Olymics 2012

[Scarby]

Wembley, Wimbledon and Lord's will all be used to host Olympic events if London's bid to host the games in 2012 is successful.

The world-renowned venues - as well as a new Olympic Park in east London - will all be used in a London Olympics along with tourist landmarks Hyde Park, Regent's Park and Horse Guards Parade.

Wembley will host both the men's and women's football finals, tennis will be held at Wimbledon and Lord's will stage archery events while athletics, swimming and cycling will be at the Olympic Park.

Football matches in earlier rounds will be played across the country at Cardiff (Millennium Stadium), Glasgow (Hampden Park), Windsor Park (Belfast), Manchester (Old Trafford), Newcastle (St James' Park) and Birmingham (Villa Park).

Hyde Park will have road cycling and triathlon events, Regents Park will stage baseball and softball while there will be beach volleyball in Horse Guards Parade, a stone's throw from Westminster.

Brand new facilities will be built in the Olympic Park in the east of the capital as part of plans to regenerate a rundown area of the city. They will include an 80,000 seat stadium, an aquatic centre - which will be built whether or not the bid is successful - and a velodrome.

The details all form the core of London's bid submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) this week.

Bid chairman Barbara Cassani launched the blueprint at a ceremony in Covent Garden today in front of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Cassani said: "The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will enhance sport in London and the UK forever. "Our people, especially the young, will benefit from new facilities. Our next generation of athletes will be better equipped to develop into future Olympians.

"Our Games will deliver the best for athletes. A compact Olympic Park with easy access from living quarters to competition venues.

"Competitors will be inspired to deliver personal best performances against the backdrop of London's world-famous landmarks. Let's take this opportunity to make a leap for UK sport, a leap for the Olympic Movement and a leap for London."

Bid organisers are keen to stress that their plans for the Olympic Park offer the most compact venue ever proposed to the IOC with many of the 28 sports within 15 minutes of the athletes village, and only a seven-minute train ride from central London.

IOC president Jacques Rogge has said the scale of the Games recently has threatened to spiral upwards out of control and needs to slim down.

A spokesman added: "We will deliver excellence without extravagance. London 2012 is committed to ensuring that no venues are built without a clear plan for their post-Olympic use. There will be no white elephants at the London Olympics."

Sporting greats at the presentation at the Royal Opera House included rowing record-breaker Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Roger Bannister, the man who broke the four-minute mile 50 years ago, and Paula Radcliffe, marathon world record-holder and one of Britain's strongest medal hopes at the Athens Games this summer.

In Olympic football 16 men's teams and 10 women's teams compete. The men's tournament, open to under-23 teams who are each allowed to field three over-age players, comprises a preliminary round, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, and the women play quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

New venues in an Olympic Park in east London
Olympic Park stadium (athletics, opening/closing ceremonies)
Olympic Park aquatic centre (swimming and diving events)
Olympic Park velodrome (track cycling)
Olympic Park BMX track (BMX cycling).
Olympic Park hockey complex( hockey).
Olympic Park multi-sport complex (basketball, handball, volleyball, modern pentathlon events)
Greenwich Peninsula hall 1 & 2 (badminton, gymnastics; table tennis)
Broxbourne (canoe slalom)
University of East London (water polo preliminaries).
Olympic Park tennis complex (Olympic training venue and Paralympic competition venue).


Existing venues:
Wembley Stadium (football finals)
Wimbledon (tennis)
Lord's (archery)
Horse Guards Parade (beach volleyball)
Hyde Park (triathlon; road cycling)
Regent's Park (baseball; softball)
Greenwich Park (equestrian; modern pentathlon riding and running events)
ExCel exhibition centre (boxing, judo, taekwondo, weightlifting, wrestling)
The Dome (artistic gymnastics; trampolining; basketball and handball finals)
Eton Dorney rowing centre (rowing and flatwater canoeing events)
Bisley (shooting)
Swinley Forest, Berkshire (mountain biking)
Weymouth-Portland (sailing)
Alexandra Palace (fencing)


The men's and women's football tournaments will be held at:
Hampden Park, Glasgow
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Old Trafford, Manchester
St James's Park, Newcastle
Villa Park, Birmingham
Windsor Park, Belfast

 

[Teeno]

i'd love it, i'm love the olympics and i'm a big athletics fan, to go there and get a taste of the atmosphere will be great! shame the walkers aint in the plans

 

[Billy Boy]

If that's the bid then they're in trouble. Someone has forgotten to point out that Windsor Park is not in "the country". To be fair neither is Hampden Park. :roll:

Anyway Winsor Park won't get used the little spidies will nick all the tracksuits once the player's backs are turned.

