Olympic Games

When America typically thinks about black athletes, they think of the great ones like Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, and others in that category. One athlete that is over looked is the great Jesse Owens. It might be that he did not participate in a popular sport like basketball, football or baseball, but he was an exceptionally fast on the track and overcame racial adversity. Jesse Owens impacted athletic world in a positive way throughout his life. From his time at Ohio State to the Olympics the very next year, he was a positive role model and a humble human being when he won.

Jesse Owens came from small town folks and that made him who he was during his lifetime in having a good set of core values. With the help of role models throughout Jesse Owens’s life, he showed restraint in not acting out against the racial prejudice, while still dominating the track and field world in the 1930’s. The childhood of Jesse Owens made him to be the man he was during his college career due to how little Jesse had. Owens was born on September 12, 1913 of Henry and Emma Owens in the little town of Oakville, Alabama.

Little did they know that their newborn baby would become one of the greatest track and field athletes to walk the face of the earth. Owens was a sick child and suffered from chronic bronchial congestion because his family was poor and could not properly feed everyone in the family, and they had a lack of heat in the winter. Aside from all the physical problems Owens faced, the racial prejudice that Jesse was born into took a mental toll on him. All of the poverty and destruction that Owens saw made him appreciate and become sensitive to adult success and how important that would become in his life.

Later in life Owens would always show a smile when he won and agreed with what the newspapers said about him. Owens once said to an interviewer, “I try awfully hard for people to like me,” This shows that his childhood experiences positively reinforced his view on success and what it represents to him in life. His early years in Alabama laid the foundation for his success later in life. Young male adolescences are susceptible to a role model or mentor in their life that will immensely impact them on who they grow up to be.

Years later Owens moved on to Fairmount Junior High School where it is argued that his track career started and this is where Owens met Charles Riley. Riley was the gym teacher at Owens’s school and Jesse looked up to Riley as a father figure. People would say things about Riley being white and coaching a black teenager but neither Owens nor Riley saw race, they only saw each other as a team on the track. They began to have track practice every morning before school for an hour and by the eighth grade Jesse was participating in junior high track meets.

At first Owens’s running form was strained and he had very bad facial expressions due to lack of proper training. Riley coached him to be more fluid and that determination came from the inside of oneself and not from the public around him. This was a major turning point in the track and field career of Owens. Owens learned not to see color at an early age and Charles Riley was the main contributor to that and this shaped Owens into the man that he was. Owens was soon turning into a young man and he was making vast improvements in his speed.

Riley timed Owens in the 100 yard dash and he clocked Owens in eleven seconds flat. He did not believe what the watch was telling him so he went and found another watch and clocked Owens at the same time. This proved the fact that Riley had found a very gifted athlete that everyone was searching for and he is teaching him to become a man with values that will help him in the rest of his life. The first records that Owens set were in 1928 when he jumped six feet in the high jump and twenty two and eleven inches in the long jump.

Riley then began to tell Owens that he needed to keep training for the next four years. That was Riley’s motto, “Train for four years from next Friday”. Owens did just this and started perfecting his technique and bettering his consistency during races. The smooth, fluid form of running that is a trademark of Jesse Owens came directly from the training of Charles Riley. While Owens was progressing through his running, he was faced with racial judgment by having a white coach again. People would make judgments on how a white man could never make something out of a black man.

Owens and his coach never talked about racial issues because they did not see race, they only saw a partnership on the track. Jesse once said about Riley, “He trained me to become a man as well as an athlete…Coach Riley taught me to behave. His influence on me and many other boys kept us out of trouble. Without his guidance, we could very easily have become wards of the state. ” Charles Riley was a father figure to Owens and all that Riley taught Owens directly influenced Owens’s future in track and field in a constructive way. After Jesse’s first intercollegiate competition, he sent the watch he won to Charles Riley.

This proves that Jesse did not see race color in his coach and mentor and that Owens has grown into a man that does not forget how he got to where he was in his success. Jesse Owens’s success kept on the upward sloping curve once he entered at East Tech High School. Charles Riley became an assistant coach at East Tech High School where Jesse Owens attended. The media described Owens as “’one-man team,’ ‘a marvel,’ ‘the outstanding individual track man in northeastern Ohio. ’” In the summer coming out of his sophomore year, Owens over estimated his abilities when he tried out for the United States Olympic team.

