Olympic Games 2012

The Summer Olympic Games 2012 is the 30th edition of the Olympiad. It is officially known as London 2012 Olympic Games. London became the only city to host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously organized the games in 1908 and 1948. The Olympic Games scheduled to take place from 27 July 2012 to 12 August 2012. This Mega will make use of 8 most popular venues in England. The Opening ceremony of Summer Olympics 2012 is named as 'The Isles of Wonder'. Oscar Winning director Danny Boyle will be the artistic director for the extravagant opening ceremony.

Sports stars and Athletes from 204 countries are expected to participate in the Mega Event. As of 29 February 2012, 148 nations have qualified at least one athlete. These countries include the likes of Sports superpower nations such as United States, China, Russia, Japan, and Australia.

Bidding Process

On 25 July 2003 the deadline day for submitting bid for Olympics 2012 nine cities submitted bids to host the Olympic Games 2012. The cities were Havana (Cuba), Istanbul (Turkey), Leipzig (Germany), London (United Kingdom), Madrid (Spain), Moscow (Russia), New York City (United States), Paris (France) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).  On 18 May 2004, The International Olympic Committee reduced the number of cities to five: London, Madrid, Moscow, New York, and Paris, based on the result of technical evaluation scores.

The final selection was announced on 6 June 2005 at the Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore, where the 117th IOC Session was held.  Moscow, Madrid and New York City was eliminated after the first three round of voting and the remaining two cities London and Paris went through the fourth round of voting. At the end of fourth round London won the right to host Olympic 2012 with 54 votes and Paris had 50 votes. Prime Minister of United Kingdom Tony Blair was the only leader of the five competing countries to be present in the event.

VENUES

The 2012 Olympic Games will use a mixture of new venues, present and historic amenities, and temporary facilities, some of them in well-known locations such as Hyde Park and Horse Guards Parade. Some of the other venues are resized and renovated according to Olympic association norms.

The majority of venues have been divided into three zones within Greater London; they are the Olympic Zone, the River Zone and the Central Zone. In addition to these are those venues that, by necessity, are outside the boundaries of Greater London, such as the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy on the Isle of Portland in Dorset which will host the sailing events, some 125 miles (200 km) southwest of the Olympic Park. The football tournament will be staged at several grounds around the UK. Work began on the Park in December 2006 when a sports hall in Eton Manor was pulled down. The athletes' village in Portland was completed in September 2011.

The Venues are:

• Wembley Stadium
• Wembley Arena
• Wimbledon All England Club
• Lord's Cricket Ground
• The O2 Arena
• Earls Court Exhibition Centre
• Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy
• Excel Centre

Sports and Events

The 2012 Summer Olympic features 26 sports and a total of 39 disciplines. The 2012 Paralympics Games features 20 sports and 21 disciplines. London's actual bid featured 28 sports, in line with recent Beijing Summer Olympics, but the IOC decided to drop baseball and softball from the 2012 Games two days after it selected London as the host city.

Medals

Medals of Summer Olympics 2012 is produced by Royal Mint, a total of 4700 medals are expected to be produced for the mega event. The medals are designed by David Watkins and are 7mm thick and weigh between 375 to 400 grams. The special feature of these medals is the sports and the discipline is engraved on the rim. The flip side has the Games logo.

Logo

The Logo for 2012 Summer Olympics was designed by Wolff Olins and it represents the number 2012 and the Olympic ring is embedded within the number zero. The same logo is used for both the Olympic and Paralympics games for the first time in the history of the Games. The Logo was officially unveiled on 4 June 2007.

Mascots

Wenlock and Mandeville are the names of the Mascots and it depicts two drops of steel from Bolton's steel works. The name Wenlock originated from the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock, which held a forerunner of the current Olympic Games and Mandeville originated from Stoke Mandeville, a village in Buckinghamshire where a forerunner to the Paralympics Games were first held. Both the Olympic Games and Paralympics Games mascots were unveiled on 19 May 2010.