Group Captain Donald Osborne Finlay was one of "The Few", a Spitfire pilot who fought in the Battle of Britain.

He won the Distinguished Flying Cross.

As a hurdler, he won 110 metres bronze in 1932 at Los Angeles and silver in Berlin four years later and it was said that "only the war prevented him from becoming Olympic champion".

Until the 2012 Opening Ceremony, though, he enjoyed a unique place in British Olympic history as the only man from the United Kingdom to speak the Olympic Oath.

Finlay, an active athlete throughout his time in the RAF, was based at Halton when he was chosen for the 1948 Opening Ceremony in London. Wearing his blazer and uniform-issue Kangol beret, he grasped the British flag as he said the words: "We swear that we will take part in loyal competition, respecting the regulations which govern them and desirous of participating in them for the honour of our countries and the glory of sport."

The idea of an oath had taken shape in the early years of the century. In an unsigned article, believed to have been written by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a suggestion is made: "There is one ceremony which did exist in the past that can be transposed without modification" it said, "recalling the undertaking to appear without taint and blemish."

After the 1912 Olympics, the great American champion Jim Thorpe was stripped of his medals because he had been paid for taking part in minor league baseball.

Group Captain Donald Osborne Finlay was the first Briton to speak the Olympic Oath

The New York Times reported that a "solemn vow on the flag is suggested as the best and only means of ensuring that competitors at the next Olympic Games are amateur. This typically French idea has aroused the enthusiastic approval of prominent sporting critics."

The oath was introduced in 1920 for the Antwerp Games and it was pronounced by Belgian fencer Victor Boin. He was a true all-rounder: he won silver in water polo in 1908 in London, added a bronze in 1912 and later won a silver in fencing.

Boin was a journalist by profession and helped out with the 1920 Organising Committee.

"I admired his knowledge and the purity of his ideals," wrote Boin of de Coubertin.

Before World War Two, the oath was typically taken whilst giving an Olympic salute. This was modified after the war because it looked too similar to the Nazi salute.

An undertaking for judges to swear an oath was introduced in the seventies.

Ed Moses recites the Olympic Oath at Los Angeles 1984

A further innovation came in 1984. When Ed Moses stepped up to the dais in Los Angeles, the United States flagbearer exchanged the stars and stripes for the Olympic flag. It was this flag that Moses held as he tried to recite the oath from memory. In the moment he faltered. "Had I turned around I would have seen the words displayed on the scoreboard," he said.

The Koreans were inventive in their ceremonies in 1988. Just as they had three Torchbearers, they chose a man and a woman to recite the oath together.

On the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 1999, a new clause was inserted in the Olympic Oath for the first time: "To refuse doping".

In 2012 there will be a further addition to the ceremony. Coaches were required to swear an oath at the Youth Olympic Games and this element will be introduced for the first time at the London Olympics.

Philip Barker, one of the world's most renowned sports historians, is the author of The History of the Olympic Torch, published by Amberley recently. To order a copy click here.

Very shortly, the eyes of the world will be on the capital as the celebrations get underway for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games. With thousands of athletes gearing up to compete, the pressure is really on to bring the medals home.

For me, there's a different type of pressure looming in the air, as in my role as chief starter I'm preparing to start the world's finest international sports stars.

Do I feel the pressure? Not at all.

The fact that I get to be part of the world's biggest sporting event in my home country is just incredible.

In my officiating career, I have started more than 25,000 races – everything from local school competitions through to the World Athletics Championships in Daegu last year where I had the unpleasant task of disqualifying the fastest man in history, Mr Usain Bolt.

People expect me to say that disqualifying Usain was the hardest decision I've had to make, but that was an easy decision as it was so clear cut.

Usain Bolt (fourth left) is about to be disqualified for a false start

Having to eliminate Tyrone Edgar in the World Championships semi-final in Berlin in 2009 was probably the hardest decision, but not because he is a Briton.

The margin was so fine (.006sec), it was a very, very close call and I had to be absolutely certain I was correct and the technology was accurate. To his credit he took the decision with great dignity even though he must have been gutted.

The best moment I've had since being an official just has to be starting the incredible World Championship men's 100 metres final in Berlin in 2009. Not only was it a fantastic and legendary venue with a huge crowd it was probably one of the greatest individual performances ever by an athlete.

Usain Bolt's 9.58 has become an iconic mark and I played a very small part in that historic event; it was a very special moment.

There are so many aspects and rewards to being an official in athletics. At a basic level it involves me in a sport I love and I contribute to helping athletes achieve their personal goals.

I have made so many great, lifelong friendships and on the international level I have travelled the world, been part of mega-events and rubbed shoulders with absolute legends. Overall I am a happy bloke.

Alan Bell (third right) is heavily involved with the Youth Sport Trust

For more than a decade, I've worked for the Youth Sport Trust, working across a range of projects, including those to drive up the number of young officials in sport.

The Youth Sport Trust is currently working in partnership with many national governing bodies of sports, including badminton, basketball, football, hockey, netball, rugby union, table tennis, volleyball and wheelchair basketball to encourage more young people to become officials. Through developing increased training opportunities, the trust is aiming to get 5,000 more young people involved in officiating in sport this year.

I have had over 40 years of involvement in my sport and 30 of those have been as an official. So many young people are now choosing to engage in sport as performers and volunteers providing valuable services in their chosen sport. They bring energy, enthusiasm and a willingness to learn and improve. They are the "me" of tomorrow and they help to keep me young(ish).

Let the Games begin.

Britain's Alan Bell will be chief starter at the London 2012 Olympics. He works for the Youth Sport Trust, the independent charity devoted to changing young people's lives through sport.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner but I am convinced when the Olympic Flame finally lights up London around midnight it will ignite an unprecedented fever that envelops the entire nation.

The 30th Olympiad is about to be propelled to the forefront of our consciousness, a wondrous festival of sport and culture like no other on Earth.

This will be my 12th Olympic Games, and one I have anticipated more than any, having followed the seven-year odyssey since International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge opened the white envelope containing the one word "London" in Singapore.

As yet London has no real conception idea of the magnitude of the jamboree that is about will dominate our lives for the best part of three weeks: a Coronation, a Royal Wedding, a Queen's Jubilee and a football World Cup rolled into one.

The last time the five-ringed circus was here, in austerity-gripped 1948, it was by necessity a low-key production. This time it truly will be the greatest sporting show we have ever seen, bringing evidence that London is the sports, cultural and entertainment capital of the globe – and confirm that as a nation which knows how to orchestrate an unforgettable celebration of human spirit, Britain has no peer.

We certainly know how to put on a show in the West End – now it is the turn of the East End to stage an unforgettable blockbuster.

The Opening Ceremony of London 1948, dubbed the "Austerity Games"

The progress of the Torch Relay through 1,000 cities, towns and villages has been a barometer of the goodwill for the Games. For this is not just a Cockney knees-up, but a glorious countrywide cavalcade of excellence.

The first gold medal has already been won, with London officially declared as the best-prepared Games. All it needs now is for everything to work – and hopefully it will, from transport to ticketing, ceremonials to crowd control.

Okay, so there maybe the occasional dampener from the heavens above, but as Mayor Boris Johnson says a spot of rain never hurt anyone. The only downpour that matters will be shower of praise when London pulls it off – as Lord Coe has promised – on time and under budget.

