THE MEDIA & MOVIES ARE UNJUSTLY SCARING THE WORLD ABOUT 2012

FIRST HEAR NASA's Dr. DONALD YEOMANS EXPLAIN 2012 & THE CALENDAR IT IS BASED ON.

THEN

LISTEN TO THE EXPERTISE OF WORLD-RENOWNED PLANETARY ASTRONOMER -

NASA's DR. DAVID MORRISON. HE WILL GIVE YOU ALL THE FACTS.

AFTER THE VIDEOS, PLEASE READ THE ARTICLES BELOW.

THE TOP ARTICLE WILL SET YOU STRAIGHT ABOUT THIS NONSENSE

BELOW IT I HAVE INCLUDED TWO REAL AND GREAT 2012 EVENTS -

THE TRANSIT OF VENUS & THE SUMMER OLYMPICS IN LONDON

THE NEXT TRANSIT OF VENUS AFTER 2012 IS NOT UNTIL 2117

(Shown Near the Bottom of This Page)

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The Great 2012 Scare

November 11, 2009

by The Editors of Sky & Telescope at SkyandTelescope.com

As we told you in this space a month ago, the world is in no danger of ending on December 21, 2012 — contrary to anything you might be hearing recently.

If your friends and family are worried about the impending disaster — supposedly based on an ancient Mayan prophecy — we have the stuff you need to tell them. To make a long story short, December 21, 2012, really is a big flip-the-page date in the ancient Mayans' calendar — but they didn't believe the world would end then. And all the planetary and galactical lineups that doom-mongers are trying to associate with that date are flat-out wrong. Noted archaeoastronomer E. C. Krupp explains all the details, and the history of this mania, in the November 2009 issue of Sky & Telescope. The November issue is no longer available on newsstands, so we're making Krupp's article available as a PDF.

While you're at it, read S&T editor-in-chief Robert Naeye's article about cosmic disasters that actually could happen — but aren't likely to within the lifetime of anyone reading this.

Click Here to Download a 1-Mb PDF of Krupp's Article on the 2012 Scare.

Click Here to Download a 1.5-Mb PDF of Naeye's Article on Real Dangers.

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Site Map

On June 8, 2004, observers around much of the world saw Venus drift across the face of the sun as Venus passed between the sun and earth. What a sight it was!

The next transit of Venus occurs in June 2012. You don't want to miss it. THE NEXT ONE IS NOT UNTIL THE YEAR 2117!

Images from the Transit of Venus celebration in Mishawaka, Indiana, USA, are at june8.htm.

A transit of Venus is so rare that, up to June 8, 2004, no human then alive had witnessed this celestial event. Simple as transits may seem, they are instrumental in defining our place in the cosmos. Historically, global expeditions timed transits of Venus to quantify the size of the solar system. In the modern era, astronomers use spacecraft and other techniques to seek earth-class planets transiting distant stars. Then next transit of Venus is June 5-6, 2012.

"Transit of Venus dot org" will guide you to instructions for safe viewing; interactive education and hands-on activities; global observing programs for students; background information and tutorials; insights into historical endeavors and the adventures of explorers; the role of spacecraft and the search for extra-solar planets; and miscellaneous items relating to the transit of Venus.

Google's Zeitgeist feature rated the Transit of Venus as the

#1 Most Popular Event of June 2004.

BELOW IS A GREAT ARTICLE WITH PHOTOS OF THE LAST TRANSIT OF VENUS ON 2004 JUNE 8

BY WILLIAM GOULD

8. Adam Hart-Davies (centre, in front of large screen) presented a BBC/Open University programme in the "Stardate" series on the transit event. The programme was done in segments throughout the morning and shown at 11:30p.m. that night. Here he and the rest of the crew take a break between takes.

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Last revised: 2011 Oct 12 - F. Espenak

Background

The second of the two 21^st-century transits of Venus will not be visible in its entirety from the British Isles. The latter stages of the transit will be in progress during sunrise. This transit favours observers in eastern parts of Asia and Australasia, and parts of the north western America. Sadly, people living in the southern part of South America miss out on both of the 21^st-century transits of Venus.

Visibility

Venus will cross the disc of the Sun on 2012 June 5^th-6^th. The map above shows the visibility of the event. The entire transit will be seen from north-west Canada, Alaska, eastern and northern Asia, the eastern half of Australia, New Zealand and the islands of the Western Pacific Ocean. The Sun will set while the transit is in progress in the grey area encompassing eastern Canada, the United States, central America and the north-western part of South America. The Sun will rise while the transit is in progress in the grey area taking in south-west Asia, eastern Russia, the Middle East, north-eastern parts of Africa and most of Europe, including the British Isles. The yellow lines on the diagram show the position of the terminator, where the Sun is either rising or setting, at the key phases of the transit.

Geocentric Circumstances

The geocentric circumstances of the transit are shown in the diagram to the right. During the transit, the diameter of the Sun is 1891.4 arcseconds and that of Venus is 57.8 arcseconds. In other words, the diameter of Venus is 0.03 that of the Sun, making it look like a rapidly moving sunspot. The whole transit lasts just under six and three quarter hours.

All timings are in Universal Time (UT) which is 5 hours ahead of EST and 4 Hours ahead of EDT.

The Transit from the United Kingdom

To convert to British Summer Time (BST), add one hour to the Universal Time.

In the United Kingdom, the transit ends between one and one and a half hours after sunrise depending on your location. Taking London as an example, sunrise occurs at 03^h46^m (UT) in the north-eastern sky. The final stages of the transit are in progress at sunrise. Venus starts to cross the solar limb at interior egress at 04^h37^m (UT), and the transit ends with exterior egress at 04^h55^m (UT).

The progress of the transit is summarized in the diagram below. The left-hand panel shows the movement of the Venus across the solar disc. The top of the diagram points to the zenith, the point directly overhead. The position of Venus is marked every UT hour. The right-hand panel shows the movement of the Sun in the sky. At the beginning of the transit, the Sun is below the horizon. By the end of the transit the Sun is east north east at an altitude of just over 10°.

Local Circumstances for Great Britain

Summary plots like the one shown above and animations showing the motion of Venus relative to the Sun as seen by someone observing the transit through appropriate eye protection are available for several locations across the UK and Ireland. The summary gif files are ~18Kb and the animations are ~200Kb. To view the animations properly, it may be better to download the animations and view them locally.

