The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has outlined a compelling vision for the provision of food at the London 2012 Games. In fact, this provision is so impressive that it has been referred to as the largest peace-time catering operation in the world.
Concerns have been expressed about the capacity of the London Transport infrastructure to cope with the 2012 Games and the likelihood of major disruption to residents and businesses. This case study documents the improvements made to the infrastructure and the plans to move athletes and spectators through the Olympic Route Network (ORN) and the Paralympic Route Network (PRN).
Belinda Twissell, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, and Desi Gillespie, 2012 Oxford Brookes physiotherapy graduate, were selected to be London 2012 Games Maker volunteers with roles within the Paralympic Medical Team. Both were based at the Polyclinic in the Athletes Village. Belinda worked as a physiotherapist and Desi as a sports massage practitioner.
This case study considers whether the London 2012 Games will live up to their legacy goals, in terms of generating social, financial and economic benefits. It examines the legacy of two contrasting summer Olympic Games - the 1976 Montreal Games, widely considered a financial disaster, and the 1984 LA Games, an amazing financial success and a case study in innovative mega-event planning and funding.
The 2012 Games will continue the great Olympic legacy of London and Britain. We will now take a brief look back at the history of the Games in London.
For the British people, Wednesday 6th July, 2005, was a momentous and historic day. That was the day that Britain was awarded the right to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. Such an announcement transformed the image of Britain as a nation capable of hosting large scale sporting mega-events. The venue of the announcement was Singapore: the voice delivering the decision was IOC President Jacques Rogge.
Dame Tessa Jowell MP will deliver a lecture at Oxford Brookes today (Thursday 5 March) titled ‘The confidence to showcase London and the UK: How we dared to host the Olympic Games’.
Launched on 26th September 2008, the Cultural Olympiad is a four year programme of cultural activity that aims to inspire young people, and to welcome the world to Britain during Games-time.
‘‘To make an Olympic champion it takes eight Olympic finalists. To make Olympic finalists, it takes 80 Olympians. To make 80 Olympians it takes 202 national champions, to make national champions it takes thousands of athletes. To make athletes it takes millions of children around the world to be inspired to choose sport.’ So began Sebastian Coe, the Chief Executive of the London 2012 bid team, in his opening statement to the IOC Commission in Singapore on July 6th, 2005.
A concern for enduring positive outcomes has lain at the heart of staging the Olympics since the birth of the modern Games in 1896. Professor John Gold’s research has shown how Games-makers in cities that have hosted the Games – the so-called ‘Olympic cities’ – have repeatedly framed and reframed their pursuit of those outcomes in light of the perceived values and needs of their particular times. Drawing on that research, he has contributed to public and policy debate about the lasting impact of London 2012, first, by identifying the challenges posed by demands for achieving a discernible legacy from staging the Games and, secondly, by helping to build a critical understanding of the formal and informal procedures by which knowledge is transferred from host cities to their successors.