Overview of 2012 London Olympic Games

London beat many other cities, including Paris, to be host to the 2012 Olympic Games. The 2012 London Olympic Games will take place from July 27 to August 12, 2012, followed by the Paralympics Games from August 29 to September 9, 2012. Here, let’s get an overview of this worldwide event.

History
The history of the Olympic Games in London goes back to 1908, when the city stood in as host for Rome after an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The White City Olympic Stadium was built that year especially for the Games. The 1908 Games involved 22 nations, 2,008 athletes (of which only 37 were women) and 110 events. In 1948, London became a last-minute host for the second time, after World War II. New features of the Games in 1948 included starting blocks for the sprinting events and television broadcast of the Games.

Venues
The 2012 London Olympic Games will take place at several venues in the Olympic Park, throughout London and outside the city. The Olympic Park will have an aquatics centre, basketball arena, hockey centre and Olympic Stadium. The Olympic Stadium, which will have a capacity of 80,000, will be the venue for the athletic events and the opening/closing ceremonies. Venues within London include Earls Court, Greenwich Park, Hyde Park, Lord's Cricket Ground, Wembley Arena, Wembley Stadium and Wimbledon. Venues outside the city include City of Coventry Stadium, Hampden Park in Glasgow, Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Old Trafford in Manchester and St. James' Park in Newcastle.

Environmental Issues
The organizers of the London 2012 Games have been mindful of environmental issues throughout the build-up to the Games and have taken unprecedented measures during the construction process. For example, they have carried out the UK's largest ever soil-washing procedure: almost 2 million tons of contaminated soils have been cleaned to be reused on the Olympic Park. The soil was contaminated with arsenic, cyanide, lead, oil, petrol and tar. Additionally, 98 per cent of the demolition material used on the site has been recycled.

Funding
The London 2012 Olympic Games are being funded by two main organizations: the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympics Games (LOCOG) and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). LOCOG is the private-sector company with a budget of £2 billion who are staging the Games. ODA is a public-sector organization funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Greater London Authority, the London Development Agency and the Olympic Lottery Distributor. The ODA is primarily responsible for creating the new venues required for the Games.

Tickets
The easiest way to receive ticket information is to register your details on the official London 2012 website. In 2011 around 8 million tickets will go on sale for the Olympic Games and a further 2 million for the Paralympics Games. Included in the ticket price is free public transport travel in London on the day of the event. A number of events will be free to spectators, such the Triathlon and Marathon, which will take place on streets within the city. In addition, huge screens will show all the latest live action at several sites across the UK.

Many sports fans are lucky enough to have a ticket for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Then, never forget to take a digital camera to record the wonderful games. After recording, you can also use Video to Flash Convert to convert digital camera videos to flash for faster uploading to web. Meanwhile, this software also has version for Mac users – Video to Flash Converter for Mac.