Other transits available:

© Crown Copyright

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Planetary Transits Across the Sun

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/transit.html

Transit of Mercury on 1973 Nov 10

The transit or passage of a planet across the disk of the Sun may be thought of as a special kind of eclipse. As seen from Earth, only transits of the inner planets Mercury and Venus are possible. Planetary transits are far more rare than eclipses of the Sun by the Moon. On the average, there are 13 transits of Mercury each century. In comparison, transits of Venus usually occur in pairs with eight years separating the two events. However, more than a century elapses between each transit pair. The first transit ever observed was of the planet Mercury in 1631 by the French astronomer Gassendi. A transit of Venus occurred just one month later but Gassendi's attempt to observe it failed because the transit was not visible from Europe. In 1639, Jerimiah Horrocks and William Crabtree became the first to witness a transit of Venus.

At the present time, all transits of Mercury fall within several days of May 08 and November 10. Since Mercury's orbit is inclined seven degrees to Earth's, it intersects the ecliptic at two points or nodes which cross the Sun each year on those dates. If Mercury passes through inferior conjunction at that time, a transit will occur. During November transits, Mercury is near perihelion and exhibits a disk only 10 arc-seconds in diameter. By comparison, the planet is near aphelion during May transits and appears 12 arc-seconds across. However, the probability of a May transit is smaller by a factor of almost two. Mercury's slower orbital motion at aphelion makes it less likely to cross the node during the critical period. November transits recur at intervals of 7, 13, or 33 years while May transits recur only over the latter two intervals. The following table lists all transits of Mercury from 1901 through 2050. For a more complete and detailed list,

See Seven Century Catalog of Mercury Transits: 1600 CE to 2300 CE.

Transits of Mercury: 1901-2050

Date Universal Separation*

Time (Sun and Mercury)

1907 Nov 14 12:06 759"

1914 Nov 07 12:02 631"

1924 May 08 01:41 85"

1927 Nov 10 05:44 129"

1937 May 11 09:00 955"

1940 Nov 11 23:20 368"

1953 Nov 14 16:54 862"

1957 May 06 01:14 907"

1960 Nov 07 16:53 528"

1970 May 09 08:16 114"

1973 Nov 10 10:32 26"

1986 Nov 13 04:07 471"

1993 Nov 06 03:57 927"

1999 Nov 15 21:41 963" (graze)

2003 May 07 07:52 708"

2006 Nov 08 21:41 423"

2016 May 09 14:57 319"

2019 Nov 11 15:20 76"

2032 Nov 13 08:54 572"

2039 Nov 07 08:46 822"

2049 May 07 14:24 512"

* distance (arc-seconds) between the centers of the Sun and Mercury

To determine whether a transit of Mercury is visible from a specific geographic location, it is simply a matter of calculating the Sun's altitude and azimuth during each phase of the transit using information tabulated in the Seven Century Catalog of Mercury Transit. For the relevant equations and a sample calculation , see Transit Visibility. This web page also has links to several Excel files which perform the calculations automatically when the user inputs the latitude and longitude of any location.

In 1716, Edmond Halley published a paper describing exactly how transits could be used to measure the Sun's distance, thereby establishing the absolute scale of the solar system from Kepler's third law. Unfortunately, his method proved somewhat impractical since contact timings of the required accuracy are difficult to make. Nevertheless, the 1761 and 1769 expeditions to observe the transits of Venus gave astronomers their first good value for the Sun's distance.

Photograph of the Transit of Venus on 1882 Dec 06.

Taken by students at Vassar College (Sky & Telescope Feb. 1961).

Because Venus's orbit is considerably larger than Mercury's orbit, transits of Venus are much rarer. Indeed, only six such events have occurred since the invention of the telescope (1631,1639, 1761,1769, 1874 and 1882). Transits of Venus are only possible during early December and June when Venus's orbital nodes pass across the Sun. Transits of Venus show a clear pattern of recurrence at intervals of 8, 121.5, 8 and 105.5 years. The following table lists all transits of Venus during the 800 year period from 1601 through 2400.

For a more complete and detailed list See Six Millennium Catalog of Venus Transits: 2000 BCE to 4000 CE.

Transits of Venus: 1601-2400

Date Universal Separation

Time (Sun and Venus)

1631 Dec 07 05:19 940"

1639 Dec 04 18:25 522"

1761 Jun 06 05:19 573"

1769 Jun 03 22:25 608"

1874 Dec 09 04:05 832"

1882 Dec 06 17:06 634"

2004 Jun 08 08:19 627"

2012 Jun 06 01:28 553"

2117 Dec 11 02:48 724"

2125 Dec 08 16:01 733"

2247 Jun 11 11:30 693"

2255 Jun 09 04:36 492"

2360 Dec 13 01:40 628"

2368 Dec 10 14:43 835"

To determine whether a transit of Venus is visible from a specific geographic location, it is simply a matter of calculating the Sun's altitude and azimuth during each phase of the transit using information tabulated in the Six Millennium Catalog of Venus Transits. For the relevant equations and a sample calculation , see Transit Visibility. This web page also has links to several Excel files which perform the calculations automatically when the user inputs the latitude and longitude of any location.

The 2004 transit of Venus was visible from Europe, Africa and Asia. However, the final stages of the event were also visible from the eastern USA and Canada. Complete details can be found at 2004 Transit of Venus.

The 2012 transit of Venus will be visible from North America, the Pacific, Asia, Australia, eastern Europe, and eastern Africa. Details can be found at 2004 and 2012 Transits of Venus.

Transit Predictions

• Seven Century Catalog of Mercury Transits: 1600 CE to 2300 CE

• Six Millennium Catalog of Venus Transits: 2000 BCE to 4000 CE

• 1999 Nov 15: Transit of Mercury

• 2003 May 07: Transit of Mercury

• 2004 Transit of Venus (Observer's Handbook 2004)

• 2004 and 2012 Transits of Venus

• Predictions for the 2004 Transit of Venus

• 2006 Transit of Mercury (Observer's Handbook 2006)

Acknowledgments

Transit predictions were generated on a Macintosh G4 iBook using algorithms developed from the Explanatory Supplement [1974] and Meeus [1989].

