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Lord Coe: Olympic Games legacy is your job now, Boris
Matthew Beard, Sports News Correspondent11 Jun 2008
Olympics boss Sebastian Coe today hit back at Boris Johnson's claims that the Games legacy is being neglected.
The head of the London 2012 Organising Committee said it was primarily the Mayor's office and the Government that should take charge of planning the best use of venues after the Games.
His reaction follows a withering attack from Mr Johnson in the Standard, in which the Mayor claimed there was a lack of legacy planning and urged 2012 bosses to "get their skates on" over the future of the Stratford site.
Mr Johnson raised questions about the use of the main Olympic Stadium and Aquatics Centre among a number of other venues.
But today Lord Coe told the CBI's Business Summit in London that it was Mr Johnson who should be taking action.
He said: "As a member of the Olympic board I will ask questions, given that it was part of my pitch in Singapore [when the bid was won] as to whether the two key organisations there to deliver legacy - the Government and the Mayor's office - are getting it right.
"It's not a debate that is uniquely for Boris Johnson or for Tessa Jowell, it is a debate that I will enter and have consistently entered." Responding to Mr Johnson's proposals to establish his own legacy board, Lord Coe added: "Don't run away with the idea that no work has been done on legacy at all.
"There is a legacy master plan. We are explaining the story of why venues are going to look like they are because of what we want to use them for afterwards."
He insisted that legacy was integral to the design of the £303 million aquatics centre following claims by Mr Johnson that it would be difficult to convert for use after 2012. "The aquatic centre is being modified for legacy - we are losing 17,000 seats and two wings and leaving two 50 metre pools and a diving facility that London has never had. There is a lot of thought that has gone into the design of the aquatic centre."
Lord Coe added he would rather see the 2012 Games deliver "great moments" than the British team achieve their goal of coming fourth in the medals table.
He said: "I know that the greatest driver of participation is great moments in that stadium. Kelly Holmes had a massive impact on participation."
Reader views (1)
Great moments that cost TEN BILLION pounds are of very little interest to pensioners who are cold and hungry because the country won't provide a decent state pension. Each pensioner could have a THREE HUNDRED pound increase a year for TEN years with that money.
- Richard, Thame, 12/06/2008 11:24
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