Showing posts with label london 2012. Show all posts

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Inside the London 2012 velodrome

Spyns started as a small company offering luxury cycling tours for the Tour de France. As time has passed and happy clients have returned, the company has expanded but still kept that small friendly feel. Now that we offer Olympic tours we will have a few cycling clients coming with us to London and checking out the new built velodrome, and the 250km Men and 140km Road Race. We will have VIP refreshment tents set up along the route for our clients only. If you would like to join us for a glass of champagne as the leader passes, check out our website and chat to Ryan about our tour option. www.london-olympiad.com

Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton led a host of Great Britain's track stars, fresh from the Manchester World Cup, for a spin on the boards after the London 2012 velodrome was officially unveiled.

The 6,000-seater velodrome is the first Olympic Park venue to be completed, 23 months after construction began in March 2009.

Hoy, who struck gold three times at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, had a hand in the velodrome's design and was joined by Pendleton, Jason Kenny, Ross Edgar, Shanaze Reade, Pete Mitchell, Jess Varnish, Dave Daniell, Matt Crampton and Becky James on the track.

Racing will begin on August 2, 2012 before climaxing six days later on August 7. Tickets will cost between £20 and £325 and go on sale next month.

"Having been involved in a very small way in the design process in the early stages it is amazing to see the velodrome finally completed," he said.

"And to be able to have ridden on it gives me a feel for what it's going to be like in a year and a half's time. I can't wait."

London 2012 chairman Lord Sebastian Coe added: "This is a stunning venue built for champions, and designed for legacy. The ODA has done a terrific job. Over the next 18 months Locog will be testing the venue and installing the temporary facilities needed for an Olympic and Paralympic competition velodrome.

"The British cycling teams provided many of The team GB superstars in recent Games' and I am proud to see them on the track for the first time."

Read more: http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/event-news/photo-gallery-inside-the-london-2012-velodrome/6291.html#ixzz1EsDAtxsK

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720. www.spyns.com.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

England Finds 2012 Olympics Don’t Spur Exercise

www.london-olympiad.com

At Spyns we are pretty active, you really need to know how to more when running with the bulls in Pamplona www.pamplona-spain.com. We also run tours for Tour de France www.tdf-tours.com so enjoy all sports. If you would like to be another one of our happy clients, we invite you to come with us to London in 2012 and experience what it is like to be given the Spyns experience.

When London was awarded the 2012 Olympics, organizers promised an ambitious legacy: to get two million more people in England involved in sports and physical activity.

But with the Games in less than 18 months, that commitment now resembles a wheezing jogger, bent over and winded from a New Year’s resolution whose ambition could not be matched by exertion.

London’s original pledge evolved into a plan to get one million more people around England playing sports three or more times a week for at least 30 minutes at a time, known as the 3x30 plan. Even that target is proving elusive.

Figures issued in December by Sport England, the governing body for community sports, indicated that participation at the 3x30 level had increased by 123,000 since 2007-8, when the one million baseline was established. But that number increased by only 8,000 in the last year. At the current rate, the goal of one million new participants would not be reached in 2012-13 as hoped but more than a decade later in 2023-24.

Meanwhile, in a country that is among the fattest in Europe, the number of couch potatoes apparently continues to grow. Surveys by Sport England indicate that the number of adults doing zero moderate sports activity rose by nearly 300,000 from 2005, when London was awarded the Olympics, to the fall of 2010.

Inadequate planning, a change in government, severe funding cutbacks to sports organizations and an apparent overestimation of the impact the Olympics can have on mass participation have all forced a rethinking of England’s Olympic legacy.

The latest plan, unveiled in November by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, omitted the one million target figure. It spoke instead of encouraging more people to take up sports through Places People Play, a program sponsored by the National Lottery.

“We haven’t yet dropped the target, but we’re looking at it fairly carefully,” Hugh Robertson, Britain’s minister for sport and the Olympics, said in a telephone interview.

What is needed is a more sensible way to define and measure sports and physical activity, Mr. Robertson and other sports experts said. Does walking to the bus stop count? If someone plays a pickup soccer match for 90 minutes, does that count as one sporting session or three?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that more people participate in sports than surveys reveal, Mr. Robertson said. But, he added, measuring participation involves a “slightly clunky mechanism.”

