About the Games
London was selected as the host of 30th Olympic Games on 6 July 2005, beating off competition from Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris. It's the third time the Olympics will have been hosted in London, the only city to achieve this feat in the modern era.
The Games are set to get underway on the 27 July 2012 and will last for a total of 60 days. The event will see 26 Olympic sports and 20 Paralympic sports taking place in a variety of locations across the capital and the rest of the UK. Almost 15,000 athletes from 205 countries will take part in both Games.
The focal point of the Games will be the brand new 80,000 seater Olympic Stadium which will be located in Stratford. It will cost over £400 million to build and it's scheduled to open in 2011. There are also plans to use a variety of other more historic venues in the city and also around the country, such as Wimbledon and Wembley for the tennis and football tournaments respectively.
There are also plans to put the skills, inspiration and the infrastructure developed for the games to good use after Games thanks to the 2012 Legacy.