Owens did not make it past the Midwestern preliminaries in Evanston and he then began to read about the four black athletes that did make it to the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. Eddie Tolan, Ralph Metcalfe, Edward Gordon, and Cornelius Johnson were the four black athletes that would pave the way to a new era for the black athlete. These four would go on to win three gold medals, one silver medal and bronze medal. This would fuel Owens to achieve what these four athletes just did in front of a world stage. After the 1932 Olympics several European athletes held track meet in Cleveland for local talent and Olympians.

This track event proved to be a boost of confidence for the young and upcoming Jesse Owens as he took first in the 100-meter and 200-meter races and placed second in the long jump to the Olympic gold medalist Edward Gordon. This meet helped Jesse in more ways than one. In Owens’s senior track season he never suffered a loss and he also set the long jump record of high school boys at 24 feet 3 and ? inches. The attention was always on Owens at track meets no matter what event he was in and took the spotlight from other racers. This was new to the world because of Owens’s skin color.

The world had never paid this much attention to a black athlete. To finish off his high school career at the national Interscholastic Championship meet, Owens won the long jump, set a new world record of 20. 7 seconds in the 220 yard dash, and tied the world record in the 100 yard dash with a time of 9. 4 seconds. East Tech High School won the meet with a total point count of fifty four and Jesse was responsible for thirty of those points. After all of Jesse Owens’s success throughout his astonishing high school career, he had a dilemma on what his next step in life would be and who would lead him on the right path.

During this time Ohio State was known for black prejudice and racial policies. This decision to attend Ohio State was debated by the press on a daily basis. Headlines read, “He will be an asset to any school, so why help advertise an institution that majors in prejudice”. Owens was not fazed by these editorials and continued on to attend Ohio State University and become the Buckeye Bullet. Charles Riley still played an important role in Jesse’s life and took Jesse to two track meets in Canada where Owens took first in the 100 meter dash.

Jesse had not lost any pace over the summer and had shown that he will only continue to get better throughout his college career. Despite all of the success by being trained by Charles Riley, Owens’s college track coach, Larry Synder, was not happy with the form at which Owens ran. Synder began tweaking all of Jesse’s movements while he ran. All of this change would not hurt Owens in the long run and Jesse would see the benefits soon in his college track career. After all of the years with Charles Riley, Owens has found another mentor to help him on his path to being man.

Synder would prove to be a great successor to Riley in Owens’s life. Owens’s college experiences concerning racial injustices would help Owens in the future when he is faced with racial problems. Back in the 1930’s the United States still faced racial injustices in parts of the country and even at Ohio State this was no different. Due to the decline in the economy in 1929, Ohio State had to cut down on staff on lack of funds. This made the teacher to student ratio too large to accommodate Owens’s needs in the classroom and this led to Jesse not receiving good grades.

Also there was a shortage of dormitories for students. The White students were assigned to the dorms; Owens had to room a half mile away from campus in an apartment with three other black athletes. This is some of the issues that Jesse had to overcome in order for him become successful. Another issue that Owens had to face was that he was not able to compete in some of the meets his freshman year due to academics and an ankle injury. At a dual meet Owens set a new Ohio State record at the long Jump and in the 120 yard sprint. Larry Synder described Owens as a golden future for Ohio State’s track future.

At the Big Ten Freshman meet in Columbus, Owens won all three events that he entered. He set new records in the 100-yard dash at 9. 6 seconds, 220-yard sprint in 21 seconds flat and a long jump distance of 24 feet and 10 inches. This success continued on to his sophomore year. In Owens’s first Big Ten varsity meet he won three out of his four events. This was a tremendous accomplishment for the young man and a rung on his ladder to success. Anyone concerned in the track and field world would never forget the day of May 25, 1935 in Ann Arbor, Michigan and neither would Jesse Owens.

On this spectacular day Owens broke three world records and tied another within the time of an hour. He broke the world records in the 220-yard sprint, 220-yard low hurdle, long jump and tied the world record in the 100-yard dash. The next day in a Cleveland news paper it read, “the 12,000 spectators were alternately stunned into silence and then moved to tremendous salvos of applause when the Buckeye ace staged his almost unbelievable show”. Despite all of the racial troubles during those times, Jesses’ old, white track coach Charles sat in the stand and cried while Owens performed that day.

