We should see the medal design next year

and the One Year To Go event in the summer?

The Royal Mint has won the contract to produce athletes' medals for the London 2012 Olympics.

The clutch of gold, silver and bronze medals will be produced at the Mint's headquarters in Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf.

Around 4,700 medals are planned, although the final design will not be announced until next summer.

Royal Mint's chief operating officer Adam Lawrence described it as "great news" for Wales.

He said the contract was a welcome development for the company's 800 employees and its suppliers.

London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton said: "We're delighted to be working with the Royal Mint, a company established in the UK for 1,100 years, to produce the London 2012 victory medals.

"The Olympic and Paralympic medals are presented to elite athletes at the biggest sporting event in the world on an individual's pinnacle career moment and we're pleased to announce that they will be produced in south Wales."

A shortlist of the UK-based artists who will design the medals is currently being drawn up.

Modern gold Olympic medals are plated with about six grams of gold, while the runners up medals are struck from pure silver.

Designs of the medals vary for each Games. Beijing was the first to incorporate jade into the medals which appeared as a "bi" or ring on the reverse.
from the beeb.

Milestones to July 2011


Construction of the Olympic Stadium will be complete
and the venue ready to be handed over.


Construction of the Aquatics Centre will be complete
and the venue ready to be handed over.


Construction of the Velodrome will be complete and
the venue ready to be handed over.


Construction of the International Broadcast Centre/
Main Press Centre (IBC/MPC) will be complete and ready for
occupation by the Olympic Broadcasting Service and the
London 2012 Organising Committee.


Construction of the Handball and Basketball Arenas
will be complete and the venues ready to be handed over.

Construction of the Lee Valley White Water Centre
will be complete and the venue handed over to Lee Valley Regional
Park Authority.

Construction work on Eton Manor and Royal Artillery
Barracks will be underway and on track to be completed as planned
in spring 2012.

The external structure of the Olympic Village will
be finished with the internal fit out complete in most of the blocks.

Construction of all permanent bridges will be complete.
All utilities will be operational.

Landscaping will be well advanced.

Construction work at Stratford Regional Station will
be complete, with Londoners already benefiting from hundreds
of millions of pounds of additional investment across London’s
transport system.

And I'm sure that I read something months ago saying that London's 2011 into 2012 New Years Eve event would be in the stadium!!!

587 Days to go to London 2012

Milestones to July 2011


Construction of the Lee Valley White Water Centre
will be complete and the venue handed over to Lee Valley Regional
Park Authority.



The White Water centre has already been completed - it was on the News last week. For the next few months it'll be used solely by the UK white water team until Easter when it'll be opened to the public (and other countries can then start using it too).

^^ It Baffles me why the Tees Barrage White Water Course wasn't used, why build a new one when we have fantastic facilities up here. its the leats that could have been done to give the North East's economy a boost and raise spirits, despite the biased cuts to anything to do with the North East.

Because the London bid was advertised as the 'compact bid'.

How many sports/venue's are taking place outside of London?

Isn't Great Yarmouth hosting an event???

How many sports/venue's are taking place outside of London?

Isn't Great Yarmouth hosting an event???

Some of the football matches are being held at existing stadia well out of London (e.g Old Trafford & St. James'), but other than that, the windsurfing is being held at Weymouth in Dorset and everything else is well within the home counties in or around London.

Olympic bids were starting to get a bit silly by how spread out they were - even the Chinese one was well distributed. The Olympics are supposed to be hosted by a city not a country. External venues should be the exception rather than the rule.

It's mental how some games will be played at Hampden Park in Glasgow! I'm glad that Scotland gets in on the act - even if it's just for one game of football!

As long as at least one Scot plays for GB there will be no problem about booing or boycotting the game if GB played at Hampden.

[...] the windsurfing is being held at Weymouth in Dorset

No it's not. The sailing events are being held in Portland Harbour, not Weymouth, which happens to be the largest town near Portland. Living on Portland, I'm annoyed every time the event is said to be held in Weymouth. Some reporters even have the cheek to stand by the sailing academy, on Portland, and say they're in Weymouth...

only be one year away- form the arrival of olympic year! ( 2012 )
about one year to go.......

