London Olympic Games
The Summer
Olympic Games of 2012 will take place in London from 27 July to 12 August 2012
making London the only city to host the modern Olympics three times. Previously
London had hosted the games in the year 1908 and 1948. It is also the only city
in the entire United Kingdom to have ever hosted the Olympic Games. It is
lagging behind only the United States in the number of occasions of hosting the
Summer Olympics though not even a single Winter Olympic has been held in the
country till now. The British Olympic Association deals with the hosting and
participation of the country in the games.
Various
organising committees were established post the bidding process as a part of
preparation for the games. A fusion of new and old venues have been decided
upon for hosting the events of the London Olympic Games which include some
well-known locations like Hyde Park, Horse Guards Parade, a few historic and
some temporary facilities. For administrative and development purposes, all
these venues have been divided into three zones- the Olympic Zone, the River
Zone and the Central Zone. Apart from these venues, a few also lie outside the
city which includes Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy on the Isle
of Portland for the hosting of sailing events. The athletes’ village will be in
Portland whose construction work was completed in September 2011. Numerous
improvements in the transportation sector of London were also made in view of
the upcoming games. Transport for London (TfL) carried out the expansion of
railway lines and introduced a high speed rail service by the name of Javelin.
Approximately 4000 additional train services will operate during the games. A
£25 million cable car service has been proposed linking the Olympic venues
which will carry passengers at a height of 50 metres in air at the rate of 2500
passengers per hour. The transportation planning has been done keeping in mind
the need for reducing the travel time of the athletes to a bare minimum.
Special road lanes for the athletes and the VIPs have been made for this
purpose.
A budget
of £5.3 billion was finalised for the development of venues and infrastructure
for the games apart from various other costs. Including all costs for
development and regeneration for the London Olympic Games, an amount equal to
£9.345 billion has been utilized. The countdown for the games has already
started with the ceremony of lighting of Olympic flame in Ancient Olympia in Greece.
The countdown clock was unveiled 500 days before the commencement of the games
in Trafalgar Square. The official mascot for the games is Wenlock, named after
the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock. It is an animated drop of steel from the
steelworks in Bolton. Athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees are
expected to participate in the London Olympics whose opening ceremony will be
called ‘The Isles of Wonder’. The torch relay which is held prior to the games
has already started since 19 May and will cover around 8000 miles spanning over
70 days.
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