2012 Summer Olympics

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Games of the XXX Olympiad
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This emblem, which was created for London's successful bid,
includes the Olympic rings with the title "London 2012."
The ribbon winding through the title represents the path of the
River Thames through London. Until a new design is revealed,
the candidate bid logo is being used.
Host city London, England
Nations participating ---
Athletes participating 10,250 (approximate)
Events 300 in 26 sports
Opening ceremony July 27
Closing ceremony August 12
Officially opened by ---
Stadium Olympic Stadium
"London 2012" redirects here. For information on London's Olympic bid, see London 2012 Olympic bid.

The 2012 Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXX Olympiad, will be held in London, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012, followed by the 2012 Paralympic Games from 29 August to 9 September. London will become the first city to host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and 1948.

Contents

The Bidding process

Main article: 2012 Summer Olympics bids

By the bid submission deadline of 15 July 2003, nine cities had submitted bids to host the 2012 Olympics. These cities were Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro.

On 18 May 2004, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as a result of a scored technical evaluation, reduced the number of cities to five: London, Madrid, Moscow, New York, and Paris.

By 19 November 2004 all five candidate cities had submitted their candidate file to the International Olympic Committee. The IOC inspection team visited the five candidate cities during February and March of 2005. The Paris bid suffered two set-backs during the IOC inspection visit: a number of strikes and demonstrations coinciding with the visits and a report coming out that Guy Drut, one of the key members of the Paris bid team and IOC member, would face charges over alleged corrupt political party finances.[1]

On 6 June 2005 the International Olympic Committee released its evaluation reports for the five candidate cities. Although these reports did not contain any scores or rankings, the evaluation report for Paris was considered the most positive, now followed closely by London which had narrowed down most of the gap observed by the initial evaluation in 2004 vis-a-vis Paris. Also New York and Madrid obtained very positive evaluation reports.[2]

Throughout the process and up to the vote at the 117th IOC Session, Paris was widely seen as the favourite to win the nomination, particularly as this was its third bid in recent history. Originally London was seen lagging Paris by considerable margin, however this started to improve with the appointment of Sebastian Coe as new head of London 2012 on 19 May 2004. In late August 2004 some reports started emerging predicting a London and Paris tie in the 2012 bid.[3] In the final run-up to the 117th IOC Session, London and Paris appeared to be increasingly in a neck-to-neck race. On 1 July 2005 Jacques Rogge, when asked who the winner would be, told the assembled press: "I cannot predict it since I don't know how the IOC members will vote. But my gut feeling tells me that it will be very close. Perhaps it will come down to a difference of say ten votes, or maybe less".

On 6 July 2005, the final selection was announced at the Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore, where the 117th IOC Session was held. Moscow was the first city to be eliminated, followed by New York and Madrid. The final two cities left in contention were London and Paris. At the end of the fourth round of voting, London won the right to host the 2012 Games with 54 votes, defeating Paris's 50. Numerous celebrations took place in London whilst crowds of supporters in Paris dispersed quickly after hearing that the 2012 summer games would be hosted in London. Jacques Chirac had been quoted in the British media as saying, before the announcement: "The only thing [England] has ever done for European agriculture is mad cow...We can't trust people who have such bad food. After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."[4] Some speculated that these comments may have helped swing the vote against France. [5] When reporting London's win, many British news programmes showed the footage of London's win being announced in Paris, where a large crowd had gathered expecting a French win. However, the celebrations in London were overshadowed when London's transport system was attacked less than 24 hours after the announcement.

In December 2005 it was alleged by Alex Gilgady, a senior IOC official, that London had only won the right to host the Olympics because of a voting error. A London 2012 spokesman dismissed this, saying "At the end of the day, it was a secret ballot. This is the opinion of one individual. The result is what matters and we are not going to be drawn into speculation."[6]


2012 Summer Olympics bidding results
Bid NOC Name Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4
London 2012 Flag of United Kingdom United Kingdom 22 27 39 54
Paris 2012 Flag of France France 21 25 33 50
Madrid 2012 Flag of Spain Spain 20 32 31 -
New York City 2012 Flag of United States United States 19 16 - -
Moscow 2012 Flag of Russia Russia 15 - - -

Details of the bid

Main article: London 2012 Olympic bid

In the bidding process, the London bid pledged to use a mixture of newly built venues, existing facilities, and temporary facilities, including the 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium and the new Wembley Stadium. These venues were divided into three zones within Greater London: the Olympic Zone, the River Zone and the Central Zone, with some additional venues, by necessity, placed outside the boundaries of Greater London.

