The move, decided at a BOA board meeting as long ago as July, will come as little surprise, since Hunt fulfilled the same role at the Vancouver Winter Games early this year.

Disclosure of the decision is, nonetheless, likely to spark media interest in the reaction of Sir Clive Woodward, the BOA’s director of sport, whose pet Olympic Coaching Programme is thought only to have funding in place until the end of this year.

Observers may also point to Britain’s less-than-outstanding performance in Vancouver, where the only medal was won by Amy Williams, who took gold in the bob skeleton.

Minutes of the board meeting, seen by insidethegames, note that the announcement of Hunt’s appointment "should be made at the same time as the rest of the HQ team".

As host nation, Great Britain is set to field its biggest Olympic team of recent times at London 2012, with more than 500 athletes expected to be included.

The minutes seen by insidethegames give an insight into the scale of the operation being contemplated, making mention of a possible broadening of "the proposed strength and breadth of the Deputy Chef team, scoping out the support team to circa 140 heads…and the appointment of 6 Team GB Olympic Ambassadors".

Full details of this beefed-up model for Games-time operations are expected to be revealed early next month.

The document also appears to indicate that the BOA’s Games headquarters may be located in Westfield, Europe’s largest urban shopping centre, due to open next to the Olympic Park in 2011.

As well as having room for 300 retailers and a 12-screen cinema, Westfield has planning permission to construct over a million square feet of office space and is building 130,000 sq ft of that by 2012.

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