This shows that people saw past color and just admired the person on the inside. Despite all of Owens’s success, his toughest times in life were just around the corner. Jesse Owens has always held his head when ever questioned about his views on racial discrimination around the world, but when the 1936 Berlin Olympics came around Owens was in no position not to say anything and finally spoke out. This is the only time that Owens ever verbally spoke against racial problems. In a short radio interview in November Jesse said, “if there is discrimination against minorities in Germany then we must withdraw from the Olympics. After all of the years of not speaking out, Owens finally spoke what he believed needed to be said. Once Larry Synder heard about this he strongly encouraged Owens to refrain from taking a side on the matter because Owens was on top of the world right now in the track and field world. The black press really dissected what Synder said to Owens and all the controversy that it brought upon Owens. The black press was then confronted by Synder and why they did not cover the story about the Sugar Bowl Meet in New Orleans.

Jesse Owens and other black athletes were not invited to the sugar bowl, but yet no one was suggesting that those games be cancelled like the Berlin games. Synder commented on the issue, “Why should we oppose Germany for doing something that we do right here at home? ” This comment by Synder really opened the eyes of the American people on the issue of discrimination in athletics. During the indoor track season Owens and his black teammates were denied admittance to restaurants. This is the real life discrimination that Owens finally faced.

During all of these challenging times for Owens, he held his head high and tried to be the best man that he could he could be. With all of these racial distractions around Owens, he still had a job and that was to continue to be as fast as he could to win the Olympics in Berlin. Despite the slow start in Owens’s junior season at Ohio State in the indoor portion, he took off in the spring due to his hard work and determination. During the season Owens ran in five consecutive meets and broke world, conference or local records in all of them. It seemed as if Owens was unstoppable and no one would be able to compete on the level that he was on.

Ten black athletes made the Olympic team for track and field and would later be called the “Black Auxiliaries”. All of these black competitors would prove to be superior over their competition at Berlin. With all of the excitement towards the Olympics and what it holds, it was still during the great depression and funding for the Olympics was not on top of the list. Most of the spending was raised by colleges and similar organizations and even exhibition events were held in Europe to ensure that the United States track and field team would be in Berlin to compete with the world’s best.

According to Owens, while on the boat ride over to Europe, senior black athletes had meeting saying that they were going to the Olympics to run and jump, not to debate politics. It did not help that during the opening ceremonies everyone in the stands rose and gave the “Heil Hitler” salute and the Nazi symbol dominated the scene as did German pride. This would not faze Owens and he kept concentrated on his goal of winning multiple gold medals. Owens would show his displeasure with the Hitler’s views of Aryan race superiority by winning four gold medals.

Jesse Owens had become an amazing man in his talents on the track and the way he presents himself off the track as well in not acting out to the race problems at college. These traits would be seen throughout the Olympics. To prepare for the Olympics, Herr Hitler made the grounds as beautiful as it was possible. He spent great amounts of money to upgrade the image of Germany during the time the games were held. The political controversy started on the first day of the games with Hitler shaking hands with two German gold medalists and the Finish team that finished first, second, and third.

But When Owens’s teammate Cornelius Johnson won the high jump Hitler was nowhere to be found. Did Herr Hitler leave because Johnson just proved his Nordic supremacy and Aryan aristocracy theory wrong? Many feel this is the case, but according to officials Herr Hitler was scheduled to leave at the time he did. When Cornelius saw that Herr Hitler was leaving he just smiled and grinned as the first day of the track and field came to a close. The feature event for the track and field competition was hands down the 100-meter and Owens was in no mood to disappoint the crowd.

In the semi-finals for the 100-meter Owens broke the world record with a time of 10. 2 seconds but was soon dismissed due to a back wind. To put a nail in the coffin for Herr Hitler’s Aryan views, two African Americans took first and second in the 100-meter sprint. It was Owens who won first and Metcalfe who took second. This would be the first of four gold medals for the young Jesse Owens. The day after is now known as Black Tuesday due the qualify heats that Owens and two other African American teammates dominated. Owens usually excelled at the long jump, but he cut it very close in his qualifying.

