The first Olympic Games of the modern era in 1896 were not open to women. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the father of the Modern Olympic Games said their inclusion would be "impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and incorrect."

By 1900, 11 women were allowed to compete in the Olympics for the first time in lawn tennis and golf.

The participation of women in the Olympic Movement at all levels has changed considerably since that time.

The IOC has pressed for more women's involvement at the Olympic Games, in cooperation with the respective International Sports Federations (IFs) and the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs), and urged more women to take leadership positions in sports administration.

At the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, a world record was set in the participation of women. There were 4,746 female athletes out of the 11,196 total Olympians competing, or more than 42 per cent. At the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore last summer, 46 per cent of the athletes were girls.

With the IOC's continuing efforts, for the first time it appears that the London Games in 2012 will have an equal number of men and women athletes giving their best across all the Olympic sports. The addition of women's boxing to the 2012 Olympic Games in London marks the first time in history that women will compete in every sport that men do.

Yet, even current IOC President Jacques Rogge recognises that despite the numerous accomplishments of women in sport, there are still many things left to be done. That's why the IOC recently kicked off the registration process for the fifth IOC World Conference on Women and Sport, which is scheduled February 16-18, 2012, in Los Angeles. The event is being jointly organised by the IOC, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games. The theme is "Together Stronger: The Future of Sport." The IOC is calling on all stakeholders, both women and men, "to work together to remove some of the barriers to gender equality in sport that still exist".

The IOC has made women's participation in sporting activities one of its major concerns since the early 1980s. The IOC also started to work on women's involvement at leadership levels in sport in 1981 under the initiative of former President Juan Antonio Samaranch, who wanted to have more women co-opted as IOC members.

While the participation of women in the Olympics has steadily increased, the record of women in leadership positions has not.

The number of women competing has grown from 11.5 per cent of athletes in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome to 23 per cent in 1984 in Los Angeles to 38 per cent in 2000 in Sydney and then to a record 42 per cent in the 2008 Beijing Games.

Meanwhile, under Samaranch in 1981 the IOC had 16 women out of 107 members. Today, that total is 15 women out of 135 members. Out of the USOC's 11-member Board of Directors only three are women. The USOC's 58-member Executive Committee has 21 female members.

In 2007, the Olympic Charter was amended to include, for the first time in history, an explicit reference to the need for work in this area:

"The IOC encourages and supports the promotion of women in sport at all levels and in all structures, with a view to implementing the principle of equality of men and women." - Rule 2, paragraph 7, Olympic Charter in force as of July 7, 2007

The IOC encourages more women to take on greater roles in sports organisations and has different programs in place to equip them with the skills and tools to lead. Customised seminars and training programmes help women move into sports administration and other leadership positions. Furthermore, the IOC offers financial support to National Olympic Committees (NOCs) in the developing world for projects that promote equality on the field of play and in sports administration.

The IOC's World Conference on Women and Sport, which takes place every four years, is an important platform to assess the progress made and prioritize future action. The last conference held in Jordan in 2008 attracted more than 600 participants from 116 countries and concluded with a strong action plan, the success of which will also be assessed in Los Angeles.

Two key recommendations from the 2008 predominantly female conference participants:

The IOC Women and Sport Commission should make it mandatory for all NOCs to have women on their executive bodies.The IOC should strongly encourage men in decision-making positions to participate in women and sport forums and it should require that delegations attending policy-making forums are gender-based.

The IOC has received the message and has gotten it right. With the upcoming 2012 Women and Sport conference on the horizon, its leadership is emphasizing that only by all men and women working together can the future of sport and the Olympic Movement grow stronger.

To read more about IOC efforts to increase women's participation and leadership roles click here. 

Duwayne Escobedo has had a long career in journalism and has worked as a political consultant. He currently serves as the Director of Communications at the United States Sports Academy where he is also the editor of The Sport Journal, the world's largest online, peer-reviewed journal of sport. Read it online by clicking here.  For more information on programmes offered at the Academy please go click here.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Well, we all know about him, don't we? He was the Frenchman who invented the Olympic Games, which are not about winning, but taking part.

It's broadly true. But, as with so many other broadly held beliefs, it's not exactly true.

Let's take the bit about not winning but taking part first. As Janie Hampton's recently published London Olympics 1908 and 1948 (Shire Publications, £6.99) makes clear, the words which formed the Olympic motto - displayed on the scoreboard of the old Wembley stadium during the latter Games - were not de Coubertin's own, although he was the one who brought them into the Olympic arena.

This happened on the day of the event which, above all others, characterises the 1908 London Olympics – the marathon race in which the collapsing figure of Dorando Pietri (pictured) was helped to complete his final, agonising 300 yards and thus to finish ahead of the American who, quite rightly, took the gold medal after completing the course unaided, Johnny Hayes.

Hampton reports that Hayes, whose victory was only confirmed after a protest from his team officials, was subsequently carried round the stadium on a table by a group of his fellow US competitors – indeed this forms one of the many fascinating pictures included in the Hampton book. She also reports that this unofficial parade was ignored by the crowd, "who felt Pietri was the true winner, having so valiantly tried to win".

After the delirious Pietri had been taken to hospital, false rumours circulated that he had died, prompting yet more ill feeling. "Anglo-American relations reached their lowest point for over 100 years," Hampton writes.

The marathon incident was but one of several involving the sensibilities of the hosts and the American team which was to win more than half of the track and field events.

There had already been controversy over the fact that the US team had been the only ones in the Opening Ceremony not to dip their flag to King Edward VII, and further Anglo-American friction had occurred in a 400 metres race run without lanes, where US athlete John Carpenter caused boos to ring out around White City as he appeared to move out across the track to prevent Britain's Wyndham Halswelle from overtaking him and assuming the lead.

Carpenter, disqualified for blocking and elbowing, boycotted the re-run, along with his two American colleagues, and the unhappy Halswelle claimed gold by running round the track as fast as he could, all by himself.

The onlooking de Coubertin, who had promoted the Olympics as a means of uniting nations, was reported to have remarked: "I just could not understand Sullivan's attitude here; he shared his team's frenzy and did nothing to calm them down."

So it was in this unhelpful atmosphere that de Coubertin reminded his friends on the evening of the marathon of the words which had been spoken a few days before by the Bishop of Pennysylvania in a sermon at St Paul's Cathedral during the ceremony in honour of competing athletes: "The important thing in Olympics is not so much winning as taking part. The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."

Fine words – not de Coubertin's, but brilliantly appropriated and utilised by him.

This was something at which the visionary Frenchman, as Catherine Beale's recently published Born Out of Wenlock - William Penny Brookes and the British origins of the modern Olympics (Derby Books Publishing) makes clear.

Beale's painstakingly detailed history of the annual Games which were established by Brookes in the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock in 1850, and which have continued, with sporadic gaps, until the present day, offers every twist and turn in the life of an Englishman whose vision was at least the equal of the man generally credited with prompting the modern Olympics.

She fills her boots on the visit which de Coubertin, then 27, paid to the 81-year-old Brookes and his fellow Gamesmen in October 1890.

Ever the showman, Brookes contrived an autumnal version of the Games which normally occurred in July, and on the day of de Coubertin's visit there were seven events, all of which took place in steady rain.

Beale has all the detail. Thus we learn that part of the spectacle which took place in front of the damp Frenchman was the tent-pegging event in which Corporal Dickin was judged by Sgt-Major Bosher to have beaten Corporal Convey.

