Barcelona still the benchmark for London 2012

With the 2012 Olympic game’s less than a year away many will of course still have memories of one of the greatest of all the games that took place in Barcelona almost 20years ago in 1992. This iconic spectacle of Sport, still seen as a pinnacle of the long Olympic tradition, not only catapulted Catalonia’s capital into the world’s super league of cities but also left those that watched with truly dazzling images of sport caught against the backdrop of Barcelona’s panorama of extraordinary architectural elegance.

The city came into its own as it shouldered the enormous responsibility hosting of the world’s greatest sporting event and with an almost typically Catalan approach, made it look easy. The legacy of the games can still be felt today as the secret of the city’s sublime cultural nature and vitality, known only mostly to Europeans, was paraded to the world who immediately fell in love with the scenery that burst from their television screens, a love affair that continues to this day.

The man who caught the most iconic of Barcelona’s many moments during the Olympics, British photographer Bob Martin, has begun the search for the ultimate shot of the London games next summer.

His breathtaking image of a diver suspended high above Barcelona skyline with La Sagrada Familia shimmering through the summer heat in the distance became the defining image of the games. This time around Bob will have venues that are set amongst some of the most widely recognizable places in the world but his brief moment in time captured at the Montjuic pool, high on a hill overlooking Barcelona will most probably remain his legacy.

If you are looking for accommodation for the London Olympics, Wimdu.co.uk are one company worth checking given the wide selection of budgets they cater for. See you in London in 2012!