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The 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics venues were mostly located in the host city of London, though some other events required facilities located elsewhere. Between the successful bid and the Olympics and Paralympics themselves, several details and venues changed.
The 2012 Games used a mixture of newly built venues, existing facilities and temporary facilities, some of them in well known locations such as Hyde Park and Horse Guards Parade. Some of the facilities are being reused in their Olympic form, while others were constructed so that they could either be reduced in size or moved elsewhere in the UK. The plans were intended to contribute to the regeneration of Stratford in east London which is the site of the Olympic Park and of the neighbouring Lower Lea Valley.
The venues within Greater London were divided into three zones: the Olympic Zone, the River Zone and the Central Zone. In addition to these were venues that, by necessity, are outside the boundaries of Greater London.
The IOC has a number of major blue-chip sponsors for the Olympics, who are entitled to have their name exclusively associated with the event. As a consequence, any other company that provided sponsorship was not permitted to use its name or branding during the games, which includes as part of the name of any venue. Thus, three Olympic venues were temporarily renamed for the duration of the Games:
The Olympic Zone encompassed all of the facilities within the 500 acres (2 km2) Olympic Park in Stratford. This park was developed on existing waste and industrial land, and is seven minutes by Olympic Javelin train from central London. The park contained in the following below:
| Venue | Permanent/ Temporary | Sports | Capacity | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympics | Paralympics | ||||
| Aquatics Centre | Permanent | Diving, Modern Pentathlon (swimming), Swimming, Synchronized Swimming | Swimming | 17,500 | [1] [2] |
| Basketball Arena | Temporary | Basketball, Handball (medal round) | Wheelchair Rugby, Wheelchair Basketball | 12,000 | [2] [3] |
| BMX Track | Permanent1 | Cycling (BMX) | — | 6,000 | [4] |
| Eton Manor | Permanent | — | Wheelchair Tennis | 10,500 | [2] [5] |
| Copper Box | Permanent | Handball, Modern Pentathlon (fencing) | Goalball | 7,000 | [2] [6] |
| Velodrome | Permanent1 | Cycling (track) | Cycling (track) | 6,000 | [2] [7] |
| Riverbank Arena | Temporary2 | Field Hockey | Football seven-a-side, Football five-a-side | 16,000 | [2] [8] |
| Olympic Stadium | Permanent | Athletics, Ceremonies (opening/closing) | Athletics, Ceremonies (opening/closing) | 80,000 | [2] [9] |
| Water Polo Arena | Temporary | Water polo | — | 5,000 | [2] [10] |
1: - As part of Lee Valley VeloPark
2: - Hockey facilities moved to Eton Manor
The original plan called for the construction of five new indoor arenas, four in the Olympic Park, and one in the River Zone (see below). In order to save money this was reduced to two. The existing venues at Earls Court and Wembley Arena were added to the plans, and various sports were shuffled around to make this possible.
The construction of the Olympic Park itself commenced in 2006, with Murphy Group awarded the contract to remove the powerlines which crossed the site and move these into a tunnel to be dug beneath the site. Civil engineering companies Morrisons and Nuttalls were appointed to undertake the demolition and land remediation works, under the project management of WS Atkins. The pace of this speeded up with the closure of the roads crossing the Olympic Park in June 2007. The construction phase of the Olympic Park was managed by CLM, a consortium comprising CH2M Hill, Laing O'Rourke and Mace. This consortium is officially titled Delivery Partner, ODA. The earliest construction of venues commenced in April 2008 with the start of the main build on the Olympic Stadium by McAlpine, with the nearby energy centre to be constructed by EDF Energy. Work on the Aquatics Centre began later the same year. During the construction phase the workforce on-site is expected to peak at 9,000 operatives. Accidents during construction of the venues resulted in no deaths - the only time this has happened in the history of Olympic construction. [11]
The River Zone features four main venues in the Thames Gateway area straddling the River Thames:
| Venue | Sports | Capacity | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympics | Paralympics | |||
| ExCeL | Boxing, Fencing, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Wrestling | Boccia, Judo, Powerlifting, Table Tennis, Volleyball (sitting), Wheelchair Fencing | from 5,000 to 10,000 | [2] [12] |
| Greenwich Park | Equestrian, Modern Pentathlon (riding, running, shooting) | Equestrian | 23,000 (OG) 6,000 (PG) | [2] [13] |
