For our Government, hosting the Games in 2012 is the greatest honour and responsibility the Olympic movement could bestow on us.
Entrusting to London the Olympic values of tolerance, peace and humanity. Values that under-pin the power of sport as a force for good.
We have a vision of what the Games would do for sport across our whole country. You have heard about the legacy for London. You have seen our plans. They are ambitious. But, as every athlete with tell you, it is ambition that drives us to succeed.
To succeed in forging the link between hosting the Games in London and increasing participation in sport and physical activity among people of all ages across the whole country.
It is this investment in sport that will help us to beat the epidemic of obesity in adults which is now also affecting increasing numbers of our children.
We are doing this by building partnerships between schools so that by 2008 all our children will have at least two hours a week of high-quality sport in modern facilities.
The ambition to boost participation in sport and physical activity is for everyone. Now in the UK seven out of ten young people give up sport when they leave school.
Our target is that by 2020 we will have reversed that trend so that then at least seven out ten of young people and adults will exercise regularly for half an hour, five times a week.
And it follows that this increased participation will boost the numbers of young people directly involved in Olympic sports from the grassroots to the elite performers. This is the richest legacy – for Britain, sport and the Olympic movement.
The decision to bid for the Games is supported by people in every region of the UK and just as every region wants the Games for London so our wider plans will ensure that every region of our country benefits.
We have already built a strong alliance to deliver these Games, between the British Olympic Association, the Mayor of London and our Government. The driving purpose of that partnership is to deliver the best ever Games in London in 2012.
And, in pledging the support of our Government, our Prime Minister Tony Blair is giving voice to the ambitions of the British people, that their passion for sport is realised in this way.
