ContinueWas it really seven years' ago that London won the bid to stage the 2012 Olympic Games?
Well now it's one week to go, just one week before the Olympic flame is lit above the Olympic Stadium in the East End of our capital city and the Games get underway.
There's always much to knock about the way we go about our business. It's a British trait. We don't like to take ourselves too seriously, and if we can self-deprecate, we will.
But as I walked around the Olympic Park this week, taking in the main stadium, the acquatics centre, the velodrome, basketball arena and hockey stadium, I suddenly realised that London had pulled it off. Save for a quick lick of paint in the next few days we are ready to stage the greatest sporting show on earth.
Inside that Olympic Stadium we will witness Olympian feats from our travelling friends, such as Usain Bolt and Kenenisa Bekele, and from our very own track and field stars, like Jess Ennis, Mo Farah and Dai Greene.
Just beside the stadium we will see more in the pool,where Michael Phelps will take on Ryan Lochte and the likes of Becky Adlinton, Kerri-Anne Payne, Fran Halsall and Liam Tancock will be swimming for gold.
Just a few minutes north we will see Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton mining for more gold too. Up until now the Olympic Park has been more like a building site, a pipe dream for the capital. Now it is ready, Team GB are ready and so are we. I predict Britain's greatest medal haul since the turn of the last century, both in total and in golds.
We have a team of athletes inspired by a once in a lifetime opportunity to compete at the Olympics in front of a home crowd. I fancy they will take the chance with aplomb, as will London. Sure, there may be the odd travel and security glitch, but when the Olympic fire is burning and young, British men and women fulfil the endless years of sacrifice with success inside the Olympic Park, and elsewhere in Eton with the rowers, and in Weymouth, with the sailors, this country will feel a surge of pride that only sport can deliver.
Just one week to go, then. Just one week. Savour this moment in time and history, because we will be talking about the London Olympics for the rest of our lives.