He scratched his first two attempts to qualify for the finals. On his final qualifying attempt he soared to an astonishing twenty six feet. It was the first time that anyone had ever jumped twenty six feet. Owens was used to breaking records and just looked to improve on his next jumps. On Owens’s last and final jump he cleared an unheard of distance of twenty-six feet and five inches. This broke both the Olympic and World records. An Olympic record had been broken twice in one day by an African American and Hitler could not do anything to stop it.

The World is finally seeing what African American athletes are capable of. Jesse easily won his third Gold medal in the 200-meter sprint with a world record time of 20. 7 seconds. He won the crowd over with his third medal, but he would never win over Herr Hitler. The fourth and final Medal for Owens would come on the 400-meter relay team. Normally Owens did not this event, but due to an injury on the team Jesse was nominated by his teammates to run and that is exactly what Jesse did. The American team Soared to victory over the other competitors.

The “Black Auxiliaries” were running away with most of the medals for the United States track and field team with six out of ten medals. This Olympics would go down in history for political reasons concerning the Aryan race and for the records Owens broke. Owens had overcome much adversary in his life and the Olympics were what he strived for his whole life. Jesse Owens is one of America’s greatest athletes and will always be remembered for his triumphs at the 1936 Berlin Olympics winning four Gold Medals.

Owens did not have the easiest road to his success because of political, legal and health problems, but he fought through them with prosperity. His various role models in life including Charles Riley, Ralf Metcalfe and Larry Snyder helped Owens overcome the racial injustices of the time and molded Owens in to the great runner he was. Owens later in life died in March of 1980 due to lung Cancer. From the small town in Alabama, to the great Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, Jesse Owens was an amazing athlete and just as amazing individual.

The modern Olympic movement has been shaped by many differentiating factors over the years. It has been altered by social, political, and economic factors. More specifically, warring times, changes to social structures, and economic activity that varies by country have been the overall leading factors that have shaped the Olympics over the years. The Olympics have shown over the decades that they can be affected by political conflict. However, it seems that this is the point of the Olympics, to illustrate national pride, by competition.

Bloodshed should not be the way for pride of one’s country to be shown, but it should be shown through competition, in the words of the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin(1). The games have been used as a weapon for denouncing a country’s sportsmanship, such as in 1956 when Arnold Lunn, a British Olympic team official accused the Nazis of cheating in the 1936 Olympic games that were held in Germany. He went on to allege that the competitors of Germany went onto the course while it was closed to athletes.

Though the fact that they were trying so hard to practice, could be an example of the importance placed on the games at the time before war period. This is implied by the statement by Arnold Lunn that victory was the only thing that mattered to the Nazis, and how they achieved it did not matter as long as they did(3). The use of the Olympics to show off one’s country was further demonstrated during the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union were itching to outdo one another.

Bob Matthias gives insight through an interview into the United State’s yearning to win over Russia. The competitor told of the spirit of winning throughout the team, even in the athletes that were sure to win for the United States(4). This is a stark contrast to an information guide provided by the Soviet Union regarding the olympics being held in Moscow that year. It tells of seeking peace with the U. S. , and how the Olympics were a beacon for social progress and democracy(6). This resulted in the U. S.

boycotting the Olympics, due to the obvious bias in the information. Ali Kabir, finally, told of how the rise and fall of his nation’s hockey team reflects the lack of unity in his own country, even going as far as stating that it’s players are clueless and have tarnished Pakistan’s name(10). This further demonstrates how the Olympic Games reflect political events at the time they are being held. Not only do the Olympic games make a habit of displaying the events of the world through it’s ‘friendly’ competitions, but it also lets economic factors manifest in it’s events.

Ryotaro Azuma, mayor of Tokyo, spoke in an interview in 1972 regarding the 1964 Olympic games held in Japan. He told of how his country finally had a chance to get out of the losing spirit after World War II and rise as a world trade power. The Olympic Games in this case, were used to boost a country’s economy and wealth as well come back as a leading power(5). A Japanese newspaper editorial in 1988 commented about the use of industrial powers by South Korea in that year’s Olympic games, or lack thereof.

