Most Successful Olympic Gold Ball in the History of British Olympic Association
30 Oct 2009
The British Olympic Association’s (BOA’s) President HRH The Princess Royal welcomed almost 600 guests to the spectacular surroundings of the Natural History Museum in London for the BOA’s ninth annual Olympic Gold Ball on Thursday 29th October.
Commented BOA Chief Executive Andy Hunt:
“I am delighted that a year on from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games - our most successful Games in 100 years - and with just over 1000 days until London hosts the 2012 Olympic Games, this year’s Olympic Gold Ball was the most successful in the event’s nine-year history, raising twice as much money as last year.
“Many thanks to the Olympians and hopefuls who joined us and the guests that made this fundraiser for Team GB and the BOA such a great success.”
Over 50 Olympic medallists including the likes of Matthew Pinsent (rowing), Jayne Torvill (figure skating), Tim Brabants (canoeing), Denise Lewis (athletics) and Sarah Webb (sailing) were joined by a selection of our brightest young talent aiming for Olympic success in Vancouver 2010, London 2012 and beyond.
Hosts for the evening were BBC Sport Presenter Hazel Irvine and Olympic Gold medallist Jonathan Edwards. One of the highlights was the auction, which included a painting from the esteemed British artist Sacha Jafri. The painting was set on the Union Jack, including images of many Olympic events and London landmarks as well as 25 hand-prints, foot-prints and signatures from Britain's Olympic champions from the 1960s to the present day – among them Sir Chris Hoy, Lord Coe, Sir Steve Redgrave, Dame Kelly Holmes, Sir Matthew Pinsent and Rebecca Adlington.
The funds raised at the Olympic Gold Ball will enable the BOA to provide world-class services for athletes and help prepare Team GB for future success in Vancouver, London and beyond. Funds will also help the BOA to discover and develop future Olympic champions by contributing to Team GB’s participation at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore next year.
Saturday 31st October marks 1000 days until the London 2012 Olympic Games, and between now and then British athletes will be preparing relentlessly. Beijing Olympic silver medallist swimmer Keri-Anne Payne will swim the equivalent of two and a half times the circumference of the earth in training and you will have to watch 10,000 episodes of Eastenders to match the time Phillips Idowu will spend training – all to see if he can go one better than the silver medal he won in the triple jump in Beijing.
Atos Origin, the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic Games, and long-standing sponsor of the BOA and Team GB was the presenting partner of the event for the sixth year running.
Further interesting information:
The 10 metre diving board, used by current World Diving Champion, Tom Daley, is equivalent in height to two double decker buses and a car balanced on top of each other.
If you add up the cumulative height of Germaine Mason's personal best high jumps in competition between now and 2012, he will jump the height of One Churchill Place, London 2012 Headquarters.
Atos Origin delivers the results and athlete information at the Olympic Games to the world’s media in 0.3 seconds.
Under the direction of LOCOG’s Technology Department, Atos Origin – the lead integrator – will work with its fellow technology partners conducting more than 200,000 hours of testing to ensure the systems used at the Olympic Games deliver a gold winning perform