London 2012 olympic games info

Throughout the process, Paris was widely seen as the favourite, particularly as this was its third bid in recent years. London was initially seen as lagging behind Paris by a considerable margin. Its position began to improve after the appointment of Lord Coe as the new head of London on 19 May On 6 June , the IOC released its evaluation reports for the five candidate cities. They did not contain any scores or rankings, but the report for Paris was considered the most positive.

London was close behind, having closed most of the gap observed by the initial evaluation in New York and Madrid also received very positive evaluations. 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.

Moscow was the first city to be eliminated, followed by New York and Madrid. The final two contenders were London and Paris. At the end of the fourth round of voting, London won the right to host the Games with 54 votes to Paris' It focused on oversight of the Games, cross-programme programme management and the London Olympic Legacy before and after the Games that would benefit London and the United Kingdom. In August , security concerns arose surrounding the hosting of the Olympic Games in London [36] due to the England riots , with a few countries expressing fear over the safety of the Games, [37] in spite of the International Olympic Committee 's assurance that the riots would not affect the Games.

Its members concluded that "London is ready to host the world this summer". The Olympic and Paralympic Games used a mixture of new venues, existing and historic facilities, and temporary facilities, some of them in well-known locations such as Hyde Park and Horse Guards Parade. After the Games, some of the new facilities will be reused in their Olympic form, while others will be resized or relocated. In addition there are a few venues that, by necessity, are outside the boundaries of Greater London, such as the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy some mi km southwest of London, which hosted the sailing events.

The football tournament was staged at several grounds around the UK. In November , the hectare acre Olympic Park plans were revealed. There were some issues with the original venues not being challenging enough or being financially unviable.

Both the Olympic road races and the mountain bike event were initially considered to be too easy, so they were eventually scheduled on new locations. Test events were held throughout and , either through an existing championship such as Wimbledon Championships or as a specially created event held under the banner of London Prepares. London's public transport scored poorly in the IOC's initial evaluation; however, it felt that, if the improvements were delivered in time for the Games, London would cope.

Another park-and-ride site was planned in Ebbsfleet with a capacity for 9, cars where spectators could board a minute shuttle train service. TfL defined a network of roads leading between venues as the Olympic Route Network ; roads connecting between all of the Olympic venues located within London. Many of these roads also contained special "Olympic lanes" marked with the Olympic rings—reserved for the use of Olympic athletes, officials, and other VIPs during the Games.

Additionally, London buses would not include roads with Olympic lanes on their routes. The A4 experienced traffic jams due to drivers avoiding the Olympic lane, and likewise on a section of Southampton Row , where the only lanes available in one direction were the Olympic lane and the bus lane.

Concerns were expressed at the logistics of spectators travelling to the events outside London. In particular, the sailing events at Portland had no direct motorway connections, and local roads are heavily congested by tourist traffic in the summer. TfL created a promotional campaign and website, Get Ahead of the Games , to help provide information related to transport during the Olympics and Paralympics.

Through the campaign, TfL also encouraged the use of cycling as a mode of transport during the Games. The costs of mounting the Games are separate from 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. Along with East End regeneration costs, the breakdown was:. Unpaid volunteers known as Games Makers performed a variety of tasks before and during the Games.

Volunteers also wore photo accreditation badges which were also worn by officials, athletes, family members and media which gain them access to specific venues and buildings around the site. Organisers estimated that some 8 million tickets would be available for the Olympic Games, [82] and 1. There were also free events such as marathon, triathlon and road cycling, [84] although, for the first time in Olympic history, the sailing events were ticketed.

European Union residents were able to apply for tickets in any EU country. Some free tickets were given to military personnel as part of the Tickets For Troops scheme, [88] as well as to survivors and families of those who died during 7 July London bombings.

There was a huge demand for tickets, with a demand of over three times the number of tickets available. Although technical difficulties were encountered, ten sports had sold out by 8 am of the first day. During the closing ceremony of the Olympics , the Olympic Flag was formally handed over from the Mayor of Beijing to the Mayor of London. This was followed by a section highlighting London, [94] One month later, the Olympic and Paralympic flags were raised outside the London City Hall.

