The
London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) was created to oversee the staging of the Games, and held its first board meeting on 3 October 2005. The committee, chaired by
Lord Coe, was in charge of implementing and staging the Games, while the
Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), established in April 2006, was in charge of construction of the venues and infrastructure. The
Government Olympic Executive (GOE), a unit within the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), was the lead government body for coordinating the London 2012 Olympics. It focused on oversight of the Games, cross-programme management, and the
London 2012 Olympic Legacy before and after the Games that would benefit London and the wider United Kingdom. The organisation was also responsible for the supervision of the £9.3 billion of public sector funding. In August 2011 security concerns arose surrounding the hosting of the Olympic Games in London, following the
2011 England riots. Some countries expressed safety concerns, despite the IOC's assurance that the riots would not affect the Games. The IOC's Coordination Commission for the 2012 Games completed its tenth and final visit to London in March 2012. Its members concluded that "London is ready to host the world this summer".
Venues The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games used a mixture of new venues, existing and historic facilities, and temporary facilities, some of them in well-known locations such as
Hyde Park and
Horse Guards Parade. After the Games, some of the new facilities would be reused in their Olympic form, while others were resized or relocated. The majority of venues were divided into three zones within
Greater London: the Olympic Zone, the River Zone and the Central Zone. In addition there were a few venues that, by necessity, were outside the boundaries of Greater London, such as the
Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy some southwest of London, which hosted the
sailing events. The football tournament was staged at several grounds around the UK. Work began on the Park in December 2006, when a sports hall in
Eton Manor was pulled down. The athletes' village in Portland was completed in September 2011. In November 2004 the 200-hectare (500-acre)
Olympic Park plans were revealed. The plans for the site were approved in September 2004 by Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney and Waltham Forest. The redevelopment of the area to build the Olympic Park required
compulsory purchase orders of property. The London Development Agency was in dispute with
London and Continental Railways about the orders in November 2005. By May 2006, 86% of the land had been bought as businesses fought eviction. Residents who opposed the eviction tried to find ways to stop it by setting up campaigns, but they had to leave as 94% of land was bought and the other 6% bought as a £9 billion regeneration project started. There were some issues with the original venues not being challenging enough or being financially unviable. Both the Olympic road races and the mountain bike event were initially considered to be too easy, so they were eventually scheduled on new locations. The
Olympic marathon course, which was set to finish in the Olympic stadium, was moved to The Mall, since closing
Tower Bridge was deemed to cause traffic problems in central London.
North Greenwich Arena 2 was scrapped in a cost-cutting exercise,
Wembley Arena being used for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics events instead. Test events were held throughout 2011 and 2012, either through an existing championship such as
2012 Wimbledon Championships or as a specially created event held under the banner of
London Prepares. Team GB House was the British Olympic Association's operational HQ up to and during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Designed by architects Gebler Tooth on the top floor of an office building in Westfield Stratford City, it combined the team HQ, athletes' "Friends and Family" lounge, Press Centre, and VIP lounge.
Public transport high-speed service ran between
St Pancras and
Ebbsfleet, via
Stratford. IOC's initial evaluation felt that, if transport improvements were delivered in time for the Games, London would cope.
