Olympic organisers sell 10,000 tickets too many

Four events have been affected and some people holding tickets for the oversubscribed sessions had already been contacted by organisers who have offered access to alternative events, which includes athletics competitions.

This means that those affected by the blunder will not miss out on the chance to see Olympic athletes in London.

Around 3,000 people have been contacted by London 2012, which is now offering tickets to other events the applicants had requested in their original bids.

A human error is believed to be responsible for 20,000 tickets being put on sale in the second round of sales rather than 10,000 actually available.

However, a London 2012 spokesperson said: “As a result of finalising the seating configurations in our venues and reconciling the millions of Olympic and Paralympic ticket orders against the seating plans for around 1,000 sporting sessions, we have discovered that there is an error in seats available in four synchronised swimming sessions.

“In December we contacted around 3,000 customers who had applied for tickets in the four sessions during the second round sales process.”

“We are exchanging their synchronised swimming tickets for tickets in other sports that they originally applied for.”

The alternative tickets will come from the pot of one million for all events that are due to go on sale in May once the seating configuration has been finalised at all the venues.

The process for people to resell any unwanted tickets in their possession is set to open on Friday.