?I have to say a massive ?thank you? to the people here for the extraordinary atmosphere they are creating in our venues,? he said. ?I have now visited 16 sports and I have been absolutely blown away by the noise, the vibrancy, just the humour and excitement there.
?Clearly the public has come out in force to support these Games. They have embraced these Games. I never sensed anyone was going to sit this dance out. Well, they’re not. The Olympic Park is buzzing.?
Coe also reserved special praise for London 2012?s team of volunteer ?Games Makers?.
?Let me pay tribute to the Games Makers,? he said. ?Everywhere I go people are telling me they are informative, funny, amusing, kind, helpful ? everything we wanted in our volunteer teams.?
Paul Deighton, London 2012 Chief Executive, was also keen to highlight the success of the Games from an operational perspective, with three million spectators flooding into venues over the opening five days.
?Overall we are really delighted with the way our venues are operating,? he said. ?A lot of work has gone into how we have built them, whether they are permanent venues, temporary venues, or existing venues which have been adapted and turned into Olympic venues.?
Despite the success of London 2012 so far, the complexity of running the Games means that the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) is working harder than ever.
Added Deighton: ?For the past seven years, we have been putting plans in place, putting the workforce in place, putting our venues and other facilities in place and putting the technology in place to run this extraordinary event, and of course the first five days is when you work out whether you have done all that well enough to make it work, when you adjust your plans in the parts where it is not quite in tune to get those right, and when you make sure your capacity for resolving the issues you get right across the events are quick and effective, so that is really from an operational point of view how we have been focused over these first five days.?