Beyond Sport Summit: afternoon sessions

Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Action Images

The media room computers became occupied for the rest of the afternoon with people checking their Facebook, so without my laptop handy (and still yet to work out blogging from my phone) had no way to upload the rest of the day's happenings.

Lewis Pugh injected some educational fun into proceedings with his description of swimming across the North Pole, claiming 'it's fucking freezing!'
His aim was to expose to world leaders the environmental damage being down at the Pole through a 1km swim, supported by a 29-strong crew. Following the swim, he called the British Prime Minister to inform him of the changes in ice thickness he had seen at the pole from one year earlier, which he suspected helped the announcement of the first UK Climate Change Minister a week later.
An amazing effort in -1.7 degree celcius water for a good cause and Lewis summed up by saying 'sport can carry a message to our leaders'.

Hon Tessa Jowell, Olympics Minister, said sport was a means for change around the world. She said 'dotting in with a few thousand pounds for a project that makes people feel good for a while is not on'. She claimed the Olympics could help improve economies, literacy levels and sporting participation around the world, points that Olympics host cities love to boost but none of which have been conclusively proven.
probably four years away from where a new tenant will move in to the new stadium.
Afterwards in a media interview, Ms Jowell told reporters the Olympic stadium would not become a white elephant but that London "doesn't need another football stadium" and that every Olympic venue would have "a concrete legacy." Having personally seen the concrete legacies of a few Barcelona venues - that is, they turned into unused piles of concrete - I hope London doesn't make the same mistakes.