Coe heading into final straight with one year to go before 2012 carnival

For Lord Sebastian Coe, London 2012 has been the longest, most demanding, and most rewarding race of his life.

To give it an athletics analogy, the two-time Olympic gold medallist is on the final bend of the 1,500m.

Eight years from the first concept of London bidding to stage the 2012 showpiece, to winning that vote in Singapore two years later, Lord Coe and the team are now just 12 months out.

Wednesday marks one year to the day when the Olymp[ics open in London and, for Coe and his team, the finish line is within touching distance.

“In terms of preparation, it’s remarkably similar,” Lord Coe told the Yorkshire Post. “As an athlete, you spend years preparing for one key moment and this is what we have to do as an Organising Committee.

“When I was competing, I needed to be as prepared as I possibly could. I didn’t want to come across something in a race or on the track that I hadn’t come across before. This is the same process that we would follow for the London 2012 Games and why we’ve got a whole programme to test our venues throughout this year and next.

“The sheer scale of the London 2012 Games is impressive – we will be hosting 26 simultaneous World Championships during the Olympic Games and then 20 World Championships during the Paralympic Games. At Games time, we’ll have a team of up to 70,000 volunteers, around 100,000 contractors and a workforce of 6,000 involved with the Games.

“However, this event is also one of the most rewarding and exciting one we could work on. It’s fantastic to know what we can deliver in the run-up to the Games and also leave behind once the Games are finished. We want to deliver an exciting summer of sport in 2012 and ensure that there is a great atmosphere in our venues.

“With a year to go before the London 2012 Games, we want to tell and show everyone that we are getting ready to welcome the world to London in one year’s time. This is really the moment when we can excite the UK and the rest of the world about the London 2012 Games.

“We’ve achieved a lot over the last six years – the Olympic Park is looking great, we’ve started testing our venues and the organising committee continues to build a high quality team, but we’re still very conscious of what we need to achieve over the next 12 months.

“It’s all so exciting and over the next year we’ll really see London become an Olympic and Paralympic host city, ready to welcome the world’s most elite athletes.”

On time and on budget with venue and infrastructure construction 88 per cent complete and costing £870m less than first anticipated, Lord Coe and the London organising committee (LOCOG) have bucked the trend of recent hardships endured by host cities.

Lord Coe added: “I am proud of all the work we have achieved to date, working closely with our stakeholders, partners and sponsors. We all want the London 2012 Games to be everyone’s Games and I know that as the work continues to deliver the Games, we will continue achieving our vision.

“I feel real pride at the extraordinary progress we have made on the Olympic Park. You cannot fail to feel proud when you are showing politicians, schools, sponsors and many other people around the park.

“It was sport that kicked this off and it wouldn’t be happening in the way it is in my lifetime if it wasn’t for sport. I am also pretty proud that a year out from the Games we have raised effectively £2billion in what most people agree to be the toughest economic conditions for hosting an Olympics since 1976.”

Lord Coe was born in London but brought up in Sheffield. He attended Tapton and Abbeydale Grange Schools and began running for Hallamshire Harriers at the age of 12.

He won gold in the 1500m ahead of his great rival Steve Ovett in the Moscow Games of 1980 and in Los Angeles in 1984.

He also won silver medals in the the 800m in both Olympics. Once one of Britian’s great athletes, he is now their leading sports administrator.

“It’s a fabulous job to be doing,” he said. “I wake up every morning looking forward to what the day brings. It is a little like when I was training – some days were better than others but you know you are heading towards an Olympic final except for me now it is the opening ceremony. Probably 99 per cent of this job is just being there and getting it done and it feels quite natural to me having had such a background in sport.

“Track and field is hard graft and you just have to grind it out. This is much more enjoyable and there are days of sheer pleasure. The variation of the days is so fantastic, there is extraordinary variation.

“This week I have been in Newcastle with the nations and regions programme then meeting the Jamaican national Olympic committee in my office the next.”

And the feelgood factor surrounding the Games, from all facets of the British public, has only made his job easier. He said: “If you speak to international federations and a good chunk of IOC members, they are very complimentary about the relationship between the organising committee and the media. We have a very good working relationship and it is important that the media do hold us to account.”

There remain hurdles to overcome, but if anyone is equipped to jump them, it is Lord Sebastian Coe.

Son of Sheffield backs Yorkshire to get involved

Lord Sebastian Coe has expressed his pride at the amount of work Yorkshire people have put into the London 2012 Olympics.

The two-time Olympic champion, who was educated in Sheffield and pounded the streets of the Steel City as a member of Hallamshire Harriers, has praised the work of Yorkshire Gold for incorporating so much of county life into the Olympic ideal.

Lord Coe, the chairman of the London organising committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), said: “My team has worked with Yorkshire Gold (the Olympic arm of Welcome to Yorkshire) representatives to promote all the London 2012 opportunities to the region’s business community and that work has struck gold with over 200 businesses winning work to date. Yorkshire Gold have helped structure Yorkshire’s involvement in the Olympic Torch Relay, with five overnight stops confirmed for the region, there will be many people from across the area who will carry the Olympic Flame next summer. I am excited to hear about who will be selected for their stories of personal achievement and/or contribution to their local community as we get closer to the end of the year.

“The Yorkshire Gold team has also helped us promote all the volunteering and cultural opportunities surrounding the 2012 Games and the results are speaking for themselves as we are interviewing high calibre Games Maker candidates and see more and more exciting Inspire Mark and Open Weekend events being established.

“As well as the pre-Games training camps set to be based in Yorkshire, 60 per cent of all the Yorkshire schools and colleges are involved in the Get Set Education programme.

“It is a fantastic achievement to have so many young people actively learning through our free resources.

“My team recently hosted some young Yorkshire sports stars – up-and-coming diver Jack Laugher and high jumper Martyn Bernard on a visit to the Olympic Park to show them how their venues were progressing. I am sure they would both agree with me that Yorkshire is set to play its part as this time next year we embark on an amazing summer of sport and culture.”