The Olympic Games are a time for the world to come together to celebrate its athletes. The winning of gold, silver and bronze medals decided on a matter of seconds and centimetres.
But as the London Games approach, some ask why billions is being spent on this event at a time of economic hardship in Europe and elsewhere?
The Occupy movement aims to make its voice heard during the Games which they call an event driven by cash, greed and corruption. The Olympics do have a history of corruption, performance enhancing drug use and cost overruns. How to fight that image? How different will London be?
In the past winning cities have used bribery to sway Olympic committee members to vote for them.
Doping has been an long time problem that Olympic organisers have had trouble staying on top of.
And already the price tag for the London Games is double the original estimate; that is an image challenge for the UK government which has been slashing public spending.
On this edition of The Network we’re joined by Ali Sheikholeslami, euronews London correspondent, Kerry-Anne Mendoza, founder and spokesperson for the protest group OurOlympics who are linked to the Occupy movement and from the European Parliament in Brussels, Dennis Abbott who is the spokesman for education and sport matters at the European Commission.
Click on the video link above to watch the programme