New hosts: A crowd celebrates the official Olympic handover ceremony, broadcast live from Beijing, at a free ‘London 2012’ concert on Sunday. (Lefteris Pitarakis/AP)
Beijing Olympics: A tough act for London to follow
The 2012 host faces numerous challenges, including tight budgets, security concerns, and a dearth of homegrown Olympic champions in many sports.
Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent / August 24, 2008 edition
Dylan Martinez/Reuters
Waving the flag: At the official handover ceremony Sunday in Beijing, London Mayor Boris Johnson began his city's four-year countdown to the 2012 Games.
London
Follow that! Even before Beijing passed the Olympic baton to London on Sunday, British officials were gearing up to face a formidable challenge in matching the 2008 Games. The Chinese have raised the Olympic bar and some 2012 Games organizers are already trying to manage expectations.
Boris Johnson, the London mayor who received the Olympic flag on Sunday, has stressed that although “dazzled” and “blown away” by the Beijing Games, he is not intimidated. But Mr. Johnson and others who will preside over Olympic preparations face three challenges that the Chinese had less trouble with: security, homegrown Olympians, and cash flow.
The first was underscored hours after London was awarded the 2012 Games in 2005, when the July 7 bombings startled Londoners into realizing that they, too, were on the front lines in the battle with Muslim extremists. The Olympic site is positioned in the middle of one of Britain’s largest Muslim communities in the east London neighborhood of Stratford.
But the authorities don’t want the metallic grip of security to squeeze the joy out of the Games. According to Games minister Tessa Jowell, “The key thing is that the security is effective and keeps people safe, but it is not oppressive.” A security blueprint is expected at the end of the year. The aspiration is to enable people to soak up the atmosphere inside the Olympic park, even without tickets to venues – a bit like Wimbledon.
When it comes to the competitions, however, the hope is for anything but Wimbledon-like performances. In the tennis championship, Britain hasn’t won a medal in men’s or women’s singles since 1977. There are concerns that the British won’t come up with home champions to grace the 2012 Olympics. Only 12 years ago in Atlanta, the team won just one gold and failed to make the top 30 nations.
“Success is infectious,” says Mark Richardson, one of the few British medallists in Atlanta. “People want to see British athletes being competitive with a chance of getting a medal.”
With an eye on 2012, British Olympic leaders sent young talent to Beijing to observe what turned out to be the country’s most successful Games since 1908, when London hosted the Games, provided the judges, and invented events contested solely by Britons. Despite lacking those advantages in Beijing, the British team won 47 medals – 19 of those gold – coming in fourth in the overall medals count.
British cyclists, backed by multimillion-pound investments from the National Lottery, which were channeled in both facilities and sports science, particularly stood out. Aiming to buoy other sports with cold, hard cash, Britain has devised a national sponsorship scheme called Medal Hopes. But currently, there is a funding shortfall of £79 million ($145 million). With the economy mired in a credit crunch and tight rules restricting advertising on athlete apparel, sponsors could be hard to attract.
A similar cash crunch looms over the actual Olympic site. The budget, partly funded by a £20 tax on every London household, has quadrupled to £9.3 billion. Government ministers have warned that taxpayers will not cough up more. And, Johnson notes, Britain does not have a boom-time economy to bankroll a Bird’s Nest in east London. Instead, he is calling for a “value for money” Games. The International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge has countered that standards must not slip.
Already, there is skepticism that Britain can deliver such a massive project on a tight budget. East Londoners are also asking what will become of the Olympic park after the Games. They fear being saddled with a white elephant.
“There have been no proper discussions on handing the Olympics village over to the local community,” says Kevin Blowe, a local resident critical of the 2012 plans. “Major building projects do not transform areas. I’m sure it will be a great success. But none of that has an impact on the community.”
Comments
2. Alistair | 08.24.08
Most of us in London were inspired by the performance of British athletes in the Beijing Olympics. The only disappointment was the lack of medals in track and field events: one gold, two silver and a bronze. Still, for Team GB to finish fourth in the overall medal table is impressive and will provide inspiration and motivation during the next 4 years.
3. kevin zaw | 08.24.08
yes, nowadays britishs are lazy and not trying hard like their forefathers did, so i reckon they are going opposite ways, lack of finance, confidence,but they have full of hope
4. Frank | 08.24.08
1. That’s the Olympic spirit, Mable.
2. Hello.
3. Poppler, “Christian Science” is the name of an American Protestant religious sect that practices faith-healing. They subsidize the newspaper, but religious influences are limited to the occasional editorial.
4. Yeah Alistair, from the outside it looks like the Brits did pretty well. Of course there will always be disappointments–such is life.
5. Kevin, I suspect that you are overly generalizing here.
5. Steve | 08.24.08
Hi Frank– just a quickie clarification. “Christian Science” isn’t dedicated so much to faith healing– which sounds like the forehead-smacking stuff you see charlatans doing on late-night TV– as to the power of well-being through prayer, and, theologically, to the power (and joy) of inquiry, reason, and truth. (Hence the newspaper, which I personally find one of the best around.) The founder / discover, Mary Baker Eddy, was a remarkable woman and a hundred years ahead of her time. I’m not a Christian Scientist myself, but I have great respect for the religion. It’s regrettable that the religion is known in the popular press mostly for those vanishingly few cases in which necessary medical treatment is withheld for religious reasons. Essentially all Christian Scientists go see a doctor when they’re sick. cheers, Steve
6. Chardot | 08.25.08
t’s the Olympic spirit, Mable.
