London 2012 blog

Interesting fact about Newport: it is the home of one of only eight transporter bridges in the world, moving whole segments of road from one side of a river to the other. Interesting fact about Cwmbran Stadium near Newport, is that it was on that athletics track, in May 1984, that Zola Budd, in her memorable bare feet, set the Welsh All Comers 1500m record of 4.04.39. A record which still stands today.

Newport and Cwmbran Stadium was also the first port of call for the visit of Jean Tomlin (LOCOG's HR Director), Amanda Delew and I on a day trip to Wales. This was the final leg of a series of visits to the three other UK home nations, where the objective has been to discuss with local stakeholders LOCOG's plans for volunteering in 2012. After successful trips to Scotland and Northern Ireland (some travel problems notwithstanding), this was another very worthwhile visit.

Cwmbran Stadium not only holds fond memories for Zola, it also hopes to do so in the future for a team from a country participating in the 2012 Games. It is one of 31 Welsh facilities which will be in the Pre-Games Training Camp Guide to be launched in Beijing. It will be in the Guide for Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Football and indoor Volleyball.

Read more of “Volunteering in Wales and the Harry Potter connection”

The British Olympic Association (BOA) have launched a new Team GB website ahead of the Beijing 2008 Games.  




There's lots of interesting information about the Team GB athletes. Over the next few months 'Brits to Watch' out for at the Games will be recording personal video diaries on the road to Beijing. You can already log on see what it was like to carry the Beijing Olympic Torch from Olympic silver medallist Leon Taylor, and enjoy the Team GB’s Synchronised swimming duet’s underwater video diaries.

The website also includes:

- Profiles/biogs on all selected Team GB athletes
- The ability to search by region and find out where the athletes are from
- A detailed competition schedule
- All the latest news and results from the heart of Team GB
- A photo gallery of Team GB's past and present Olympic triumphs
- Information on the Games and the Host City and the Olympic sports themselves. 

Take a look: www.teamgb.com

My name is Mark. I work as a health and safety advisor for the north of the Olympic Park.

Working on such a high profile project that is as large as this has been very challenging and rewarding for me. The health and safety of all persons involved in this project from the site labourers right through to those who are directing the project is of paramount importance. We have a slogan on site that says 'nothing is so important that it cannot be done safely'.

Read more of “Maintaining health and safety standards on Olympic Park”

I started swimming when I was five and started competing when I was about eight, for a local club in the diddy leagues. I swim and compete because I like it, it’s fun. I like being busy, I like being active. It’s as simple as that.

I was inspired to take it more seriously when I watched Nyree Lewis swim in the Athens 2004. She got her gold and I wanted to start competitively in disabled sport – I wanted to be her. Seeing her on TV really helped, it really struck a chord.

My first international competition was at the Durban 2006 World Championships. You can’t compete internationally until your 12 and I’d turned 12 two weeks earlier – I was the youngest ever selected.

Me competing:

Read more of “Inspiring young people about Paralympic sport”

There’s nothing like a sunny day for putting people in a good mood, so we were delighted that an ODA and LOCOG visit to Weymouth and Portland on Friday was bathed in glorious sunshine.

The trip to the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy was a chance for ODA and LOCOG Chief Executives, David Higgins and Paul Deighton, to visit the venue which will host the Sailing events in 2012 and to view the work that is now underway to enhance the facilities for the Games.

Paul and David visit the Sailing venue:

Read more of “Testing the waters at Weymouth and Portland”

A major ambition in the bid for London’s Olympic Games and Paralympic Games was the plan to engage with people right across the UK – to excite them and get them to play a part in it.

One aspect of this is to talk to their elected representatives, and so we organised a visit by Seb Coe (our Chair) and Paul Deighton (our Chief Executive) to Glasgow and the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh to see as many key politicians and civil servants as we could cram in – as well as to join the emerging bid company for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games for an event with students and staff from central belt universities.

We ended up seeing just about everyone – from private meetings with the First Minister Alex Salmond and the Minister for Sport Stewart Maxwell, through to a grilling by MSPs on the heavy-weight parliamentary Health and Sport Committee, useful talks with the main government officials and of course the Glasgow 2014 team itself.