A countdown clock in Trafalgar Square was unveiled, days before the Games. It is a two-sided clock with the Paralympic countdown on the other side. The countdown to the start of the Olympics began with a ceremony for the lighting of the Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece. The security operation was led by the police, with 10, officers available, supported by 13, members of the armed forces.

Naval and air assets, including ships situated in the Thames , Eurofighter jets and surface-to-air missiles, were deployed as part of the security operation; the biggest security operation Britain had faced for decades. The Ministry of Defence distributed leaflets to residents of the Lexington building in Bow , announcing that a missile system was to be stationed on top of the water tower. Approximately 4, [] Olympic and Paralympic medals were produced by the Royal Mint at Llantrisant.

Each gold medal is made up of The silver medal which represents second place is made up of The bronze medal is made up of 97 percent copper, 2. The Olympics torch relay ran from 19 May to 27 July , before the Games. Plans for the relay were developed in —11, with the torch-bearer selection process announced on 18 May On the flight the flame was carried inside 4 miners lamps supplied by Protector Lamp of Eccles, Greater Manchester. The relay lasted 70 days, with 66 evening celebrations and six island visits, and involved some 8, people carrying the torch about 8, mi 12, km , starting from Land's End in Cornwall.

The relay focused on National Heritage Sites, locations with sporting significance, key sporting events, schools registered with the Get Set School Network, green spaces and biodiversity, Live Sites city locations with large screens , and festivals and other events.

A group of young athletes, nominated by retired Olympic athletes, ran the torch around the stadium. Together the torchbearers each lit a petal which spread the fire to the petals of the cauldron , representing the countries that participated in the games. The Olympic Park was planned to incorporate 45 hectares of wildlife habitat, with a total of bird boxes, and bat boxes.

Local waterways and riverbanks were enhanced as part of the process. These plans were scrapped for safety reasons. Food packaging at the Olympics is made from compostable materials — like starch and cellulose-based bioplastics — where it cannot be re-used or recycled. This includes fast food wrappers, sandwich boxes and drink cartons. After they have been used, many of these materials would be suitable for anaerobic digestion AD , allowing them to be made into renewable energy.

Buildings like the Water Polo Arena will be relocated elsewhere. Building Parts like Roofing Covers and membranes of different temporary venues will be recycled via Vinyloop. This allows to meet the standards of the Olympic Delivery Authority , concerning environmental protection.

It says that. Basically PVC stretched over lightweight steel frame. This design solution makes them efficient to install, reduces the need for any significant foundations and are, of course, reusable. We were challenged by the public around the use of PVC; but we considered it to be the right material for certain functions. We therefore challenged the PVC supply chain to have certain environmental performance criteria in place, including a take back and recycle scheme" says Kirsten Henson, Materials Manager for the London Olympic Park.

The Olympic Charter , the set of rules and guidelines for the organization of the Olympic Games and for governing the Olympic Movement, states that. LOCOG shall organise a programme of cultural events which must cover at least the entire period during which the Olympic Village is open. The Cultural Olympiad comprises many programmes, with over events spread over four years across the whole of the United Kingdom, and culminating in the London Festival.

The opening ceremony was held on 27 July and called "Isles of Wonder". The ceremony included a short comic film starring Daniel Craig as secret agent James Bond and the Queen as herself, [] and another starring Rowan Atkinson as Mr.

The closing ceremony was held on 12 August. It featured a flashback fiesta to British music with The Who closing the performance. Around 10, athletes from National Olympic Committees NOCs took part, [5] 79 countries acquired at least one medal: gold, silver or bronze [] surpassing the Summer Olympics in London and the Commonwealth Games in Manchester as the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in the United Kingdom.

During the Games some countries and continents had a national house. These temporary meeting place for supporters, athletes and other followers were located throughout London.

Source []. The Summer Olympic programme featured 26 sports encompassing 39 disciplines and events. The number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses. Women's boxing was included in the programme for the first time, and 36 women competed in three weight classes. There was a special dispensation for the shooting events, which would otherwise have been illegal under UK gun law.

