On the night of the first dress rehearsal for the opening ceremony, the central line of the London Underground closed down for hours because of track failure, leaving 40,000 attendees struggling with alternative transport. This didn?t make them outraged enough to defy ceremony director Danny Boyle?s plea to ?save the surprise? for the four billion who are expected to watch the ceremony on television today (we will be staying up after midnight to do this). A security scandal has meant paratroopers have been shunted in to help out at the last minute, in emergency accommodations whose wretchedness reportedly rivals their Afghanistan bunkers. But the same reports admit that their civic confidence is soaring. Thousands of Home Office staff threatened a 24-hour strike in protest against compulsory redundancies, wage freezes, privatisation, etc, the day before the Olympics opening, to coincide with what is expected to be the busiest day in Heathrow’s history. But they have been persuaded to desist. One could go on, but the point is that the London Olympic Games have been no less plagued by scandal than Delhi?s Commonwealth Games. Even the weather is playing truant. After the wettest June on record, July is also proving slushy, with venues struggling against waterlogging. Latest GDP data shows the economy continues to shrink. Yet the overall Games narrative is buoyant. And herein lies the difference with Delhi: Leadership.
The chairman of the London 2012 organising committee Sebastian Coe is a politician, but with an exemplary sporting past. He won gold in the 1,500 metres race at two successive Olympics (a feat that remains unbeaten to date) and achieved 11 world records. He has been the indefatigable front-man for the Games since 2004, when London bid for the Games. He has taken a wrong step here and there, but rarely passed the buck. He has ?imported? athletes to boost Britain?s medals tally. He has championed the sponsors. He has relied on a competent chief executive. Sports accustomed him to failure and prepared him to concentrate on success. He has had no illusions that the much-vaunted Games legacy will not survive without ?successive cabinet ministers, London mayors, borough leaders, prime ministers? really driving it forward, but nothing can now take from London a high-tech operations centre offering unprecedented co-ordination among 17 organisations including rail, buses and the police.
Leadership matters. Precedence matters. Mary Kom was inspired to become a boxer when Dingko Singh won gold at the 1998 Asian Games. Abhinav Bindra wouldn?t have won India its first individual Olympic gold were it not for seeing Rajyavardhan Rathore win the silver medal at Athens in 2004. Tonight, we will see Boyle reprise Blake?s glorious Jerusalem: ?Bring me my bow of burning gold! Bring me my arrows of desire!? And think, every chariot of fire rides to glory or doom depending on its steward.