The '2012 Summer 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.
The bidding process
Main articles: 2012 Summer Olympics bids
Logo used for the bidding process
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 regarding 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. Here
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was the only leader of the five candidate cities' countries to make a personal lobby (he had also been the only one to attend the 2004 Olympics).
[4]
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. Various French publications blamed the Paris loss on French President Jacques Chirac's statements before the vote that "We can't trust people [the British] who have such bad food. After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."
[5] Two current members of the
International Olympic Committee are from Finland. 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 Gilady, 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]
Details of the bid
Main articles: London 2012 Olympic bid
In the bidding process, the London bid pledged to use a mix 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
Developments after the bid
Main articles: 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.
The Government Olympic Executive (GOE), a unit within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, is the lead Government body for coordinating the London 2012 Olympics. The GOE reports through the DCMS Permanent Secretary to the Minister for the Olympics and London,
Tessa Jowell.
Various aspects of the Games have developed since the time of the initial bid.
Venues and infrastructure
Main articles: 2012 Summer Olympic venues
The main stadium, which will hold about 91,000 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 affected 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, and the demolition of the
Clays Lane housing estate was strongly opposed by tenants.
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.
On
15 March 2007 Tessa Jowell announced to the
House of Commons a budget of £5.3 billion 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 £1.7 billion.
On top of this, she announced various other costs including an overall additional contingency fund of £2.7 billion, security and policing costs of £600 million, VAT of £800 million and elite sport and Paralympic funding of nearly £400 million. According to these figures, the total for the Games and the regeneration of the East London area, is £9.345 billion. Mayor
Ken Livingstone pledged the Games Organising Committee would make a profit.
[7]
The costs for staging the Games (£2 billion) 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
★ 13% from the
Mayor of London and the
London Development Agency
On
August 18 2007 The Belfast Telegraph reported that the right to stage the the Olympic Games becoming more muted as realisation dawns on the public of the enormous costs involved in creating facilities for the athletes.
[8]Grassroot sport cuts will fund Olympics, government figures suggested on
August 19 2007.
[9]
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. Each ticket will also entitle the holder to free use of London's public transportation network on the day of the event.
[10] 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
Some representatives of
Muslim countries have complained that the Games will occur concurrently with the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan, which will occur from
21 July to
20 August in 2012. During Ramadan, Muslims are to fast from sunrise to sunset, which may put Muslim athletes at a disadvantage during the Games. Muslim countries have called for the Olympics to be rescheduled outside this period.
[11]
Logo
The paralympics logo and the different official colour combinations for the main logo
There have been two London 2012 logos: one for the bidding process created by
Kino Design and a second as the brand for the Games themselves. The latter, designed by
Wolff Olins, was unveiled on
4 June 2007 and cost £400,000.
[12] This new logo is a stylised representation of the number 2012, with the
Olympic Rings embedded within the zero.
[13] The logo is available in a number of colours, and for the first time, the same logo is to be used for both the Olympic ''and'' Paralympic games.
[14]
London 2012 has stated that the new logo is aimed at reaching young people. Sebastian Coe stated that it builds upon everything that the organising committee has said "about reaching out and engaging young people, which is where our challenge is over the next five years". One observer, a managing director of an advertising agency, noted that the logo bore a strong resemblance to the logo for children's television programme ''
Tiswas'', commenting that appealing to young people is difficult, and that they will see right through attempts to patronise them.
[15]
Early public reaction to the logo, as measured by a poll on the
BBC website, was largely negative: more than 80% of votes gave the logo the lowest possible rating.
[16] Several newspapers have run their own logo competitions, displaying alternative submissions from their readers.
The Sun displayed a design by a
macaque monkey.
[17]
One website ran an obvious spoof that became widely circulated on the net saying that remaining members of the
Waffen SS had sued the London games for logo-theft.
[http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s1i19818]
A segment of animated footage released at the same time as the logo was reported to trigger seizures in a small number of people with
photosensitive epilepsy. The charity
Epilepsy Action received telephone calls from people who had had
seizures after watching the sequence on TV. In response, a short segment was removed from the London 2012 website.
[18] Ken Livingstone, the London Mayor, said that the company who designed the film should not be paid a penny for what he called a "catastrophic mistake".
[19]
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 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".
[20]
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.
As rights for the 2012 games have been packaged with those for the
2010 Winter Olympics, broadcasters will be largely identical for both events. Confirmed broadcasters include:
★ In
Canada, a consortium of
CTVglobemedia and
Rogers Media properties.
★ In
Europe (excluding
RAI in
Italy), members of the
European Broadcasting Union.
[21]
★ In
Brazil,
TV Record had been awarded the broadcasting rights.
[22]
★ In the
United States,
NBC Universal, including
NBC and various cable properties. Some online webcasts may also be available. As with the
2008 Summer Olympics, it is likely that some events will be scheduled so that they air in timeslots favourable to NBC, which pays the highest TV rights fee of any broadcaster in the world.
See also
★ "
Fear Her", a 2006 episode of
Doctor Who set during the games.
★
"Go for Gold" 2012 Olympic scratchcards
★
2012 Summer Paralympics
★
Ancient Olympic Games
★
London Borough of Newham, where some of the events will take place.
★
London Borough of Waltham Forest, where some of the events will take place.
★
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
★
London Development Agency
★
Greater London Authority
★
Thames Gateway
★
United Kingdom national football team, proposed for these Games
References
1. Day One Of Paris 2012 Inspection By IOC
2. Paris, London and New York Get Glowing IOC Reports
3. London And Paris Tie In 2012 Bid
4.
Why London won the Olympics
5. London will host 2012 Olympics, National Business Review, retrieved 2 September 2007
6. Voting error gave Olympics to London, BBC News, retrieved 5 February 2007
7. Olympics budget rises to £9.3bn
8. Viewpoint: Olympic gold snatched from Ulster
9. Sport cuts will fund Olympics
10. Ticketing at London 2012
11. Ticketing at London 2012
12. London unveils logo of 2012 Games
13. The new London 2012 brand
14. London 2012 logo to be unveiled
15. 'Oh no' logo
16. BBC poll measuring public reaction to the new London Olympics logo
17. "British turn up their noses at London Olympics logo" International Herald Tribune, retrieved on 7 June, 2007
18. Epilepsy fears over 2012 footage
19. Online petition against Olympic logo closed, The Daily Telegraph, 8 Jun 2007
20. Women's boxing ruled out for 2008
21. http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/commissions/tv_and_internet/full_story_uk.asp?id=917
22. IOC signs 2010 - 2012 TV rights deal for Brazil, IOC press release, March 16, 2007
★ BBC (2005).
Focus on London's Olympic Plans. Retrieved
July 7 2005
External links
★
London 2012 Official Homepage
★
London 2012 Detailed Update
★
Work in Progress:Official blog of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
★
London 2012 Flickr group: Photography from olympic park, and bid
★
Local view of the Olympics from host borough the London Borough of Newham
★
Official Olympics Website announces London as host
★
Video of announcement from Official Olympics Website (
WMV format)
★
BBC: London beats Paris to 2012 Games
★
Commentary on 2012 Olympic Park
★
BBC: Reactions to the announcement of the host city of the 2012 Olympic Games
★
BBC: Coverage of the announcement.
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