POSTED: December 9th 2010
NewsUpdate
London Mayor ensures large number of schoolchildren can attend the 2012 Games
LAURA WALDEN / Sports Features Communications
LONDON, Dec 9: London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced that 125,000 free tickets will be made available for the city’s schoolchildren to experience the Olympic Games firsthand.
LOCOG had already made available 50,000 tickets for the schoolchildren funded through the London 2012 Hospitality Programme. The same program has confirmed to add another 75,000 to ensure a larger percentage of youth are impacted by the Games.
Johnson said: “One in eight of the capital’s school kids will get to experience firsthand the planet’s greatest sporting spectacle for free and, importantly, at no cost to the taxpayer.
“I hope that this offer motivates thousands of young Londoners to get out there and take up a sport so we see a new generation of athletes from our very own city going for gold in 2016 and beyond.”
Head of LOCOG, Seb Coe, said: “We are proud of this innovative scheme which will do what we have promised to do - get young people to the Games. Our hospitality programme is funding these tickets and we are delighted that one in eight London schoolchildren will benefit and get tickets to the greatest show on earth.”
In order for students to be able to take advantage of the plan the schools must be signed up for LOCOG’s ‘Get Set’ Education programme aiming at diffusing awareness about the Games.
Almost 60 per cent of the London schools are signed up already for the programme. The possibility of free tickets offers an incentive for other schools to enlist.
The schools will then decide for themselves as to the allocation of the tickets through a student incentive program. Tickets will be distributed as acknowledgments of sporting or academic achievements.
Both LOCOG and the Greater London Authority will assist the Get Set schools to make sure that students are encouraged to strive towards their personal best and demonstrate their understanding of the Olympic and Paralympic values.
Keywords · London 2012 · Boris Johnson · Get Set Schools · Seb Coe
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