Transport for London (TfL) carried out numerous improvements in preparation for 2012, including the expansion of the
London Overground's
East London Line, upgrades to the
Docklands Light Railway and the
North London Line, and the introduction of a new "
Javelin" high-speed rail service. According to Network Rail, an additional 4,000 train services operated during the Games, and train operators ran longer trains during the day. During the Games,
Stratford International station was not served by any international services (just as it had not been before the Games), westbound trains did not stop at
Hackney Wick railway station, and
Pudding Mill Lane DLR station closed entirely during the Games. crosses the
River Thames between
Greenwich Peninsula and the
Royal Docks. TfL also built a £25 million
cable car across the
River Thames, called the
Emirates Air Line, to link 2012 Olympics venues. It was inaugurated in June 2012 and crosses the Thames between
Greenwich Peninsula and the
Royal Docks, carrying up to 2,500 passengers an hour, cutting journey times between
The O2 and the
ExCeL exhibition centre and providing a crossing every 30 seconds. The plan was to have 80% of athletes travel less than 20 minutes to their event and 93% of them within 30 minutes of their event. The Olympic Park would be served by ten separate railway lines with a combined capacity of 240,000 passengers per hour. In addition, LOCOG planned for 90% of the venues to be served by three or more types of public transport. These Park and Ride services were operated by
First Games Transport. TfL defined a network of roads leading between venues as the
Olympic Route Network; roads connecting all of the Olympic venues located within London. Many of these roads also contained special "Olympic lanes" marked with the Olympic ringsreserved for the use of Olympic athletes, officials, and other VIPs during the Games. Members of the public driving in an Olympic lane were subject to a fine of £130. Additionally, London buses would not include roads with Olympic lanes on their routes. Concerns were expressed at the logistics of spectators travelling to the events outside London. In particular, the
sailing events at
Portland had no direct motorway connections, and local roads are heavily congested by tourist traffic in the summer. However, a £77 million relief road connecting Weymouth to Dorchester was built and opened in 2011. Some £16 million was put aside for the rest of the improvements. TfL created a promotional campaign and website,
Get Ahead of the Games, to help provide information related to transport during the Olympics and Paralympics. Through the campaign, TfL also encouraged the use of cycling as a mode of transport. A temporary terminal was created at
Heathrow Airport to be used by 10,100 departing athletes after the Games. Up to 35% more bags than normal were expected on 13 August, which was predicted to be the busiest day in the airport's history, according to Nick Cole, head of Olympic and Paralympic planning at Heathrow.
Cost and financing A study from Oxford University found that the sports-related costs of London 2012 amounted to US$15 billion, compared with $4.6 billion for Rio 2016, $40–44 billion for Beijing 2008, and $51 billion for Sochi 2014 (the most expensive Olympics in history). London 2012 went over budget by 76% in real terms, measured from bid to completion. The cost per athlete was $1.4 million. This does not include wider costs for urban and transport infrastructure, which often equal or exceed the sports-related costs. The costs of staging the Games were separate from those for building the venues and infrastructure and redeveloping the land for the Olympic Park. While the Games were privately funded, the venues and infrastructure were largely financed using public money. According to
The Wall Street Journal, the original budget for the Games was increased to about £9.3 billion (US$15.28 billion) in 2007. The revised figures were announced to the
House of Commons on 15 March 2007 by
Tessa Jowell. Along with East End regeneration costs, the breakdown was: • Building the venues and infrastructure – £5.3 billion • Elite sport and Paralympic funding – £400 million • Security and policing – £600 million • Regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley – £1.7 billion • Contingency fund – £2.7 billion
Volunteers Unpaid volunteers known as Games Makers performed a variety of tasks before and during the Games. A target of 70,000 volunteers was set as early as 2004. When recruitment took place in 2010, more than 240,000 applications were received. Sebastian Coe said in February 2012, "Our Games Makers will contribute a total of around eight million volunteer hours during the Games and the Games simply wouldn't happen without them". The volunteers wore clothing that included purple and red polo shirts and jackets, beige trousers, grey socks and grey-and-white
trainers, which they collected from the
Uniform Distribution and Accreditation Centre. Volunteers also wore photo accreditation badges that were also worn by officials, athletes, family members and media, which gained them access to specific venues and buildings around the site.
Ticketing Organisers estimated that some 8 million tickets would be available for the Olympic Games, and 1.5 million tickets for the Paralympic Games. although, for the first time in Olympic history, the sailing events were ticketed. Eventually, more than 7,000,000 tickets were sold. Following IOC rules, people applied for tickets from the NOC of their country of residence. European Union residents were able to apply for tickets in any EU country. In Great Britain, ticket prices ranged from £20 for many events to £2,012 for the most expensive seats at the opening ceremony. Some free tickets were given to military personnel as part of the Tickets For Troops scheme, as well as to survivors and families of those who died during the
7 July 2005 London bombings. Initially, people were able to apply for tickets via a website from 15 March until 26 April 2011. There was a huge demand for tickets, with a demand of more than three times the number of tickets available. On 11 May 2012 a round of nearly one million "second chance" tickets went on sale over a 10-day period between 23 June and 3 July 2011. About 1.7 million tickets were available for football and 600,000 for other sports, including archery, field hockey, football, judo, boxing and volleyball. Ten sports had sold out by 8 am of the first day.
