LOCOG Reveals ‘Gold Medal Standard’ Athlete Village

The Village will be able to house up to 6,200 athletes and team officials plus 1000 referees and umpires during the Paralympic Games, from more than 200 teams around the world. 15 Mar 2012
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Jonathan Edwards visits the first completed Games-time apartments in the Olympic and Paralympic Villages

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By IPC

“The first Games-time apartments offer an early glimpse of the gold-medal standard Village we are delivering to help athletes prepare for one of the biggest sporting moments of their lives.”

The first completed Games-time apartments in the Olympic and Paralympic Villages were unveiled on Thursday (15 March) as the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) announced plans to deliver ‘gold medal standard’ athlete accommodation.

The Village will be able to house up to 6,200 athletes and team officials plus 1000 referees and umpires during the Paralympic Games, from more than 200 teams around the world.

LOCOG began the fit-out and overlay work early this year to get the Village ready for the Games. Work is continuing across the Village, and the first kitted-out Games-time apartments were unveiled on Thursday.

The 2,818 apartments are spread over 11 residential plots and cover more than 250,000m2 of apartment space. Each country will be allocated a certain number of accommodation blocks in a single identifiable space, allowing their team management to manage their affairs in one central location in the Village.

“Our focus at the Athletes’ Committee is to ensure the Village provides the comfort and convenience needed by modern performance athletes,” said Olympic gold medallist Jonathan Edwards, Chair of LOCOG’s Athletes' Committee, who has been overseeing the project.

Gold medal standard

In the run up to the Games, more than 16,000 beds, 9,000 wardrobes and 11,000 sofas will be installed by UPS across the Village apartments. Next, a UK homeware and clothing store, is supplying 22,000 pillows, 1,200 blankets and 28,000 branded duvets.

The Village will be the first to provide each apartment with its own comfortable lounge to include a television provided by Panasonic, along with BT Infinity, the latest fibre optic broadband from BT.

Each of the 11 residential blocks in the Village will be run to hotel-standards with Holiday Inn supplying experienced personnel and concierge staff and services in Village residential areas - LOCOG and Holiday Inn’s aim is for the Village to provide athletes with levels of convenience and service to match the standards of the best hotels in the world.

“The first Games-time apartments offer an early glimpse of the gold-medal standard Village we are delivering to help athletes prepare for one of the biggest sporting moments of their lives,” said LOCOG Chair Seb Coe. “Our Villages team, Athletes’ Committee, sponsors and key partners are each playing a crucial role in creating a first-class Village to meet the needs of the best athletes in the world.”

Top-class services

The fit-out of athletes’ apartments will be completed in June. Work is also well underway by LOCOG and its partners and sponsors to provide other essential Games-time areas and services in the Olympic Village including an Ottobock workshop, Olympic Village Plaza and state of the art gym.

During the Paralympic Games, a workshop provided by Ottobock staffed by 80 technicians and equipped with 15,000 spare parts including 2,000 wheelchair tyres will meet all the technical service and repair needs for the orthoses (devices which support the limbs), prosthetics (replacements for limbs) and wheelchairs used by Paralympic athletes

The Olympic Village Plaza will be the main ‘social hub’ of the Village with essential services including an Internet Lounge provided by Acer, a Bank provided by Lloyds TSB, ATM services supplied by VISA, and a Beauty & Grooming Salon and Spa provided by Procter & Gamble.

A state-of-the-art athlete gym will be created in Chobham Academy with Technogym expected to supply over 750 pieces of equipment and a team of over 100 professional personal trainers at the main gym and 19 specific preparation centres. This will be the company’s fifth Olympic experience and their state-of-the-art equipment will help keep the athletes in great shape as they head off to their venues

After the Games, the Olympic Delivery Authority will make provision for removing temporary Games-time fittings in the apartments and ‘retro-fitting’ them with new kitchens. The Village will then create a legacy of 2,818 new homes across 11 individually designed plots in a new community to be known as East Village.

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