No Vegemite for Australia's olympic athletes?

[Baradium]

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23620515-5001021,00.html

FORGET about Tibet and human rights - 2008 may become known as the year of the Vegemite riots following China's ban on Australia taking its own food to the Olympic Games.

In another example of the iron-clad control Beijing is trying to exert on foreigners, Games organisers have told Australia it must source all food from within China.

It is understood the Chinese have introduced the ban to maximise revenue for local food producers.

The policy is an abrupt departure from previous Olympics, when Australian athletes have been allowed to bring in foods to meet their strict dietary needs.

The Daily Telegraph has learned the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games added an unprecedented clause in its freight manual outlining the ban.

The Australian Olympic Committee raised the issue at a BOCOG planning meeting in Beijing last month but so far the Chinese have refused to relax their policy.

The issue must be resolved as Australia has already sent a container ship of supplies to China, 100 days before the Opening Ceremony.

The shipment includes 2000 boxes of cereal, 5500 oven bars, muesli bars and twist bars and more than 3000 "power" bars - high energy foods used by endurance athletes.

Our team is planning a second shipment closer to the August Games, which includes Vegemite.

Australian Olympic team nutritionist Professor Louise Burke said the products, supplied by team sponsors Uncle Toby's and Nestle, were crucial to Aussie athletes because they provided familiar foods in the heat of competition.

"A lot of the food we are taking is not readily available in China. We would like to take these products because they help our athletes feel at home," he said.

"We haven't got to the point of contemplating this horrible scenario (of having Australian containers banned)."

Professor Burke said other products banned included protein shakes designed for the Games.

"We have a protein carbohydrate mixture in powder form that is sealed to minimise the possibility of contamination," she said.

The Australian team is not expecting any resistance from the Chinese on a planned shipment of pharmaceuticals for our athletes.

But it is not clear whether China will also ban athletes from bringing in individual supplies of food.

BOCOG declined to comment on the issue last night.

But the International Olympics Committee previously stated competitors are banned from bringing their own food to the athletes' village to protect the rights of sponsors like McDonalds and to police the use of illegal substances.

The Australian ban comes after American athletes caused a furore in China by boycotting local food.

The US Olympic Committee plans to transport its own produce because of fears about China's public health and food standards.

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Looks like they finally found our secret      NOW we'll win nothing!!!