| North Greenwich Arena | Basketball (final), Gymnastics (artistic, trampolining) | Wheelchair basketball | 20,000 (OG) 18,000 (PG) | [2] [14] |
| Royal Artillery Barracks | Shooting | Archery, Shooting | 7,500 (OG) 5,000 (PG) | [2] [15] |
In the initial plan for the River Zone, a temporary 6,000 seat capacity facility to be called North Greenwich Arena 2 was to have been built alongside the O2 to host the badminton and rhythmic gymnastics events. However, the cost led to alternatives being suggested, eventually leading to the cancellation of the arena and the transfer of its planned events to Wembley Arena instead. [16]
The Central Zone is formed out of all the remaining venues within Greater London. They are quite widely spread across central, west and south London:
| Venue | Sports | Capacity | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympics | Paralympics | |||
| All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club | Tennis | — | 30,000 | [17] |
| Earls Court Exhibition Centre | Volleyball (indoor) | — | 15,000 | [18] |
| Horse Guards Parade | Volleyball (beach) | — | 15,000 | [19] |
| Hyde Park | Swimming (marathon), Triathlon | — | 3,000 | [20] |
| Lord's Cricket Ground | Archery | — | 6,500 | [20] |
| Marathon Course | Athletics (marathon and race walk) | Athletics (marathon) | Not listed. | [21] |
| Wembley Arena | Badminton, Gymnastics (rhythmic) | — | 6,000 | [22] |
| Wembley Stadium | Football | — | 90,000 | [23] |
The men's and women's time trials in road cycling took place on specially laid out courses starting and finishing at Hampton Court Palace. [24]
Five of the venues are outside Greater London:
| Venue | Location | Sports | Capacity | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympics | Paralympics | ||||
| Brands Hatch | Swanley, Kent | — | Cycling (road) | [25] | |
| Dorney Lake | Dorney, Buckinghamshire | Canoeing (sprint), Rowing | Rowing | 30,000 maximum (OG) 6,000 (PG) | [2] [26] |
| Hadleigh Farm | Hadleigh, Essex | Cycling (mountain biking) | — | 20,000 (includes 3,000 seating) | [27] |
| Lee Valley White Water Centre | Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire | Canoeing (slalom) | — | 12,000 maximum | [28] |
| Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy | Isle of Portland, Dorset | Sailing | Sailing | 4,600 (OG) 17,400 (PG) | [2] [29] [30] |
The earlier stages of the Olympic football competition were played at football stadia around the United Kingdom in addition to Wembley Stadium. Both finals (men's and women's) were held at Wembley Stadium:
| Venues | Location | Capacity | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Coventry Stadium | Coventry, England | 32,500 | [31] |
| Hampden Park | Glasgow, Scotland | 52,000 | [32] |
| Millennium Stadium | Cardiff, Wales | 74,600 | [33] |
| Old Trafford | Manchester, England | 76,000 | [34] |
| St James' Park | Newcastle upon Tyne, England | 52,409 | [35] |
| Wembley Stadium | London, England | 90,000 | [23] |
Public transport, an aspect of the bid which scored poorly in the IOC's initial evaluation, has seen numerous improvements, including the expansion of the East London Line, upgrades to the Docklands Light Railway and the North London Line, and the new high-speed Olympic Javelin service.
It is almost impossible to assess how many of the proposed improvements would have happened in any case. The games were won without a commitment to deliver Crossrail by 2012. This was the largest transport project proposed for London, and it was widely assumed in the early stages of the bidding process that the games could not be won without a guarantee that it would be completed before the games.
During the games, 80% of athletes are within 20 minutes of their events and 97% are within 30 minutes of their events. Together, all the planned National Rail, light rail, and underground services are expected to deliver around 240 trains every hour. [36] Olympic volunteers and staff picked up their uniforms and accreditation at the Uniform Distribution and Accreditation Centre.
Difficulties experienced by developers Lend Lease [37] in raising funds for the village (the single largest project in the 2012 scheme) resulted in the scale of the village being reduced by almost 25%. [38] This was achieved predominantly by providing accommodation for London-based athletes only. Those competing in events outside London were to be housed elsewhere. Following the athletes' experiences in Beijing 2008 (and in particular through comments concerning athletes' welfare by International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge) this compromise was to be reconsidered whilst pressure built for the finance deal to be resolved. [39]
Regent's Park was planned to host the softball and baseball events, but the IOC chose not to run those events.
Windsor Park in Belfast, Northern Ireland, was included as a football venue in the IOC questionnaire submitted in 2004, but excluded in the final candidature file.
