Venue, Logo and the list of sports

Sumedha Manabarana

London 2012
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad are also known informally as London 2012.

Sporting Venues
The 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics venues are mostly located in the host city of London. Some other events require facilities located elsewhere.

The 2012 games use a mixture of newly built venues, existing facilities and temporary facilities.

How big is the Olympic Zone?

The Olympic Zone encompasses all of the facilities within the 500 acres (2 square kilometres) Olympic Park in Stratford. This park was developed on existing waste and industrial land, and is seven minutes by Olympic Javelin train from central London.

How many tickets?

It is estimated that some 8 million tickets would be available for the Olympic Games and 1.5 million tickets for the Paralympic Games. LOCOG aimed to raise 375400 million in ticket sales

How much is a ticket?

20 for many events In Great Britain, ticket prices range from to 2,012 for the most expensive seats at the opening ceremony.

Were there free tickets?

Yes, free tickets were given to military personnel, as well as to survivors and families of those who died during 7 July 2005 London bombings.

A big demand for the tickets

There was a huge demand for tickets, with a demand of over three times the number of tickets available. Initially, people were able to apply for tickets via a website from 15 March until 26 April 2011. Over half the people who applied got no tickets. On 11 May 2012 a round of nearly one million "second chance" tickets went on sale over a 10-day period between 23 June and 3 July 2011. About 1.7 million tickets available for football and 600,000 for other sports (including archery, hockey, football, judo, boxing and volleyball). Ten sports had sold out by 8 am of the first day.

What is LOCOG?
Its the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic

Games. The committee is responsible for preparing and staging the London
2012 Games.

Athletes and Transport facilities

During the games, 80% of athletes are within 20 minutes of their events and 97% are within 30 minutes of their events. Together, all the planned National Rail, light rail, and underground services (excluding Crossrail) are expected to deliver around 240 trains every hour.

Logo
This version of the 'London Olympics' main logo was designed by Wolf Olins, a brand consultancy based in London, New York City, and Dubai.

In June 2007, a poll conducted by the BBC showed heavy negative public reaction regarding the logo. Criticism from several news agencies is also reported.

Doping Tests
According to a BBC article, London 2012 will see the biggest anti-doping operation in the history of the Olympic Games.

Half of all the competitors are to be tested for drugs, with 150 scientists set to take 6,000 samples between now and the end of the Paralympic Games. Every competitor who wins a medal will also be tested.

Financing:
Building the venues and infrastructure Elite sport and Paralympic funding Security and policing Regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley Contingency fund VAT : : : : : : 5.3 billion 400 million 600 million 1.7 billion 2.7 billion 800 million

Motto Number of participating Nations Estimated No of participating Athletes Number of events Number of sports Opening ceremony Closing ceremony

: : : : : : :

Inspire a Generation 204 14,700 302 26 27 July, 2012 12 August, 2012

How many sports?

Games include 26 Olympic Sports and 20 Paralympic Sports.

What are Paralympic Games?

The Paralympic Games are the Games which are held beside or alongside the Olympic games. The Paralympics have grown from a small gathering of British World War II veterans in 1948. Games include athletes with physical or intellectual disabilities. The Summer Games of 1988 held in Seoul was the first time the term "Paralympic" came into official use. (However, athletes with disabilities did compete in the Olympic Games prior to the advent
of the Paralympics. The first athlete to do so was American gymnast George Eyser in 1904, he had one artificial leg.)

There are several categories in which the athletes compete. The allowable categories are 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Amputee, Cerebral palsy, Intellectual disability, Wheelchair, Visually impaired, and And Les Autres (literally "The Others")

Autres are the athletes with disabilities that do not fall into the other five categories; these include dwarfism, multiple sclerosis, and congenital deformities.

Here are the 26 sports and a total of 39 disciplines:

1. Aquatics Diving (8) Swimming (34) Synchronized swimming (2) Water polo (2) 2. Archery (4) 3. Athletics (47) 4. Badminton (5) 5. Basketball (2) 6. Boxing (13) 7. Canoeing Sprint (12) Slalom (4) 8. Cycling BMX (2) Mountain biking (2) Road (4) Track (10) 9. Equestrian Dressage (2) Eventing (2) Jumping (2) 10. Fencing (10) 11. Field hockey (2) 12. Football (2) 13. Gymnastics Artistic (14) Rhythmic (2) Trampoline (2) 14. Handball (2) 15. Judo (14)

16. Modern pentathlon (2) 17. Rowing (14) 18. Sailing (10) 19. Shooting (15) 20. Table tennis (4) 21. Taekwondo (8) 22. Tennis (5) 23. Triathlon (2) 24. Volleyball Volleyball (2) Beach volleyball (2) 25. Weightlifting (15) 26. Wrestling Freestyle (11) Greco-Roman (7)

Read More
What will happen to the London Olympic facilities after the closing ceremony?
Some of the new facilities will be reused in their Olympic form, while others will be reduced in size and several will be moved elsewhere in the UK.

Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Football is scheduled to be held from 25 July to 11 August. It is not just being held in London, the host city of the Olympics, but in six venues across the whole country:

1. City of Coventry Stadium (Out-of-London venues) The stadium is located within a multi-purpose complex that hosts a variety of entertainment, sports and business events. This is one of the permanent venues specially constructed for London 2012. After the London 2012 Games, the stadium will continue to host Coventry City matches.

2. Hampden Park (Out-of-London venues) Hampden Park is Scotlands national stadium. It ranks as one of the greatest football stadia the world. The stadium will host eight games in the Olympic Football tournament, five womens matches and three mens.

3. Millennium Stadium (Out-of-London venues) The Millennium Stadium is located on the banks of the River Taff right in the heart of the Welsh capital, Cardiff. The venue is Wales national stadium and home of the Welsh national rugby team.

4. Old Trafford (Out-of-London venues) This is also named as Theatre of Dreams by football legend Bobby Charlton. The stadium is home to Manchester United Football Club. This was also the venue when the new Wembley Stadium was under construction.

5. St. James' Park (Out-of-London venues) St James Park is the oldest football ground in north-east England, having hosted a football match as early as 1880, and is among the largest football stadia in the UK. The stadium has been the home ground of Newcastle United since 1892, and also has experience of hosting international football matches.

6. Wembley Stadium (London venues) Wembley is one of the most famous stadia in the world. It has hosted some of the most memorable sporting moments in history. It is also the largest of the six venues hosting the London 2012 Olympic Football tournament.

References: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18849517 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Summer_Olympics#Logo_and_graphics http://www.london2012.com/paralympics/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Summer_Paralympics http://www.london2012.com/about-us/the-people-delivering-thegames/locog/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralympic_Games