IOC Concern Over Venueless 2012 Sports

Rachel Holdsworth
By Rachel Holdsworth Last edited 173 months ago
IOC Concern Over Venueless 2012 Sports

OlympicPark8Oct09.jpg The Olympic Park may be coming along nicely, but the International Olympic Committee is exasperated by dithering over where to hold badminton and rhythmic gymnastics. The two sports still don't have a definite home after organisers mooted scrapping temporary venue North Greenwich 2 in an attempt to save £40m.

The plan was to move the pair to ExCel which would, in turn, shunt boxing to Wembley, but boxing authorities insisted the travelling time between the Olympic Village and north west London would be "debilitating" to their poor athletes. Things weren't helped when Boris waded into the debate and brought his own ideas about moving shooting from Woolwich to Barking to save more money. Greenwich and Woolwich MP Nick Raynsford got involved this morning as well, delivering a letter to City Hall asking Boris to stop "meddling".

The IOC felt compelled to "express a concern that three years before the Games their venue has not been finalised" which, in Olympic diplomacy terms, is probably as close to a bollocking as you get. LOCOG says it'll all be sorted out by the end of the year but that still leaves plenty of time to expel more hot air. And this is before we even get started on the whole Greenwich Park controversy... (Image by Chris Dorney Photography from the Londonist Flickr Pool)

Last Updated 08 October 2009