The proposed Olympic Village would have 17,320 beds, providing a comfortable and spacious environment with a wide variety of essential amenities for athletes.

Public transport was highlighted to undergo a massive redevelopment, including the expansion of the London Underground's East London Line, upgrades to the Docklands Light Railway and the North London Line, and the new "Javelin" service.

Olympic development and preparation

2012 Summer Olympics
IOC BOA LOCOG ODA

Developments after the bid

Main article: 2012 Summer Olympic development

The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games was created to oversee the development of the Games after the success of the bid, and held their first board meeting on 7 October 2005. The committee, chaired by Lord Coe, are in charge of implementing the games, while the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is in charge of the construction of the venues and infrastructure.

Various aspects of the Games have developed since the time of the initial bid.

Venues and infrastructure

Main article: 2012 Summer Olympic venues
The main stadium, which will hold about 80,000 spectators
The main stadium, which will hold about 80,000 spectators

The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will use a mixture of newly built venues, existing and historic facilities, and temporary facilities, some of them in well-known locations such as Hyde Park and Horse Guards Parade. In the wake of the problems that plagued the Millennium Dome, the intention is that there will be no white elephants after the Games. Some of the new facilities will be reused in their Olympic form, while others will be reduced in size and several will be relocated elsewhere in the UK. The plans will contribute to the regeneration of Stratford in east London which will be the site of the Olympic Park, and of the neighbouring Lower Lea Valley.

However this will require the compulsory purchase of some business properties, which would be demolished to make way for Olympic venues and infrastructure improvements. This has caused controversy, with some of the effected proprietors claiming that the compensation offered is inadequate. In addition, concerns about the development's potential impact on the future of the century-old Manor Garden Allotments have inspired a community campaign.

The majority of venues have been divided into three zones within Greater London: the Olympic Zone, the River Zone and the Central Zone. In addition to these are those venues that, by necessity, are outside the boundaries of Greater London, such as the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy on the Isle of Portland in Dorset (which will host the sailing events) and various stadia across the UK.

Public Transport

Public transport, an aspect of the bid which scored poorly in the IOC's initial evaluation, will see numerous improvements, including the expansion of the London Underground's East London Line, upgrades to the Docklands Light Railway and the North London Line, and the new "Javelin" high-speed rail service.

The stated aims of the organizers include making the Games 100% accessible by public transport. They also so that 80% of athletes will travel less than 20 minutes to their event. The Park will be served by 10 separate railway lines with a combined capacity of 240,000 passengers per hour. Park and ride schemes also feature amongst the many plans aimed at reducing traffic levels during the games.

Concerns have been expressed at the logistics of spectators travelling to the venues outside London. In particular, the sailing events on Portland are in an area with no direct motorway connection, and with local roads that are heavily congested by existing tourist traffic in the summer. There is also only limited scope for extra services on the South Western Main Line beyond Southampton, without new infrastructure. Games organisers say that having analysed past Games sailing events, they would expect fewer spectators than have attended recent events such as the Carnival and Tall Ships Race.

Financing

The costs of mounting the Games are separate to those for building the venues and infrastructure, and redeveloping the land for the Olympic Park. While the Games are privately funded, the venues and Park costs are met largely by public money.

Financing Controversy

On 15 March 2007 Tessa Jowell announced to the House of Commons a budget of £3.1bn to cover building the venues and infrastructure for the Games, at the same time announcing the wider regeneration budget for the Lower Lea Valley budget at £1.7bn.

On top of this, she announced various other costs including an overall additional contingency fund of £2.2bn, security and policing costs of £600m, VAT of £800m and elite sport and Paralympic funding of nearly £400m.

According to these figures, the total is the most expensive ever for an Olympic Games: £9.345 billion.[7] These figures were contradicted by London Mayor Ken Livingston, who pledged the Games would make a profit, and cost less than Ms Jowell's figures.[8]

The costs for staging the Games (£2bn) are funded from the private sector by a combination of sponsorship, merchandising, ticketing and broadcast rights. This budget is raised and managed by the London 2012 Organising Committee.