All Olympic bids are required to show how the Games will provide lasting benefits. Each city is allowed to devise a legacy plan. There are no specific penalties for failing to reach a target, but the fallout can undermine the reputation of a particular Winter or Summer Games and bring political opprobrium.

Some critics have accused Mr. Robertson of watering down London’s post-Olympic ambitions. He replied, “That’s emphatically what we’re not trying to do.”

Darryl Seibel, a spokesman for the British Olympic Association, said sports and government officials were determined to leave a meaningful legacy from the London Games and to transform plans “from rhetoric to reality.”

London is hardly the first host city to struggle with its Olympic legacy. In truth, international events like the Olympics and soccer’s World Cup leave a greater discernible impact on infrastructure than on sports. Roads, airports and rail systems are improved while a number of stadiums become white elephants and lingering sporting benefits remain indistinct.

Six years after Albertville, France, hosted the 1992 Winter Olympics, the figure-skating arena and speed-skating oval there were fenced off and abandoned. The magnificent Olympic stadium showcased during the 2008 Beijing Games, known as the Bird’s Nest, was seldom being used a year and a half later.

In London, there has been heated debate about whether its $854 million Olympic Stadium should be demolished after 17 days’ use and replaced with a soccer stadium or downsized and left as an arena that could host both soccer and track and field. The second option prevailed Friday in a vote by the company in charge of the Games’ legacy.

Research on the Olympic Games stimulating mass participation in sports has not produced encouraging results. In 2007, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the British House of Commons concluded that “no host country has yet been able to demonstrate a direct benefit from the Olympic Games in the form of a lasting increase in participation.”

A study of the 2000 Sydney Games showed that while seven Olympic sports experienced a slight increase afterward in Australia, nine showed a decline.

After the 2002 Commonwealth Games, held in Manchester, England, “there appears to have been no recorded impact on sports participation levels” in the country’s northwest, Fred Coalter, a professor of sports studies at the University of Stirling in Scotland, wrote before London won the 2012 Olympic bid.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Argentina out of London Olympic Games

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At Spyns we have 5, 7, and 10 day London 2012 adventure available. Our Gold tours include a 5 star hotel suite, dinner at Gordon Ramsay restaurant, and Champagne tour of the London Eye....... If you would like more information, check out www.spyns.com or www.london-olympiad.com
Argentina will not defend their men's Olympic football title in London next year after they were pipped to the two South American qualifying places by Brazil and Uruguay at the weekend.

Brazil, who need the Olympic title to complete a full array of the major footballing prizes, won their third successive South American under-20 title in Peru with a 6-0 victory over Uruguay in their final match.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

New images depict how key London 2012 venues will look during Olympic Games

www.london-olympiad.com

Spyns is excited to be releasing tour information shortly. We have a package of 5, 7, and 10 day tours starting from the opening ceremony through to the closing ceremony. All tours include handpicked Hotels in central London with easy access to Olympic Park, as well as added extras like London walking tours, luxury dining, river cruises....... If you would like to join in and be one of your many happy customers, have a get in contact with me through our websites www.spyns.com, and www.london-olympiad.com

London 2012 - along with Populous, Atkins and Drivers Jonas Deloitte - have issued new images showing what Lord's Cricket Ground for archery, the Lee Valley White Water Centre for canoe slalom and Greenwich Park for equestrian and modern pentathlon will look like during the Olympic Games.

The images aim to illustrate the work done to enable more than 120 world class temporary venues to be created for over 20,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and 10 million ticketed spectators to experience.

James Bulley, the London 2012 Director of Venues and Infrastructure, said: "The London 2012 Games will deliver what no other Games has before in terms of the complexity and scale of the event overlay and temporary structures needed.

"Alongside the absolute commitment to meet the Games requirements, central to our plans have been legacy, sustainability, accessibility and safety.

"Our vision for the London 2012 venues is the integration with London's historic and iconic landmarks alongside our existing world class stadiums and sporting arenas.

