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A segment of animated footage released at the same time as the logo was criticised as viewing it had triggered seizures in people with [[photosensitive epilepsy]]. The charity [[Epilepsy Action]] received telephone calls from people who had had [[seizures]] after watching the film. In response, it was reported that London 2012 removed the offending segment of footage from its website.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6724245.stm|title=Epilepsy fears over 2012 footage|publisher=[[BBC News]]|accessdate=2007-06-05|date=[[5 June]] [[2007]]}}</ref> [[Ken Livingstone]], the London Mayor, said that the company who designed the film should not be paid a penny for what he called a "catastrophic mistake".<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/07/nlogo307.xml Online petition against Olympic logo closed], [[The Daily Telegraph]], [[8 Jun]] [[2007]]</ref>
A segment of animated footage released at the same time as the logo was criticised as viewing it had triggered seizures in people with [[photosensitive epilepsy]]. The charity [[Epilepsy Action]] received telephone calls from people who had had [[seizures]] after watching the film. In response, it was reported that London 2012 removed the offending segment of footage from its website.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6724245.stm|title=Epilepsy fears over 2012 footage|publisher=[[BBC News]]|accessdate=2007-06-05|date=[[5 June]] [[2007]]}}</ref> [[Ken Livingstone]], the London Mayor, said that the company who designed the film should not be paid a penny for what he called a "catastrophic mistake".<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/07/nlogo307.xml Online petition against Olympic logo closed], [[The Daily Telegraph]], [[8 Jun]] [[2007]]</ref>

Strangely, the image can both read "2021" and "Zion".


==Sports==
==Sports==

Revision as of 22:11, 14 June 2007

Template:Future sport

"London 2012" redirects here. For information on London's Olympic bid, see London 2012 Olympic bid.

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXX Olympiad, will be held in London, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012, followed by the 2012 Paralympic Games from 29 August to 9 September.

London will become the first city to host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and 1948.

The bidding process

Main article: 2012 Summer Olympics bids
File:London-2012-logo.svg
Logo used for the bidding process

By the bid submission deadline of 15 July 2003, nine cities had submitted bids to host the 2012 Olympics. These cities were Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro.

On 18 May 2004, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as a result of a scored technical evaluation, reduced the number of cities to five: London, Madrid, Moscow, New York, and Paris.

By 19 November 2004 all five candidate cities had submitted their candidate file to the International Olympic Committee. The IOC inspection team visited the five candidate cities during February and March of 2005. The Paris bid suffered two set-backs during the IOC inspection visit: a number of strikes and demonstrations coinciding with the visits and a report coming out that Guy Drut, one of the key members of the Paris bid team and IOC member, would face charges over alleged corrupt political party finances.[1]

On 6 June 2005 the International Olympic Committee released its evaluation reports for the five candidate cities. Although these reports did not contain any scores or rankings, the evaluation report for Paris was considered the most positive, now followed closely by London which had narrowed down most of the gap observed by the initial evaluation in 2004 vis-a-vis Paris. Also New York and Madrid obtained very positive evaluation reports.[2]

Throughout the process and up to the vote at the 117th IOC Session, Paris was widely seen as the favourite to win the nomination, particularly as this was its third bid in recent history. Originally London was seen lagging Paris by considerable margin, however this started to improve with the appointment of Sebastian Coe as new head of London 2012 on 19 May 2004. In late August 2004 some reports started emerging predicting a London and Paris tie in the 2012 bid.[3] In the final run-up to the 117th IOC Session, London and Paris appeared to be increasingly in a neck-to-neck race. On 1 July 2005 Jacques Rogge, when asked who the winner would be, told the assembled press: "I cannot predict it since I don't know how the IOC members will vote. 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".

On 6 July 2005, the final selection was announced at the Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore, where the 117th IOC Session was held. Here British Prime Minister Tony Blair was the only leader of the five candidate cities' countries to make a personal lobby (he had also been the only to attend the 2004 Olympics). [4] Moscow was the first city to be eliminated, followed by New York and Madrid. The final two cities left in contention were London and Paris. At the end of the fourth round of voting, London won the right to host the 2012 Games with 54 votes, defeating Paris's 50. Numerous celebrations took place in London whilst crowds of supporters in Paris dispersed quickly after hearing that the 2012 summer games would be hosted in London. Jacques Chirac had been quoted in the British media as saying, before the announcement: "The only thing [England] has ever done for European agriculture is mad cow...We can't trust people who have such bad food. After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."[5] Some speculated that these comments may have helped swing the vote against France. [6] When reporting London's win, many British news programmes showed the footage of London's win being announced in Paris, where a large crowd had gathered expecting a French win. However, the celebrations in London were overshadowed when London's transport system was attacked less than 24 hours after the announcement.

