Vegemite is proud to announce it is rewarding the unsung legends of the Olympic Games – the fans of the Australian Olympic Team – by offering a free app for both iPhone and Android that will make it easier for sporting enthusiasts here at home to follow our team in London.

When it comes to early starts and supporting the nation, nothing gets you up and going like Vegemite. With this in mind, Vegemite – the Official Spread of the Australian Olympic Team – has developed an app to make it even easier.

Aptly titled Wake Up and Smell the Vegemite, the cutting edge new app has been developed with true-blue sporting fans in mind. Simply choose the event (or time) you want to get up for and celebrity wake-up callers Laurie Lawrence or Dave Hughes will shake you awake in no time with a precisely timed alert that delivers a cheerleading message sure to launch you out of bed and have you sprinting for the toaster.

The London 2012 Olympic Games program will be tough on Australian fans who will have to drag themselves out of bed at absurd times (5am anyone?) to cheer on our Aussie team live. Vegemite has made it easier to ensure you don’t miss a second of the live action:

• Select a wake-up call from two of Australia’s most rousing cheerleaders – Laurie Lawrence or Dave Hughes – to coincide with any time or Olympic event

• Select your sport, pick the event, decide how much time you need to wake up, get a round of Vegemite and toast on your lap, and cheer away

• Live news feed making it easy to find out all you need to know about how the Aussies are going in London

• Up-to-the-minute medal tallies showing the top ten placed countries, including Australia

• Easy to use design so there’s no excuse for missing a second of the action

Regardless of what sport you follow, whether it’s synchronised swimming, badminton, fencing, athletics or swimming, Vegemite has every event in every sport covered. So now there’s no excuse for not knowing what time your event starts, or messing up the time difference – the app is so easy-to-use and the wake-up call works even if your phone is locked.

The Wake Up and Smell the Vegemite app is free and available to download for iPhone and Android from www.vegemite.com.au. Or, go directly to iTunes or Google Play and search for ’Vegemite’.

Vegemite is proud to be the Official Spread of the Australian Olympic team. As part of this support, every member of the Australian Olympic team will take two specially branded tubes of Vegemite with them to London – more than enough for even the biggest eaters!

As an added bonus, you can win one of three holidays to an Olympic destination, or one of a thousand Limited Edition Vegemite dressing gowns. Simply eat through your specially marked jar of Vegemite to discover your hidden code, then visit (www.vegemite.com.au) to win.

VEGEMITE OLYMPIC GAMES SUPPORT: KEY FACTS

1. Vegemite is the Official Spread of the Australian Olympic team

2. As part of its support, Vegemite has shipped 1,000 specially branded 145g tubes of Vegemite to the Australian team in London.

3. The biggest eaters on the team are expected to be the weightlifters and throwers – extra allowances have been made to ensure all athletes and officials have more than enough to go around.

4. Vegemite is showing its support for the Australian Olympic Team competing in London 2012 with its cutting edge free app for iPhone and Android – Wake up and Smell the Vegemite

5. The Wake up and Smell the Vegemite app has been designed to reward Aussie sporting fans and make it easier for them to show their support for the Australian Olympic Team

6. The Wake up and Smell the Vegemite app includes wake up calls that coincide with any Olympic Games event as well as news, medal tallies and much more

7. The Wake up and Smell the Vegemite app is free and available for download for iPhone and Android from www.vegemite.com.au. Or, go directly to iTunes or Google Play and search for ’Vegemite’.

VEGEMITE: THE FUN FACTS

1. Australians spread about 1.2 billion serves of Vegemite on toast, bread or biscuits every year. If this was all placed end to end, it would go around the world three times.

2. 235 jars of Vegemite are produced every minute at Kraft Foods’ Port Melbourne manufacturing facility.

3. Over 21 million jars of Vegemite are sold every year!

4. Over 60 per cent of Vegemite is consumed at breakfast, and most of that is eaten on toast.

5. Vegemite has 600% more vitamins than any other substance on earth, by volume.

6. Vegemite is uniquely Australian and over 80 percent of Aussie homes have a jar in their pantry.

7. When Australians spread something on their bread it is Vegemite on one occasion out of every three.

8. 30 jars of Vegemite are sold in Australia for every one that is exported.

9. Vegemite was referenced in the lyrics of the 1982 worldwide song "Down Under" by Men at Work:

I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"

He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich.

VEGEMITE: THE HARD FACTS

1. When Vegemite was first released, they tried to chance the name to “Parwill” to see if it was more appealing. Par what you ask? Well if Marmite then …Par-will. Get it? No? Well it was tried in Queensland and no one there got it either so it was back to Vegemite for Fred.

2. In April 1984, Vegemite beeped into the 20th century, when a 115g jar became the first product in Australia to be electronically scanned at a checkout in a New South Wales supermarket.

3. The main ingredient used to make is Vegemite is left over yeast extract from the manufacture of beer.

4. Vegemite was officially endorsed by the British Medical Association just prior to the war, allowing vegemite to be advertised in the Australian Medical journal. This meant that doctors could recommend vegemite to their patients as a rich source of vitamin B.

5. During WWII, civilians were reminded that invalids in the Armed Forces needed Vegemite more than they did. They were asked to abstain from Vegemite unless they needed it for medicinal reasons.

6. A young chemist by the name of Dr Cyril P Callister at the Fred Walker Cheese Company (Later called Kraft Foods) was the inventor of Vegemite.

7. Fred Walker created a national competition to name Vegemite giving out a huge prize, for those days, of fifty pounds. It’s unclear who the actual winner was, but they were chosen by Fred Walker’s daughter.

8. It was way back in 1954 when three happy little Vegemites burst into song and performed the Vegemite jingle for the first time on radio

9. Vegemite first appeared on grocery shelves in 1923.

10. In 1935 Fred gave away a jar of vegemite with every purchase of a product from the Fred Walker Company. The promotion lasted two years, Australians tried vegemite, loved it and the rest, as they say, is history.

11. A single serving of Vegemite on a slice of bread provides a large percentage of your daily vitamin B requirements.

12. One serving of about a teaspoon or five grams has 30% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of folate, which is an important nutrient, especially for women trying to get pregnant. Women who take the RDA of folic acid, prior to getting pregnant, have a much lower incidence of bearing children with a variety of birth defects.

13. Vegemite is nearly five times more concentrated than yeast, making it one of the world's richest sources of the energy giving Vitamin B group.