SEBASTIAN COE HAS translated success on the track as one of Britain’s greatest athletes to success in organising the 2012 London during tough economic times.
Coe’s transition from double Olympic gold medallist to head of the London organising committee has made him the face of the Games before a single medal has been won.
He took over as leader of London’s then faltering bid in May 2004 when it was trailing behind Paris in the running.
Coe brought an impeccable sporting pedigree and lobbying skills honed in the British parliament and the business world to the task — and when trying to win over members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), his face fitted. He managed to sell the vision of turning a heavily polluted wasteland in east London into a landscaped park hosting the Olympic stadiums, which it is hoped will later become a thriving new community in the capital.
“We have always set about delivering a Games that is not simply bigger than the last Games because that’s what’s always been done, but one with a legacy at its heart. That’s why these Games are different,” he told AFP.
But he admitted that repeating the mantra of the bid made him feel “a bit like a slightly dodgy timeshare salesman” in the early days. Coe, 55, also promised the IOC that giving the Games to London would inspire a generation through sport, but with participation figures falling that is one commitment that might fall short.
With the help of intensive last-minute lobbying from then prime minister Tony Blair, London pulled off a surprise victory in the voting in Singapore in July, 2005. Since then, Coe has steered the organisers through questions over why the budget for the Games has risen to £9.3 billion (€11.6 bn), almost four times the estimated cost at the time London bid in 2005.
He is also quick to point out that preparations for London — the equivalent of 26 world championships being held simultaneously — have taken place in “the most difficult economy in living memory that anyone has delivered a Games in.”
“You probably have to go back to the 1970s and Montreal to find anything even remotely comparable,” he said last year.
Pedigree
Coe is the only man to have won gold in the 1,500 metres at two Olympics, achieving the feat at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and in Los Angeles in 1984, and adding 800 metres silver medals at both Games.
Slightly built but with a devastating burst of speed, his rivalry with fellow middle distance star Steve Ovett became one of the greatest in any sport and their clashes attracted huge TV audiences in Britain in the 1980s.
Coe says his role as chief organiser of the Games is similar to athletics training because both require “the ability to just grind stuff out” in preparation for the day of competition.
“The days are long, there are no fanfares, no bells and whistles. It’s doing that day in, day out for those big, big moments,” he told the Guardian.
Given his background it is not surprising that he admits privately that once the Games actually begin, British medals in athletics will mean more to him than those in sports such as yachting and cycling. Coe’s preparation for the world of late-night lobbying and pressing the flesh — he is a rare Briton in the upper ranks of global sports administration — came in the British parliament.
Following the end of his athletics career in 1990, he became a Conservative official and was an aide to William Hague, now Britain’s foreign minister. He lost his seat in 1997 but took a life peerage in 2000. Along the way, he also became a wealthy man through a string of gymnasiums.
He is also a vice-chairman of the International Association of Athletics Federations.
The issue of what he will do next is an intriguing one. One thing is for sure, as Coe himself says, when the Olympic flame is extinguished on 13 August “everyone gets sacked”.
