Getty Images/Leon Neal
A glint of Olympic excitement was brought to London’s Trafalgar Square Monday, as a group of gold medalists unveiled the official clock, beginning the 500 day countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games. Or at least that was the plan… until Tuesday, when the clock stopped ticking.
Omega, the official time-keeper and sponsor of the game, said that work is being done to bring the back to life. Let’s just hope the games aren’t tainted with this time-keeping legacy.
(More on TIME.com: See the schedule for the 2012 Olympics)
With just 500 days to go, tickets were put up for grabs Tuesday and sales have already gone through the roof. There’s no need to panic, though, because tickets are not sold on a first-come, first-serve basis and you have until April 26 to apply. Though you must make sure you’ve got a Visa card, and that it doesn’t expire before August.
As for prices, with 6 million tickets on sale and prices ranging from £20 ($32) to over £2,000 ($3211), there are events for all. Around 90% of tickets are £100 ($160) or less, and the public can even apply for free events like the marathon and road cycling. So there are affordable tickets, but whether you get a place or not is all down to chance.
And let’s just hope that when runners crosses the finish line in 2012, technical mishaps are limited to the count-down clock and not the stopwatch. (via BBC)
(More on TIME.com: See a brief history of Olympic opening ceremonies)