Countdown During the
closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, the
Olympic Flag was formally handed over from the
Mayor of Beijing to the
Mayor of London. This was followed by a section highlighting London, One month later, the Olympic and
Paralympic flags were raised outside the
London City Hall. A countdown clock in
Trafalgar Square was unveiled, 500 days before the Games. It was a two-sided clock with the Paralympic countdown on the other side. The countdown to the start of the Olympics began with a ceremony for the lighting of the Olympic flame in
Olympia, Greece.
Security The police led the security operation (named
Operation Olympics by the Ministry of Defence), with 10,000 officers available, supported by 13,500 members of the
British Armed Forces.
Naval and
air assets were deployed as part of the security operation, including ships situated in the
Thames,
Typhoon fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles; it was the biggest security operation Britain had faced in decades. The cost of security increased from £282 million to £553 million, and the figure of 13,500 armed forces personnel was greater than the number deployed at the time in Afghanistan. The
Metropolitan Police and the
Royal Marines carried out security exercises in preparation for the Olympics on 19 January 2012, with 50 marine police officers in rigid inflatables and fast response boats, joined by up to 100 military personnel and a Royal Navy
Lynx helicopter. The
Ministry of Defence distributed leaflets to residents of the Lexington building in
Bow, announcing that a missile system was to be stationed on top of the water tower. This caused concern to some residents.
Olympic and Paralympic medals were produced by the
Royal Mint at
Llantrisant. They were designed by
David Watkins (Olympics) and Lin Cheung (Paralympics). 99% of the gold, silver and copper was donated by Rio Tinto from a mine in
Salt Lake County, Utah in the U.S. The remaining 1% came from a
Mongolian mine. Each medal weighs , has a diameter of and is thick, with the sport and discipline engraved on the rim. The obverse, as is traditional, features
Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, stepping from the
Panathinaiko Stadium that hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, with Parthenon in the background; the reverse features the Games logo, the River Thames and a series of lines representing "the energy of athletes and a sense of pulling together". The medals were transferred to the Tower of London vaults on 2 July 2012 for storage. The value of the materials in the gold medal was about £410 (US$644), the silver about £210 (US$330), and the bronze about £3 (US$4.71) as of 30 July 2012.
Torch relay The Olympics torch relay ran from 19 May to 27 July 2012, before the Games. Plans for the relay were developed in 2010–11, with the torch-bearer selection process announced on 18 May 2011. The torch was designed by
Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby. On 18 May 2012 the
Olympic flame arrived at
RNAS Culdrose in
Cornwall from Greece on flight BA2012, operated by a
British Airways Airbus A319 named "Firefly". The relay lasted 70 days, with 66 evening celebrations and six island visits, and involved some 8,000 people carrying the torch about , starting from
Land's End in
Cornwall. The torch had three days outside the United Kingdom when it visited the
Isle of Man on 2 June,
Dublin in Ireland, on 6 June, and both
Guernsey and
Jersey on 15 July. The relay focused on National Heritage Sites, locations with sporting significance, key sporting events, schools registered with the Get Set School Network, green spaces and biodiversity, Live Sites (city locations with large screens), and festivals and other events.
Dumfries and Galloway was the only Region in the whole of the United Kingdom that had the Olympic Torch pass through it twice. A group of young athletes, nominated by retired Olympic athletes, ran the torch around the stadium. These torchbearers were
Callum Airlie,
Jordan Duckitt,
Desiree Henry,
Katie Kirk,
Cameron MacRitchie, Aidan Reynolds and
Adelle Tracey. Together the torchbearers each lit a petal that spread the fire to the 204 petals of the
cauldron, representing the countries that participated in the Games. The cauldron was designed by
Thomas Heatherwick.
