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London Underground map changes names of stations to Olympic athletes
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Fourth-Place Medal
Riders of the London Underground will be able to catch a train to "Kobe Bryant" to transfer trains to "Carl Lewis" thanks to a new map that changes the city's 361 Tube stations to names of famous Olympic athletes.
The map, designed by Alex Trickett and David Brooks, is being sold on Transport for London's website prior to the 2012 Summer Games.
Each line was named for athletes in respective sports or disciplines. Swimmers make up the central line, tennis stars and basketball players dominate the interior black line, and boxers and wrestlers make up most of the southeast corner of London.
Two Americans received prime placement on the map. The names of Michael Phelps and Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) were bestowed upon the two Stratford stations that will welcome passengers to London's Olympic Stadium.
Olympic medalists are featured on the map, but creators also included the names of infamous medal losers, like Mary Decker and Zola Budd, who collided on the track in Los Angeles in 1984.
• Other major American names on the map include: Jesse Owens, Mark Spitz, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Carl Lewis, Mia Hamm, Mary Lou Retton and Janet Evans.
• The Wimbledon stop is named after hurdler Edwin Moses. At least Serena Williams got the South Wimbledon honor.
• Two stops down from Michael Jordan and Nadia Comaneci is the station named for Olympic legend Christian Laettner.
• The King's Cross stop made internationally famous by the "Harry Potter" books is named for Nadia Comaneci. Her train must come in at Platform 10, not 9-3/4.
• LeBron James' station should only charge three-quarters of the original fare.
• All Bob Hayes' trains should be express.
• Though famous non-medal winning athletes were considered, only Olympians could make the list. Sorry, Dave of "Dan and Dave" fame.
• Sergey Bubka's station requires passengers to vault 20 feet onto the train.
• At Michael Phelps' station, one doesn't ride the Tube as much as one pulls the Tube.
• Love that Jamaican sprinters Usain Bolt, Merlene Ottey and Veronica Campbell-Brown are at yellow and green stations.
• With 361 names, there aren't many omissions. One name I couldn't find was Rulon Gardner. He may be there and I'd hope so: The man behind the biggest individual upset in Olympic history deserves his own fake Underground station.
• Crimes against humanity committed after Olympic glories were not taken into account, hence the inclusion of Kardashian stepfather Bruce Jenner.
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