London Confident of Matching Beijing Olympic Endeavors

(ATR) London 2012 leaders say they are learning valuable lessons from Beijing as they prepare to take the baton from the Chinese capital Sunday.

LOCOG chair Sebastian Coe and John Armitt, chair of the Olympic Delivery Authority, have been impressed with Beijing’s slick organization and sports presentation. Both are undaunted about delivering a Games to match the standards set by the Chinese.

“We don’t sit here cowed by anything we have seen,” Coe said in a briefing with reporters in Beijing.

“Nothing much surprises me,” he declared, explaining that he has worked closely with BOCOG and within the IOC’s program of knowledge transfer for more than two years.

“We knew the venues were going to be superb, we knew that the planning was clearly in place,” he said, applauding BOCOG for its focus on construction timelines, overall organization, dressing the city for the Games and “embracing the fact that this is the biggest show on earth”.

More than 100 LOCOG staff are part of the observer program in Beijing, while a group of young athletes – hopefuls for 2012 – got a taste for the Olympics at the British Olympic Association’s holding camp in Macau.

“I witness nothing other than a real thirst to stage the [2012] Games,” Coe said. “I think it has been a really inspiring moment for them.”

“We want people to be absolutely focused on what they are delivering, not overawed by it.”

Coe admitted that there are some lessons for London, although the 2012 Games would be staged differently.

BOCOG’s greening of Games venues has brought acclaim but the size and scale of some facilities such as the 91,000-seat Bird’s Nest stadium may never again be replicated. The era of gigantism appears to be over.

Coe is confident London 2012 can set the blueprint for a sustainable Olympics.

“Big is not necessarily better,” Coe said. “I think that the Olympic Movement recognizes that to remain relevant it also has to provide a Games that goes on providing benefits long after the show has left town.”

The Bird’s Nest stadium has wowed visitors during the Olympics and Coe insisted that London’s 80,000-seat showpiece Olympic venue – currently under construction - can generate the same enthusiasm.

Designs of the venue drew criticism for their lack of imagination when they were unveiled last year. With 55,000 demountable seats, it will be downsized to provide a multipurpose stadium for athletics, rugby and lower league football after the Games.

“There is no possible justification for leaving a second 80,000-seater stadium in London,” he said, adding that anchor tenants should be finalized in the London Development Agency’s Legacy Masterplan surfacing in 2009.

“You can actually be very creative when you have a temporary structure. You can wrap it in creative ways, you can have moving images on it.”

The ODA’s Armitt also denied that the focal point of London’s Games would struggle to match the Bird’s Nest’s wow factor.

“The mere fact we are creating a demountable stadium is exciting,” he told ATR.

“Ours is a very deliberate choice to go for a demountable stadium and we may not be the last country to do that, we may well be setting a trend.”

Armitt spent 10 days in Beijing before returning to the U.K. The mission was to “understand the scale of what China has implemented and ask questions about whether our scale needed to be the same”.

He has studied the installation of overlay “to see how could make our structures as simple as possible”, operational issues and the Olympic Village “to understand what it is that athletes look for and what makes for a good village”.

The ODA’s chief executive David Higgins flew out to the Chinese capital this week.

Like Coe, Armitt was hugely impressed with the venues; he also heaped praise on the transport system, the greening of the city and its cleanliness. “The metro which is air-conditioned is something we would love to have in London,” he said.

“I think our transport system will stand up very well,” he added.

“We’re relying on our public transport system to provide 75 per cent of all people coming to the Games. I am confident that the investment we are making, particularly in the rail network, over the next few years will be able to handle that.”

Armitt noted that taxis have been used a lot during the Beijing Games and said that this trend would probably not be repeated in London where cab fares are much more expensive.

He also spoke about the often high levels of security but said he had not found it intrusive and similar processes would likely be in place for London 2012.

Significant investment in the Beijing Games would lead to an “enormous legacy” thanks to the new airport and infrastructure, he added.

While China has thrown billions at the Beijing Games without creating headlines, London’s $18 billion budget remains the subject of intense scrutiny, especially by the British media.

In recent days, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell and London mayor Boris Johnson have expressed confidence that the London Games will come in under budget.

Coe said there would be no cost overruns but admitted the construction budget was tight. LOCOG was making good progress in raising the $4 billion budget to stage the Games, he said.

In remarks about NBC’s broadcasting of the Olympics, Coe said that London would not follow Beijing’s lead in changing its sports competition schedule to meet the needs of the U.S. broadcaster. BOCOG switched swimming and gymnastics finals to morning time slots to gain live prime-time U.S. coverage.

Written by Mark Bisson in BeijingFor general comments or questions, click here