In

425 days (as of the time of writing) a large proportion of the World and its populace's attention, will be focused on the opening ceremony of the 30th Olympic games in a little place called London. That name may sound familiar to fans of the Games as it will be the record breaking third time old London town has played the role of host city to the modern reincarnation

of the Grecian agonistic festivals, you know, the ones with sport and music where prizes were handed out to the contestants who pleased the mortals which channeled the will of the Gods. Or something along those lines anyhow. The previous two Olympic occasions, in 1908 and 1948 were both groundbreaking and convention forming.

In 1908 for example the standard length of the marathon was agreed upon, it was upped from 25 miles to 26 miles 385 yards (or 42.195 km if you're more of a Metric kind of person) after a royal request was granted following British officials deeming it necessary to restore the importance of the monarchy. Who had dared knock the Monarchy? An American named Ralph Rose, who refused to dip the American flag to the head of state, as was international, diplomatic convention. As such, the Marathon started beneath the windows of the Royal Nursery and finished in front of the king at the site of the Olympic stadium at White City. The Stadium was built in a very short period of time for the games and held 68,000 spectators. Originally the 1908 Olympics had been scheduled to be held in Italy, but due to an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, the Italian government had to divert funds away from the tournament and focus on rebuilding the city of Naples.

The Stadium at White City is now the site of the BBC television centre

The three previous modern Olympiads, the judges for the sports on offer were all provided by the host state, the 1908 Olympics saw the establishment of a standardized set of rules for the sports out of necessity (overseen by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)), again due to Britons and Americans failing to sing from the same hymn sheet. In this case, during the final of the 400 m the American winner was accused of interfering with the British runner, due to a difference in their respective athletics associations rule books and Britain being the host decided that the race was to be re-run. As three of the original four competitors were American, this left Wyndham Halswelle to prosper from their refusal to participate and resulted in what was the only walkover in an events final in Olympic history, and anything but a triumph in sporting terms.

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sports, representing 24 sporting disciplines, (which can be seen in the picture above) were contested. Swimming, diving, and water polo were considered three disciplines of the same sport, aquatics.

At the time, tug-of-war was part of athletics and the two different football codes (Association (or as I reluctantly refer to it Soccer) and Rugby (Union)) were listed together. The International Olympic Committee now considers tugof-war a separate sport, as well as referring to association football as simply "football" and to rugby union as "rugby".

1948
The 1948 Summer Olympics were the first Olympics following World War II, a fine showing of 59 Nations with 4,104 athletes representing their Nation (3,714 men and 390 women) competed across 136 events. Though these did not include the defeated Axis powers of Germany and Japan and although invited the USSR chose not send any athletes. With Britain proving no exception to the economic landscape that had settled over Europe resulting from the huge damage World War II had caused, the event is known as The Austerity Games. Unlike 1908 and 2012 not a single new venue was built and existing accommodation was employed to house the athletes rather than the established idea of a shiny, new Olympic Village.

1948

saw the introduction of Olympic pictograms, originally intended to be used for ticketing purposes, they were called the Olympic Symbols there was one for each sport, one for both the opening and closing ceremonies and an additional one for the Arts competition that accompanied the Games.

symbols were presented in that fantastically British Heraldic style, with an accompanying coat of arms behind the pictogram of the event and although they disappeared, 16 years later the idea returned and have featured at each subsequent Summer Olympics.

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85,000 spectators gathered in the presence of Royalty (King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, with Queen Mary) at the Old Wembley Stadium, to watch a 50 minute procession, Great Britains team as host nation, were the last team to complete the parade and of the stadium and once they had completed their lap, Lord Burghley began his welcome:

After welcoming the athletes to two weeks of "keen but friendly rivalry", he said London represented a "warm flame of hope for a better understanding in the world which has burned so low." These words certainly did serve to highlight the joys and benefits of human competitiveness when applied to a fair playing field and under the framework of regulation, whilst the absence of a multitude of other voices worldwide to underline how disastrously wrong things can go when competition runs amok.

2012

The 2012 Summer Olympics will be the Games of the XXX (30th) Olympiad, facing competition from main rivals Moscow, New York City, Madrid and Paris the city was awarded the right to host the games in 2005. The successful bid was headed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe and the long term aims of these Olympics prompted a redevelopment of many of the areas of London in which the games are to be particularly themed towards sustainability and the ecology.

While looking at the two previous occasions, there have been some fairly obvious ways that London has provided innovation and helped form convention within the Olympic context. With the benefit of hindsight, it's been easy to summarise and draw conclusions, but with 2012 still to come, just how do you write about any innovations? There have been a variety of documents published outlining the desired legacy outcomes, which with some insight and liberal use of imagination have allowed for a guided speculative look ahead.

There has been repeated usage of a few key words while we head down the road to 2012, Sustainability and Development feature highly, in addition to the concept of providing inspiration and opportunities. If all goes to plan, the aim has been to give the world the first sustainably developed games, by a combination of employing existing venues (such as Wembley Stadium), taking advantage of temporary structures where suitable and only committing to building permanent structures for venues that will have extended long term use after 2012 has been and gone, the Olympics Delivery Authority (ODA) hope to demonstrate how all future Olympic games can fight climate change, minimise waste, promote biodiversity, promote diversity/ aim towards inclusion for all and to educate and champion healthy living amongst the populace. All well and good those and for success in those areas, it might boil down to challenging preconceived ideas and existing practices.

The most tangible legacy of these games though could well be the least exciting and far from marketing London to the rest of the world, I'm talking about strategic investment throughout the city, with public transport, utilities and infrastructure in an area of the city that for too long has been ignored due for an upgrade; with the environment being handed a boost from renovating and cleaning existing waterways, creating new homes for wildlife, providing increased access to public transport (hopefully easing road congestion and reducing mobility headaches for individuals), new housing and entirely new neighbourhoods created and therefore creating new opportunities for individuals, local communities and businesses, perhaps the ultimate legacy of the 2012 London Olympic games will be in providing a present to both the people who inhabit those areas and the wider city itself.