It comments negatively on the fact that South Korea did not have the funding to set up the games as well as display it’s industrial and economic power to the world, implying that no matter the medals one, the industrial power by the U. S. , Japan, and other countries will make a lot of profit and leave a memorable impression on the world while South Korea will not(7). The International Olympic Committee provided statistics lending insight into the fees provided into Olympic events, showing an expected trend.

In 1980, it is useful to know that the U. S. and Soviet Union were locked in the Cold War, and as stated previously, the U. S. refused to come to the Olympic Games held in Moscow as well as Russia refusing to attend the one in Los Angeles. The shockingly low fees paid to have viewing and advertising rights to the games held in Moscow reflects the war. Many countries boycotted the Olympics that year, so the severely low amount of fees paid further demonstrates this tense time in during the 20th century.

However, the dramatic increase in the fees paid to broadcast Atlanta’s games illustrates the time of peace after the Cold War ended, with over 800 million dollars being given to broadcast the games(9). Finally, the Olympic games are altered by the diverse and changing social structures in the world. For instance, in 1908 a photograph of British competitor Sybil Newall shooting her bow was found on newspapers across England(2). Whether this photograph was staged to sell newspapers or not, it cannot be denied that this photograph indicates the beginning of women’s movement, which was obviously an important issue during this time in the world.

With more leniency being given to women during this time, they were eventually being allowed to compete in the competitive events, though only 2% of the athletes were women. This factor also continues to show during the 1992 games held in Spain, where by then 29% of women were competing. Hassiba Boulmerka was an Algerian competitor during this time and spoke in an interview about her critics, and how being the first Algerian to win an Olympic title did not depend on her gender, but simply on her strength in her mind and in body.

Boulmerka was heavily criticized by Muslim groups in Algeria for wearing shorts as she ran in the events. Despite this, the games illustrated the decreasing requirements for dresses and increasing requests for appropriate attire, no matter what gender the competitor identifies as. A helpful addition to analyzing the Olympic games would be an article reflecting the point of view of a German athlete during the 1936 games being held in Germany. They could explain why the competitors went onto the courses to practice while they closed, or if they did at all.

He or she could balance the point of view by pointing out that they did not cheat, and that they simply were practicing and either did not know the rules or were just doing what they thought would be okay. Another helpful article would be to add on to the statistics provided by the International Olympic Committee by showing how many countries that competed versus the countries that actually paid for broadcasting rights, especially during the 1980’s games.

This would show whether there is an actual correlation between the lack of countries participating and the lack of money being put into the broadcasting rights of the games. The Olympic games have been shown to be altered and influenced by the social, economic, and political events happening all around it. It seems to be the central point of tension and friendly competition every four years. It was intended to be that way, reflecting the world’s ever changing views on life and each other.

Executive summary

This report presents a discussion of the sustainability plan developed for, and implemented during, the 2012 Olympic Games held in London. The sustainability plan was governed by five main themes: climate change; waste; biodiversity; inclusion; and healthy living (London 2012, 2012). The aim with regards to climate change was to deliver a low carbon Games in order to be able to showcase the ability of London 2012 to respond to the need to minimise our impact on the environment. The aim with regards to waste was to deliver a zero-waste Games. The aim for biodiversity was to conserve biodiversity and to create new green spaces across London, which would enable people to be brought closer together through both sport and Nature. With regards to inclusion, the aim of London 2012 was to be the most inclusive Olympic Games to date, with the Games being used as an opportunity to develop the region of London in which the Games was held. With regards to healthy living, the aim of the Games was to inspire people in the UK to become more motivated to exercise and to take up sport, through this developing more active and healthy lifestyles (Girginov and Hills, 2008). In order to provide a framework for the achievement of these five themes, the sustainability plan was divided in to five main aspects, each of which will be discussed in detail in the next section of the report: Local community work; Our responsibility; Food vision; Active travel; and Recycling.

