ABSTRACT

As the Olympic and Paralympic Games drew to a close in London in the summer of 2012, Lord Coe, the head of the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), was asked to name his most memorable moment:

If I had to choose, I would probably say the British people, who day after day, filled our stadiums and turned them into theatres of sport. They also lined our streets to cheer on athletes and gave people from around the world the warmest of welcomes. That for me has been, in a way, the defining part during these games.

(Butt, 2012: 85; italics ours; see also VisitBritain, 2012: 22)