2012 Olympic Games: 100 Days to Go

IOC PRESIDENT, JACQUES ROGGE: Games of the 30th Olympiad in 2012

COMMENTATOR: London have won it! Wonderful!

That moment was one of the most satisfying things I've ever been

involved in. What else would you want to be doing at the moment

other than being part of the Nearly seven years have passed

since the announcement was made that London would host the Olympic

Seven years of planning and building. Transforming a part of

Stratford in the East End into a theatre where sport will have its

COMMENTATOR: A new world record is set! He destroys his old record.

Five in a row! What a great Olympian. That was terrific. It's

an enormous one. And the world All over the world, muscles are

flexing for the perfection of speed This is the countdown to the

defining moments of an athlete's life. If I dominate the Olympics,

I'll be a legend. I'll be a living legend walking around. It's all

about 2012 for me. Everything I'm doing now is for that moment.

a great city, a great atmosphere. Welcome to London. So I'm excited

We are all drawn here as the Games have been twice before. In 1908 and

1948. But sport is different in 2012. It can be a cruel business.

This is a great adventure full of My name is Michael Johnson. I've

been around Olympic block a few COMMENTATOR: Here comes Johnson now.

Olympic glory in my own country. I Good morning. Hey!

'Here I am, an American in Olympic London.' Morning. 'To meet the

people who have to deliver the Olympics'. This guy won gold medals,

too. To meet the people showing London to the world. I'm here to

catch the mood. SINGING: # Ain't no stopping us now

People like to be involved with it even if it's just to carry a stick.

They want to put up with the hassle of turning up to months of

rehearsals. They do. We've just go to stop them waving at their

grandma, you know. What's your name? Michael. What's your name?

Michael Johnson. Very cool. Good to It's going well, but it's a bit

like asking... If you'd asked that question of us a few years ago when

we were competing at this stage, you'd say, "Yeah, it's going well

but there is a hell of a lot to do. Got to keep in one piece, no

injuries. You've got to get there sensibly so that's what we are in

now. "I can't wait for this year. This year is now and I'm like, OK,

let's do this. The further east you go in London the more the Olympics

surround you. A classroom in Bethnal Green. Scarlett is a

promising diver and, one day, who knows, will she be inspired by what

she sees here in her home city? Will Usain Bolt do in London what

he did in Beijing? Take the Olympics by storm and tear up the

COMMENTATOR: He has blown them all away. Usain Bolt is the Olympic

After that one moment, people are always stopping me to give me

congratulations, wanting a picture, an autograph. It was the start of

just something magnificent. Number He was in the 100 metres, 200 and

the 4 by 100 relay. Three golds, three world records. Heck, he broke

my 200 metres world record. And here he is at home in Jamaica

I have ran three world records and everyone I felt is great. My

coaches. Anybody who said I don't work hard, I'm going to fight them

this season. Because when you work so hard and people say you don't

train so hard, you're like, come and watch me training. The hours of

hard labour to cut down the risk of error measured by a fraction of a

second. Daegu, the last World COMMENTATOR: Oh, Usain Bolt has

false started! I just wanted to run. I just wanted to go and I kind of

lost focus. I was embarrassed. I kept saying I can't believe I just

did that. I could not believe what has happened so I kept talking to

myself. What did you just do? Why? The great balancing act. The

rehearsals. The repetition here so that on stage the showman can

COMMENTATOR: Usain Bolt, the greatest race, the greatest

performance over 100 metres, you are likely to see.

I'm not going to lie to myself. People looking for 19.4. 19.0 maybe.

Also they want to see the personality, doing crazy stuff but

they want also to see that time. If I dominate the Olympics, I'll be a

legend. I'll be a living legend But imagine Usain Bolt jumping the

Ever since August 2009, there has been zero-tolerance of a false

If Usain Bolt false starts and he is out of the 100 metres of the

final of the Olympic Games that you're the head of... I've got a

lot of unhappy ticket holders. Absolutely. The only point I would

make about that is that it's sport. You could also be sitting pitch-

side in a World Cup and Messi gets sent off after ten minutes. The one

false start, the yellow card against the field, at least put the

entire group under caution. It would give us a little bit of

security. But it was the athletes that didn't like it. It was the

athletes that asked us to review it. Yeah, athletes and their opinions!

