London marks the seven-year anniversary Wednesday to date of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games and already preparation work involving the London Development Agency is underway at the Aquatics venue located near the site of the new Olympic stadium where the Opening Ceremony will be held.
The seven-year countdown was marked in London Wednesday by a series of events including the official launch of a new lottery, one of a series of dedicated lottery games to help fund the London 2012 Games.
According to a media release, over the next seven years London will be transformed into an Olympic Host City designed to provide athletes, the Olympic family and spectators with the “best possible Olympic Games and Paralympic Games venues, conditions and experience and inspire more young people to take up Olympic sport”.
By the time the Opening Ceremony starts on July 27, 2012, Olympic football qualifying rounds will be underway with early matches already taking place in Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow.
More than 10,000 athletes from over 200 nations will have moved into the new Olympic Village to be converted into affordable housing after the Games.
Fifteen Olympic sports will begin the day after the Opening Ceremony at London venues and landmarks.
Seventy volunteers will have been trained and in place.
London’s transport system is to be upgraded over the next seven years that will include a special rapid shuttle service to ferry passengers at Games time from central London to the Olympic Park in just seven minutes.
London 2012 head Sebastian Coe said, “visitors converging on the Olympic Park for the Opening Ceremony by public transport, cycling or walking will enter into a new landscape of green parkland and clean waterways providing a lush backdrop for modern, energy efficient sports stadia just six kilometres from central London”.
