Canadian country music sensation Shania Twain lights the Olympic Cauldron with the Olympic Flame at Hollinger Park in her hometown of Timmins, Ont. on Friday Jan. 1, 2010. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Pawel DwulitPawel Dwulit/The Canadian Press
Stephen Frost opened his speech in Toronto by acknowledging that, yes, he's a short, white bloke from England trying to make this summer's London Olympics more diverse and inclusive. But he was dead serious when he said the task is not about being politically correct; it's about doing smart business.
The head of diversity and inclusion for the 2012 Games didn't mince words. Pledging to make this summer's Olympics "a Games for everyone" was one of the biggest reasons London won the bid to be host. Speaking at a Canadian Supplier Diversity Conference on Friday, Frost said the challenges of delivering on that promise have been immense and at times "terrifying." But he believes they will create systematic change.
"LOCOG [London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games]is not a charity and we're not doing anything that doesn't make these Games better," Frost said in his speech. "It's easy to say things in your campaign, but it's an entirely different thing to deliver them. Well, there aren't enough PR agencies in the world to cover this up if we don't get it right."
London is one of the most diverse cities in the world, with more than 50 ethnic communities of more than 10,000 people, where some 300 languages are spoken.
Frost's task has been to represent London's diversity in all the Games opportunities and welcome all, in both the organizing and the spectator experiences. He is tasked with creating chances for all races, genders, religions, sexual orientations and disabled as well as able-bodied people.
A Games that reflects London's true demographics, Frost argued, is a better business model and has a chance to profoundly change the way London's economy functions long after the Olympics.
LOCOG has vowed to set new standards in diversity and inclusion at an Olympic Games, saying it is the first organizing committee to have a diversity and inclusion mandate. Frost gave examples of how this is being done, changing the processes by which businesses bid for contracts to supply the Games and how volunteers are recruited.
Big businesses have been asked to splice their contracts into smaller pies to offer work to smaller minority-owned businesses. LOCOG went into London's various ethnic communities and to disabled groups to recruit volunteer applicants, put literature out in various languages, and stopped by churches and mosques. LOCOG put contract opportunities online to the world.
"We wanted everyone to know we're open for business, and this isn't about cozy lunches between old business pals," Frost said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
Among those attending Frost's speech were organizers of Toronto's 2015 Pan Am Games. Toronto is a city with 200 different ethnicities, 140 languages and 90 faith groups. Its organizers were there to learn from LOCOG's diversity and inclusion model.
Frost, himself a gay man, has involved former NBA player and gay athlete John Amaechi for perspectives on inclusion for gay and lesbians at the Games. He has also worked with British Paralympic wheelchair racing champion Tanni-Grey Thompson on issues of accessibility for disabled athletes and spectators.
"It's hard work, so often it just doesn't get done in many businesses or projects," Frost said. "But we need to reject tokenistic diversity inclusiveness. The Olympics often becomes a repository for the world's problems. The London vision will definitely empower change, enhancing the hiring of disabled people, including gays and lesbians and dealing with homophobia in sport, bringing cultural communities together. We're not going to solve the world's problems, but we are going to use the power of the Games for change."
Rachel Brady