For thousands of young people, this will be a life-changing experience as the Games has pledged to leave a legacy of sporting opportunity inspired by the golden icons of 2012. Yes, there are still legacy issues to be resolved, not least the future of the Olympic Stadium, but for the next three weeks, these can go on the back burner as the running, jumping, splashing, shooting, pedalling and punching take centre stage.

The Torch Relay passes through the London borough of Barking and Dagenham

Of late, some have said the wheels are coming off the Coe bandwagon – and they do seem to have been wobbling a bit under the security shambles.

But as someone who has known Seb since his days as an impecunious 17-year-old student, I can vouch that there is no-one more capable of grabbing glorious victory over the last lap, even if a few hurdles are placed along the home straight.

Coe, who I first suggested to the then Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell as being the perfect candidate to rescue the show when the original bid seemed to be going belly-up, has masterminded the Games plan with professionalism and panache.

More than £300 million ($465 million/€386 million) has been invested in Olympic athletes, and the Paralympians whose own Games follow, over the past four years. No nation has been better funded or prepared. Britain's 542 competitors will go forth equipped for glory, but whether they will finish fourth, their targeted place in the medals table, or even higher will be answered when the Games closes on Sunday August 12.

The target is 48 medals, one more than Beijing, which included 19 golds. China is again expected to win the most, ahead of the United States, but there is now a genuine belief that Team GB could challenge Russia and Germany for third place.

My first Olympics was Tokyo, in 1964, a Games that remains etched in the consciousness as the last of the "pure" Olympics, untainted by drugs, terrorism, boycotts, security overkill or rampant commercialism.

London will not be like that, because the nature of the world, and sport, has changed.

And it may have to go some to beat the ambience of Athens in 2004, the clockwork efficiency of Beijing in 2008 and the all-round splendour of Sydney in 2000 – still my best-ever – but I believe the city has the capacity and the will to do it.

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali lights the Olympic Flame at the start of Atlanta 1996

The only Games I missed in almost five decades of Olympics reporting was Atlanta 1996 as I was deskbound sports editing The Observer newspaper. Colleagues say I was the lucky one, with the organisation a shambles, Gone With The Wind country providing the antithesis of southern hospitality and catastrophe when a crazed loner planted a bomb that killed one woman and injured over a hundred.

Miserable Games that are now best remembered for the quivering hand of Parkinson's-stricken Muhammad Ali lighting the Flame, a moment so poignant it even had United States President Bill Clinton in tears.

Whether Friday's final Torchbearer is an old Olympic flame like Sir Steve Redgrave, Dame Kelly Holmes, Daley Thompson, or a complete unknown from 2012's own Olympic heartland in the East End representing the cultural and ethnic diversity that are the buzzwords of these Games, remains a closely guarded secret to be revealed at the conclusion of the first of Danny Boyle's £80m ($124 million/€103 million) ceremonial showpieces.

I have even heard that an unprecedented five Flame lighters could be involved representing each of the Olympic rings to provide what British Olympic Association chief executive Andy Hunt has promised will be the wow factor.

And that one of these could be Ali himself, surely not by coincidence in town this week.

Whatever London has in store I doubt it will match my own most bizarre Games experience.

In 1980, then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had ordered GB to stay away from Moscow over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan but Sebastian Coe was among those who defied the Iron Lady, later to become his political mistress. Just as well, as he collected the first of his two 1500 metres gold medals in that "Chariots of Ire" duel with bitter rival Steve Ovett having lost out in his specialist 800m.

Seb Coe beats bitter rival Steve Ovett (vest 279) to 1,500 metres gold at Moscow 1980

I had interviewed Coe for a magazine which had a cover depicting the Olympic rings being incinerated by Soviet flame throwers. This was confiscated at Sheremetyevo airport as "bourgeois propaganda".

As it is an IOC obligation that journalists should have access to any material required for their work when covering the Games, I made a formal protest to them.

Next day I was summoned to a windowless room in the Kremlin where the magazine was handed back to me with a curt nod by a grim-faced apparatchik.

Returning to my hotel I found I had been upgraded to a very comfortable suite, big enough to hold a farewell party on the last night of the Games. As Georgian champagne popped a colleague wondered if the room might be bugged. Jokingly we raised our glasses and said: "To all our listeners – cheers!"

A few seconds later the phone rang and a Russian voice chuckled: "And cheers to you too, tovarich!"

Who says they don't have a sense of humour!

I hope in London there will be fun as well as Games – and doubtless Mayor Boris will provide some.

Of course the Flame has brought some baggage. Security will be unprecedented and may seem oppressive with the need to protect 17,000 athletes and over a million spectators. London will see the biggest mobilisation of militia police and security forces since World War Two.

All necessary, however, in the wake of the terrorist bombing which followed the day that London had secured the Games seven years ago.

At times London will seem like a war zone, but in essence the Olympics has always been a tug-of-war Games, torn between political chicanery and sporting endeavour, and inevitably encased in a ring of steel since that horrendous Tuesday, September 5, 1972 which witnessed the Munich Massacre.

There will be heartache and hassles but we do not want whinging to become the 27th Olympic sport, do we?

So will it all be worth it? Yes, absolutely. Once the cauldron flares into fire and Britain's gold rush begins all the aggro over those contentious Olympic Lanes and road closures will be forgotten and probably forgiven.

When the Flame finally dies and BoJo hands the Olympic Flag to the Mayor of Rio, President Rogge surely will proclaim London 2012 The Greatest Games Ever – and amid the cheers, the plaudits will be piled as high as the Shard, the European Union's tallest building.

So let the fun and Games begin. Curtain up. Overtures and athletes please!

Sit back and enjoy the show.

I know I will.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

How intriguing that Danny Boyle, the director in charge of the London 2012 Opening Ceremony, should have chosen as his leitmotif The Tempest – William Shakespeare's jolly tale of drunkenness, power-mongering and multiple conspiracy to murder. But hey! Nobody dies! So it's a romance.

Boyle's chosen theme for tonight's opening act – costing £27 million ($42 million/€34 million) and lasting four hours – of what everyone hopes will be a Games which earns rave reviews, is The Isle of Wonder.

This takes its inspiration from the words of comfort offered by Caliban, the rude and usurped native inhabitant of the island, to the party of rich, worldly and influential visitors who have washed up on its shores – thanks to that old Tempest.

Caliban, act three, scene two:

"Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,

"Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not."

How Boyle thinks all this parallels the Olympic experience one can only guess, although he has offered us some clues.

"It is about the wondrous beauty of Caliban's island and his deep, deep devotion to it," he said when the outline of the Opening Ceremony was revealed six months ago. "We'll be celebrating the whole of the country. There are so many isles of wonder."

Danny Boyle and volunteers unveil the design of the Opening Ceremony last month

Stephen Daldry, the director of Billy Elliott, who is overseeing artistic vision at all four Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies, said the theme of the Tempest would run through both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies: "It is a journey that will celebrate who we are, who we were and indeed who we wish to be."

So what is The Tempest? (Well yes, a famous play by William Shakespeare, Britain's multiple gold medallist in the drama event.) OK. Let's ask another question. What is the capital of Malaysia? (Kuala Lumpur). Good. But let's ask another question that's relevant.

