A Look back at London 2012 by Corentin HERBINET
Well, 2012 was quite a year for London, wasn't it? With the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and of course the unmissable Olympic Games, people all around the world got a feel for the british culture and London's mix of tradition and modernity.
More than six months have now passed since Team GB's open-top bus parade to celebrate their achievements with all their fans. Therefore, now is the right time to have a look back at London 2012 and check if it respected al of its contract(s).
I can start by saying what everyone already knows: the London Olympic Games honoured sport, thanks to amazing athletes taking part in various events, in modern infrastructures. The Games created a movement of optimism in London and even around Great Britain.
But what marks did London 2012 leave? Firstly, the event was a defeat for British economy: more than 10 billion pounds were spent to organise the Games, which is aproximately the same as they spend on tertiary education (universities, colleges, etc.) in a year. Some people will say that the 3% increase in tourists in 2013, wanting to see London's beauty for themselves, is a benefit but it will never give the taxpayers' their money back.
Nevertheless, the city of London has used the Games as a start to restructuring the Eastern, ex-industrial, area of the town. The Olympic Park will be opened to everyone from July 2013 and will be renamed the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This will be the centre of a new vibrant and active part of London where companies are being persuaded to move to, next to the huge Westfield shopping centre. The Olympic Village (the apartments where all the athletes lived) will be sold as cheap and modern apartments. What's more, the East of London's connectivity has greatly improved during the Games: it will be served by eight train lines, with London City Airport less than 20 minutes away, and half-an-hour away from the M25, one of Britain's most used motorway.
But what about its sports legacy? In my opinion, London 2012 was a great show of solidarity and making sport available to everyone. Many Londoners came together to make the Olympics the best event London has ever seen and nothing would have been possible without the “Game Makers”, the huge number of volunteers who literally made the Games successful. 2012 was also the first time that the Paralympics receive as much attention as they did: all the people that didn't manage to get a ticket for the “real” Games (and there were many) took the Paralympics as an opportunity to discover the Olympic atmosphere and by consequence most stadiums were full. The crowd weren't shy to show their support for the handicapped heroes pushing their bodies to the limit.
London 2012's motto was “Inspire a Generation” and inspire a generation they did. Team GB's great performance at the Games gave the opportunity to children to watch plenty of sports during ther summer holidays and there has been a significant increase in children participation all around Britain's sports clubs. 2012 was the first time that a host nation put out a team or at least a participant for every single sport represented at the tournament, which gave everyone the opportunity to discover new sports while still supporting their favourite team. The symbolic lighting of the Olympic torch by a few future athletes represented exactly what London 2012 did right: passing the torch to the young and letting sport get its deserved victory.
