LONDON 2012 - Summer Olympic Games / Games of the XXX Olympiad

[RobH]

Does it? Out of interest, have you got a link which backs this up? The only quote I could find from Scottish Labour on the issue was decidedly against the idea.

[JohnnyFive]

http://www.c-scot.org/

[RobH]

No, you said "it also has cross party support within the parliament"

Unless I've missed something on this website, this is just an opinion poll amongst the general public which is then split into political demographics. I'm not saying the public view doesn't matter, but the website doesn't back up your claim of cross-party support within Parliament. Nor am I saying your claim is wrong by the way, just show me some evidence for it.

[JohnnyFive]

Originally Posted by RobH

No, you said "it also has cross party support within the parliament"

Unless I've missed something on this website, this is just an opinion poll amongst the general public which is then split into political demographics. I'm not saying the public view doesn't matter, but the website doesn't back up your claim of cross-party support within Parliament. Nor am I saying your claim is wrong by the way, just show me some evidence for it.

Yes, the Scottish Parliament also contains the Greens and independents who support Scottish independence so would vote with the SNP Government.

[RobH]

OK, fair enough. I think I misinterpreted what you meant by cross-party. In truth, in Parliamentary terms, it would be the SNP in the main pushing for this though; with the support of a few fringe parties. And if it were to happen and athletes like Chris Hoy were to choose Team GB, it would look bad for them. I don't think I was too far wrong in saying that.

[JohnnyFive]

Originally Posted by RobH

OK, fair enough. I think I misinterpreted what you meant by cross-party. In truth, in Parliamentary terms, it would be the SNP in the main pushing for this though; with the support of a few fringe parties. And if it were to happen and athletes like Chris Hoy were to choose Team GB, it would look bad for them. I don't think I was too far wrong in saying that.

Chris Hoy is coming from an angle that the facilities are not in place in Scotland for him to train and thus he would not won his medals without Team GB.

He perhaps conveniently forgets it is common practice for athletes to train in a different country to their home nation.

You could say though that if Scotland had an independent team the facilities would have been made available sooner for him to train there. Anyway these are currently being built for the 2014 Commonwealth Games from Scottish Government and Glasgow council budgets.

[RobH]

Two of his 3 medals in Beijing were team medals though. Would he really jump ship?

[lwa]

Originally Posted by RobH

Two of his 3 medals in Beijing were team medals though. Would he really jump ship?

He hasn't had a problem winning those team medals with Scotland at the Commonwealths...

[Matthew Lowry]

When will the Olympic Stadium will be finsh?

[NorthLimitation]

Originally Posted by RobH

I suppose that's an issue for you to sort out amonst yourselves and the IOC though - can't see it happening for many years and this being a London 2012 thread means we're going off topic a lot. It would get incredibly knotty though. It wouldn't be a case of us splitting into our seperate nations. We'd end up with a Team GB competing against a Team Scotland. Presumably Scottish athletes would be allowed to choose which team they represented just as Northern Irish athletes are permitted to. It's clear, that as a poltical football for the SNP, it could backfire if you get the likes of Chris Hoy choosing Team GB over Team Scotland; as he would almost certainly do.

His popuarlity would absolutely plummet if he was to do that, let's be honest - I've not really got strong feelings either way on this one, but I can see where both sides are coming from.

[Matthew Lowry]

Who will open up the Games?

[PortoNuts]

Originally Posted by Matthew Lowry

Who will open up the Games?

I'm not sure but I would expect the Queen herself to do that.

[_X_]

Meanwhile back at the ranch..................

[PortoNuts]

From the Canadian press:

London landmarks for 2012 Games

The guts of the 2012 Olympics will take place at the sprawling Olympic park currently rising of the squalor that once was one of the most run-down areas of East London.

The glory will come from the legendary landmarks throughout the historic city, iconic images to beam out to the world as the Games travel to the United Kingdom for the first time in more than six decades.

Two years from now, London’s Summer Olympics will have just wrapped up, ending what will be an ambitious and expensive effort for the bustling metropolitan area of more than 13 million people.

From tennis finals at Wimbledon, to archery at the storied Lord’s Cricket Ground, to a marathon course winding past Buckingham Palace and many of the city’s historic sites, it promises to be a spectacular show.

Best yet, two years out organizers believe they are in a strong position to live up to their promises.

“Overall, we are in great shape,” said Lord Sebastien Coe, the two-time Olympic gold medallist in the 1,500 metres and now the chairman of the London organizing committee. “We have raised record sums of money in probably one of the most difficult economic climates there could possibly have been.”

Indeed, organizers are enthusiastically trumpeting their projections that the 9.3 billion pound ($15.2 billion) Olympic project is both on schedule and on budget.

Granted, original financial estimates almost tripled shortly after London was awarded the Games in 2005, beating out Paris and New York, among others. And once the budget was set, the global economy went into the loo, ensuring that finances would match logistics among the massive challenges to creating a successful Games in a city so old, complex and densely populated.

