The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) was created to oversee the staging of the Games, and held its first board meeting on 3 October 2005.^[35] The committee, chaired by Lord Coe, was in charge of implementing and staging the Games, while the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), established in April 2006, was in charge of construction of the venues and infrastructure.^[35]^[36]

The Government Olympic Executive (GOE), a unit within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), was the lead government body for coordinating the London 2012 Olympics. It focused on oversight of the Games, cross-programme management, and the London 2012 Olympic Legacy before and after the Games that would benefit London and the wider United Kingdom. The organisation was also responsible for the supervision of the £9.3 billion of public sector funding.^[37]

In August 2011, security concerns arose surrounding the hosting of the Olympic Games in London, following the 2011 England riots.^[38] Some countries expressed safety concerns,^[39] despite the IOC's assurance that the riots would not affect the Games.^[40] The IOC's Coordination Commission for the 2012 Games completed its tenth and final visit to London in March 2012. Its members concluded that "London is ready to host the world this summer".^[41]

Venues

The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games used 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. After the Games, some of the new facilities would be reused in their Olympic form, while others were resized or relocated.^[42]

The majority of venues were divided into three zones within Greater London: the Olympic Zone, the River Zone and the Central Zone. In addition there were a few venues that, by necessity, were outside the boundaries of Greater London, such as the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy some 125 mi (201 km) southwest of London, which hosted the sailing events. The football tournament was staged at several grounds around the UK.^[43] Work began on the Park in December 2006, when a sports hall in Eton Manor was pulled down.^[44] The athletes' village in Portland was completed in September 2011.^[45]

In November 2004, the 200-hectare (500-acre) Olympic Park plans were revealed.^[46] The plans for the site were approved in September 2004 by Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney and Waltham Forest.^[47] The redevelopment of the area to build the Olympic Park required compulsory purchase orders of property. The London Development Agency was in dispute with London and Continental Railways about the orders in November 2005. By May 2006, 86% of the land had been bought as businesses fought eviction.^[48] Residents who opposed the eviction tried to find ways to stop it by setting up campaigns, but they had to leave as 94% of land was bought and the other 6% bought as a £9 billion regeneration project started.^[49]

There were some issues with the original venues not being challenging enough or being financially unviable. Both the Olympic road races and the mountain bike event were initially considered to be too easy, so they were eventually scheduled on new locations.^[50]^[51] The Olympic marathon course, which was set to finish in the Olympic stadium, was moved to The Mall, since closing Tower Bridge was deemed to cause traffic problems in central London.^[52] North Greenwich Arena 2 was scrapped in a cost-cutting exercise, Wembley Arena being used for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics events instead.^[53]^[54]^[55]^[56]

Test events were held throughout 2011 and 2012, either through an existing championship such as 2012 Wimbledon Championships or as a specially created event held under the banner of London Prepares.^[57] Team GB House was the British Olympic Association's operational HQ up to and during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Designed by architects Gebler Tooth on the top floor of an office building in Westfield Stratford City, it combined the team HQ, athletes' "Friends and Family" lounge, Press Centre, and VIP lounge.

Public transport

IOC's initial evaluation felt that, if transport improvements were delivered in time for the Games, London would cope.^[58] 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, and the introduction of a new "Javelin" high-speed rail service.^[59] According to Network Rail, an additional 4,000 train services operated during the Games, and train operators ran longer trains during the day.^[60] During the Games, Stratford International station was not served by any international services (just as it had not been before the Games),^[61] westbound trains did not stop at Hackney Wick railway station,^[62] and Pudding Mill Lane DLR station closed entirely during the Games.^[63]

TfL also built a £25 million cable car across the River Thames, called the Emirates Air Line, to link 2012 Olympics venues.^[64] It was inaugurated in June 2012 and crosses the Thames between Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks, carrying up to 2,500 passengers an hour, cutting journey times between The O2 and the ExCeL exhibition centre and providing a crossing every 30 seconds.^[65]

The plan was to have 80% of athletes travel less than 20 minutes to their event^[66] and 93% of them 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, LOCOG planned for 90% of the venues to be served by three or more types of public transport.^[67] Two park-and-ride sites off the M25 with a combined capacity of 12,000 cars were 25 minutes away from the Olympic Park. Another park-and-ride site was planned in Ebbsfleet with a capacity for 9,000 cars where spectators could board a 10-minute shuttle train service.^[67] To get spectators to Eton Dorney, four park-and-ride schemes were set up.^[69] These Park and Ride services were operated by First Games Transport.^[70]

