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Britain's leading student athletes will be the first to use the 80,000-seat Olympic stadium in a rehearsal for the 2012 Games
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Sebastian Coe: I absolutely think we were right to bid
Sebastian Coe16.01.09
It has been said that preparing London for the Olympics is the biggest challenge for the city outside wartime and I agree.
This is the biggest piece of project management a city undertakes and it is against an immovable deadline. It is a tough time for the economy but I remain upbeat about the potency of the Olympics to deliver an economic stimulus.
Even by a conservative estimate, this project is likely to create four to five per cent of the capital's economic activity over the next four years.
For example, we will be awarding contracts to a firm to provide 17,000 beds in the village and 900,000 pieces of sports equipment. In the past three and a half years we have banked more than £450 million in sponsorship.The Olympic Delivery Authority — our sister organisation, which is building the Olympic park — employs 3,000 people. This will rise to 9,000 in 2010.
There has been some conjecture about whether the Olympics bid would have been launched had we known the recession was coming. For the reasons I have set out I absolutely think we were right to bid. This project, which has £6 billion of contracts on offer, is a crucial part of the economic landscape.
After Beijing, I backed the Standard's campaign for a sports legacy flowing from London 2012 and I am pleased to say progress has been made.
There's more clarity about who is responsible for the legacy now. Sports participation is a matter for Government and the legacy of the venues is in the hands of the London Development Agency, although Locog assists where it can.
We enjoyed a real high following Beijing and we will maintain the momentum through the visible signs of progress at Olympic Park. Today we are at the midpoint between winning the bid in Singapore and the opening ceremony and we know the clock is ticking. In fact, I'm as focused on timings now as I was as an athlete.
Lord Coe is chairman of Locog, the organising committee of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Reader views (8)
Enough of the moaning about the costs! London hasn't hosted the Olympic Games since 1948, and I think it will be a good way of welcoming visitors to London.
Having been selected to stage the event, I believe it would send entirely the wrong signals for London to back out of holding the games.
We do not often bid to host the Olympics, so let's enjoy the event and make it a success the same way the 1948 Olympics were.
- Alex Halpern, London, United Kingdom
You go Seb.. I feel that it is time for the British to stop the moaning and get and on with it. We need to do this we need to put ourselves back on the map positively. Hey there is Money
(sorry my computer dose'nt have a Pound sign) lots of it if only thoes greedy people and lazy people get of their backsides and do some work, it could be done.
Andrea.
- Andrea Lynch Mbe, North Hollywood California
Coe sees the games as a boost to his already over inflated ego. He is a smug, opinionated man We cannot afford to host the games and all the others who conned us into believing we could do so within budget should resign from the committee and cancel the games
- R.F., Yorks, UK
He would say that, wouldn't he, he's still going to get another 3+ years of employment out of it.
- Daniel Rapp, Hampton, Middlesex
Does he get Charlie and Lola to write his scripts?!
And change the BL***Y STUPID LOGO!
- Roz, Chamonix, France
Well, he would say that wouldn't he?!
- Fraser, Telford Park
Yeah well he does not have to pay for this bottomless pit we do.
- Peteo, London NW1
And without it he would be a poorer and forgotten man!
- Michael, London