I think I know the headline from this interview. I can say it. Maybe

The first medals of the Games will not be won in the stadium but out

on the road. If you ask me what the Isle of Man was, I'd have to say

it's where the crazy guy on a bicycle comes from.

The 2011 BBC Sports Personality Of The last few years people have

known about cycling and recognise me without a helmet on and glasses

and whatever. To know people know you without your helmet, they kind

of know what you do, rather than you're just that cyclist. That's a

special feeling to witness, you know. It makes me happy. I can see

the progress cycling is getting, how big it is getting in the

country. But it hasn't always been an easy ride. Four years ago in

Beijing, Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins rode as a team in the

Madison. Cavendish was fresh. Wiggins, already the winner of gold

medals in two pursuits, wasn't. COMMENTATOR: Fatigue in the legs of

Bradley Wiggins. He's had a very heavy Olympics so far. Wiggins

looking for Cavendish and it's a look of anxiety all over the face

of Bradley Wiggins at the moment. Left on his own, Mark Cavendish was

the only British track cyclist not to win a medal in Beijing. Furious,

he left track racing and hit the road. Last year, he won five stages

of the Tour de France and won the points classification. The first

Briton ever to win the Green Jersey. And then he went to Copenhagen for

the Road World Championship. COMMENTATOR: Mark Cavendish on the

left of our screens is going to be the world champion. He is the world

champion. Mark Cavendish has won the world title for Great Britain.

And we have waited since 1965. Beijing was left far behind but the

Olympic cycle turns. Might bad memories be stirred? To be honest,

I'm completely over it. Sure I was upset. I was upset about it a long

time after but if you look back at what you have or have not done,

you're not going to progress. final caveat. The Olympic road race

is on July 28th, only six days after the Tour de France ends. But

this is still the face of the favourite for the first gold medal

in London. Beyond a doubt, if you're at home, you're going to

perform better. It's in your nature to do that. We're going to be

favourites, we are expected to win. So all we can really do is fail. If

we don't win, that will be a hard thing, so it's not necessarily that.

It's more a joyous thing. If we win like we hope to do, we will get

Great Britain off to a good start. Jessica Ennis is perhaps THE face

of the Games. She won the heptathlon at the 2009 Berlin World

Championships. But she has no Olympic experience, having missed

Beijing through injury. I always think about how I was not part of

that Olympics at all. And now, having come through it, I really

appreciate the position I'm in and just enjoying it and want to make

most of it. COMMENTATOR: She really means

business. Come on, Jess, finish it off in style!

Winning the gold medal in Berlin, that was one of those moments you

dream about and it was just unbelievable for everything to go

so perfectly. That's the moment I will never ever forget. At the next

world championships in Deagu, South Korea, she slipped back a place.

Finished second. With Deagu, I still feel really similar to how I

felt immediately after and a few weeks after. It was a real

disappointment because it was so close. I could have had that gold

medal. So, for me, it was about putting it into perspective and not

getting too down on myself. Realising that if that's my bad day

and I can win a silver medal on the world stage, then that's a positive.

It's all about 2012 for me. I want to walk into that stadium and

perform. Everything I'm doing now is for that moment. Come on, girl,

One more, one more, one more. So many different elements to get

right, so much training to do. I want to be at my ultimate peak

there and I want everything to come together there. At the World Indoor

Championships in Istanbul last month, in the five discipline

pentathlon, Jessica finished second again. And lost another world title.

She's in a very personal business and must put herself first to hit

her peak in London. But she also has this public responsibility. The

It's a funny position to be in. A lot of people have already put the

gold medal around my neck which is sometimes quite difficult. But I

always train a lot here at the English Institute of Sport and

there's loads of kids that come in and train, and they are all so

excited and really inspired by the whole Olympics being at home.

That's probably the most positive thing, that you can be a role model

for young kids to enter the sport and create a legacy after 2012.

There, the legacy word. To see what lies ahead we must go back.