All calculations and diagrams presented in this section are those of the author and he assumes full responsibility for their accuracy.

References (Transit Predictions)

Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Ephemeris and the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, 1974, Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office, London.

Macdonald , P., 2002, "The transit of Venus on 2004 June 8", J. Brit. Astr. Assoc., 112, 6, pp 319-324.

Meeus, J., 1956,"Transits of Mercury, 1920 to 2080", J.B.A.A., 67, 30.

Meeus, J., 1958,"Transits of Venus, 3000 BC to AD 3000", J.B.A.A., 68, 98.

Meeus, J., 1989, Transits, Willmann-Bell, Inc., Richmond.

Newcomb, S., 1895,"Tables of the Motion of the Earth on its Axis Around the Sun", Astron. Papers Amer. Eph., Vol. 6, Part I.

Newcomb, S., 1898,"Transits of Mercury, 1677-1881", Astron. Papers Amer. Eph., Vol. 6, Part IV.

References (History of Transits)

Berry, Arthur. "A Short History of Astronomy" (1898) Good general information. Includes detailed description of 1761-69 transits.

Chapman, Allan. "Jeremiah Horrocks, the Transit of Venus, and the 'New Astronomy' in early seventeenth-century England". Qtrly. J. Royal Astr. Soc, 31 (1990) pp 333-357. An appraisal of Horrocks' achievement; an attempt to dispel some myths which surround him, and a discussion of his methods.

Ferris, Timothy "Coming of Age in the Milky Way", esp. pp 130-135 A very readable account of 17th century attempts to use the transit of Venus to measure the solar parallax.

Gaythorpe, S.B. "Horrocks Observations of the Transit of Venus 1639 November 24 (O.S.)". J.Brit.Astr.Assoc., 47 (1936-7) pp 60-68. This paper gives a detailed quantitative account of Horrocks' observations and the circumstances in which they were made.

Halley, Edmond. "A new Method of determining the Parallax of the Sun" (Phil.Trans., Royal Soc., Vol xxix, 1716 pp 454-464)

Hetherington, Barry. "An Astronomical Anniversary: The Transit of Venus 1769 June 3". J.Brit.Astr.Assoc., 80 (1969) pp 52-53. A short summary of various expeditions.

Horrocks, Jeremiah. "Venus in sole visa" (1662) translated as "The Transit of Venus over the Sun" and published in "Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev.Jeremiah Horrox" by Rev.A.B.Whatton (London, 1859) Horrox is also spelled Horrocks.

Maor, Eli. "June 8, 2004 - Venus In Transit", (1999) Princeton University Press. An excellent account of the history of transit expeditions and their historical importance to astronomy.

Maunder, Michael and Moore, Patrick . "Transit: When Planets Cross the Sun", (1999) Springer-Verlag. Another excellent account of the history of transit expeditions with details not covered in Maors' book. Includes practical information on observing transits.

Newcomb, S., 1898,"Transits of Mercury, 1677-1881", Astron. Papers Amer. Eph., Vol. 6, Part IV.

Pannekoek, Anton. "A History of Astronomy" (1961) Good general information. Includes detailed description of 1761-69 transits.

Porter, J.G. "Transits of Mercury and Venus". J.Brit.Astr.Assoc., 80 (1970) pp 183-189. A very useful discussion of the theory of transits, with some reference to Halley's method of determining the solar parallax.

Ruddy, H.E. "The Transit of Venus, 1874". J.Brit.Astr.Assoc., 64 (1954) pp 304-309. A diary style account of the expedition of Lt. C.Corbet to Kerguelen Island.

Westfall, Richard S. "Jeremiah Horrocks" + "Edmond Halley". Internet, Galileo Project. Key facts relating to these two astronomers. Useful bibliographies.

Links on Transits

• Seven Century Catalog of Mercury Transits: 1600 CE to 2300 CE - Espenak, NASA'S GSFC

• Six Millennium Catalog of Venus Transits: 2000 BCE to 4000 CE - Espenak, NASA'S GSFC

• The 1999 Transit of Mercury - Fred Espenak, NASA'S GSFC

• The 2003 Transit of Mercury - Fred Espenak, NASA'S GSFC

• The 2004 Transit of Venus - Fred Espenak, NASA'S GSFC

• The 2004 and 2012 Transits of Venus - Fred Espenak, NASA'S GSFC

• The 2006 Transit of Mercury - Fred Espenak, NASA'S GSFC

• World Visibility Map of 2004 Transit of Venus (PDF) - Astronomical Almanac

• 2004 Transit Times for Major World Cities (PDF) - Astronomical Almanac

• Geometry of Transits - "The Quest for the Solar Parallax" David Sellers

• Frequency of Transits - Peter M Langford

• The 1761 & 1769 Transits of Venus - Richard W. Pogge/Ohio State University

• The 1882 Transit of Venus - W.P. Koorts (wpk@saao.ac.za)

• 2004 Transit of Venus - NASA - Sun/Earth Connection

• 2004 Transit of Venus - Chuck Bueter

• Public Outreach Project for 2004 Transit - ESO & EAAE

• 2004 Transit of Venus - Paper Plate Education

• Future Transits of Venus - David Le Conte, Guernsey

• Transit of Venus - Excellent List of Links - Chuck Bueter

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• + Privacy Policy and Important Notices

• Project Manager: Fred Espenak

• Website Manager: Fred Espenak

• Responsible NASA Official: Amy Simon-Miller

• Last Updated: 2008 Mar 11

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Eros and the solar parallax

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Steven van Roode

This year will give us two opportunities to re-enact two classic methods to find the sun’s distance from earth: the transit of Venus and the opposition of Eros.

Throughout the telescopic era, the transit of Venus has played an important role in the determination of the solar parallax (or distance to the sun). The hazardous expeditions sent out in the eighteenth and nineteenth century to observe the transit of Venus had this determination as their main purpose. But after four observations in two centuries, employing state of the art techniques like achromatic telescopes and photography, it dawned on the astronomical community that the actual accuracy of the transit method wasn’t as high as expected. In the mean time, during the nineteenth century, other objects that could help in finding the solar parallax were discovered: asteroids.