Here it comes. What is it that goes on in The Tempest which has persuaded the famous director of films such as Trainspotting (a story of geeks and their life of quiet and painstaking data entry at Edinburgh's Waverley station, as I recall) and Slumdog Millionaire (the story of a dog that gets very rich, I think) to use it as such an important part of one of the most important things he has ever done?

I'm glad we got that question out of the way, thus clearing ourselves for a – brief, don't worry, brief, whistle-stop even – resume of The Tempest.

So, this involuntary landing party includes Baddies and Goodies. First category: Alonso, King of Naples, his brother Sebastian, and Antonio – who is brother to the all-powerful Prospero, ruler of the island, magician and all-round opportunist. A kind of supercharged Boris Johnson.

Just be clear, Antonio is a Baddy because, as we learn in act one, scene two – yes, we've already got that far – he has taken over Prospero's previous job as Duke of Milan and had him banished to the Isle of Wonder.

King Alosno in the 2010 version of The Tempest, directed by Julie Taymor

King Alonso is a Baddy because he is in on it all. And his brother Sebastian is a Baddy because he uses language like this: "A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!"

And the Goodies? Yummy, yummy yum yum. They are Gonzalo, an all-round good egg, and Alonso's son Ferdinand, who is to fall in love with, and marry, Prospero's daughter Miranda, with the father's magical collusion, thus securing the island's overlord a nifty Royal 'In'.  You see, this play is all about power and only Daddy Prospero has a finger on the switches. The Tempest was whipped up by him to set the whole shebang in motion.

In the 1979 Derek Jarman-directed film of The Tempest, Miranda was played by the lovely Toyah Willcox, who at one point took her top off. Just thought I'd put that bit in.

"Full fathom five thy father lies;

"Of his bones are coral made;

"Those are pearls that were his eyes

"Nothing of him that doth fade,

"But doth suffer a sea change

"Into something rich and strange."

This is a gorgeous passage of poetry spoken by Ariel, one of the Prospero crew. Just thought I'd put that in too.

Contemporary scholars now believe that in these words uttered in act one, scene 2, Ariel gives voice to Shakespeare's early vision of Olympic Legacy.

But back to the narrative...

Caliban, played by Todd Scofield, in Folger Theatre's production of Shakespeare's The Tempest in 2007

While Caliban has fallen out with Prospero, after showing him every detail of the island he so loves, the overlord has another helper in the form of Ariel – actually we've just met him – a nifty sprite who gets Ferdinand – whom Prospero makes sure is temporarily alone, and available, following his shipwreck – to meet Miranda.

Act two – hang in there – sees the all-round bad egg, Antonio, encouraging Sebastian to kill the king and take over as ruler. (Is there supposed to be a modern Sebastian parallel here?)

Meanwhile two other shipwrecked characters, Trinculo and Stephano, meet up with the embittered Caliban and get him drunk before hatching a plot to kill the king of the island, Prospero. And to take over as rulers.

Act three – Prospero, invisible, watches his daughter and Ferdinand pledging their troth to each other. Nice. The comic trio of Trinculo, Stephano and Caliban have some comic capers. Ariel leads them astray, before returning to give Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian, the real Bad Lads, a verbal pummelling. Message – don't mess with magicians.

Act four – an imaginary banquet, more chat. Not much happening here. Please move on.

Act five – Like Poirot before the denouement, Prospero brings the suspects together and gives them what for. What for? So he can then forgive them – but not before making sure he will return to Milan. Hear that everyone? Prospero is Back. And his daughter's a Royal! Sorry now?

Caliban is freed. So is Ariel. Prospero prepares to resume the 9-5 as a Duke and renounces his powers. The magic is over.  "Our revels now are ended," says Prospero in a statement. "The great globe itself...shall dissolve...like this insubstantial pageant."

Yes, the games are over. Exeunt omnes.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames.

The Olympic men's football tournament gets underway today, and although 16 teams start with hopes of success there are three countries that stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Brazil, Spain and Uruguay could well be the teams taking away gold, silver and bronze this summer, although in which order is harder to predict. But it is difficult to see beyond them when it comes to anticipating the next two weeks.

For Brazil, this summer is a superb chance to put to bed years of hurt at the quadrennial event, with coach Mano Menezes desperate for gold to hold onto his job.

With the World Cup being hosted by Brazil in two years' time, this is a nation determined to leave nothing to chance in pursuit of the World Cup on home soil. The country has been scarred ever since losing the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, and 2014 is the only chance it will have, presumably, for decades, to finally banish the memory of that defeat.

Therefore, lingering doubts over Menezes could lead to his departure if he cannot guide the team to gold at Wembley. With 2002 World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, currently the Palmeiras coach, looming in the background should Brazil opt for a change, the pressure is really on. Particularly given Palmeiras' recent triumph in the Copa do Brasil and not least the generous talent at his disposal, be it Neymar, Ganso, Hulk, Romelu, Damião or Oscar.

Mano Menezes takes part in a Brazil's training session for London 2012

Although they are everyone's favourites, Olympic football fans and commentators alike would do well to remember Atlanta 1996. Then Brazil, reigning world champions and with an equally gifted generation and a squad including Bebeto, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Roberto Carlos, floundered and crashed out at the semi-final stage to Nigeria.

The team has changed dramatically compared to that which laboured through the Copa America last year, where they drew with Venezuela and Paraguay in the group stage, defeated Ecuador but then lost in the last eight against Paraguay again - part through design, part through the rules stipulating only three players over the age of 23 can play in Olympic football.

They will have a stern task on their hands if they are to finally win the Olympic event. Take Uruguay for a start. They may not have the same level of individual talent on show, but they are not that far off either. Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani, aside from being a skilful, potent and world class strikeforce, are also exceptionally hard working. Then there are the creators of this team, particularly Gaston Ramirez and Abel Hernandez. International football, being slower than the club game, should particularly suit Bologna midfielder Ramirez, whose ability to carve open opposition defences could prove a nightmare for Uruguay's opponents this summer.

They have a manager in Oscar Washington Tabarez who is fundamentally pragmatic, but not that defensively minded either. At last year's Copa America, he guided his team to victory (pictured below) with an impressive display of tactical nous. They defeated hosts Argentina with 10 men as Tabarez decided to play with three central midfielders and two centre-forwards. This effectively meant they did not suffer as a result of the man disadvantage as the player who was not being marked was Lionel Messi. On the face of it illogical, but in practice a stroke of genius from Tabarez. Messi, playing on the right, kept trying to cut into the centre, where the space was blocked by Uruguay's tough, deep and narrow midfield, thus negating any potential influence he could have.

Uruguay celebrate after beating Paraguay 3-0 in the 2011 Copa America final

Tabarez's teams are a blend of toughness, resilience and flair going forward. They are a side who, like Napoli in the club game, get away with playing slightly defensively with just three forwards because those forwards are so hard working as well as fast, that they can counter attack ruthlessly. This intelligent tactical system makes Uruguay a serious threat, and strong favourites to win a tough group which also includes Senegal and Britain. Uruguay have only won two gold medals at the Olympics before, both in the football in the 1920s. If they win a third gold, it could well be at Wembley.