There are times when Beale's devotion to detail feels a little like that of a proud parent, but there is no denying the depth of research in what broadens out into a social sporting history of the late 19th century, with its abiding belief in the concept of muscular Christianity.

Thus we learn how personable and pleasant the young Frenchman was on the day as his elderly host, who had striven for so many years to broaden his idea into an international context, proudly showed him every aspect of his own "Olympian Games".

"In Coubertin," Beale writes, "had he found a man to take forward, in parallel, his Olympian dream?"

Well yes he had. But as Beale wryly notes, there was not too much made of the fact that it was an Olympian dream belonging to anyone other than Baron Pierre de Coubertin (pictured, sitting left, with members of the first International Olympic Committee).

Beale notes that, up until his visit to Britain, de Coubertin "had never publicly uttered the words 'Olympic Games' except in derision"; but less than two years later "he had decided to revive international Olympic Games, and within four years he had founded the International Olympic Committee."

While de Coubertin did credit Brookes for his work when he wrote of his visit to Much Wenlock in 1890, as Beale points out, his description has been popularly misunderstood for a number of years. While it credited Brookes with the resuscitation of the Olympic Games, the translation missed the significance of the French word 'y' – meaning 'there'. In other words, de Coubertin was only crediting Brookes with setting up an Olympic style event in Shropshire.

Beale goes on to write of the way in which de Coubertin (whose statue is pictured at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta) appeared not to be keeping Brookes au fait with his developing Olympic project.

"Why did Coubertin not share his great dream with Brookes, if only to make the old man happy, or at least out of courtesy?" she writes. "And if Coubertin was experiencing such a dark night of loneliness in conjuring up support for his idea, it is curious to wonder why he did not recruit Brookes to the cause .......

"Perhaps Coubertin was fearful of losing control (and credit for the idea) to the elder statesman?"

Once it became clear that the modern Olympics were to become a reality in Athens, however, Beale notes the Brookes was anything but grudging.

"Ever practical," she writes, "he advised Coubertin to get wealthy Greeks in England to contribute to the costs of the Games."

Sadly, Brookes died, aged 86, just 17 weeks before the 1896 Olympics got underway.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here

The Money Man is back in business. Floyd Mayweather jnr returns to the ring in Las Vegas on September 17, meeting the WBA welterweight champion Victor Ortiz. This is clearly a prelude to a long-awaited showdown next year with Manny Pacquiao, a superfight that could earn them some $50 million (£31 million/€35 million) apiece.

On the other hand, if they care to shelve their get together until 2016, or, indeed, fancy a return, they could do battle in the Rio Olympics – for a gold medal.

That theoretically, becomes possible under the latest wheeze from AIBA, amateur boxing's governing body, who plan to change the rules to allow professional fighters to compete in the Olympics, apparently, it would seem, with the blessing of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

So imagine this scenario. It is Rio 2016, and a 29-year-old Amir Khan, by then an undisputed champion of the world, enters the ring in an attempt to win the Olympic gold medal that just eluded him in Athens 2004 – possibly against either Mayweather (pictured below) or Pacquiao as by then they may have decided to settle their differences and collect the boodle.

Later the same evening, in a super-heavyweight bout, Mike Tyson comes out of retirement to make his Olympic debut at 50, going on to contest the final with namesake Tyson Fury.


Farcical? So it may seem, but if I read AIBA's blueprint correctly, illogical as it may be, it is actually feasible under plans to allow top pros to fight alongside, or against, amateurs, over three rounds but without headguards or vests under a ten point pro-style scoring system, should they so desire.

Technically they would need to qualify in a new pro tournament to be set up in 2013 to become eligible for Rio under the banner of APB (AIBA Professional Boxing).

AIBA President Dr C K Wu, who has received encouraging noises from the IOC, says: "I hope we can attract the very best professionals out there." Now I am all for removing the word amateur from boxing – the only Olympic sport still with that anachronistic prefix – and if Rafa Nadal, Magic Johnson and now Tiger Woods can compete in the Olympics, why shouldn't Mayweather, Pacquiao, Amir et al?

Anyway, in most countries, amateur boxers aren't amateurs anyway, being supported by the state, college bursaries, sponsorship or as in the case of Team GB, generous Lottery funding. How many Team GB boxers still have plumber, electrician, schoolteacher or even 'unemployed' on their passports? They are pro sportsmen or women – like most Olympic athletes who will be coming to the London Games. Which is as it should be.

But is introducing full-scale professionalism really what the doctor ordered? Has he thought it through? And if so, how does he reconcile the fact that while Britain's WBC super-middleweight champion Carl Froch would theoretically become eligible to compete in the Olympics, his long-time trainer Robert McCracken (pictured with Froch) would be barred from his corner as AIBA, while happily embracing professional boxers, are still refusing to rescind their scandalously petty-minded ban on coaches like McCracken who is in charge of Team GB - because of their association with pro boxing!


AIBA are keen to have the best boxers in the Olympics and world championships – but not the best coaches. The words double and standards come to mind.

There is no doubt that under stewardship of the 64-year-old English-educated Taiwanese billionaire construction engineer, who helped create and build Milton Keynes (incidentally now the home base of insidethegames), what had become a suspiciously dodgy organisation has been transformed. Thanks largely to Dr Wu it is a safer, healthier and, yes, more professionally-run sport.

Last year AIBA introduced their inter-city World Series Boxing (WSB) who allows salaried "amateurs" to retain their Olympic eligibility while boxing under professional regulations.

They claim it has been a great success, though some demur, and there are still no plans for Britain to take up a franchise. I think the jury is still out.

But this attempt by AIBA to set themselves up as professional promoters is a crackpot notion. It won't work.

Dr Wu should leave the real pro game to the real pros, like Don King, Bob Arum and Frank Warren.

The man whose ambitions are believed to stretch to succeeding Jacques Rogge as IOC President (and he has some worthy credentials for the post) says that a move towards professionalism is "very important" for AIBA.

That may be so. But as we say, how can he welcome pro boxers while continuing ban their coaches?

Pros in, but seconds out! How hypocritical is that?

It will be interesting to see if the US team, who are being assisted by the esteemed pro coach Freddie Roach, who trains Pacquiao and Khan, decide they need him in the corner in London.

You can't imagine Roach acquiescing to AIBA and forsaking his association with Pacquiao and Khan, no more than you can McCracken with Froch. And why should they?

So will AIBA have the bottle to take on the US governing body – and possibly the US Government? We'll see.


Understandably there has been a puzzled reaction to the pro game plan from most governing bodies, including the ABA of England, whose relationship with AIBA was soured by the abortive attempt at a coup by their former chief executive Paul King.

Since then it has become is apparent that AIBA have had their own agenda of retribution.

The ABAE's own representations on behalf of McCracken have been received with total intransigence.

As has a personal plea to Dr Wu (pictured) from Britain's influential IOC Executive Board member Sir Craig Reedie.

A cogently-argued letter from Andy Hunt, the BOA's chief executive, to the IOC's Director of Sport, in which he rightly pointed out that not having their regular coach in the corner would have a potential impact on the health and safety of the boxers, of paramount importance in a combat sport, has not elicited any movement, either.

One wonders what CAS (the Court of Arbitration for Sport) would make of an issue that surely now could be deemed a restraint of trade in the light of AIBA's eager professionalising of the sport.

Whether autocratic AIBA would deem themselves bound by any court ruling is debatable. But ignoring it would hardly enhance Dr Wu's own chances of becoming the IOC's head honcho.