In December 2005 it was alleged by Alex Gilgady, a senior IOC official, that London had only won the right to host the Olympics because of a voting error. A London 2012 spokesman dismissed this, saying "At the end of the day, it was a secret ballot. This is the opinion of one individual. The result is what matters and we are not going to be drawn into speculation."[7]

2012 Summer Olympics bidding results
Bid NOC Name Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4
London 2012  United Kingdom 22 27 39 54
Paris 2012  France 21 25 33 50
Madrid 2012  Spain 20 32 31 -
New York City 2012  United States 19 16 - -
Moscow 2012  Russia 15 - - -

Details of the bid

Main article: London 2012 Olympic bid

In the bidding process, the London bid pledged to use a mix of newly built venues, existing facilities, and temporary facilities, including the 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium and the new Wembley Stadium. These venues were divided into three zones within Greater London: the Olympic Zone, the River Zone and the Central Zone, with some additional venues, by necessity, placed outside the boundaries of Greater London.

The proposed Olympic Village would have 17,320 beds, providing a comfortable and spacious environment with a wide variety of essential amenities for athletes.

Public transport was highlighted to undergo a massive redevelopment, including the expansion of the London Underground's East London Line, upgrades to the Docklands Light Railway and the North London Line, and the new "Javelin" service.

Olympic development and preparation

Olympic rings
Part of a series on
2012 Summer Olympics

Developments after the bid

Main article: 2012 Summer Olympic development

The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games was created to oversee the development of the Games after the success of the bid, and held their first board meeting on 7 October 2005. The committee, chaired by Lord Coe, are in charge of implementing the games, while the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is in charge of the construction of the venues and infrastructure.

Various aspects of the Games have developed since the time of the initial bid.

Venues and infrastructure

Main article: 2012 Summer Olympic venues
File:London Olympic Stadium.jpg
The main stadium, which will hold about 80,000 spectators

The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will use a mixture of newly built venues, existing and historic facilities, and temporary facilities, some of them in well-known locations such as Hyde Park and Horse Guards Parade. In the wake of the problems that plagued the Millennium Dome, the intention is that there will be no white elephants after the Games. Some of the new facilities will be reused in their Olympic form, while others will be reduced in size and several will be relocated elsewhere in the UK. The plans will contribute to the regeneration of Stratford in east London which will be the site of the Olympic Park, and of the neighbouring Lower Lea Valley.

However, this will require the compulsory purchase of some business properties, which would be demolished to make way for Olympic venues and infrastructure improvements. This has caused controversy, with some of the affected proprietors claiming that the compensation offered is inadequate. In addition, concerns about the development's potential impact on the future of the century-old Manor Garden Allotments have inspired a community campaign.

The majority of venues have been divided into three zones within Greater London: the Olympic Zone, the River Zone and the Central Zone. In addition to these are those venues that, by necessity, are outside the boundaries of Greater London, such as the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy on the Isle of Portland in Dorset (which will host the sailing events) and various stadia across the UK.

Public transport

Public transport, an aspect of the bid which scored poorly in the IOC's initial evaluation, will see numerous improvements, including the expansion of the London Underground's East London Line, upgrades to the Docklands Light Railway and the North London Line, and the new "Javelin" high-speed rail service.

The stated aims of the organizers include making the Games 100% accessible by public transport. They also so that 80% of athletes will travel less than 20 minutes to their event. The Park will be served by 10 separate railway lines with a combined capacity of 240,000 passengers per hour. Park and ride schemes also feature amongst the many plans aimed at reducing traffic levels during the games.

Concerns have been expressed at the logistics of spectators travelling to the venues outside London. In particular, the sailing events on Portland are in an area with no direct motorway connection, and with local roads that are heavily congested by existing tourist traffic in the summer. There is also only limited scope for extra services on the South Western Main Line beyond Southampton, without new infrastructure. Games organisers say that having analysed past Games sailing events, they would expect fewer spectators than have attended recent events such as the Carnival and Tall Ships Race.

