Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Seb Coe says ‘impossible’ to move Rio Olympics to London

Seb Coe

DUBLIN, IRELAND - NOVEMBER 19: Lord Seb Coe talks to the audience during the IRB World Rugby Conference and Exhibition at the Ballsbridge Hotel on November 19, 2013 in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo by Tom Shaw/Getty Images for IRB)

Getty Images for IRB

The head of the 2012 Olympic organizing committee said there’s no way the 2016 Olympics could be staged in London.

“It would be impossible for London with just over two years’ notice to say let’s bring it all back,” Seb Coe, the chairman of the London Olympic Organizing Committee (LOCOG), told BBC Radio, according to the Press Association. “That’s not going to happen.

“The reality is a lot of our venues don’t exist any more.”

In May, the International Olympic Committee shot down reports that the 2016 Olympics could be moved from Rio de Janeiro to London or Moscow due to preparation delays.

Coe said Rio has a “massive undertaking” ahead to be ready for the Olympics, but first South American Olympic host will get there. London has moved on, two years after it became the first city host an Olympics three times.

“The [London] Olympic Stadium is now being converted into a football and track and field venue,” Coe said. “We used a lot of temporary venues, and they of course disappear and not to mention the organizing committee, they have all gone off to do other things.”

IOC to contribute to Munich memorial

Follow @nzaccardi