For presumably Dr Wu agrees with the IOC when they say: "We encourage the participation of the best athletes at the Olympics."

So why not the best coaches?

There's no answer to that.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

Since the one year to go mark passed at the end of last month, the preparations for London 2012 have definitely moved up another gear, just as the sensational Mark Cavendish did in his sprint for the finish line down The Mall to win the London Prepares road race on Sunday.

The London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) are to be congratulated for putting on a string of successful test events so far. I've attended all 15 of them, from sailing in Weymouth to rowing in Eton, canoeing in Broxbourne to triathlon in Hyde Park. The test events provide a vital opportunity for the British Olympic Association (BOA), and our colleagues within the sport national governing bodies, to test our operations and use the feedback to develop our detailed plans for execution with Team GB next summer.

Last week my colleagues from the Team GB leadership and I took part in the London 2012 Chefs de Mission seminar alongside representatives from around 200 national Olympic committees. The leaders of Olympic teams from around the world that we spoke to were unanimously positive about the progress being made in London. In fact, they were very enthused about the quality of the venues, the integration of iconic venues – such as the beach volleyball on Horse Guards Parade – and the reports from their athletes were that they are greatly enjoying the test events and looking forward to extraordinary sporting competition next summer.

Perhaps the biggest test of all over the past fortnight has been the riots. While there can be no doubt that the images of violence were damaging, in some ways, it underscores why events such as the Olympic Games are so vitally important in our world today. A year from now, London will be the city where the world comes together in a spirit of friendship, peace, understanding and human excellence. London will be the city where we see the very best examples of humanity – and those images will be far different from what we have seen the past week.

Great Britain's athletes have been in truly outstanding form across a wide range of sports, with Helen Jenkins (pictured) and Alistair Brownlee's fantastic victories in the women's and men's triathlons followed by another win for Ben Ainslie (pictured) in the sailing before Mark Cavendish showed his class in the road cycling. Combined with exciting performances from young athletes in badminton and beach volleyball last week, these results certainly add encouragement to our ambition of winning more medals from more sports than we have done in over a hundred years next summer.


Perhaps the most pleasing outcome of the test events is that the British athletes have clearly enjoyed competing at home and been boosted by the enthusiastic support of the home crowd. The importance and impact of British fan support cannot be underestimated and I have no doubt that come next summer, the Great British public will give Team GB athletes the extra one per cent that can make all the difference.

To my mind, British sports fans are simply the best in the world – passionate, knowledgeable and ready to play their part in helping Team GB to succeed. We are currently finalising a number of opportunities for fans to get behind the team and we will reveal these exciting initiatives over the coming months as we build up to the greatest sporting event of our lifetimes, now just 346 days away.

This week, attention will turn to the Olympic Park as the first test events take place in the hugely impressive basketball arena and on the BMX track. Once again, British athletes will be looking to feed off the home crowd support and deliver inspirational performances. Let's go GB!

Andy Hunt is the Chef de Mission for Team GB and Chief Executive of the British Olympic Association

It is getting on for three years since I first got to know Gerry Willmott.

A former Metropolitan Police boxing champion in his late 50s, Willmott opened the Haringey Police Community Amateur Boxing Club in 1999, on a site adjacent to the White Hart Lane ground of Tottenham Hotspur, the Premier League football club. He wanted, he told me, to give local kids in the North London borough something to keep them out of trouble. He described himself to me as "an old-fashioned policeman from the 1970s – I'm here to stop kids doing wrong".

The club – a hive of no-nonsense, sweat-soaked industry on the occasions I visited - struck me at once as a shining example of how sport can be harnessed to make a positive impact on society.

Willmott introduced me to his club captain, Kingsley Okolie, a powerfully-built middleweight with a flashing smile, who had boxed more than 40 opponents. As a teenager, Okolie had been, in his own words, a "violent thug" who roved the capital with his gang administering contract beatings at £100 ($163/€116) a go for anyone with a grievance.

You can read my original story about Okolie and how Willmott and his gym helped him to turn his life around here.

Given the riots that broke out last week in Tottenham before spreading across London and to other English urban centres, it is worth highlighting once again how Okolie said he and his friends justified their behaviour.

"I didn't see anything wrong with it," he told me. "As far as I was concerned, that was life. You did what you could get away with ...

"We could get things other people in our class couldn't have. It was respect. We were just being hard men ...

"That was more important than anything else. At the time, you don't give a damn about your victims."

Under the circumstances, it seemed only fitting to get back in touch with Willmott, so I telephoned him this weekend. Thankfully, the club – whose rent is paid for by Spurs – had survived the riots unscathed, although a shop opposite hadn't.

"It was disappointing to see," Willmott, who was born in Tottenham, told me. "It started off outside the police station ...

"It deteriorated into criminality. It's such a shame."

I was appalled to learn, given last week's violence and the positive impact the club had been having, that its funding had been slashed. According to Willmott, cuts to money that used to be received from the local council and the police had reduced the club to the "bare bones".

"We can't do our summer schemes," he said. "The opportunities for lads to travel around have been severely reduced."

Now it might seem to some that council-funded weekend trips for inner-city kids to go and box in Liverpool or Birmingham are a luxury that the country can no longer afford. But it will be interesting to compare the cost of those with the price tag for cleaning up after last week's madness. Plus there is an educational/cultural dimension that no accountant will ever quantify.

As Willmott put it: "If we are, say, driving to Liverpool, they are amazed there is so much countryside – because they've never been there. They have just seen it on telly."

As Premier League football matches kicked off across the country, marking the start of the new season, but not in Tottenham, whose game against Everton had been postponed, Willmott gave vent to a sense of resignation that will strike a chord with those involved with grassroots sport far beyond Britain.

"That's the stupid thing," he said. "At times like this when it's all about getting kids off the streets, the money they are cutting is affecting our ability to do that."

Willmott is not aware of anyone connected with the gym getting involved in last week's incidents, although he says he will be making enquiries next week. Nonetheless, I ask him if the riots have shaken his faith in sport's ability to help keep kids out of trouble. The answer is No.

"You can't help everybody," he says. "You can try your best and work with the ones that want to be helped.

"I will keep doing my bit to teach them right from wrong and give them an alternative."

No-one pretends that it is easy: four times Okolie "derailed" before definitively changing his ways. That adds up to a lot of man hours. But the value of individuals like him - who are prepared to get up and tell young people with great articulacy, in language they can relate to, why crime is not a smart choice - is incalculable. As he said to me, "It's not like I read it in a book."

All told, Willmott estimates, the club has suffered £30-£35,000 ($49-$57,000/€34-40,000) a year in lost funding compared with the position two or three years ago. That probably seems a lot if you are struggling to get by without a job in one of the scuzzier neighbourhoods of Haringey. But in the grand scheme of things, with Britain in the latter stages of a multi-billion pound sports spending binge triggered by the London 2012 Olympics, it really is a drop in the ocean.

Willmott (pictured far left) expresses the hope that it might be a "blessing in disguise" that the rioting started in Tottenham because it should make it easier to make a case for that area being treated as a priority. He may be right, but it really shouldn't come to that. If experienced, streetwise individuals such as Willmott are prepared to devote hours of their lives to using sport to help keep disadvantaged kids out of trouble, our society ought to be giving them all the help they need.

