Olympic and Paralympic Village
“The Village is the heart and soul of everything, where you rest your head at night and it’s a vital part of your preparation. You need to come back to a place that you feel comfortable, where you feel there’s a sense of belonging and I think London has certainly managed to get that right for 2012.” Colin Jackson, Olympian & sports commentator
With London 2012 nearly here, you’re going to see a lot of the Olympic Park and its amazing venues. Today, we look at arguably the most important venue of all – the Athletes Village where the world’s top talent will rest their head.
In fact, 16,000 athletes and team officials will stay at the Olympic Village during the Olympics, with a further 6,200 during the Paralympics. They will get home-from-home comforts mixed with some five-star services to make sure they’re 100% ready for action. Facilities include a 24-hour dining area, a state-of-the-art gym, an extensive entertainment room and a multi-faith centre.
After the Games, the Olympic and Paralympic Village will be a lasting legacy of essential new housing for east London. It will be transformed into 2,818 new homes, including 1,379 affordable homes and houses for sale and rent. They will create a new residential quarter to be known as East Village.
Communities will be supported by new parklands, open space, new transport links and public services, including Chobham Academy – a world-class new education campus – and a new health centre.
London 2012 Copper Box
With London 2012 nearly here, you’re going to see a lot of the Olympic Park and its amazing venues. Each day this week, find out how one of the venues will be used after the Games are over. Today, it’s the Copper Box which will host the handball and the fencing stage of the modern pentathlon.
The stunning Copper Box, with its 3,000 sq m of copper cladding, took less than two years to complete. That is pretty fast, but with our time lapse footage you can watch it take shape in less than a minute and a half.
After the games the Copper Box will become a multi-use sports centre for community use, athlete training and events, operated by Greenwich Leisure Limited.
Its flexible design and retractable seating mean it will be suitable for activities ranging from international competition to community sports, and for a wide range of indoor sports, including basketball, handball, badminton, boxing, martial arts, netball, table tennis, wheelchair rugby and volleyball.
A health and fitness club with changing facilities and a cafe for use by the local community are also planned.
London 2012 Aquatics Centre
With London 2012 nearly here, you’re going to see a lot of the Olympic Park and its amazing venues in the weeks ahead. So each day in the run-up to the Opening Ceremony, we’re finding out how each venue will be used after the Games. Today, it’s the Aquatics Centre.
With its striking wave-shaped roof, the Aquatics Centre is poised to one of the most visually impressive venues during the London 2012.
After the Games, it will have the temporary ‘wings’ dismantled and will become a flagship swimming centre for clubs, schools, athletes and the general public.
Fittingly, some of the first people to swim in the centre were 300 young people from the six local ‘host’ boroughs in the annual six Host Borough Swimming Championship in March.
Check out our unique timelapse footage of the venue being built.
Inner city women’s cricket bags award
As England take on South Africa at the Oval this weekend, a few miles East an Olympic legacy project has been honoured after getting dozens of young woman into cricket.
Back to Cricket has brought cricket into the heart of Tower Hamlets, with bespoke cricket sessions for young Bangladeshi Muslim women who requested women-only sessions.
It’s part of Sport England’s Sportivate Olympic and Paralympic legacy initiative, whichgives 14- to 25-year-olds a chance to try different sports.
More than 25 young women have attended each of the weekly sessions, with Middlesex Cricket Board ensuring a Bangladeshi-speaking female coach was on hand to support those for whom English is a second language.
Teenager Shamima who lives in Poplar, Tower Hamlets, said: “I like it because cricket is a fun game and there is a nice group here. The environment is really good and I have made lots of friends. I really enjoy it.”
