LONDON – The Transport for London authority has been forced to alter its “Olympic Legends” Tube map after complaints that legendary Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen was missed out in the original design.
The organisation last week unveiled the new posters to celebrate this summer’s London games, where the station names on the underground map have been replaced by those of Olympic heroes past and present.
But Blankers-Koen, who won four gold medals when the games were last held in London in 1948, was accidentally omitted by the designers.
The error led to complaints, and the Royal Dutch Athletics Federation is understood to have written to London 2012 chairman Lord Coe to voice concern.
A spokesman for Transport for London said: “The London Tube map is an iconic design which is known and admired around the world, so we are getting a great deal of interest in our Olympic Legends edition.
“With 361 stations and many thousands of athletes to choose from unfortunately there were always going to be some sports people who would not make it on to the map. However, we apologise if any offence has been caused by the omission of Fanny Blankers-Koen, who was clearly a remarkable athlete.”
Now the poster’s creators have admitted their mistake and come up with a way of adding Blankers-Koen to the map without removing another Olympian.
Instead, 3,000m runners Mary Decker and Zola Budd, who famously collided in Los Angeles in 1984, are to feature together at a single station. – (PA)