Overview of the sustainability plan put forward by the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics

As London 2012 (London 2012, 2012) state, “When we bid to host the 2012 Games, we made a radical proposal to the International Organising Committee…we were going to hold the world’s first truly sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games”. The Olympic 2012 organising committee sat down with BioRegional and the WWF to develop a plan called Towards a One Planet 2012 which outlined how the Olympic Games 2012 could be made as sustainable as possible, guided by the idea that the “…world should live within it’s means” (London 2012, 2012). The sustainability plan that was developed has five main areas of consideration entitled climate change; waste; biodiversity; inclusion; and healthy living. These were implemented via five main approaches: local community work (inclusion and biodiversity); our responsibility (inclusion); food vision (climate change and waste); active travel (healthy living); and recycling (waste). These five areas were developed through consultation across four main areas, all of which related directly to those attending the Games or watching the Games on the television, namely the venues, travel, food and waste (London 2012, 2012).

As London 2012 (2012) state, “All our venues were designed to ensure that all the athletes perform to the best of their ability whilst pushing the boundaries of sustainability knowledge and design”, with all the venues being designed – or remodelled – on the basis of the venues leaving a sustainable legacy for future generations. With regards to travel, London 2012 (2012) note that the most important consideration was to enable the millions of spectators – and the thousands of participants – to be able to reach the venues on time and for the Games to be used as an opportunity to educate the population about sustainable travel, including the benefits of using public transport, walking and cycling. With regards to food, the organisers of the Games worked very closely with the food industry in order to be able to bring ethical and sustainable food to the Games. Waste was another major consideration of the organising committee, with the organising committee aiming to send none of the extra waste generated during the Games to landfill (London 2012, 2012).

The five areas will now be discussed in detail. ‘Local community work’, as London 2012 (2012) detail, was based around a specially created outreach program called Changing Places, with the specific aims of encouraging inclusion and preserving and increasing biodiversity (London 2012, 2007). This program aimed to encourage people to get out in to their local community to effect positive changes in their community, changes that would make the communities more attractive to residents and to visitors. The main aims of the ‘Local community work’ area of the London 2012 sustainability plan were to inspire communities to improve their public spaces; to enable people from communities to become more united and to develop new skills and interests; and to improve the quality of the neighbourhoods around London 2012 venues, with a view to not only improving the visitor experience but providing an opportunity for long-term positive changes in the aesthetics of these communities.

The program was begun in 2009 and, since that date, as London 2012 (2012) note, there have been more than 6000 volunteers who have signed up to help, with over 15,000 hours of volunteer time having been given to the program. More than 15 tonnes of waste have been removed from communities near the Olympic venues and over 7000m of community gardens have been created across 250 sites, with 2000 square metres of graffiti having been removed from walls in these communities. As London 2012 (2012) discuss, this represents a massive commitment from local communities who have felt the impact on the environment of their local communities, making these local communities more attractive and increasing the sense of pride that local residents take in their communities.

With regards to the ‘Our responsibility’ area of the sustainability plan, London 2012 (2012) notes that “Sustainability has been a part of every bold and challenging decision we have made in the development of the Olympic Park and the staging of the Games”. This area fits within the main ‘Inclusion’ theme of the London 2012 sustainability plan. The Games were not only a success but the preparation for the Games has meant that London has, “…changed”, with the sustainability plan, “….changing the way we impact people, industry and the planet” (London 2012, 2012). As London 2012 (2012) note, within the framework of ‘Our responsibility’, there are six main achievements that have arisen from the Games: The Olympic Park; Carbon management; Sustainable transport; Food vision; Waste; and Standards.

The Olympic Park features the most sustainable sports venue ever built, with 60% of construction materials for the Park having been brought to the site by rail or river, thus minimising the pollution that the transport of these materials caused. As Collins et al. (2009) note, however, it can be difficult to accurately measure the impact of mega sporting events on the local area, both in the short- and long-term. It is difficult, therefore, to know how London 2012 managed to assess, in quantitative terms, the reduction in pollution generated as a result of moving materials in this way and whether this reduction was maintained during the actual hosting of the Games. In terms of carbon management, London 2012 was the first Olympic Games to measure it’s carbon footprint across the whole Games, with the analysis of this footprint enabling decisions to be made about how to avoid, reduce and substitute carbon emissions in London in future (London 2012, 2012). Sustainable transport was a major concern of the organising committee, with the committee committing to achieving 100% sustainable transport across the duration of the Games. This was achieved through the ‘Supporting Active Travel’ plan, which will be discussed later in the report.

