200 Days to London 2012 - LOCOG, Cameron's Cabinet Take Over Olympic Park

(ATR) British Prime Minister David Cameron holds a cabinet meeting inside Olympic Park as LOCOG hails 200 days to go until London 2012.

British Olympic champion Jonathan Edwards, an official spokesperson for LOCOG, told Around the Rings in view of the Park that "people can’t believe how well" preparations have gone but admitted there remains great pressure to deliver an economically successful Games.

Olympic Park was officially handed over to LOCOG on Monday as another means to mark the milestone.

"I think it’s remarkable, and I think it’s part of the reason why David Cameron is having a meeting in the Park today," Edwards said.

"Because this is a fantastic story for UK PLC in a time of huge economic hardship and as a shop window for our construction industry, our design and engineering, it’s really really good.

"It marks the start of a really important push when the eyes of the world will be on the UK to show us at our best. That’s not even thinking about the sport that’s going to happen, it’s about delivering our incredibly complex project."

In his New Year’s message, David Cameron said that 2012 was "the year the coalition government I lead does everything it takes to get our country up to strength" and also highlighted London 2012 as a key part of boosting the UK economy.

With that pressure in mind, Edwards admitted that nobody in LOCOG is feeling complacent about the huge task ahead.

"I think it’s comparable to being an athlete at the turn of an Olympic year, you realize you’ve got a very short period of time to get things right for the most important moment of your life," he told ATR.

"For us as an organizing committee, it’s just 200 days to get things right so when that stadium is full and billions of people are watching on TV, everything is perfect.

That’s a massive amount of pressure; I don’t think there’s anyone in the organizing committee who doesn’t feel alongside a huge sense of excitement, a huge sense of responsibility and no element of fear because there is so much to do."

In the next few months, LOCOG will undertake a huge transformation of the Park, which now becomes a live operational site with overlay works as well as testing and licensing events taking place throughout.

As organizers prepare Olympic Park to host 15,000 athletes and more than 20,000 accredited media from 200 countries, Edwards openly admitted that as an athlete he never contemplated all that’s required to put the events on and that many thought they simply happened "by magic".

"For me the Games has always been about sport and I’ve never thought about an organizing committee and the people behind the scenes who put the events on. I think the skill and expertise they have is every bit as admirable and as praiseworthy as the athletes you see," Edwards said.

"As athletes you just show up, and you expect that everything is going to be perfect. But when you stand behind and see what it takes to get that person with the bib trained and put into place, I now have a much greater appreciation for what that takes."

LOCOG kicked off its tenancy Monday by renaming specific venues and areas of Olympic Park for Games-time. The Hockey Centre is now the Riverbank Arena, the Handball Arena is now the Copper Box and the Aquatics Centre bridge is now Stratford Walk.

The main circulation route for spectators around Olympic Park has been named London Way, and the area immediately around the Orbit is Orbit Circus.

Written and reported in London by Christian Radnedge.

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