Legacy of the 2012 Summer Olympics

Last updated
London Olympic Stadium. Following the Games, it was renovated for multi-purpose use for sport and music concerts. London Olympic Stadium West Ham.jpg
London Olympic Stadium. Following the Games, it was renovated for multi-purpose use for sport and music concerts.

The London 2012 Olympic Legacy is the longer-term benefits and effects of the planning, funding, building and staging of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in summer 2012. It is variously described [1] as:

Contents

The 2012 legacy is coordinated by the UK Government who appointed Lord Sebastian Coe as the London 2012 legacy ambassador in August 2012. [2]

Examples of the 2012 legacy benefits and results include:

Bid Pledges

The London bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games included bid chairman Lord Coe placing a pledge to use the events to inspire two million people to take up sport and physical activity at the heart of the bid. [6] Legacy includes sporting, economic, cultural, and environmental benefits, and aims to ensure that no "white elephants" were created by the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics. [7] The London Legacy Development Corporation is a mayoral development corporation responsible for the Olympic Park area.

Construction Phase  The Big Build

The Olympic Delivery Authority stated that legacy use and community regeneration were "locked-in" to the planning and designing of Olympic and Paralympic venues and infrastructure, and cited the Olympic Park Aquatics Centre and Olympic and Paralympic sailing facilities in Weymouth as examples showing "a clear focus on sporting, economic, social, and environmental legacy". [8]

Legacy plans

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is now a widely used popular sporting complex and public park, a legacy of the games. London Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.jpg
The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is now a widely used popular sporting complex and public park, a legacy of the games.

Since the London 2012 Paralympic Games finished on 9 September 2012 the UK Government has unveiled an updated Legacy Plan. [9] Its main points include:

There have been several previous legacy plans. These include:

Legacy Plan 2010

In December 2010, the Government published a new Legacy plan, which set out the legacy vision for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, and the detailed plans underpinning it. It identified four areas to focus on: harnessing the UK's passion for sport to increase grassroots participation, particularly by young people, and to encourage the whole population to be more physically active; exploiting to the full the opportunities for economic growth offered by hosting the Games; promoting community engagement and achieving participation across all groups in society through the Games; and ensuring that the Olympic Park can be developed after the Games as one of the principal drivers of regeneration in East London. [10]

Six borough plans 2009

The six London boroughs hosting the Games – Barking and Dagenham, Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest – published plans for legacy in 2009. This was outlined in the Strategic Regeneration Framework which included the objective that by 2030, the communities hosting the Games would have the same social and economic life chances as at least the London average. [11] This is the principle of Convergence and guides its joint working on legacy.

Legacy Action Plan 2008

A Legacy Action Plan to implement legacy promises was published on 6 June 2008. [12] With comments that the legacy has been published several years earlier than previous Olympics and critics claiming the plan lacks the detail needed to implement an effective legacy. [6] The GLA published a legacy commitments document in 2007.

Legacy Plan 2007

The government published its legacy plans via the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's Legacy Promises document, published in 2007. The five promises were: [13]

Strategic Regeneration Framework

The Strategic Regeneration Framework and Convergence make real the promise in the original bid document that "By staging the Games in this part of the city, the most enduring legacy of the Olympics will be the regeneration of an entire community for the direct benefit of everyone who lives there". [14] The principle of Convergence is included in the Mayor of London's spatial development strategy, known as The London Plan 2011. [15]

Proven legacy

The Japanese style 'Olympic Javelin' bullet trains used to ferry spectators at London 2012 [16] began to run on 28 July 2012 and were still running as of 2023, serving more destinations. Some station upgrades also occurred. [17] [18]

Sport relief occurred at the Olympic Park in 2013, [19] [20] 2014, [21] 2015 and in 2016. [22]

When concert promoters Live Nation won the right to stage shows at the stadium and in the surrounding park during January, 2013. [23] The site of the former Riverbank Arena slated to be the stage for Hard Rock Calling, Wireless and Electric Daisy Carnival festivals in 2013. [24] The Lee Valley Hockey Centre was borne from a revamp of the Olympic Legacy Hockey Facility and is the home ground of Wapping Hockey Club. [25]

Legacy bodies

The London Legacy Development Corporation is responsible for planning for, and delivering, the future development of the Olympic Park. It replaced the Olympic Park Legacy Company which had been set up in 2009. [26]

Spirit of 2012 is the London 2012 legacy funder. The National Lottery Community Fund founded Spirit in 2013 with a £47m endowment to continue and recreate the spirit of pride, positivity and community that inspired people across the UK during the London 2012 Games. [27]

