Today was my final day in Beijing - I was here for three days for meetings with the Beijing Organising Committee (BOCOG) Sport team and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). We left early for the
Today was my final day in Beijing - I was here for three days for meetings with the Beijing Organising Committee (BOCOG) Sport team and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). We left early for the meeting yesterday in order to be able to spend an hour at the Forbidden City - well worth the visit.
Meetings have gone well and have highighted the importance of preparing well. The focus of the IOC meetings was test events and we heard about the first two events that Beijing has staged and the challenges faced.
Beijing will be running 44 test events for the Olympic Games and two for the Paralympic Games. Ten of these events will be held in two clusters with a fully operational main Operations centre and Sport Command centre, both of which we will have in place in London in 2012.
It is interesting to see an organising commitee a year and a half before the games with a 1,000 staff in place and realise it won't be that long before we are in the same situation. The main stadium is amazing and you can see why steel prices have gone up as the it is covered in it and really does look like a bird's nest!
The rest of the Olympic Green, similar to our Olympic Park is well underway with builders working 24 hours a day. I have no doubt that Beijing will stage a spectacular Games.
Home tomorrow, which I am looking forward to especially as it is -6 degrees here!