:banana::banana::banana:

Some of the football matches are being held at existing stadia well out of London (e.g Old Trafford & St. James'), but other than that, the windsurfing is being held at Weymouth in Dorset and everything else is well within the home counties in or around London.

Olympic bids were starting to get a bit silly by how spread out they were - even the Chinese one was well distributed. The Olympics are supposed to be hosted by a city not a country. External venues should be the exception rather than the rule.

Why not host the Windsurfing on Hayling Beach in Portsmouth? Given the fact Windsurfing was INVENTED on Hayling Beach... It's also closer to London.

Why not host the Windsurfing on Hayling Beach in Portsmouth? Given the fact Windsurfing was INVENTED on Hayling Beach... It's also closer to London.

The watersports athletes and teams require their own olympic village, media outlet etc, which was decided to be built on the Isle of Portland/Weymouth so it would be financial silliness to propose spreading the events even more. Plus Hayling Island and Pompey are arguably the ugliest places on the South Coast, hardly areas you would want to draw attention to for the games...;)

London Olympics 2012: month-by-month guide to key events in 2011


JANUARY London 2012 organising committee will publish dates of Olympics and Paralympics tickets going on sale. Water polo, beach volleyball and handball are expected to find out their fate for 2012 inclusion from the British Olympic Association. Volleyball was granted an automatic spot last month, so it remains to be seen whether the BOA will take ahard line approach to the remaining sports. The full schedule of test events are also due to be announced in the first quarter of 2011 too.
FEBRUARY

The Olympic PR machine will crank up a few gears when full details of all the 650 separate sessions for the 26 Olympic sports are published. It will give the British public time to take in and plan when the stars are likely to be competing.
MARCH
Likely to be around March 17 – 500 days to go until the start of the Games – some 6.6 million tickets for all the Olympics sports will go on sale. A giant clock counting down the hours until the start will also be installed in Trafalgar Square.
Around 2m people have already registered for tickets in preparation for the launch. Ticket prices will vary according to the demand for the sport and will range from £20 to £2012 – the most expensive ticket at the opening ceremony. Ticket sales will not be a bun fight. It will be in ballot form, the idea being that families can plan their Olympic experience with preferences for sessions.
The IOC co-ordination commission will also visit London to inspect preparations. They were last in town in December.
APRIL
London will be abuzz in the first week of the month when hundreds of chief execs and sponsors attend Sportaccord 2011, the annual convention which gels sport and business. Themed ‘Why Sport Matters’, the Park Plaza Hotel in Westminster will feature over 100 federations from 60 nations, including Sepp Blatter and Martin Sorrell.
The International Olympic Committee’s executive board will also meet in the capital for the first time since the city was awarded the 2012 Games.
MAY/JUNE
Details on the London 2012 torch relay are expected to be announced. The relay will involve 8,000 runners, more than half of whom will be aged 24 or under, and will go to within an hour’s travel of 95 per cent of the population of the British isles.
JULY
Mark your cards for July 27 when celebrations will take place for exactly one year to go to the Olympics.:)
AUGUST
A month for fine-tuning. Test events for beach volleyball in Horse Guard’s Parade, sailing in Weymouth, open water on the Serpentine and rowing on Dorney Lake will all take place. Badminton’s World Championships at Wembley Arena will also act as a Locog test event. Meanwhile, events marking one year to go to the opening of the Paralympics will take place on Aug 29.
SEPTEMBER
Tickets for the Paralympics are expected to go on sale.
OCTOBER
The IOC co-ordination commission will make their second visit of the year to London to inspect preparations.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
The main venues including the Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre and Velodrome and the Olympic Park are due to be completed by this time and handed over to Locog to be fitted out for the Games. The main press centre
from http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rodgilmour/100014740/london-olympics-2012-month-by-month-guide-to-key-events-in-2011/