Criticisms and concerns

Criticism of the London 2012 legacy includes the legacy not meeting its original ambitions with a decrease in 2014/15 in the number of people playing sport for at least half an hour a week of 125,100. [28]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2002 Commonwealth Games</span> Multi-sport event in Manchester, England

The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002, was an international multi-sport event for the members of the Commonwealth held in Manchester, England, from 25 July to 4 August 2002. The event was to be hosted in the United Kingdom to coincide with the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, head of the Commonwealth, and Manchester was selected for the 2002 Games ahead of London using a recycled part of the project, which lost the 2000 Summer Olympics and Paralympics to Sydney, Australia. The 2002 Commonwealth Games was, prior to the 2012 Summer Olympics, the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in the UK, eclipsing the London 1948 Summer Olympics in terms of teams and athletes participating. The 2002 Commonwealth Games had the largest number of events of any Commonwealth Games in history, featuring 281 events across 17 sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 Summer Paralympics</span> Multi-parasport event in London, England

The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Games as organised by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

Sir Robert Andrew "Robin" Wales is a British Labour Party politician who served as the directly elected mayor of the London Borough of Newham from 2002 to 2018. Prior to taking up that newly created role, he was leader of Newham council since 1995, having been a councillor from 1982 to 1986 and 1992 to 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics</span> Successful bid to host the Olympic Games

London 2012 was the successful bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, held in London with most events taking place in Stratford in the borough of Newham. The British Olympic Association had been working on the bid since 1997, and presented its report to government ministers in December 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 Summer Olympics</span> Multi-sport event in London, England

The 2012 Summer Olympics was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the group stage in women's football, began on 25 July at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, followed by the opening ceremony on 27 July. There were 10,518 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) who participated in the 2012 Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Stadium</span> Multi-purpose stadium in Stratford, London, England

The London Stadium is a multi-purpose outdoor stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the Stratford district of London. It is located in the Lower Lea Valley, 6 miles (10 km) east of central London. The stadium was constructed specifically for the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics, serving as the Athletics venue and as the site of their opening and closing ceremonies. Following the Games, it was renovated for multi-purpose use, and it now serves primarily as the home of Premier League club West Ham United.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Valley VeloPark</span> Velodrome in Stratford, London, England

Lee Valley VeloPark is a cycling centre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London, England. It is owned and managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, and it was opened to the public in March 2014. The facility was one of the permanent venues for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park</span> Sporting complex in Greater London, England

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and public park in Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow, in east London. It was purpose-built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, situated adjacent to the Stratford City development. It contains the Olympic stadium, now known as the London Stadium, and the Olympic swimming pool together with the athletes' Olympic Village and several other Olympic sporting venues and the London Olympics Media Centre. The park is overlooked by the ArcelorMittal Orbit, an observation tower and Britain's largest piece of public art.

The 2012 Summer Olympic development process began in 2005, following the successful London bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, and ran until the games in 2012. While many of the plans were included in the bid portfolio, which gained the favour of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over the four other bids on 6 July 2005, there were more details released and decisions made afterwards. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) was created to oversee many of these developments, though such a large-scale event requires the co-operation of many other agencies. These organizations are sometimes integral parts of the London 2012 plans, while others are unrelated but can still have a great effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games</span> 2012 Olympics local organising committee

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) was the organisation responsible for overseeing the planning and development of the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. It was jointly established by the UK Government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Mayor of London and the British Olympic Association and was structured as a private company limited by guarantee. LOCOG worked closely with the publicly funded Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), which is responsible for the planning and construction of new venues and infrastructure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olympic Delivery Authority</span>

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) was a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, responsible for ensuring the delivery of venues, infrastructure and legacy for the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. Together with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), the ODA was one of the two main agencies that organised the London Olympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Major sports event hosting in Britain during the 2010s</span>

The United Kingdom was awarded a number of major international sporting events during the 2010s leading to an idea of a 'Golden Decade' in British sport. The idea of the golden decade has been discussed in many newspapers and has been mentioned by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Lord Coe.

