27 July 2012, London, United Kingdom
All my life I have loved sport. You have to love sport to compete at it. There is a truth to sport, a purity, a drama, an intensity, a spirit that makes it irresistible to take part in and irresistible to watch.
London 2012 seeks to capture all of this. London 2012 will inspire a generation.
In every Olympic sport there is all that matters in life. Humans stretched to the limit of their abilities, inspired by what they can achieve, driven by their talent to work harder than they can believe possible, living for the moment but making an indelible mark upon history.
To the athletes, gathered here on the eve of this great endeavor, I say that to you is given something precious and irreplaceable. To run faster, to jump higher, to be stronger.
To my fellow countrymen, I say thank you, thank you for making all this possible.
In the next two weeks we will show all that has made London one of the greatest cities in the world. The only city to have welcomed the Games three times. Each time we have done it when the world faced turbulence and trouble. And each time the Games have been a triumph.
Our history as a thriving commercial center, as a place where the people of all nations have for centuries come to meet, as a city which never stands still, this history has prepared us for today.
For us too, for every Briton, just as the competitors, this is our time. And one day we will tell our children and our grandchildren that when our time came we did it right.
Let us determine, all of us, all over the world, that London 2012 will see the very best of us.