifications which require prominent display of Coca-Cola branding with limited space for their own products.

Doping suspensions

See also: Use of performance-enhancing drugs in the Olympic Games

The IOC amended the Olympic Charter in June 2008 in order to bar athletes suspended for at least six months for a doping offence from competing at the Olympic Games following the end of the suspension. This provision, known as the Osaka Rule or Rule 45, was challenged before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In October 2011 the court found that the provision was not an eligibility rule, but a sanction not mandated by the World Anti-Doping Code and thus invalid. This was followed by a ruling in April 2012 where the court found that a British Olympic Association by-law preventing the selection of athletes sanctioned for doping for participation in the Olympic Games was invalid for similar reasons. The rulings have led to calls from the IOC and the BOA to include a provision similar to the Osaka Rule in the next Anti-Doping Code, which will be in effect by the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Sponsors

Dow Chemical

The IOC and LOCOG have drawn criticism for accepting Dow Chemical Company as a partner for the London Games. Human Rights activists have been campaigning to get Dow Chemicals to clean up the contamination in Bhopal, India, where gas leak at a Union Carbide plant in 1984 killed 2,259 people. In an email response in March 2012, LOCOG refused to withdraw Dow as a sponsor and stated "Dow is an industry leader in terms of operating with the highest standards of ethics and sustainability... [it] has received several awards and accolades in this regard over the last few years." Dow said it was surprised by the controversy because Dow never had a plant in Bhopal, and did not acquire any of the connection with Bhopal. Dow acquired Union Carbide in 2001, 12 years after Union Carbide had settled with the Government of India and Bhopal victims.

Healthy eating

There has been criticism that companies that produce junk food or otherwise unhealthy food and drink are major sponsors of the Olympics, notably McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Cadbury and Heineken, which is in conflict with the Olympics' ideal of healthiness. Critics have included the Chief Medical Officer of Wales, Dr Tony Jewell, and the head of sports science of the GB Team. The London Assembly passed a motion calling for a ban on junk-food sponsors.

The sponsors were defended on the grounds that they provide a significant income for the event. Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC, acknowledged concerns but noted the importance of sponsorship money and said that the issue of obesity had been raised with such sponsors. McDonald's and Coca-Cola also defended their involvement, stating that healthy eating was the responsibility of the individual to make their own purchasing choices. Locog's policy for food provision states a number of aims including diversity, hygiene, health and nutrition and sustainability.

Security

See also: Security for the 2012 Summer Olympics

Air defence sites

The decision by the Ministry of Defence to station surface-to-air missiles on top of the Lexington building, a residential apartment block in Bow, was challenged in court on 10 July by residents of another tower Fred Wigg Tower in Leytonstone, east London, where missiles were to be sited, under Article 8 and Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, over concerns the missiles made them a terrorist target. The judgement from Mr Justice Haddon-Cave was in favour of the citing of the missiles on Fred Wigg Tower. He stated in his judgement

Residents were under something of a misapprehension regarding the equipment and risks.... The MoD's voluntary engagement with the community over the plans was immaculate and the residents who challenged the missile sites had misunderstood the facts.

The Solicitor representing the residents David Enright said after the judgement:

The clear implication of today's judgement is that the Ministry of Defence now has the power to militarise the private homes of any person.

Security guard shortage

In July 2012 the private security firm G4S, which had been contracted to supply security personnel for the Olympics, revealed that it had failed to recruit and train enough staff for the Games. The shortfall was made up by deploying 3,500 troops of the armed forces. Reports in the media claimed some recruits were not able to speak adequate English.

Nationality issues

Falkland Islands dispute

On 2 May 2012, in regards to the Falkland Islands dispute, on the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the Argentine ship General Belgrano, Argentina released an advertising film depicting the captain of Argentina's hockey team, Fernando Zylberberg, training in Stanley, Falkland Islands, under the slogan "To compete on British soil, we train on Argentine soil." The film was criticised by the United Kingdom Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, as "tasteless", to which President of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner replied that "not respecting the UN is what is really offensive". An IOC statement said "the games should not be part of a political platform", while Argentine Olympic Committee President Gerardo Werthein stated that "the Olympic Games cannot be used to make political gestures". Zylberberg was not selected for the Argentine hockey squad, which went on to lose to Great Britain, 4-1 in their Preliminary Round Group A match.

