We need to be confident. We need not to blink.

[Coe, a knighted exemplar of measured eloquence, does not giggle and break into giddy trot lightly. It isn't properly British. But then the British capital hadn't won the Olympics since 1948 before it defeated a loaded field of major world cities Wednesday: Paris, Madrid, New York and Moscow.] Sorry, ... Have to catch my mates and have some fun.

The biggest fragility in a project is often just the inability to be able to explain to people why you are doing it, and when you're going to do it, and what's going to happen.

Getting the Games for London has been the fulfilment of a dream. It is one which I truly believe can change the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people for the better. But in the end, nothing can quite compare with winning your first Olympic gold medal.

I wouldn't have raced a horse. But you'll then throw back at me that Jesse Owens raced against a horse, and he's one of my heroes, so I'm not going to say it was a silly stunt. I know too much about horses. They're highly unreliable, and they've got brains the size of golf balls.

It is really important that we promote competitive support in schools. It is very important that we recognise that has to be underpinned by good quality physical education and by getting people into patterns of exercise.