London Weekend Break

Olympic Venues

There are a number of different venues and locations that will be used for the 2012 London Olympics and you can find information about each of them from this page. Since the list of venues is quite extensive we have three pages that cover this information and the links to each page can be found below.

Where ever possible descriptions of the venues and the start and finish days of the events that they host are listed.

Olympic venues - page 1 (this page)
Olympic venues - page 2
Olympic venues - page 3

Olympic Venues - The Olympic Park

The Olympic village and Olympic park are located in east London close to Stratford. In fact the main tube station for the Olympic park is Stratford which is located on the Central and Jubilee line as well as the Docklands Light Railway and the London Overground. During the Olympics other forms of transport will be made available.

The main Olympic park consists of a number of new buildings as well as a couple of temporary sites. Along with the Olympic site in Stratford a number of other stadia and existing venues will be used mainly in London, but also in other parts of the country.

The Olympic park consists of the following venues:

Aquatics Centre

The Aquatics centre with its 17,500 seat capacity is a spectacular looking building with a roof shaped like a wave. The building houses a 50 metre competition sized pool and a 25 metre diving pool. During the Olympics it will host the Swimming, Synchronised Swimming, Diving and the Swimming discipline of the Modern Pentathlon on the following dates:

Diving – Sunday 29th July to Saturday 11th August
Swimming – Saturday 28th July to Saturday 4th August
Synchronised Swimming – Sunday 5th to Friday 10th August
Modern Pentathlon – Men’s Saturday 11th August / Women’s Sunday 12th August

Basketball Arena

The Basketball Arena is one of the largest temporary structures ever built and will be taken down once the Olympics and Paralympics are concluded. The venue is covered wit a white PVC membrane which will act as a backdrop for special lighting effects and once dismantled will be recycled. The venue will hold approximately 12,000 people and will play host to the Basketball and the final rounds of Handball.

Basketball – Saturday 28th July to Sunday 12th August
Handball – Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Finals – Wednesday 8th August to Sunday 12th August

BMX Track

The 400 metre long BMX track will host the BMX trials which first became an Olympic sport in Beijing in 2008. Once the Olympics are over the track will be reconfigured to become part of a new Velo Park.

The BMX trials take place from Wednesday 8th August to Friday 10th August.

Eton Manor

This new facility has been built to act as a training facility primarily for the Swimming, Synchronised Swimming and Water Polo. It will then be used during the Paralympics as the venue for Wheelchair Tennis.

The facility takes its name from the Eton Manor Sports Club which occupied this site previously. The centre has a link with the 1948 London Olympics as the running track used at Wembley that year was re-laid at Eton Manor.

Handball Arena

The Handball Arena with its 6,500 seat capacity will play host to the preliminary stages of the Handball competition up to the quarter finals which will then move to the Basketball Arena. The Handball Arena will also host the Fencing discipline of the Modern Pentathlon.

Handball – Saturday 28th July to Tuesday 7th August
Modern Pentathlon – Men’s Saturday 11th August / Women’s Sunday 12th August

Hockey Centre

The 2 hockey pitches built at the Hockey Centre are only temporary and will be moved to Eton Manor once the Olympics are over. One of the pitches will be used for the competition whilst the other will be used as a warm up area.

The Hockey competition takes place from Sunday 29th July to Saturday 11th August.

Olympic Stadium

The 80,000 seat capacity Olympic Stadium will play host to the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the Athletics. Following the Olympics it will become the new home of West Ham Football Club.

The opening ceremony takes place on Friday 27th July and the closing ceremony on Sunday 12th August.

The Athletics take place from Friday 3rd August to Saturday 11th August.

Velodrome

Sir Chris Hoy, the four time Olympic champion and other members of the British team helped in the design process of this 6,000 seater Velodrome. Like the BMX Track this will become part of a Velo Park to be used by the local community.

Cycling will take place at the Velodrome from Thursday 2nd August to Tuesday 7th August.

Water Polo Arena

Like the Basketball Arena, this structure is only temporary and will solely be used for Water Polo.

The Water Polo competition takes place between Sunday 29th July and Sunday 12th August.