News story

2012 - two years to go

Today marks exactly聽two years to go until the opening ceremony of London 2012.

From:
Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and The Rt Hon Hugh Robertson
Published
15 February 2012
This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

To celebrate, athletes and young people are joining , Seb Coe and Boris Johnson on the train from St Pancras International to Stratford International before taking a tour of the Olympic Park.

For the first time, they will聽step inside venues to witness first-hand the progress being made in construction, which is on time and on budget.聽

Other activities will include:

  • young athletes joining multi-Olympic medallist Michael Johnson running inside the Olympic Stadium on a specially laid track
  • gold medallist cyclist Sir Chris Hoy welcoming visitors inside the Velodrome by cycling inside for the first time
  • former NBA star John Amaechi and young basketball players shooting the first hoop inside the Basketball Arena

Your Games

It鈥檚 also time for you聽to start planning your Games.

Whether it is signing up for tickets, becoming a 鈥樷�� volunteer or a 鈥楲ondon Ambassador鈥�, now is the time to start thinking about how to make the most of the summer of 2012.聽

鈥淭here are two years to go until the Olympic Games begin and our message is simple: now is the best time to plan your Games,鈥� said Mr Coe. 鈥淲e are well on track - the venues are nearing completion and our plans are coming together.聽Now it鈥檚 the public鈥檚 turn.聽How will you spend the summer of 2012? Whether it鈥檚 buying a ticket, becoming a volunteer, being part of our education or culture programmes - there are hundreds of ways you can get involved.鈥�

Volunteering

The opens today for specialist positions such as sports medicine doctors, anti-doping personnel and scoreboard operators.

General volunteering positions such as ticket checkers and uniform distributors, will open on 15 September. The organisers are seeking to recruit up to 70,000 volunteers.

鈥淭wo years to go and London 2012 is in excellent shape,鈥� said Mr Robertson.聽鈥漈oday we enter another new phase of London 2012 - bringing the Great British public on-board. Volunteers are the heartbeat of every Olympic and Paralympic Games and are crucial to their success. We need skilled and passionate people who have the commitment to make 2012 the best Olympic and Paralympic Games ever.鈥�

Updates to this page

Published 15 February 2012