Warwickshire News Mine

With Great Britain celebrating its most successful games for a century, and more medals potentially to come in the Paralympic games that follow the Beijing Olympiad, Warwickshire is looking ahead to playing a major role in the next Games in four years time.

Coventry and Warwickshire has had 11 venues selected for inclusion in the official Olympic Pre-Games Training Camp Guide for the 2012 Games and a further four for the Paralympic Guide.

Four athletes from Warwickshire competed in Beijing with one – rower Steve Williams – having picked up a gold medal, there are high hopes within the county that Warwickshire can play a major role in the 2012 Olympiad.

An estimated 4 billion people have watched the Beijing games on television with the huge worldwide interest predicted to bring a huge amount of future tourism to China. 

For the 2012 Games, whilst London will accommodate a considerable amount of visitors it is another reason that Councillor Chris Saint, the county council’s portfolio holder for economic development, is so excited at the prospects of the games in four years.

He said:  “From a sporting perspective, 2012 may well bring the nation an even greater haul of medals than the Beijing Games; fingers crossed that our athletes are among them again.

“But it is not just athletes that can benefit from the forthcoming games.  Hundreds of thousands of tourists will be in England and many of those will be looking to visit other areas of the country other than London. 

"To make the most of this opportunity Warwickshire is already gearing itself up now so that it is ready to attract people away from the Capital and to create a tremendous impression on visitors from across the world.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the people of Warwickshire to show the world what we have to offer.”

* Picture shows Cllr Chris Saint and Cllr Marion Haywood, chair of Warwickshire County Council, with the flag.

Link to WCC