COMMENTATOR: Coe in second place. Ovett is third. Look at Sebastian

Coe wins! The rest can do nothing Sebastian Coe. Twice Olympic

champion over 1,500 metres. 32 years on, he's now Lord Coe. He's

still running. Running the project to deliver the Games and leave a

legacy. Newham, which is the borough we are now in, which is

where the Olympic Park is being developed, is pretty much the

poorest borough in the country. Seven tube stops from central

London to here. And every one of those tube stops you lose a year's

life-expectancy. Really? Yeah, so it was one of the most challenged

communities in the country. The Park has been an extraordinary

I mean, really, from left to right, Velodrome. Basketball arena is

temporary. We have got that arena there which is a 6,500-7,000 multi-

purpose venue. That will be handball. That is staying, and then

if you move, this is Stratford International railway station. Game

time, we will be able to move about 25,000 people in and out of the

park in an hour. Immediately behind it is the Aquatic Centre. And

that's both permanent and temporary. The permanent wave in the middle

remains. The wings either side disappear after the Games, so you

will be left just with the shape of the Aquatic Centre. And then, of

course, the centrepiece, the Olympic Stadium. This will remain

in public ownership and we have these arrangements with other

sports and maybe entertainment which I feel is the core tenant. So

that is the Park. It's compact. It's a much more challenging site

to develop. But, at the end of the day, better for the fans and close

proximity. The venues are all very close together. As time passes,

this will become almost certainly home for about 30,000 people. I

mean, they've really built a new I've learned in London that

whatever has been done to the East End, what is being done there now,

it's an area of the city which remains special. Certainly special

to those who come from around here. Footballer David Beckham has been

part of the London Olympics on the That moment was one of the most

satisfying things I've ever been involved in.

COMMENTATOR: The scenes here are just incredible!

The relief that was in the bid team's eyes once our name came out,

To see the transformation somewhere I was brought up as a kid, I'm

proud of that. That needs to continue, you know. The Olympic

legacy, the sport legacy needs to continue. The celebrity endorsement.

And that word again, legacy. Maybe In Newham Boxing Club, the work is

being put in to inspire youngsters to take up sport and stick with it.

The ones being inspired and those inspiring. The Olympic movement's

young leaders. We have to get media involved. Make sure we have a venue.

I thought at the beginning I'm never going to be able to make a

project but we've done well. everyone has such faith. Eight

years ago, in Athens, Gail Emms won a silver medal in the mixed

badminton doubles. The word legacy has been thrown about everywhere.

I'm concerned about it because legacy means it's about something

that's going to be sustainable for the future, constantly. It's not

about two weeks of the Olympics and the Paralympics. It's about a long-

lasting effect, so what's really important is trying to get that

connection right. Yes, we will have the world's great sporting event.

The likes of Usain Bolt will be on that track but how is someone who

is 200, 300 miles away going to feel a connection? And that's what

I really want to see happen. To me, please don't think I'm not aware

that there's got to be cuts made. I'm totally aware this country is

in serious debt. But I want a young person who dreams of being like

Usain Bolt, to say, I can do that. There is all the facilities, all

the groundwork, the set up, to be able to do that for that young

person. And I just don't know if we In Newham, I think so many things

have changed. There is a sense of pride the Olympics is coming to

your area and has got more kids involved in sports. I have got a

lot more confidence than I had before I started the programme.

I've met loads of amazing people who have boosted my confidence and

helped me get to this place. Also I know I can do something from

scratch and make a project happen. It's going to be a buzz in the East

End of London because lots of people will be able to see that

amazingly Olympic Park. We need to recreate that buzz and atmosphere

around the rest of the country because it's a great one. I know

what it's like. It's amazing. Add not just for a few weeks after the

Olympics. We need that six months later. We need that a year later.

