Olympic pool marks one year to go

27 July 2011 Last updated at 09:56 ET

The one-year countdown to London 2012 has been celebrated at the Aquatics Centre, the latest Olympic venue to be completed.

Synchronised swimmers formed the number one for London 2012 chairman Lord Coe and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron has vid workers on the beach volleyball at Horse Guards Parade.

Later an event in Trafalgar Square will see the design of the medals revealed.

The free event, which gets under way this evening, will see Mr Rogge and London Mayor Boris Johnson invite the world to come to London to celebrate the Games next summer.

Pop band The Feeling, gospel choirs and Radio 1 DJ Kissey Sell Out are set to perform at the event. There will also be BMX riding displays and dance acts.

In other events:

• Lord Coe, Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson and former Olympic silver medallist Colin Jackson have made plaster casts of their feet at London’s St Pancras Eurostar terminal to mark the “first steps” toward the 2012 Games
• The Foreign Office has organised a range of events at nearly 100 of its posts across the world to encourage visitors, businesses, students and sports people to get involved
• The British Mission at the United Nations in New York is holding a one-year-to-go event featuring nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis and the UN’s Secretary General Ban Ki Moon
• The Royal Mail has announced it will issue special gold medal stamps to celebrate all Team GB Olympic gold medal wins
• London 2012 will be the first summer Games to use “biological passports” to try to stop drug cheats
• Lord Coe said the organisers’ plans were on schedule and that the day was a “big moment” for the London 2012 Organising Committee (Locog)

Lord Coe told BBC’s Breakfast that 23 million ticket applications had been made from two million people and that 250,000 people had put their names forward to be volunteers at the Games.

“There was an extraordinary demand so there’s a massive opportunity to build on that level of excitement. No sporting event in the history of sport or Olympic Games – no sport in my lifetime – has had that kind of demand.”

‘Incredible honour’

With a year to go, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said construction had finished on all six of the main permanent Olympic Park venues.

The £269m Aquatics Centre was designed by Zaha Hadid with the aim of being the “Gateway to the Games”.

Prime Minister David Cameron inspected what will be the volleyball in London

BBC sports editor David Bond said he had been “reliably told” the centre was only finished six days ago.

Tom Daley, the double Commonwealth gold medallist, will be the first person to dive into the pool later.

“Only a few years ago, this was a distant dream,” he said.

“The fact that I qualified at the weekend and am taking the first dive is a complete privilege. I can’t wait for next year and the honour of representing Team GB.”

John Armitt, chairman of the ODA, said the project had created jobs and training at a critical time for the UK economy with about 40,000 people working on the project to date, and 98% (£6bn) of the building contracts going direct to UK businesses.

‘Lack of capacity’

As the final countdown to the Olympics gets under way, the Metropolitan Police is facing challenges as it gears up for the biggest peacetime security operation in its history.

Two senior police officers, including Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, resigned this month over the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, but Lord Coe says security plans for London are “robust”.

“Of course want to protect the athletes and people coming to this country, spectators and the beautiful venues, but want to get the balance right,” said Lord Coe.

“ want people to come to a city feeling safe and secure but not locked down so we get that balance right.”

The force itself says it is “business as usual” and the Met branch of the Police Federation has said although there is low morale it had more to do with major reform and cuts in police budgets than losing their leader.

On Tuesday, a BBC London poll of 1,000 people found 73% backed London hosting the Games, with 38% saying they felt “more positive” about the event now than last year.

The survey also found that 52% of people felt London’s transport system would not be able to cope.

BBC London’s transport correspondent Tom Edwards said the main problem on London’s network was the lack of capacity.

He said Transport for London (TfL) had admitted that it could take an hour to get on a train at St Pancras station, from where the high-speed Javelin train to Stratford will depart.

TfL needs a 30% drop in commuters to reduce waiting times and it is rolling out a publicity campaign and a series of workshops for businesses. It also wants to encourage commuters to work from home or use different routes.

Taxi drivers are also threatening to block the Olympic Road Network, a series of exclusive lanes for officials, athletes, IOC members and accredited media – but not cabs.

Another potential difficulty for TfL is the relationship with the transport unions. Currently, a five-year pay deal with a 4.75% rise in the first year has been turned down by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).

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