"Our combined overlay team are world class and will deliver the technical excellence required to make this a spectacular Games."

The London 2012 Games are unique for their innovative approach to the use of temporary and existing venues both on and off the Olympic Park.

From Horse Guard's Parade for beach volleyball to Wimbledon for tennis, London is being used as the stunning backdrop for events hosted in entirely temporary venues.

Working together to create these sites, and under the direction of London 2012, Populous, Atkins and Drivers Jonas Deloitte have developed all aspects of the venues from the look and feel, the user experience, the delivery of seating, accommodation and landscaping, as well as back of house requirements including power, water and lighting, together bringing an innovative approach to the delivery of London 2012.

Jeff Keas, Principal of Populous, said: "Sport is at the core of the overlay project, but more than that, we have focused on London as the backdrop.

"This means ensuring wherever we can that either the historic buildings at venues like Greenwich Park or Lord's, or the iconic London skyline, remain in sight for spectators whilst creating an intimate atmosphere for the athletes.

Steve Cardwell, Atkins Director and Design Manager, said: "The unique approach taken towards temporary venues for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has presented fantastic opportunities to think differently about the delivery of major sporting venues.

"As a result we have in essence had to go back to first principles, and are proud of the innovative, light touch, and sustainable solutions we have developed with our partners."

Stephen Jepson, Director in Drivers Jonas Deloitte's Sport team, added: "The venues we are project managing at Greenwich Park, Horse Guards Parade, the Mall and Hyde Park are entirely temporary and present an exciting challenge.

"We have spent a great deal of time understanding the site constraints and making sure the way in which each venue is delivered is done sensitively and ensures there is no long term impact.

"This gives us the confidence that it will be delivered - after all we can't change the delivery deadline."

In total, the overlay project for the London 2012 Olympics will include 250,000 temporary seats, 165,000 square metres of tents and 2,500 cabins.

A further 140 kilometres of fencing will be used while 250 kilometres of crowd barriers are set to be in place for the Games.

Friday, February 18, 2011

London 2012 to have strawberries and cream factor

www.london-olympiad.com

Spyns has been in London finding the best hotel suites and restaurants for our 2012 Olympic clients. If you would like to have a stress free Olympic experience, get in contact with us via www.spyns.com or www.london-olympiad.com and let us take care of the rest. Who knows, you might find strawberries and cream in your hotel room, along with a bottle of champagne to celebrate a special occasion. It’s just part of the pleasure and surprise of travelling with Spyns.

LONDON — The London 2012 Olympics will have the feel of an English summer event, organisers said Thursday, bringing the strawberries and cream flavour and the open-air festival spirit to the Games.

The team designing the venues said the atmosphere of unmistakeably British classic sports events like the Wimbledon tennis championships and the Royal Ascot races had been ingrained into their designs.

They want to replicate the English summer culture, when people revel in the chance to enjoy warm weather, long evenings and an outdoor garden party.

The organising committee of the July 27-August 12 Games have also tried to show off the best of the city in their venue design, using the capital's iconic landmarks as a backdrop to competition sites outside the main Olympic Park in east London.

Venues and infrastructure director James Bulley told AFP that the Englishness factor would be a key part of forging a successful Games.

"If you look at some of our annual events running through the summer, whether it's Ascot, the Henley rowing regatta or Wimbledon, they all have a real Britishness about them," he said.

"We're trying to capture that in the designs, the feel and the look and the way in which we'll be able to enable our spectators to enjoy the experience.

"We'll enable that open-air, al fresco, picnicking feel for our spectators to really enjoy the space -- and watch the sport, of course."

The LOCOG designers looked at events such as the 1951 Festival of Britain, its delight in post-war innovation and the legacy of buildings it left for London.

They also studied the English love of parks and gardens, the street parties that break out for major national events, and the sheer fun of enjoying the precious summer months.

"This is the scene we want to set," said London 2012 venue designer John Barrow, a senior principal with architects Populous.

His team examined Sydney 2000 and Barcelona 1992 to see what made a successful Olympics.

"So when it came to London, the team said: 'What is quintessentially London, what is quintessentially English?' That's the sort of experience we're trying to drive through," he told AFP.