 

[trickytrev]

It would be good. Great to see the world sweltering in the 40degree heats of the tube stations. I like the fatc that we would play the beach voley ball in a sand pit round the back of Blair house where as Rio have the most beautiful beach in the world. Best of all though they have found a use for the dome, National Gymnastics centre.

 

[londonfox]

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes

 

[Teeno]

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes

this aint gonna be like that blok on vicar of dibley were he says yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,no!

 

[londonfox]

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes

this aint gonna be like that blok on vicar of dibley were he says yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,no!

not unless it's after Dawn French has asked me if I wanna come up for Coffee...

 

[webmaster]

If that's the bid then they're in trouble. Someone has forgotten to point out that Windsor Park is not in "the country". To be fair neither is Hampden Park.

I thought Northern Ireland and Scotland were in the UK, at the moment anyway.

 

[Billy Boy]

If that's the bid then they're in trouble. Someone has forgotten to point out that Windsor Park is not in "the country". To be fair neither is Hampden Park.

I thought Northern Ireland and Scotland were in the UK, at the moment anyway.

Sorry Webby. I've been reading that it's an English bid for weeks now :roll:

 

[webmaster]

[Sorry Webby. I've been reading that it's an English bid for weeks now :roll:

Where did you read that?

'England' doesn't compete in the Olympics, so there can't be an English bid.

 

[Billy Boy]

[Sorry Webby. I've been reading that it's an English bid for weeks now :roll:

Where did you read that?

'England' doesn't compete in the Olympics, so there can't be an English bid.

Sorry Webby but the media has it down as the great English bid. If however I was to split it any further more recently it has become the "London Bid", so I seriously cannot see any events taking place further north than Watford. I'm afraid it's same as the age old scenario that athletes are only representing Britain when they succeed. When an athlete loses he/she is classified by the country of birth and never classified as British.

Don't get me wrong, I am and always will be proud to be British however sometimes I really do not get the philosophy that todays newsmongers adhere to. The fact that I was born in Northern Ireland and as a result, a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland does not justify as second rate hack deeming me as Irish should I not achieve certain criteria.

From the above I am therefore stating that until the media discovers a stumbling block why the UK will not get the olympics the majority of press that it receives will class it as the great English/London :roll: bid.

 

[MKFox]

when Baxter won that medal for skiing he was British.
when he was found to be taking drugs he became Scottish!
quality

 

[webmaster]

[Sorry Webby. I've been reading that it's an English bid for weeks now :roll:

Where did you read that?

'England' doesn't compete in the Olympics, so there can't be an English bid.

Sorry Webby but the media has it down as the great English bid.

Obviously it's a London bid, because the event is always centred around one city, but ut I've never seen/heard anything in the media to say that it's an English bid. If you can point me to a direct example of this I'll believe you, but if you can't I suspect it's just your imagination.

 

[Billy Boy]

when Baxter won that medal for skiing he was British.
when he was found to be taking drugs he became Scottish!
quality

Exactly MK! :roll:

 

[Billy Boy]

[Sorry Webby. I've been reading that it's an English bid for weeks now :roll:

Where did you read that?

'England' doesn't compete in the Olympics, so there can't be an English bid.

Sorry Webby but the media has it down as the great English bid.

Obviously it's a London bid, because the event is always centred around one city, but ut I've never seen/heard anything in the media to say that it's an English bid. If you can point me to a direct example of this I'll believe you, but if you can't I suspect it's just your imagination.

Harsh words Webmaster. I'm not that imaginative. Still I'll be intouch with the information you require.

 

[Scarby]

is this still the case?

 

[Jeff]

I'll be intouch with the information you require.

Nearly four years and we're still waiting.