Then there is Spain. Champions of the world, Europe and most youth titles too, Olympic gold would entrench their status as the world's top team. With a trio of Euro 2012 winners from this summer in Jordi Alba, Javi Martinez and Juan Mata (pictured below with Euro 2012 trophy), Spain are taking this tournament more seriously than many of their rivals. Where Japan cannot call upon new Manchester United signing Shinji Kagawa, Britain are without any of their Euro 2012 stars and Senegal lack their fearsome forward line of Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse and Moussa Sow, Spain have rounded up the best talent available from the likes of Chelsea and Barcelona. They also have a player in Iker Muniain who is the potential heir to Andrés Iniesta for the national team. The prodigiously talented Athletic Bilbao midfielder has sublime close control and creativity, and could be the star of the tournament.

Juan Mata & Santi Cazorla of Spain hold the UEFA Euro 2012 trophy

What of the others? The United Arab Emirates and New Zealand rank among the game's minnows. Egypt are in disarray following the Port Said disaster earlier this year. The rest of the African contingent of Gabon, Morocco and Senegal look threatening and decent bets for the last eight, but all lack their biggest stars. The same can be said of South Korea without Ji Sung-Park, the Swiss, who do not have Granit Xhaka or Xherdan Shaqiri, and Mexico, deprived of Javier Hernandez, Erick Torres and Andres Guardado. Then there is Belarus and Honduras. Respect is due to both, who qualified at the expense of more illustrious regional rivals, but neither have the quality to challenge for medals.

Finally, the hosts Britain, who have thrown together a team who have never played together before. They have talent, not least in central midfield with Joe Allen, Aaron Ramsey and Tom Cleverley, but are taking on teams with more ability and quality who have been playing together for longer. They are also taking on Uruguay, Brazil and Spain who are proven winners.

Between them, the trio hold almost every major world and continental titles in which they compete, not just at senior level but in youth football too. Brazil are world under-20 champions, Spain have the under-19 and 21 European crowns. The only world youth title none of the three hold is for the under-17s, which Mexico won last year on home soil by beating Uruguay.

Olympic football does not always get the respect it deserves in Europe. This summer's competition is worthy of the attention of any serious football fan, as the battle between Brazil, Uruguay and Spain is sure to provide a vital clue as to the respective fortunes of three of the favourites for the next World Cup in two years' time.e as to the respective fortunes of three of the favourites for the next World Cup in two years' time.

David Gold is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here. 

When Ryan Giggs leads the Great Britain team out against Senegal at Old Trafford later today, it will be their first competitive Olympic match for 41 years.

In those days, the game in England was still divided between professionals and amateurs and Great Britain were drawn to play Bulgaria in their quest to reach the Olympic Games in Munich.

Charles Hughes, a coach at the Football Association (FA) and the manager of the England amateur team was put in charge.

"Charlie used to push us so hard that if you pulled out of a tackle in training he would not have picked you. Training was so hard," said Hendon's Peter Deadman, a squad member for both matches.

The first leg was to be played at Wembley in March 1971.

"The choice of ground would lead to a bigger attendance and a better display by the British team," said the man from the FA Alan O'Dell.

But only days before the match, fewer than 300 tickets had been sold. Eventually, 3,000 turned up, but even so the crowd looked lost on the vast terraces.

"When we played at Wembley, the Bulgarians guessed something was up when they came out in front of only a few thousand, they expected there to be 100,000," said John Delaney of Wycombe Wanderers.

Ryan Giggs (centre, facing front) and the Team GB football team warm up before training

"Because most of us were from the Isthmian league, and we were the England amateur side as well – there was no backbiting," said Delaney.

Because he lived close to the training venue, Delaney received expenses of 50 pence for playing for Britain.

"To get that shirt in the late sixties and early seventies must have cost me £100," said Delaney.

"We were under strict instructions about our behaviour and expenses – we were only allowed second class carriage," said Deadman.

Against the odds, the British team pulled out one of their finest performances to win 1-0. Joe Adams of Sough Town scored the goal.

Scene from the first leg match between Great Britain and Bulgaria

"Last night's match gave our current squad chance to prove themselves the best to represent Britain since the Rome Games in 1960," wrote former Great Britain team manager Norman Creek.

"The Bulgarians knew that the Wembley score did not really matter because they were going to pull their big guns out in Sofia. They were a team of hardened professionals," said Delaney.

By the time of the return match in Sofia it was Cup final week back home. All the domestic attention was focused on Arsenal. They had just clinched the Championship. Victory over Liverpool at Wembley in the FA Cup final would make sure of the double.

The British squad flew to Sofia with precious little fanfare and no support. In fact, the only people who turned up to watch them play were a handful of Embassy staff.

Programme from the 1971 Great Britain v Bulgaria match at Wembley

The atmosphere in Sofia in front of a huge crowd was intimidating as Great Britain walked out in red shirts.

"I will never forget there was a sign above the goal which said 'Goodbye Sweet Dreams'," said Delaney. Any lingering thoughts the British might have had of an Olympic spot were soon dashed as Bulgaria piled on the pressure and scored five on the night. Their dominance was so great that when fellow Wycombe Wanderers defender Ted Powell suggested that the defence push up on a rare British sortie into the Bulgarian half, Delaney replied: "You push up if you want to, I will stay here because they will be back in a minute."

That proved to be the very last British football team until 2012. Changes in the structure of the FA in England abolished the distinction between amateur and professional and at a stroke rendered the British player ineligible for the Games. At the time, teams were supposed to be strictly amateur, but many nations fielded players from the top flight. The Polish team that won gold in Munich contained the core of the side that knocked England out of the 1974 World Cup and finished third in the tournament themselves.

Philip Barker, one of the world's most renowned sports historians, is the author of The History of the Olympic Torch, published by Amberley recently. To order a copy click here.

Of the 26 sports featuring at the London 2012 Olympics Games, I'm ready to admit that taekwondo is not the one I am the most familiar with.

It is a sport I have covered a little, particularly during the Aaron Cook saga where the world number one was bizarrely not selected for Team GB for London 2012, but I cannot claim to be a leading taekwondo journalist.

Less still had I participated in the sport which is why I wasn't overly confident when I received orders to head to a "have-a-go" media session on a roof top car park at Westfield Stratford City.

Despite the stunning views the location provided of the Olympic Park in Stratford, I was more worried about the fact that a heat wave has struck London over the last few days which has seen the temperature soar to over 30 degrees.

Fighting in the heat, I thought, would not be my strength.

First came a live demonstration of the new Protector Scoring System (PSS) which debuts at London 2012.

The system was introduced to my colleagues in the media and I by no less than World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) President Dr Chungwon Choue and it will be used at London 2012 to accurately declare winners.

Demonstrating the various kicks and punches at Westfield were some of Britain's top taekwondo fighters who attacked with blistering speed, aggression and power despite the searing heat.

When it came to the media's turn to get involved, it became clear that I was the only person brave - or foolish - enough to have volunteered to get involved.

Tom Degun feeling confident as he strikes a kick

I was kitted out with padding, which made it barely possible to move, before I took slowly to the mat to face my infinitely superior opponent.

In my low-level sporting career, I have been in a boxing ring a few times and can probably still throw a half-decent punch should the occasion arise but kicking/being kicked for sport is a completely foreign concept to me.