"It's actually a very simple model. It's park, garden, enjoyment, relaxation.

"All of those things speak to having a lot more fun in the Olympics," he said, otherwise "it won't have that fizz".

The designers have come up with several horseshoe-shaped venues to capitalise on views of London landmarks.

They include the beach volleyball arena in the historic Horse Guards Parade ground and the equestrian centre at Greenwich Park, which open up onto a view of the Royal Naval College and the Canary Wharf business district towers.

"We've chosen fantastic, superb locations in London, we want to showcase them," Bulley said.

"As the broadcast images go out around the world to our four billion viewers, they'll know this is very much a London Games."

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

2012 Olympics admits aquatics centre is a race against time

www.london-olympiad.com

Spyns has been busy booking Gordon Ramsay restaurants and finding the best suites in London for our 2012 clients. If you would like some information on our tours, email me at henry@london-olympiad.com or check out our website. www.london-olympiad.com

Target end date for construction of the £262m structure has already slipped from April to June this year

The £268m Aquatics centre, which has soared in cost from the £73m originally cited in London's bid book, will contain two 50-metre pools, a 25m diving pool and associated training facilities.

A new National Audit Office report into the 2012 Olympics has underlined the extent to which security costs have risen and warned that timing is "becoming tight" to hand over the aquatics centre to organisers.

But the fifth NAO report into preparations for the Games concludes that preparations are going well overall and that the Olympic Delivery Authority, the body charged with spending £8.1bn of public money constructing the Olympic venues, remains on course to deliver.

The ODA's recently appointed chief executive Dennis Hone has acknowledged that it faced a race against time to hand over the Zaha Hadid-designed aquatics centre to the organising committee by July.

The NAO reports that the target end date for construction of the £262m structure has already slipped from April to June this year "because the design and fabrication of the roof steel, which proved more complex and protracted than envisaged, has affected the rest of the project".

In response to earlier NAO calls to finalise the cost of venue security during Games-time, which was not separately accounted for in earlier versions of the budget, the overall cost has risen.

Although the NAO reports that the Home Office has predicted it will be able to deliver policing for £475m, rather than the £600m originally budgeted for, the £282m allocated to Locog to provide venue security from within the overall £9.3bn public sector funding package has pushed the overall cost £757m.

Although it acknowledges that risks have been reduced as the construction phase of the project nears completion, the NAO warns that the final cost remains "inherently uncertain". Of the original £2.75bn in contingency funding, £974m remains.

"As there can be no guarantee that the remaining contingency will be sufficient to cover further unknown risks to the Games, the GOE should have plans for how it will meet any requirement for extra funding which cannot be met from within the remaining contingency," said the NAO.

The report also calls on the government to carry out work to estimate the net benefits that will accrue to the UK that can directly be attributed to the Games, in order to help it measure progress towards delivering on legacy targets.

"Good progress is being made in the preparations for the 2012 London Games which will begin in 17 months. All construction and infrastructure projects are forecast to be completed on time, albeit in two cases with little room to spare before the deadline for handover to Locog, the Games organiser, and operational planning has improved," said Amyas Morse, head of the NAO.

"However, the final cost of the Games to the taxpayer is inherently uncertain and as the Games near there will be less flexibility to make savings in response to any unforeseen financial pressures."

Lord Coe, the Locog chairman, said he was confident that the 8.8m tickets for the Games due to go on sale on 15 March would sell out. This week, the schedule and pricing details were published for the first time.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The schedule of events for the London 2012 Olympic Games has been released.

www.london-olympiad.com

Spyns is excited to see the full 2012 London Olympic schedule released today. We will be running 5, 7, and 10 day tours spanning for the opening ceremony to the closing ceremony. If you would like more information on our luxury packages or sign up and become one of our many excited clients, check out our website www.london-olympiad.com

The first action will be women's football in Cardiff, Glasgow and Coventry on 25 July, two days before the official opening of the Games.

The middle weekend promises to be unmissable, with British trio Jessica Ennis, Christine Ohuruogu and Paula Radcliffe set to be going for gold.