Regarding ‘Food vision’, which fits within the ‘Healthy living’, ‘Waste’ and ‘Biodiversity’ themes of the sustainability plan, London 2012 represented the “…largest peacetime catering operation in the world” with the delivery of food using ethical and sustainable principles meaning that the Games delivered 14 million sustainably sourced meals to visitors and participants. ‘Waste’ was treated as a fundamental issue that needed to be tackled if the Games were to be delivered sustainably, with the overall aim of London 2012 to achieve ‘zero-waste-to-landfill’ and the Games actually achieving an overall 98.5% reuse and 99% recycling of all materials from the Games (London 2012, 2012). In terms of ‘Standards’, London 2012 were the first Olympic organising committee to be certified to the British Standard 8901: Specification for a Sustainability Management Systems for Events (London 2012, 2012).

Under the area of ‘Food vision’, the London 2012 organising committee made certain commitments, including a commitment to deliver choice, diversity and affordable prices to visitors in terms of the food that would be available for them to buy at the Games (London 2012, 2012). It was also noted that the food that was sold was healthy, this being a key consideration of the organising committee in view of their commitment to the Games being used as a showcase to encourage people in the UK to become more active and, through this, healthier. To achieve these broad aims, five aspects of food vision were considered: food safety and hygiene; choice and balance; food sourcing and supply chains (with local food being given precedence); environmental management, resource efficiency and waste (with food providers being encouraged to use recyclable packaging); and skills and education (London 2012, 2012). One major aspect of the food vision was the decision to use only fish caught or farmed sustainably, this inspiring the naming of London as the Sustainable Fish City in 2011 (London 2012, 2012).

With regards to active travel area of the sustainability plan, which fits in the ‘Healthy living’ theme of the sustainability plan (London 2012, 2007), this will be discussed in more detail in the next section of the report. The ‘recycling’ area of the sustainability plan was an important aspect of the plan, constituting the main concern of the ‘Waste’ theme of the plan (London 2012, 2007), the organising committee encouraging the food providers at the Games to use compostable packaging and for all visitors to recycle wherever possible. In terms of the non-recyclable rubbish generated during the Games, the organising committee placed designated black bins around the venues, the material going in to these bins was then used to produce electricity, which was then pumped back in to the Games. Overall, then, the five areas of the sustainability plan were well thought out and delineated in such a way that each area supported each other area, providing an overall plan for sustainability that was not only comprehensive but also, and importantly, highly practical (Girginov et al., 2009; Davies, 2012). It can be argued that it was the practical nature of the sustainability plan that led to its aims being achieved across all five areas of the plan (Nichols, 2012; Horne, 2012).

Detailed review of ‘active travel’

As London 2012 (2012) discusses, one of the main aims of the sustainability plan was to encourage UK society, in general, to become more active, to undertake more exercise and, through this, to become healthier as a whole. As Devine (2012) discusses, the Government, as part of the planning for the Olympic Games, organised this aim in to four areas of focus, aiming, through this, to, “…harness the UK’s passion for sport to increase grass-roots participation, particularly by young people and encourage the whole population to be more physically active”. With this in mind, the sustainability plan included, as one of the five main areas, the idea of ‘Active travel’, which aimed to encourage visitors to the Games to walk and cycle more often and, as a result of this, and education surrounding this idea, to encourage people in the UK to walk and cycle more often. The Active travel program was developed to encourage people to adopt healthier lifestyles, with this not only offering a way to improve the overall health of the population – and therefore having a public health perspective – but also easing the burden on public transport and on the road network during the London 2012 event (London 2012, 2012).

As part of this framework, the London 2012 Inspire Programme was set up which aimed to encourage more walking and cycling. In the run up to the Games, 60 Inspire programmes were set up, with the lessons learned from these pilot projects being consolidated and turned in to plans to effect real changes in the choice of transportation across the UK as a whole (Horne, 2012). As London 2012 (2012) noted, “By creating a positive experience for people walking and cycling to the Games, London 2012 and Transport for London hope people will continue to choose to walk and cycle in the future, both for every day trips and to future sporting and cultural events”.