If that much-abused term "Olympic legacy" is to count for anything, then it ought to be that.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here

The Visa FIVB Beach Volleyball International - perhaps better known as the London 2012 Olympic beach volleyball test event - has been taking place at the iconic Horse Guards Parade over the past few days and it gave me a flashback to a very popular event at the inaugural Singapore Youth Olympic Games last year.

I remember that wherever I went in the Southeast Asian city-state during Singapore 2010, people were talking about just one sport – the three-on-three basketball. After I could take it no longer, I decided to head along to the event myself to see what all the fuss was about.

I soon found myself hooked as I came across an adrenaline-packed game played on half a court with just one basketball hoop to aim at. It was the undoubted highlight of the Youth Olympics and something I was reminded of this week when I was hearing non-stop plaudits about how great the Olympic beach volleyball test event was.

I was fortunate enough to be a guest of Visa for a Friday afternoon/evening session at the venue and made my way along where I expected the competition - featuring 24 of the best teams in the world - to be rather over-hyped. I was glad to be proved very wrong.

As soon as I entered, everything about the set up seemed fun and fast-paced with hip hop, R&B and dance music blearing out of the speakers all around the venue. It is something that this area of Whitehall in central London doesn't often see but I was surprised how the shiny new arena blended into the charming old backdrop quite seamlessly.

Another thing I was pleased to see as I made my way to my seat was the sheer diversity of the crowd. There were young people, old people, people in fancy dress and people in suits who had come straight from work all blending to create a fantastic atmosphere.

The riots across the UK have taken the headlines in the capital, and indeed the world, this week and it would not be at all surprising if there had been a rather subdued air about the place but at the beach volleyball, you wouldn't have had a clue that anything at all sinister was going on in the outside world.

People were laughing, joking, drinking - sensibly I assure you - and cheering throughout the matches as they watched the world's top female volleyball players compete on the golden sand - 2,274 tonnes of Redhill 28 sand to be precise.

That brings me to the action itself. As a young red-blooded male, it was rather easy on the eye watching stunning girls compete on the sand as I looked on with a cold beer in hand!


But what I quickly realised was that the skill and athleticism required to play the sport at the top level is incredible and I found found myself standing and applauding with the rest of the crowd after some breath-taking points. But the highlight came as the sky began to grow dark and the floodlights turned on to create a postcard scene.

Incidentally, the GB pairing of Lucy Boulton and Denise Johns came on court just as the lights lit up the sand and the roar after every point of their match was so deafening that my ears have only just recovered. The GB pairing eventually just missed out on a podium spot as they lost the bronze medal match to Brazilian pair Taiana Lima and Vivian Danielle da Conceicao.

Gold went to the Brazilian pair of Lili Maestrini and Angela Vieira as they beat Americans April Ross and Jennifer Kessy in a match I'm sure the entire male crowd enjoyed. But despite the Brazilians dominating, the real winner was beach volleyball as the setting, the players and the audience combined to create an amazing atmosphere.

During the event, I managed to run into President of the British Volleyball Federation Richard Callicott who seemed to put his finger on why things were going so well.

"The great thing about this sport, unlike some of the other Olympic sports, is that the crowd can cheer and talk and laugh the whole time," he told me.

"There are some sports where there has to be complete silence throughout but in beach volleyball it is quite the opposite and the athletes feed off that. I think this event has shown just what a great spectator sport beach volleyball is and with this venue, I know it will be a major hit at the Olympics."

From my vantage point, the announcer who interviews the crowd between play is also a welcome addition, as are the dancers who regularly take to the sand.

The thing about the beach volleyball at the Olympics is that the test event was only a minor taster of things to come. Where the Visa FIVB Beach Volleyball International saw a 1,500 capacity temporary arena in place, the Olympics will have 15,000 capacity temporary arena in place meaning a bigger atmosphere and ultimately a better event.

It is just a feeling, but like the 3-on-3 basketball competition at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games, beach volleyball could be the show stealer at the London 2012 Olympics.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames

With less than a year to go until the Games begin, as you'd expect, LOCOG's planning is reaching a forensically detailed level and "readiness" is the buzz word - but this isn't just restricted to London.

All around the world National Olympic Committees (NOCs) are preparing their teams for next summer and there is much to be done. The logistics of moving athletes around the world is huge; each NOC wants to ensure that their athletes and officials have all the tools they need to perform at their best – from accommodation to transport, catering to medical facilities – only the best will do for the athletes.

And quite right too.

The people who are responsible for the teams coming to compete in 2012 are the Chefs de Mission and this week we have been hosting around 200 of them here in London.

It has been a fascinating and eventful week.

What has happened in London this week has not dampened the enthusiasm of the teams coming to the Games next year at all. As we took them around some of the venues this week and spent some time at Horse Guards Parade for the test events, the mood amongst the Chefs de Mission teams was upbeat and positive. They were blown away by the venues and as they fly home today and tomorrow, they will do so happy that the venues will be world-class and that their athletes will be well looked after.

We spent a great deal of time taking the teams through our plans in great detail, looking at each different functional area within the Organising Committee and updating them on our plans.


Talking to some of the Chefs de Mission this week, I know they are impressed with the focus we have on the athletes, that buzz word "readiness" was heard several times – they're happy with that and we had several volunteers working with us on the logistics of this week – they were especially impressed with them. It all bodes well for 2012.

That's not to say the work is done and we can sit back.

Not least because in three week's time the Chefs de Mission from the National Paralympic Committees are coming for a similar exercise. There is still much to do before we are ready to welcome the world's athletes in 2012, but our teams here will continue to work with the NOC's and NPC's to ensure that when their teams arrive next year, we will be ready to give them a warm welcome and fully operational facilities.

The endorsement of these guys is brilliant - they are the experts who know what the athletes need in order to compete at the highest level. They leave the UK this weekend happy, confident and crucially looking forward to immensely to coming back next summer with their athletes.

James MacLeod is head of National Olympic Committees and National Paralympic Committee Committees Relations at London 2012

The debate has been rather quiet for nearly two years now but it suddenly burst back open last month on July 19 as Oscar Pistorius ran the 400metres in a time of 45.07sec in a race in Lignano in Italy.

The significance of the time was that it meant the double leg amputee from South Africa, competing with the carbon fibre legs he runs on, had surpassed the A standard time of 45.25 which he needed to qualify for the South African team that will compete at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu later this month.

Since that day, South Africa has named the 24 year old as its only 400m runner for the event and we find ourselves with the same question: "Should the blade runner be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes?"

The question itself dates back to 2007 when Pistorius took part in his first international competition for able-bodied athletes and began to draw complaints that artificial limbs gave him an unfair advantage over his rivals.

The same year, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) amended its competition rules to ban the use of "any technical device that incorporates springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete not using such a device."

The organisation rather bizarrely claimed that the amendment was not specifically aimed at Pistorius but they officially ruled on January 14, 2008 that the South African was ineligible for competitions conducted under its rules, including the 2008 Summer Olympics, following a series of scientific tests.

A battle followed as Pistorius employed the services of law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf to challenge the ruling and travelled to America to take part in a further series of scientific tests carried out at Rice University in Houston.

An appeal against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) took place in Lausanne in Switzerland and after a two-day hearing which concluded on May 18, 2008, CAS upheld Pistorius' appeal and the IAAF Council decision was revoked with immediate effect.

It was concluded that "not enough is known scientifically to be able to prove that Mr Pistorius obtains an unfair advantage from the use of prosthetics."