The most famous asteroid that was used to find the solar parallax is coming into view this month. 433 Eros, a near-earth asteroid discovered in August 1898, comes to opposition every 2 to 3 years. During its opposition of 1900-1901, a worldwide programme was initiated to make parallax measurements of the asteroid, from which the solar parallax could be deduced. The results were published ten years later by Arthur Hinks. Another programme was executed during a closer approach in 1930-1931 by Harold Spencer Jones. The value of 8.″790 of the solar parallax secured by this programme was held to be definitive until 1968.

The opposition of Eros this month is special, because the asteroid will come close enough to earth to be visible through a small telescope for the first time in 37 years. Its shortest distance to earth this month is comparable to that of the January 1931 opposition. This will provide an unparalleled opportunity for amateur astronomers to conduct a programme to measure the asteroid’s parallax again and compare the results with the professional campaigns of 1901 and 1931. All that is needed is to take simultaneous pictures of Eros from different places on earth, for example before sunrise from Europe and after sunset in America.

Eros moves fast enough that you can detect its motion within an hour, which makes it easy to identify. The finder chart shows the path of Eros through the constellations of Leo and Sextans during the last days of January, until its closest approach of 16.6 millions of miles on January 31. Even a small group of dedicated amateurs can make valuable observations that lead to a value of the solar parallax. How will this measurement of Eros compare to the transit of Venus later this year? If you are interested to participate in this programme, let us know! Contact us at info@transitofvenus.nl. More background information and detailed instructions can be found in this article by Michael Richmond of the Rochester Institute of Technology and me.

Visibility is NOT for most of the USA although a good part of the Transit is visible from Hawaii

Venus will cross the disc of the Sun on 2117 December 11^th.

The map above shows the visibility of the event.

Geocentric Circumstances

The geocentric circumstances of the transit are shown in the diagram to the right. During the transit, the diameter of the Sun is 1948.6 arcseconds and that of Venus is 63.1 arcseconds. In other words, the diameter of Venus is 0.03 that of the Sun, making it look like a rapidly moving sunspot. The minimum separation between the centre of the solar disc and Venus is 723.7 arcseconds. The whole transit lasts just under five and three quarter hours.

All timings are given in Terrestrial Time (TT), as accurate predictions of the Earth's rotation cannot be made for more than a few years into the future.

Other transits available:

© Crown Copyright

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2125 December 8^th Transit of Venus

Visibility - Good for the Eastern USA and South America

Venus will cross the disc of the Sun on 2125 December 8^th. The map above shows the visibility of the event.

Geocentric Circumstances

The geocentric circumstances of the transit are shown in the diagram above. During the transit, the diameter of the Sun is 1948.0 arcseconds and that of Venus is 63.1 arcseconds. In other words, the diameter of Venus is 0.03 that of the Sun, making it look like a rapidly moving sunspot. The minimum separation between the centre of the solar disc and Venus is 736.4 arcseconds. The whole transit lasts just over five and a half hours.

All timings are given in Terrestrial Time (TT), as accurate predictions of the Earth's rotation cannot be made for more than a few years into the future.

2012 Summer Olympics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"2012 Olympics" redirects here. For the Winter Youth Olympics, see 2012 Winter Youth Olympics.

"London 2012" redirects here. For the Paralympic Games, see 2012 Summer Paralympics.

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXX Olympiad or "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012.^[1] London will become the first city to officially host the modern Olympic Games three times,^[2][3] having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948.^[4][5]

London was selected as the host city on 6 July 2005 during the 117th IOC Session in Singapore, defeating Moscow, New York City, Madrid and Paris after four rounds of voting.^[6] The successful bid was headed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe.

The Olympics prompted a redevelopment of many of the areas of London in which the games are to be held – particularly themed towards sustainability.^[7] While the budgetary considerations have generated some criticism,^[8][9] the Games will make use of many venues which were already in place before the bid, including 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, and the Excel Centre.

Bidding process

Main article: Bids for the 2012 Summer Olympics

By the bid submission deadline of 15 July 2003, nine cities had submitted bids to host the 2012 Olympics. These cities were Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Madrid, Moscow, New York City, Paris and Rio de Janeiro.^[10]

On 18 May 2004, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as a result of a scored technical evaluation, reduced the number of cities to five: London, Madrid, Moscow, New York, and Paris.^[11]

By 19 November 2004, all five candidate cities had submitted their candidate file to the International Olympic Committee. The IOC inspection team visited the five candidate cities during February and March 2005. The Paris bid suffered two setbacks during the IOC inspection visit: a number of strikes and demonstrations coinciding with the visits and a report coming out that Guy Drut, one of the key members of the Paris bid team and IOC member, would face charges over alleged corrupt party political finances.^[12]

On 6 June 2005, the International Olympic Committee released its evaluation reports for the five candidate cities. Although these reports did not contain any scores or rankings, the evaluation report for Paris was considered the most positive, now followed closely by London which had narrowed down most of the gap observed by the initial evaluation in 2004 regarding Paris. Also New York and Madrid obtained very positive evaluation reports.^[13]

Throughout the process and up to the vote at the 117th IOC Session, Paris was widely seen as the favourite to win the nomination, particularly as this was its third bid in recent history. Originally London was seen lagging Paris by considerable margin; however, this started to improve with the appointment of Sebastian Coe as new head of London 2012 on 19 May 2004. In late August 2004, some reports started emerging predicting a London and Paris tie in the 2012 bid.^[14] In the final run-up to the 117th IOC Session, London and Paris appeared to be increasingly in a neck-and-neck race. On 1 July 2005, Jacques Rogge, when asked who the winner would be, told the assembled press: "I cannot predict it since I don't know how the IOC members will vote. But my gut feeling tells me that it will be very close. Perhaps it will come down to a difference of say ten votes, or maybe less".^[15]

