For many in the UK and in the words of the London mayor Boris Johnson, 2012 experienced a “summer like no other”. London’s staging of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games was hailed by IOC President Jacques Rogge as “the greatest games ever”, a view backed by the global sporting community at large in several polls and confirmed by this month’s announcement of record high visitor numbers in the capital over the post-games period. JLGC was fortunate enough to be situated adjacent to the Horse Guards Parade venue for beach volleyball during the games, but our connection didn’t end there.
Having finally secured the right last month to stage the Olympics in 2020, all eyes will be on Tokyo to see how it performs in staging its own ‘compact’ and ‘efficient’ event. A successful and memorable games in 2020 has the benefit of a seven year lead-in from the winning bid at the IOC session in Buenos Aires and JLGC hopes to play its part in equipping Japanese cities and regions with the benefit of Britain’s own successful event from our vantage point in London.
In the run up to both the 2016 and 2020 host city selections, JLGC was actively involved in not only assisting the efforts of the Tokyo bid committees (through staff seconded from Tokyo Metropolitan Government) in representing the city’s offer for the hosting of the games within Europe, but also in researching and learning from London’s successful bid awarded in 2005, as well as the construction and legacy components.
Although the 2016 bid was not successful in 2009, Tokyo was able to sustain the momentum going into its second bid for the games and JLGC remains committed to working with partners in London to achieve the maximum benefit for both cities. The Tokyo bid committee has already expressed its gratitude for the efforts of the London-based communications agency which sharpened its pitch to IOC delegates last month.
Since the games were awarded to Tokyo we have already enjoyed meetings with host boroughs to learn from the practical experience of hosting the games and hope these linkages and learning can be built upon over the next seven years and beyond. Before and during the 2012 games themselves, we were able to benefit from the generosity of our hosts in supporting visits from Japanese local officials and elected representatives to learn from practical aspects of the staging, such as preparations for disaster management and public order.
JLGC staff from Japan are now engaged in researching the legacy aspect of staging the games for the benefit of all Japan’s cities and regions in order to learn how economic activity can be equitably shared across Japan, not just the capital itself. The UK side for their part remain committed to using the legacy of 2012 to benefit their own local economies, through engaging with commercial opportunities around future games such as Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. We are already in discussions with UKTI to establish how best our cities can cooperate to pursue these opportunities and will keep readers posted on how Tokyo 2020 progresses.