Regent Street flags display

As part of the build up to the Games, the flags of all competing nations were suspended over streets in a display around the West End of London by the Regent Street Association (RSA). Included in this was the Flag of the Republic of China. Since 1981, the Republic of China has not been permitted to compete at the Olympics under its own name, instead using the name "Chinese Taipei", together with the flag of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, which is not Taiwan's national flag. In all official Olympic events and publications, the name and symbols of Chinese Taipei must be used. The flag display was not connected to LOCOG, and not subject to Olympic branding rules. Officials from the People's Republic of China made a complaint to the United Kingdom Foreign Office (FCO) about the display of national flag of the Republic of China. The FCO advised the RSA to replace the national Flag of the Republic of China with the Chinese Taipei Olympic flag. The removal of the national flag led to an official complaint from the Republic of China, with the Senior Representative, Shen Lyu-shun, writing to the RSA stating the view that "the nomenclature regarding Taiwan’s participation in the Olympics shall not be applied to the display of the flags in the street", and that matters like this fall "within the scope of freedom of speech” and “shall not be subject to interference by a third party".

Russian biographies

A complaint by the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine was made about the biographies of Russian Olympic team members posted on the official London 2012 Games' website. The biographies referred to the athletes' Ukrainian birthplaces as being located in Russia. Thirty athletes were identified as not being born in Russia had incorrect birthplace references. Georgia’s Olympic Committee has also expressed outrage and is demanding correction. The website, for instance, says wrestler Besik Kudukhov’s birthplace was in South Ossetia (RUS). Other athletes such Boxer David Ayrapetyan therefore was born in Baku (RUS) (the capital of Azerbaijan), weightlifter Alexandr Ivanov hailed from Rustavi (RUS) (actually in Georgia), while volleyball player Tatiana Kosheleva came from Belorussia Region (RUS).

World events

Bahraini uprising

In June 2012, the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) urged British authorities to ban the president of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa from entering the UK during the games. Prince Nasser, son of Bahrain's King Hamad and the commander of the Royal Guard has been accused of torture and human rights violations during the 2011-2012 Bahraini uprising. The ECCHR claimed that Prince Nasser launched "a punitive campaign to repress Bahraini athletes who had demonstrated their support (for) the peaceful pro-democracy movement". It said that, following his directive, "more than 150 professional athletes, coaches and referees were subjected to arbitrary arrests, night raids, detention, abuse and torture by electric cables and other means". The call to ban Prince Nasser from entering the UK was supported by global activist group Avaaz, and British Member of Parliament George Galloway, who warned that he would attempt to make a citizen's arrest of the prince if he comes to London.

Syrian uprising

According to media reports, General Mowaffak Joumaa, the head of the Syrian Olympic Committee, was refused an entry visa to the UK for the games due to his links to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, which had by the time of the games and since March 2011, been fighting a civil war. The UK Home Office would not confirm this due to a policy of not commenting on individual cases, although the deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had previously stated that officials with connections to the Assad regime would be prevented from attending the games. In anticipation of just such a ban, Joumaa had said in April 2012 that "Once I am blacklisted, it would be an honor for me to be one of the citizens who were banned from entering Britain because of their country's dignity and freedom". Prime Minister David Cameron pledged that athletes would not be punished "for the sins of the regime", and the Syrian team duly sent ten athletes to compete in seven sports.

Miscellaneous

Criminal damage arrests

Darren Cullen, a Graffiti artist who had been commissioned by Team GB to produce artwork for the Olympic and Paralympic village, was arrested by the British Transport Police and banned from Olympic venues and from travelling by train and Underground for a period of six months for alleged "incitement to commit criminal damage". His arrest was criticised by human rights campaigners.

In the week before the Games began, a group of political activists in the GreenWash Gold 2012 group taking part in a street theatre protest in Trafalgar Square against the choice of Olympic sponsors were arrested by London police on a charge of criminal damage; according to reports, during their act they spilled custard on the paving stones which the police assumed to be paint. The police action was criticised by Meredith Alexander, a former member of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012.

Great Britain in football

The reactivation of the Great Britain Olympic football team, which had not played since 1972, and not appeared at an actual games since 1960 (plus the creation of a women's team for the first time), was seen as controversial by many in the country due to the fact that in international football, the UK's four Home Nations normally compete with their own respective teams: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Despite reassurances from the world football governing body FIFA, the Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh national football associations declined to take part in organising the team, fearing it would threaten their independence on the world stage. This left the English Football Association as organisers of the GB team for London 2012. The other associations were not ultimately allowed to block their players from being selected; players sent to the games comprised both English and Welsh players in the men's squad and English and Scottish in the women's. Suggestions that the reactivation should be permanent have been supported in principle by the Professional Footballers' Association, but the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Football Associations have expressed opposition. Participation in future Olympics would complicated by the fact that the qualification route is through the European Under-21 Championship, in which the home nations already compete separately (as hosts for 2012, GB did not need to qualify for the 2012 games).