TfL defined a network of roads leading between venues as the Olympic Route Network; roads connecting all of the Olympic venues located within London. Many of these roads also contained special "Olympic lanes" marked with the Olympic rings—reserved for the use of Olympic athletes, officials, and other VIPs during the Games. Members of the public driving in an Olympic lane were subject to a fine of £130. Additionally, London buses would not include roads with Olympic lanes on their routes.^[71]^[72]^[73] Concerns were expressed at the logistics of spectators travelling to the events outside London. In particular, the sailing events at Portland had no direct motorway connections, and local roads are heavily congested by tourist traffic in the summer.^[74] However, a £77 million relief road connecting Weymouth to Dorchester was built and opened in 2011.^[75]^[76] Some £16 million was put aside for the rest of the improvements.^[77]

TfL created a promotional campaign and website, Get Ahead of the Games, to help provide information related to transport during the Olympics and Paralympics. Through the campaign, TfL also encouraged the use of cycling as a mode of transport.^[78] A temporary terminal was created at Heathrow Airport to be used by 10,100 departing athletes after the Games. Up to 35% more bags than normal were expected on 13 August, which was predicted to be the busiest day in the airport's history, according to Nick Cole, head of Olympic and Paralympic planning at Heathrow.

Cost and financing

A study from Oxford University found that the sports-related costs of London 2012 amounted to US$15 billion, compared with $4.6 billion for Rio 2016, $40–44 billion for Beijing 2008, and $51 billion for Sochi 2014 (the most expensive Olympics in history). London 2012 went over budget by 76% in real terms, measured from bid to completion. The cost per athlete was $1.4 million.^[79] This does not include wider costs for urban and transport infrastructure, which often equal or exceed the sports-related costs.

The costs of staging the Games were separate from those for building the venues and infrastructure and redeveloping the land for the Olympic Park. While the Games were privately funded, the venues and infrastructure were largely financed using public money.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the original budget for the Games was increased to about £9.3 billion (US$15.28 billion) in 2007.^[80] The revised figures were announced to the House of Commons on 15 March 2007 by Tessa Jowell. Along with East End regeneration costs, the breakdown was:

Building the venues and infrastructure – £5.3 billion
Elite sport and Paralympic funding – £400 million
Security and policing – £600 million
Regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley – £1.7 billion
Contingency fund – £2.7 billion

Volunteers

Unpaid volunteers known as Games Makers performed a variety of tasks before and during the Games.^[81] A target of 70,000 volunteers was set as early as 2004.^[82] When recruitment took place in 2010, more than 240,000 applications were received.^[83] Sebastian Coe said in February 2012, "Our Games Makers will contribute a total of around eight million volunteer hours during the Games and the Games simply wouldn't happen without them".^[84] The volunteers wore clothing that included purple and red polo shirts and jackets, beige trousers, grey socks and grey-and-white trainers, which they collected from the Uniform Distribution and Accreditation Centre. Volunteers also wore photo accreditation badges that were also worn by officials, athletes, family members and media, which gained them access to specific venues and buildings around the site.

Ticketing

Organisers estimated that some 8 million tickets would be available for the Olympic Games,^[85] and 1.5 million tickets for the Paralympic Games.^[85] LOCOG aimed to raise £375–£400 million in ticket sales. There were also free events such as marathon, triathlon and road cycling,^[86] although, for the first time in Olympic history, the sailing events were ticketed.^[87] Eventually, more than 7,000,000 tickets were sold.^[88] Following IOC rules, people applied for tickets from the NOC of their country of residence. European Union residents were able to apply for tickets in any EU country.^[89]

In Great Britain, ticket prices ranged from £20 for many events to £2,012 for the most expensive seats at the opening ceremony. Some free tickets were given to military personnel as part of the Tickets For Troops scheme,^[90] as well as to survivors and families of those who died during the 7 July 2005 London bombings.^[91] Initially, people were able to apply for tickets via a website from 15 March until 26 April 2011. There was a huge demand for tickets, with a demand of more than three times the number of tickets available.^[92]^[93] On 11 May 2012 a round of nearly one million "second chance" tickets went on sale over a 10-day period between 23 June and 3 July 2011.^[94] About 1.7 million tickets were available for football and 600,000 for other sports, including archery, field hockey, football, judo, boxing and volleyball. Ten sports had sold out by 8 am of the first day.^[95]

