The one-year countdown to the 2012 Olympics gets under way here Wednesday with London preparing to showcase itself on a day of festivities to mark the final sprint to the sporting extravaganza. British diver Tom Daley is to plunge into the waters of the Olympic Park’s Aquatics Centre while International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge will make a formal invitation for athletes to participate at the Games. Rogge will issue his invitation in a televised ceremony at 7:00pm local time while Londoners will be given a first glimpse of how the city will look when key buildings and parts of the city are “dressed” for the Games. Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012 organising committee (LOCOG), said preparations for the July 27-August 12 games were firmly on course, noting that construction on most venues had already been completed. “We are fully on track, we are on schedule, and we are within budget with one year to go and I take particular pride in that,” Coe told journalists in a conference call for international media on Tuesday. “One year to go is a defining moment in the history of an Olympic Games,” Coe said. “Jacques Rogge will in essence be inviting the world to the Games, and we want to be able to show the world that we’re getting ready to host them.” The 2012 Olympics will mark the culmination of years of planning which has seen billions of pounds lavished on an array of state-of-the-art sports venues and urban renewal project in east London.
