British Olympic athletes "are not interested in joining an American-led campaign to allow competitors to reap financial rewards for taking part in the Olympics, preferring instead to focus on glory and Gold Medals," according to Steve Keating of REUTERS. World Champion in the 400m hurdles Dai Greene said, "I don't think any of us for one second thinks we deserve the right to be paid to be here." Greene added, "We've all worked our socks off because we want to be the Gold Medalist and to get the kit and be part of the team and something special. I think that's more than enough payment for us all to be honest." Earlier this week, a number of American track and field athletes launched a Twitter campaign to lift Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter, which forbids athletes from promoting sponsors on social media that are not officially affiliated with the Olympics. An increasing number of athletes believe they should be "getting a bigger slice of the billions of dollars" generated by the Games, but Team GB "are not among them." World and European Heptathlon Champion Jessica Ennis said, "It's not about that, and I think it would take away from how special it is to make the team and win a Medal" (REUTERS, 8/1). In London, Rick Broadbent noted Ennis refused to join Team USA's "cash for dash" campaign to get payments for athletes competing at the Olympic Games. Ennis said, "People can get so wrapped up in the money sie of things." World No. 1 long jumper Greg Rutherford said, "The risk that you have if you start bringing in payments is that you're going to breed a nation of athletes who think about just making it to the team, and that's it" (LONDON TIMES, 8/1).
