Khan to front London's Olympic bid
Boxing hero Amir Khan was today unveiled as an ambassador for London’s 2012 Olympic bid and the teenager has already been ear-marked as an important figure in the campaign.
Khan, who won silver in Athens, was paraded with other leading members of the bid team at the Labour Party conference in Brighton this morning, and after receiving a standing ovation from delegates pledged to do all he can to help bring the Olympics to London.
The 17-year-old lightweight is not a Londoner – he is from Bolton – but bid leaders see him as one of the faces of multi-cultural British sport, which is one of the key platforms of their campaign.
He did not rule out fighting in the 2012 Games, although if turns professional before then he would not he able to compete.
Khan, today chosen as Britain’s Best Young Boxer of the Year, told the Press Association: “I want to be part of the bid and try my best to bring the Olympics to London.
“I have had a taste of the Olympics in Athens and I know from the support the British athletes had out there how great it would be to have the Games in the UK.
“I’m still young, hopefully I will be going to the next Olympics if all goes according to plan, and after that who knows what might happen. There’s a chance I could be there in 2012 too – I would only be 25.”
Bid chairman Sebastian Coe was also given a rousing reception at the conference – a unique occurrence for a former Tory minister – and he welcomed Khan as one of the most important faces of the bid.
Coe said: “One of the points we make is that of all the bidding cities out there, London and the UK are the most culturally diverse city and country and Amir is a great example of that.
“We have had a very good reception at the conference. My responsibility is to make sure the message gets through to everybody to ensure a unified bid so I have been to the TUC congress and the Labour Party conference, I will be going to the Conservative Party conference next week and then the CBI conference in November.”
Meanwhile, the bid team are quietly pleased the International Olympic Committee’s evaluation team will visit London between 16-19 February, during the half-term break for schools in the capital.
Transport has been seen as one of the major obstacles to a successful bid and campaign leaders believe that the drop in traffic will almost mirror the fall that is experienced during the month of August when the Games would be staged.
The evaluation commission, led by Morocco’s Nawal El Moutawakel, the women’s 400metres hurdles champion at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, will visit Madrid on February 3, then London, New York (February 21-24), Paris (March 9-12) and Moscow (March 14-17).
IOC members will receive a copy of the evaluation team’s report about a month before the final vote in Singapore on July 6.
