2012 Summer Olympics

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Games of the XXX Olympiad
Games of the XXX Olympiad

The logo above is the candidate bid logo
for the bidding of the games.
Until a new design is revealed,
the candidate bid logo is being used
by the International Olympic Committee.
Host city London, United Kingdom
Nations participating ---
Athletes participating ---
Events 300 in 26 sports
Opening ceremony July 27, 2012
  Countdown   D-2050
Closing ceremony August 12, 2012
Officially opened by ---
Athlete's Oath ---
Judge's Oath ---
Olympic Torch ---
Stadium Olympic Stadium

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

Contents

[edit] The bidding process

Main article: 2012 Summer Olympic 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. An angry Jacques Chirac was quoted as saying: "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." [1] However, the celebrations in London were overshadowed when London's transport system was attacked less than 24 hours after the announcement.

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 - - -

[edit] 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 "Olympic Javelin" service.

There were 8 million tickets for the Olympic Games themselves, and a further 1.6 million for the Paralympics. Organisers said that 75 per cent of all tickets would cost less than £50 and offer free travel on London transport, with the cheapest tickets for the athletics starting at £15. Additionally, there would be 20,000 £10 tickets for the Olympic Park to watch events on big screens.

[edit] Olympic development and preparation

2012 Summer Olympics
IOC BOA LOCOG ODA

[edit] Developments after the bid

Main article: 2012 Summer Olympic development

The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) was put in place 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) are in charge of the construction of the venues.

Various aspects of the Games have developed since the time of the initial bid. Some of these were in light of terrorist attacks in London on 7 July 2005, and there were other unforeseen problems. The clarification of details and the announcement of new information has seen the plan develop further.

[edit] Venues and infrastructure

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

The 2012 Olympics 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 businesses and this has caused controversy, with some of the business owners claiming that the compensation offered is inadequate. The purchased buildings would be demolished to make way for Olympic venues and infrastructure improvements.

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, 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 "Olympic Javelin" service.

The claimed aims of the organizers include making 90% of venues accessible by at least three forms of public transport, whilst allowing 93% of training facilities to be within 30 minutes' travel of the athletes' housing. Park and ride schemes also feature amongst the many plans aimed at reducing traffic levels during the games.

There have however been concerns 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.

[edit] Financing

The principal item in the budget are listed below. [citation needed] All of these figures are estimates and they may change. Indeed in October 2006 the Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, announced that the ODA budget may increase from £2.375 billion to £4 billion. [4].

On 21 November Tessa Jowell admitted the cost could rise to £3.3billion [5]. 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 [6]

The lists are incomplete:

[edit] Costs

  • £560 million for new venues, including £250 million for the Olympic Stadium.
  • £65 million for the Olympic village.
  • £1.5 billion to run the Games.
  • £200 million on security.

[edit] ODA Revenue

[edit] LOCOG Revenue

  • £960 million from IOC television and marketing deals.
  • £450 million from sponsorship and official suppliers.
  • £780 million from ticket sales.
  • £554 million from licensing.

The government will also rely on private investment.

Further expenditure, notably that on infrastructure, will be counted as outside of the Olympic budget.

[edit] Sports

The 2012 Summer Olympics programme will feature 26 sports and a total of 35 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 Friday 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".[2]

Before the removal of baseball and softball the organisers planned to issue 8 million tickets for the Olympics and 1.6 million for the Paralympics. It is planned that three quarters of all tickets will cost less than £50. Tickets to the Olympic Park, where events will be shown on giant video screens, will cost £10. It is estimated that 82% of available Olympic tickets and 63% of Paralympic tickets will be sold.

[edit] 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. [3] Confirmed regional broadcasters include:

With Bell Globemedia's takeover of CHUM Limited, more stations may be included as well, making probably the largest grouping of TV stations from one country to air Olympic-related live footage.

Although not confirmed, free content is also being offered to Radio-Canada, mainly due to its larger reach of francophone viewers. [5][6]

  • In the Republic of Ireland, RTÉ will more than likely televise the games. There is relatively little competition from the small number of Irish based TV stations, as RTÉ is the national broadcaster and has covered all previous Olympic Games. However, another possibility is the Irish-language broadcaster TG4, which has in recent years taken over broadcasting of some major sporting events (such as Wimbledon and the Tour de France) from RTÉ.
  • Australian broadcaster is currently unknown, however, it is likely to be on Channel 7, which covered the previous seven Olympic Games (both Winter and Summer).

[edit] See also

[edit] 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. ^ "Olympics cost blowout threat", This is Local London. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.
  5. ^ "Cost of 2012 Olympics 'up £900m'", BBC. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.
  6. ^ "Mayor denies Olympic cost 'mess'", BBC. Retrieved on 2006-11-22.

[edit] External links

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