Rob Clarke, the head of human resources at London 2012, has claimed that the four year gap between the events is too short for the staff from Britain to make the transition.

Clarke was speaking as part of the panel at the European Sponsorship Association (ESA) Insights Forum which took place here in London and primarily looked at how UK businesses might suffer once the Games have left town.

"To be honest, if members of the London 2012 team were looking to work on the Rio 2016 Games, they would have to be leaving their positions now and miss out on the chance to be there when the London 2012 Games actually takes place," he said.

"Obviously when it comes to key figures working on 2012, we would be very reluctant to let them go before the Games and by the time the Games have finished, Rio would have most of the senior positions filled because you need to do that around six years out when it comes to organising something on the scale of an Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"There is also the added hurdle of a language barrier and working on Rio 2016 would require individuals to be able to speak Portuguese.

"There will undoubtedly be those who do manage to work on both Games because there are individuals who have very sought after skills but that will only be a small number of people and on the whole, Rio is a limited opportunity for London 2012 staff.

"There individuals who are what I call 'Games junkies' and they move from Games to Games to Games all the time.

"But for others, I am sure they will be happy just to see London 2012 through and have that on their CV.

"The 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games provides a more realistic time frame and I think there will certainly be key London 2012 figures working on 2020."

Clarke added that a key part of his role at London 2012 is to ensure that staff members have the skills to go on and find work after the Games is over.

"London 2012 will be like an elevator for a lot of people in that they will get to the very top when the Games is going on and then it will suddenly all come to a halt when they are over and they won't know what to do," he said.

"The key is to ensure that our staff has transferable skills but perhaps more importantly than that; it is about managing expectations.

"You must start planning for the future already and not just get to the end of a Games and wonder what is next.

"There will be nothing like the London 2012 Games when it takes place but I think everyone working on them must understand that they will eventually come to an end and that life goes on afterwards."

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