London Olympic organisers begin a series of test events this month for next year’s Summer Games, with international athletes invited to get their first experience of many venues.
The local organising committee said its 42-event test programme begins on 30 May with an invitational road race to test the marathon and walk routes, which include a stretch along The Mall in central London.
A total of 150,000 tickets will be on sale across several events to help test out ticketing technology, although many will be free for the public.
“This is a dress rehearsal for us but the public of course will see the rehearsal not the dress. It will look and feel quite different (to the Olympics),” London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton said.
After Vancouver officials faced accusations of restricting the use of Olympic venues to overseas athletes ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics, London organisers said they are inviting top contenders to the test events when scheduling and security issues allow.
“We’ve had three other games to learn from - Torino, Beijing and Vancouver,” Deighton said.
After the road race event, observers will attend the All England Club to watch the technology and crowd flows at the 20 June 2-3 July Wimbledon tennis tournament, which is one of six test events not organised by LOCOG.
There will testing across 26 venues, with a basketball invitational tournament and BMX supercross World Cup running concurrently in mid-August as the first events in the Olympic Park in east London.
There will be 3,000 tickets on sale for each of the basketball and BMX events, priced between £10 and £35.
Deighton said organisers are not concerned with raising revenue but are charging for some events to help replicate the actual demands of Olympic conditions.
“We don’t see the rehearsal as a commercial programme,” Deighton said. “(Revenue) is hundreds of thousands, not millions. But if the response to our Olympic ticket sale is anything to go by, I think were expecting significant demand.”
But Deighton added that there will be no preference given for fans who applied unsuccessfully for actual Olympic tickets.
Technology testing will focus on things such as overcoming radio interference during the sailing event at Weymouth on England’s south coast, the accuracy of laser pistol shooting, ticket scanning technology at the beach volleyball, and accreditation and crowd flows at the Olympic Park.