We need it two years later. Legacy is about keeping that buzz going

and going and going, so lots of young people will remember the

moment they were inspired by London 2012 and they're still going many

On the last Friday in July, the London Olympics will be launched

with the opening ceremony. Art goes into the ring with sport as it did

on a giant scale at the last Olympics in Beijing. How to follow

that is the work of film director Danny Boyle. From Slumdog

Millionaire to what? The job of an opening ceremony is to welcome the

athletes to the city. It's a kind of entertainment to say, feel

welcome, feel warm, feel loved, all We are not Beijing. We are not any

of the others. We are just a small island but that small islands has

blossomed into something on a Within that three hours, an hour-

and-a-half of that minimum is the march of the athletes. That's

something you can't rehearse. It's extraordinary for a live event. The

vast majority of it you can't rehearse a moment of it because you

don't get them until the night. And they walk in and have all these

techniques to try to keep them walking and make sure they don't

stop for a camera because it's like someone slowing down on the M25,

all the way back down the junctions. It leads to a traffic-jam and

you've got to keep it going. There is a whole science to keep it

moving but the spirit of their faces when they walk into a stadium

and see the welcome which awaits them is really the essence of the

opening ceremony and what it's meant to be about really. You've

got to ignore everybody telling you it's going to be this, it's going

to be that. It's going to be like Beijing. It's going to not be like

Beijing. You've just go to try to grow something through the

personalities of the people you choose to create the show and that

way you will capture London. London will walk in that stadium if you do

it honestly and organically. Rather than say London is this, it's a

fiesta, it's this, it's multicultural. It's this, it that,

it's Morris dancing, it's this, We've been talking a lot about

dance because actually these guys have two huge dance sections of the

show to do. But there are other sections of the show which are not

to do with dance. They are to do with the movement of forces which

again is about as much as I can tell you. They know what I'm

talking about. Words are very important. Music, Shakespeare.

You've got to have Shakespeare in there. If you don't have

Shakespeare, everybody will go, "Where was Shakespeare?" So we're

You get the nitty-gritty of organising it, the money and all

this kind of stuff, and the logistics and it's like, oh. And

suddenly there's this blossoming which is what people feel about the

Olympics, regardless of who runs the Olympics. The Olympic spirit is

about them recognising someone out there now, someone's training on

their own probably. Struggling, training, getting through injury,

to achieve this mark of we can do this. We can actually improve

Training. Struggling. Improving. Out there somewhere. How about

somewhere like the Rift Valley of Kenya? Nearly half a century ago, a

middle and long-distance running revolution began in Africa led by

the men of Kenya. Kenyan women are now catching up fast. This is

Vivian Cheruiyot, double world champion in 2011 in the 5,000m and

This is her home. A runner's Since 1968, Kenyan men have won 20

Olympic gold medals. But the women's list of winners is

Up here where the air is thin, you won't find only Kenyan runners.

Where they work and how they do it are magnets for other runners.

Among them, marathon world-record holder Paula Radcliffe and world

I train with a lot of great athletes here. You know, a lot of

champion, Olympic champion, world champion. To see them just eat,

sleep and train and do nothing else, it opened my eyes for me. It showed

sort of as an athlete, if I ever want to compete with these guys,

what I must need to do. Mo was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. He left his

war-torn country when he was eight and London became his home. Here he

is, not at altitude, but thoroughly grounded with his family, daughter

Rihanna and wife Tania. He showed the potential to be something

special when he first started running. Obviously his PE teacher

was the first to spot that when he was 12 years old or so. So I think

he always had that natural ability. My dad is the best male distance

runner this country has ever seen. You'd better believe it! Mo at the

World Championships last year - silver in the 10,000 and then in

the 5,000. Round and round and round in circles, and my legs were

aching. I got pins and needles! COMMENTATOR: It's gold this time

for Mo Farah! He was happy. I was like, "Yeah! Yeah! He won!" I

pinched myself and I realised it wasn't a dream. She's always made

no secret of the fact that she's proud to see him win but she takes

it for granted a little bit now and I think she expects him to win

every race he's in. He's worked hard every single year for the last

eight years or so, but in the last four, five years in particular, is

where he's knuckled down and said, "Right, something needs to happen

here. If I want to win the World Championships or I want to win the

Olympics, I need to train like an Olympic champion", and that's

exactly what he's done. Suffering for your sport. In the long-

distance game, there's no escaping the pain.

COMMENTATOR: And Paula Radcliffe stopped on the roadside. That's

enough. Her Olympic dream is over. What a sad sight. Six kilometres

short of the distance she's made her own for the last few years.

