The stage is ready and also the athletes are primed because the seven-year countdown to the London 2012 Olympics reaches its finale with Friday's much-anticipated gap ceremony.
The three-hour spectacle, expected to be watched by a worldwide tv audience of up to 1 billion, will mark
But London is making ready for its own intense examination as queries over the city's creaking transport system and also the ever-present security threat droop over the event, able to overshadow on-track achievements.
Prime Minister David Cameron insisted on Thursday that Britain would deliver a memorable Games once US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney backtracked on barbed comments he created concerning the preparations.
The Republican hopeful, in London to attend Friday's gap, said the build-up had been "disconcerting", pointing to the failure of a non-public security contractor to produce the quantity of guards it had promised.
Cameron responded by saying he was certain Britons would get behind the Games despite an economic downturn -- and took an evident swipe at Romney's past as head of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake town.
"We are holding an Olympic Games in one in every of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere within the world," Cameron said.
"Of course it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games within the middle of nowhere."
Sneak previews of the £27 million ($42 million, thirty five million euros) gap ceremony -- filmed at Wednesday's final rehearsal -- counsel it'll be a grand however quirky production, reflecting the philosophy of director Danny Boyle.
The Slumdog Millionaire Oscar-winner has promised to form a "picture people as a nation" and revealed the eccentric show can feature live sheep and dancing surgeons from the National Health Service.
Thousands of VIPs as well as some one hundred twenty national leaders are in city for the event, with guests starting from Angelina Jolie and US initial woman Michelle Obama to the king of Swaziland.
Germany's Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda are among the leaders set to attend whereas Michelle Obama can head the US delegation.
Prince William and his wife Catherine beside a flock of European royals as well as Prince Albert of Monaco can watch Britain's 86-year-old monarch Queen Elizabeth II officially open the Games.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev can lead Russia's delegation though President Vladimir Putin has indicated he could fly in later to observe the judo, within which he's a black belt.
British soccer legend David Beckham said he can perform some role at the ceremony despite not being selected for Team GB, fueling gossip he could also be given the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron.
From the globe of showbusiness, Hollywood mega-couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt can attend once hosting a star-studded charity dinner for boxing icon Muhammad Ali on Wednesday, that counted racing driver Lewis Hamilton and actress Rosario Dawson among its guests.
Audience members at Wednesday's rehearsal promised the show would be a spine-tingling extravaganza.
The crowd at the eighty,000-seater Olympic Stadium in Stratford, a previously run-down space of east London, were full of enthusiasm as they flooded out.
"That was fully wonderful. I needed to whoop," said Hilary Midgley from Darwen in northwest England. "It was beyond my wildest expectations."
But with the spotlight of the globe on Britain, authorities are acutely alert to the phobia threat.
An additional four,700 troops are deployed in recent days to form up the shortfall in guards provided by large contractor G4S.
Anti-aircraft missiles are placed on rooftops and a warship is anchored within the River Thames as a part of the country's biggest ever peacetime security operation.
A force of over forty,000 military and civilian personnel, backed by an enormous intelligence operation, has turned the British capital into a fortress to shield venues, athletes and several guests.
Cameron on Thursday stressed that security "matters over something else".
"I suppose we've created as several preparations as we will. i believe we've got superb contingency plans in place," Cameron said at a press conference with chief Games organiser Sebastian Coe in front of the Olympic Stadium.
Ten times Olympic medallist Carl Lewis captured the building sense of anticipation on Thursday.
"The Olympics is that the solely event where the globe stops," he said.
"If you are the smallest country with the fewest individuals within the world or the largest country with the foremost individuals within the world, everyone's allowed and everybody is invited, thus it is a good thing as a result of you get to envision the globe and also the world sees you," he added.
The three-hour spectacle, expected to be watched by a worldwide tv audience of up to 1 billion, will mark
But London is making ready for its own intense examination as queries over the city's creaking transport system and also the ever-present security threat droop over the event, able to overshadow on-track achievements.
Prime Minister David Cameron insisted on Thursday that Britain would deliver a memorable Games once US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney backtracked on barbed comments he created concerning the preparations.
The Republican hopeful, in London to attend Friday's gap, said the build-up had been "disconcerting", pointing to the failure of a non-public security contractor to produce the quantity of guards it had promised.
Cameron responded by saying he was certain Britons would get behind the Games despite an economic downturn -- and took an evident swipe at Romney's past as head of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake town.
"We are holding an Olympic Games in one in every of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere within the world," Cameron said.
"Of course it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games within the middle of nowhere."
Sneak previews of the £27 million ($42 million, thirty five million euros) gap ceremony -- filmed at Wednesday's final rehearsal -- counsel it'll be a grand however quirky production, reflecting the philosophy of director Danny Boyle.
The Slumdog Millionaire Oscar-winner has promised to form a "picture people as a nation" and revealed the eccentric show can feature live sheep and dancing surgeons from the National Health Service.
Thousands of VIPs as well as some one hundred twenty national leaders are in city for the event, with guests starting from Angelina Jolie and US initial woman Michelle Obama to the king of Swaziland.
Germany's Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda are among the leaders set to attend whereas Michelle Obama can head the US delegation.
Prince William and his wife Catherine beside a flock of European royals as well as Prince Albert of Monaco can watch Britain's 86-year-old monarch Queen Elizabeth II officially open the Games.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev can lead Russia's delegation though President Vladimir Putin has indicated he could fly in later to observe the judo, within which he's a black belt.
British soccer legend David Beckham said he can perform some role at the ceremony despite not being selected for Team GB, fueling gossip he could also be given the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron.
From the globe of showbusiness, Hollywood mega-couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt can attend once hosting a star-studded charity dinner for boxing icon Muhammad Ali on Wednesday, that counted racing driver Lewis Hamilton and actress Rosario Dawson among its guests.
Audience members at Wednesday's rehearsal promised the show would be a spine-tingling extravaganza.
The crowd at the eighty,000-seater Olympic Stadium in Stratford, a previously run-down space of east London, were full of enthusiasm as they flooded out.
"That was fully wonderful. I needed to whoop," said Hilary Midgley from Darwen in northwest England. "It was beyond my wildest expectations."
But with the spotlight of the globe on Britain, authorities are acutely alert to the phobia threat.
An additional four,700 troops are deployed in recent days to form up the shortfall in guards provided by large contractor G4S.
Anti-aircraft missiles are placed on rooftops and a warship is anchored within the River Thames as a part of the country's biggest ever peacetime security operation.
A force of over forty,000 military and civilian personnel, backed by an enormous intelligence operation, has turned the British capital into a fortress to shield venues, athletes and several guests.
Cameron on Thursday stressed that security "matters over something else".
"I suppose we've created as several preparations as we will. i believe we've got superb contingency plans in place," Cameron said at a press conference with chief Games organiser Sebastian Coe in front of the Olympic Stadium.
Ten times Olympic medallist Carl Lewis captured the building sense of anticipation on Thursday.
"The Olympics is that the solely event where the globe stops," he said.
"If you are the smallest country with the fewest individuals within the world or the largest country with the foremost individuals within the world, everyone's allowed and everybody is invited, thus it is a good thing as a result of you get to envision the globe and also the world sees you," he added.
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