With July 27 marking the one-year countdown to the Games, Coe described the remaining phase of the build-up in athletic terms as the crucial “killing zone” stretch. “Testing is such a crucial part of the process,” Coe told Reuters. “Nobody wants to go to an Olympic final and risk being thrown something you haven't confronted with 200 times before on the training track.”
Coe continued: “The challenges going forward are making sure we learn as much as we possibly can from the testing...that our teams are all pointing in the right direction and all focusing absolutely on the things that need focusing on and over the coming year we know what those are.”
Coe added that “what we have within our control is under control”, but said: “I am not that cavalier that I don't recognise there are things that will come at us in the last year that you don't always foresee.” He also acknowledged that transport will be a significant part of the project.
“You can't by conscience bring them (the athletes) to a city where transport unravels within 10 minutes of the opening ceremony, or bring them to venues that don't work or a village that isn't creating that ambience or environment that they need to compete at the highest level,” he said.