On 6 July 2005, the final selection was announced at the Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore, where the 117th IOC Session was held. Here Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair was the only leader of the five candidate cities' countries to make a personal lobby (he had also been the only one to attend the 2004 Olympics).^[16] Moscow was the first city to be eliminated, followed by New York and Madrid. The final two cities left in contention were London and Paris. At the end of the fourth round of voting, London won the right to host the 2012 Games with 54 votes, defeating Paris's 50.^[17] Various French publications blamed the Paris loss on French President Jacques Chirac's statements before the vote that "We can't trust people [the British] who have such bad food. After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."^[18] Two current members of the International Olympic Committee are from Finland. Several other news sources cited Bertrand Delanoë's complaint regarding Tony Blair's secret late night meetings with numerous (African) IOC representatives as having a more significant impact on final vote.^[19] When reporting London's win, British media covered the expectant crowds in both France and Britain (and in the other bid cities), and contrasted the jubilant reaction in London to the reaction of the crowd in Paris, where many had gathered in hope of a French win.^[20][21][22] However, the celebrations in London were overshadowed when London's transport system was attacked by terrorists less than 24 hours after the announcement.^[23]

In December 2005, it was alleged by Alex Gilady, a senior IOC official, that London had won the right to host the Olympics only because of a voting error. A London 2012 spokesman dismissed this, saying "At the end of the day, it was a secret ballot. This is the opinion of one individual. The result is what matters and we are not going to be drawn into speculation."^[24]

Development and preparation

Since the 2005 bid

Main article: 2012 Summer Olympic development

The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games was created to oversee the staging of the Games after the success of the bid, and held their first board meeting on 3 October 2005.^[25] The committee, chaired by Lord Coe, is in charge of implementing and staging the games, while the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is in charge of the construction of the venues and infrastructure.^[25] In April 2006 the Olympic Delivery Authority board was established.^[26]

The Government Olympic Executive (GOE), a unit within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), is the lead Government body for coordinating the London 2012 Olympics. The GOE reports through the DCMS Permanent Secretary to the Minister for Sports and the Olympics. It focuses on oversight of the Games, cross-programme programme management and the London 2012 Olympic Legacy before and after the Games that will benefit London and the UK. The organisation is also responsible for the supervision of the £9.3 billion of public sector funding.^[27]

In August 2011, some security concerns arose surrounding the hosting of the Olympic Games in London,^[28] due to the 2011 England riots, with a few countries expressing fear over the safety of the Games,^[29] in spite of the International Olympic Committee's assurance that the riots will not affect the Games.^[30]

The IOC's Coordination Commission for the 2012 Games completed their ninth visit to London in October 2011. They concluded that London has been making excellent progress and that the 2012 games would leave a lasting legacy. The commission will make their final visit to London in March 2012.^[31] London was awarded the 2017 World Championships in Athletics in November 2011. ^[32]

Venues and infrastructure

Main article: Venues of the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics

The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will use a mixture of new venues, existing and historic facilities, and temporary facilities, some of them in well-known locations such as Hyde Park and Horse Guards Parade. Some of the new facilities will be reused in their Olympic form, while others, will be resized or relocated.^[33]

The majority of venues have been divided into three zones within Greater London: 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.^[34] Work began on the Park in December 2006 when a sports hall in Eton Manor was pulled down.^[35] The athletes' village in Portland was completed in September 2011.^[36]

In November 2004 the 500 acre Olympic Park plans were revealed.^[37] The plans for the site were passed in September 2004 by Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney and Waltham Forest.^[38] The redevelopment of the area to build the Olympic Park required compulsory purchase orders of property. The London Development Agency and the London and Continental Railways had a dispute about the orders in November 2005. The LCR accused the LDA of killing off development in the area. The LDA planned alongside the Olympic Park to buy land for the Stratford City development project, which the 180-acre site of the former Stratford Rail Lands into a mixed-use development, including 4,500 new homes, office space, hotels and shops.^[39] This resulted in 2011 with the completion of the largest urban shopping centre in Europe being operated by Westfield.^[40] By May 2006 86% of the land had been bought as businesses fought eviction, this lead to an enquiry being set up. 206 companies had to relocate by July 2007.^[41] In addition, residents who opposed the eviction tried to find way to stop it by setting up campaigns. However they had to leave as 94% of land was bought and the other 6% bought as a £9 billion regeneration project started.^[42]

However, there were some issues with the original venues due to not being challenging enough or being financially unviable. For example, the road racing at the Olympics Games was originally scheduled to take place in Regent's Park and on Hampstead Heath. Instead the Olympic road races will start and finish on The Mall in central London and head out into Surrey to the south and include loops around Box Hill.^[43] The Olympic Mountain bike event will take place at Hadleigh Farm after the event was moved from Weald Country Park,^[44] after the UCI labeled the course at the park "too easy" in July 2008^[45] It was touted that the course could be created in Wales.^[46] A location in Kent was also considered^[47]

The Olympic marathon course, which was set to finish in the Olympic stadium, was moved to the mall.^[48] The idea angered some members of the local community, stating that they had been left out of the Olympics despite it taking place in their back garden no events would take place in the boroughs. The change was made as closing Tower bridge would cause "gridlock" to London.^[49][50][51] North Greenwich Arena 2 was scrapped in a cost-cutting exercise, with Wembley Arena being used for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics events instead.^{[52][53][54][55]}

Public transport

London's public transport was an element of the bid which was scored poorly in the IOC's initial evaluation, however they felt that if the improvements were delivered in time for the Games then London would cope.^[56]Transport for London (TfL) carried out numerous improvements in preparation for 2012, including the expansion of the London Overground's East London Line, upgrades to the Docklands Light Railway and the North London Line,^[57] and the introduction of a new "Javelin" high-speed rail service,^[58] using the Hitachi Corporation's "bullet" trains.^[59][60][61] In September 2011 it was discovered that the platforms at Stratford International station were not at the right height for the Javelin trains. The platforms were raised with wood, which could be removed after the Games as the platforms were originally designed for Eurostar trains, and it is hoped that Eurostar will stop at the station after 2012.^[62] According to network rail an additional 4,000 train services will run during the Games, with train operators putting on longer trains during the day.^[63]

TfL also propose the construction of a £25 million cable car across the River Thames, the "Thames Gateway Cable Car", to link 2012 Olympics venues.^[64] It will cross the Thames river between Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks, carrying up to 2,500 passengers an hour 50 metres in the air. It is designed to cut journey times between the O2 arena and the ExCel exhibition centre – both of which are Olympic locations. The privately-funded system could provide a crossing every 30 seconds.^[65]