Issues over the team continued into the games itself; Scottish female player Kim Little was criticised for choosing not to sing the British national anthem "God Save the Queen" on the grounds she was Scottish, and games organisers LOCOG had to apologise after an error in the official match programme for the first game mistakenly described Welsh player Joe Allen as being English.

Landlord conduct

In February 2012, the housing charity Shelter alleged reports of landlords in east London raising rents or writing clauses into new rental contracts so tenants must be away during the Olympics, but as of 2 February 2012 the Department of Communities and Local Government said it had no evidence of the practice. However, an 8 May news report by the BBC noted that Shelter had seen "more evidence of landlords acting unscrupulously and evicting people illegally. One estate agent said properties typically rented for £350 per week were being marketed for £6,000 per week." The BBC report noted that, "The potential profits are leading to some private landlords telling their tenants they have to leave their homes, with little notice."

Strike threats

In a dispute over bonuses for working during the Olympics, the Unite union organised an initial bus strike on 22 June affecting 17 London bus companies, the first in London in decades, halted two thirds of services for 24 hours. Further strikes during the games were also threatened. In another dispute about Olympic bonuses, at the beginning of July the RMT Union also balloted members at South West Trains, Greater Anglia and First Great Western, threatening strike action coinciding with the opening ceremony. The First Great Western ballot was called off after a deal was announced on 12 July. The bus dispute ended on 18 July, after a deal was also agreed. The strike at SWT was called off on 23 July, but members voted to take other action in the form of working-to-rule through the games period, with SWT claiming it would not affect services. The Greater Anglia strike ballot was postponed on 23 July until after the games, said by the union to be due to the threat of legal action from the train operator.

A planned strike by the ASLEF union which would have affected East Midlands Trains services for three days during the games, attracted criticism and even sattire by American comedian Jon Stewart. It was called off on 26 July after a deal was reached. The union denied that the strike had been planned deliberately to coincide with the Olympics, claiming it had been a long running dispute unrelated to Olympics bonuses.

On 18 July the Public and Commercial Services Union voted in favour of strike or other industrial action over the issue of job losses at the Home Office. It threatened to disrupt the games as immigration and border staff would be involved, leading Prime Minister David Cameron to call it wrong and unjustified. The strike was eventually called off on 25 July, 45 minutes before a court hearing over the ballot's legality brought by the government, with ministers and the union disagreeing over the reasons for why it was called off.

Traffic and games lanes

The 48 kilometres of designated "Games Lanes" on London thoroughfares to be used between 6:00 and midnight by athletes, officials, journalists, emergency services, and sponsors were blamed for causing traffic jams. Londoners were advised to use public transportation to get to work, but on 25 July significant delays were experienced due to electrical and signal problems on the Central and Hammersmith & City tube lines. The new River Thames cable car froze for half an hour on the same day, stranding passengers above the river.

London taxi drivers protested that the traffic problems hampered their services to paying passengers trying to travel around the city. Lee Osbourne of the United Cabbies Group said: "We're not going to be able to drop passengers where they want to go. Traffic in London is pretty bad as it is, and now passengers are going to suffer with the meter just ticking away. Even on a normal day, driving in London is rarely a smooth experience. For a city of its size, it has surprisingly few highways or wide thoroughfares, which means that most roads have multiple traffic lights and pedestrian crossings." The head of road policy at The Automobile Association Paul Watters said: "Drivers do have somewhere to go, but it's been a bit confusing. We know it's going to be tricky and difficult, and it's bound to be full of teething problems. We're almost there now so hopefully it will be better." Driving in the lanes could be penalised by up to £130.

Concerns over traffic congestion were raised a month before the games when the critical part of the Olympic transport infrastructure, the M4 motorway, had to be shut for emergency repairs. After a week long closure it reopened on 13 July, in time for the games. It again had to be closed on Monday 30 July, the first Olympic day where commuter traffic would also be on the roads, causing delays and traffic congestion, due to an accident.

