IOC Co-Comm to Raise Concerns over 2012 Venue

(ATR) London 2012 chiefs will not be able to approve the venue for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics until next spring due to ongoing concerns over long journey times from the Olympic Village to Wembley Arena.

Denis Oswald, chair of the IOC Coordination Commission, had hoped to resolve the issue during his team’s two-day inspection of London preparations that kicked off Wednesday. Last month, he warned Games organizers to finalize the 2012 venues "as a matter of urgency."

LOCOG is seeking approval from the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and Badminton World Federation on its plans to scrap a temporary venue envisaged for the sports in North Greenwich to relocate them at Wembley Arena. The Olympic Board said the proposal would save more than $30 million.

But André Gueisbuhler, secretary general of FIG, told Around the Rings on Wednesday he is “very unhappy” with the venue switch. He insisted there was no way the federation can sign off on any LOCOG proposal until its executive committee meeting at the end of February.

“We have received a full proposal from LOCOG and we are studying all the details,” he told ATR, saying a decision on the 2012 venue for rhythmic gymnastics would likely be made at FIG’s presidential commission and ratified at the executive committee. The meetings take place Feb. 24-28.

“We have our procedures… this decision can only be taken by the executive committee,” Gueisbuhler said. “We have to evaluate all this and take an assessment and position, we are not going to decide any sooner.”

It means the earliest the IOC could approve the plans is at its executive board meeting at Sportaccord in Dubai from April 28-30.

Gymnastics and badminton share similar concerns about the travel time from the athletes’ village in east London to Wembley Arena in the north west of the city; the journey time can take well over one hour. The two federations may yet ask London 2012 organizers to stick to their original plan to build the temporary venue.

“We are of course very unhappy. Every bidding city which makes a proposal at the beginning on some venue and then changes makes us unhappy,” Gueisbuhler said.

He said the issues were the distance between venues, the athletes’ experience and the separation of rhythmic gymnastics from artistic gymnastics and trampoline events, which take place in the 02 Arena. Gueisbuhler has estimated that even with Olympic lanes, the journey between the village and Wembley would still take about one hour.

But he said FIG was “certainly open” to looking at the Wembley venue plan. He gave no indication of what the best outcome would be for the federation and its athletes for the 2012 Games.

“We are in constant contact with LOCOG and we have an excellent relationship with them. We are really both trying to find a solution,” he added.

The Badminton World Federation is expected to make a decision on the Wembley Arena plan at its ruling council meeting in Bali, Indonesia on Friday.

The IOC inspection team spent the whole of Wednesday in meetings with London 2012 leaders and Olympic stakeholders. There is no Olympic Park tour scheduled during the IOC visit.

Oswald will pass comment on LOCOG’s delay in finalizing venues at a press conference Thursday that wraps the IOC check-up of London’s Olympic preparations. LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe will also attend before heading to Lisbon for the European Olympic Committees general assembly. Coe will update the EOC congress on 2012 preparations in a session on Friday.

London 2012 was contacted for comment for this story.

With reporting from Mark Bisson.