The riots across London and then England in August last year drew worldwide media attention and caused huge fears for the Olympics and Paralympics due to the widespread rioting, looting and arson carried out by thousands of people in the streets.

But  the Olympic Games has created an environment completely opposite to that seen during the riots with the whole nation coming together in a spirit of friendship to support Britain and the world's top athletes.

"The world saw a very different London a year ago," Coe said here.

"You know exactly what I am referring to [the riots] and I think I said at the time it happened that I saw a London I did not recognise.

"I am a Londoner.

"I was born here, I was not brought up here but London has been a large part of my life.

"What I am seeing at the moment, and what the world is seeing at the moment, is a London that I do recognise now.

Thousands of visitors travel to the Olympic Stadium each day to support the London 2012 Games

"I think that has been a very important journey over the last year.

"If you remember we had 204 National Olympic Committees with us this time last year [during the riots] at our Chef de Mission meetings and there were some real challenges.

"But now I am pleased to say they are witnessing, they are seeing, a London that I recognise."

Coe also made a point of recognising the whole of the UK, saying the Games are not just for the capital.

"I said it was unsustainable for seven years to talk about this project as only being something that focussed on London," he said.

"Yes, of course the Games are here.

"London was the city that was big enough, bold enough and brash enough and all the things that we know about London to be able to take on the world's best cities and celebrate what we are doing now.

"But it was unsustainable to start out that journey thinking this was only about London.

"That's why for a large, large part of this project I have not been in London.

"I think I'm probably the most widely travelled person in the UK in the last seven years.

"I can't think that anybody has been to more communities, neighbourhoods, in pursuit of where we are now.

A young fans shows her dedication to get behind Team GB

"It is particularly uplifting because so much of this is now impacting on young people.

"It is not just clearly about the young people in the field of play, it is the young people I am seeing in the venues and the families that are clustering around our live sites.

"They are all joining in.

"If you look at our Olympic education programme, Get Set, we now have 80 per cent of UK schools signed up to this, where we are celebrating the values of respect, friendship, excellence, and in Paralympic terms the determination, equality, and that has had a massive, massive effect."

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