His comments at the end of the tenth and final inspection visit carried out by the Commission, while not unexpected, demonstrated what an outstanding job the team led by London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe and and chief executive Paul Deighton have carried out. 

"The world expects a lot from London and the city is ready and London will not disappoint," said Oswald, the Swiss who is also President of FISA, the world rowing federation.

"We still have 119 days to go but I can tell you that London is ready to welcome the world.

"Seven years ago [at the IOC Session] in Singapore the London team presented a very strong Olympic and Paralympic bid and we are very pleased that this vision is becoming a reality and that [London] is preparing an outstanding event."

Oswald claimed that the enthusiasm for test events at Olympic venues had demonstrated that London was "feeling the fever of the Games".

"We have no doubt that this summer will be a summer like no other in Britain," he said.

"The world expects a lot from London but we know London is ready and that people will not be disappointed."


Oswald's enthusiasm for how well prepared London is understandable.

He was also head of the IOC Coordination Commission that oversaw the preparations for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

At the same stage eight years ago organisers in the Greek capital were still debating whether or not to put a giant roof over the Olympic Stadium.

Here, by comparison, what needs doing is minor.

But Oswald urged Coe and Deighton not to relax in the last four months.

"There is a lot to do still, mainly refinements, mainly details, no major issue," he said.

"But sometimes the details make the difference.

"If you are in a race these details might be the few hundredths of a second that make the difference between gold, silver and bronze.

"So our advice to LOCOG (the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games) as to say: 'You have done a tremendous job, but remain focused, remain concentrated and you will reach the finish line.'

"But we are very confident they will do so and we will have an excellent Games this summer."

The main controversy in the build-up to the start of the Games has been tickets, which have been heavily oversubscribed, and London 2012 have come under fire for not being transparent enough about how they have been distributed. 

"We are totally satisfied with the way the ticket sale has been run by LOCOG," Oswald said.

"The situation with the tickets is just a result of the success of the Games.

"We are pleased that so many peoples are interested in buying tickets.

"At some Games previously we were worried about empty grandstands.

"We have a totally different situation here.

"Of course when you have less tickets to sell than the number which is required it's not easy but we are fully confident in what LOCOG is doing."


Even a "die-in" from a small kinot of people protesting about Dow Chemical's sponsorship of the IOC and London 2012 failed to detract from how well preparations had gone.

The demonstration featured a "die-in" of five people lying on the ground representing the 25,000 dead from the 1984 gas leak disaster in Bhopal at the Indian Union Carbide factory.

Dow Chemical has since bought Union Carbide's parent company but company officials deny they have any ongoing liabilities, saying the gas leak had nothing to do with them.

"We realise that Bhopal was a tragedy, but Dow was not running the plant at the time of the accident which is why we feel comfortable about this relationship," said Oswald.

Oswald also said he was confident the transport system used to shuttle athletes and officials to and from venues would work smoothly.

"All efforts have been made to organise transport in the best possible way," Oswald said.

"You don't have wide avenues here, it's not Beijing.

"You can't dedicate lanes just to Olympic traffic and we have to live with that.

"But given the circumstances and given the geography of the city all efforts have been made to have an efficient transport system."

Coe was naturally pleased with the A+ his team received but promised to run hard through the line, just like he did when he won Olympic 1500 metres titles at Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles 1984. 

"There is a mountain of work, but we have no time to lose," he said.

"When the Torch [Relay] starts [on May 10], people will recognise this is an extraordinary moment in the history of this country."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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