London 2012 blog

I have just spent two days in beautiful Riga, on the west coast of Latvia.

I was attending and presenting at the European National Olympic Committees (NOC) Seminar for Secretary Generals and ‘Chef de Missions’ (essentially the Team leaders). It’s always a good meeting for me, with many familiar faces and old friends from past Olympic and Olympic Winter Games.

Everyone accepts much of the best work is done in the bar and increasingly the ‘jeans’ outnumber the ‘suits’ – my kind of meeting!

This forum is key for all OCOGs (Organising Committees) to communicate and disseminate key logistical and operational info to the team leaders of all the European Olympic teams.

BOCOG – the Beijing 2008 organisers - came with a delegation of six, VANOC (Vancouver) – two and London – just me!

Read more of “Discussing National Olympic Committees in Riga”

Unseasonally rainy weather couldn't dampen spirits yesterday in Trafalgar Square as Londoners and tourists together celebrated Africa Day.

Food stands selling a range of African cuisines and market stalls with a range of commemorative and traditional goods complemented the entertainment on stage, with music and dance acts from around the continent and the wider diaspora.

The London 2012 information stand was out again, helping visitors to the event to understand the benefits of the 2012 Games for all Londoners.

On this occasion we were able to bring with us a model of the Olympic Park after the Games, helping visitors (including Olaseni, with me in the photo below) to understand also what comes after the Games and how important the planning for the post-Games future is to us all.

Read more of “Bright spirits at a rainy Africa Day”

I was lucky enough on Friday to attend a Boccia tournament involving 70 primary school children from Hackney.

The tournament organisers – East End SportsAbility with the help of Hackney Council’s Sports Services - worked with the schools to coach the youngsters in the art of Boccia, a Paralympic sport that is similar to the French game of boules or petanque.

The day-long tournament was held at the excellent Space sports centre at Hackney Community College and was as a chance for the youngsters to put their new skills to the test.

London 2012 organised for Zoe Edge, a Boccia silver medallist for Team GB at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games to be there to meet the kids, umpire some games, give some words of encouragement and hand out the awards.

Read more of “Getting the Boccia bug”

About one and half months ago, I was sent an e-mail by the athletic club captain at Oxford Uni, asking whether or not I’d be interested in running a mile race at the Iffley Road track when Roger Bannister and Seb Coe re-opened it.

Unsurprisingly, as a distance runner, I responded very quickly that I would!

In the build-up to the race, I didn’t really have time to get nervous – spent time working and just treated it as an ordinary race approaching. It did really strike me what an unique experience this was going to be on the morning of the race.

I wasn’t sure whether to feel nervous or excited about the race, and switched quite a lot between those emotions at times, but was fairly calm by the time I’d walked down to the track, and headed off for my warm-up jog.

I started doing my warm-up drills and strides as the speeches started, and while I didn’t manage to catch all of the speeches, it was somewhat nerve wracking to hear the University Vice-Chancellor list all the achievements of Seb Coe and Roger Bannister, but as the speeches ended and we prepared for the race to start, I calmed and focused on the race.

Read more of “Running the Bannister mile”

Each year the Mayor of London is required to make a presentation to Londoners and answer their questions on any topic.

This year that opportunity arose on Saturday at the 'State of London' event, an all-day conference in Westminster.

The whole event covered a range of topics including climate change, education and security but one of the first sessions was on the London 2012 Games.

An audience of several hundred Londoners heard from Paul Deighton, David Higgins and LDA Chief Executive Manny Lewis as well as Olympic Gold Medalist Denise Lewis and then had the chance to ask any questions they wanted to.

Read more of “The State of London”

This week saw unprecedented media coverage of a woman who has come to symbolise how far Paralympic sport has progressed in the last twenty years.

You could hardly pick up a paper or magazine and not see the smiling ‘demure’ face of the girl of Korea 1988 who had become such a famous woman, Tanni Grey-Thompson.

What is unknown is that from those early days it could have gone so terribly wrong.

Her first Paralympic Games, Korea ’88 were my third as Chef de Mission and I looked on concerned as I saw her fall-in with the roughs of the team, the field-eventers. I think they felt they were being paternal but in those days their principle performance enhancers were booze and fags. Not a good example for an impressionable young girl….or was it?

Read more of “Tanni – end of an era or beginning of…?”

