Statements on Olympics Opening Ceremony Animals

In the Olympics shows, we talked about the use of animals in the opening ceremony and when the decision to use them was made.

I promised to blog about the responses I’ve had from both LOCOG (the London Games organisers) and the RSPCA (a venerable animal welfare group whose consultancy advised LOCOG on the use of animals).

London2012.com: vegan athlete Sarah Stewart

She’s competing in her third Paralympics with the Australian Gliders, has already won bronze and silver, is doing a PhD in philosophy, and is vegan.

Aussie listener Lisa Green commented on the Vegan Option Facebook page that she was watching Sarah’s team with a roomful of cheering vegans. The Gliders soundly defeated TeamGM, and the next game is this evening, at 18:30 UK time, 17:30 GMT. Whereever you are in the world, you can watch the games at Paralympic.org. Sarah is number 13.

Ian McDonald and Mandeville

We thought better of using this picture to illustrate a show, but it’s too funny not to share. (The statue is Mandeville).

London Olympics: hunting vegan food

Listener Helen Louise is going to the Paralympics – which take place two weeks after the Olympics – and wants to know what the vegan options have been at the games.

Vegan spectators have shared their successes and failures at finding vegan food with the world on social media – and with us directly.

So here is the story of vegan food at the Olympics, as heard in our third and final Olympics show, told via Twitter.

London Olympics: Closing Update with Vx, Animals in the Opening Ceremony, and Vegan Food

London Olympics: Closing Update

As the athletes celebrate their victories and defeats, and the Spice Girls rock the closing ceremony, we look back over the Olympics and update you on the vegan stories behind the games.

This show:

• We catch up with the vegan stories behind the Olympics, like Sandra Hood, Pogocafe, and Frys
• Ian updates you on the use of animals in the Opening Ceremony
• Rudy tells us who’s been coming to Vx, the little vegan shop that was braced for a difficult Olympics
• We sum up the experience of vegans looking for food at the Olympic Venues

(15 min) Play or download (14MB MP3) (other formats) (via iTunes)

Vegan Olympians: Too Good to Check?

Misleading or false stories (eg an offensive video game based on a real manhunt for a serial killer) can spread across the media because, with pressure on journalists to find good stories quickly, they were  “too good to check”.

So if professional journalists don’t always check their facts, it’s no surprise that bloggers can relax their criteria, especially when motivated to show that athletic feats can be powered by a plant based diet.

London Olympics: interview with Kara Lang, vegan Olympian, Canada soccer team

Kara Lang, Vegan Olympian

Kara Lang  holds the record as the youngest woman ever to score a goal in international soccer – but her passions also include vegan cupcakes.

Now retired from football, she took time out from her busy schedule as part of Canadian station CTV’s Olympic team to talk to me about her story, touring, and the vegan mentor she improbably found in her own national squad.

(10min) Play or download (9.5 MB MP3) (other formats) (via iTunes)

London Olympics

Athletes from across the world are coming to East London – where we produce the show – but what are the vegan perspectives on the Olympic games?

This show:

• Diana talks to Sandra Hood, who wrote the book on raising vegan children, about carrying the Olympic torch
• Amazingly, keeping the Olympics supplied with a vegan mince that caters can use as a drop in substitute for ground meat is down to one small company – I visit the father and daughter who are supplying the Olympic games with the vegan option
• What do the locals think? The staff of the nearest vegan cafe to the games have their say.
• We fill you in on the stories you might have heard in the media – Venus Williams‘s diet, the Chinese volleyball team, and the use of animals in the opening ceremony

(24 min) Play or download (20MB MP3) (other formats) (via iTunes)