It took a little time, but after being coached, I started to get the hang of it.

I was taught how to kick to the stomach, after getting told that it required the same technique as volleying a football at waist height, and I even picked up a couple of points on the PSS despite the fact that my opponent wasn't trying.

I unwisely began to get a little more confident as I danced around the mat in my best imitation of Muhammad Ali but suddenly; my opponent unleashed a lightning fast kick that struck me hard in the stomach and left me completely winded despite my padding. It was followed immediately by a second swift blow that left me in an even worse state and the sun was now ganging up on me to leave me feeling completely exhausted and drenched in sweat.

In one last courageous exchange, I managed to land possibly the weakest kick of all time that I can only assume insulted the PSS as it didn't score me a point. Instead, I was met with two more sharp kicks for my efforts and decided to call it a day.

A lesson well learnt with Britain's top taekwondo fighters

I was left with a new-found appreciation for the sport, and indeed the elite athletes who will be competing in it over the next few weeks at ExCeL during the London 2012 Olympics. It seems strange that after four years of hard training to get to the Games, medals could be decided by one of the blistering kicks like the one that hit me but such is the nature of sport at the highest level.

Despite all the talk of security and transport problems at the Games, it is sometimes forgotten that we are actually here for the sport and the athletes that make it happen.

When the Olympics actually arrive, the sport will finally become the centre of attention and I for one will be full of renewed admiration for the athletic prowess on show.

But more than that, I'll just be glad I'm in the safety of the media stand rather than out there on the field of play, particularly when it comes to the taekwondo competition!

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here. 

Greg Searle, on the brink of making an Olympic rowing return at the age of 40 – and 20 years after he and his brother Jonny won gold in the coxed pairs at the Barcelona Games – is old and wise enough to know that his participation in the home Games at an age when most men are slowing down rather than speeding up is likely provoke a flood of emotion.

Searle, who quit Olympic rowing after the bitter disappointment of finishing fourth in the coxless pairs at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, decided to make a comeback just three years ago, and as he looked ahead to the eight's imminent competition at Eton Dorney, he admitted: "I expect there will be a lump in my throat and probably tears in my eyes."

Having raised a family and started a business during almost a decade away from the sport, Searle was drawn back into the Olympic orbit by the prospect of a home Games, and his new course was set following a conversation he had with the British men's head coach, Jürgen Grobler, at the Boston trials early in 2009.

"It has been fantastic story and I have loved every day of it," Searle said. "I remember the first day when I was up at the trials in Boston, Lincolnshire, and sitting down with Jürgen and him asking me whether I was sure I wanted to row or if I wanted to coach.

Greg Searle (left) claims gold at Barcelona 1992

"But to actually come all this way and to now be here wearing the GB team kit – we've just had a great induction into the [Olympic] Village with Clive Woodward and his team – is just fantastic and the reality is beginning to sink in.

"I think the next stage for us will be going rowing on the lake at Dorney with those seats full of 30,000 people.

"That's always a massive moment at the Games, when you go from it being a lake which you have trained on, and we know it well, to seeing all those people there and I expect there will be a lump in my throat and probably tears in my eyes when I know that I am really here at the Games to compete.

"When I spoke to Jürgen in 2009 he said to me: 'You weren't too young to win a gold at 20, and you won't be too old to win a gold at 40. It will be purely based on performance.

"Within our sport everyone understands that's the way it is. I think I have been totally treated equally by the coaches and other athletes. As far as the athletes are concerned, we might listen to different music and might have a different sense of humour, but I have been in work in certain situations and it makes no difference whether someone you work with is 20 years younger than you or 20 years older, if they do a good job they are someone you want to be in a team with.

"I think I've put in performances on the water, and in the work we do on the land, which has benefited the rest of the team.

Greg Searle (right) shows his disappointment at Sydney 2000

"In terms of my self-belief, I have always been sure I was capable of making the team, I didn't know how good I would be as we came to the Olympic Games.  I'm hugely confident in the crew I'm in, I feel really privileged to be working with such talented people, and I will know how good we can be when we race on August 1."

Asked to compare his 2012 Olympic experience with that of 1992, he responded: "It feels the same and it feels massively different.

"The stuff on the water – training, competition – is really similar. But the whole experience of it in my head is wildly different.

"The first time I came to the Games I was young, totally enthusiastic, totally bullet-proof I would say. I'd never lost a race, and I just expected the Olympics to be another race – and it was just another race.

"I had very little else in my life except for rowing. Since then I have had a lot of interesting life experiences, and I am more rounded as a person, with a lot of other things I count as incredibly important, just as important as rowing in many ways. So I see it in a different and exciting way coming into the Games now."

On the subject of maintaining a relationship while pursuing elite Olympic ambitions – and with reference to a recent Mail on Sunday interview with Searle's wife, Jenny – Searle said: "It's difficult when you are overseas for 100 days a year – that's a kind of challenge to a relationship. But I guess I was a bit surprised by the article – more to the point my wife was – after having what she thought was a really nice couple of hours with a very nice lady, having a great conversation with her, they laughed for hours, and then seeing the way it turned out wasn't quite, er, a true reflection of how happy and proud of me she was!"

Searle believes his break from the sport has worked in his favour.

Greg Searle (right) is preparing for a second Olympic gold at the age of 40

"I'd say it was a massive advantage," he said. "Every day I go into training and no matter what's on the programme I get stuck into it and enjoy it, and I think it's a real privilege to be an athlete in Team GB now.

"I think I'm not in any way weary of it. I also think there's a difference in preparing for the Games as a 20-year-old and as a 40-year-old.

"As a 20-year-old I was missing out on lots of stuff, there was lots of fun stuff that I wasn't doing.

"As a 40-year-old I think I've got a pretty good lifestyle and I get to be an athlete on Team GB. Most of the other dads at the school gate have to put on ties and go into the City. I don't have to do that. So this is a very special opportunity and I want to take it and enjoy it.

"I think we are in the right place. We have had a really good last six weeks. In the first race we did we put together a good first half and couldn't keep it going. In the second race we came to 1,500 metres and couldn't quite turn the screw in the last 500. We need to put our whole race together now and we need to put ourselves in the position where in the last 500 metres we are there to win the race.

"I know the competition is going to be tough. There are a smaller number of boats at the Olympic Games, and they all are going to be very good. But I think we are ready to produce our best when it matters. I think we couldn't be better prepared for it – now it's time to go and deliver."

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames.

From July 28 to August 13, 286 boxers from all four corners of the globe will be competing in the world's most historic and prestigious sporting competition – the Olympic Games.

This edition, the XXX Olympiad, will be a watershed moment in the history of the sport of boxing with 36 women boxers being able, for the very first time, to showcase their talent and skills as they battle it out for medals in London.

Boxing has been the last Olympic sport not to have both men and women represented and I am delighted that this will not be the case anymore. The London 2012 Olympic Games will be the culmination of an exciting year of qualifications.

Quota places were up for grabs at eight different tournaments worldwide, with the AIBA World Boxing Championships Baku 2011, five Continental Olympic qualifying events, the AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships Qinhuangdao 2012, without forgetting the gifted boxers who made their mark in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) inaugural season's Individual Championships.

