Strong Partnership Brings Good Progress

The three days of meetings - from 21 to 23 April - and site visits allowed the Commission to fully assess the advances made on the London 2012 project by the local organisers. The Commission was impressed by the good progress that London 2012 has made since its last visit and put this down in no small part to the strong spirit of partnership that is being shown, under the leadership of LOCOG, by all of the stakeholders involved in the Games.

Speaking after the meetings, Commission Chairman Denis Oswald said, “We have been greatly impressed by the good progress that London 2012 has made since our visit last year, particularly in moving from planning to operational delivery. This was evident in all the presentations and discussions we had about LOCOG’s Games time planning, and of course during our visit to the Olympic Park. Seeing the transformation that has taken place in the Lower Lea Valley is nothing short of astounding and this area will be a great legacy for the people of London and Great Britain.”

He continued, “When I visited the Olympic Stadium last year, the foundations were just being laid. Today the main structure has risen from the ground and the roof is already going-on. Other sites such as the aquatic centre, Olympic Village and velodrome are also rapidly growing from the ground and this fast pace of development is no doubt down to the great spirit of cooperation that exists between the different partners involved in the 2012 project. Their ability to work as a team, plan ahead and solve issues together is ensuring that the Games and legacy planning remain on track as we head towards 2012.”

During its visit, the Commission heard updates from the London 2012 Organising Committee and its partners on a number of important areas of Games preparations including transport, accommodation, field of play, sustainability, legacy planning, technology, ticketing, medical services and press operations. These areas of operations were also examined from the perspective of different groups, such as athletes, spectators and media, which allows the Commission to get a global perspective on each subject and an overview of how each group will experience the Games. This helps the commission to guide the Organising Committee, as it enters more and more detailed levels of operational planning.

Oswald commented, “At this stage in preparations, we have seen in all the client focused working groups that London 2012 is moving in the right direction in order to ensure that individuals attending the Games in a little over three years time will have a first class Olympic and Paralympic Games experience. I think LOCOG and its partners deserve credit for the detail and quality of their work, which is also helping to make sure that the Games deliver as much value for money as possible in these economically challenging times.”

He added, “We also heard from LOCOG that it has had good success on the commercial front and has generated just under GBP 500 million worth of sponsorship revenue. This is an important position to be in with the current global financial difficulties and it once again underlines the strength of the Olympic brand.”

Some of the Commission members also visited the Eton Dorney rowing venue during their stay and were impressed with the quality of the venue, as well as the sub-village for the rowing athletes at Royal Holloway College. The next visit of the full Coordination Commission to London will be in November 2009.

NOTE TO EDITORS:

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.

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. 

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