(ATR) The new chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission for the 2012 Olympics says lessons from the Athens Games are already being applied to London.
Speaking in a conference call with reporters, Denis Oswald said the speedy formation of both an organizing committee in London and the IOC's coordination commission means less time will be lost between the winning of the bid and start of work on the Games.
"It's important that we don't have a gap between the bid committee as we had in Athens at the beginning," he said.
"This was part of the difficulty to start working with a new group with hardly an idea of what had been proposed in the bid procedure."
Oswald said he welcomed the continuity offered by Sebastian Coe and Keith Mills, the two leaders of the bid who will stay on in a transitional role as the London organizing committee is formed.
Oswald, IOC Executive Director for Olympic Games Gilbert Felli and his deputies will meet in London on Thursday with Coe and Mills, the formal launch of the IOC Commission's seven-year relationship with the new Games organizers.
Oswald says the first meeting of the full 16-member commission will come in spring 2006.
Asked about whether London's withdrawal several years from hosting the just-concluded Athletics World Championships (held in Helsinki) gave him any doubts about London's ability to host the Olympics, Oswald said no.
"I don't the government could afford not to deliver Olympic Games when they have been fighting and supporting the Games.
"I don't see any risk. There is too much at stake, the image of the country is at stake," says Oswald.
In other points from the teleconference:
Oswald says the IOC commission should not be viewed as inspectors or policeman for London, but as a partner.
The IOC and London organizers will meet via a telephone conference every second week to review issues.
The IOC has developed a master calendar of the path to the Olympics that will serve as a reference for London's calendar of preparations for 2012.
Oswald says he does not have enough information to say whether the three-year plan to bury high voltage power lines in east London will put pressure on the construction program for the Olympic Park.
Regarding the delays with the completion of the new Wembley Stadium, Oswald says "any big project in the world will have delays," a factor which must be included in London's overall construction plan.
The IOC is still deciding on who to employ as its security consultant for London. A leading candidate could be Peter Ryan, the former chief of police in New South Wales during the Sydney Olympics and the security adviser to the Athens Games. Ryan helped the IOC review security plans for the 2012 bid cities. Ryan went to Sydney in 1996 after 33 years of police work in Britain.
Other IOC experts in transportation, environment and other areas are also to be named.
Oswald, who is also head of FISA, the international federation for rowing, said that it would be possible for London to change its venue plans for the sport from Eton-Dorney to Cambridge, but only if the IOC and FISA approve.
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