When London stages the Games in 2012, organising chairman Lord Sebastian Coe faces a very different challenge to those he faced on the track. During a tour of Beijing's Olympic venues, I asked whether it compared to the 1980 Moscow Olympics when, having lost in his favourite distance of 800m to his great rival Steve Ovett, he then went on to win in Ovett's favourite distance of 1500m. Coe's reaction was a barely disguised smile. But I suspect it attempted to hide the fact that he considers this the greater challenge, although as the fascinating story of London's successful bid for 2012 shows, Coe has been very adept at reinventing himself for new challenges and proving his detractors wrong. Back in October 2002 when the government was being very reluctantly pushed into bidding for the Olympics by the British Olympic...
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