Status of Jerusalem as a capital

Continuing an ongoing debate surrounding the status of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and Palestine, the BBC's stance on its website provoked anger from several organisations and individuals, listing East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian territories whilst naming no capital of Israel. Following criticism from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several Olympic athletes, the BBC amended the entries to Seat of Government and Intended Seat of Government respectively, following the international states of recognition.

Following the amendment, Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev issued a statement saying that the change was not satisfactory and asking that "Israel’s capital be identified accurately on the website". A BBC spokesperson responded by reaffirming the impartiality of the BBC and asserting that the correction made to the two pages was sufficient.

Opening ceremony

See also: 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony

Cycling protest arrests

The Metropolitan Police arrested 182 cyclists on 27 July who were taking part in a Critical Mass protest during the opening ceremony. The cyclists were detained overnight in a garage and on buses. Four cyclists were charged and the remainder were bailed with conditions including not entering the Olympic borough of Newham on a bicycle, entering "any Olympic-only carriageway" or going within 100 metres of an Olympic venue. The cyclists criticised the police response as heavy-handed.

Munich memorial

Main article: One Minute of Silence

As they had done prior to every Olympic Games since 1976, the remaining widows of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Black September at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich campaigned for the IOC to include a minute of silence during the 2012 Opening Ceremony in memory of the victims of the Massacre. The proposal was rejected by IOC President Jacques Rogge, who stated that his "hands were tied" by votes from 46 Arab and Muslim members admitted to the International Olympic Committee. In rejecting the request for a memorial, Rogge noted that the IOC "has paid tribute to the memory of the athletes who tragically died in Munich in 1972 on several occasions and will continue to do so."

The IOC's decision resulted in an international campaign organised by the widows and "volunteers at the Rockland County Jewish Community Center in suburban New York" calling for a moment of silence that collected over 110,000 signatures. The campaign garnered international support from a number of world leaders and parliaments.

NBC coverage

Criticism was levelled by some American news outlets at NBC's coverage of the ceremony, mainly of the decision to tape-delay its broadcast of the opening and closing ceremonies and not make a live version available even to cable and web users. Many US viewers resorted to looking for alternative ways of watching the Olympics aside from NBC (such as the live BBC feed for the opening ceremonies), despite both NBC and the IOC vowing to crackdown on such unauthorized streams.

More significant criticism was levelled at NBC for cutting to a Ryan Seacrest interview with Michael Phelps during the 'memorial wall' tribute section. An NBC spokesman said the network left that segment out because its Olympic programming was "tailored for the U.S. audience."

There was also criticism of the apparent belief of Today Show hosts and commentators Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira that The Queen in person had jumped out of a helicopter. There was also an indication that Vieira did not know who Sir Tim Berners-Lee was, stating during commentary to the television audience, "If you haven't heard of him, we haven't either", before co-host Matt Lauer told the audience to Google the inventor of the World Wide Web. These failings were picked up during the NBC broadcast by users of Twitter with the hashtag #nbcfail.

Parade of Nations security

During the Parade of Nations, an unknown woman was seen at the front of the Indian contingent wearing a tracksuit instead of the officially sanctioned national uniform for the event. The acting Chef-de-Mission for the Indian contignent Brigadier P.K. Muralidharan Raja expressed anger at the LOCOG for allowing this to happen despite security personnel checking the identity of athletes and staff before entering the stadium. The Indian media subsequently identified the woman as Madhura Nagendra, a graduate student from Bangalore living in London and a dancer in another segment of the opening ceremony. The Deccan Chronicle also quoted her friends as identifying her.

During the Games

Spectator issues

Empty seats

Empty seats at Olympic events were reported during the first two day of the games. Although events were reported to be sold out, many empty seats were observed in highly visible areas at multiple venues. Sebastian Coe, the Head of LOCOG, stated in a press conference on 29 July that the seats were reserved for "the Olympic family and sponsors" and that the events were otherwise "stuffed to the gunwales". The empty seats were also from NOCs which had not used up the entire allocation and had not returned the unallocated tickets. Coe stated that LOCOG would investigate the claims of empty seats. The claim the seats were allocated to sponsors led to denials from sponsors with British Airways stating they had returned tickets it could not distribute and McDonalds stating all their tickets were being used.

Football queues

For the first football game at St James' Park there were long queues at the box office, leading to fans missing some of the game. A spokesman for Ticketmaster said: "...we saw extremely high numbers of spectators arriving at St James' Park to purchase football tickets on the day of the event....While Ticketmaster is contracted to manage the box offices at Olympic venues, the staff numbers at those venues are determined by Locog....We will continue to work closely with Locog to ensure that the box office staff levels are sufficient to meet the demands for ticket sales and collection." LOCOG described the situation as "totally and completely 100% unacceptable", and after changes were made in the process, the issue was reportedly avoided for the second round of matches.