According to Games organisers, the funding for this budget broadly breaks down as: 63% from Central Government; 23% from National Lottery; and 13% from the Mayor of London and the LDA.

Ticketing

Organisers estimate that some eight million tickets will be available for the Olympic Games, and 1.6 million tickets for the Paralympic Games. They will be going on sale in 2011, with at least 50% of these priced under £20. An additional 1.6 million tickets will be available for the Paralympics. Each ticket will also entitle the holder to free use of London's public transportation network on the day of the event.[9]. It is estimated that 82% of available Olympic tickets and 63% of Paralympic tickets will be sold. There will also be free events: for example, the marathon and road cycling.

Scheduling Controversy

Muslim countries have complained that their month of Ramadan, when they can only eat at night, lasts from 21 July to 20 August in 2012, putting their athletes at a disadvantage. They have called for the Olympics to be rescheduled outside this period. [1]

Sports

The 2012 Summer Olympic programme will feature 26 sports and a total of 39 disciplines. The 2012 Paralympic Games will have 20 sports and 21 disciplines. London's bid featured 28 sports, in line with other recent Summer Olympics, but the IOC voted to drop baseball and softball from the 2012 Games two days after it selected London as the host city. The IOC reinforced their decision to drop both sports during the Turin Games after they lost votes for reconsideration. They will be Olympic sports for the last time at Beijing in 2008.

The UK's Guardian newspaper reported on 28 October 2005 that open-air swimming disciplines will be added to the Beijing and London Olympic schedules. The paper also reported that women's boxing may be added to London; the IOC confirmed that women's boxing would not be included in Beijing because they "did not feel it merited inclusion in 2008".[10]

Broadcasting

Continuing the IOC's commitment to providing over-the-air television coverage to as broad a worldwide audience as possible, London 2012 will be broadcast by a number of regional broadcasters. Though reduced dramatically since 1980, the United States television rights currently owned by NBC still account for over half the rights revenue for the IOC. Many television broadcasters granted rights to the games have bureaux and studios in London, but since at least the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, rights-holder operations are hosted in the dedicated International Broadcast Centre (IBC). London's IBC is planned to be inside the security cordon of the Olympic Park. Confirmed regional broadcasters include:

  • The member companies of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), with the exception of RAI in Italy. This includes the BBC and RTÉ. [2]
  • in Brazil has awarded the broadcast rights for the Olympic Games in 2010 and 2012 to Rádio e Televisão Record S/A TV Record , it was announced in march 16 2007.

The agreement marks a significant revenue increase on the agreement negotiated for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and will include coverage of both the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and the London 2012 Olympic Summer Games.

The IOC negotiated directly with TV Record and not through the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana pool.

TV Record, a privately owned, free-to-air channel in Brazil, will offer increased coverage of the Olympic Games across a number of TV channels. The organisation will also acquire the rights to air the Games across all media platforms, including TV, cable, satellite, internet and mobile telephones.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Day One Of Paris 2012 Inspection By IOC", GamesBids. Retrieved on 2005-03-09.
  2. ^ "Paris, London and New York Get Glowing IOC Reports", GamesBids. Retrieved on 2005-06-06.
  3. ^ "London And Paris Tie In 2012 Bid", GamesBids. Retrieved on 2004-08-31.
  4. ^ "Chiraq jokes about British food", BBC. Retrieved on 2006-12-21.
  5. ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=354933&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source= Who's Laughing now, Mr Chirac? Daily Mail, 7 July 2005
  6. ^ Voting error gave Olympics to London, BBC News, retrieved 5 February 2007
  7. ^ "Cost of 2012 Olympics 'up £900m'", BBC. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.
  8. ^ "Mayor denies Olympic cost 'mess'", BBC. Retrieved on 2006-11-22.
  9. ^ "Ticketing at London 2012", London 2012 website. Retrieved on 2007-01-04.
  10. ^ "Women's boxing ruled out for 2008", BBC News. Retrieved on 2005-10-27.

External links

Wikinews


Olympic Games
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