The men's 100m final, with Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt likely to be centre stage, takes place on Sunday, 5 August.

The dates, times, venues and prices for more than 600 sessions of competition across all 26 Olympic sports will be emailed to the 2.2m people who have signed up for information ahead of tickets going on sale on 15 March.

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe described them as the "greatest tickets on earth for the greatest show on earth".

Double Olympic champion Coe said: "This is a really big moment, a huge moment.

"In my own experience as a competitor this is the point that it suddenly becomes very real.

"I remember this point in the build-up to Los Angeles, and suddenly realising I was going to be running seven races in nine days.

"We are now getting to the business end of the project and we know from the number of people who have signed up for ticket information that there is a real hunger from all parts of the country to be there."

After the women's football group games on Wednesday and the men's on Thursday, the opening ceremony of the Games will take place inside the Olympic stadium at 1930 BST on Friday, 27 July.

Mark Cavendish could capture Britain's first gold of the Games in the men's cycling road race the following day.

Attention will turn to the Aquatics Centre on Sunday, 29 July, where swimmer Rebecca Adlington hopes to be defending her gold medal in the women's 400m freestyle.

On Monday, 30 July, swimming legends Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe could be going head-to-head in the men's 200m freestyle, while Tom Daley expects to be competing for his first medal of the Games in the 10m synchronised platform diving final.

Rowing, taking place at Eton Dorney, will also feature heavily in the opening week, with Greg Searle's comeback 20 years after his Barcelona 1992 gold set to be one of the Games' most romantic tales.

Track cycling, dominated by the British at Beijing in 2008, gets underway at the velodrome on Thursday, 2 August with Sir Chris Hoy hoping to lead the hosts to gold in the men's team sprint.

The Olympic Stadium's track and field events begin on the Friday, with Ennis in line to begin her quest for heptathlon gold and finals in the women's 10,000m and the men's shot put.

Saturday, 4 August is already being dubbed as "Super Saturday" with the climax of the heptathlon competition and the women's 100m final taking prime-time slots. The Olympic rowing and swimming competitions will also reach a conclusion.

The following day features an equally mouth-watering array of sport, with Radcliffe and Ohuruogu hoping to be involved in the women's marathon and 400m final respectively, before a potentially electrifying showdown between Bolt and American Tyson Gay in the men's 100m.

Coe added: "We can already start to picture what might happen. There is a recognition now that the men's 100m is a pretty serious moment and we have planned that to be fairly early on the evening of that Sunday.

"The things people remember are head-to-heads and we could potentially have one of the best given that Tyson Gay is going to make this a really tough run for Usain Bolt."

Also on the middle Sunday, British gymnast Louis Smith should be aiming to surpass his Beijing bronze on the pommel horse at the O2 arena, Ben Ainslie could be lining up to add to his three Olympic titles off the coast of Weymouth and the men's single's final will take place at Wimbledon.

Hoy and gymnast Beth Tweddle should be in action on Monday 6 August with Alistair Brownlee expected to be vying for a home gold medal in the men's Hyde Park triathlon the following day.

Canoeist-cum-doctor Tim Brabants, a gold medallist in Beijing, hopes to defend his kayak single 1000m title at Eton Dorney on Wednesday 8 August.

On Thursday, 9 August, Phillips Idowu could be adding an Olympic title to his world and European crowns in the triple jump final, while the women's football final takes place at Wembley.

The men's football final is on the concluding Saturday of the Games when the athletics programme reaches a finale and Daley competes in the individual 10m platform dive.

British boxers Tom Stalker and Bradley Saunders will hope to still be involved when the medals are decided on the final day of the Olympics on Sunday, 12 August

Sunday, February 13, 2011

A look at the Eco-friendly Olympic Water Polo Arena

www.london-olympiad.com

Specialised: water polo will have its own

arena on the Olympic Park site

At Spyns we are busy planning our client’s adventures in the London. We have 5, 7, and 10 day tours available for every budget. Our Gold class tours is our premium package with suites reserved at London’s finest Hotel and it includes dinners with chef including Gordon Ramsey’s. Our Silver package is still extravagant; we have suites at a brand new central located luxury hotel, dinners and London tours. While our Bronze tour is designed for the Olympic goers who is happy to experience London by themselves all the while staying at a luxury hotel on the Thames.

