Local Heroes

Did you know?

• PARIS 1900: The first woman to win an Olympic event was England's Charlotte Cooper, who won the tennis singles.
• 8.8 million tickets will be available for the London 2012 Olympic Games, with another 2 million for the Paralympic Games.
• BARCELONA 1992: In the women's 100m sprint Merlene Ottey (JAM) finished only six-hundredths of a second behind the winner, Gail Devers (USA), and yet she ended up in only fifth place.
• There are 26 Olympic sports and 20 Paralympic sports in the London 2012 Games.
• Following the London 1948 Olympic Games, Lloyds was given a 1948 Torch thought to have been donated by an employee who ran with it.
• If all London 2012 sports events were held on consecutive days, instead of simultaneously, there would be 318 competition days for Olympic Games events and another 133 days for the Paralympic Games.
• 11 – number of residential blocks within the Olympic Village, each the size of a football pitch.
• More than one million people will visit the Olympic Stadium for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.
• MELBOURNE, STOCKHOLM 1956: To avoid the problem of quarantine for horses, the equestrian events took place in two different cities, and in two different seasons (June and November).
• For London 2012, rail links to the Olympic Park will have capacity to take more than 240,000 people to the Park every hour.
• 800,000 – the number of people expected to use public transport to travel to the London 2012 Games on the busiest day:about the same number as the combined population of Cardiff and Edinburgh.
• LONDON 1908: The first time a relay was included in the athletics events.
• The London 2012 Paralympic Games will award 471 medals in 20 Paralympic sports in 21 venues over 11 days of competition.
• The dining room in the London Olympic Village will be the size of three football fields and seat 5,000. It will serve an estimated 100 tonnes of meat alone.
• TOKYO 1964: The first Fair Play prize awarded to Lars Gunnar Kall and Stig Lennart Kall, who gave up their chances of winning the regatta to come to the aid of two other competitors whose boat had sunk.
• Ancient Olympics: The word gymnasium comes from the Greek root "gymnos" meaning nude (and yes, they did).
• Our history with the Olympic Movement dates back to 1948 when Lloyds provided banking facilities to the 1948 Games, the last time they were held in London.
• The London 2012 Olympic Games will award 300 medals in 26 Olympic Sports in 34 venues over 17 days of competition.
• The London 2012 Olympic Games ticket application process is open from 15 March to 26 April 2011.
• ATHENS 2004: The marathon races followed the same route as the 1896 race, beginning in Marathon and ending in Athens' Panathenaic Stadium. Vanderlei de Lima (BRA) was in the lead with less than 7 kilometres to go when he was pushed off the course.
• 53m – height of the Olympic Stadium: three metres taller than Nelson’s Column in London's Trafalgar Square.
• The Olympic Park is the size of 357 football pitches.
• SYDNEY 2000: Korea (South Korea) and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) marched together under the same flag.
• 90% - proportion of material reclaimed from demolition within the Olympic Park which can be reused or recycled.
• There are 700 rooms within the Olympic Stadium, including eight changing rooms and four prayer rooms.
• 35m – height of the Basketball Arena, the same as London's Tate Modern and the Falkirk Wheel.
• SEOUL 1988: South Korea turned democratic in order to welcome the world to the Summer Games.
• 76 – number of lifts in the Olympic Village to ensure the buildings are fully accessible.
• The London 2012 Olympic Stadium will have an 80,000 seat capacity.
• Around 900,000 items of sports equipment will be needed for the Olympic Games including 1424 FIFA-approved footballs, 1100 Badminton shuttlecocks and 65,000 towels.
• MUNICH 1972: Mark Spitz won seven gold medals and broke seven world records.
• A ticket application process was announced by LOCOG as a way of ensuring a fairer process in order to make London 2012 everyone’s Games.
• In 2012 up to 25,000 people could be transported to and from Stratford International Station each hour on the Javelin® train from St Pancras International station, in less than seven minutes.

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