2. Hello.
3. Poppler, “Christian Science” is the name of an American Protestant religious sect that practices faith-healing. They subsidize the newspaper, but religious influences are limited to the occasional editorial.
7. Steve | 08.24.08
Hi Frank– just a quickie clarification. “Christian Science” isn’t dedicated so much to faith healing– which sounds like the forehead-smacking stuff you see charlatans doing on late-night TV– as to the power of well-being through prayer, and, theologically, to the power (and joy) of inquiry, reason, and truth. (Hence the newspaper, which I personally find one of the best around.) The founder / discover, Mary Baker Eddy, was a remarkable woman and a hundred years ahead of her time. I’m not a Christian Scientist myself, but I have great respect for the religion. It’s regrettable that the religion is known in the popular press mostly for those vanishingly few cases in which necessary medical treatment is withheld for religious reasons. Essentially all Christian Scientists go see a doctor when they’re sick. cheers, Steve
Hi Poppler,
You wrote, “this site is weird, there is very little christianity and almost no science
You wrote, “This site is weird, there is very little Christianity and almost no science.”
Then, Frank and Steve added thoughts, and here are mine:
Basically, I find that Christianity underlies the approach the Monitor takes to journalism. Mary Baker Eddy founded the paper in 1908, as an alternative to the “yellow journalism” of her day.
Upon founding it she wrote, “The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.”
Monitor articles strive to uncover the problems which individuals or nations face, and when possible, describe successful efforts to solve them. Learning of one another’s needs can help promote cooperation and healing.
Regarding the “Science in Christian Science, the founder of this paper wrote a book, Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures which explains why she calls it a Science – for one thing, when it is clearly understood, it can be taught and demonstrated with predictable results!
Students of Christian Science may go to a doctor for treatment if they desire to do so.
However, at christianscience.com individuals explain how they have turned in prayer to the Science of Being, and been healed.
7. Chardot | 08.25.08
Hi all–
I apologize the post above is garbled. This is the way I meant it to look:
Hi Poppler,
You wrote, “This site is weird, there is very little Christianity and almost no science.”
Then, Frank and Steve added thoughts, and here are mine:
Basically, I find that Christianity underlies the approach the Monitor takes to journalism. Mary Baker Eddy founded the paper in 1908, as an alternative to the “yellow journalism” of her day.
Upon founding it she wrote, “The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.”
Monitor articles strive to uncover the problems which individuals or nations face, and when possible, describe successful efforts to solve them. Learning of one another’s needs can help promote cooperation and healing.
Regarding the Science in Christian Science, the founder of this paper wrote a book, Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures which explains why she calls it a Science – for one thing, when it is clearly understood, it can be taught and demonstrated with predictable results!
Students of Christian Science may go to a doctor for treatment if they desire to do so.
However, at christianscience.com individuals explain how they have turned in prayer to the Science of being, and have been healed.
8. Petra | 08.25.08
4. Alistair and everyone
Why you are disappointed? Remember, the Olympics are still games, no matter how many people tend to forget about it.
The idea that differences of two hundreds of a second make a winner or looser is crazy! The fact that some one else is as good as I am, doesn’t make me less good or bad! I try to be good in whatever I am doing and I am glad if others are too!
I apologize for my poor English!
9. praxitas | 08.25.08
“poppler | 08.24.08
this site is weird, there is very little christianity and almost no science”
you are being monitored though.
10. snowman121 | 08.26.08
I am laughing so hard. Olympics has always been a big show for the whole humanity. Beijing just had an epic performance and no one can top that for decades to come. I wonder why London even bothered to apply if they can not come up with the money or the dedication. UK now seems to be a second rate nation that only moan and ***** about things besides following the US. London is old and tired, I don’t see how it can handle a mass production like the Olympics. How sad the London handover show, how sad the 2021 logo, how sad the clown mayor. It is ironic and UK worked the hardest to disrupt Beijing’s torch, now I have heard London might not even have the torch relay. Funny how it comes back to haunt UK. A nation that does not respect others deserves no respect. I hope miracle will happen for London in 2012, but so far, things does not look good. The IOC should take the game to other nations that can afford them and where the people are passionate about Olympics.
12. steven | 08.30.08
That is a great opportunity to showcase if london is a safety place to the world.
13. Colin | 09.06.08
A shame it’s going to london, Where are they gunna get the cash. Now i’m not saying the U.S. could do any better, we’re broke.
14. Marcus | 09.12.08
What a strange article. It seems the premise was that the British won’t do very well on the medal tally because of 1996, yet they just had their most successful games ever?? Then there’s the Muslim angle? So the Olympics are being staged in a multi-cultural area, so what?
As for the money? Well, London is the financial capital of the world, a world capital, it attracts 30 million visitors a year(more than any other city on earth), so I’m sure it can come up with the $20 billion it needs to host these games successfully.
16. Lisa S. | 10.19.08
Just learning about bloggin, but very much into the environment and saving the planet.
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1. poppler | 08.24.08
this site is weird, there is very little christianity and almost no science