Three cheers for the Olympics

THE staging of an Olympiad is a significant moment in the life of any city. In the past, the games have been “coming out” events for cities such as Tokyo in 1964, Seoul in 1988 or Barcelona in 1992. The London Olympics may not have the same lasting effect, but they are still a cause for celebration.

London is the only city that has played host to the games three times. The first was in 1908 at the height of the UK’s imperial pomp. Forty years later, the Olympics returned to a battered capital still recovering from the Blitz. This year, the Olympics circus revisits a city no longer scarred by war but one whose world-leading financial centre has been ravaged by a five-year crisis.

There is much talk about the “austerity games”. But Londoners should maintain a sense of proportion and remember how hard times were during the last London Olympiad. So strict was food rationing in 1948 that the athletes had to rely on whale and horse meat for protein. The government was obliged to relax the rules for competitors, classifying them on a par with vital manual workers, such as miners, who were allowed 3 900 calories a day rather than the normal 2 600. There was no swish Olympic village: the athletes were housed in converted army barracks and school buildings.

No such privations stand in the way of today’s competitors as they pursue sporting excellence and the glory of Olympic gold.

These would not be the “British” games if there were not a good deal of Eeyore-ish muttering about disruption, the difficulty of obtaining tickets and overweening commercialisation.

Sebastian Coe and London’s rumbustious mayor, Boris Johnson, have urged the public to lighten up, revel in the long-awaited sunshine and enjoy the sporting feast. So they should — the cost-benefit analysis can wait. London, July 27