London 2012 legacy strategy: ambitions, promises and implementation plans

Abstract

As a result of a recommendation from the IOC Olympic Games Study Commission, in November 2002 the IOC Olympic Charter was amended to emphasise the importance of ‘promoting a positive legacy from the Olympic Games to the host city and host country’ (IOC, 2002). The bidding process for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which concluded in July 2005, was the first Summer Games bidding process conducted under this amended charter. Consequently, although previous host cities had included a consideration of legacy as part of an internal justification for public sector investment, London, together with Paris, Moscow, Madrid and New York, were the first candidate cities for the Summer Games explicitly invited to address the issue of legacy as part of their bids for the 2012 Games. It was an invitation to which London enthusiastically responded. The notion that there might be rationales and outcomes beyond the simple organisation of a sport competition for hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games is not new. In the last 20 years, hosts have articulated various rationales for wishing to stage the Games. For example: the 1992 Games in Barcelona were used as a mechanism to accelerate the delivery of an extensive programme of urban regeneration; a key aim for the Sydney Games of 2000 was to position Australia as a centre for business in emerging Asian markets; and the Beijing Games of 2008 were used to help China interact with the global economy, promoting the country as a welcoming place in which to live and visit, and with which to do business (Xu, 2006). But these were largely rationales that were used by the hosts to justify the public sector investment in the Games. For London, though, the notion of ‘legacy’, or the imprint left by the Games before, during and after the event, was articulated from the outset as the raison d’etre of the bid. No previous host had been so ambitious or explicit about using the Olympic and Paralympic Games as a catalyst for economic and social good, not only in the host city but across the country as a whole (Weed, 2010). London’s candidacy for the 2012 Games sought to differentiate itself from both previous editions of the Games, and from its bid competitors, by explicitly and extensively referencing the legacy that a London Games would seek for the host city and the host country, but also for the Olympic Movement and for the youth of the world. For the IOC, with its firmly held belief that sport and the Olympic values and ideals can be a global force for good, this was a powerful and attractive message.