The International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s Coordination Commission concluded its fifth full visit (25-26 November) to the city of London. With less than 1,000 days to go to the London 2012 Opening Ceremony, the Commission was able to hear about the advances made by the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) and its partners and share its thoughts and experiences on the planning for the Games. The two-day session focused principally on the operational delivery of the Games; and the Commission received in-depth updates on the progress of its operations.
Commenting after the meeting, IOC Coordination Commission Chairman Denis Oswald said, "Once again, we have had very productive meetings with our partners at London 2012 and we are very positive about the progress that they are making in preparing for the Games."
He continued, "It is over a year since the Beijing Games came to a close, and LOCOG has clearly been able to learn from its experiences last year and integrate them into planning for 2012. This was evident from the good discussions and sharing of information that we had around a number of topics including venues, infrastructure, workforce, city preparations and LOCOG's volunteer programme, which will be launched next year. LOCOG also updated us on the proposals to move badminton and rhythmic gymnastics to Wembley Arena and we are satisfied with progress on this issue. LOCOG is discussing the proposal with the two International Federations concerned, and we look forward to hearing LOCOG's position at our Executive Board meeting in December."
LOCOG Chairman Sebastian Coe commented, "We have been incredibly busy in the last seven months. We have brought nine new sponsors to the table and have now raised a total of nearly GBP 600m. We have made significant progress across all our operation planning, from sports schedules and test events to our ticking and volunteer programmes and the detailed venue and city operations. Our organisation is growing into a lean, focused Organising Committee and we are in great shape. We are delighted that the IOC - which, after all, is the expert in staging the Games - is pleased with our progress and we look forward to demonstrating the continued progress when the Commission visits again next year."
With venue construction continuing on or ahead of schedule and the Games drawing ever nearer, the focus of this Coordination Commission was largely on operations and planning than on the excellent construction and regeneration work being carried out by the Olympic Delivery Authority. With this in mind, the Commission spent time discussing with LOCOG and its partners, including the Government and the Mayor of London's office, a number of operational subjects including athlete services, ticketing, city operations, technology, press operations, transport, sport and Paralympic Games operations.
IOC Coordination Commission
The IOC, as the guardian of the Olympic Games, assists and monitors the work of the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games through the work of the Coordination Commission. The Commission visits the host city once a year until four years from the Games, when the visits become twice yearly until the Games are held. The Commission's full meetings are supplemented by the regular visits of smaller IOC teams involving the Commission Chairman, selected members of the Commission and members of the IOC administration. The next Coordination Commission visit will be from 6-8 July 2010.
LONDON 2012
London was elected as the Host City for the Games of the XXX Olympiad on 6 July 2005 at the 117th IOC Session in Singapore. London eventually succeeded in the fourth round of voting, taking 54 votes from a possible 104. London faced stiff opposition during the vote from the other four candidate cities: Paris, New York, Moscow and Madrid. There will be 26 sports on the Olympic programme in London in 2012 and around 10,500 athletes.
See also:
Tourism: Leisure Visitors provide boost to London’s tourism
Attractions: Visitor numbers on the rise at London’s Attractions