The IAAF President Lamine Diack was one of the first to welcome the move stating he is happy to see Pistorius compete.

"Oscar will be welcomed wherever he competes this summer," said Diack.

"He is an inspirational man and we look forward to admiring his achievements in the future."

The debate soon died down as for two years, Pistorius was no real threat to the top able-bodied stars.

He missed out on qualification for the Beijing 2008 Olympics and although he won three Paralympic gold medals in China, his winning time of 47.49 at the Paralympics was a symbolic mile behind the 43.75 American LaShawn Merritt ran to win the Olympic race.


Pistorius got gradually better in 2009 and again in 2010 but by this time the A standard time for the World Championships and Olympics had been set at 45.25, a time seemingly out of reach for the South African.

But on that night in Italy, the cat was right back among the pigeons as the South African ran a time not only good enough to qualify him for the World Championships and probably the London 2012 Olympics, but a time good enough to earn him fifth place in the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

At 24 years old, that time is only going to get faster meaning that Pistorius is now not only a potential Olympian, but a potential threat at the Olympics. This, more than anything else, has created problems.

Former British 400m star and Olympic silver medallist Roger Black has been particularly vocal on the issue.

"He was running okay times for the past few years but he was never going to challenge the best in the world and as long as he was doing that, it was fine," said Black.

"But now he is moving into territory which is starting to get interesting.

"If he gets down to 44.5 seconds, then it changes the whole discussion because nobody knows whether his blades are an advantage or not.

"They have not been around long enough.

"We don't know if Oscar is an amazing athlete, or a very good athlete with an advantage.

"What if a kid comes along with the talent of (world record holder) Michael Johnson but has an accident and then runs 41 seconds?"

"This is a whole grey area.

"I can only imagine how I would feel if I raced against him in the Olympics and he beat me.

"Now he is a real threat and a real player on the world stage, other athletes will say that it is unfair."

The argument here is that Pistorius is now a problem because he has shown he is now good enough to run times to challenge the elite.

Such an argument must be flawed and instead of asking what is making Pistorius so fast, perhaps it is best to ask how impressive it is that this athlete can continue to produce such impressive times with no legs?

Imagine the effort it takes to learn to walk with prosthetics, much less run and sprint at a world-class level.

This man is the very definition of disabled as he has no legs, yet is being questioned rather than praised for overcoming seeming insurmountable odds.

It is difficult not to feel sorry for someone who faces criticism for simply being the best he can be and someone who has to defend himself every time he runs his fastest race.

Having known Pistorius for a number of years, I am always astounded by the manner he conducts himself and the way he patiently argues his case when he is inevitably asked that same question again and again.

He will point to the scientific evidence that was strong enough to have CAS overturn the IAAF decision and he will politely state that the basis of his triumph is athletic ability rather than two plastic legs.

Perhaps the best comment I have heard on the subject comes from the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Sir Philip Craven.

"There are very few athletes who have the capabilities to compete in both the Olympic and the Paralympics," Sir Philip told me when we spoke not too long ago.

"It is an extremely difficult task even for those top Paralympic athletes but it is all about personal choice and it is up to the individual athlete to decide what they want to do.

"I have no problem at all with athletes such as Oscar wanting to compete at the Olympics and if it can help break down the barriers between the able-bodied and the disabled, then that is fantastic."

Pistorius is not actually alone in his quest as double Paralympic sprint champion Jason Smyth (also pictured) has been named in the 17-strong Ireland team that will compete at the 2011 World Athletics Championships in Daegu.

The 24-year-old visually-impaired sprinter from Derry in Northern Ireland will compete in his specialist event the 100m and just like the blade runner, he will have his critics.

Perhaps this is rather harsh when a blind man and a man with no legs prove they are legitimately as fast as the world's elite able-bodied athletes, but so be it.

Smyth's case is a little more straightforward than that of Pistorius but the fact is when it comes to the South African, we may never really know if he does actually have an unfair advantage.

The only way to find out would be cutting the legs off all the sprinters out there and seeing if they get faster on blades.

That is a trade I'm sure none of them would want to make but I'm sure Pistorius would love the reverse scenario for himself.

For my money, I feel the only advantage Pistorius' disability has afforded him is the relentless drive and desire needed to approach the accomplishments of his able-bodied peers.

But the simple fact is that Pistorius IS allowed to compete in able-bodied event and he will continue to do so until further notice.

And if it is good enough for the authorities, then Oscar Pistorius should be allowed to compete in able-bodied competition.

Should Oscar Pistorius be allowed to compete in able-bodied competition? Vote here.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames and insideworldparasport

Like the dog that did not bark in the night in the Sherlock Holmes mystery,The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of the most fascinating aspects of the FIFA crisis is that one group has said nothing: the players.

It is astonishing to consider, given all that has been written about the problems of FIFA, that there is very little about what the players think. Their silence has been stunning.

Without the players, there can be no game and the fact that they have had nothing to say about this, the greatest crisis to face the governing body of the world game, shows how sport, for all the talk that it is a business, is not really a business. And why it may prove so difficult to restructure an organisation like FIFA and make sure it is fit for purpose.

One current player is an exception to this: David Beckham. He has confessed how sickened he has been to learn of what is happening in FIFA. But this is a rather special case. He was a prominent part of the England 2018 bid. Just before the bid, by which time FIFA was mired in the current crisis with much talk of bid corruption, he made very many complimentary remarks about FIFA. This included expressing certainty that, despite all that was being said in the media, he felt FIFA would not be affected. He clearly feels let down and, like many in the England bid, he feels FIFA executive members were not upfront when they said they would support England.

And certainly Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has been vocal both about FIFA and Sepp Blatter, the FIFA President. But then Rummenigge is now a football administrator and has an agenda. He runs one of Europe's most prestigious clubs, Bayern Munich, and his agenda is that of the top clubs in Europe who feel they provide the players for world football, but are not given a say in the running of the world game. It is clear he intends to make this crisis into a weapon that could put clubs, the paymasters of the players, at the centre of world football.

But there are many other players we should have heard from. Nobody more than Pelé. For all the considerable claims of Diego Maradona, Pelé will always be the greatest player the game has ever produced. Since his retirement from the game, he has been active in the sport and for a time was even Brazil's Minister of Sport with a mission to reform and renovate his country's football. And it is Pelé who christened football with that wonderful name: the beautiful game. Yet, as this beautiful game has been mired in scandal, Pelé's silence is eloquent.


Pelé had a wonderful chance to present to the world what he makes of the FIFA scandal. Within days of the draw for the 2014 World Cup being held in his own country, there he was in London promoting Cosmos, the New York club that he finished his career with back in the 1970s. The club is to be re-incarnated, a suitably lavish Opus book about the club will be published and there was Pelé on the stage at London's Dorchester hotel to promote it all.

Like all such events, it was carefully marshalled, but those who had hoped that Pelé would share his thoughts on what is wrong with the world game and, in particular, the activities of its beleaguered executive members were to be disappointed.

Pelé was asked about Ricardo Teixeira, President of the Brazilian football confederation, of the 2014 World Cup organising committee and former son-in-law of FIFA president, João Havelange. Teixeira, a member of the FIFA executive, had allegations made about him by Lord Triesman during the England bid. During the World Cup draw in Brazil there were protests against Teixeira.