Specialised: water polo will have its own arena on the Olympic Park site

Hosting: Water Polo
Schedule: Water Polo: 29 July – 12 August
Capacity: 5,000
Fact: The Aquatics Centre and Water Polo Arena will be adjacent to each other in one of the most tightly-packed areas of the Olympic Park.
Test event: planned for 2012
Post games: the arena will be taken down, although it is expected that materials will be reused or recycled.
Transport: Stratford (DLR, London Underground, National Rail) West Ham (London Underground, National Rail)

Possibly the only elite sporting venue in the world to be built from recycled cushions, the water polo arena is a temporary venue located next to the Aquatics Centre in the south-east corner of the Olympic Park. The venue will feature a 37-metre competition pool and warm-up pool.

Designed to complement the look of the Aquatics Centre, the wedge-shaped arena will rise from 12 metres to 25 metres and feature a rippling roof made of recycled PVC cushions inflated with air to provide extra insulation.

It will share some of the Aquatics Centre’s back-of-house facilities such as catering, security and the area for broadcasters.
After the Games, the arena will be taken down. Various parts of the dismantled venue are due to be re-used or relocated elsewhere in the UK

Thursday, February 10, 2011

London 2012 Olympics road race route details emerge

www.london-olympiad.com

Spyns started as a small company offering luxury cycling tours for the Tour de France. As time has passed and happy clients have returned, the company has expanded but still kept that small friendly feel. Now that we offer Olympic tours we will have a few cycling clients coming with us to London and checking out the 250km Men and 140km Road Race. We will have VIP refreshment tents set up along the route for our clients only. If you would like to join us for a glass of champagne as the leader passes, check out our website and chat to Ryan about our tour option. www.london-olympiad.com

London 2012 Olympics road race route details emerge

Road racing at the 2012 Olympics will begin and end on The Mall, in front of Buckingham Palace.

Details have today emerged of the road race route for the 2012 London Olympics. The event looks set to end in spectacular style, with riders sprinting down The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.

Both the men's and women's races will also start at The Mall, with riders heading from there to the City of Westminster before crossing the River Thames at Putney. As expected, they'll then head to the undulating terrain of the Surrey Hills, south-west of the English capital.

There, they'll follow a figure-of-eight course, with a diversion around Box Hill which could provide a launching pad for breakaway attempts. The peloton will then return to central London via Richmond Park, crossing back over Putney Bridge before a final race through the streets of the city centre towards The Mall. The men will cover 265km, while the women will race over 140km.

A course for Cavendish?

With a relatively flat final 15km, the race could offer Mark Cavendish a prime opportunity for an Olympic gold medal in front of a home crowd. It would be the first true sprinters' finish to an Olympic road race since 1996, when professional riders were allowed to compete for the first time. The past five Olympic road races have been decided by breakaways.

Italy's Fabio Casartelli (Barcelona, 1992), Switzerland's Pascal Richard (Atlanta, 1996), Germany's Jan Ullrich (Sydney, 2000) and Spain's Samuel Sanchez (Beijing, 2008) all took victory from small groups, while Italy's Paolo Bettini claimed his gold medal with a successful solo attack in Athens in 2004.

Similar results have been observed in the women's race, with Australia's Sara Carrigan matching Bettini's solo endeavour and Britain's Nicole Cooke winning from a small group in Beijing.

Spectator-friendly

London proved its ability to host a world-class cycling event when it hosted the Tour de France's Grand Depart in 2007. The Olympic route appears to continue that tradition with the spectator-friendly course designed for 2012.

The route looks set to avoid the controversy faced by organisers of the Beijing Olympic road race, which was criticised by riders and observers alike for the absence of spectators and atmosphere along its course. The sections through London will offer many thousands of people a chance to watch the race, with the Surrey Hills also offering a number of options for fans.

In central London, spectators will enjoy vantage points in the boroughs of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, Wandsworth, Richmond and Kingston.