The plan is to have 80% of athletes travel less than 20 minutes to their event^[66] and to have 93% of athletes within 30 minutes of their event.^[67] The Olympic Park would be served by ten separate railway lines with a combined capacity of 240,000 passengers per hour.^[68] In addition the LOCOG planned for 90% of the venues to be served by three or more types of public transport.^[67] Two park-and-ride sites were off the M25 with a combined capacity of 12,000 cars 25 minutes away from the Olympic Park. Another park and ride site was planned in Ebbsfleet which would have capacity for 9,000 cars were spectators could board a 10 minute shuttle bus.^[67] To get spectators to Eton Dorney, four park and ride schemes were set up. Spectators would be dropped off at Windsor Racecourse with a bridge going over the Thames linking the racecourse to the rowing venue.^[69]

Concerns have been expressed at the logistics of spectators traveling to the events scheduled for outside of London. In particular, the sailing events at Portland are in an area with no direct motorway connection, and with local roads that are heavily congested by existing tourist traffic in the summer.^[70] However the Weymouth area did undergo a major upgrade on its road infrastructure. A £77 million relief road connecting Weymouth to Dorchester was built and opened in 2011.^[71][72] Some £16 million pounds was put aside for the rest of the improvements.^[73] Inaddtion the plans removed 5 roundabouts to ease congestion and replaced them with traffic lights^[74][75] But some residents were unhappy that the roundabouts were removed.^[76]

In January 2010, the South East England regional transport board criticised plans published by the Olympics Development Authority for not providing plans of a credible long term coach network saying "The ODA has been working on an extensive network of coach services... [but] the lack of reference to this work [in the plan] is both intriguing and at the same time concerning." On 15 February 2010, the ODA announced that FirstGroup was the preferred bidder for the provision of bus and coach services for the games. This will involve the provision of venue shuttle and park and ride services, services connecting peripheral park and ride sites on the M25 with the Olympic Park and Ebbsfleet, and a nationwide network of express coaches to the Olympic Park, and the Weymouth and Portland sailing venue. The services will require around 900 vehicles in total, although some will be sub-contracted.^[77][78]

Financing

The costs of mounting the Games are separate from those for building the venues and infrastructure, and redeveloping the land for the Olympic Park. While the Games are privately funded, the venues and Park costs are met largely by public money.

On 15 March 2007, Tessa Jowell announced to the House of Commons a budget of £5.3 billion to cover building the venues and infrastructure for the Games, at the same time announcing the wider regeneration budget for the Lower Lea Valley budget at £1.7 billion.

On top of this, she announced various other costs including an overall additional contingency fund of £2.7 billion, security and policing costs of £600 million, VAT of £800 million and elite sport and Paralympic funding of nearly £400 million. According to these figures, the total for the Games and the regeneration of the East London area, is £9.345 billion. Then Mayor Ken Livingstone pledged the Games Organising Committee would make a profit.^[79]

The costs for staging the Games (£2 billion) are funded from the private sector by a combination of sponsorship, merchandising, ticketing and broadcast rights. This budget is raised and managed by the London 2012 Organising Committee. According to Games organisers, the funding for this budget broadly breaks down as:

• • 64% from Central Government;

  • 23% from National Lottery

  • 13% from the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency

On 18 August 2007, The Belfast Telegraph reported that jubilation over winning the right to stage the Olympic Games was becoming more muted as realisation dawns on the public of the enormous costs involved in creating facilities for the athletes.^[80] Grassroot sport cuts will fund the Olympics, government figures suggested on 19 August 2007.^[81]

In November 2007, Edward Leigh MP, criticised the organisers for significantly under-estimating the cost of staging the games, suggesting they had either "acted in bad faith or were incompetent".^[82]

On 10 December 2007, Tessa Jowell announced confirmation of the budget announced earlier in 2007. In June 2007, the Ministerial Funders’ Group (established to manage the allocation of contingency to the ODA within the overall budget) met and agreed a first allocation of contingency to the ODA, being £360 million out of the £500 million of initial contingency announced in March, to enable the ODA to manage early cost pressures.

Following its second meeting on 26 November 2007, the Funders’ Group has now agreed a baseline budget and scope proposed by the ODA. The total budgeted base cost to be met by the public sector funding package remains at £6.090 billion including tax and excluding general programme contingency as announced in March. This includes the allocation to the ODA of the remaining £140 million from the initial £500 million contingency announced in March.^[83]

There have, however, been concerns over how the Olympics are to be funded. In February 2008, a London Assembly culture and sport committee report expressed concerns over the funding of the games taking away money from London's sports and arts groups.^[84] There have also been complaints that funding towards the Olympics has been to the detriment of funding other areas of the UK. In Wales, there has been criticism from Plaid Cymru about the games depriving Wales of money, by using UK-wide funding rather than English funding.^[85] The Wales on Sunday newspaper claimed former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair broke his promise to not use National Lottery funding for the Olympic games.^[86][87]

As at December 2009, the Delivery Authority had allocated £702 million of Programme and Funders’ contingency, largely to cover the decisions to publicly fund the Village and Media Centre after it became clear private funding could not be secured on acceptable terms during the 2008 to 2010 economic crisis. According to the Government Olympic Executive and Olympic Delivery Authority risk assessments the remaining £1,270 million contingency is sufficient to manage risks to the Delivery Authority’s programme.^[88]

Also from May 2010, the Olympic budget will be cut by £27 million as part of the £6.2 billion cuts by the new Conservative-Liberal coalition government.

On 19 July 2011, Hugh Robertson, Sports & Olympic Minister,revealed that he expected the project to be delivered on time and under budget. "With one year to go to London 2012, the Games construction is 88 per cent complete and ahead of time and under budget. That is an extraordinary thing for a Government Minister to be able to say a year out from the Games."^[89]

Partners

To help fund the cost of staging the games the London Olympic organisers have agreed partnership deals with major companies. The companies have signed up into four categories; worldwide, tier one, tier two and tier three.

