ABSTRACT
The ODA (2007) and Zirin (2007) exemplify some of the contradictions and competing tensions in any Olympic project. London 2012 is not immune to the dominant narrative and counter-narrative discourses and as such this chapter chooses to emphasise some of the complexities and contradictions bound up in the consideration of ‘race’, sport, the East End and the London 2012 Games. Some of the complexities of the Olympic Games are apparent in competing discourses in addition to each host nation’s local-national backdrop which contributes further social concerns for serious consideration. In East London foregrounding urban renewal and legacy promises driven by one event are massive challenges in London’s most multicultural and resource deprived areas. This chapter also considers UK sports development’s historical failure to include black and minority ethnic communities as participants and influential voices and how this is likely to be perpetuated in East London.
