Olympic Tube Map Renames Stations with names of Sporting Celebrities

"Depart at Daley Thompson for the Lost Property Office".  "Next stop Cassius Clay". "Calling at Fanny Blankers-Koen and all stations to Richmond" Some of the phrases you might hear if drivers were to follow a new Tube map. With more than a large nod to The Great Bear where Turner Prize winning artist Simon Patterson changed Tube station names on the London Underground Map to celebrities, TfL are going to be doing a similar version for the London Olympics. Stratford International station on the Docklands Light Railway will be re-named Cassius Clay, boxing legend Muhammad Ali's original name when he won the light heavyweight gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Brits Daley Thompson & Steve Redgrave, American athletes Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis, Australian swimming legends Murray Rose and Dawn Fraser and basketball great Magic Johnson are amongst other athletes who will have a London underground station named after them on a special map during the London Games later this year.

The Underground Olympic Legends Map was designed by Alex Trickett and David Brooks who said: "We love sport, we love lists and we love London, so what better challenge than to select 361 of the greatest athletes the world has ever seen and to fit them on to our iconic Tube map.

"There were heated debates and a few late changes of heart, but we are happy with the result: dozens of nations represented, all 2012 Olympic sports accounted for, and Ali and Phelps, two of the greatest Olympians of all time, guarding the Stratford gateways to the Games." 

"These things always divide opinion, so we are happy to discuss (and defend!) any of our choices"

Baker Street is renamed Daley Thompson for the two-time decathlon gold medallist, while Leicester Square is LeBron James and Knightsbridge is Steve Redgrave.

Track stars make up a good part of the map, running from west to east and all around the centre of London. Swimmers take up most of the Central Line. Basketball and tennis players run from north to south, with stops Magic Johnson and Sheryl Swoopes being followed by Roger Federer, The Woodies Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge, and The Williams sisters Serena and Venus.

Ian Thorpe is the new name for the Oxford Circus station. Piccadilly Circus is renamed Mia Hamm after the USA's gold-medal winning football player.

A watermarked sample of the full map is on TfL's site and a poster can be purchased for £4.99

Update - Fanny Blankers-Koen, a Dutchwoman who was one of the biggest stars of the 1948 London Olympics, was originally left off a new map of the London Underground dedicated to past Olympians, prompting criticism from the Netherlands.

On 4th April 2012 , the track star known as the ''FlyingHousewife'' was added to the list for future prints.
''We apologise if any offence has been caused by the omission of Fanny Blankers-Koen, who was clearly a remarkable athlete,'' TfL marketing director Chris Macleod said in a statement. ''We are speaking to the publisher to ensure that she features in the next reprint of the map.''  I had never heard of her until she was mentioned in the comments, but am delighted that Fanny will be on the Olympic Tube map.  If only they were real stations, I would pay good money to hear drivers announcing that the next train will be stopping at Fanny!

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