‘Two postponements, six years later’; Young athletes gather for Ontario Summer Games in London

On Monday local volunteers were busy unpacking various items at London Hall on the Western University campus, including registration materials and promotional items.

London was set host the Ontario Summer Games in 2020, shortly after hosting in 2018. With the COVID-19 pandemic looming, the thinking was that the infrastructure was already in place to host the games in a controlled fashion - but COVID had other plans.

The games were postponed in 2020 and 2021.

Now the games are making a long-awaited return to the Forest City.

"Two postponements, six years later, we're finally here and, excited that it is here," Tourism London Director of Sports Tourism Zanth Jarvis told CTV London.

Jarvis says the games were worth the wait, providing a significant economic benefit to the city, "We're projecting about a $5 million economic impact for the city. So hotels are full, restaurants are busy. There's other events going on in the city, so it should be a pretty busy weekend for tourism in the city."

Games General Manager Dave De Kelver admits the games are a logistical challenge. But he stressed that London has a reputation for having quality volunteers who are committed to creating memorable experience for the athletes, their families and spectators, "We have 3500 participants of which 600 are coaches and managers, 200, 300, officials. We are at 25 different sports venues."

De Kelver says London isn’t the only community playing a role in the Summer Games, "We’re in places like Port Stanley, where they are helping us at the boat launch. And we are in Saint Marys, where we're running the triathlon from the quarry."

The opening ceremonies take place on Thursday evening.

Like another famous sporting event you may have heard of, the athletes get paraded into Western University’s Alumni Stadium to the cheers of supporters.

After the ceremonies, there's a concert by Juno Award winning singer Reve - and it's all free to the public.

The hope is that the summer games will help London attract other sports events.

"Every time you do an event like this, it really, builds that history for you in that resume to hopefully do more things down the road. So we're really excited to host this one."

For more information about the festivities, head to london2024.ca