London 2012: race to the finish line and beyond

One year to go – and the London 2012 organisers have disappointed naysayers everywhere by seeming well prepared.

The Olympic venues are 88 per cent built, more than 3.5m tickets have been sold, and there’s even water in the swimming pools in the Aquatics Centre.

Olympic triple jump gold medallist Jonathan Edwards, who now works with the organisers to promote the games, told Channel 4 News there’s a huge sense of excitement now preparations have reached this stage.

“I was like a kid in a sweetie shop going into the Aquatics Centre and seeing the reaction from the world’s media,” he said.

“The park looks fantastic. You have to pinch yourself. The organisers have represented the country in the way the athletes will when they compete in 2012.”

Well prepared

But why does it seem like the UK is so well prepared when so many other countries – including the United States in the problematic 1996 Atlanta Olympics, have failed?

London 2012 insiders put the progress down to years of preparation and planning. An adviser, who has been involved since the beginning, told Channel 4 News they began work eight years ago.

Matt Black, head of East London at property consultancy CB Richard Ellis, said: “The big job was land assembly and relocating businesses. A lot of that work went on prior to the bid being announced, so 2004 and 2005 were busy.”

A spokesman for London 2012 said they had the ultimate deadline.

“We have an immoveable deadline in that on 27 July 2012 there will be an opening ceremony and the eyes of the world will be on us,” he said.

What is left to do?

But the preparation is not over yet. With just twelve months to go, the to-do list for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Locog) remains daunting.

It includes building a 17,000-capacity hockey arena, restaurants and hospitality facilities, and temporary venues like the beach volleyball stadium on Horse Guards Parade.

Then there’s the testing: between now and 2012, 42 test events in 26 venues. It also has to buy 900,000 pieces of sporting equipment and prepare more than 14m meals.

Transport and policing also have to be brought up to scratch. The Home Office has £600m available for police and wider security costs, a spokesman told Channel 4 News.

What about after the games?

With the success of preparations so far, many have turned to the question of the London 2012 legacy – a key element of the original bid.

London author Iain Sinclair, a well-known critic of the project, told Channel 4 News a legacy is something you can only look back on, not something you can predict.

What has happened to the Beijing Bird's Nest stadium since 2008? 

“It’s a monster,” said Sinclair, who has written a book on the project called Ghost Milk: Calling Time on the Grand Project.

“It may succeed, but if it does, it will succeed as an adjunct of the Westfield shopping mall. I’m not against the games per se, but the nature of the development has been mendacious in the sense that we’re being sold a lot of stories that don’t stand up. This was not a wilderness beforehand.”

But the defenders of the legacy say that this was a long-term project and it will deliver.

Key advisor Matt Black said: “This is not Athens – where they had the games, shut the games, locked the doors, and off they went. Here legacy planning took place from day one – but it’s a 25-year project, not a quick fix the day the athletes go home with the medals.”

And Olympic champion Jonathan Edwards said there would be sporting benefits if the excitement around the Olympics could be captured.

“The important thing is when we have the games we will have all these amazing images on TV, young people will be inspired by it and we have to try and make that energy last,” he told Channel 4 News.

“The Olympics will not solve the issue of obesity among young people, but they are a stage on that journey.”

What do you think?

Add your voice on the Channel 4 News Facebook page or on Twitter @channel4news

Doug Hepburn: White elephant facilities and large bills all round :(
DanielSaan: The legacy: a huge budget deficit that could have been partially prevented with the money that was spent on the Olympics
emchandles: legacy already here: – 4 children ‘playing’ at athletics (but really doing it) in an SE3 park yesterday
Dave Wainwright: am pleased that they have cleaned up the contaminated East End but sorry we have lost Hackney Marshes to the developers