Thompson was not among six British Olympians chosen to appear on a new National Lottery scratch card despite having won the decathlon at the 1980 and 1984 Games, the second occasion setting a world record.

 

Sebastian Coe, the London 2012 chairman and a long-time close friend of Thompson(pictured), admitted he was "stunned" by his omission, especially as in a Channel 4 programme in 2000 Thompson had been voted the greatest British sportsman of the 20th century.

 

It has since been claimed that Thompson, an ambassador for London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics, was snubbed because of previous criticism of the distribution of National Lottery funding.

 

But now a survey conducted by  MPG has revealed that Thompson is by far the British public's favourite Olympian.

 

He polled 22 per cent of the vote, six per cent more than the runner-up Sir Steve Redgrave, the five-time Olympic rowing gold medallist.

 

Kelly Holmes, the double Olympic champion from Athens, got nine per cent while Coe came fifth behind the American swimmer Mark Spitz.

 

Linford Christie, the 1992 Olympic 100 metres champion who is a convicted drugs cheat, did not figure highly among the public's voting.

 

The results of the poll, published in Marketing Week today, also discovered a number of interesting attitudes towards the 2012 Olympic among the British public.

 

These included:

 

· Support for London hosting the Games remains strong with 73 per cent believing it is a good thing

 

· Already 39 per cent of families across the UK are saying they would like to go to at least one event

 

· The good news for London's sponsors is that 20 per cent of respondents in the survey said they will think more positively about brands supporting the London 2012 Olympics. This is far higher than those who think positively about brands sponsoring the Beijing Olympics (six per cent) and higher than those who said they think positively about sponsors of the Olympics in general (18 per cent)

 

· A reasonably high 38 per cent think London hosting the Olympics is a good use of public money; 23 per cent think it is not

 

· They believe the top three benefits the London Games will bring are: increased tourism, more interest in sport and increased employment.

 

· However, only 72 per cent are confident that London will be ready for the Games in 2012.

 

To read full results of the survey visit http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=61299&d=259&h=263&f=3.