Neil on track for Olympian venue task

GALWAYMAN Neil Carney may not be an athlete but he is about to get in training for the marathon of his life.

Mr Carney, from Tuam, has just been put in charge of venue planning for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. As lead planner at the Olympic Park, he will oversee where all the major events, including the opening ceremony, take place.

Mr Carney is no stranger to co-ordinating major international events, he was operations director for the Galway leg of the Volvo Ocean Race in 2009 and logistical manager for the Asian Games, also known as the Olympics of the Far East, three years earlier in Qatar.

Prior to that he worked as a co-ordinator at the Special Olympics in Dublin and recently finished in Limerick after a nine-month stint in charge of operations at the Special Olympics All-Ireland Games.

Mr Carney admits that getting this job in charge of operations at the Olympic Games is the pinnacle of his career to date.

“I’m looking forward to it and I suppose it is good to have got the job at the Olympic Games after doing a number of other major events over the past few years,” said Mr Carney.

“Everybody will be waiting to see the 100 metres final at the Olympic Games and I will be somewhere backstage for that.

“While I will not be running in the 100 metres it is my task to make sure the track is clean and clear for the athletes,” he said with a smile. “We are lucky to have the Olympic Games being held so near to us and it is doubtful if they will ever be this close again,” he said.

“There will be over 70,000 volunteers alone working at the games as well as 3,000 staff and a further 3,000 contractors.

“I will be heading up management teams, directing operating plans as well as working a lot with construction companies as London prepares to host the games,” Mr Carney added.

He will have a key team of about 30 experts in various fields working with him but at any time he may have up to a few thousand people reporting to him on various operational aspects of the games. The buck stops at Neil’s desk regarding the amount of structures that need to be in place for the 2012 Olympics.

“Once the Olympic Games are over I will be in charge of the Paralympics which are for physically challenged people and they are the next biggest event to the Olympic Games. There will not be much time to relax once the Olympics are over as there is only 10 days of a gap until the Paralympics start,” he said.

They will be held at the same locations around London.