On 7 June 2006, a revised masterplan for the Olympic Park was announced. The most significant change was the relocation of the volleyball events from a new Olympic Arena to the existing venue of Earls Court, which is several miles to the west. The revision also involved the re-organisation of the park shuffling the basketball, cycling, fencing, tennis, and field hockey venues in addition to the Press and Broadcast Centre. This move was designed to remove the need for the relocation of 80 businesses and to provide a more coherent legacy for the sporting venues.
Another change was the relocation of the badminton and rhythmic gymnastics events to Wembley Arena in north-west London, instead of a proposed new venue near the North Greenwich Arena.[ citation needed ]
Two venues to be developed outside central London were also relocated from the original bid sites. The Broxbourne canoe venue was marginally re-sited following the discovery (in October 2007) that the proposed Spitalbrook site was contaminated, [40] while in February 2008 the Weald Country Park was deemed insufficiently challenging for elite mountain biking. It was announced in August 2008 that the revised venue would be at Hadleigh Farm, also in Essex.
In August 2009, Villa Park was withdrawn from the list of venues for the football competition, due to uncertainty over Aston Villa's redevelopment plans for the stadium, and was replaced by the City of Coventry Stadium in Coventry. [41]
Wembley Arena is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England. The 12,500-seat facility is London's second-largest indoor arena after The O2 Arena, and the ninth-largest in the United Kingdom.
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.
The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were 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.
Lee Valley White Water Centre is a white-water slalom centre in the Middle Lea Valley, in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. It was constructed to host the canoe slalom events of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
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 Coventry Building Society Arena is a complex in Coventry, West Midlands, England. It includes a 32,609-seater stadium which is currently home to football team, Championship club Coventry City F.C. along with facilities which include a 6,000 square metres (65,000 sq ft) exhibition hall, a hotel and a casino. The site is also home to Arena Park Shopping Centre, containing one of UK's largest Tesco Extra hypermarkets. Built on the site of the Foleshill gasworks, it is named after its sponsor, Coventry Building Society who entered into a ten-year sponsorship deal in 2021. For the 2012 Summer Olympics, where stadium naming sponsorship was forbidden, the stadium was known as the City of Coventry Stadium.
The association football tournament at the 2012 Summer Olympics was held from 25 July to 11 August, and was the only sport to begin before the official opening day of the Olympic Games, two days before the opening ceremony. It was also the only sport to be held at multiple venues outside London, with Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle, Coventry and Cardiff all hosting matches. The finals were played at Wembley Stadium. Associations affiliated with FIFA were invited to send their senior women's and men's under-23 national teams to participate; men's teams were allowed to augment their squads with three players over the age of 23. Five hundred and four football players competed for two sets of gold medals.
The Copper Box Arena is a multi-sport venue built for the 2012 Summer Olympics, located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, England.
Basketball at the 2012 Summer Olympics was the eighteenth appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It was held from 28 July to 12 August 2012. The preliminary matches and the women's quarterfinal matches were played in the new Basketball Arena in Olympic Park, which seated up to 12,000 spectators. The men's knockout games and the women's games, from semifinals onward were played in the North Greenwich Arena.
A total of twenty-five sports venues were used to host the events of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. For the first time in the history of the modern Olympic Games, the diving, gymnastics, swimming, and water polo competitions were held indoors. These Games have since been nicknamed the "Austerity Games" for the tight control of costs at a time when the host nation was still under rationing, which resulted in a total expenditure of around £750,000. All of the venues were already in place and required only temporary modifications. The organizing committee decided not to build an Olympic Village; instead, foreign athletes were housed in makeshift camps at military bases and colleges around London, while local athletes were told to stay at home. Despite these measures, the combined venues of the 1948 Summer Olympics recorded the highest attendance figures for a Games at that time.
The modern pentathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London was held from 11 to 12 August 2012. The men's and women's events each involved 36 athletes. The venues for the events were the Copper Box (fencing), the Aquatics Centre (swimming), and Greenwich Park.
Three gymnastics disciplines were contested at the 2012 Olympic Games in London: artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and trampolining. The trampoline events were held at the North Greenwich Arena from 3 to 4 August; the artistic events were also held at the North Greenwich Arena, from 28 July to 7 August. The rhythmic gymnastics events took place at Wembley Arena from 9 to 12 August.
London Prepares series is the banner under which the test events for the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games were held. The events which make up the series took place in 2011 and 2012.
| Olympic Park |  | |
|---|---|---|
| River Zone | ||
| Central Zone | ||
| Outside London | ||
| Football stadia | ||
| Olympic Zone | | |
|---|---|---|
| River Zone | ||
| Outside London | ||
