Hats off to the first 2012 Olympic Rings unveiled today at St. Pancras International Station.
Read the press release.
Read story on BBC.
Since I'm now living in London, I'm proud to own one of these knit caps New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave out during a press conference during the city's 2012 Olympic bid.
Too bad they are summer games. It might be too warm to wear the hat in London from July 27th to August 12th, 2012.
Back to the Rings unveiled today- they are measure 20 metres wide by 9 metres high and weigh 2,300 kilograms. That's .... uh, hold on. I have to google a conversion chart.
That's nearly 66 feet wide by 29.5 feet weighing more than 5,000 pounds! That's 2.3 tons.
No wonder they had to transport the rings in 39 separate parts to St Pancras International. The press release says they were secretly assembled and installed over seven nights.
St Pancras will be one of the key access points to the games, transporting visitors on a high-speed Javelin Train to and from Stratford International. Stratford International is adjacent to Olympic Park, which is under construction in Stratford, East London.
If New York had won the 2012 bid, the first Olympic Rings might have gone up at Grand Central or Penn Station. Though you have to wonder if the assembly would have been kept secret like in London. My bet is coverage would have been of olympic proportions, from the time the first piece of metal arrived, to the type of aluminum used, where it came from, the people putting it together, until finally the unveiling. Though probably by then the story might have switched to "commuters fed up with crowds" trying to get a glimpse of the monstrous logo.
If you'd like the follow the build up to the Olympics, you can check out the London 2012 Headquarters website and follow on twitter.