Environmental policy The Olympic Park was planned to incorporate 45 hectares of wildlife habitat, with a total of 525 bird boxes and 150 bat boxes. Local waterways and riverbanks were enhanced as part of the process. Renewable energy also featured at the Olympics. It was originally planned to provide 20% of the energy for the Olympic Park and Village from renewable technologies; however, only 9% of it was achieved. Proposals to meet the original target included large-scale on-site wind turbines and
hydroelectric generators in the River Thames, but these plans were scrapped for safety reasons. The focus subsequently moved to installing solar panels on some buildings, and providing the opportunity to recover energy from waste. Where it could not be reused or recycled, food packaging for use at the Olympics—including fast-food wrappers, sandwich boxes and drink cartons—was made from compostable materials like starch and cellulose-based
bioplastics. After use, many of these materials were suitable for
anaerobic digestion (AD), allowing them to be made into renewable energy. Post-Games, buildings like the
Water Polo Arena were relocated elsewhere. Building parts like roofing covers and membranes of different temporary venues were recycled via
VinyLoop. This allowed organisers to meet the standards of the
Olympic Delivery Authority concerning environmental protection. London 2012 inaugurated Olympic Games guidelines that included the recycling of PVC, which was used for temporary buildings such as the Basketball Arena and for the temporary parts of permanent venues such as the Olympic Stadium. In the Water Polo Arena, PVC roofing was made from recycled cushions to provide insulation. Through this recycling process, the Olympic Games PVC Policy was fulfilled; the policy states: :Where London 2012 procures PVC for temporary usage or where permanent usage is not assured, London 2012 is required to ensure that there is a take-back scheme that offers a closed-loop reuse system or mechanical recycling system for
post-consumer waste. According to Kirsten Henson, Materials Manager for the London 2012 Olympic Park: "The majority of temporary facilities created for the Olympic Games including the
Aquatic centre temporary stands, basketball arena, Water Polo Arena, and the shooting facilities at the
Royal Artillery Barracks, are essentially big tents. Basically, PVC stretched over lightweight steel frame. This design solution makes them efficient to install, reduces the need for any significant foundations and are, of course, reusable. We were challenged by the public around the use of PVC; but we considered it to be the right material for certain functions. We therefore challenged the PVC supply chain to have certain environmental performance criteria in place, including a take back and recycle scheme."
Cultural Olympiad The
Olympic Charter, the set of rules and guidelines for the organisation of the Olympic Games and for governing the Olympic Movement, states that LOCOG shall organise a programme of cultural events which must cover at least the entire period during which the
Olympic Village is open. The Cultural Olympiad comprised many programmes, with more than 500 events spread over four years across the whole of the United Kingdom, and culminating in the
London 2012 Festival.
Opening ceremony Titled "The Isles of Wonder", the opening ceremony began at 21:00
British Summer Time (
UTC+1) on 27 July in the Olympic Stadium. The Academy Award–winning director
Danny Boyle was artistic director and
Rick Smith of
Underworld was musical director. The opening ceremony was immediately seen as a tremendous success, widely praised as a "masterpiece" and "a love letter to Britain". The principal sections of the artistic display represented Britain's
Industrial Revolution,
National Health Service, literary heritage, popular music and
culture, and were noted for their vibrant
storytelling and use of music. The Games were officially opened by
Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. This was the second Olympic Games opened personally by the Queen, the first being in
1976 in
Montreal, Canada. The ceremony featured a short comic film starring
Daniel Craig as the secret agent
James Bond and the Queen as herself. There was also a musical comedy item starring
Rowan Atkinson as
Mr. Bean playing along with the
London Symphony Orchestra. These were widely ascribed to
Britain's sense of humour. Live musical performers included
Frank Turner,
Dame Evelyn Glennie,
Mike Oldfield,
Dizzee Rascal,
Arctic Monkeys and
Sir Paul McCartney who performed "
Hey Jude" as the closing act. Broadcast live on
BBC One, the ceremony attracted a peak viewing audience of over 27 million in the UK.
Closing ceremony The closing ceremony was held on 12 August. It featured a flashback fiesta to
British music with
the Who closing the performance. The ceremony also included a handover of the
Olympic flag by
Boris Johnson,
Mayor of London, to
Eduardo Paes,
Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, the host city of the
2016 Summer Olympics. In his closing address,
Jacques Rogge described the Games as "happy and glorious". ==The Games==