In May 2011, five WSB boxers became the very first athletes to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games, a ground-breaking step in the development of AIBA's professional boxing initiatives.

And this is only the beginning.

In 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, AIBA Professional Boxing (APB) boxers will join AIBA Olympic Boxing (AOB) and WSB boxers in competing at the Olympic Games.

World Series of Boxing Individual Championships 2012 winners with CK Wu

We are proud to have announced the launch of the APB programme, AIBA's first fully professional boxing initiative. Since then, this exciting project has developed at great pace and we are now ready to start in the autumn of 2013. By the end of the London 2012 Olympic Games, more than 100 boxers will have joined APB to compete at the world level.

This is another example of AIBA's drive in fast-tracking the development of the sport of boxing and for the good of the boxers' careers.

We have already entered a new era for our beloved sport, we are currently rewriting history. We need all of your support to make today's hopes the reality of tomorrow.

I hope you look forward to witnessing the cream of the crop take to the ring during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

CK Wu is the President of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) and an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member.

Andy Murray may have grabbed all the headlines today, but who was the smiling, bespectacled man wearing 154 who handed over the Torch to the world's fourth-best tennis player in front of an excited, expectant crowd at the All England Club late this afternoon?

None other, of course, than insidethegames editor Duncan Mackay (pictured below).

This is the second time Mackay has carried the Torch, but to do it on home soil, at one of British sport's most iconic settings must have been a particularly special moment for one of the most respected names in Olympic journalism.

As the sun beat down on a crowd that included dozens of local Wimbledon schoolchildren and was at times four deep in number, Mackay appeared wearing the trademark London 2012 Torch Relay suit having been handed the Torch by television presenter Lisa Snowdon.

Duncan Mackay receives the Olympic Torch from television presenter Lisa Snowdon

For the next 300 metres, he was cheered along Church Street before handing over to Murray outside the gates of the All England Club, where Britain's top tennis player recently made history by reaching the men's singles final.

On a personal level, it may have taken me two hours to get this green and pleasant corner of West London and two hours to get back, but seeing the Torch Relay for real brought back memories of being there when it all began at Land's End several hundred miles away when sailor Ben Ainslie kicked off the proceedings.

Now, like then, watching Mackay carrying the Torch whetted the appetite both for Friday's Opening Ceremony and the subsequent two and half weeks of sport when sports that so often remain in the background get their moment to shine, showcasing courage and heroism and propelling little known athletes into the global spotlight.

Bring it on...

Andrew Warshaw is a former sports editor of The European, the newspaper that broke the Bosman story in the 1990s, the most significant issue to shape professional football as we know it today. Before that, he worked for the Associated Press for 13 years in Geneva and London. He is now the chief football reporter for insidethegames and insideworldfootball. Follow him on Twitter. 

The IOC Session of 2012 opens at the Royal Opera House tonight, only a few yards away from the Royal Society of Arts where Baron Pierre De Coubertin made a speech in 1904.

His dream of reviving the Olympic Games was inspired by visits to England. He even set up the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on lines similar to the Henley Royal Regatta.

Coubertin took full advantage of British sporting expertise. The French speaking Reverend Robert de Courcy Laffan gave three decades to the IOC.

Charles Herbert, secretary of the Amateur Athletic Association was described as part of "an immovable trinity" central to the future of the Olympics.

The members who came to London in June 1904 were taken to two landmarks that will be used for the 2012 Games.

At Lord's cricket ground, Lord Kinnaird had asked the Marylebone Cricket Club to welcome "the St Louis committee" (the term IOC was not yet common currency). The welcoming committee included legendary cricketers CB Fry and WG Grace – both also gifted athletes.

Pierre de Coubertin (second left) with members of the first IOC in Athens in 1896

The dozen members watched Middlesex play cricket against South Africa on the very same field to be used for archery in 2012.

Later they went to see the ceremony of Trooping the Colour at Horse Guards Parade. In 2012, this will be the home of beach volleyball.

The Session heard an impassioned plea from Prospero Colonna Mayor of Rome and chose his city as 1908 hosts. Coubertin enthusiastically spoke of "a sumptuous toga" for the Olympic Movement.

After the eruption of Vesuvius and other problems for the Italian organisers, the Games were re-assigned to London.

In 1908 the Olympic sport began in April, but the IOC Session was held in July, days before the formal opening of the Games by King Edward VII.

The planned decision on the host city for the 1912 Games was postponed to the following year.

When the IOC returned to London in 1939, members honoured those who died in the First World War with a visit to the Cenotaph. As war clouds gathered President Henri Baillet-Latour had some uncompromising words: "It is my sincere wish that these games may mark the dawn of a new era of peace. Otherwise we shall be compelled to observe every trace of our civilization disappear under a heap of ruins and the flower of our youth disappear in the turmoil."

London 1908 competitors march past the Royal Box at the Opening Ceremony 

The Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland had left a tricky protocol problem. Founder member Dr Jiri Guth-Jarkovsky of Bohemia found himself without a country in which to represent the movement. The meeting decided he should be styled "member in Bohemia and Moravia", a decision accepted by the Germans.

At this time it was still expected that the 1940 Games in Helsinki would go ahead. They even planned a Torch Relay.

The Winter Games presented more of a problem. Sapporo had already pulled out. St Moritz were in turn replaced after a dispute over the programme and 1936 hosts Garmisch Partenkirchen took over.

Perhaps the most important business of the session was the election of host cities of 1944.

The members were taken to Wembley Stadium and the Empire Pool (now Wembley Arena) to demonstrate London's facilities. When it came to a vote, London was chosen as host city beating rival bids from Rome, Detroit and Lausanne.

"London will have ample time at her disposal before 1944," said the IOC report. The words were ironic in the circumstances.

Opening Ceremony of the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Olympic Games 

Cortina d'Ampezzo was selected for the Winter Games.

Paris was designated as host for the 1941 IOC Session, but by that time the world was at war and Paris occupied.

When the fighting stopped, London was chosen as 1948 host city by postal ballot.

"Welcome to our battered city," said Philip Noel Baker, Olympic medallist over 1500 metres in 1920 and by then a Government Minister. He welcomed the IOC members to London at the Institute of Architects. An appropriate location given the amount of building work needed to repair war damage in the city.

Organising Committee President Lord Portal hosted a banquet attended by Prime Minister Clement Attlee.

In the meantime, the IOC wives were taken to see Olivier's film version of Hamlet, and from there to a supper party hosted by Sir Eugen and Lady Effie Millington-Drake.

Although Germany and Japan had not been allowed to participate in the Games, the IOC President had decided to invite 1936 organiser Carl Diem to attend.

The Session faced delicate problems. Israel had been founded and was very keen to take part, though they had not yet formed a National Olympic Committee (NOC). As a gesture of goodwill, two Israeli athletes were invited as guests but not to compete. The Olympic family was growing with the addition of British Guiana (now Guyana) Iraq, Singapore, Pakistan, Puerto Rico and Syria.

Fanny Blankers-Koen jumps during the 80m hurdles event at the 1948 London Olympics

A recruiting drive had been instigated after the war. Among the new members were Erik Von Frenckell, organiser of the 1952 Games in Helsinki.

The session also decided that women could compete in sailing.