Paula is now 38. She's had bronchitis this year. She struggled

in the Vienna half-marathon. But she carries on running, training,

living away from her children. me, this has been the hardest thing

that I've done in my running career. We talk a lot about athletes making

sacrifices and things, but I know that this is the one year where I'm

going to do that because I want to leave no stone unturned and make it

count as much as possible to try and get it right for the Olympics,

and it helps that she is now old enough to understand that and we

can talk on Skype two or three times a day. I think without that,

I wouldn't have been able to do it. Perhaps it's worth underlining why

they put themselves through all of this. I think I've heard Mo say, "I

would trade in every medal, every record I've ever broken, for an

Olympic gold medal". Olympic is where it's at. And I've just got to

keep doing what I'm doing, keep improving. I've got to be better

than what I was last year. I am a big believer in perseverance and

that if you kind of persevere on through your share of hard times

then you get your share of good times, too. Hard to believe

considering what I've gone through but I do think that if you work

hard, then it does come around. London Marathon, world records. I

couldn't have run any harder that day. And the same for the World

Championships. The Olympic Games is the one that's missing, especially

in the marathon. I mean, I think I did go and do my best and wasn't

good enough on the track. But I think I should've been and could've

been good enough on the marathon and I still have a chance to do

Working hard in the Rift Valley of Kenya. Next stop, the Lower Lea

Valley in London. 4,000 miles to go. Back on the banks of the River Lea,

just before it joins the River Thames, Scarlett is keeping an eye

on what's been growing up with her 100 days to go in London. 100 to go

in Lausanne, Switzerland, the headquarters of the International

Olympic Committee. The president of the IOC is Jacques Rogge, who

sailed at three Olympics. He played rugby for Belgium. He's a surgeon

and a student of Olympic history who knows why London is the first

city to host the Games three times. You know sports, you love sport,

and by the way, modern sport has been invented by you in the 19th

century. So there is a huge knowledge which is very important

that we not always have found in every Olympic Games. There is the

multicultural factor of London. All these different cultures and

nationalities living next to each other. And ultimately, it's the

appeal of London as a city. Jacques Rogge has presided over every

Olympic Games since Salt Lake City in 2002. London will be his last.

What is his outgoing message? Games are, first of all, of course,

a competition for athletes, but a competition based on much more than

performance alone. It's a competition based on very strong

values. Respect for each other, fair play, transparency and also

the pursuit of excellence. We have worked very hard for the values of

the Games. Fight against doping, fight against corruption, fight

against illegal betting. When there is a problem you have to solve it.

This is probably something I've learned in my earlier profession as

a surgeon. If you have something, you have to operate. You can't let

it rot. You have to operate, and that's what I'm doing in the

Olympic movement. That's the word from the doctor at the top. What

about down at ground level in London? The drugs have obviously

been a huge problem in our sport and it's been a problem in the

Olympics. What are you guys doing that's going to be different?

You're going to come to London and you're going to cheat, then think

really hard about it because the technology, as you know, is better

than it's ever been. I think the overall argument for me, in a way,

has moved on from just simply, how much technology can you keep

throwing at it? In historical terms you had to have a modicum of

sympathy for people that were caught up in systems where they had

little or no alternative but I just don't think there's any ambiguity

about it now. I don't think anybody is genuinely sitting there thinking,

"I don't really understand whether this is right or wrong". Right...

The issues are there - drugs, security, transport, legacy. But

how might London be remembered for all the right reasons? New stars

will be born, and you can't name them, you can't tell so and so. But

they will emerge at the moment of the Games. Like Phelps emerged at

the Games, like Bolt emerged at the Games. There will be other Bolts,

other Phelps. And where would the Belgian Olympic sailor of 1968, '72

and '76 like to be? If I could have one event, I think I would go to

Weymouth and watch the race in the thin class with Ben Ainslie trying

to win a fourth consecutive gold and becoming the best ever sailor

This was my sport. And there you having a young champion like Ben

Ainslie, who's really a phenomenon. Very intelligent, clever guy.

COMMENTATOR: Gold medal for Britain's Ben Ainslie as he lets

the boom slide across his head. His gold here, the most impressive of

them all. He's won one silver and three gold.

If he wins the fourth gold, I think that would be a great moment of

sport. When you're sailing under the pressure that you get in an

Olympic Games and you've got pretty difficult conditions where you can

gain and lose a lot in the flick of an eyelid, then the pressure's

going to be that much more intense. Hopefully, that might play into

guys like myself who've done a few Olympics. What I used to do on the

track was simple. The gun went and I ran as fast as I could. Out here,

on water, it's more subtle. It's one of those sports, you know, 60%

of the time you're obviously racing other guys but you're in your own

space and you're focusing on sailing the boat as fast as you can.

