Coe: UK has 'mountain to climb'

Sebastian Coe admitted today he had a “mountain to climb” as he carried out his first official engagement as chairman of London’s 2012 Olympic bid.

But the double Olympic gold medallist, who yesterday dramatically replaced American-born Barbara Cassani as board chairman, said he believed the Games were “winnable”.

He was speaking at the start of a whistle-stop tour of the South West to drum up support for London’s bid.

Coe started the day at the Hustyns hotel, near Wadebridge, Cornwall, where Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Audley Harrison trained.

After meeting business leaders, he posed for photographers in the hotel’s gym.

He said Tuesday’s announcement that London had been short-listed as one of five cities to vie for the honour of hosting the 2012 Games only put the bid “on the start line”.

He added: “I have never entered a competition I haven’t felt was winnable, and I think this is winnable. But I recognise we’ve got a mountain to climb.”

The retired athlete and former Conservative MP said he would travel around the country to rally the people behind the bid.

He said: “This is a London Games, and understandably it’s a bid centred on one city. But this has to be a UK-wide bid.

“The International Olympic Committee are not going to give the Games to any country unless they feel there is a passion for them in that country.”

He said that all 220 countries competing in the Olympics would need training camps, meaning winning the bid could have economic benefits for the whole UK.

Staging the Games would also provide a “shop window” on athletics which would encourage more youngsters to take up sport, he added.

Coe then flew by helicopter to the new Exeter offices of EDF Energy, one of the first companies to back the London bid, where he was due to meet representatives of local businesses, councils and sports groups.

This evening, he will visit the Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy in Dorset, which will host Olympic sailing events if London wins the Games.