There was a banquet at Wembley before the Olympic Opening Ceremony and members were presented to King George VI.

The Games were a success, dominated by the exploits of Fanny Blankers Koen, but it would be 64 years before they came back to London.

The IOC did return to Britain in 1991. The Session at Birmingham's brand new International Convention Centre, which was opened by the Queen.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the eyes of the world will be on your deliberations. Happily, I shall be in a good position myself to receive a first-hand report," she told members in her opening speech.

In the audience was her daughter, the Princess Royal.

The Japanese city of Nagano was chosen as the host city of the 1998 Games, a choice that would have far reaching consequences for the Olympic Movement. Nagano beat Salt Lake City who then sat down and planned how they make sure of victory in any future vote. The bribery scandal followed.

Nagano delegates celebrate at the IOC Session held in Birmingham, 1991

The IOC Session in Birmingham effectively welcomed South Africa back into the Olympic fold. As the apartheid regime was dismantled, an Interim National Olympic Committee (INOCSA) had been established.

Judge Kéba Mbaye who led the IOC Commission brought a message from Nelson Mandela himself: "INOCSA deserved and would receive the support of the ANC [African National Congress]".

Within weeks South Africa's Olympic re-entry was confirmed.

Before the session ended some influential names were added to the membership. Thomas Bach, London 2012 Coordination Commission, chairman Denis Oswald and current IOC President Jacques Rogge.

Philip Barker, one of the world's most renowned sports historians, is the author of The History of the Olympic Torch, published by Amberley recently. To order a copy click here.

London 2012 will probably be the last Olympics at which any of the competitors are older than me.

That this landmark in life can be put off, in my case, for another four years is down to a handful of truly exceptional competitors still at the pinnacle of their respective sports in their sixth decade on the planet.

One of these is Mark Todd, the New Zealand three-day event rider.

When he saddles up his Hanoverian mount NZB Campino in Greenwich Park on July 28, Todd, 56, will be embarking on his seventh Olympics.

He has twice won gold, the first all of 28 years ago, at the same Los Angeles Games where one Sebastian Coe – Todd's junior by more than six months – won his second straight Olympic 1500m title.

Having stepped away from the sport after taking bronze at Sydney 12 years ago, Todd is enjoying an unlikely postscript to his eventing career that he describes as "a bit like a rebirth".

Mark Todd with NZB Campino

"I had pretty much done everything I imagined I could have," he tells me, explaining how he initially lost the motivation required to stay at the top in a sport that requires its practitioners to be small businessmen and women, as well as athletes.

But after a period spent training and breeding racehorses (Todd might have been a jockey had he not grown too tall), he decided in 2008 on a comeback, as what he describes as "a little bit of a dare".

He elaborates: "I thought I would challenge myself to see if I could get to Beijing/Hong Kong on six months' preparation on a new horse." Almost needless to say, he did, finishing 17th.

Having rekindled his enjoyment, he accepted sponsor New Zealand Bloodstock's offer of backing if he would come back until London and "do it properly". And so here he is, a soon-to-be resident of an Olympic Village most of whose inhabitants are young enough to be his children, a few his grandchildren.

Already, he has achieved the seemingly impossible by winning, in 2011, a fourth Badminton horse trial, more than 30 years after his first.

For a point of comparison, imagine that the then 59-year-old golfer Tom Watson had held on to win that remarkable 2009 Open Championship, rather than losing in a play-off to Stewart Cink.

Mark Todd riding Charisma at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles

Not surprisingly, the feat gave Todd enormous satisfaction. "I always thought and hoped I would have another big win," he says. "But to actually do it was a huge thrill."

Unfortunately, his Badminton mount, the grey NZB Land Vision, has acquired an injury and will miss London 2012.

The rider, though, appears to have every confidence in his deputy, describing him as "good on all three phases" [dressage, cross-country and show-jumping] and "a horse who is improving virtually every week".

Todd points out that he ran him at the test event last year, a decision he must now be thankful for, given the demanding gradients and turns likely to await riders on the Olympic cross-country course in scenic Greenwich Park.

"I have purposely run him on twisty courses and he has coped very well," the rider adds.

The New Zealander believes that the German team "will probably start favourites" for the gold medal, "closely followed by the British". He puts New Zealand in a cluster of teams on the tails of this leading duo.

Mark Todd on NZB Land Vision during the 2011 Badminton Horse Trials

Though he has kept his accent, Todd has lived in the UK for more than 30 years, saying it is "just not feasible to travel horses back and forth on a regular basis" and here you are competing against the best.

He has actually been taking lessons from Charlotte Dujardin, a top British dressage rider, and "will be there to cheer her on" in her Olympic event.

Todd, who still rides for "six or seven" hours a day, has no concrete plans to retire. "I will be carrying on in the short term," he says. "As long as I can still be competitive and enjoy it."

There is not the slightest doubt of his will to win.

"I don't suppose anyone has won the individual Olympic title three times," I say, as a parting shot.

"Not yet," he replies.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed by clicking here.

As we approach the final countdown to London 2012, life here on the Olympic Park is running particularly smoothly, despite reports you may have seen on the television or read in the newspapers.

Security has unsurprisingly stolen most of the headlines due to the "humiliating shambles" that saw contractor G4S fail to recruit enough personnel to adequately provide protection for London 2012.

The issue saw the Government forced to step in and commit 3,500 military personnel to fill the security void for the Games following orders from Home Secretary Theresa May.

The move caused shockwaves across the UK, but in the grand scheme of all things London 2012, it is hardly a problem because all it actually means is that highly trained soldiers have replaced members of the British public who would have been given only the most basic of training.

If the worst happens during the Olympics, I know who I would rather have on hand. Every time I have been through the security checkpoint to get onto the Olympic Park, the military personnel have been smiling, polite, friendly and give the impression they are fully enjoying the experience of being part of the greatest sporting event on the planet.

Cornflowers surrounding the Olympic Stadium on the Olympic Park

Their demeanour is perhaps not overly surprising given that the Olympic Park is finally starting to look like the stunning location we all hoped it would be, after several years of building work on what was formerly rotting wasteland in East London.

I have for some time been a little underwhelmed with the venues of the Olympic Park, partly because I've spent so much time on it in the past few months during the test event series and partly because it always looked a little dull.

However, in the past few days, the predominantly purple and blue "look and feel" of London 2012 has been added, the flowers have started blooming and nearly all the ugly cranes and tractors used during the construction period have disappeared leaving something rather magnificent in their place.

On a recent media tour of the Olympic Park, led by London 2012 head of sustainability David Stubbs, several of my media colleagues and I were taken around the green parklands a short distance away from the Velodrome.

Wasteland near the Olympic Stadium in early 2011

"We have cleaned up formerly industrial land, much of it contaminated, and opened up inaccessible riverbanks to create a new great park that will be enjoyed by people and wildlife for generations to come," Stubbs explained.

It is a wonderful addition to the greenest Olympic Park in history and seems almost magical when you compare it with the view described by London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe when the city was bidding for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"I was basically standing on a tower block half a mile from the Olympic Parking with the International Olympic Committee [IOC] alongside me looking rather perplexed," Coe told me in an interview recently.

