CHALLENGES on the ROAD to LONDON 2012

by Earlie Doriman
The London 2012 Olympics carries the challenge to surpass Beijing’s spectacular hosting of 2008. The construction of Olympic venues scattered all over London is going on round the clock. Few are nearly finished whilst some venues will use historic facilities to promote the rich history of London and Great Britain in general.

London 2012 Olympics Logo
( Photo from Yahoo Images)

This biggest sporting event of the world will officially start on July 27 2012. It can be remembered, that London won the bid to host the Summer Olympics against Paris in 2005 after hurdling three other great cities of Moscow, New York, and Madrid. From then on, the Olympic Committee of UK has worked and managed hard to make the country’s hosting not only successful but also memorable. But, as the opening date draws closer, some problems begin to emerge. 

One early problem was the upshot of the economic crisis that struck most European nations in the past two years, UK in particular. This has squeezed tightly both government and private businesses and definitely put a bad bearing on the construction of the canal lock on River Lea purposely to carry up enormous tons of raw materials for the Olympic Park. Some works were not materialized, and so the canal could only take barges to transport construction materials to the site. However, things have been smoothen out eventually and the venues for the upcoming sporting spectacle are within the frames of the timetable.

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Another worrying problem against the public was the rise of fake websites allegedly selling London 2012 tickets.  An Operation Podium has been set up and spearheaded by special police units, to track down these shameful and illegal facilities. As reported, in just six months, the team is able to arrest thirty-seven offenders. Ticket fraud is always an issue during Olympic events. It is advised that the buying public should be vigilant and help the concern agency to report websites not duly authorize by the Olympic body to sell tickets. Tickets are available on the March 15 2011.

Amongst the early ‘glitches’, the most comical was the break down of OMEGA’s official Olympic clock unveiled at London’s Trafalgar Square on March 14, 2011. Marking the 500^th day before the London 2012, the countdown clock stopped ticking and has to be repaired immediately to bring it back to life. Nothing serious about it though, but remember that a millisecond separates the gold from the silver in sprint competitions.

The Olympic Committee of Iran has threatened to boycott the London 2012 because of the design of the Olympic LOGO. The Islamic Republic of Iran accused the host that the London 2012 logo resembles the word Zion. Zion is a word that refers to the city of Jerusalem and Israel, which is not recognized by Iran. This criticism of the design is just one amongst the numerous reactions when the LOGO was presented in 2007. Some relates it to a NAZI emblem, Sadly, most critics said it is honestly a terrible design.

The credit card VISA contributed to the problems too. Many buyers were annoyed when they could not booked tickets for the Olympic event.  Tickets were out online on March 15, 2011 and many VISA cardholders were not able to process orders for cards with expiry dates before the end of August 2011. But the VISA company is quick to troubleshoot the errors and apologised for the inconvenience. After the glitch, the London 2012 ticket website would accept VISA cards which expire on May and later. As a major sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics, VISA is the only card accepted at the Olympics 2012 opening as well as venues for different events.

Lastly, it would be up to you if the ticket price be amongst the challenges to the road of London 2012. The prices will range from £20 to over £2,000.

References:

BBC News

SKY News

Wikipedia