London 2012: Where to watch the Games without a ticket - BBC News
If you don't have a ticket to any events at the London Olympics and you still want a piece of the action, don't panic as there's still plenty to see.
Certain parts of the marathon, triathlon, race walk and cycle road race routes are not ticketed, so there's a chance you could catch an athlete whizzing past.
Be warned though, the streets will be extremely busy during these times.
Cycling Road Race
On 28 July (men) and 29 July (women) cyclists will race from the Mall to Box Hill and back. You need a ticket to watch it at The Mall, Box Hill and Hampton Court, but everywhere else on the 120 km route is free to watch.
Constitution Hill (between Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park Corner), Richmond Park or Fulham Road are likely to be good spots to see the racing.
Men's and Women's 20km Race Walk
On 4 August (men's 20km) and 11 August (women's 20km and men's 50km) is a 2km circuit along The Mall up to Hyde Park Corner and back. Depending on the race, the athletes will do up to 25 laps.
The Mall is ticketed, but you can still watch for free on Constitution Hill or Buckingham Palace. You will need to get there early and plan your journey.
Triathlon
The triathlon on 4 August (women) and 7 August (men) mostly takes place in Hyde Park, with the cycling route extending down to Buckingham Palace.
The athletes will swim round the Serpentine and run four laps of a part of Hyde Park. The north side of the Serpentine will be ticketed but you could always try watching from the south side of the lake.
This will be a very popular event so if you want to be at the front of the crowds you'll have to get there early.
There's more scope to watch the cycle route. You could gather on South Carriage Drive in Hyde Park, in front of Buckingham Palace, along Constitution Hill or at Hyde Park Corner. The cyclists will do seven laps of the circuit.
The marathon swim
The marathon swim on 9 August (women) and 10 August (men) also takes place in the Serpentine where swimmers will do six laps of the lake.
A part of the north side of the lake is ticketed but the rest is not. You could try getting a place on the south side of the lake near the Feeding Pontoon. This is where coaches hand the competitors food and drinks on the end of long poles as they swim past.
The marathon
The marathon on 5 August (women) and 12 August (men) takes in most of London's most iconic landmarks.
It starts on the Mall, which is a ticketed area, along with Horseguards Parade. But you could position yourself at Trafalgar Square, Victoria Embankment, Buckingham Palace or Lower Thames Street. The runners make three circuits of the route so you will have more than one chance to see them.
Live sites
Another option if you do not have a ticket is to watch the events on big screens that will be set up at the Live Sites across the capital. Access to these sites is free.
The two biggest sites are in Hyde Park and Victoria Park. During the Paralympics these will move to Trafalgar Square.
If you want to be sure to get in you can reserve tickets in advance. At Victoria Park every sporting event will be streamed live. There will be family activities like water zorbing and a zip line.
At Hyde Park you can watch artists and bands performing and members of Team GB will be there too.
The three other Live Sites in London are at Potters Fields Park (next to Tower Bridge), Waltham Forest town square and Woolwich. There are also two community live sites in Newham and Lewisham.
You can just turn up and watch the events unfold on the big screens.
It's also worth checking if your local authority has any plans for watching or celebrating the Olympic Games.
And if you don't want to leave home, the BBC's Red Button service for the Olympics on Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat will offer audiences access to up to 24 live streams while there will be an additional 24-hour channel of extra BBC Olympics content available via the BBC Red Button for audiences with Freeview and BT Vision.
To find out more about how to make the most of the Games watch London Olympics - The Essential Guide on Monday 2 July 23.05 BST on BBC One (in the London region only) and on BBC iPlayer.
London 2012 Olympics: 25 days to go - live blog - The Guardian
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s brand new daily Olympics live blog. It’s Monday 2 July, and there are 25 days, 11 hours and 56 minutes to go until the London Olympic Games. Too early for a live blog? This is the Guardian - it’s never too early for a live blog.
From today onwards, I’ll be covering all the build-up to the Games and Olympics news right here, with help from all my colleagues on the sport desk, with the exception of those who write about inconsequential non-Olympic sports like cricket and squash. In fact those colleagues are all relocating to new offices during August, since under the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act, Locog has banned all mention of non-Olympic sports for the duration of the Games within a 30-mile radius of London.
Coming up today:
• Stuart Pearce will name his 18-man Great Britain football team at around 4pm. It was announced last week that David Beckham would not be one of three overage players he is allowed to choose. Other Great Britain team announcements today are beach volleyball (11am), water polo (1pm), and archery (3pm).
• Work begins on converting Lord’s into the home of archery for the Olympics. No cricket will be played at the ground until the third Test between England and South Africa on 16 August. The new venue will include two large spectator stands to create a tunnel down which athletes will fire their arrows. The pitch will be entirely relaid at the end of the season, and Locog will foot the bill.
• The Olympic torch will be travelling from Coventry to Leicester. If you’re following its progress, please send me your pictures to paul.owen@guardian.co.uk or tweet them and send me the link.
• Workers at four train companies are to be balloted for strikes in separate disputes which threaten action during the Olympics. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at South West Trains (SWT), Greater Anglia and First Great Western will start voting this week in a row over a bonus for working during the Games. Meanwhile, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association said it was balloting more than 500 of its members on the West Coast line for strike action over the suspension of a union rep by Virgin Trains. The ballot will end on 18 July, less than two weeks before the start of the Games, and the TSSA warned that action could be held during the Olympics. The RMT ballots will end on 19 July. Talks aimed at averting fresh strikes by London bus workers in a row over an Olympic bonus are also to be held today.
• Work is beginning on the road markings and traffic lights changes for the controversial Olympic Games Lanes in London. Some lanes of some roads (details here) will be barred for all but athletes, officials and VIPs during the games, and have been mockingly called "Zil lanes" after a similar system in the Soviet Union.
• The Olympic medals will be handed over to Locog today for secure storage in the vaults of the Tower of London.
In Olympics news so far today:
• Jamaica's Yohan Blake beat his compatriot Usain Bolt in the 200m at the Jamaican Olympic trials yesterday, finishing in 19.80 seconds to Bolt’s 19.83. The win came two days after Blake, the reigning world 100m champion, beat Bolt in the 100m by running 9.75 to Bolt’s 9.76.
Bolt holds the world records for both the 100m (9.58) and the 200m (19.19).
• The Great Britain men’s team made a mess of the 4x100m relay again at the European athletics championships in Helsinki yesterday. “Anyone would think they were trying to pass on a bar of soap rather than a baton,” wrote Andy Bull. This comes after the women’s 4x100m relay team were disqualified in the semi-finals in Helsinki and dropped to 17th in the world rankings, ruling them out of the Olympics.
And if you missed Sam Jones’s account of his night in the nearly-completed athletes’ village in the Observer yesterday, it’s well worth a read. This was my favourite bit:
The only missing element in the bedroom was a light: through a rough hole in the ceiling, a length of cable emerged like the head of a forlorn snake. Others complained of more basic problems, notably a lack of running water.Such blips aside …
All this and more here throughout the day.
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