The Lights Go On At London’s Olympic Stadium

David Cameron, the UK’s Prime Minister, has turned on the lights of London’s new Olympic stadium for the first time. The lighting-up ceremony marks yet another important milestone for the London 2012 Games, as they aim is to finish the stadium in 2011. The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), which is in charge of London’s Olympic construction, has also announced that the installation of the spectator seating has been completed in the stadium, bringing venue completion even closer.

Wonderful Stadium

Following the lighting, Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee, said: “In the summer of 2012, the world's best athletes will be competing for the world's biggest prize in this wonderful stadium. The excitement we all feel today at hitting yet another milestone on the road to 2012 is a taste of things to come, as we seek to inspire the next generation of young people to choose sport, and invite the world to be part of London 2012.”

By The Numbers

The Olympic stadium has been under construction since May 2008 and has 14 towers weighing around 35 tonnes apiece, which support a maximum of 44 floodlights each. The whole stadium is lit by 532 individual 2kW floodlights that are positioned to conform to IAAF standards and current broadcast criteria regarding High Definition filming. The top of eachthe lighting towers isreach 70m above the field of play. The stadium’s running track will be laid next summer.

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.