London 2012 blog

Today marks 2012 days to go to the Opening Ceremony for the London 2012 Games.

The eyes of the world will be on London and all the planning and activity you have seen every day on this blog will come to fruition.

It is a great opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved and look forward to the milestones we will reach over the next 2,012 days. Here are some of the highlights...

This year we plan to launch our new brand, which will tell the world what type of Games we will host. We will also begin announcing the partner companies that will help us stage these Games.

The contracts will be let this year for designing and building what we call the 'big five' (the Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre, Velodrome, media and press centres and the Olympic Village). By the end of 2007 we will have a good idea what our key venues will look like and we will be ready to start the big build in 2008.

Our Games may start in 2012 days but in around 600 days we will need to excite the world as Beijing hands the Olympic flag to London in the closing ceremony of the 2008 Games. This will be our first moment to shine. The Games and the world will turn to London and we must be ready to welcome them.

Finally, over the next 2012 days we have the opportunity to send out a clear message to the world about the Olympic values, an ideal which challenges us to do our best, no matter what confronts us and to do so in a spirit of fairness and friendship.