Points of interest on the Olympic route will include Buckingham Palace, Richmond Park, Twickenham, Teddington, Bushy Park and Hampton Court Palace, as well the Surrey districts of Elmbridge, Reigate and Banstead, Guildford and Woking, and Mole Valley. The climb to the top of Box Hill is likely to be one of the most popular vantage points.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Baseball and Softball out of the Olympics - Here is your 2012 update

www.london-olympiad.com

Spyns is excited for the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games. When you start planning client trips two years before a client arrives, you get to choose the best adventures and hotels. Here is a look ahead to London 2012.....

When London hosts the Games of the XXX Olympiad from July 27 - August 12, 2012, it will become the first city to stage the Olympics three times (Athens and Paris have hosted the Summer Games twice, and Lake Placid and St. Moritz have held the Olympic Winter Games twice.)

In 2012, London will become the first city to host the Olympics for the third time.

London also hosted the Games in 1908 and 1948, and both times played a vital role in the development of the modern Olympic movement. London's first go-round, held just 12 years after the first modern Olympics, set a new standard for host cities, particularly with respect to organization. In 1948, London was the site of the Olympics' revival after a 12-year absence because of World War II. Those Games, held in spite of the ruins of the war, were subdued in tone but not in meaning, as the Olympics have been held every four years since.

Sixty-four years later, London will confront a different type of challenge - following the majestic Beijing Games, which re-defined Olympic grandiosity with what was essentially an unlimited budget. London will have no such fiscal luxury, but it does have several other things going for it - principally the ability to integrate historic sites and venues with fresh locales.

Tennis will be played on Wimbledon's prestigious lawns, soccer at the venerable Wembley Stadium. Beach volleyball - one of the Olympics' newer sensations - will be held at the Horse Guards Parade in the shadows of Buckingham Palace. Hyde Park, steeped in 400 years of history, will host triathlon.

As for the new, London's Olympic Park in the East End - an area that was heavily bombed during World War II and has recently been industrially contaminated land - is the largest urban development in more than a century. One of the goals for the Park will be to bring the festival nature of the Games to life with riverside gardens, markets, events, cafes and bars. The Olympic Park will be the site of the new 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium, which will host track and field and the opening and closing ceremonies. The Stadium is on an "island" site - surrounded by waterways on three sides. Spectators will be able to reach it via five bridges that connect it to the surrounding area.

The signature venue of the Games - perhaps fittingly given the ever-growing international presence of the sport - should be the new Aquatics Centre, also housed in Olympic Park. Organizers are calling it the "gateway" to the Park, and in an effort to blend form and function, it will feature a wave-like roof that is likely to provide one of the lasting architectural images of the Games.

The sports program itself will have two notable absences from the Beijing Games, as baseball and softball have been dropped from the Olympic slate. No new sports have been added, though several new disciplines will be contested. Primary additions include women's boxing for the first time at an Olympics, and a re-configuring of the track cycling program. In Beijing, there were seven track cycling events for men and three for women; each gender will have five track cycling events in London. Also, tennis has added a mixed doubles competition.

Back in July 2005, when London was awarded these Games, Lord Sebastian Coe, the two-time 1500m Olympic champion who has led the London 2012 effort since the bid phase, declared: "This is our moment. It's massive. It's huge. This is the biggest prize in sport."

We won't know for two years what Coe and his team have done with that prize, but it's shaping up to be a Games rich from both honoring the past and embracing new birth - in terms of geography, venues, and sport.

Olympic Game Tours London 2012

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Inside the London 2012 velodrome

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

England Finds 2012 Olympics Don’t Spur Exercise

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Argentina out of London Olympic Games

Saturday, February 19, 2011

New images depict how key London 2012 venues will look during Olympic Games

Friday, February 18, 2011

London 2012 to have strawberries and cream factor

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

2012 Olympics admits aquatics centre is a race against time

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The schedule of events for the London 2012 Olympic Games has been released.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

A look at the Eco-friendly Olympic Water Polo Arena

Thursday, February 10, 2011

London 2012 Olympics road race route details emerge

London 2012 Olympics road race route details emerge

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Baseball and Softball out of the Olympics - Here is your 2012 update

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