Blink and you miss a sprint. The 10,000 meters is lap after lap of waiting. Theatrically, the mile is just the right length: beginning, middle, end, a story unfolding.

The London Games will be designed for the athletes and we will provide them with the very best venues and the very best conditions to pursue their sporting dreams in London.

Sport is a universal language, building more bridges between people than anything else I can think of.

To anyone who has started out on a long campaign believing that the gold medal was destined for him, the feeling when, all of a sudden, the medal has gone somewhere else is quite indescribable.

There may be problems we still need to tease out, but we will leave no stone unturned in our bid to make London the host city.

Quite simply the Games are the biggest opportunity sport in this country has ever had. It is one that we must not squander.

The nine inches right here; set it straight and you can beat anybody in the world.