Financing

The costs of mounting the Games are separate to 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.

On 15 March 2007 Tessa Jowell announced to the House of Commons a budget of £5.3 billion to cover building the venues and infrastructure for the Games, at the same time announcing the wider regeneration budget for the Lower Lea Valley budget at £1.7 billion.

On top of this, she announced various other costs including an overall additional contingency fund of £2.7 billion, security and policing costs of £600 million, VAT of £800 million and elite sport and Paralympic funding of nearly £400 million. According to these figures, the total for the Games and the regeneration of the East London area, is £9.345 billion. Mayor Ken Livingstone pledged the Games Organising Committee would make a profit.[8]

The costs for staging the Games (£2 billion) are funded from the private sector by a combination of sponsorship, merchandising, ticketing and broadcast rights. This budget is raised and managed by the London 2012 Organising Committee. According to Games organisers, the funding for this budget broadly breaks down as:

Ticketing

Organisers estimate that some eight million tickets will be available for the Olympic Games, and 1.6 million tickets for the Paralympic Games. They will be going on sale in 2011, with at least 50% of these priced under £20. Each ticket will also entitle the holder to free use of London's public transportation network on the day of the event.[9]. It is estimated that 82% of available Olympic tickets and 63% of Paralympic tickets will be sold. There will also be free events: for example, the marathon and road cycling.

Scheduling controversy

Some representatives of Muslim countries have complained that the Games will occur concurrently with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which will occur from 21 July to 20 August in 2012. During Ramadan, Muslims are to fast from sunrise to sunset, which may put Muslim athletes at a disadvantage during the Games. Muslim countries have called for the Olympics to be rescheduled outside this period. [10]

File:All London 2012 logos.PNG
The paralympics logo and the different official colour combinations for the main logo

There have been two London 2012 logos: one for the bidding process created by Kino Design and a second as the brand for the Games themselves. The latter, designed by Wolff Olins, was unveiled on 4 June 2007 and cost £400,000.[11] This new logo is a stylised representation of the number 2012, with the Olympic Rings embedded within the zero.[12] The logo is available in a number of colours, and for the first time, the same logo is to be used for both the Olympic and Paralympic games.[13]

London 2012 has stated that the new logo is aimed at reaching young people. Sebastian Coe stated that it builds upon everything that the organising committee has said "about reaching out and engaging young people, which is where our challenge is over the next five years". One observer, a managing director of an advertising agency, noted that the logo bore a strong resemblance to the logo for children's television programme Tiswas, commenting that appealing to young people is difficult, and that they will see right through attempts to patronise them.[11][14]

Early public reaction to the logo, as measured by a poll on the BBC Web site, has been largely negative: more than 83% of the first 16,000 votes gave the logo the lowest possible rating.[15] Critics have claimed that the logo's graphics are out of date, and that the logo does not positively represent the city.[16] Several newspapers have run their own logo competitions, displaying alternative submissions from their readers. The Sun displayed a design by a macaque monkey.[17]

The logo has been quickly derided with an online petition for its replacement receiving 8,000 signatures within 2 hours of it being released on June 4. By midnight local time there had been over 13,000 signatures on the petition, and by 1730 (UTC) on Wednesday there were over 45,000 signatures on the petition. However, at approximately 1900 (UTC), the petition was closed by its creator after 48,615 signatures in just two days. The page states "I have decided to close the petition as it becomes clear that the logo is here to stay - there is little point in damaging the reputation of our Olympic Games, that was never the intention. The protest has been effectively made." Along with this statement, the message "Thanks to everyone who signed the petition. Almost 50,000 signatures speaks volumes" also appears on the page.[18] A counter petition for supporting the logo released on June 5 only received less than 70 signatures in about 24 hours, many of which were intended as a joke, according to the comments.[19]

The free newspaper London Lite, in its 5 June edition, printed a text from a reader pointing out the resemblance of the logo to Lisa Simpson performing oral sex. Numerous sources reported similar remarks being posted on blogs or article comments,[20][21][22] while other sources described it as resembling a "broken window", "hip-hop graffiti" and even a "distorted swastika".[23]

A segment of animated footage released at the same time as the logo was criticised as viewing it had triggered seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy. The charity Epilepsy Action received telephone calls from people who had had seizures after watching the film. In response, it was reported that London 2012 removed the offending segment of footage from its website.[24] Ken Livingstone, the London Mayor, said that the company who designed the film should not be paid a penny for what he called a "catastrophic mistake".[25]

Strangely, the image can both read "2021" and "Zion".

