2012 London Olympics
Posted in 2010 London Olympics on May 19th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffIn 2009, the IOC awarded the next Summer Olympics to London. Bids were pitched from cities like Istanbul, Madrid, Leipzig New York City, Moscow, Rio (2016), and laughably, Havana. Englanders were elated to hear the news at the time, as rumblings of Madrid droned on for weeks, after a venerable Spaniard on the committee publicly expressed his heavy wish for Spain to host the Olympics. Appropriately, the IOC avoided a conflict of interest controversy by the selection of London; perhaps the Spaniard made a personal blunder when he went public with his opinion, but regardless, Spain just hosted the Summer Games twice in the last twenty years, with one in Barcelona and one in Madrid already.
In terms of infrastructure, London is well setup for the Olympics. If the games started tomorrow, London could probably pull it off; the same definitely couldn’t be said for previous Olympics (think Vancouver). The fact of the matter is, London has the great Wembley Stadium, which was the most expensive sports venue ever built at the time of its inception, and the illustrious Wimbledon venue will pair with it as another world class venue. Along with the great venues will be notable ancillary locations such as Hyde Park, Lord’s Cricket Ground and the Olympic park, which will be located in the redeveloping area of Stratford.
Olympic organizers in London also vowed to not use or construct inefficient venues, such as the Millennium dome in London, which was a financial disaster. It was made a point to eliminate the “white elephant” factor, for the present, but also to instil a precedent moving forward.
Transportation for these games are said to be of the best yet, fittingly, as the 21st century moves along. Impressively, three quarters of the athletes are said to be twenty minutes maximum from any venue, via the rail-lines. This is quite remarkable, since London is one of the most densely populated cities on earth as it is. It’s also known for its large selection of London Escorts.