The 2012 Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the XXX Olympiad will take place in London, United Kingdom from the 27th of July to the 12th of August 2012. London is the first city to Host the Olympic Games three times. Previously it had done so in the year 1908 and 1948. During this 17 days, London would host 26 different types of sports in 34 astonishing venues spread across the city with thousands of participants and Athletes representing different nations of the world. Some of the existing venues will be used for the Games and some would be built newly for the sole purpose of the 2012 Olympics and the Paralympic Games. All the Venues in the city has been broadly divided into three Zones; the Central Zone, the Olympic Zone and the River Zone.

The O2 arena formerly known as the Millennium Dome is an existing Venue placed in the River Zone that is intended to be used in the 2012 Summer Olympics and the Paralympic Games for the Artistic Gymnastics and the Trampolining Events and the Basketball Finals. The venue is officially known as the North Greenwich Arena and it will have a capacity of about 20000 spectators for the Basketball finals and about 16500 for the Gymnastic events during the Games.

Located in the Greenwich Peninsula in South East London, the O2 resembles a huge white umbrella and is supported by 12 yellow towers each of which symbolizes the hours on a clock dial. High strength steel cables hold the columns in place and it also supports the glass fibre roof. The O2 is about 365 meters in diameter and has a circumference of more than a kilometre. It covers a total area of about 650000 square feet. The mammoth structure was designed by Richard Rogers in association with contractors McAlpine/Laing Joint Venture along with structural engineer Buro Happold. The Millennium Dome came to be known as The O2 from 31st May, 2005, after O2 plc purchased the naming rights with a £6 million-per-year deal.

The area is served by North Greenwich tube station, which was opened just before the millennium exhibition, on the Jubilee Line, and by bus routes and cycle routes connecting it across the other parts of the city.

Since the O2 is a permanent venue, it will continue hosting events and sports as before even after the 2012 Summer Olympics and the Paralympic Games.

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