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Last Updated: Tuesday, 5 July, 2005, 19:17 GMT 20:17 UK
London calling

By Andrew Fraser
BBC Sport in Singapore

Tony Blair in Singapore
Blair has been visibly backing the London bid in Singapore
London will finally learn on Wednesday if it has won the right to host the 2012 Olympics in a vote which bid figures believe could transform the nation.

Prime Minister Tony Blair says a London Olympics would leave a legacy in Britain for generations.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone believes it would give the city "a boost larger than anything else we've seen since the age of Queen Victoria".

And British Olympic Association chief executive Simon Clegg predicts a huge dose of British sporting success if London gets the Games.

Clegg told BBC Sport that Britain could expect to win considerably more gold medals than the nine it picked up in Athens last year.

"Spain had won four gold medals in the history of the Olympic movement from 1896 up to and including 1988. When they hosted in Barcelona in 1992, they delivered 13," he said.

Just think about the impact of staging the Games
BOA chief executive Simon Clegg

"The key motivating factor for initiating the bid was the realisation that nothing had the potential to move sport higher or more quickly up the political and social agenda in our country.

"We've achieved that just through the bidding process. Just think about the impact of staging the Games."

The result of the vote by International Olympic Committee members is expected to be announced at 1246 BST.

If London wins, its plans to organise the Games will kick straight into gear, with bid leader Lord Coe remaining at the helm.

An Olympic lottery to fund the Games would be introduced later this month, and London council tax would go up by an average of 38p a week from next April.

Clegg already has plans to meet key sporting administrators next week to plot a complete overhaul of British sport to deliver more Olympic medals, should London win.

"The way the Games are measured by the man in the street is not by how efficient the organising committee is or how beautiful the stadium is," said Clegg.

"They are going to want to see British athletes standing on the podium and collecting medals.

"That's a challenge but also an opportunity to address some of the inadequacies and some of the difficulties we have in the sports structure in the UK."

Bid ambassadors Beckham and Redgrave at a London briefing
Bid ambassadors Beckham and Redgrave at a London briefing

The pressure on London, Paris, Madrid, New York or Moscow as 2012 hosts would increase if, as expected, China tops the medals table at its home Games in Beijing in 2008.

Britain would be entitled to enter competitors for all 28 Olympic sports if it hosted the Games, meaning that intensive performance programs would be set up for the likes of basketball, baseball and handball.

Clegg also believes a British football team would be a certainty.

"There are all sorts of issues to be overcome, but the general public are not interested in the politics of it. They would expect to see a British team," he said.

London's bid has already prompted investment in sports facilities, with an aquatic centre, cycling complex and hockey centre to be built whether or not the city gets the Games.

It has also compelled the government to commit money to upgrading its transport infrastructure, accelerating a number of rail projects.

Mayor Livingstone says that for every pound Londoners put in through increased council tax, they will get £9 worth of investment in return.

"We're going to transform what has been the most neglected and rundown part of southern England and make it a world-class centre for sport, along with all the new homes and the new jobs," he said.

"This is going to be an amazing regeneration of the largest brownfield site anywhere in Europe."

Jowell said that if London did not win this time, the chance would be unlikely to come round again in the near future.

"I'm quite sure the Olympic movement will have the ambition to see the Games in Africa, in South America and in India in the future," she said.

"The moment for London is now."


SEE ALSO
London's 2012 plan at-a-glance
19 Nov 04 |  Olympics 2012


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