It took Jimmy Page and David Beckham just eight minutes to set the tone for London 2012 on Sunday night, but four years of hard work and unremitting focus will be required to deliver on the vision of a contemporary, inclusive and human games that arrived in the Bird’s Nest aboard a double-decker bus.
The challenge facing London remains huge, not least because of the technically flawless event delivered by the Chinese, but no one who has spent any time in Beijing can fail to return immeasurably buoyed by the success of the British team and the opportunity that now stands before London.
Olympic games usually arrive in the national consciousness like a circus reaching town, a splendid temporary diversion from the everyday that is quickly forgotten once the caravan has moved on.
PHOTO: JOHN HANCOCK
This time it will be different. The success of British athletes in Beijing has provided the perfect boost to Lord Coe and his team as they enter a critical time in delivering the largest peace-time project any city can undertake.
Three years after London’s Olympic honeymoon was cut short when the July 7th suicide bombers attacked the transport system within 24 hours of the city being awarded the Games, Rebecca Adlington, Chris Hoy, Louis Smith and the rest of the medalists have brought renewed optimism to the project. After three years during which the hugely misleading original budget became a self-inflicted wound that sapped public confidence, London may once again enjoy the benefit of the doubt.
What is beyond doubt is the scale of the challenge that lies ahead. From the athletes’ village to the stadiums, the media facilities to the technology, Beijing has set new standards. Matching them against the background of a credit crunch will test London’s ingenuity and the government’s nerve.
Coe and Paul Deighton, chief executive of the organizing committee, acknowledge this and there is a reassuring air of confidence that the 2012 team can deliver. More than 100 organizing committee staff have spent three weeks embedded with the Beijing organizers and their experience will be invaluable. If London can assimilate the huge attention to detail that has distinguished Beijing, the 2012 Games will be better for it.
But if the technical challenge is significant, the opportunity that lies before London and the UK is huge. The Olympics offer a once-in-a-generation chance to define the capital and the country for a global audience and London has a chance to make its own inimitable mark.
At their best the Games are a celebration, a global party sparked by the innocent delights of sporting endeavor. The athletic achievements may be wrapped in layers of protocol, patriotism and ceremony, but there is no mistaking the authenticity of the feats that lie at their heart.
Thanks to the British athletes’ exploits in Beijing, spectators will revel in the lunacy of Greco-Roman wrestling and BMX as much as they glory in the best of track and field, even more so if a Brit is involved. Britain invented and formalized the rules of many of the Olympic disciplines and the athletes will compete before well-informed, appreciative crowds.
They should also find the sense of fun so obviously absent in Beijing. A city that flocks to outdoor screens for concerts and pubs for soccer matches, and which grew up on street parties, will embrace the Olympic babel. In doing so it will be doing the Olympic movement a huge favor, going some way to remove the taint of the International Olympic Committee’s obsequious attitude to China.
The biggest winner, however, will be the UK. The Olympics give nations a chance to restate their place in the world and showcase the best of themselves. With London determined to stress the youthful, creative, culturally vibrant best of the capital, there is every chance they will succeed.
It will not be straightforward. Few politicians have been able to resist the reflected glory of the Olympics and there are signs that the changing political weather is having an impact. Several of the figures who delivered the Games, including former British prime minister Tony Blair and former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, have left the stage.
With London Mayor Boris Johnson drifting off-message on transport plans and the legacy use of the stadium, Coe has a job on his hands to hold the center.
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