The School Games is an annual sporting competition for elite school-age athletes in the United Kingdom that began in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northumberland Development Project</span> Property development in London, England

The Northumberland Development Project is a mixed-use development project that centres around the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium which replaced White Hart Lane as the home ground of Tottenham Hotspur. On opening in April 2019, the stadium had a capacity for 62,062 spectators, later increased to 62,303, and was designed to host football as well as NFL games. The development plans also include 585 new homes, a 180-room hotel, a local community health centre, the Tottenham Experience, a Spurs museum and club shop, an extreme sports facility, as well as the Lilywhite House, which contains a Sainsbury's supermarket, a sixth form college and the club's headquarters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Dance UK</span> Biennial dance festival in UK (2006–2016)

Big Dance was a dance initiative in the United Kingdom, which happened every three years from 2006 to 2016. It was a nine-day biennial festival of dancing, mostly taking place in non-traditional dance spaces such as museums, shopping centers, parks, bridges, stations, galleries, and libraries, with the aim of inspiring people in different ways through dance. Initiated in 2006 by the first Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, for the Greater London Authority, the programme was delivered in partnership with Arts Council England and delivered events and inspiration to be physically active through dance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Here East</span> Media complex in the Olympic Park in London, England

Here East is a media complex located in the Olympic Park in East London, built specially for the 2012 London Olympics. It is located at the site of the former Hackney Wick Stadium close to the Riverbank Arena in Hackney Wick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics</span>

The Manchester bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics and Paralympics was an unsuccessful campaign, first presented to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 1 February 1993. Ultimately it lost, having made it to the third round of voting with Sydney, Australia, going on to win the right to host the 2000 Summer Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Village, London</span> Human settlement in England

East Village is a housing development in Stratford, East London that was designed and constructed as the Olympic Village of the 2012 Summer Olympics and has been converted for use as a new residential district, complete with independent shops, bars and restaurants. The area was formerly contaminated waste land and industrial buildings to the north of Stratford town centre.

ISO 20121 is a voluntary international standard for sustainable event management, created by the International Organization for Standardization. The standard aims to help organizations improve sustainability throughout the entire event management cycle.

Antony "Tony" John Sainsbury OBE has been the chef de mission of the British Paralympic team at five Paralympic Games, and was the chef de mission of the Independent Paralympic Athletes Team at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.

References

  1. "Beyond 2012 – The London 2012 Legacy Story". London: Government. 24 April 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  2. "PM appoints Seb Coe as Olympics legacy ambassador". London. 12 August 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  3. "Learning Legacy". Government. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  4. "BBC - Press Office - BBC expands London Apprentice Scheme". BBC. 10 February 2011.
  5. "Queen Elizabeth Olympic park to open from July 2013 | London Legacy Development Corporation". Archived from the original on 15 January 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  6. 1 2 Kelso, Paul (6 June 2008). "Games key legacy will be free swimming for all". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  7. "Olympic legacy: lowering the bar again". building.co.uk. 7 October 2008. Retrieved 11 November 2008.
  8. "London 2012  Legacy in the lead". LOCOG. 30 January 2007. Archived from the original on 8 August 2007. Retrieved 12 January 2008.
  9. "London 2012 legacy plan published". BBC. 18 September 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  10. "Legacy From the Games" (PDF). London: Government of the United Kingdom. 14 February 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  11. "Hackney Council  2012 Games  The Host Boroughs and the Strategic Regeneration Framework". Government of the United Kingdom. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011.
  12. "Tessa Jowell launches action plan for London 2012 legacy". TheyWorkForYou . theyworkforyou.com. 6 June 2008. Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  13. "Our Promise for 2012: How the UK will benefit from the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games" (PDF). DCMS . Government of the United Kingdom. 24 June 2007. Retrieved 15 August 2008.
  14. "Official Reports, Studies, Publications - Downloads - International Olympic Committee" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 February 2012.
  15. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 October 2011. Retrieved 15 September 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "Olyimpic Javelin Train - Discover High Speed UK Rail Travel..."
  17. "High speed trains to ferry spectators to Olympic Park". ITV. 28 July 2012.
  18. "High speed trains to ferry spectators to Olympic Park". ITV News.
  19. "Join the fun and games". Comic Relief.
  20. "J Sainsbury plc / Thousands to get active in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for Sainsbury's Sport Relief Games". J Sainsbury. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  21. "'Popchoir' set for Olympic Park performance". East London and West Essex Guardian Series.
  22. "Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park". Sport Relief. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  23. Live Nation strikes deal to exclusively host gigs at Olympic Stadium. The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
  24. Live Nation secures Olympic Park for concerts. BBC News (22 January 2013). Retrieved 17 July 2013.
  25. BBC Television (19 June 2014) "Lee Valley: Latest Olympic Legacy Venue Opens in Stratford BBC London News. Retrieved August 2014.
  26. Hill, Dave (15 November 2009). "Olympic Park Legacy Company Board Members Named". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
  27. "About Us".
  28. Gibson, Owen (25 March 2015). "Golden promises of London 2012's legacy turn out to be idle boasts". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 January 2016.