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Comment: Olympic Gold
Evening Standard20 Aug 2008
There seems to be no end to the extraordinary haul of medals by British athletes in Beijing - the best in a century, exhausting the superlatives of the commentators. Their performance has had a wonderful effect on morale at home when the weather and the economy were almost equally bad. The Olympics performance of the British team is a matter for national pride - as we shall see on Monday with the celebrations for the team in Trafalgar Square.
This positive mood over the Olympics makes for a good opportunity to consider London's position in 2012. Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister, is right to say the Games must remain within their budget of £9.3 billion. Granted, Miss Jowell presided over the extraordinary three-fold expansion in cost from the original estimates but she is right to insist now that any increase in any one area must be borne within the overall budget. however, there is a case for business to think more expansively about the Olympics - it is proving difficult to raise the £100 million towards the overall cost that was meant to be provided by private sponsorship. In the wake of the British team's winning performance, companies should now think again about the benefits of allying themselves with this remarkable success story.
