2012 OLYMPICS

The first time that London hosted the Olympics was in 1908, and the games were transformed into a global sporting event which was to become the blue print for today’s modern games.

It is again London’s turn, and when it was announced in Singapore that London had won the bid, we were, for the most part euphoric, it was a great boost for national pride. Lord Coe made a pledge in Singapore. “It would deliver not only a fantastic sporting spectacle, but leave behind a legacy for east London, the UK and the world.” He went on to say that it would inspire a generation through sport, and would regenerate the poorest parts of the capital.

Looking back on past experiences of countries which have hosted the games only a very few can actually say that they have had any lasting benefits, whether financial or cultural. Due to costs the Olympic legacy has become as important as the games itself. The 1908 games cost £20.000., a millionth of the estimated costs of the 2012 games. The Olympics is a big challenge and responsibility for the hosting nation lots of things can go wrong and the repercussions can be disastrous, as we can see from the experiences of the following countries.

The building of the Montreal venue shows how difficult it was to get things started, it was full of delays, and even at the inauguration, the stadium was not complete. Costs just seem to spiral out of proportion. The cost to the Canadian taxpayers was 30 billion dollars, and it took 30 years to pay off the debt.

The Athens Olympics is another example of this and is probably the most disastrous ever, it literally wrecked the national budget and, and today all the venues are abandoned or in disuse.

On the other hand we have Barcelona’s success story, put down to good planning. Apparently, everything in the city is interconnected, and all the venues are integrated into the city, along with new housing and the sports facilities.

China used the Olympic games as a catalyst, and its legacy to Beijing was a modern city with improve facilities. However parts of the city were flattened and 300,000 evicted from their homes.

Part of our Olympic legacy is the building of a huge park in the Lea valley in east London, the biggest park in any European city for the last 200 years. After the games, the remaining venues will be used to mix sport, leisure and culture. The Olympics will give the capital the chance to renew its declining public sports facilities, which are behind countries such as France, Germany and The Netherlands.

Critics say that planning of the games has been scarce, and whereas in Barcelona sport centres were integrated into areas where people already resided, the Lea Valley area is associated with dirty heavy industries, and people will have to travel long distances to get there. We have over a year before the games start, and whether or not the Olympic pledge materialises and to what extent only time can tell.

Bibliography

Mail Monday 11th April 2008 Robert Hardman
BBC One Programme-25 March 2011 Promises – Promises Jon Sopel