Worldwide partners:^[90]

As of 9 September 2011, 44 companies have signed up for domestic sponsorship roles.^[91]

Domestic Tier One Partners:^[90]

Domestic Tier Two Supporters:^[90]

Domestic tier three providers and suppliers:^[90]

On 7 September 2011, the LOCOG announced that they had reached their £700 million domestic sponsorship target. They signed their 44th partner Westfield shopping centres who signed as a tier three sponsor.^[91]

Ticketing

Organisers estimate that some 8 million tickets would be available for the Olympic Games, and 1.5 million tickets for the Paralympic Games.^{[citation needed]} Ticket sign-up, in Great Britain, was launched on 22 March 2010 and the application website was opened on 15 March 2011 until 26 April 2011. Ticket prices range from £20 for many events to £2,012 for the most expensive seats at the opening ceremony. Ticket allocations for oversubscribed events was decided by a random ballot.^[92] For the first time in Olympic history the sailing events will be ticketed.^[93] The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOGOC) have admitted that further tickets, up to one million, will be released later in 2011 for events that have failed to sell out in the initial allocation.^[94] Over half the people who applied got no tickets in Great Britain. The second round of ticket sales took place over a 10 day period between the 23 June and 3 July 2011, with priority given to those who were unsuccessful in the first allocation process. At this point there were about 1.7 million tickets for football and 600,000 for other sports, including archery, hockey, football, judo, boxing and volleyball, among other sports with 1.5 million tickets priced between £20 and £50. Unfortunately due to the amount of people buying tickets and because the ticketmaster website did not update immediately, 15,000 had their application rejected, but 90% of people did get some tickets; as some events sold out in 15 minutes and by 8 am 10 sports had sold out.^[95] People who were successful in the first round of tickets were allowed to buy more during the period 8–17 July 2011. By this point 1.5 million tickets were available for football, 40,000 for Volleyball and 8,000 for freestyle wrestling on a first come first served basis. However by 10 July all the tickets for Volleyball had been sold, as 3.5 million tickets had been sold in total. Another round of tickets was promised to go on sale in 2012.^[96] To reduce traffic, ticket holders will be entitled to free use of London's public transportation network on the day of the event.^[97] It is estimated that 82% of available Olympic tickets and 63% of Paralympic tickets will be sold. LOCOG aims to raise £375–£400 million in ticket sales. There will also be free events: for example, the marathon, triathlon and road cycling.^[98] Tickets for the London Prepares series, the Olympic test events, started to go on sale in May 2011.^[99]

There was a huge demand for tickets as 20 million tickets were bought by 1.8 million people, three times the 6.6 million tickets available in the first round lot, with 95% of the applications from Great Britain. More than 50% of the sessions went to a random ballot.^[100] A consumer group questioned the point of taking money out of people's bank accounts before they knew what tickets they had successfully purchased.^[101] Barclays Bank ended up declining its customers tickets, stating that it was a unusual purchase and looked like fraud, before they and LOCOG tried to process them for a second time.^[102] Many athletes and ex-Olympians also questioned the way the tickets were sold, with Triple Olympic Champion Bradley Wiggins labeling the process a shambles.^[103] However, Lord Coe and the LOCOG insisted that the process was fair, and that there was no 'perfect' system.^[104][105]

In Russia people bought "Olympic vouchers" which one would have to redeem in London during July and August 2012, with people making their own accommodation and travel arrangements.^[106] In Brazil, the host of the 2016 Games, the ticket website did not work for three and a half days with people leaving disappointed as all their tickets appeared to sell out in a day, despite people having seemingly bought tickets.^[107] And the British government was asked to explain why it bought 9,000 tickets.^[108]

Free tickets were given to Military personnel and children were invited to 'win' tickets.^[109] Free tickets were also given to the survivors and families of those who died during 7 July 2005 London bombings.^[110]

Countdown

A digital clock, located in Trafalgar Square, commenced a countdown to the opening ceremony on 14 March 2011. However, less than 24 hours after it was switched on, it suffered a technical failure, and stopped—displaying "500 (days) 7 (hours) 06 (minutes) 56 (seconds)." It was quickly repaired.^[111]

Hospitality

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) appointed Prestige Ticketing Limited to operate the London 2012 Prestige Ticketing programme.^[112] The Prestige Ticketing on-site hospitality packages includes top-category tickets, fine dining and entertainment.^[113] These hospitality tickets were on sale until 15 March 2011.^[114]

Scheduling issues

Some representatives of countries which are majority Muslim have complained that the 2012 Olympic Games will take place during the month of Ramadan, which in 2012 occurs from 20 July to 19 August. During Ramadan, Muslims are to fast from sunrise to sunset, which may put Muslim athletes at a disadvanatage during the Games. Some Muslims have called for the Olympics to be rescheduled outside this period.^[115]

Security

The British government announced in December 2011 that 13,500 members of the armed forces will be in place for the Olympic games, as well as 10,000 police (who will lead the security of the Games). Naval and air assets, including ships situated in the Thames, Eurofighter jets and surface-to-air missiles, will also be deployed as part of the security operation. The cost of security has also increased from 282m to 553m pounds sterling. This will be the biggest security operation Britain has faced for decades. The figure of 13,500 armed forces personnel is more than Britain currently has deployed in Afghanistan.^[116]

Logo

There have been two London 2012 logos: one for the bidding process created by Kino Design and a second as the brand for the Games themselves. The former is a ribbon with blue, yellow, black, green, and red stripes winding through the text "LONDON 2012," making the shape of the River Thames in East London. The latter, designed by Wolff Olins, was unveiled on 4 June 2007 and cost £400,000.^[117] This new logo is a representation of the number 2012, with the Olympic Rings embedded within the zero.^[118]

This will be the first time that the same essential logo is to be used for both the Olympic and Paralympic games.^[119]

The standard colours are green, magenta, orange and blue; however the logo has incorporated a variety of colours, including the Union Flag to promote the handover ceremony.^[120] The flexibility of the logo has also enabled sponsors to incorporate their corporate colours into a personalised version, such as Lloyds TSB,^[121] British Airways,^[122] and Adidas.^[123]

London 2012 has stated that the new logo is aimed at reaching young people. Sebastian Coe stated that it builds upon everything that the organising committee has said "about reaching out and engaging young people, which is where our challenge is over the next five years." One observer, a managing director of an advertising agency, noted that the logo bore a strong resemblance to the logo for the 1974–1982 children's television programme Tiswas, commenting that appealing to young people is difficult, and that they will see right through attempts to patronise them.^[124]

