Freshwater Academy coaches London 2012 Olympic bid team

Freshwater Academy was chosen to provide speaker coaching to the London 2012 Olympic bid team in preparation for its presentation to the IOC on 6 July 2005. Freshwater Academy trainer, Lloyd Bracey, gives his personal account of how the bid was won.

"I have made this letter longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter."
Blaise Pascal, 1657

The words of a Frenchman centuries ago, but I believe they help us to understand why London won the 2012 Games and perhaps why Paris did not.

Words and pictures can never have been more closely scrutinised than those that Seb and Co presented in that hall in Singapore on 6 July.

When I first saw the presentation script at London 2012's offices in Canary Wharf in June, it was already clear that the groundwork had been well done. The bid was technically sound. The team had been working on it for years. Many highly capable experts and consultants had designed it and decided what was to be in the all-important final presentation.

Just a few weeks earlier the bid had cleared the final hurdle - approval by the IOC's Evaluation Commission. It looked like a choice between London and Paris. I read a news bulletin on the ITV News Channel on 6 June saying so. I had no idea then that one month later I would be intimately acquainted with every word - every letter - in the presentation.

It had taken many years and a daunting sum of money to get even this far. There are people in the 2012 organisation who had a vision of a London games while many others were sneering at the idea.

Now it all hinged on a 45-minute presentation to the 116 members of the IOC in Singapore for their 117th session. Each candidate country had 45 minutes to state its case. Another 15 minutes were allowed for questions. There would certainly be questions. Prince Albert of Monaco would be bound to ask questions. He was about to assume the monarchical duties of his late father, and perhaps he wanted the sporting world to know that he had their interests at heart.

The London presentation was to be a combination of short speeches and films. No one knew how strict the IOC would be in keeping it all on time - there had been some capricious time-keeping at the presentation in Ghana a few weeks before. It would be a calamity for the bid if Lord Coe was forced to stop before the finish. So the prime requirement was that it must not over-run. The team arrived in Singapore and at last had the chance to run through a near-final version with all the elements in place. It was clear that something would have to go. It was too long.

My job as voice coach was to work with the speakers - Seb Coe, Denise Lewis, Craig Reedie, Ken Livingstone and Tessa Jowell - to make sure that everything came out the way it was meant to - that words on the page came to life on the ear.

Seb knew this. "Athletes crave criticism," he said. "They want to be told what they're doing wrong. That's why you're here." He was as good as his word.

The resort island of Sentosa, south of Singapore was where the final intricate detail was to be forged. We mocked up the Raffles Convention Centre hall and rehearsed the presentations again and again, under the strictest security.

Still too long. We saw all the film inserts for the first time. They were inspirational. Five-minute masterpieces. Not a wasted frame. But still too long. We worked early and late. We weighed every word. We made time to obey Pascal's Principle. We made it shorter.

Seb was out for gold. There was that same tenacity in his manner - the tireless way he'd go over things again and again - that must have driven him to two Olympic gold medals.

Denise didn't mind admitting she was nervous. In her career as a heptathlete she was quite happy to run, hurdle, jump and throw in front of thousands of spectators, but presenting for her country was different. She, too, was happy to go over her speech many times, trying this emphasis, that pause until there was no time left.

Even Mayor Ken - the most experienced of our speakers - was keen to rehearse as much as time allowed. "I'm used to making speeches," he said, "but this is a presentation."

Craig Reedie, one of Britain's IOC members, began his presentation in French - the other official language of the Olympic movement. He knew he would always sound like a Scot speaking French, but he wanted to make sure the audience would understand clearly not just the language but the implied respect to his francophone colleagues on the IOC.

All the main team members had important work away from the presentation rehearsals - press conferences, briefings, meetings and lobbying. The demands on their time meant that we had to fit the one-on-one sessions in where and when we could.

We had reached a point where what was to be said and how it was to be said were inextricably linked. If the presenters were to speak with authority and conviction, the words had to sound natural in their mouths.

I didn't see the early version of Seb's closing speech. The script I saw was his own, written in long-hand with a week to go. His decision to end the presentation on a personal note was inspired. No more facts, figures, statistics and detailed promises and stirring graphics. Just a from-the-heart story of how the Olympic flame was lit in him.

More changes, more chipping away until the presentation was safely within the allotted time. We would fine ourselves an imaginary pound for a wasted word. It became a sport to seek them out. "Hah! A pound there," one of our little team would shout exultantly, and a skulking adjective was deleted.

Rumours from the other camps about what was in their presentations reached the 2012 team hotel, each of them the cause of excited and anxious discussion. The one that worried people most was that the French had a long film by leading director Luc Besson. It was the majority of their presentation. It was very good. And Chirac was going to speak in person.

And it was indeed a clever film and a considered presentation. But the modern equivalent of Blaise Pascal's words is that less is more. The French might have used their time to say less. Their film and speeches were a dizzying onslaught of facts and figures - many of which members of the IOC must already have heard countless times.

If rumours from rival camps caused a moment's wobble, it was soon forgotten. Everyone knew that the London bid was sound and the time for any substantial change was past.

Still the midnight oil was burned, anticipating the questions from Prince Albert and his distinguished colleagues. If one of them had asked how many flavours of ice cream would be on sale to the crowd at the sailing events in Weymouth in 2012, someone would doubtless have had the answer.

When Craig rose to speak, I knew that every word and every image in that presentation had earned its place.

When Seb sat down, I knew that not even another four years to prepare could have made a finer presentation.

We'll never know how many IOC votes were decided on the day, but London won by four votes. I think the presentation had something to do with it.