But Pelé could not be more diplomatic. "Everybody has their enemies; sometimes you don't even know who they are. It's the same with Teixeira." He even insisted that despite reports in the media, he never had any problems with him: "A lot of papers say I have a fight with Teixeira, it's not true – I am OK with him." And as far as Pelé was concerned, the problems of Blatter and FIFA was, like that of Teixeira, all cooked up in the media. "I think we can't worry about Teixeira and his problems with the media, after all, it's the same with Mr Sepp Blatter in FIFA."

What makes all this surprising is that back in 1998, when Lennart Johansson stood for the Presidency of FIFA against Sepp Blatter, Pelé was for Johansson. The Swede made much of the fact that he saw Pelé as an ally in pointing FIFA in a new direction away from the Havelange years of commercialism and not enough transparency and accountability.

Pelé's problems with the then FIFA President João Havelange had been well advertised. They dated back to the 1994 US World Cup Draws. Pelé could not do enough to support Johansson and nailed his colours to the mast when FIFA held the elections at its congress in Paris days before the 1998 tournament began. Then, as Havelange looked on, Pelé spoke in words that could only have been a rebuke for the FIFA that Havelange had built.

This is what Pelé said, "I have met Kings and Queens, Presidents and stars in my travel around the world. But I have never met anyone who cares more for the honesty and transparency of the sport of football as my friend Johansson. I hope deeply in my heart that he becomes the next President of FIFA." He did not mention Havelange or Blatter, but in his speech Pelé went on to talk about transparency, democracy and accountability, code words meant to convey that Blatter as Havelange's successor could not bring them about. World football needed Johansson if it wanted a transparent FIFA.

In the 13 years since Blatter beat Johansson, the need for transparency and democracy within FIFA has become all the greater, as the current crisis so obviously demonstrates. So why is Pelé silent? The cynic in me thinks that Pelé feels creating waves will do no good. Brazil's problems in organising the 2014 World Cup have been well documented and the country's President, Mrs Dilma Rousseff (pictured below with Blatter), has now asked the great man to be on the committee and help make it, as Pelé puts it, "a nice World Cup." So why spoil it by taking a stand on the nastiness in FIFA?


But Pelé's refusal also points to the dysfunctional nature of sport. During their career, players perform on the field of play, but off it they are told they must keep away from what the men in suits are doing.

Consider English rugby. That is also going through a crisis, although not one of corruption. But it has been dreadfully mismanaged. Indeed, some would say the administration at Twickenham is in melt down. This has seen John Steele, the chief executive, sacked; Martyn Thomas, the chairman, forced to step down; and a confidential report saying "trust has broken down within the RFU". But Martin Johnson, the England manager, is sure that it will make no difference to England's chances in the World Cup, which starts in New Zealand in September.

His preparations are complete and he is certain his players have not given a moment's thought to what the men in suits are doing. "It is really far removed from the players. It's not going on at their club to whom they're contracted. They come and play for England and want to get in the World Cup squad. Their concerns are: what am I doing today? What's the training? What's for dinner?"

Johnson, who led England to rugby glory as captain back in 2003, is sure that was the case even when he was a player.

Yet a crisis like this requires those who have played at the game at the highest level, or are even now playing, to tell us what they think is wrong with their game, what they feel should be done about it and how they think it can be reformed. In the case of FIFA this is particularly important.

The situation is not dissimilar to a factory which is not productive. Had FIFA been an industrial unit, the shop floor workers would not require much encouragement to tell us what is wrong. Players are football's shop floor workers. What is more, some of the higher-profile players are like pop stars in a band. A factory worker may fear for his job, sporting pop stars are not that exposed. By refusing to tell us what they feel what is wrong with the game, we are missing a very important voice.

If they do not know what is wrong, then something is badly awry. But if they do know what is wrong, as I suspect they do, but do not want to tell us, then those of us who are outsiders can only guess at the defects that need remedying.

Their silence cannot help the real reform of FIFA, which we all want.

Mihir Bose is one of the world's most astute observers on politics in sport and, particularly, football. He formerly wrote for The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph and was formerly the BBC's head sports editor. Follow Mihir on twitter.

www.mihirbose.com

I tried to get into the beach volleyball on Tuesday afternoon.

It was an impulse thing: a test event for the Olympics' ultimate good-time sport suddenly seemed strangely alluring in a city enduring very bad times.

I regret to report that I didn't get in.

On approaching the box office, I was told that the event had sold out (kudos to the organisers).

And when I tried to go the media route, a nice woman called Sarah very properly (and apologetically) advised me that she couldn't let me in as I had neither my passport nor driving-licence with me.

But while I missed out on the bikinis (honest), the afternoon provided an opportunity for observation and all kinds of food for thought.

To cover the most prosaic issue first: as I scrunched around the blue perimeter fence on Horse Guards Parade's ochre-coloured gravel, the temporary venue seemed to be operating smoothly.

One of the features I hadn't expected, at the venue's south-east corner was a big, plastic watermills.net drinking-water butt in British racing green.

But things like phones (Cisco) and computers (Acer) seemed to be branded by the appropriate Olympic partner and the main sound, punctuated by bursts of applause and energetic music, was the hum of Aggreko generators.

Visa branding was very prominent too, including along what looked like the top net cord of the warm-up courts.

Omega was also visible via a digital clock on the Mall linking Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace.

This famous pink street was otherwise decked out with Union Jacks offset by the heavy late-summer foliage of majestic plane trees.

My perambulations also brought home to me what a seriously strange Olympic venue this will be.

While behind the screens, scantily-clad athletes played ball in the sand (or so I must presume), off-court the Horse Guards appeared to be operating much as usual, with a gold-helmeted, red-tunicked figure in thigh-length riding boots with a sword going through his jerky, ritualistic, guard-y motions for the benefit of the tourists.

A sign at the entrance to the square meanwhile urged us to "Visit the Household Cavalry Museum", although quite how that one slipped past the International Olympic Committee's famously vigilant sponsorship police, I am not at all sure.

The venue also, unusually, features offensive weaponry in the form of two pretty fearsome looking cannons parked on the square's east side.

One of them, presented by Spain to commemorate the raising of the siege of Cadiz, is angled perfectly, its barrel supported by metal dragons, to lob a hefty cannon-ball past the tapering, stainless-steel floodlight pylons slap bang into the playing area.

The other, a so-called "Turkish Gun" constructed in the Royal Carriage Department Dartford, is equally impressive with lion's-head wheel-hubs and a crocodile motif.

However, I was unable to decipher further details from an accompanying plaque, something that should be rectified if the weapon is to remain in situ for next year.

The strangest thing, though, was that this sleepy, thoroughly pleasant little test event was going on at all when considerable tracts of the city had just witnessed what my evening paper was describing as the "worst scenes since the blitz".


I had to keep pinching myself at the sheer normality of the recumbent forms soaking up the sun in the well-tenanted green-and-white-striped deck-chairs in neighbouring St James' Park, at the meandering tourists, at the deadpan announcer telling ticket-holders that once inside the venue, they would not be permitted to leave and re-enter.

There was a police presence, but it was suitably low-key, with the officers possibly reflecting on where else they might be spending the afternoon.

The only hint I detected that these are terrible days in the capital is when I overheard a supervisor assuring staff that if any of them felt uncomfortable and wished to go home early, he perfectly understood.

On one level, of course, this is reassuring, since it suggests that nothing, but nothing can knock London out of its Olympic stride.

On the other hand it signifies a disconnect in UK society upon which it is perhaps best not to dwell for too long in this particular article.

I snapped myself out of it by considering which of the many statues in the vicinity had the best view of the action.