Early public reaction to the logo, as measured by a poll on the BBC website, was largely negative: more than 80% of votes gave the logo the lowest possible rating.^[125] Several newspapers have run their own logo competitions, displaying alternative submissions from their readers. The Sun displayed a design by a macaque monkey.^[126] It was suggested that the logo resembles the cartoon character Lisa Simpson performing fellatio^[127] and others have complained that it looks like a distorted Swastika.^[128] In February 2011, Iran complained that the logo appeared to spell out the word "Zion" and threatened to boycott the Olympics.^[129] Iran submitted its complaint to the International Olympic Committee, describing the logo as "racist", asking that it be withdrawn and the designers be "confronted". The IOC "quietly" rejected the demands, and Iran announced it would not boycott the Games.^[130]

A segment of animated footage released at the same time as the logo was reported to trigger seizures in a small number of people with photosensitive epilepsy. The charity Epilepsy Action received telephone calls from people who had had seizures after watching the sequence on TV. In response, a short segment was removed from the London 2012 website.^[131] Ken Livingstone, then London Mayor, said that the company who designed the film should not be paid for what he called a "catastrophic mistake."^[132]

A blogger at the BBC said that "London 2012's new logo has got the country talking [although] not in the manner the organisers would have hoped."^[133] One employee at a design firm described it as "well thought out" and anticipated it would "become a source of pride for London and the Games."^[134]

In October 2008, it was reported that clothing branded with the logo accounted for 20% of sales at Adidas' flagship Oxford Street store, despite occupying just 5% of floor space.^[135]

Mascots

Main article: Wenlock and Mandeville

The official mascots for the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games were unveiled on 19 May 2010;^[136] this marks the second time (after Vancouver) that both Olympic and Paralympic mascots were unveiled at the same time. Wenlock and Mandeville are animations depicting two drops of steel from a steelworks in Bolton.^[136] They are named Wenlock, after the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock, which held a forerunner of the current Olympic Games, and Mandeville, after Stoke Mandeville, a village in Buckinghamshire where a forerunner to the Paralympic Games were first held.^[136] The writer Michael Morpurgo wrote the story concept to the mascots, and an animation was produced;^[137] it is intended that this will form part of an ongoing series concerning the mascots in the run-up to the Games in 2012.^[136] Two stories have been created about the mascots: Out Of A Rainbow, the story of how Wenlock and Mandeville came to be, and Adventures On A Rainbow, which features the children from Out Of A Rainbow meeting the mascots and trying out many different Olympic and Paralympic sports.^[138]

Handover ceremony

Main article: 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony

The handover ceremony marked the moment when the previous games in Beijing in 2008 handed over the Olympic Flag to the new host city of London.^[139] Mayor of London Boris Johnson received the flag from Mayor of Beijing Guo Jinlong, on behalf of London. The next section was entitled "From London, 'With a whole Lotta love."The handover ceremony featured the urban dance group ZooNation, the Royal Ballet and Candoco, a disabled dance group, all dressed as typical London commuters waiting for a bus by a zebra crossing. Whilst Olympic Champions Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and BMX World Champion Shanaze Reade; however due to Reade's broken wrist from her event Jamie Staff replaced her;^[140] cycled around the stadium. A double-decker bus drove around the stadium to music composed by Philip Sheppard eventually stopping and transforming into a privet hedge featuring famous London landmarks such as Tower Bridge, The Gherkin and the London Eye. Jimmy Page and Leona Lewis then performed the Led Zeppelin classic Whole Lotta Love and David Beckham kicked a football into the crowd of athletes accompanied by violinist Elspeth Hanson and cellist Kwesi Edman.^[141][142]

For the London 2012 Games, 'Take Up The Challenge' is the leading contender to be the music that will inspire a new generation of athletes. The anthem was composed by Rob Cremona, an Anglo-Maltese trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist from Woking in Surrey. Meanwhile, the handover has been celebrated in a UK-wide series of events. The BBC broadcast "The Visa London 2012 Party" on BBC One and Radio 2, the free concert on The Mall in central London had 40,000 tickets available.^[143] In nations and regions around the UK there were live screens that showed the activities from Beijing, the Closing Ceremony and then the concert itself. Local communities around the UK also hosted their own events.

Year to go

On 27 July 2011, London celebrated the one year to the start of the games with a special event in Trafalgar Square. There were other events around the city such as Lord Coe and Colin Jackson cast their feet in clay at St Pancras Station, whilst the Aquatics Centre opened, with Tom Daly marking the event with a dive from the 10 metre platform. While in Trafalgar Square Jacques Rogge invited the world to London.^[144] Prime Minister David Cameron promised that London's games would be the greatest, whilst Boris Johnson comically called for a snap Olympics. The Royal Mail announced that it would produce special stamps celebrating every gold medal won by a British athlete.^[145]

Medals

In December 2010, it was announced that the Royal Mint would produce the medals for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.^[146] The Royal Mint expected to produce around 4,700 medals for the games.^[147] The medals are 7mm thick and weigh between 375-400g. They are designed by David Watkins. Each medal will have the sport and the discipline engraved on the rim. Like the last few Olympic medal designs the front will once again have Greek goddess of victory, Nike, stepping from Parthenon. The reverse side has the Games logo, and a ribbon depicting the River Thames with a grid symbolising pulling together and radiating energy.^[145][148] The medals will have a purple ribbon attached to them which symbolises Royalty and protocol. The Princess Royal unveiled the design of the Olympic medals. In a poll by the Telegraph just 66% of the people who voted liked the design. Designer David Watkins said "I knew it was a take it and love it design. If not – sorry. There was no plan B."^[149]

Test events

Main article: London Prepares series

Many test events will be held throughout 2011 and 2012, either through an existing championship such as Wimbledon or as a specially created event held under the banner of London Prepares. Some events are closed to the public, others are ticketed. Basketball and BMX were the first events to be tested within the Olympic Park.^[150]

The Games

Participating nations

Athletes from 204 NOCs are expected to participate. The Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee, which had planned to continue functioning after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles, had its membership withdrawn by the IOC Executive Committee at the IOC session of June 2011. However, Dutch Antillean athletes who qualify for the 2012 Olympics will be allowed to participate independently under the Olympic flag.^[151] Listed below are NOCs who have qualified at least one athlete. As of 26 November 2011, 144 nations have qualified at least one athlete.