HARD WORK ADMITS London is not completely ready for the 2012 Olympic Games, but says he is confident that it will be a successful event.
With 100 days to go until the Olympics begin, the chairman of the organising committee warned all those involved that the work is not over to prepare for the Games in July and August.
“We need to make sure we maintain focus right the way through and all of us do the best work of our lives,” Coe said yesterday. ”We are really working closely with all sorts of other people who are helping us.
“I think the generosity of the British people has blown me away in this process.”
Over 70,000 volunteers will help run the 2012 Olympics and while Coe praised them, he also emphasised the role broad political support had played in the event’s preparation.
“We’ve had political support from right across the political spectrum and people have got behind this project,” Coe said. ”That is why we have made such good progress.”
The former middle distance runner, who won the 1500 metres at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, has called for potential protestors to avoid ruining the dreams of athletes who have worked all their lives for Olympic success.
“We mustn’t get this out of proportion, we live in a country, mercifully, where peaceful protest is acceptable, as long as it doesn’t become a public order issue or imperil the safety of the competitors,” Coe said.
“The one thing that I would say is that we have to be very mindful that disrupting the event is also destroying the aspirations and the ambitions of the 10, 12, 15 years of dedicated devotion to the sport that a young person has gone through.
“So one man’s protest is the destruction of someone else’s dream if it goes wrong.”
