by Renee Israel
National pride was at a high on the second day of the Olympics as two members
of Team GB won medals, but the excitement was shrouded by the growing scandal
that rows and rows of seats have been left unfilled, even at some of the top
Olympic events.
Day 2 of the competition, Sunday, saw a turnaround for Team GB, which failed
to win any medals on the opening day.
The cyclist Lizzie Armitstead gave the rain-soaked crowd something to cheer
about when she won a silver medal in her road race, coming in second behind
Marianne de Vos from the Netherlands.
Waving to the crowds who turned out to cheer her with calls of "Lizzie,
Lizzie," the ecstatic cyclist accepted her medal with a huge grin.
The Leeds youngster went live on the social network, Twitter soon after her
win, posing with her silver medal and tweeting: "Thank you to the thousands of
people cheering who literally got me to the finish line, I'm incredibly proud of
GB."
Empty Seats Mar Olympics Spirit
But while Amitstead's win gave Team GB a welcome boost, organisers of the
Olympics have been called into line by the IOC who are questioning why rows of
seats are continuously been shown at major events.
A case in point was the swimming event in which the second medallist of the
day participated.
Rebecca Adlington finished third in the 400 meters freestyle event and
thanked the "absolutely amazing crowd" who turned out to support her in the
Aquatics Center where she took bronze.
"That's what we need, we need people to get behind us and support us," she
tweeted.
However, her sister, Chloe, tweeted her disappointment about the empty seats
which were so evident on TV broadcasts.
"We're soooo high up!" wrote her sister. "Annoying when there are so many
empty corporate seats lower down."
Empty Olympic Seats Investigated
As soon as it was evident that the empty rows were not a one-off mishap at a
single event, an investigation into the cause of the empty Olympic seats
was launched.
Tickets were quickly given to troops, teachers and students, in the hope that
they would fill the empty seats, especially at popular events.
Yesterday, Tessa Jowell asked Sebastian Coe to use his clout to ensure that
sports fans were given tickets for empty venue seats.
"The International Olympic Committee have got to be part of the solution to
this particular problem, these accredited seats remain empty," she said in a
radio interview, stating that there was no time to wait for medium-term
resolution.
"We've got to get people into those seats today, tomorrow and the next day,"
she stressed.
To catch more Olympic action and to back Team GB, UK online bookmakers are
offering betting markets on all sports from now until the end of the Games.
