The surprise announcement that Britain was to host its biggest sporting event since 1966 came in a dramatic broadcast on live TV at 12.49pm on July 6th, 2005.
The surprise announcement that Britain was to host its biggest sporting event since 1966 came in a dramatic broadcast on live TV at 12.49pm on July 6th, 2005.
Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), declared that the right to stage the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics had been won by . . . “London!”
The London 2012 bid team present at the Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore jumped up and down in delight.
Meanwhile a dejected throng of Parisians outside Paris Town Hall contemplated their third bid defeat in 20 years.
Then it rained on them.
For the London team and its leader, track legend Lord Sebastian Coe, it was the culmination of two years’ hard work.
The planning and promotion, the last-minute lobbying of undecided IOC delegates by then Prime Minister Tony Blair and the defence of the bid against its many critics had all been worthwhile.
But even the team could barely have dreamed what a spectacular success their Games would become seven years later, winning worldwide acclaim and being acknowledged as perhaps the greatest in modern Olympics history.
London had hosted the Games twice before, in 1908 and 1948.
The latter was known as the “Austerity Games”, with housing shortages and rationing still widespread three years after World War Two.
By contrast, with the budget soaring from the original estimate of £2billion to somewhere approaching £10 billion, the 2012 Games involved state-of-the-art facilities and every modern comfort.
The centrepiece was the 500-acre Olympic Park in the Lower Lea Valley in Stratford, East London, an area that was completely regenerated for the event. The site included an 80,000-seat athletics arena, the athletes’ village, an aquatics centre, a velodrome, a BMX track and a hockey centre.
The rest of London’s historic sporting infrastructure was also used, with tennis at Wimbledon, archery at Lords cricket ground and football finals at Wembley stadium. Rowing took place on a lake at Eton, Berkshire. Other competitions took place at the ExCel centre in London's Docklands. Beach volleyball took place at Horse Guards' Parade, transformed by 5,000 tons of sand.
The Games reached as far north as Glasgow – with early matches in the football tournament at Hampden Park – and as far west as Weymouth, Dorset, which hosted the sailing.
The 2012 Olympics opened on July 27 with a spectacular opening ceremony notable for the humour previous ceremonies had lacked. Even the Queen made a brief spoof film alongside actor Daniel Craig playing James Bond which culminated in a stunt double posing as Her Majesty parachuting into the Olympic stadium.
It was a taste of things to come. The Games turned into a triumph for Britain, and not just because of the large number of gold, silver and bronze medals won by Team GB athletes (29 gold, 17 silver, 19 bronze, placing Britain third in the medal table).
The efficiency and good humour which characterised every aspect of its organisation astonished many. The crowds were enormous - mainly sell-outs - and any spare tickets made available online were snapped up within seconds as thousands scrambled to see Olympic action.
London was a city transformed - the mood of the capital noticably uplifted as Britain revelled in being in the world's spotlight and 70,000 purple-jacketed volunteer "Gamesmakers" made the event possible.
Once the fortnight of magic was over, Britain was even able to relive it, as it staged the Paralympics two weeks later.
This was an equally great triumph for the hosts in terms of medals won, the quality of the Games and the overwhelming and unprecedented levels of interest generated in disabled sport.
Lord Coe's original aim was to hold the greatest show on Earth and leave a lasting legacy. He certainly achieved the former.
The legacy - the physical and economic transformation of part of London's East End, the inspiring of a new generation to take up sport, and perhaps a permanent improvement in attitudes towards the disabled - looks likely to be achieved too. Only time will tell.
