Sir Clive, who will be Deputy Chef de Mission for Team GB at London 2012, is set to draw on his experience of leading the England rugby team to World Cup glory in order to help Britain's top athletes achieve medal success at the Olympics.

"Sport is sport and the skills and structures involved in one sport are certainly transferable to another sport," Sir Clive told insidethegames.

"Sport is my passion and I am far more comfortable speaking to athletes and coaches than speaking to the media.

"I love all sport and our job at the BOA and my job as Deputy Chef de Mission for Team GB is to make sure everything that can possibly be done to ensure success at the London 2012 Olympics is done.

"In principle, it is the same as it was for me with the England 2003 World Cup team where no stone was left unturned to ensure victory.

"I now feel very comfortable in my role at the BOA after experiencing the Beijing 2008 Olympics and the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and that gave me a real chance to learn exactly what athletes need at major competitions and what has got to be delivered for them to achieve success.

"I will continue on that learning curve when I am Team GB Chef de Mission at the Innsbruck 2012 Winter Youth Olympics next January.

"But to be honest, I already know what it takes to achieve success and to win.


"To win, you need a combination of outstanding athletes and outstanding coaches and you all need to be on the same page so that is what we will be working hard to achieve at the London 2012 Olympics.

"If we can do that, and prepare in the best possible fashion, we will make a real impact at the 2012 Olympics."

It is set to cost the BOA around £13 million ($22 million/€15 million) to send its team of 550 athletes, plus 450 support personnel and 300 volunteers to London 2012 and Sir Clive has already outlined a list of standards he wants to see incorporated by the whole of Team GB.

"A lot has been said about this 'list of standards' but I saw in Beijing that cycling and some of our other leading sports had higher standards of behaviour than others," he said.

"They conducted themselves in a professional manner and were getting to bed early where other sports where doing the opposite.

"We weren't one team in the cultures, the standards and how we operated which is why we have come up with five key words of performance, responsibility, unity, pride and respect.

"It is a framework similar to the one we used when I was the England rugby team.

"It is really common-sense stuff that has been agreed on by all 26 sports but it is essential stuff if we want to be successful at London 2012.

"It's things like not making noise when you're coming back in the morning or early in the evening.

"It's having your mobile phone switched off so it will not going off in the middle of the night.

"It also includes being responsible when you use of social media and refraining from using bad language in public.

"It is not rocket science but these things are imperative and certainly the things you will see from the athletes standing on the podium at the Olympic Games next year."

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