Photos of Olympic London

The Olympic development could transform parts of London

Computer-generated images have been released revealing London's ambitious plans for the 2012 Olympics.


The proposed 80,000-seat stadium in Stratford will be one of the centrepieces of the capital's campaign to win the bid.

Together with plans for a "bullet train" shuttle whisking spectators from central London in seven minutes, London 2012 organisers hope the package will push the city ahead of Paris in the race to host the world's greatest sporting event.

Bid chairman Sebastian Coe said: "Our futuristic stadium will provide the best natural conditions for the world's athletes."

Final submissions from each of the five competing cities - the others are Madrid, New York and Moscow - have to be presented to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) a week today. The 124-member body will select a host city next July. The submission-will be followed by a worldwide-publicity campaign which will feature Prince William and David Beckham.

Bookmakers have made London second favourite to win behind the French capital. The London stadium would cost about ?300 million and sit alongside an 17,800-capacity athletes' village, aquatics centre, velodrome and indoor sports arenas covering 500 acres of largely run-down land.

Athletes would be able to see the stadium and Olympic flame from their village. Designers say the stadium concept - which is likely to undergo further revision - is based on the human body, with the roof wrapping itself around the building "in the way that muscles support and represent the human body". Chief designer Alejandro Zaero-Pollo, of Foreign Office Architects, said: "We are trying to make the building communicate the idea of physical strength, sport and movement."

The aim is to use the Olympics as a catalyst to regenerate east London, with the athletes' village being turned into 9,000 homes after the Games - half of them at low-cost. The stadium itself would become a specialist athletics arena.

London landmarks, such as Wembley, Lord's and Wimbledon, also form part of the bid. Overall, London believes it is in a strong position because 20 of the 33 venues already exist, with the new Wembley - which would host the football final - well advanced.

Meanwhile, Mayor Ken Livingstone has said he will provide cheap tickets for London children and pensioners to ensure they are able to see the Games.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in