Lord Coe: The greatest show about to start

Actors perform during the pre-show of the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium July 27, 2012. [Photo by Agencies]

LONDON -- It has been a long road for former middle distance runner, Lord Sebastian Coe, who won gold medals in the Moscow and Los Angeles Olympics and has gone on to become the driving force behind the London Olympic Games.

Those Games officially began with the opening ceremony in the Olympic Stadium on Friday night.

"We are about to embark on the greatest sport we have ever seen and most of us will ever see in our lifetimes," said Lord Coe, who was the head of the bid which brought the Games to London.

After London had been confirmed as the host city for 2012, he was named as the Chairman of the London Olympic Games Organizing Committee (LOGOC).

In that role he has been the public face of the London Games, having to take the criticism for problems with transport, ticketing and security. But Coe has worked brutally hard and also with great tact and diplomacy with two different governments and three different Prime Ministers, (Labor with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and the current Conservative regime of David Cameron) to take us to where we are today.

Finally as the London Olympics were about to start, he spoke honestly about how he feels at seeing eight years of work come to fruition.

"I'm incredibly excited," he admitted, able to speak candidly for perhaps the first time in a long while.

"This is probably the biggest day of my life, it's extraordinary and I say that as a man with 4 children, whose births were very important to me," continued Lord Coe.

The Games start with a spectacular opening ceremony directed by Danny Boyle, who won an Oscar for his film 'Slumdog Millionaire,' and Lord Coe praised the man behind the show, which has cost 27 million pounds.

"I have made lots of friendships and one of them is with this man here (Danny Boyle)," he said, explaining the pair had met when they had coincided in the BBC radio studio. Although they came from radically different backgrounds, the pair found they had a lot of common ground.

"Danny was being celebrated as an Oscar winning film director, I was talking about athletics, we chatted and then later I was part of the team that lured him here," said Lord Coe, who admits he is amazed by Boyles ability to come up with ideas.

"I can't imagine what it is like being inside his head for even half an hour. He is an extraordinarily creative man," he continued.

Lord Coe was also grateful that despite two dress rehearsals which attracted a total of 120,000 spectators, none of them gave any secrets away of what it contains.

"They have risen to the occasion," he said.