A confidential document written by Armand de Rendinger, the official responsible for the international promotion of Paris’ bid, and leaked to a leading French newspaper claims Samaranch influenced East European voters to back London at the IOC meeting in Singapore last July.

 

The report, published in Le Monde, also indicates that Paris lost six votes that it had counted on because of certain voting procedures “which Paris could not or would not, go along with”, in a veiled reference to Samaranch. According to the report Paris 2012 was less effective in trying to garner votes from members of the IOC than was London, which caused it to lose 19 of the 25 voters it considered strategic.

 

Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), said at a press conference today that his conscious was clear. “I will go to the IOC in Lausanne next for the debriefing meeting and I know that I have nothing to hide,” he said. “I will be able to look them in the eye.”

 

A 17-strong IOC inspection committee, the first to visit London since the city’s victorious bid last July, arrived for two days of meetings with LOCOG. During their visit, they visited the site of the Olympic Park in London's East End and several venue sites. Coe said it represented the “formal start of the long journey to 2012”.

 

He added: “We have now started the forensic work with our (IOC) partners in Lausanne on analysing how, when and where we need to be over the next six years. The IOC come to town not as a police force but as partners, they come to town to support, monitor, advise and give guidance. We are delighted to have properly and formally started on the long journey that lies ahead of us to 2012.”

 

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said London was going “hell for leather” to stay on schedule for what she described as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

 

London’s Mayor Ken Livingstone said he was confident that problems over land purchases, a potential sticking point, were well on the way to being resolved. A public enquiry into the compulsory purchase of land occupied by around 200 businesses on the main Olympic site is due to begin next month.

 

“I can tell the IOC that we now control 70 percent of the lands we require for the Olympic site and that will be 80 percent by the time of the enquiry,” he said. “The land assembly issue has largely been resolved and there is nothing now that will stand in the way of actually getting ahead and starting work.”

 

Jack Lemley, the chairman of the ODA, also spoke of his confidence that the building project, the biggest in Britain since World War Two, would be successful. “I have absolutely no doubt that the summer of 2012 will be the most fantastic sporting event and festival this country has ever seen,” he said. “I also know that the games will be judged on the lasting legacy the Games leaves for the country as a whole. It’s a marathon not a sprint and we will deliver a gold medal performance.”