I've had the pleasure of marking the achievement of two remarkable athletes in the space of two days - Fanny Blankers-Koen and Sir Roger Bannister.

These are people who inspired generations to take up sport - exactly what we aim to achieve through the Games.

Yesterday I was in Holland to unveil a statue of Fanny Blankers-Koen at the stadium in Hengelo named after her.

Opened by Fanny herself in 1981, the stadium honours her huge contribution to sport and encouraging women to partcipate in sport.

At London 2012 we've also acknowledged her achievements - from my desk I can see the 'Blankers Koen' meeting room we have at 2012 HQ - amongst her successes were the medals she won at the London 1948 Games.

Read more of “Named in honour of...”

Culture to me is an encapsulation of everything that makes us complete. The way that we sound, speak, relate to each other, eat. It excites me as in this enormously and increasingly complex world, these ciphers become important to understand and to share.

My love of culture is aligned to my own background, and my interests in making the society that we live in a more inclusive and understanding place.

For many years, as a practising artist, I worked in Carnival (Notting Hill, Leeds, Bristol and Trinidad). I was drawn to the spectacle and the feathers, the huge sound systems with their soul vibrating base bins, and the excitement on the street. I had always poured over Carnival images - wondering how these amazing creations moved and vibrated. I called them in my mind 'living sculptures'. I started making them.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the joyous experience of the creation of carnival. The mas camp is a rich place - full of all sorts who drop in for the thrill of participation. Designing for Carnival you have to learn the tricks not only of great design, but how these break into individual tasks for your multifarious work force. You had to have tasks for eager 10 year olds; for the glue gun enthusiast; for the philosophical engineer; for the painter; for musicians.

Read more of “My passion for culture”

I joined the Culture, Ceremonies and Education Team back in January as a secondee from the Clore Leadership Programme – a unique two-year opportunity for professional development and leadership training.

The challenge was to learn how to turn a vision into a reality, how to facilitate high-level partnerships and to support a project’s development through what may at first appear to be insurmountable practical obstacles.

However, the challenge soon became negotiating the glistening towers and rabbit warren underground passages that are Canary Wharf.

Spending half my week putting up exhibitions in a converted warehouse in Bethnal Green, it was indeed a culture shock to arrive at work in the heart of the City’s financial district. There's no general public, unusually gusty winds and virtually no rubbish.

Read more of “Ramblings from the Clore Fellow”

More beautiful weather in the East End. So what better way to enjoy the evening than by visiting one of the 2012 indoor venues? But this one is rather special: the completely renovated and rejuvenated Dome.

And we even had a project alum giving us the tour in the shape of our former Director of Marketing and Sponsorship, now Chief Exec of the Dome, Phil Beard.

Now I’m sure there are lots of people out there who would love to work on the 2012 Games and very few who would relinquish that opportunity should it arise. So why would someone leave?

I can’t help feeling Phil might have several answers to this: “to put on Bon Jovi’s first indoor performance in 17 years”; “to put on the biggest female recording artist of all time, Barbara Streisand”; “to put on perhaps the last tour ever by the Rolling Stones”; or, to use some sporting themes, “to put on the first regular season NHL and NBA games in the UK”; “to put on Britain’s brightest boxing sensation and Olympic medallist, Amir Khan”; or some other cultural themes, “to put on the first Tutankhamun exhibition in London since 1972”.

I’m sure you’ll agree, it’s going to be unlike anything we’ve seen before in the UK.

Read more of “A sneak preview...”

As we sat at 30,000 feet on our flight home from Beijing, Hugh, Paul and I reflected on a fascinating trip and all we learned from those preparing for the 2008 Games.

It was an action-packed five-day trip. Thirty minutes after arriving at our hotel on Saturday afternoon, we were whisked off to the Olympic Green to see the now-famous 'Bird’s Nest' Olympic Stadium (as picture below) and aquatics centre.

Both venues are truly impressive; the Olympic stadium with its inspiring and yet intricate structure and the aquatics centre, clad in lighting panels which will project fabulous images at Games time.

We were in Beijing to build relationships with the wide range of organisations involved in providing transport for the 2008 Games and gather information and guidance from those tackling the very same transport challenge as us – the biggest logistics exercise in peace time.

Read more of “Cars and Chrysanthemums”