London's bid featured the same 28 sports that had been included in other recent Summer Olympics, but the IOC voted to drop baseball and softball from the Games two days after it had selected London as the host city. There was an appeal, but the IOC voted to uphold the decision, and the two sports were last scheduled for the Olympics. They considered karate , squash , golf , roller sports and rugby sevens. Karate and squash were the two final nominees, but neither received enough votes to reach the required two-thirds majority.

Although formal demonstration sports were eliminated after the Summer Olympics, [] special tournaments for non-Olympic sports can be run during the Games, such as the Wushu tournament at the Summer Olympics. The final official schedule was released on 15 February The Olympic Games featured 32 world records in eight sports.

The largest number of records were set in swimming, with eight. China, Great Britain and the United States set the most records, with five each. Bahrain , [] Botswana , [] Cyprus , [] Gabon , [] Grenada a gold medal , [] Guatemala , [] and Montenegro [] won their first ever Olympic medals. The United States finished at the top of the table winning 46 gold medals and winning medals overall.

China finished second with 38 gold medals and 88 medals overall. Hosts Great Britain came in third place winning 29 gold medals and 65 medals overall in their best performance since London hosted its first Summer Olympic Games back in pushing Russia into fourth place who won 24 gold medals although they won 81 medals 16 more than Great Britain overall.

The OBS used its own cameras, and crews subcontracted from other Olympic broadcasters, to cover the events. The base video and audio were sold to other broadcasters, who added their own commentary and presentation. The official recording format of the Olympic Games used Panasonic 's digital technologies. The IOC's wanted television coverage to reach as broad a worldwide audience as possible, and London was covered by several national and regional broadcasters.

The BBC aimed to broadcast all 5, hours of the Games. YouTube planned to stream the Games in 64 territories in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa where there were no official broadcasters. There have been two London logos: one created by Kino Design for the bidding process and a second as the brand for the Games themselves.

The latter, designed by Wolff Olins , was published on 4 June It is a representation of the number , with the Olympic Rings embedded within the zero. However, this boycott did not occur. The official London Olympic typeface was called Headline and also suffered some criticism. Journalist Simon Garfield made it number 1 in the list of the "8 Worst Fonts in the World" in his book Just My Type , commenting that "the uncool font is based on jaggedness and crudeness", although he conceded that it was "a brilliant piece of corporate branding".

Creative Review magazine liked the mascots, [] but elsewhere their design was greeted with some disdain. One columnist jested that they were the product of a "drunken one-night stand between a Teletubby and a Dalek ". The Best Picture Oscar —winning film Chariots of Fire , which tells the story of two British athletes in the Olympics , was a recurring theme in promotions for the Olympics. The performance was accompanied by a comedic skit by Rowan Atkinson , which included the opening beach-running footage from the film.

LOCOG and the IOC agreed sponsorship deals with several companies, each assigned to one of four categories; worldwide, tier one, tier two and tier three. During the lead-up to the Games, there were controversies over sponsorship, [] the athletes' use of social media, and several political issues.

After a complicated lottery process, thousands of people failed to secure seats for the events they wanted, but a large number of empty seats were observed throughout the games, even at some of the most popular events.

There was speculation that this was due to a failure of corporate sponsors to make use of tickets they had received. During the Games eight competitors in the badminton women's doubles were disqualified for "not using best efforts", when they tried to lose matches in the group stage to obtain more favourable fixtures in the knockout rounds. Ye Shiwen faced doping allegations after her gold medal in the women's m Individual Medley as she came from being behind the world record in the final 50m to beating it by 1.

Furthermore, her last 50m was swum 0. It was announced before the Summer Games that half of all the competitors would be tested for drugs, with scientists set to take 6, samples between the start of the Games and the end of the Paralympic Games. The Olympic laboratory tested up to samples every day for more than prohibited substances. Gymnast Luiza Galiulina [] and runner Tameka Williams were also suspended. Valerie Adams was therefore awarded the gold medal in shot put. From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core.

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April 19, London Olympic Games and Paralympics: number of visits from Europe, by country in 1, [Graph].