"I said to them, 'You see that 50-foot mountain of rotting fridges, we're going to put an Aquatics Centre there'.

"I felt like a dodgy timeshare salesman as I tried to sell the vision for London 2012 back then."

General view of the Olympic Park a week before the Games begin

Of course, we all know it ended happily as Coe spearheaded the London 2012 bid to victory in Singapore in 2005 before being appointed Organising Committee chairman and leading us successfully to this point.

Business has now really picked up with the arrival in London of IOC President Jacques Rogge, the most powerful man in sport, and the next few days will see the finishing touches put on what will undoubtedly be one of the greatest Games of all time.

It will be athletes like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and Jessica Ennis who become the stars of these Games and who create a special kind of history in the iconic venues on the Olympic Park.

But it must not be forgotten how far, in such a short space of time, the piece of land in Stratford has come to look so truly resplendent – and come the Games, it will provide the perfect backdrop for the world's best athletes to become true sporting icons too.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.

If we don't get a glimpse of a few pearly kings and queens in the London 2012 Opening Ceremony then, cor blimey guvnor, you can knock me down wiv a fevver. These, after all, are the Games slap bang in the Cockney manor.

For a small, but interested party of media who gathered at the Carpenters Arms this week, just a few hundred yards down Cambridge Heath Road from Bethnal Green tube station, there was an opportunity to get a thorough preview of all things Cockney in the most London Olympic Borough of all – Tower Hamlets. (And, by-the-by, to consume a heavenly pie and mash. I couldn't get there fast enough.)

The self-proclaimed "gateway to the London 2012 Olympic Games" – whose Mayor, Lutfur Rahman, was in attendance for what was billed as a "Traditional Cockney Welcome" – has a total of 127 different languages spoken within its boundaries, a reflection of the enormously diverse influx of nationalities to the area in the last half century. And the 127th, of course, is Cockney.

But what is Cockney? That, would you Adam and Eve, is not a simple question to answer. One of the earliest recorded references is in William Langland's 1362 blockbuster The Vision Of William Concerning Piers Plowman (I read it myself about 150 years ago and can recommend the bit about the Seven Deadly Sins) where the phrase "coken" (of cocks) and "ey" (egg) occurred – which is, a reference to a cock's egg.

Cockney rhyming slang for money


There was a reference too in Chaucer's Reeve's Tale, around 1386, to a "cokenay", which was in this context "a child tenderly brought up, and effeminate fellow, a milksop". As our guest academic, Dr Sue Fox – a linguist from nearby Queen Mary, University of London – explained – a little awkwardly in the circumstances – the word Cockney was originally a shorthand reference to "an individual of a kind that did not fit in society".

Over the years, she added, the term Cockney has come to refer both to a group of people – generally, working class Londoners predominantly from the East End – and a language, the distinguishing and ever-changing characteristics of which are currently engaging her full attention as she seeks to document a living culture in the process of change.

"In the last five decades Cockney has probably undergone more rapid change than at any time in its long history," she said. "Which isn't surprising given the vast social and economic redevelopment of the traditional dialect area."

So what are the distinguishing characteristics of Cockney speech? Dr Fox gave us a swift tour of vowels and consonants to illustrate the general theme. Thus: "face" is pronounced "feice"; "mouth: is "maarf"; "think" is "fink"; "father" is "farverr"; and "isn't" is "ain't".

By this time, the scholarly doctor was beginning to get into the swing of things. "So if I wanted to say I hadn't got any money, I would say 'I ain't got no money'".

Traditional cockney pie and mash shop in London's East End 

"You're right there, girl," chimed in a Cockney voice from the back (the classic position for a Cockney voice to chime in from, of course). "I ain't got no bees-and-'unny neither..."

So let's stop the narrative there for a moment. Let's go no furver. This was the voice of Jimmy Jukes, whose suit of many buttons and sequins proclaimed him Pearly King of Bermondsey. Jukes, large and affable, is a man with whom, nevertheless, you would not mess. And here was a classic example of Cockney rhyming slang – "bees and honey", that is, "money".

After the good doctor had concluded and begun a series of interviews with film crews from around the world, Mr Jukes was good enough to expand on the "So What Is Cockney Then?" front.

"Cockney was a phrase for a misshapen egg long ago," he said. "As it was misshapen, it was assumed it had been laid by a cock. But cocks don't lay eggs – hens lay eggs. So it was a bit of an urban myth to start with.

"The whole business of pearly kings and queens was a bit of a mickey-take to start off with. Back when it started, a lot of people in the East End really didn't have any money. But it meant you could get a dirty old suit and put a load of buttons on it and then start giving it a bit of a show. That's where the phrase 'Flash Harry' comes from – your 'Flash' is the line of the buttons on the edge of your trousers." At which point he hitched his own leg onto the barstool, showing off a constellation of buttons.

So, one wondered (that was me wondering), can anyone introduce new Cockney slang? Or do they have to run it past the pearly kings and queens, with their family histories, first? Answer – you can't stop the tide of invention.

Pearly king, Jimmy Jukes

"People can say what they want," said Jukes, a Cockney entertainer who used to work on the Waterloo flower stall with Great Train robber Buster Edwards who featured in the film Buster, and who indeed appeared on a stall in the film along with the man playing Edwards, Phil Collins. (Whatever happened to him?)

"Some of the youngsters have started saying 'Armani' instead of 'sarni' [sandwich]. There are new words coming in all the time."

So, to be proper slang, does a new phrase have to conform to what, if you were writing an academic paper on the subject, you might call the Classic Cockney pattern? That is, using a word that associates with another word which is a rhyme to the word you mean – such as "apples", as in "apples and pears", rhyming with "stairs", or "dog", as in "dog and bone", rhyming with "phone"?

Well no. It doesn't. "You get people now saying 'You're 'avin' a giraffe' – meaning 'laugh'," Jukes adds. And there are other pieces of slang that don't even rhyme. For instance, if you wander off on your own, you have "done a Captain Oates" – a reference to the frostbitten and barely functioning Antarctic explorer who walked out of the main tent and into a blizzard so as not to be a burden to his friends. Or you might have a "George Cannon" – that is, a car crash. Don't ask. I don't know.

The slang, Jukes adds, was partly brought in as a kind of code among costermongers and market traders so they could communicate with each other without being obvious. "For instance," he said, "if you were on a fish stall, and your boss said to you 'Give him the d-lo', that would mean you giving the customer the old fish – which is d-lo backwards. And he wouldn't know what was going on."

Jukes is suitably mysterious about what, if any connection the pearly kings and queens might be about to have with the impending Games. He is more than happy to talk about the influence of sporting figures on Cockney rhyming slang, however. The problem is, there is no great sporting influence.

Pearly kings and queens celebrate their annual Costermonger's Harvest Festival in London

"You've got 'Bobby Moore', which is a score – £20," he said. There has also been a recent alternative to the old Ruby Murray – curry slang. For younger Cockneys, curry is now apparently an Andy Murray.

Still, the sporting lexicon is a little bare down Stepney and Bethnal Green way. Maybe things will change if Jet wins another Decrepit in the London. (Jet Plane: Usain; Decrepit and Old: Gold: London Palladium: Stadium.) All right then. Make your own up.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames.

Credit for image of Jimmy Jukes: London-In-Sight Blog