The rest of the time, the boats come together at a mark rounding or

the start or whatever, busy part of the race, and all hell breaks loose

and people are shouting at each I think when things aren't going

right and you're struggling maybe for motivation, those are the

moments when you think about your competitors and the good guys, and

you think, well, I'm pretty sure right now so-and-so is working out

in the gym or out sailing or whatever it is, and am I really

going to let those guys get a jump? So stop moping and get out there

and put some effort into it, yeah. The lone sailor. It's all about

balance. You know, the external pressures from the media and what

have you, those things are always there and I'm sure they'll be

bigger for home athletes in London. From my own perspective, it's the

internal expectations which are the big ones. You know, your own

Back in the city, not everything has been changed beyond recognition

by the Olympic Games. London life goes on as it always has. But the

multi-billion-pound project is It is a long way from here. These

are the street markets of Kabul, Afghanistan. And this is the story

of a young competitor in the sport of Taekwondo. I'm Rohullah Nikpai,

I am from Afghanistan and I live in Kabul. I won bronze medal in

Olympics 2008. I hope to get gold Beijing four years ago. The young

Nikpai wins his bronze medal in the Taekwondo 58-kilo category. But

here's the context. It was Afghanistan's first Olympic

medal...ever. And won by someone who had to flee war in his homeland,

who started in his sport at the age of ten at the Afghan Refugee

Taekwondo Club in Iran. He won his He returned to a hero's welcome in

Kabul. But there is a stark reality to sport in Afghanistan. There are

no billion-dollar training facilities here. Preparing to

compete against the best in the world is a struggle. Living here is

We spend a lot of time weighing up the value of the Olympic Games. Can

they ever be worth all the expense? Can the oath about honouring a

spirit of fair competition ever be taken seriously? In Kabul, they

seem more certain about the value $$YELLOWS From kites over Kabul to

skimming over the waters of home. From a Taekwondo bronze to silver

medals. Three of them for Katherine Grainger. But no gold, yet.

feels like there is unfinished business. I feel there is... But I

see it as a very positive thing. I love the fact that I have something

I haven't got yet and Beijing had been a massive sort of personal

disappointment. We'd been triple world champions in the years

leading up to that point, so anything but gold would've been a

COMMENTATOR: And the Chinese have unleashed an incredible amount of

speed! This is China for the gold medal! It will be another time,

another silver for Great Britain. China, gold. It will be utter,

utter disappointment for Great Britain and also for Katherine

Grainger. Katherine... You know, silver and silver and silver?

the bridesmaid. After all these near-misses as part of a crew, it

was time to go it alone. So at the World Championships in Poznan,

Poland three years ago, here she is as a single sculler. For the first

time in years it wasn't about winning. It wasn't about, "I'm

going to go out there to try and win". It was about just almost

recapturing what I loved about rowing. And I don't think I or

anyone expected that I'd be able to medal in that event.

COMMENTATOR: It is a fabulous result here from Katherine Grainger.

It's a silver medal. But today, Katherine Grainger has made history.

I was over the moon. I got so many comments. People going, "Oh, now

you're happy with silver!", you know, after Beijing. And it was

something I'm incredibly proud of on the back of an incredibly

difficult previous year. And I just sort of did it and thought, "Yeah,

I'm back". And back in a team paired with Anna Watkins in the

double sculls. They clicked, winning the World Championships in

New Zealand in 2010 and the next year's in Slovenia. There is a bit

of an X factor. There's a little bit of a "why does it just work so

well?" You know, when there's two people in a boat it's a very

intense partnership, and then you go through huge highs and lows

together. But when it works, when you get it right, when you have

that affinity, it is something that's incredibly special and very

powerful between us. And does the bridesmaid now dare to dream of

what may be in London? I dream of an Olympic gold medal and it's

something I would dearly love. It's a huge motivator. But a very

positive one. I don't live in fear of... "What if it doesn't happen?"

It doesn't mean it'll be less scary to do. It will be, you know... When

the big moment comes, it'll be terrifying. It will be the biggest

Scarlett at the age of nine, training for one day in the future.

At that same age, someone else was thinking of competing at the

Olympic Games. I think I was nine when I drew this. It's me doing a

handstand in the Olympics in London 2012.

COMMENTATOR: Tom Daley. 14 years of age... It's good! It's very good.

Tom Daley didn't have to wait for London. This was him in Beijing,

getting his head around the Olympic experience at the age of 14. When

you're stood on the end of the diving board, you look down and you

see on the bottom of the pool the Olympic rings, saying "Beijing

2008", and you're like, "Wow, now this is real", kind of thing.

Tumbling down from the ten-metre platform, you're on your own up

there. A teenager needs back-up. The family. Tom, come and give me a

cuddle, please. Come on, please! Tom! In May last year, Tom's father,

Robert, died of a brain tumour at the age of 40. My parents have

always been so supportive of everything that I've done and my

dad used to take me to training every day, watched every training

session, and also things like my mum helped towards teaching me to

drive as well cos now I've passed my driving test I can drive to

training, and that's made things a lot easier. They were never in any

way pushy and it was me pushing them to say, "Right, come on Mum,

come on, Dad, I need to get to training". Cos I'm a bit of a

perfectionist and I think any Olympic athlete that wants to

strive to win gold, I think you have to be a bit of a perfectionist.

