For my teams at the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) it’s an immovable deadline, so I’m delighted at the levels of preparedness.
You can see some of our progress all over television, radio, newspaper and internet today. It’s been a magnificent achievement. So here on the blog I’d like to focus on what brought this all about: competition in 26 Olympic and 20 Paralympic sporting world championships.
I remain just as clear today as I was when we started bidding for the right to stage the Games that it is the athletes who truly will be at the heart of London’s Games.
Great Britain saw its first athlete make the Games last week when swimmer Keri-Anne Payne qualified for Team GB. Over the next 11 and a half months, many tens of thousands more of the world’s greatest athletes around the world will be competing hard for the 10,500 spots alongside Keri-Anne.
There are four principal areas where I see links between the preparations being undertaken by athletes and the Organising Committee over that period.
The hard yards. As an athlete, you know the weeks will fly but equally that there is much to do. Training at least twice a day with hundreds of miles to be run, tonnes of steel to be lifted in the gym, and thousands of sit ups to sweat through before you reach the Olympic Village, there will only be a rest day every other week (if you’re lucky!). You need to pace yourself to stay injury-free, but most of all you need to work, work, work.
It is a similar situation for LOCOG. Whilst many of the stadia have been built, there are still temporary venues to construct, catering to be arranged for spectators and athletes, technology to be installed, and much more. We are on track, but you won’t find any complacency.
Testing and fine tuning. As a competitor I never wanted to confront something in a race that I hadn’t come across thousands of times before on the training track, and it’s the same for the Organising Committee. The next 12 months will witness intense testing of our venues, of our teams and our technology so we enter the Games in a strong frame of mind.
It’s a team effort. No champion is made on his or her own. There are coaches, nutritionists, physiologists and many more to help, plus you have family, friends and supporters encouraging you. It makes all the difference, and being in or even close to an Olympic final is a huge honour. You feel the responsibilities on your shoulders and a very powerful sense of not wanting to let people down.
Similarly, as organisers, we have a great team working on the Games. Everyone understands the privilege of working on the world’s greatest event and is determined not to let down the athletes, the spectators, their team-mates and 60 million members of the UK public – our biggest stakeholders. This blog has already reported a rich mix of benefits across the country from staging the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but we’ll continue focusing on delivery to really maximise the outcomes and repay the support and trust that has been placed in us.
Having a game plan. By Games time, athletes will have trained relentlessly and tested themselves in different conditions. However, success also relies on mental strength and tactical acumen. Your antennae should be tuned to react to whatever arises, as if by second nature. As you sit in the call room, visualising your perfect race, you know that anything could happen. Beware the competitor who trips you up or knocks your rhythm, and have faith that because of the work you have put in, you can get back on track without losing time.
At LOCOG, we have to have the same mentality. What happens if there’s no wind for the Sailing competition? What happens if there’s too much wind for the Rowing? Our teams will have to react and react quickly.
Ultimately, across all four areas, if you have put in the hours then you have every chance. There is no genius other than hard work.
Today, with one year to go until the Opening Ceremony, I can guarantee both athletes and the teams here at London 2012 are doing plenty of that.
Thank you for coming with us this far on our journey, and thank you for your support.
I hope you’ll keep checking in on my blog and the work across the project over the coming 365 days!