Down by the Downing Street garden wall, Kitchener gazed on in the general direction of the arena, looking understandably quizzical.

The mounted figures of Roberts and Wolseley, to the east, enjoyed a grandstand view.

So too, from on top of his massive column up a stairway on the other side of the Mall did Frederick Duke of York who is billed as Commander in Chief of the British Army from 1795-1809 and 1811-1827, prompting the question, 'What can have happened in 1810?'

Unfortunately, the recently-arrived waving figure of Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut, has no sort of view.

Nor, from his plinth near the Old Admiralty Building, does the tricorned Captain James Cook.

Indeed, the great explorer and navigator has his back turned on proceedings.

Not very Yorkshire, that beach volleyball lark, clearly.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. He is regular columnist for insidethegames and insideworldfootbal. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed by clicking here 

A friend emails from secure, sanitised Singapore: "What the hell is happening over there? Will it be safe to come to the Olympics?"

A good question and one that unhesitatingly I would have answered in the affirmative this time last week.

But after the horrific events of the past few nights I am not so sure.

Who would have dreamed that when London won the Games in Singapore six years ago that just under a year out from the Opening Ceremony London 2012 would have disturbing echoes of Mexico City 1968 and Seoul 1988 when rioting was a similar prelude to the Olympics?

Of course there is every hope, indeed every chance, that all will be sweetness and light when the Games get under way but there can be no doubt that what has been occurring in the streets of tinder-box Tottenham, Clapham, Peckham, Brixton, Croydon and elsewhere in Greater London - not to mention Hackney, a javelin's throw from Olympic heartland itself - is a matter of deep embarrassment and concern.

Both for London's Olympic organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

London Riots: Worst Civil Unrest in Memory as City Gears Up for 2012 Olympics

The above is the banner headline from the Hollywood Reporter, one of scores which have swept across the United States this week. Similar scary reports of the riots created headlines, and editorial comment in  Australia, India, Jamaica, indeed, just about every county in the world sending athletes to the Games.

Especially France, where you can bet there were were smirks on the faces of quite a few Parisians.


And while at the IOC they were predictably trotting out the "we have every confidence it will be all right on the night" reassurances (after all, what else can they say?) you can bet there were some furrowed brows when they read the following observation from a former Metropolitan Police Commander, John O'Connor.

"This is just a glimpse into the abyss. Someone's pulled the clock back and you can look and see what's beneath the surface. And what with the Olympic Games coming this doesn't bode very well for London."

Of all the things that could happen in the run-up to 2012 (overspending, construction delays, transportation problems with bolshie union boss Bob Crow and his merry men yet to swing into action – or inaction), this unquestionably is the worst case scenario.

Hopefully London will get over it, as Mexico City did despite the despicable slaughtering of 300 demonstrating students in the Place of the Three Cultures. And as Seoul did when South Korea´s military leaders didn't take kindly to the community's reluctance to host the Games and brutally tear-gassed those protesting over the Government displacing 720,000 citizens to make way for Olympic visitors.

No-one is bracketing the London riots with those two shameful happenings (incidentally in both instances the Games themselves subsequently passed off without further major disturbances).


Yet the images that have gone around the world from London of burning buildings, widespread looting and vandalism, police charging in riot gear, mass arrests and now talk of the use of plastic bullets and water cannon, has tragically undermined the superb work of Lord Coe and his team in getting the city into decent shape for the Games.

Now that same city has been despoiled by criminality and a total disregard for law and order.

Ok, so I may be writing from the safe vantage point of a town in Surrey where the only likely riot would be if the local Waitrose was to run out of Sauvignon blanc, but perhaps the most worrying aspect of all this is the claim that London's police were undermanned and under-prepared for such an eventuality.

One wonders how, if a form of "terrorism" from within could not be contained, how they will manage should the real thing strike from the outside during the Olympics.

The one piece of good fortune is that this has happened a year, and not a week, from the Games.

At least there is the chance of obviously much-needed re-appraisal.

For the fervent prayer has to be that all that is burning in London next July will be the Olympic Flame.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

You've got to hand it to London 2012.

To have kept the Olympic project on the rails to the extent they have, given what the world has thrown at them since the UK capital won the right to host the Games in Singapore in 2005, is a remarkable achievement.

Maintain this level of performance for a further year and a bit and the appointment of chief executive Paul Deighton to join Sebastian Coe in the House of Lords some time in 2013 would surely be a formality.

There, though, is the rub: Deighton, Coe and their teams must not rest on their laurels.

Should anything bad happen between now and the moment next September when the aircraft carrying the last Paralympic athlete takes off from Heathrow and heads out of UK airspace, and there is a strong risk that six years of intensive and meticulously planned labour will count for precisely nothing.

These thoughts are triggered by a week that has underlined like no other I can remember both how spectacularly well this complex mega-project has been executed to date and how hard it will be to maintain this spotless record in the home straight.


As I write this, people around the world will be looking at images in their newspapers and on their TV screens of London, next year's Olympic city, burning.

Yes, those of us who live relatively locally, know that riot-hit Tottenham is some way from the Olympic Park and that Saturday night's chaos will most likely prove an isolated incident.

But, equally, I would be surprised if London 2012 did not find itself fielding international phone calls on the subject in coming days.

Nor is the timing great, less than a month after senior resignations from the Metropolitan Police, including that of Sir Paul Stephenson, the Commissioner.

Security is of necessity, the number one priority of an Olympic Games organiser in the 21st century.

Though I don't imagine for one minute that Olympic security will, in fact, be compromised, I do think it likely that Games organisers, along with Government officials, will have to devote more energy than they would ideally like in coming months to reassuring people that the UK capital remains effectively policed.

Last week also provided further sobering reminders of the economic and financial turbulence that London 2012 has been confronted with for the majority of the period since Singapore 2005.

At the macro-level, market concerns over the quantity of Government debt sparked fresh turmoil in the Euro-zone and the downgrading by a leading credit rating agency of the United States' AAA rating.

Meanwhile, there was the latest in a long line of disconcerting news announcements affecting London 2012 sponsors, when the chief executive of travel group Thomas Cook resigned.

If you are looking for a testament to the Olympic brand's power, even in the most trying background economic circumstances, then the list of sponsors assembled by London 2012 - now numbering more than 50 if you include the International Olympic Committee's worldwide TOP partners - certainly provides it.

But the list is testament too to the calibre of London 2012 management: had they not sped out of the blocks when economic conditions were still benign in the immediate aftermath of Singapore 2005, then the sponsorship story of the Games might be very different.


A few aspects of organising the Games have probably been easier in a recession than a boom, notably controlling the cost of the vast construction project that is London's Olympic Park.

And the Games are costing a lot more than originally estimated.

In the words of the Public Accounts Committee of MPs: "At the time of London's bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 the cost of the Games was estimated to be just over £4 billion [$6.6 billion/€4.6 billion]...

"After London was awarded the Games, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Olympic Delivery Authority reviewed the cost estimates and in March 2007 announced a budget of £9.325 billion [$15.3 billion/€10.7 billion]."

Nonetheless, this week also brought a reminder of how much worse things could be.

A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India found that last year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi cost $4.1 billion (£2.5 billion/€2.9 million) instead of the $270 million (£165 million/€189 million) initially estimated.

So, well done London Olympic Games organisers for your achievements to date, but whatever you do don't stop pedalling until September 2012.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

The 17th IOC World Olympic Collectors Fair and the 30th Olympin Festival has been taking place in conjunction with the 32nd National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont near Chicago and I was lucky enough to go.