Though London will be the first city to play host to a Summer Games for a third time, it has been a while and the first time the city truly won a bid to do so.

The Olympics were first held here in 1908 as an emergency replacement for Rome, which had to bow out because of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906.

In 1948, London received the Games again, essentially as an act of good faith after losing the event in 1944 which had been cancelled because of World War II. The latter was the first Olympics to have any live television exposure, just one example of how the world and city will have vastly changed this time ‘round.

Transportation and security have the potential to be enormous headaches in a city where no significant new roads can be built and terrorism is an ongoing threat.

As well, any modern Games needs a concentrated area of facilities, difficult to construct in a city where wide expanses of available real estate disappeared decades ago. The solution was to seize a part of the city in desperate need of a facelift, which brings us to London’s Olympic Park, currently going up at a torrid pace.

A recent tour showed progress well ahead of schedule with more than 8,000 workers on site this day. In the promotional language of London organizers, it is the biggest build in the shortest period of time in British history.

The 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium already has 2,000 seats fitted and the basic structure in place. The aquatics centre has a roof, as does the cycling velodrome and all other major buildings. All this on a site that less than three years ago was an eyesore industrial wasteland rotting on contaminated soil.

“Construction is on time and it’s on budget, how often do you get to say that about builders?” Paul Deighton, the CEO of the London organizing committee (LOCOG), said at the recent World Press Briefing in London. “We’re two thirds done. It has transformed this part of London and it’s going to be a terrific destination.”

Helped by the optics of tangible progress in the great build, all signs point to it being just that. With Coe in charge, London 2012 has a very public face that resonates with what often can be a skeptical population and savage tabloid press.

“We have to put on a so show so we can (offer) a great experience with the sights and all the city has to offer,” said Deighton, who soon will oversee the initial phase of selling some eight million tickets.

Different Olympic cities accentuate their show in different ways, usually through key positioning of television cameras of various global TV rightsholders. In 2004, images of the Acropolis provided a stunning backdrop. In Beijing, it was the brilliant architecture of the Bird’s Nest Stadium and Water Cube aquatics facility, in Vancouver, the picturesque waterfront.

With other venues spread out around the city, London will sell itself away from the Olympic Park as well. A massive Shakespeare festival is planned during the Games while street parties and huge outdoor screens in public areas will allow locals and tourists unlucky enough to get tickets keep up on the action.

Two years may seem like an eternity, but with no Winter Games or World Cup in the interim, London is up next.

“The (goal),” says Coe, “is to have a memorable Games in the eyes of millions of people around the world.”

A SECOND HOME FOR CANADIANS

The tether to the British monarchy may be gradually loosening with time, but there’s no doubt that London 2012 will feel like an over ‘ome Games for many Canadians.

The Queen and the United Kingdom still resonate throughout the Commonwealth, ensuring that these Olympics will have a special appeal both for those watching in Canada and the athletes competing under the Maple Leaf.

“For Canadians going to London, in many ways it will be like going home,” said Vancouver Olympic organizing committee chairman John Furlong, who now heads up Canada’s Own The Podium program. “The culture, obviously, is very much like ours so it will be one of the easier countries for Canada to compete in.

“We have friends in London.”

London has plenty of acquaintances in Canada, as well.

As with most venues to inherit the Olympic flame, London organizers were close observers in Vancouver and Whistler. In particular, they took note of the closing of streets in downtown Vancouver as well as security and media operations.

In the transition, Furlong says several key figures in the VANOC operation have been employed by its London equivalent, LOCOG (The London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games.)

MASCOTS A TRIBUTE TO BRITAIN

The ancient Olympics have their roots in Greece, but Brits aren’t shy about shouting out their role in the creation of the modern version.

Though the founding of the Games as we know them are widely attributed to Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, he was said to be heavily influenced by a visit to the Much Wenlock Games in Shropshire, to the west of London.

Those Games, organized by Dr. William Penny Brookes, featured a mix of track and field events as well as local sports with the added flair of flag-bearers and other ceremonies so much a part of what we see these days at the Olympics.

Throughout his time helping create and grow the modern Olympic movement, De Coubertin was diligent to point out the role the quaint English event had in the evolution.

“If the Olympics exist today,” De Coubertin said later in his life, “the praise should go not to a Greek, but to Dr. Brookes of Wenlock.”

That heritage will be a theme trumpeted in the buildup to 2012 - in fact one of the official mascots for the London Games has been christened Wenlock.

The other mascot - Mandeville - is a tribute to Britain’s role in laying the early groundwork for the Paralympics. The UK was the unofficial founder of the movement in 1948 when a competition was held between World War II soldiers recovering from spinal chord injuries at Stoke-Mandeville Hospital.

