Coe’s lordly challenge
From our UK edition
Britain can look back with pride and nostalgia to the great Olympic Games of the past. London in 1908, and the so-called ‘austerity Games’ of 1948, were great triumphs. Against the odds of time and money, these were Games to savour — etched in the memory with flickering black-and-white images of hope. This is the third time that London has held the Games (no other city can match this) but London has bid for them only once — for the 2012 Games. The Olympics of 1908 and 1948 came to London because no-one else wanted them. Bizarrely, and this may tell us much about Britain’s sporting and class-bound heritage, all three of London’s Games have been masterminded by lords. The latest of the trio is Lord Coe, Baron Coe of Ranmore.