Blog - First Look Inside the London 2012 Olympic Village

(ATR) Around the Rings reporter Christian Radnedge stopped a night at the Olympic Village to get a taste of what 16,000 athletes and officials will experience when they stay here during the Games.

The 36-hectare site was opened over the weekend, given a ‘test’ by around 800 stakeholders and guests, as well as selected members of the media. Airport-style security checks greeted ATR and the several hundred reporters who arrived for the big sleepover. Athletes will call the village home for a period of at least two weeks; the Games begin in 25 days.

London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton says the main inspiration for the village design was a focus on fun.

Deighton was joined by LOCOG ambassador Jonathan Edwards and Team GB chef de mission Andy Hunt in the overnight stay where guests were given private tours around the site – after enduring a long queue through security that will soon become synonymous with the London Games.

"The main focus on the internal fit out is about what is most important to the athletes’ performance," Deighton said. "We have the right kind of access to TV and WIFI so if they want to chill out they can do so easily. Generally we tried to make it fun, give people a sense of they are in London."

"You only have to look out the window to see that. But what I like about it is the closeness of it - you walk round the corner and suddenly there’s the velodrome, or there’s the basketball arena... I think it’s terrific."

"The closeness of the village to the park and the venues is one of its best features, it really is."

The athlete accommodation itself consists of 2,818 apartments spread over 11 residential plots. There are vast green spaces in between the streets with names such as ‘Victory Walk’ and ‘Ulysses Place’.

There are even mini-lakes of water that are channeled into the plumbing system which will use any excess rain and recycle it into the River Lea that runs through the Olympic Park.

Dining Like an Athlete

As well as sampling the hotel-standard apartments – that resembled student accommodation with communal lounges in the larger ones – the one-night guests were treated to a taste of what the athletes will be dining on during the Games.

Described by organizers as the largest peacetime catering structure, the 24-hour main dining facility will serve 1.2 million meals during the Games. Photographers were having a hard time fitting the whole venue into one picture, considering the fact that you could fit 880 double-decker buses inside.

A variety of food will be offered in different catering sections including ‘Best of British’, ‘African & Caribbean’,‘Indian & Asian’ and ‘European, American & Mediterranean’. The food on offer was greeted with good reviews – the same cannot be said however for the London 2012 branded sauvignon blanc.

Food and drink is also provided for the athletes in the recreation area, the centre of which is ‘The Globe’.

This is a large communal comfort zone for the athletes which provides pool tables, a computer gaming area, TVs and other activities to underline Deighton’s comments about the focus being on fun.

Deighton also added that he wanted the athletes to "feel at home". By this he meant that the volunteers and staff in the village would look after their needs ranging from spiritual help and transport information to daily sports results information.

"We want it to be a place where everything in their everyday lives is taken care of so they can concentrateon what’s important to them," he said.

"So a stress-free environment, in the way the food works, the transportation, and the volunteers and staff are looking after them - that’s the feel we want them to have."

Noisy But No Booze for Games

LOCOG will be relieved that the overnight test passed without a major incident – though there were some noise issues very late in the evening. But that shouldn’t be a problem during the Games as no alcohol will be served in the village.

However, the common LOCOG mantra of "there is still a lot of work to do" holds ever true. The temporary shops for the athletes including a pharmacy, a general store and a clothes shop still have to be fully completed and stocked.

There is also the construction of a ‘Truce Wall’ to begin. Village staff said this would be for each athlete to sign when they first enter the village in their groups having first been welcomed by their national anthem.

From surveying the village, it should certainly be a straightforward conversion to a new community after the Games. The Village Service Center will become an education campus, the polyclinic gets taken over by the NHS and the apartments will be retro-fitted to be suitable for the general public.

For that the task will be in the hands of the London Legacy Development Corporation [LLDC].

For now, the most compact village in recent Games history is waiting and preparing for the arrival of the athletes and team officials it will host during the Olympics; it goes on to host 6,200 athletes and officials during the Paralympic Games.

Reported by Christian Radnedge

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