Four years on from our historic bid win in Singapore

Seb Coe, LOCOG Chair

Four years on from our historic bid win in Singapore

Seb Coe, LOCOG Chair,
06 Jul 2009

Today is the four year anniversary of the IOC's decision in Singapore to award London the privilege of becoming Host City in 2012 and the first city ever to stage the Games for a third time.

The time has flown by since then and on 27 July this year the next important key milestone will be our 3 years to go celebrations.

The progress is obvious on the Olympic Park as Jonathan Edwards has demonstrated and LOCOG has made great strides transforming from our planning phase firmly into our delivery phase.

That's been clear to me over the past week. Today I am in Abuja in Nigeria for the African National Olympic Committee Association's General Assembly and last week I was in Singapore again speaking to the Olympic Council of Asia about the work we are doing to put sport and athletes centre stage at London 2012.

London won the bid because of the technical strength of our bid but crucially too thanks to our distinctive vision for using the power of the Games to inspire the youth of the world to re-engage with sport.

That is what we call our 'Singapore Promise' and I have been seeing it in action on these two continents.

I was also delighted to meet Singaporean athletes who have received the Dream 2012 awards. Attending the inaugural Asian Youth Games in the city, I was struck by the enthusiasm and talent for sport in the region and have no doubt its athletes will build on the 2008 record medal haul in London and future Games.

Today in Abuja it is a similar story. Africa has an equally important athletic heritage.

Meeting my old friends Kip Keino – now head of Kenya's National Olympic Committee – and Nawal El Moutawakel and Frankie Fredericks, London 2012 CoCom members, demonstrates how former Olympians are taking out the sport to make a real difference areas from developing excellence to greater opportunities for women.

Africa is also the location for three of the innovative International Inspiration programmes which LOCOG has worked to develop. In Ghana, Mozambique and Zambia, the initiatives are using the unique reach of sport and physical activity  across communities.

I am delighted to see the changes taking place in the UK but we are clear about our international commitments too. That's why today I won't be looking back to 2005 – I'll be looking forward to 2012 and the benefits that will keep on flowing for young people around our world.

1 Comment on this post
06 July 2009, dleut86 said:

The summer olympics is the spectacle among spectacles and to have it in London is awesome. I have been over there a few times and to see the passion everyone has over there is unbelievable. I was fortunate enough to be able to go Beijing and it was the coolest thing i have ever been to. I feel London will be able to duplicate and hopefully exceed 2008. The people over there in London are very lucky to be hosting the Olympics for the third time and if they have a chance, do your best to go to some of the events, it's one of the top things to go to in the sport world. Please all you people in London go to this event!!! you won't regret it.

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