Countdown

During the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, the Olympic Flag was formally handed over from the Mayor of Beijing to the Mayor of London. This was followed by a section highlighting London,^[96] One month later, the Olympic and Paralympic flags were raised outside the London City Hall.^[97]

A countdown clock in Trafalgar Square was unveiled, 500 days before the Games.^[98]^[99] It was a two-sided clock with the Paralympic countdown on the other side. The countdown to the start of the Olympics began with a ceremony for the lighting of the Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece.^[100]

Security

The police led the security operation (named Operation Olympics by the Ministry of Defence), with 10,000 officers available, supported by 13,500 members of the British Armed Forces. Naval and air assets were deployed as part of the security operation, including ships situated in the Thames, Typhoon fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles;^[101] it was the biggest security operation Britain had faced in decades. The cost of security increased from £282 million to £553 million, and the figure of 13,500 armed forces personnel was greater than the number deployed at the time in Afghanistan.^[102] The Metropolitan Police and the Royal Marines carried out security exercises in preparation for the Olympics on 19 January 2012, with 50 marine police officers in rigid inflatables and fast response boats, joined by up to 100 military personnel and a Royal Navy Lynx helicopter.^[103]

The Ministry of Defence distributed leaflets to residents of the Lexington building in Bow, announcing that a missile system was to be stationed on top of the water tower.^[104]^[105] This caused concern to some residents.^[104]^[105] The Ministry said it probably would use Starstreak missiles and that site evaluations had taken place, but that no final decision had taken place.^[104]^[105]

Medals

Approximately 4,700^[106] Olympic and Paralympic medals were produced by the Royal Mint at Llantrisant.^[107] They were designed by David Watkins (Olympics) and Lin Cheung (Paralympics).^[108] 99% of the gold, silver and copper was donated by Rio Tinto from a mine in Salt Lake County, Utah in the U.S.^[109] The remaining 1% came from a Mongolian mine.^[110] Each medal weighs 375–400 g (13.2–14.1 oz), has a diameter of 85 mm (3.3 in) and is 7 mm (0.28 in) thick, with the sport and discipline engraved on the rim.^[111] The obverse, as is traditional, features Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, stepping from the Panathinaiko Stadium that hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, with Parthenon in the background; the reverse features the Games logo, the River Thames and a series of lines representing "the energy of athletes and a sense of pulling together".^[112] The medals were transferred to the Tower of London vaults on 2 July 2012 for storage.^[111]

Each gold medal is 92.5 percent silver and 1.34 percent gold, with the remainder copper. The silver medal is 92.5 percent silver, with the remainder copper. The bronze medal is made up of 97 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc, and 0.5 per cent tin.^[113] The value of the materials in the gold medal was about £410 (US$644), the silver about £210 (US$330), and the bronze about £3 (US$4.71) as of 30 July 2012.^[114]

Torch relay

The Olympics torch relay ran from 19 May to 27 July 2012, before the Games. Plans for the relay were developed in 2010–11, with the torch-bearer selection process announced on 18 May 2011.^[115] The torch was designed by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby.

On 18 May 2012 the Olympic flame arrived at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall from Greece^[116] on flight BA2012, operated by a British Airways Airbus A319 named "Firefly". The relay lasted 70 days, with 66 evening celebrations and six island visits, and involved some 8,000 people carrying the torch about 8,000 mi (12,875 km), starting from Land's End in Cornwall.^[117] The torch had three days outside the United Kingdom when it visited the Isle of Man on 2 June, Dublin in Ireland, on 6 June,^[118] and both Guernsey and Jersey on 15 July.

The relay focused on National Heritage Sites, locations with sporting significance, key sporting events, schools registered with the Get Set School Network, green spaces and biodiversity, Live Sites (city locations with large screens), and festivals and other events.^[119] Dumfries and Galloway was the only Region in the whole of the United Kingdom that had the Olympic Torch pass through it twice. A group of young athletes, nominated by retired Olympic athletes, ran the torch around the stadium. These torchbearers were Callum Airlie, Jordan Duckitt, Desiree Henry, Katie Kirk, Cameron MacRitchie, Aidan Reynolds, and Adelle Tracey. Together the torchbearers each lit a petal that spread the fire to the 204 petals of the cauldron, representing the countries that participated in the Games.^[120] The cauldron was designed by Thomas Heatherwick.

