Unless you’ve been locked in a vault for the last decade, you’re probably aware that this summer is both the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee ( 2-5 June 2012) and The Olympics (27 July – 12 Aug 2012).   We’ll cover the Jubilee soon, but for now this is the official unofficial Olympics in Richmond post.

Despite being nearly 17 miles from the Olympic Park, there’s quite a lot of Olympic action in the Borough, starting with the South African, Irish, Japanese and Chinese Olympic teams arriving for pre-games training at St Mary’s University College in Strawberry Hill – at their new state-of-the-art training facility.

The specific sports being prepped include athletics, badminton, basketball, fencing, handball, volleyball and weightlifting.  Paralympians will also be training.  It’s not clear how much of this we’ll be able to see – although right now there’s a pretty clear view of the running track from the road.  At least two of the teams are also staying at the Lensbury Club and there are rumours of Bushy Park being used for additional training.

The Olympic Torch. Not to be confused with a gold plated pre-war microphone.

The excitement really starts, however, when the Olympic Torch is paraded through the Borough on July 24^th and July 27^th.

There are no details about the second parade, but the first leaves from Kingston at 9.50am and heads through Petersham, Richmond and Kew.

These Olympic organisers are clever really, because it seems very special for the torch to run through the area, but in fact 95% of the population of the UK live within 10 miles of the torch route (including Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey).

But then to the events in our area – and it’s all about the cycling, as you’ll remember from last year’s exciting practice race which was technically the London-Surrey Cycle Classic, held on the same route as the 2012 races.

First up is the most prestigious event in the area Men’s Olympic Cycling Road Race (250km), taking place on 28 July 2012.  The race times are published as 10am – 4.15pm, which seems a lot longer than last year?

In 2011 Mark Cavendish won the race in 3 hours 18 minutes, and the last place was only 16 minutes behind.  And let’s face it, it wasn’t exactly perfectly planned last year so maybe they’re just doing a better job preparing us for hours of chaos on either side of the race.

The Women’s Road Race (140 km) is the same time on the following day, and then on 31^st there’s a rehearsal for the Women’s and Men’s Time Trials (44km and 25km) that take place on the 1^st August (12.30 – 4pm).

You can expect to get far more detailed information in the run up to these events from Richmond Cycling Campaign and there’s a great route map on the official 2012 website and another local version on the LBRUT site.

The nearest other Olympic venues are at Eton Dorney (Rowing, Paralympic Rowing and Canoe Sprint) near Windsor, Wimbledon for Tennis and Wembley for Football.  Whether or not you can still get tickets for any of these places… we don’t know.  You may have to make do with holding your own events in your back garden, or in one of the many facilities for sport in Richmond.

Of course the Olympics is a time for the world to come together, forget its differences, and experience a celebration of human achievement.  But it’s also a wonderful opportunity for lawyers across the globe to earn buckets more money suing companies who try to take advantage of the Olympics without having paid millions of pounds for the rights to do so.

There’s even an official list of expressions that you should not use.  In fact there are two lists, and the rules state that you cannot use more than one word from list A, or any word from list A if you are using any words from list B.

A: games, Two Thousand and Twelve, 2012, twenty twelve
B: London, medals, sponsors, summer, gold, silver, bronze

So just to be clear, although this blog is talking about the 2012 summer games in London, and the involvement of official sponsors…. (penalties galore!) we are in no way connected to or endorsed by the Olympics.  Actually now I notice it, there’s no mention of the word Olympic in those lists?

Anyway, that’s it for now – will try to keep this updated as more news arrives… if you have other insight please leave a comment below!

A guest post by local resident Maria Walker

In 1984, straight out of college I walked into a job at Twickenham Film Studios. I had no idea how fierce competition was for such a job or how lucky I was; it was a case of ignorance was bliss. I would pinch myself when I walked [continue]

Richmond upon Thames is jammed full of great places to eat and drink.  And it’s also home to many wonderful parks and houses.  We thought we’d pull those threads together to cover the best places to eat and drink in the parks and ‘stately’ houses of Richmond.

As always, these are ourviews, and other opinions [continue]