Olympic Sports

Athletics

• Venue: Olympic Stadium – Olympic Park (track, field and combined events); The Mall (road events)
• Dates: Friday 3 August – Sunday 12 August
• Medal events: 47
• Athletes: 2,000

This is the event that a lot of people are most looking forward to and it will be staged in the brand new Olympic arena. The 24 track events (12 for men, 12 for women) will be held over distances ranging from 100m to 10,000m with the panicle event being the Men’s 100m. The majority of track events are split into heats with the fastest athletes going on to qualifying for the final.

There will be five road events during the 2012 Olympics - the men’s and women’s Marathons, the men’s and women’s 20km Race Walks and the men’s 50km Race Walk. All five road events will take place around the streets of London with the finishing post being at The Mall. Unlike the track events there are no heats so the winner of the race takes all.

Basketball

• Venue: Basketball Arena – Olympic Park (preliminaries, women’s quarter-finals); North Greenwich Arena (men’s quarter-finals and women’s semi-finals onwards)
• Dates: Saturday 28 July – Sunday 12 August
• Medal events: 2
• Athletes: 288 (144 men, 144 women, 12 teams in each event)

Is split between male and female (two competitions) and will start with a league format. The 12 teams get split into two groups and each team will play every other team in their respective group. The best eight teams from the opening league format will then qualify for the knockout stages, with the winners of the two semi-final going head-to-head for the gold medal.

Basketball games last for 40minutes and are split over four quarters. The winner is decided by the team with the most points at the end of the game. Two points are awarded for a regular shot from open play; one point is awarded for each successful free throw (following an opposition infringement) and three points for a shot from behind the three-point line.

Boxing

• Venue: ExCeL
• Dates: Saturday 28 July – Sunday 12 August
• Medal events: 13
• Athletes: 286 (250 men, 36 women)

In the Olympic Games, men’s boxing bouts take place over three three-minute rounds, with women’s bouts held over four rounds of two minutes each. Boxers score points for every punch they land successfully on their opponent’s head or upper body.

Canoe Sprint

• Venue: Eton Dorney
• Dates: Monday 6 – Saturday 11 August
• Medal events:12
• Athletes: 248

Head-to-head races conducted on still water, as opposed to the white water time trials of the Canoe Slalom competition. Athletes race over distances of 200m, 500m or 1,000m, either solo, in pairs or in teams of four.

Cycling - Mountain Bike

• Venue: Hadleigh Farm, Essex
• Dates: Saturday 11 – Sunday 12 August
• Medal events: 2
• Athletes: 80 (50 men, 30 women)

All riders start together and must complete a set number of laps of the course, with races lasting around one hour and forty-five minutes for both men and women. There are no heats: for the men’s and women’s events, all competitors start together, and the first rider to cross the finish line wins the gold.

Cycling - Track

• Venue: Velodrome
• Dates: Thursday 2 – Tuesday 7 August
• Medal events: 10
• Athletes: 188 (104 men, 84 women)

There are ten Olympic Track Cycling events (five for men, five for women), which between them test speed, endurance and teamwork. The Sprint consists of a series of three-lap races, with riders racing head-to-head. The Keirin features up to seven riders sprinting for victory, after following a pacing motorcycle at the beginning of the race.

There will be two team events: the Team Sprint, which is actually similar to a time trial, and the Team Pursuit, held over 16 laps for men and 12 laps for women.

Omnium is making its Olympic debut at London 2012. The Omnium features individual riders competing against each other across six different disciplines on the track.

Equestrian - Dressage

• Venue: Greenwich Park
• Dates: Thursday 2 August – Thursday 9 August
• Medal events: 2
• Athletes: 50

The Dressage competition consists of a Team event, which includes the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special rounds, and an Individual event, which includes the Grand Prix, the Grand Prix Special and the Grand Prix Freestyle. The Team and Individual events are conducted simultaneously: a rider’s score in a test may be counted in both events.

In the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special, all riders and horses perform the same tests. After the Grand Prix Special, medals are awarded in the Team event. However, the Individual event continues: the 18 riders with the best scores in the Grand Prix Special then qualify for the Grand Prix Freestyle, for which riders perform their own freestyle routines set to music. The scores in this round decide the winners of the Individual competition.

Equestrian - Jumping

• Venue: Greenwich Park
• Dates: Saturday 4 – Wednesday 8 August
• Medal events: 2
• Athletes: 75

There are a total of five rounds in the Jumping competition. Two of these rounds are used to determine the placings in the Team event, with all five rounds playing a part in the Individual event. If two or more rider/horse combinations are tied for medal places after the fifth and final round of the Individual event, there will be a jump-off to break the tie.

Football

• Venue: City of Coventry Stadium, (Coventry); Hampden Park (Glasgow); Millennium Stadium (Cardiff); Old Trafford (Manchester); St James' Park (Newcastle); Wembley Stadium
• Dates: Wednesday 25 July – Saturday 11 August
• Medal events: 2
• Athletes: 504 (200 men, 216 women; 16 men’s team and 12 women’s teams)

Both the men’s and women’s competitions will begin with a group stage. The teams will be divided into groups of four (three groups in the women’s tournament, four groups for the men), and the best eight teams will qualify for the quarter-finals. From here, the competitions are played to a knockout format: the two winning semi-finalists will play for the gold medal at Wembley, with the two losing semi-finalists facing off for the bronze.