Environmental policy

The Olympic Park was planned to incorporate 45 hectares of wildlife habitat, with a total of 525 bird boxes and 150 bat boxes. Local waterways and riverbanks were enhanced as part of the process.^[121] Renewable energy also featured at the Olympics. It was originally planned to provide 20% of the energy for the Olympic Park and Village from renewable technologies; however, only 9% of it was achieved.^[122] Proposals to meet the original target included large-scale on-site wind turbines and hydroelectric generators in the River Thames, but these plans were scrapped for safety reasons.^[123] The focus subsequently moved to installing solar panels on some buildings, and providing the opportunity to recover energy from waste. Where it could not be reused or recycled, food packaging for use at the Olympics—including fast-food wrappers, sandwich boxes and drink cartons—was made from compostable materials like starch and cellulose-based bioplastics. After use, many of these materials were suitable for anaerobic digestion (AD), allowing them to be made into renewable energy.^[124]

Post-Games, buildings like the Water Polo Arena were relocated elsewhere. Building parts like roofing covers and membranes of different temporary venues were recycled via VinyLoop. This allowed organisers to meet the standards of the Olympic Delivery Authority concerning environmental protection.

London 2012 inaugurated Olympic Games guidelines that included the recycling of PVC, which was used for temporary buildings such as the Basketball Arena and for the temporary parts of permanent venues such as the Olympic Stadium.^[125] In the Water Polo Arena, PVC roofing was made from recycled cushions to provide insulation.^[126] Through this recycling process, the Olympic Games PVC Policy was fulfilled; the policy states:^[127]

Where London 2012 procures PVC for temporary usage or where permanent usage is not assured, London 2012 is required to ensure that there is a take-back scheme that offers a closed-loop reuse system or mechanical recycling system for post-consumer waste.

According to Kirsten Henson, Materials Manager for the London 2012 Olympic Park: "The majority of temporary facilities created for the Olympic Games including the Aquatic centre temporary stands, basketball arena, Water Polo Arena, and the shooting facilities at the Royal Artillery Barracks, are essentially big tents. Basically, PVC stretched over lightweight steel frame. This design solution makes them efficient to install, reduces the need for any significant foundations and are, of course, reusable. We were challenged by the public around the use of PVC; but we considered it to be the right material for certain functions. We therefore challenged the PVC supply chain to have certain environmental performance criteria in place, including a take back and recycle scheme."^[128]

Cultural Olympiad

The Olympic Charter, the set of rules and guidelines for the organization of the Olympic Games and for governing the Olympic Movement, states that

LOCOG shall organise a programme of cultural events which must cover at least the entire period during which the Olympic Village is open.^[129]

The Cultural Olympiad comprised many programmes, with more than 500 events spread over four years across the whole of the United Kingdom, and culminating in the London 2012 Festival.^[130]^[131]

Opening ceremony

Titled "The Isles of Wonder", the opening ceremony began at 21:00 British Summer Time (UTC+1) on 27 July in the Olympic Stadium.^[132] Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle was artistic director and Rick Smith of Underworld was musical director.^[133] The opening ceremony was immediately seen as a tremendous success, widely praised as a "masterpiece" and "a love letter to Britain".^[134]^[22] The principal sections of the artistic display represented Britain's Industrial Revolution, National Health Service, literary heritage, popular music and culture, and were noted for their vibrant storytelling and use of music.

The Games were officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.^[135] This was the second Olympic Games opened personally by the Queen, the first being in 1976 in Montreal, Canada. The ceremony featured a short comic film starring Daniel Craig as secret agent James Bond and the Queen as herself.^[136] There was also a musical comedy item starring Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean playing along with the London Symphony Orchestra.^[137] These were widely ascribed to Britain's sense of humour.^[138]

Live musical performers included Frank Turner, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Mike Oldfield, Dizzee Rascal, Arctic Monkeys, and Sir Paul McCartney who performed "Hey Jude" as the closing act.^[139]^[140] Broadcast live on BBC One, the ceremony attracted a peak viewing audience of over 27 million in the UK.^[141]

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony was held on 12 August. It featured a flashback fiesta to British music with The Who closing the performance. The ceremony also included a handover of the Olympic flag by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, to Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, the host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[142] In his closing address, Jacques Rogge described the Games as "happy and glorious".^[21]