Starters Main course

London 2012 medallists

“Didn’t they do well?”

Number of medallists by age range

14–20 21–26 27–33

48%

9%5%

36%

2%

34–39 40+

The pie chart above shows the number of medal winners, by age range, at the London 2012 Olympics.

The largest number of medal winners was in the 21- to 26-year-old age range, winning 849 medals. Can you estimate the total number of medals won to the nearest hundred?

Did you know?

Hiroshi Hoketsu, 71, was the oldest ever competitor at a Games. He appeared in the men’s equestrian event at London 2012, 48 years since his first Olympic appearance at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

Over 800,000 people used public transport to travel to the Games.

17km of steel wires are used for the Velodrome’s cable roof; that’s twice the height of Mount Everest.

90 per cent of the material inside the Olympic park can be reused or recycled, making this the greenest Olympics yet.

26,400 tennis balls, 65,000 towels and 2,700 footballs were used over the 17 days of the Games.

Olympic legacyQuick Maths Menu

Can you...

use a sporting events schedule to check the start times and venues?

estimate how long, in seconds, it would take you to do a 100 metre sprint?

use a bus or train timetable to plan your journey to a sporting event?

interpret a medals ‘league table’ to see how your team is doing compared to other countries?

time yourself on a cycle run and work out your average speed in miles per hour (MPH)?

Answers – Main course: 1,800; Puzzler: The volume of Lake Windermere is bigger by 300 times. Set menu: 1: C; 2: 1 mile; 3: A

About

If you would like to get your maths skills up to Olympic standard, contact your union learning representative for more information.

Maths Takeaway Template - Olympic legacy.indd 1-3 24/04/2013 12:38

Olympic Park: sustainable redevelopment facts

Building the Olympic Park involved a vast cleanup operation, with the demolition of 200 buildings.

Image courtesy of Imperial College London

1 million cubic metres of soil was excavated to level the site.

800,000 cubic metres of soil was washed in specialist machines to remove toxins such as arsenic, tar, petrol and lead.

90 per cent of the demolition material from the original buildings was separated and recycled or reused.

Puzzler: Lake Windermere is estimated to have a volume of 300,000,000 cubic metres. Is this bigger or smaller than the volume of soil excavated from the Olympic Park to level the site, and by how much?

1. The world record for the fastest time for the 100m sprint is 9.58 seconds, and is currently held by Jamaica’s Usain Bolt. What is this time rounded to the nearest second?

A: 1 second B: 9.6 seconds C: 10 seconds

2. During the Olympic torch relay, 8,000 torch bearers ran 8,000 miles over 70 days. How many miles did each torch bearer run, on average?

3. In the final medals chart, below, approximately what fraction of the medals won by team GB was gold?

A: 1/2 B: 2/3 C: 1/3

Medal count

Total

1 USA 46 29 29 104

2 CHN 38 27 23 88

3 GBR 29 17 19 65

4 RUS 24 26 32 82

5 KOR 13 8 7 28

Grin or groan?

Q: Why isn’t suntanning an Olympic sport?

A: Because the best you can ever get is bronze.

A gymnast walks into a bar ... He gets a two-point deduction and ruins his chances of a medal.

For more information, facts and stats on the London 2012 Olympics, visit http://getset.london2012.com/en/home

For video clips of your favourite moments, such as the opening ceremony, the 100m sprint or the women’s heptathlon, visit http://www.london2012.com/

If you would like to improve your maths skills, contact your union learning representative for more information.

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