# I'm sexy and I know it! # In 2009, Tom became world champion

on the ten-metre platform. Since then, he's trying to stay... Normal.

I'm still at school doing A-levels. I still enjoy going on Facebook and

Twitter. I'm a mad fan of that. And, yeah, I see my friends on the

weekend just like any other 17- year-old would.

This is how I roll, come on ladies! It's time to go. We're heading to

the bar... And I don't bother looking at any

other media. I don't want the opinions of people from the media.

I've just got to make sure I'm concentrating and focusing on my

performance because for me, that's the most important thing, is that I

train hard and I compete well. Olympic dream... I guess we've all

had it. Not like this one. strangest dream I've had about 2012

would be, I win the Olympic Games. And all of a sudden, I just see

this shark come out from the bottom of the pool and it's waiting for me

to land in it, and I'm thinking, is that a shark there or am I thinking

it? And so I had to take off and I was spinning around, and all of a

sudden I landed in the shark's Then I was obviously died at the

time because I got eaten by the shark and then... Yeah, I can

remember the dream, like having news channels saying "Olympic diver

dies by shark attack in chlorine pool". Yeah, but that's very

strange. I don't know what my imagination was doing then. I'm not

sure there's an answer to that. To explain the strange ways of men and

women and water, perhaps we should ask the greatest Olympic swimmer of

them all, Michael Phelps. doesn't matter about world records

or the gold medals or any of that. It's just all about being able to

put your mind to something and actually going for it and never

giving up. Michael is from Baltimore, Maryland. He followed

his two older sisters into the swimming pool and soon overtook

them. I knew that Michael was something special the first I saw

him swim in a swimming heat. He was ten years old. "OK, Michael should

be doing this in 2000 and this in 2004 and this in 2008, and 2012 is

going to be the best Olympics ever". "I'm like, "Wait, Bob, Michael's 11

years old and he's a kid. When he was 15, he swam at the Sydney

Olympic Games and won nothing. But at the next Games in Athens, he won

six golds and two bronze medals. And in Beijing, eight straight

goals. --golds. COMMENTATOR What a supreme athlete!

I cannot believe he's just done that! The guy is invincible!

Michael Phelps is the greatest! Absolutely brilliant! And then he

stopped. He took stock. He enjoyed life on dry land. Michael, it's

your first trip to London! He did the rounds, he partied hard and

then he plunged back into the pool. But can he ever be as good as he

was in Beijing? You know, I know that there are some things I need

to do to get back into shape and really just not being satisfied

with some of the swims that I have had over the last couple of years,

Michael Phelps back in the water. He'll be 27 years old at the 2012

Olympics, his fourth Games. That makes him the old man of the sea,

stroking his way into the sunset. This is the last little chapter for

me as an athlete and I'm just hoping it goes the way that I want

and I'm trying to work as hard as I I've found myself looking back here,

reminded of what the Olympic Games were for me. But I think that's all

part of the experience. Memories. Or looking forward like Scarlett to

what will be. And all around us, the city as it is, living the

Olympic present, counting down, 100 days to go. So I'm sure it's a

tremendous amount of pressure and excitement as well. Which one's

dominating right now? There's probably a bit of both. And I'd say

it's the best job in the world. If you got a Games in your own

backyard, what else would you want to be doing at the moment other

than being part of a team delivering it? Right. Thank you,

It's a great city, a great atmosphere. London's going to be a

You know, it could pour down, which would change every single thing in

the show right there and then, just like that! It'll flog them because

it does do sometimes. And it's Britain and it would be a way in

which the gods of Britain would say, "This is the real Britain. It rains,

As soon as you get that first gold medal, you're a champion. You know

what you need to do to be a champion. I was in my head, "Can I

The stadium looks fantastic. It's just a real honour that we're able

to create something like that in our home country. It's going to be

Way in front... We were very glad to come out on top. Thank you.

look at the champions, we know what they had to do to get to that stage.

We admire them, we respect them, and in a way, we appropriate them a

You want to be able to look back at the end of your career and go, you