Non-public archery event

On Friday, 27 July, the same day as the opening ceremony, but after the first sporting events outside London had started (in football), there was confusion and disappointment in some Olympic fans when they were denied access to what they thought was the first competition event in London. They had misunderstood the use by LOCOG of the phrase "non-ticketed" to mean that an archery qualification round at Lord's cricket ground was going to be open to the public for free, in a similar fashion to some other events like the road bike races or marathon. In addition, some had been sold fake tickets for the event by an illegal website. LOCOG stated "Tickets have not been advertised or sold by Locog for the archery ranking event...We have always made it clear that the preliminary rounds are not open for spectators. There are a number of unofficial websites claiming to sell tickets; we therefore advise people to be extremely cautious and vigilant when attempting to buy tickets and only purchase from an official source".

VISA card payment crash

During the football held at the Wembley Stadium on 29 July, fans were subjected to long queues in the ground at the concession stands, after VISA's card payment system crashed, leaving cash payment as the only alternative. The situation was compounded by the fact that as Visa had been granted exclusive rights to the Olympics, other cards could not be accepted as payment, and the number of cash machines in the stadium had been reduced after 27 that worked on the LINK system had been removed, to be replaced by 8 that could only be used by Visa cards.

Flag restrictions

Spectators at Olympic events are prohibited from displaying flags other than those of competing nations. The father of Eugénie Le Sommer attempted to wave a Breton flag during the France–USA women's football match at Hampden Park, and later complained that stewards attempted to confiscate it while ignoring many Scottish flags in the crowd.

Competition issues

Men's Team Artistic gymnastics judging

A judging controversy erupted at the all-around team event on July 30 after Japan's Kohei Uchimura had a bad dismount off the pommel horse. The initial judging dropped Japan into fourth place, out of the medals, with China, Great Britain and Ukraine taking gold, silver, and bronze, respectively. However, after Japan filed a protest, the judges reviewed the tape and credited Uchimura with a dismount instead of a missed dismount, determining that he did indeed perform the final handstand. This raised Japan's score by 0.7 points, moving them from fourth to the silver medal position, dropping Great Britain to bronze and Ukraine out of the medals.

Scoring in Boxing

Another judging controversy involved boxer Sumit Sangwan, who lost a closely-contested bout 14-15 against Yamaguchi Falcao Florentino of Brazil. Sangwan was notably the better of the two and it was believed that he should have been awarded more points in the second round of the match, and even the ESPN commentators described the loss as day light robbery. India's Chef De mission on the insistence of Sports Minister Ajay Maken lodged an unsuccessful appeal against the judges' decision.

Women's badminton doubles matches

A review into two matches in the Badminton Women's doubles competition played on 31 July was conducted after it appeared that, having already qualified for the knockout stages, players on both sides in each game had been attempting to lose their last group stage matches, in order to gain a more favourable draw in the quarter finals. The matches were between China's Wang Xiaoli / Yu Yang and South Korea's Jung Kyung-eun / Kim Ha-na in Group A, followed by South Korea's Ha Jung-eun / Kim Min-jung versus Indonesia's Meiliana Jauhari / Greysia Polii in Group C. After errors began occurring during routine shots in both matches, including shots going long and serves hitting the net, the crowd reacted badly. The match between Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli of China and Jung Kyung and Kim Ha Na of South Korea featured no rallies of more than four shots.

In the second game a tournament referee initially disqualified the players, but after this was rescinded, play was allowed to continue while he monitored proceedings. Both the earlier match and this later match were ultimately played to a conclusion, completing the draw for the quarter finals (Group B and D having concluded earlier in the day). Technical delegate Paisan Rangsikitpho said after the Group A match, "If it's true what I hear, this is a shame and I don't like it. And I'm not going to accept anything that I don't like at all. It's not in a good spirit....I apologise to the public, I apologise for everyone and I am not happy."

On 1 August 2012, following the review, all eight players were disqualified from the tournament by the Badminton World Federation, after being charged with "not using best efforts" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport".

