The one-year countdown to the 2012 Olympics gets under way today in London, with British diver Tom Daley set to plunge into the waters of the Olympic Park's Aquatics Centre while International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge will make a formal invitation for athletes to participate at the Games in time-honoured tradition.
Rogge will issue the invitation in a televised address at 7:00pm local time as Londoners get a first glimpse of a graph representation of how the city will look when key buildings and parts of the city are "dressed" for the Games.
Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012 organising committee (LOCOG), said preparations for the July 27-August 12 games were firmly on course, with construction on most venues already completed.
"We are fully on track, we are on schedule, and we are within budget with one year to go and I take particular pride in that," Lord Coe told journalists. "One year to go is a defining moment in the history of an Olympic Games. Jacques Rogge will in essence be inviting the world to the Games, and we want to be able to show the world that we're getting ready to host them."
While construction work for the Games has been smooth, organisers have come under fire over the distribution for tickets to the Games, which saw hundreds of thousands of applicants get nothing. Coe blamed "unprecedented" demand, with around 23 million applications for tickets made by some two million people.
