Tag Archives: olympics

LONDON AQUATICS CENTRE Opens 1st March – Book sessions from Monday 20th January

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The London Aquatics Centre, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will be a vibrant and accessible facility open to the whole community. Following its transformation after the Games the facility will open on 1st March 2014.

The world class former Olympic venue will house two 50m pools, a 25m diving pool, a state-of-the-art gym and a creche. We are working with British Swimming / Amateur Swimming Association to develop performance programmes for all Aquatic disciplines based on the successful Beacon model. We are also working with British Swimming who are planning to use the centre regularly as an international training venue for elite athletes.

In addition we will be playing host to a number of National and International sporting events throughout the year. The venue also includes catering and meeting room facilities.View the timelapse build of the iconic venue.

Activities

Swimming

  • 01 Mar 2014 – 20 Mar 2019

The Aquatics Centre will have a 50m x 10-lane Olympic competition pool and a 50m x 8-lane training pool. Both pools have moveable floors and booms for greater flexibility.

Diving

  • 01 Mar 2014 – 31 Mar 2019

A separate 25m diving pool with 1m, 3m, 5m, 7.5m and 10m platforms, along with 1m and 3m springboards. There will also be also a separate dry land training facility with trampoline, springboards, foam pits and harness.

Gym

  • 01 Mar 2014 – 31 Mar 2019

A 50 station gym with state-of-the-art Technogym kit with stretch and free weights area will be installed for public use with a fantastic view of the competition pool. Affordable memberships will be available to purchase in advance from 20th January. Keep an eye on the website for further updates.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – EXPLORE MORE OF THE PARK FROM 5 APRIL

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Explore the south of the Park for the first time since the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Enjoy the newly landscaped parklands, fountains and waterways, Aquatics Centre, ArcelorMittal Orbit, walking trails, arts and events and children’s play areas.

From 5 April 2014, there will be lots more to explore at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Experience London’s newest open space as the Park and its venues continue to open.

This spring, one of the Park’s most exciting areas will open to the public – the new parklands in the south of the Park.  From 5 April, you can:

  • Relax among the beautiful parklands, fountains and waterways designed by internationally renowned landscape architects
  • Take advantage of world-class sporting venues made famous during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, including the Aquatics Centre and Lee Valley VeloPark
  • Experience 25 public artworks across the Park and cultural events in new and exciting spaces
  • Get a new perspective on London from the ArcelorMittal Orbit, the UK’s tallest sculpture at 114.5 metres
  • Walk four new interactive trails covering the London 2012 Games, nature and biodiversity, education and art and culture
  • Let your kids run free in new play areas offering everything from climbing walls to sandpits and giant fountains
  • Eat and drink at the Podium or one of a number of kiosks along the Park’s new promenade, lined with 100 mature trees

 What’s open now?

You don’t need to wait until 5 April to visit.

The northern part of the Park and the Copper Box Arena have been open since July 2013, and we’ve seen more than a million visitors since then to these and to the series of concerts, festivals and sporting events we held over the summer.

If you visit the park today, you will be able to:

 What is open when?

Opening dates for venues across the Park this spring are as follows:

If you’re planning to visit these venues when they open, we suggest booking online where possible – see individual pages for more information.

Please be aware that while we complete the building and landscaping work across the Park some access has to be restricted.

For information on how to find us, see travelling to the Park.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in numbers

 

 

TwentyTwelve spin-off in the pipeline reuniting hapless Olympics planning team

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BBC comedy chiefs are plotting a spin-off of Bafta-nominated Olympic mockumentary TwentyTwelve.

twentytwelve_group

They hope to reunite the core team of hapless PRs including Jessica Hynes as Siobhan Sharpe, Hugh Bonneville as Ian Fletcher, Olivia Colman as his PA Sally and Amelia Bulmore as Kay Hope.

A BBC insider said: “There is a real desire for this to happen.

“The show was such a fantastic success and writer John Morton is a genius, such a massive talent.

“It would be so great to get the team together again.”

Plans are in their early stages, with the spin-off likely to see dithering Fletcher taking on another major national project and hiring back his Olympic colleagues to help him out.

In the show, made in the style of a fly-on-the-wall documentary, Ian headed up the fictional Olympic Deliverance Commission while Siobhan, who has her own PR company Perfect Curve, was head of brand.

One of the highlights was the development of a travel strategy – called Way to Go – in which pedestrians were banned from pavements.

Morton has indicated that a follow-up comedy could be possible, given the right circumstances. He said: “There’s been some talk about whether there can be a life post-Olympics and it’s tempting because I’d love to work with those actors again.”

The BBC2 series received widespread critical acclaim when it was shown in the run-up to the Olympics last year.

Viewers loved that many of the comedy’s ideas – such as problems with the countdown clock, complaints from animal rights organisations and a bell-ringing competition to mark the start of the Games – were echoed in real life.

Tomorrow Bonneville, Hynes and Colman will find out if they have won a Bafta for their individual performances, while the show is also nominated in the sitcom category.

TwentyTwelve has already been named best comedy by the Royal Television Society and won best sitcom at the Comedy Awards.