Another of the incidents involved the Indian women's doubles badminton team of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa. The Indian Badminton Federation lodged a complaint that the match between Mizuki Fujii/Reika Kakiiwa of Japan and Cheng Wen-hsing/Chien Yu-chin of Chinese Taipei was played suspiciously and that the better ranked Japanese pair lost the match willingly so that their future draws are easy. This led to the Indians missing the quarter-finals by a mere 2 points. However, the BWF examined the match and issued a reply that the footage showed no wrong play despite large suspicions.

Women's individual épée timing and appeal

South Korean fencer Shin A-Lam was embroiled in a prolonged controversy at the ExCeL Centre on 30 July 2012. She had appeared to beat her opponent Britta Heidemann, but an issue developed around the timing clock, which had appeared to reset to 1 second after having counted down to zero, allowing Heidemann to score the winning point.

Lam was required to sit on the piste for almost an hour, often openly sobbing, while her coaches lodged an official complaint, prompting an announcer at the venue to confirm that moving from the piste would have been seen as indicating her acceptance of the ruling against her. After losing the protest, Shin fought, and lost, against Yujie Sun of China thirty minutes later in the bronze medal match.

Other

Athletes sent home

Prior to the official commencement of the Games, Greek triple jumper Paraskevi Papachristou was sent home by the national head of the delegation, Isidoros Kouvelos, for a Twitter post that read: "With so many Africans in Greece... the West Nile mosquitoes will at least eat homemade food!!!" Though she apologised later saying "My dream is connected to the Olympic Games and I could not possibly participate if I did not respect their values" and was supported by some fans, the Greek political party DIMAR, which is a part of the ruling coalition, issued a statement that read: "She can make as many vile 'jokes' as she likes on social networking sites when she watches the Olympic Games on TV" and pushed for her expulsion from the delegation representing Greece.

Albanian weightlifter Hysen Pulaku was the first athlete to test positive for drugs at the games. He was expelled by the IOC before competing in the men's 77kg division, after testing positive for a banned steroid, stanozolol, in a test on July 23.

Swiss footballer Michel Morganella was sent home by the Switzerland football team after he sent a tweet following their 2-1 loss against South Korea which, according to the director of Swiss Olympic Comittee Gian Gilli, "discriminated, insulted and violated the dignity of the South Korean football team and people".

Australian swimmers Nick D'Arcy and Kenrick Monk were sent home as soon as their events concluded after posting a photo on Facebook that was deemed to bring the sport into disrepute. Monk had previously attracted controversy when he admitted to lying to police when he was questioned about the cause of an accident during a training session, while D'Arcy had been removed from the Australian team at the Beijing Olympics after being charged with assault, When discussing D'Arcy's upcoming event, journalist Steve Price commented "I don't care if he drowns".

North Korea – South Korea flag confusion

In the first day of the Olympic events on 25 July, during the women's football tournament, the match between North Korea and Colombia was delayed by a little over an hour because the flag of South Korea was mistakenly displayed on the electronic scoreboard in Hampden Park. The North Korean team walked off the pitch in protest at seeing the South Korean flag displayed by their names and refused to warm-up whilst the flag was being displayed. They also objected to the South Korean flag being displayed above the stadium, although the flags of all the competing countries were being displayed. The game then commenced after a delay and rectification of the error.

Andy Mitchell, a spokesman for the London Organising Committee (LOCOG), said afterwards:

"Today ahead of the Women’s football match at Hampden Park, the South Korean flag was shown on a big screen video package instead of the North Korean flag. Clearly that is a mistake, we will apologise to the team and the National Olympic Committee and steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again."

Mitchell's statement had to be reissued because he had failed to use the nations' official titles, "Republic of Korea" and "Democratic People's Republic of Korea."

In offering an apology, the media manager at Hampden Park, Andy Mitchell, said: "The South Korean flag was shown in the video package on the screen before the kickoff and the North Koreans were naturally very upset about that. We have made a full apology to the team and the North Korean NOC [National Olympic Committee]. A genuine mistake was made for which we apologise. Steps will be taken to ensure it does not happen again." British Prime Minister David Cameron added that it was an "honest mistake" and efforts would be undertaken to ensure such a mishap does not recur. However, North Korean manager Sin Ui-gun expressed reservations about whether the incident was a mistake of intention and said: "We were angry because our players were introduced as if they were from South Korea, which may affect us greatly as you may know. Our team was not going to participate unless the problem was solved perfectly and fortunately some time later, the broadcasting was corrected and shown again live so we made up our mind to participate and go on with the match. If this matter cannot be solved, we thought going on was nonsense. Winning the game cannot compensate for that thing."