L-R: Paul and Seb with Alex Salmond:

Read more of “Taking London 2012 to Scotland”

It’s not just sporting venues being constructed within the Olympic Park - the Olympic Village will be built just beside it - a key development on the Park. With accommodation and facilities for over 17,000 athletes and officials during the Olympic Games, and over 8,000 during the Paralympic Games, the Olympic Village will enhance their experience of London 2012.

1) From this view taken in November 2007 you can see progress taking place on the area that will link the Olympic Village and VeloPark during the Games…:

Read more of “Latest images: Olympic Village”

You’d be surprised how profoundly disturbing it can be for an evening of contemporary dance to be punctuated by a water leak resulting in loud rhythmic drips from above creating a glistening damp patch on the edge of the stage. Surely this can’t be happening. The puddle is fast becoming a pool and the dancers won’t be able to avoid it for long. 

Worse still this is a premier – we’re almost an hour into the very first night of Birmingham’s prestigious International Dance Festival. The city has invested significantly to build on its already strong reputation in dance. Heading towards 2012 and the Cultural Olympiad, Birmingham is set to stamp its mark around the world in this most athletic of art forms.
Minutes later, fidgety members of the audience look at each other in discomfort noticing that water is now seeping out, ominously from the back of the stage. A string of rivulets is advancing, and then coalescing towards the audience. Dancers are soon skidding, their costumes are dripping and the posh folk in the front row of the stalls are feeling the splashes.

I remember seeing the severe weather warning earlier in the day, but Birmingham’s Hippodrome Theatre has enjoyed a multi-million pound refurbishment. It is the spectacular home to the Birmingham Royal Ballet and surely they wouldn’t allow anything as simple as a leaky roof or dodgy plumbing to jeopardise such a night.

Read more of “A watery opening to the International Dance Festival”

I am very excited by the fact that Open Rehearsal will be one of the core projects in London for the launch weekend of the Cultural Olympiad on 26th - 28th September. Open Rehearsal is a pan-London project that aims to engage audiences with culture by offering them a whole range of 'behind the scenes' activities. Over these three days, arts venues all over city will open their doors for a packed programme of rehearsals, backstage tours, workshops, master classes, talks and debates.

Because Open Rehearsal aims to open doors, engage audiences, encourage participation and learning as well as promote London’s phenomenal cultural offer and resources I believe it is a great fit with the aspirations for the Cultural Olympiad programme as it encourages and inspires people to open themselves up to new experiences, be it the organisations or the audiences.

Open Rehearsal is run as a joint initiative between Greater London Authority and Visit London and was conceived on the basis that culture is and should be for everyone. There are barriers to this as the notion of culture can sometimes seem out of reach to many. It has developed successfully because we continue to add new initiatives, work with new partners and broaden the scope of activities to help break down these perceived barriers.

Read more of “Opening the doors of culture”

Before joining London 2012 I had two linked careers, one as an arts manager and one as a practitioner - I DJ and used to manage bands. As you can imagine I've had some great experiences travelling from gig to gig, festival to festival. Playing Trafalgar Square with a huge Creative Routes ensemble- an organisation that puts on events by mental health service users. This was fantastic, performing a song with the repeated refrain '**** psychiatry', which debates alternative approaches to mental health. As you can see I have a strong passion for disability and the arts.

As a Disability Cultural Associate I will be focusing on developing the project 'Extraordinary Abilities', which is one of the major projects of the Cultural Olympiad. This will be a four year celebration of disability arts, culture and sport. The project is in its early stages and there is a lot to be done in different work areas such as creating the infrastructure, writing the business plan, agreeing funders and delivery partners, consultation with the different groups that want to get involved and working out a communications strategy. 'Extraordinary Abilities' is a working title - any suggestions of a name to replace it will be most welcome.

In between this all this work it has been interesting shadowing Steve Mannix to a few meetings. There has also been the welcome diversion of working with Mary Genis a Clore leadership fellow, on the launch of the Cultural Olympiad.

Read more of “An extraordinary opportunity”