LONDON TAKES OLYMPICS FIRE FOR 2012
Support A1+!On Sunday August 24, London received the Olympic flag, signalling the start of its reign as Olympic Host City.
The Olympic Handover Flag was raised on 24th August across the UK and in its Overseas Missions from Vancouver to Tokyo in an unprecedented gesture to celebrate the moment when London becomes the next Summer Olympic Host City.
The British Embassy in Yerevan will fly the Olympic Handover Flag for seven days. HMA Charles Lonsdale said:
“We congratulate the Armenian team on their achievements in winning six medals in Beijing. This has been a fantastically successful Olympics for British sport too. We look forward to welcoming Armenian athletes in four years time, and wish them even more success in the London Games.”
Mayor of London Boris Johnson was symbolically handed the Olympic flag by International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge in front of a worldwide audience estimated to be around 1.6 billion at the closing ceremony of the Games in Beijing. Footballer David Beckham, singer Leona Lewis and rock legend Jimmy Page led London's eight-minute performance during the closing ceremony.
In London, 40,000 people attended a celebration concert outside the Queen's residence, Buckingham Palace where giant screens beamed the closing ceremony.
International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said:
“Athens was returning to the roots, to the country that invented the Olympic Games. China was the most populous country in the world. London is the capital city of the country that has invented modern sport, that has invented the rules of the sports, and the values of fair play. It is a cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic and multi-religious city”.
London will become the first city to stage the Olympics for a third time. The capital staged the Games in 1908 after Rome pulled out of hosting the Olympics following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. In 1948, London staged what became known as the Austerity Games following World War II.