Gymnastics - Rhythmic

• Venue: Wembley Arena
• Dates: Thursday 9 – Sunday 12 August
• Medal events: 2
• Athletes: 96 (all women)

One of just two women-only disciplines in the Olympic Games (the other is Synchronised Swimming); Rhythmic Gymnastics is a combination of gymnastics and dance. Competitors perform short routines to music using hand apparatus – a ball, clubs, a hoop and a ribbon – on a floor area measuring 13m by 13m. Scores are awarded in three categories: difficulty, artistry and execution.

Handball

• Venue: Handball Arena – Olympic Park (preliminaries, women’s quarter-finals); Basketball Arena – Olympic Park (men’s quarter-finals, plus all semi-finals and finals)
• Dates: Saturday 28 July – Sunday 12 August
• Medal events: 2
• Athletes: 336 (168 men, 168 women; 12 teams in each event)

Handball is a fast and exhilarating team sport. It offers plenty of physical contact and non-stop action. It involves two teams of seven players passing and dribbling a small ball with their hands. The event begins with a preliminary phase where 12 teams will be divided into two groups. Then once all teams have played each other the four best teams will go through to a knockout phase, which the winner will go through to the semi-finals then eventually the final.

Judo

• Venue: ExCeL
• Dates: Saturday 28 July – Friday 3 August
• Medal events: 14
• Athletes: 386

Judo is a sport that was developed from jujitsu and involves one-on-one battles that are tough, intense and explosive. Each contest lasts for five minutes and the players are awarded scores for different throws and holds. Judo is played in a knockout format where the winners will qualify for the next round. However if the player is awarded ‘ippon’ the maximum score then the contest will end immediately.

Rowing

• Venue: Eton Dorney
• Dates: Saturday 28 July – Sunday 4 August
• Medal events: 14
• Athletes: 550 (353 men, 197 women)

Pushing through the pain barrier is key in this sport if the competitors want to walk away with that all-important gold medal. There are 14 Olympic Rowing events that are held over a 2,000m course over a total of eight days. All the separate Rowing events begin with heats, where the best boats will qualify for the next round until they eventually progress into the finals.

Shooting

• Venue: The Royal Artillery Barracks
• Dates: Saturday 28 July – Monday 6 August
• Medal events: 15
• Athletes: 390

Shooting has been practised for centuries but it is now a popular competitive sport that is carried out all over the world. The event will fall roughly into three types: Pistol, Rifle and Shotgun. Athletes, depending on the event are required to shoot from standing, kneeling or prone positions. Shooting will take part in two rounds where scores are awarded and added together to determine the winners of the medals.

Synchronised Swimming

• Venue: Aquatics Centre – Olympic Park
• Dates: Sunday 5 – Friday 10 August 2012
• Medal events: 2
• Athletes: 104 (all women)

This event has essential grown from the attractive water ballets in the 19th century. Although it looks visually graceful from the poolside, Synchronised Swimming is extremely demanding and takes high levels of endurance and exceptional flexibility. Pairs or teams of eight swimmers perform to music and the judge’s award points based on the choreography, difficulty and execution of the routine.

Taekwondo

• Venue: ExCeL
• Dates: Wednesday 8 – Saturday 11 August
• Medal events: 8
• Athletes: 128 (64 men, 64 women)

This Korean martial art uses a combination of powerful kicks and punches to offer plenty of drama and action. The object of the game is to throw kicks and punches on to your opponent’s scoring zones. The action takes place on a court with each contest made up of three two-minute rounds. A knockout format is used with the winners going through to each round, then going head to head in the final.

Triathlon

• Venue: Hyde Park
• Dates: Saturday 4 and Tuesday 7 August
• Medal events: 2
• Athletes: 110 (55 men, 55 women)

The Triathlon is now one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. It combines swimming, cycling and running and carried out in that order. Events are done over a variety of distances: for the Olympic Games, the men’s and women’s Triathlons consist of a 1,500m swim, a 40km bike ride and a 10km run. There are no heats just an event that consists of a single race (separate events for men and women).

Water Polo

• Venue: Olympic Park – Water Polo Arena
• Dates: Sunday 29 July – Sunday 12 August
• Medal events: 2
• Athletes: 260 (156 men, 104 women)

This a fast, tough and demanding sport that needs a high level of team work to coordinate the ball into the opponent’s goal. Played in teams of seven, matches are divided into four periods of eight minutes and each team only has 30 seconds to attempt to score before the ball is returned to the opposition. In addition to that, players aren’t allowed to touch the sides or the bottom of the pool during play. The Water Polo will start off with group play in each every team will play all the other teams in their group. Then the teams who won in the group stages will progress through to the quarter-finals and semi-finals then eventually the final.

Wrestling

• Venue: ExCeL
• Dates: Sunday 5 – Sunday 12 August 2012
• Medal events:18
• Athletes: 344

This sport is one of the worlds oldest and involves a battle of nerves, strength and skill and provides plenty of drama as it is a body-to-body combat sport. Wrestlers aim to pin their opponent to the ground, or to score points by throwing their opponent or taking them down. Some rules are slightly different for women’s Wrestling, for example double head-locks are forbidden.