The date: Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012.
The time: 9:55 p.m.
That's when the starting pistol will go off for perhaps the
most eagerly anticipated event of the London Olympics - the men's 100-meter
final.
Barring injury or an upset, Usain Bolt will be going for his
second consecutive gold medal in the marquee race - and possibly another world
record - in front of 80,000 fans on a summer evening at London's Olympic
Stadium.
In less than 10 seconds, Bolt - or will it be American rival
Tyson Gay, Jamaican teammate Asafa Powell or another sprinter? - will grab one
of the most coveted prizes in sports.
London organizers released the full sports competition
schedule for the Olympics on Tuesday, exactly one month before the first batch
of 8.8 million tickets go on sale.
The games will run from July 27 to Aug. 12, with 19 days of
competition featuring 302 medal events in 26 sports.
There will be 631 sessions, 62 more than in Beijing in 2008.
“This is a really big moment, a huge moment,” said London
organizing committee head Sebastian Coe, a former two-time 1,500-meter Olympic
champion. “In this project, every day you get closer, every day it becomes more
of a living creature. In my own experience as a competitor, this is the point
that it suddenly becomes very real.” Among the main changes, the swimming
finals will revert to the evenings after having been held in the morning in
Beijing to satisfy prime time television viewing in the United States.
Women's boxing and mixed doubles in tennis are on the
program for the first time, and an extra day of competition has been added to
canoe slalom, BMX cycling, track cycling, shooting and table tennis.
The cheapest tickets will go for 20 pounds ($32), while the
best seats for the 100-meter final will cost 725 pounds ($1,160). Already, 2.2
million people have registered interest in buying tickets.
“This is the greatest show on earth and these will be the
greatest tickets on earth,” Coe said.
There will also be free events, including road cycling,
triathlon and the marathon, all taking place in the streets of London.
The track and field competition will run from Aug. 3 to Aug.
12.
The men's 100 heats are on the morning of Aug. 4, with the
semifinals and finals the next evening.
“There is a recognition now that the men's 100 is a pretty
serious moment and we have planned that to be fairly early on the evening of
that Sunday,” Coe said. “The things people remember are head-to-heads and we
could potentially have one of the best, given that Tyson Gay is going to make
this a really tough run for Usain Bolt.” If Bolt wins the 100, he'll have a
chance to replicate his Beijing sprint double in the 200 final on the evening
of Aug. 9.
The women's 100-meter final is on the evening of Aug. 4.
That will come just after the men's 10,000 final, which
could feature Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele going for a third straight gold medal.
British fans will be hoping to see current world and European champion Jessica
Ennis going for gold in the final event of the heptathlon, the 800 meters.
The relays will be held during the evening sessions on Aug.
10-11. The women's 800-meter final on Aug. 11 is the last individual track
event on the schedule, and could include South Africa's Caster Semenya seeking
to match her gold from the 2009 world championships.
The busiest day of the Olympics will be the middle Saturday,
Aug. 4, with swimming and track and field overlapping.
The first event of the games will actually take place 150
miles (240 kms) away from London - a women's preliminary-round football match
at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, on July 25, two days before the
opening ceremony. Two other matches will be played that day in Coventry and
Glasgow.
Apart from football, the first sports action will come in
archery at Lord's cricket ground on July 27, just hours before the opening
ceremony at the Olympic Stadium in east London.
The first medals will be awarded the next morning in the
men's and women's air pistol and air rifle shooting events.
The men's cycling road race will finish on the Mall in front
of Buckingham Palace later in the day.
The first women's boxing finals in Olympic history will take
place on the evening of Aug. 9.
In gymnastics, the women's all-around final will be
contested on Aug. 2. The women's singles final in tennis will be played on the
grass at Wimbledon on Aug. 4, followed by the men's gold medal match the next
day.
In swimming, the men's 200 freestyle final on July 30 could
feature Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and perhaps Ian Thorpe, the former
Australian star who is making a comeback. A day earlier in the men's 400
freestyle relay, France could be seeking to avenge its close defeat to the
Americans in Beijing.
The final weekend of the games will feature gold medals in
volleyball, basketball, water polo, modern pentathlon, field hockey, handball,
sailing, gymnastics, football, diving, mountain biking, canoe sprint, boxing,
archery, track and field and men's marathon.
Applications for Olympic tickets open on March 15 on the
official London 2012 website for people who over 16 years of age and are
residents of the UK or designed European countries. Overseas fans must apply
through their national Olympic committees.