Sports

The 2012 Summer Olympic programme will feature 26 sports and a total of 39 disciplines. The 2012 Paralympic Games will have 20 sports and 21 disciplines. London's bid featured 28 sports, in line with other recent Summer Olympics, but the IOC voted to drop baseball and softball from the 2012 Games two days after it selected London as the host city. The IOC reinforced their decision to drop both sports during the Turin Games after they lost votes for reconsideration. They will be Olympic sports for the last time at Beijing in 2008.

The Guardian newspaper reported on 28 October 2005 that open-air swimming disciplines will be added to the Beijing and London Olympic schedules. The paper also reported that women's boxing may be added to London; the IOC confirmed that women's boxing would not be included in Beijing because they "did not feel it merited inclusion in 2008".[26]

Broadcasting

Continuing the IOC's commitment to providing over-the-air television coverage to as broad a worldwide audience as possible, London 2012 will be broadcast by a number of regional broadcasters. Though reduced dramatically since 1980, the United States television rights currently owned by NBC still account for over half the rights revenue for the IOC. Many television broadcasters granted rights to the games have bureaux and studios in London, but since at least the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, rights-holder operations are hosted in the dedicated International Broadcast Centre (IBC). London's IBC is planned to be inside the security cordon of the Olympic Park. Confirmed regional broadcasters include:

The agreement marks a significant revenue increase on the agreement negotiated for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and will include coverage of both the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and the London 2012 Olympic Summer Games.

The IOC negotiated directly with TV Record and not through the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana pool.

TV Record, a privately owned, free-to-air channel in Brazil, will offer increased coverage of the Olympic Games across a number of TV channels. The organisation will also acquire the rights to air the Games across all media platforms, including TV, cable, satellite, internet and mobile telephones. [2]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Day One Of Paris 2012 Inspection By IOC". GamesBids. Retrieved 2005-03-09.
  2. ^ "Paris, London and New York Get Glowing IOC Reports". GamesBids. Retrieved 2005-06-06.
  3. ^ "London And Paris Tie In 2012 Bid". GamesBids. Retrieved 2004-08-31.
  4. ^ Francis Keogh and Andrew Fraser. "Why London won the Olympics". BBC. Retrieved 2007-06-05.
  5. ^ "Chiraq jokes about British food". BBC. Retrieved 2006-12-21.
  6. ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=354933&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source= Who's Laughing now, Mr Chirac? Daily Mail, 7 July 2005
  7. ^ Voting error gave Olympics to London, BBC News, retrieved 5 February 2007
  8. ^ "Olympics budget rises to £9.3bn". BBC. 2007-03-15. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  9. ^ "Ticketing at London 2012". London 2012 website. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  10. ^ "Ticketing at London 2012". GamesBids.com. 2006-10-15. Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  11. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference DefendLogo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ "The new London 2012 brand". London 2012. 4 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "London 2012 logo to be unveiled". BBC Sport. 4 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ Tom Geoghegan (2007-06-05). "'Oh no' logo". BBC News. BBC. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ "BBC poll measuring public reaction to the new London Olympics logo".
  16. ^ http://www.gopetition.com/signatures.php
  17. ^ "British turn up their noses at London Olympics logo" International Herald Tribune, retrieved on 7 June, 2007
  18. ^ "GoPetition: Change the London 2012 Logo". Go Petition. 7 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "GoPetition: Support the London 2012 Logo". Go Petition. 5 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ BBC shows Olympic logo the door, The Register, 5 June 2007
  21. ^ The London 2012 logo: the blogosphere is angry, Metro, 5 June 2007
  22. ^ No-go logos: The story of unpopular branding, The Independent, 6 June 2007
  23. ^ "Broken window logo adopted for London 2012".
  24. ^ "Epilepsy fears over 2012 footage". BBC News. 5 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ Online petition against Olympic logo closed, The Daily Telegraph, 8 Jun 2007
  26. ^ "Women's boxing ruled out for 2008". BBC News. Retrieved 2005-10-27.

External links

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