This event was the first time that the prestigious World Olympic Collectors Fair was held in North America. Not only that but in conjunction with the 2011 National Sports Collectors Convention, the World Olympic Collectors Fair included Olympic pins, mascots, posters, prize medals, commemorative medals, stamps, coins, programmes, tickets, uniforms, Games-used equipment, and much more. There was something for everyone from beginner to advanced collector.

I, however, was there for the pins.

It is easy to see why pin collecting is so exciting. I didn't believe I would get sucked into it so quickly. I went straight to the Olympin table on my arrival and was swept away by Olympin member Pam Litz, who happily started my collection and traded for our limited edition insidethegames One Year To Go pins. I thank her for that opportunity, without it I would never have understood what it is about pin trading that is so exciting. She was so passionate and fanatical about that, it was hard not to be sucked in. Our transaction complete, I was on my way to becoming a pinhead.

I moved from table to table, collecting people and pins. The willing to help me out on my journey into collecting astounded me, each of the traders bringing new information and new pins into my experience. Armed with my starter pins, I've ended my journey today with some great pins.

Speaking with the "Pin Doctor" Janet Grissom about the pins I asked her what gets people excited, what that "top pin" is. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the Lime Jell-O pin proved highly popular. Everybody wants that "top pin" and it's hard to know what will or won't be popular in London 2012. Her suggestion for Olympic pin collecting is to keep an eye - and ear - out for what people are asking for. The one that is mentioned the most is likely to be the most popular of the Games.

Having thought about pins and the passion that everyone in Chicago had, it's a little disappointing to know that I only got excited about pins in these past few days. The London 2012 pins are beautiful, some of the concepts are great, but it's true that everyone doesn't have the same enthusiasm in Britain yet for the London 2012 pins that they did for the Winter Games in Salt Lake City, 2002 or Vancouver, 2010. I'm unsure why this is, but it is evident. The Olympin members assured me that pin collecting will hit our UK shores with a bang and will be as fantastic as in every other Games. I hope that the United States and China are prepared to bring pin-trading to the UK and that we embrace it.


Here are some of the best tips on trading from the Olympin members to make sure you make the most of the opportunity that London 2012 will offer:

1.  The underground stations nearest the Olympic Village will be the hub for trading outside the Olympic Park itself.

2.  Decide what you want to trade. There are lots of different types for pins; media, mascots, sponsor, National Olympic Committee (NOC) pins etc, so stick to one and use other pins to trade for the ones you want.

3.  The NOC pins are the hardest ones to get. The Olympin members have worked for years to get their NOC collections going. A good tip is to speak to athletes, ask for autographs etc. They are likely to give you an NOC pin just for taking the time to speak to them.

4.  If you want to trade with Americans, (and we're not sure why this is the case) Canadian pins are a very popular trader. So keep an eye out for them.

5.  Don't look professional. You'll be more likely to get a great trade and have a better experience doing so if you're just wearing your pins. Buy a hat and put them all on there to display!

6.  Don't be pressured into a trade you don't want to do. If you need more information on any pin don't be afraid to ask. Pinheads will tell you as much as they can about any pin and are always happy to help.

7.  Keep an eye out for people selling cheap pins. Buy as many as you can as these make great trades. They are also great for people starting out in pin collecting.

8.  Finally, have lots of fun with it. You will get sucked in by it, believe me, and it is incredibly fun when you do a great trade.

I look forward to experiencing the pin craze in London 2012 with all these people again.

And guess what, I got that Lime Jell-O pin!

Rebecca Fisher is a marketing assistant for insidethegames. Check out our pin and collecting website insidegamescollecting , join our forum and Facebook group to chat and trade online

You have to listen very carefully if you want to hear what David Rudisha has to say. This 22-year-old product of Kenya's Rift Valley, who broke the world 800 metres record not once but twice in the space of a week last year, speaks ever so softly; but his words are worth straining for.

At the press conference held in the Croydon Park Hotel yesterday to publicise the two-day Samsung Diamond League meeting at Crystal Palace, Rudisha recalled how the man who held the 800m record for just over 16 years until 1997 had inspired him, both indirectly and directly, to claim it for himself.

We are talking here, naturally, of Sebastian Coe.

In recent years, Rudisha said he had studied a number of Coe's races on YouTube to enhance his career. The two men met for the first time last June at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Oslo, where the Kenyan beat Coe's 31-year-old stadium - and initially world - record of 1min 42.33sec, recording 1:42.04 to win a monumental race against Sudan's double World Indoor champion Abubaker Kaki, whom he meets for the first time this season today at the Aviva London Grand Prix.

"Sebastian congratulated me and told me, 'You are the future of the 800 metres'," Rudisha recalled. "He told me that if I trained hard and kept focused, I was capable of breaking the world record.

"I was really happy and felt encouraged. I felt that if he thought I was capable of achieving that, I would keep it to myself and take it into my training and work harder."


Looking forward to London 2012, which Coe has played a key part in delivering in his capacity as chairman of the organising committee, Rudisha added: "It's so special that the Olympics will be in London and in the country of such a great athlete as Sebastian Coe. I think it will also boost me. He is now my friend and we have been talking together and he has been encouraging me. Being there is going to be very special."

But if Coe has played an inspirational role as far as Rudisha is concerned, the same turns out to be true for Kaki.

Speaking to Kaki's coach, Jama Aden, before the press conference in which Rudisha was involved, it became clear that the double Olympic 1500m champion had also played a crucial part in shaping the attitude and approach of the Kenyan's greatest rival.

Although he was a bronze medallist over 1500m at the 2005 World Youth Championships, Kaki - who is six months younger than Rudisha - has not run the longer distance for many years.

But at last month's Diamond League meeting in Monaco Kaki produced a startling result as he came third in the 1500m behind two of the event's leading Kenyans, Silas Kiplagat and Nixon Chepseba, in a time of 3:31.76.

It was a lot faster than Kaki had been expecting. It was certainly a lot faster than Aden had expected.

"I thought maybe Kaki would do 3.34, 3.35," Aden said. "I didn't expect him to do 3.31."

It was immediately after this race that Kaki reminded Aden of the time in 2008 where they had shared a car with Coe as they travelled to a press conference before the DN Galan meeting in Stockholm.

"Kaki remembered how Seb had asked about his time for 800," said Aden. "And when he told him he had run 1.42.69, which was the world junior record, Seb had said 'In London you should do the 800 and 1500'."

"Kaki never mentioned that conversation until after Monaco. It must have been in the back of his mind all that time."

And doubling up at London 2012 is exactly what Kaki intends to do. The Coe factor, it seems, goes on and on.


While Kaki will be well aware of how difficult it will be to prevent Rudisha winning the titles he is fixed on at this season's World Championships and at London 2012, he will also be well aware of the difficulties looming ahead for him in the metric mile next year and beyond.

Not least because he trains regularly in the Aden group with the 16-year-old whom their coach described to me this week as "the future of 1500 metres running" - Hamza Driouch, who won the B race at last month's Stockholm Diamond League in a personal best of 3min 35.73sec.

Aden, not a man given to hyperbole, compares his young Qatari athlete to the man who still holds the mile and 1500m world records in retirement, Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj.

If the time comes when young Hamza starts to bear that bold prediction out, what are the odds, I wonder, against him mentioning Seb Coe?

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.