It is clear, then, that the London 2012 organising committee has a serious commitment to using the lessons learned during London 2012 to improve the health of the general populace beyond the 2012 Games. As London 2012 (2007; 47) states, “Living healthy lifestyles within the resources of the planet, is an essential element of working towards a one planet 2012”, with healthy living being tightly linked to other aspects of the sustainability plan, including access to green spaces, healthy food and active travel. If more green spaces are available, for example, as a result of the quest for community involvement and the commitment to restore and create more biodiversity spots across London, then people will be more inclined to get outside and be healthy. Once people start to feel healthier, their bodies ask for healthier food.

As Shipway (2007) notes, it can be difficult, however, to determine what the sustainable legacies of an event such as London 2012 might be, in terms of health. Whilst the Games had a unique opportunity to deliver sustainable sporting and health legacies, there are many key challenges that need to be overcome before these legacies can have any short- or long-term impacts. What is needed, argues Shipway (2007), is a “…positive step change in the attitudes towards sport and physical activity in British society”. Until this is achieved, it is difficult to see how the ‘active travel’ legacy of the London 2012 sustainability plan can be achieved. As Dickson and Benson (2011) note, what is needed, in reality, is some form of metric that could enable the measurement of the degree of implementation of these desired legacies and the impact of the desired legacies on the local area and beyond. Without this, as Dickson and Benson (2011) note, the sustainability plan put forwards by London 2012 is simply talk with no substance (Leopky and Parent, 2012). Closer links to local and regional planning activities could, for example, have ensured a greater likelihood of achieving, and sustaining, the aims of ‘active travel’ (Gratton and Preuss, 2008).

A short opinion survey of ‘active travel’

A short survey was undertaken of GSM London students, in order to find out their opinions on the active travel ideas in the London 2012 sustainability plan. As shown in Table 1, of the twenty students interviewed, none of them had realised that the London 2012 Games had been accompanied by a sustainability plan.

Number of students who knew the London 2012 Olympics had a sustainability planNumber of students who did not know that the London 2012 Olympics had a sustainability plan
020

Table 1: Showing the number of students who were aware of the London 2012 sustainability plan

When the respondents were asked if they could imagine what this plan might have included, eighteen of the students said they were not sure, with one mentioning that they thought the plan might include ‘minimising impacts on climate change’ and another mentioning ‘encouraging less waste’.

Of the twenty students that were interviewed, all twenty of them had been in London at the time of the Games but only three of them had visited an event during the London 2012 Games. Asked for their opinion of the London 2012 Games, twelve of them responded that tickets for the events were too expensive and that the transport had been ‘a nightmare’ around the time of the Games, with the seven students who travel by public transport saying that they had become tired, during the Games, of having to help tourists find their routes and of having to stand because the bus/Tube they usually used was very full during the duration of the Games. Two of the students interviewed said that they had taken to using a bike, during the Games, because of the crowding on public transport, and that, as they had enjoyed the experience so much, and felt so much healthier when they used their bike to get to their place of study, they had continued to use their bike since the Games. When asked if they would recommend using a bike to their peers, both of these students stated that, yes, they had recommended using a bike to friends and that, between them, six other students had now started cycling to their place of study, rather than using public transport.

When asked whether they felt the London 2012 planning committee had been successful in their mission to encourage the use of active transport to move around the Games, the twenty students replied that they had not realised this was an aspect of the sustainability plan of the London 2012 Games. When told that it was, and that the main aim of this was to encourage people in the UK, in general, to be healthier, the twenty students seemed perplexed by this idea, stating that they were unsure if this would work, as they had not even heard of the sustainability plan and certainly had not seen any adverts encouraging people to use active transport during the Games.

It was clear from the short opinion survey undertaken that the twenty students interviewed were not very well informed of the sustainability plan of London 2012 nor of the specific parts of this plan, nor of the fact that Londoners, and people in the UK in general, were being asked to use active transport, following the model of this piloted during the London 2012 Games. It seems, therefore, that from this small sample of people, the London 2012 organising committee were not very successful in transmitting their grand ideas to the general populace.

Conclusion

This report has provided an analysis of the sustainability plan of the London 2012 Games, looking at the main themes in the plan and how these themes were implemented. The results of a short survey were presented which suggest that, despite the fact that London 2012 were very successful in implementing some of their plans (such as those covering waste and food), they were not so successful in educating the public about the benefits of engaging in active transport.

References

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