Today we visited The Olympic Park in London and had an Olympic historian, Martin Polley, come to our classroom to teach us some history about the Olympics. We met him in our classroom, where he talked to us about some of the first ever Olympic games including the 1908 games in London. As of right now, London is the only city to have hosted the games three times. The games have evolved from the primitive, poorly-regulated set of competitions that took place alongside a trade expo in 1908, to the futuristic 2012 games which we all remember fondly. Martin also gave us the history behind the 1948 “make do and mend” Olympics which was an important point in European history, where countries from both sides of World War II came together and competed alongside each other in sport (except Germany and Japan). He did not spend much time covering the 2012 games because that was going to be the focus of the rest of our day, where we would go and tour the facilities that made the 2012 Olympics possible.
Martin discussed similarities and themes that connect the three London Olympics. One central theme that connects all three of the games is an idea of bringing people together. The 1908 Olympics accompanied an Expo that was meant to show the growing bond between former geopolitical rivals Britain and France. In the 1948 Olympics the idea of bringing people together was emphasized massively because WWII had just ended, and it was seen as a good way to ease tensions and bring people together. Finally, the 2012 Olympics sought to revamp a destitute part of the city and rally all of Great Britain around a common history. Another similarity is how during all of the games they tried their best to be able to reuse their stadiums and arenas. After the 1908 Olympics the White City stadium was used for a number of other boxing, swimming and track and field competitions. During the 1948 Olympics because of all the bombings that had occurred in Great Britain, they had scarce resources and no drive to build new stadiums. They used the military barracks to house Olympic athletes instead of building their own complex to stay in. They also used stadiums that were already well established, such as Wembley. In the 2012 games London built the stadiums with the sole purpose of re-using them today all stadiums, and arenas like the Olympic Swimming Pool that were built in 2012 are still in use by the public and very popular.
Martin lectures us about the London Olympics 
Martin chats with Carl on the way to the tube 
Some of the crew talking with Martin on the tube
After our talk in the classroom we took the tube down to the Olympic park. It was a fairly short ride from where we were and took less than 30 minutes to get there. Once we got there, Martin gave us some history about the site and how the main Olympic Stadium is now West Ham United’s home ground, despite it not being designed for football. We then had lunch at a small restaurant which also serves as a community center in the middle of the former Olympic park. Next, we got to go inside the Olympic Velodrome where they staged bike races, which was sustainably constructed with wood from replanted trees. We got to see the Olympic Rings statue that was made for the games, which is now the only remaining Olympic symbol in the entire park due to logo rights. We also got to go inside one of the other sports arenas, the Copper Box, where they play basketball, net ball and a variety of other sports.
Martin talks to us outside the Olympic Stadium 
We eat lunch in the Olympic Park 
The inside of the velodrome, one of the most iconic structures of the games 
Martin points out various landmarks from our perch next to the Olympic Rings
Before the 2012 games the area that is now the Olympic park was an Industrial wasteland. It was pretty much just a very large junkyard with a few rundown buildings. Once they decided to host the games in London in 2012 they leveled everything and built massive complexes on the area. The re-development of the area took a long time but it was worth it. After the 2012 games the area around the Olympic park continued to grow. There is a very large shopping center and lots of business centers. This is a great example of the 2012 games’ legacy and proof that the Olympics don’t have to be a burden on countries if they find a legitimate way to keep reusing the infrastructure. The legacy the 2012 games left behind was that of continuous use.
We finished the tour at the pool complex, where we got the opportunity to swim laps in the same pool as legends such as Michael Phelps. It was a great finish to a great day, and big thanks to Martin for sharing all his knowledge with us.