So now I can add to the privilege of swimming in the London 2012 pool the experience of sitting in one of the rooms in the Athletes Village, thanks to London 2012, who opened some of the first completed apartments to the view of the media this week.

As I looked out of the window towards an Olympic Park that is now almost totally ready for the influx of 16,000 athletes – and a further tranche of 6,000 for the Paralympics – I wondered who might be staring out of this window in a little over four months' time.

Usain Bolt, perhaps?

Of course, the Jamaican phenomenon would be getting a somewhat different view, given his 6ft 5in height – just slightly taller than me. One of the first questions asked and answered during our tour was the question of whether the likes of Bolt would end up with his feet sticking out of the bed.


Of course not! Bolt may have to bend a bit to fit himself into one of the very nice baths in each of the apartments, but he should be able to get a decent bit of kip as the beds are extendable and great lengths have also been gone to in ensuring that the black-out blinds drop sufficiently far and completely cover the windows.

And if Usain wants to mosey on down to the Food Hall he can ask, as a variant to his favourite Olympic tucker of chicken nuggets, for chicken or fish grilled on its own, sans sauce.

Just as it takes a thief to catch a thief, in terms of Olympic Villages, it takes an athlete to anticipate an athlete. So in this respect the competitors who will throng these 11 smart tower blocks which will, from 2013, become East Village with a postcode of E20, are lucky.

For the last couple of years London 2012 has had some very picky and very articulate former athletes concentrating their attention on every little detail of these Village plans as part of an Athletes Committee chaired by Jonathan Edwards – the former Olympic triple jump champion whose world record of 18.29 metres has yet to be seriously challenged almost 17 years after it was set – and assistant chaired by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, who has 11 Paralympic gold medals to her credit.

As Edwards explained, he, Baroness Tanni and the six other members of the Committee have taken a very hands-on attitude to their task.


"We really have given attention to the nitty gritty," Edwards insisted. For instance, the mattress on which I had recently parked myself and my laptop – covered in a bright bedspread with Olympic logos and suitably uplifting message: "Excellence, friendship and respect" – felt firm but comfortable, and so it should have done given that it had been the subject of an exhaustive trial by Edwards and co.

"We had a choice of eight mattresses, and each member of the committee tested each mattress and ranked it before we made our choice," Edwards said.

The lifts – particularly vital for Paralympians needing to get going in a hurry. They have all been timed; none, apparently, takes longer than a minute to arrive.

A similar approach was taken with the proposed food – it was not enough to read the menus; food was tasted, and strong recommendations made.

"There was some discussion about letting athletes taste the best of British cooking, but athletes don't care about dining experiences," Edwards told insidethegames as he strolled through one of the green and pleasant courtyards that stand within each of the blocks, offering competitors a little quiet space to sit and reflect.

"They want fuel – carbohydrates, protein, vitamins. And they don't want their food covered in sauces. That is why we will be making sauces optional, but offering fish or meat plain grilled. It's a small detail, but it is important."

Edwards, of course, became involved in a certain amount of controversy on the eve of the 2000 Sydney Games when he wrote in a website column about how some of Britain's Olympic swimmers loved to party, with an inference that some might be more interested in partying than medalling.

The triple jumper was promptly rapped over the knuckles – "Don't drag the truth into it!" – and obliged to write a letter of apology to all 41 members of the swimming squad. He didn't let it put him off when it came to his event, however, as he claimed the gold medal which he had been under such immense pressure to earn four years earlier having arrived at the Atlanta Games as the world champion.


Twelve years on, Edwards has a philosophical attitude to the Athletes' Village. "It's not quiet," he says as he sits on one of the child-like bedspreads. "It's a compromise.

"When I competed at the World Championships I was in a single room more often than not with an en suite bathroom.

"One of the beautiful ironies of the Olympic Games is that this is the most important competition of your life but you live in an environment which involves compromise. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Even if people are trying to be quiet, it only takes someone to slam a door at one in the morning and they will have woken someone up. But this is the atmosphere that makes the Olympics different."

Edwards looks reflective for second. "In Sydney there was a bed there, and a cabinet there, and I was nose-to-nose with Steve Backley. Snoring. What can I say?"

There it is. But for all the snoring and door slamming, the world's athletes should have an experience to remember warmly in these London 2012 halls of residence.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past 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.