Olympic Athletes see progress on the Park

The Olympic Group follows on from the work of Athletes’ Advisory Group, who played a crucial part in helping London 2012 win the right to host the Games. They will help advise London 2012 organisers about plans for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games from an athlete’s perspective, to ensure that their requirements are factored in to all aspects of the organisation of the Games. This is to give all competitors a chance to compete to the best of their ability in excellent conditions. All Olympic and Paralympic sports are represented on the Group.

The Group will work very closely with Jonathan Edwards, who was elected by the British Athletes Commission’ to sit on the board of the London Organising Committee, the organisation that is making all the arrangements to stage the Games.

Jonathan Edwards commented: "Athletes are the key aspect of the Games and it is important to keep our athletes up to speed, they are our best ambassadors. We are delighted to be able to update them on our plans and to show them the progress we have made with our work on the Olympic Park."

The Olympic Group is chaired by Karen Pickering who said: "It is great to come to the Olympic Park to see for ourselves what is happening and to learn more about London 2012’s plans. We want the London Games to be the best ever and we look forward to feeding into and being part of the plans."

The Group will get updates from London 2012 directors about detailed planning for every sport in the Games, venue planning, and a Paralympic Games update as well as visiting the Olympic Park in Stratford to see progress made.

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For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office on +44 (0)203 2012 100