“I speak with some emotion here ... one of the things we are very proud about in the United Kingdom is that the Paralympic Games were born in this country in 1948,’” said Sebastian Coe, the London 2012 chairman. “It has grown from that in an extraordinary way.”

http://www.torontosun.com/sports/oth.../15014436.html

[RobH]

Water flowing at London 2012 Canoe Slalom venue

WATCH VIDEO

Water is now flowing at the Lee Valley White Water Canoe Centre, the venue for the London 2012 Canoe Slalom events. The venue is on track to be completed later this year and will be the first brand new 2012 venue to be finished.



Construction work on the new lake and competition courses has been completed allowing water to begin flowing at the venue and testing work to start on the canoe courses. Works on the internal areas of the two-storey facility building and landscaping works are underway.

Olympic Delivery Authority Chairman John Armitt said: ‘With water flowing down the courses at the White Water Centre we are getting our first look at the facilities that the world’s best canoeists will compete on in 2012. With the venue due to be completed later this year, we are also on track to deliver an early sporting legacy for the East of England region well before the Games begin.’

Before and after 2012, the venue will be owned and managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority as a sporting and leisure facility for canoeing and white-water rafting, as well as a major competition and training venue for elite events.

[PortoNuts]

Good, would be good to make a splash in that crystal clean water.

[PortoNuts]

London 2012 Olympics media centre revealed

Thousands of international journalists coming to London to cover the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are to be housed in the centre of the city, Mayor Boris Johnson has announced. The One Great George Street conference centre will be available 24-hours a day offering live broadcasting areas, additional offices for photographers and in-house dining facilities. The Mayor hopes by accommodating journalists so centrally it will give London the chance to showcase itself to the world.



At each Olympiad the National Olympic Committees collectively accredit around 25,000 journalists and other representatives from international media organisations to cover the Games, giving them access to the Olympic Park Media Centre and International Broadcast Centre. However, thousands more journalists, without accreditation, will also descend on the capital to report on the Games and wider celebrations in London.

The London Media Centre will have workspaces for over 250 journalists, with press conference facilities to sit 200 members of media. Its location means journalists will be able to attend Olympic events as well as experience London as a place to visit, live, study and do business.

'Biggest party'

The media will be just a 10-minute walk from a host of London attractions, from its internationally renowned bars, clubs and restaurants, to its great museums and world class theatres. They are also a short journey to Games venues such as Horse Guards Parade and the Live Sites in Hyde Park and on the South Bank. Westminster Tube station is a five -minute walk, from where they can travel direct to the Olympic Park on the Jubilee Line.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "London has the best and most diverse leisure and cultural offering of any city in the world. Whether it is relaxing in one of our famous parks or squares or experiencing London's unrivalled nightlife all our guests in 2012, be they spectators, athletes, media or organisers, will be truly spoilt for choice. Journalists joining us for these historic days in the summer of 2012 are now guaranteed a central working base in the heart of all the action. A stone's throw from the London Media Centre lie some of the capital's most iconic shots and locations, ready to be beamed into homes across the globe. I look forward to welcoming our visitors in 2012 and joining with them for the biggest party London has ever seen."



Welcome the world

Christopher Wyld, Director of the Foreign Press Association, said: "The Foreign Press Association in London looks forward to working closely with the Mayor and Visit London to make sure that visiting journalists get every opportunity to see what a diverse and exciting city London is before, during and after the 2012 Games.

"London is one of the great media hubs of the world and the central location of the London Media Centre will provide yet another opportunity to welcome foreign journalists to the United Kingdom and help them gain access to the people they want to meet and the places they want to see".

To help all visitors to travel smoothly around the city up to 8,000 London Ambassadors will be located at key points across the city providing information and assistance to everybody needing help and support during their stay for the Games. These volunteers will be in addition to the 70,000 Games Makers that London 2012 organisers will be recruiting to help at Games venues.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/h...00/8918350.stm

[Cauê]

Originally Posted by PortoNuts

Olympic Stadium

londo2012.com

Wowwww... The Olympic Stadium is beautiful
Loved...

[canarywondergod]

what are the doing in the river around the stadium? either cleaning it or putting something green into it!

[PortoNuts]

Plan to create green space on Olympic village site


More than 2,000 trees will be planted as part of the landscaping

Plans to create parks and play areas for residents who will move into homes in the Olympic Park after the 2012 Games have been unveiled.
Work on almost 3,000 homes in the Athletes' Village in east London will start once athletes and officials have moved out.

Ten hectares of parkland and wetlands, with more than 2,000 trees and 100,000 plants, will complement the properties.

There will also be new cycling facilities, play and picnic areas.

Wildlife habitats

The Athletes' Village, which is adjacent to the Olympic Park, will accommodate athletes and officials during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The first stage of landscaping works in the village is under way to create a 2.5 hectare wetlands park that will feature ponds and marshlands with pathways and seating areas.

Extensive planting and new trees will create a "green canopy" through the area and help create new wildlife habitats.

This is in addition to landscaping in the Olympic Park to create the largest urban park in the UK for more than a century.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11060711