Olympics contrast with older games

The Olympics which will take place in London next year will be a world away from the same event that was last staged in the city in 1948. Food, clothing and fuel was rationed as the nation was still suffering from the effects of World War II.

Scarred by the Blitz, London had stepped in at the last minute to stage the global event, which became known as the Austerity Games.

Preparations were completed in about two years for the first Games to be staged in 12 years.

With London 2012, the city can now proudly boast of a hat-trick as host city.

London first staged the Games in 1908 at White City.

The 1948 Games used the cinder track of Wembley Stadium as a centrepiece while London 2012 will have a new £486 million stadium in Stratford, east London, as the main Olympic venue.

Official records put the cost of London 1908 at around £15,000.

This figure did not allow for the construction of a new stadium at Shepherds Bush which was provided by the Franco-British Exhibition for around £60,000. Total receipts amounted to £21,500 of which £15,850 was donated, the figures state. Receipts for the 1948 Games put the cost at about £762,000.

The spending included £732,000 which helped to pay for housing, feeding and transporting teams while they were in England.

No new venues were built.

The £9.3 billion Olympic project for London 2012, delivered in the middle of a global economic downturn, is now heading into its final leg.

Bids to help secure the future of the 2012 Olympic Stadium have reopened after the original decision that West Ham should make it their home was hamstrung by a string of legal challenges.

The venue will be where the opening and closing Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies will be held. The ceremonies budget has risen an extra £40 million to £80 million after the government stepped in.

Back in 1948 Fanny Blankers-Koen, a 30-year-old mother of two, dubbed the Flying Dutch housewife, was one of the stars of the event.

She stands alone as the only woman to have matched Jessie Owens and Carl Lewis by winning four athletics gold medals at a single Olympics – in London 1948.

There could have been greater success for the outstanding allrounder but for a rule preventing female athletes from participating in more than three individual events.

Britain won three gold medals in 1948. Rowers Bert Bushnell and Richard Burnell won the double sculls.

Jack Wilson and Ran Laurie, the father of actor Hugh Laurie, won the coxless pairs.

Sailors David Bond and Stewart Morris brought home the gold in the men’s Swallow class.

It is hard to believe that Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, 25, will not be one of the big names in 2012.

He could compete in four events. Nothing has yet been confirmed but he wants to at least defend his Olympic titles in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m – all of which are events where he also holds the world record.

Britain finished fourth at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with 19 gold medals, 13 silver and 15 bronze in the nations most successful Olympics for 100 years.

ParalympicsGB will have to aim high on home soil to match, or even beat, the 42 golds, 29 silvers and 31 bronze medals won at the 2008 Games.