For many, London 2012 began back in 2005 when we won the bid to stage the Olympic Games. Since then thousands have worked tirelessly, the length and breadth of the country, to prepare, not just in London but throughout the UK – from Weymouth and Portland to Hampden Park in Glasgow. The whole country has been involved in designing and constructing the Olympic Park and venues, and tonight we will see entertainment and talent drawn together from across the UK.

We will be transported, stewarded and protected by thousands of people, including volunteers who have given their time and service to deliver the Games. London 2012 has already inspired many young people to take up sport, with some of the best performing at the Schools Games in this Stadium earlier this year. And tonight we will see athletes from across the globe who themselves were schoolchildren only a few years ago. The Games will inspire us to achieve our goals.

Using true British style and humour, tonight will be a celebration of the Olympic ethos that combines values of friendship, excellence and respect. We salute the athletes you will be privileged to see over the coming days for their dedication, determination and spirit.

Seven years ago, this Olympic Park was a derelict, contaminated wasteland, with old fridges and debris piled high where the Stadium and other venues now stand.

Now it is the largest new urban park in Europe for 150 years – set to become a cultural, sporting and commercial centre. It is a legacy that will create opportunities for all the communities of the Olympic boroughs.

Those of us in Government and Mayor Ken Livingstone wanted 2012 to be the year that changed east London forever. And it has – with this park, new jobs, new infrastructure and a renewed sense of local pride. All that, and the greatest athletes in the world competing to the limits of possibility.

For young people watching them, it’s a chance to see that ambition is worth having, that dreams are worth pursuing and that bars should be set high and leapt over. I am so proud to have been a part of this for the last 10 years. Proud, too, that over those years we politicians have set London 2012 above party politics and acted together to bring it to fruition.

We are, all of us, proud to say to you: welcome to London.

This will be a summer like no other for the UK – a unique sporting and cultural celebration to which the whole world is invited. But it won’t stop there.

From the start, London 2012 was designed as much around what will happen in the years after the Games as what happens in 2012 itself. In east London, we’re creating a brand-new quarter that will benefit local communities for decades to come, served by world-class transport links, facilities and services.

Across the UK, we’re building on the excitement of the Torch Relay and the London 2012 Festival – not to mention the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – to bring people together and foster a new culture of volunteering.

For our economy, we’re seizing the opportunity to fire up our businesses, showcase our incredible tourism offer, and attract new investment.

And most importantly, we’re using the power of London 2012 to reinvigorate our country’s sporting culture and inspire more young people to choose sport for life.

This is a golden moment for the UK, and we are determined to make the most of it – so that the coming weeks leave not only lasting memories, but a lasting legacy in this country and beyond.

Today London becomes the first city in history to stage a third Summer Olympic Games.

I am delighted to welcome you to tonight’s event, where we gather to mark this thrilling and humbling moment in our city’s history. This evening’s Ceremony celebrates the best of London’s past, present and future. After centuries as a global centre for culture and commerce, London enjoys a diversity unrivalled anywhere in the world.
This diversity – of culture, language, cuisine, thought, belief and imagination – is now thoroughly twined into London’s DNA, both cause and effect of its phenomenal success and much-envied reputation.

It also makes this year’s Games unique, and uniquely enjoyable. Almost every team competing this year will find a ready-made home crowd to cheer them on. Meanwhile, for those athletes, officials and spectators who can tear themselves away from the sport for even a moment, London offers a mouth-watering selection of things to see and do – and we’ve pulled out all the stops to make this summer’s menu even richer and spicier than usual.

But the Games are not just celebrating what London has to offer – they have helped to shape it. The Stadium in which you sit is at the centre of a transformational renaissance for east London, with investment in the Games providing much-needed homes, jobs and green space for Londoners and infrastructure that is already attracting investment to the area from all over the world.

I hope you will treasure your memories of tonight’s celebration for as long as Londoners treasure their own Olympic legacy.

After years of planning, months of build-up and weeks of fevered anticipation, this is it: the Olympic Games 2012 have arrived.

This is a great moment for London; a chance to show our bustling, dynamic capital city at its very best. And this is a great moment for the whole of the United Kingdom.

Many thousands of people from all over our country have worked to make this happen, excavating tonnes of soil, planting countless trees, building huge new sports grounds. Now the stage is set – and the Games can begin.

We want these to be the most spectacular and enjoyable Olympics the world has ever seen. Above all, we want these Games to inspire people around the world. On a monument right in the heart of the Olympic Village, the words of the British poet Tennyson have been engraved: ‘To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.’ It’s that spirit – that relentless pursuit of glory and greatness – that makes the Olympic Games so special.

And it is that spirit that will go out from London to inspire the world.

I want to warmly welcome you to the Olympic Games 2012 – and I hope you enjoy the greatest show on earth.

Bienvenue à Londres. Welcome to London.

We stand before you this evening with a deep sense of history and responsibility as we prepare to become the first city to host the Summer Olympic Games for a third occasion, following the 1908 and 1948 London Games. This is an enormous honour.

We meet in difficult and different times – in a period of adversity, but also of opportunity, to inspire a world in need of hope, and like our predecessors, we turn to sport and to the athletes to connect the world in a global celebration of achievement and inspiration.

The journey to this Opening Ceremony has included times of great social, economic and community turbulence and change, as we’ve planned and prepared for this moment for a decade – from the London bombings to the global financial crisis.

But we are resilient and we are ready. Support has never wavered, reflecting the importance of sport in British society, and the commitment of the British people and the global community to the Games and the Olympic ideal.

We’ve seen great passion and enthusiasm from people across the United Kingdom for these Games, highlighted by the Olympic Torch Relay, which has united nations and regions, and placed a spotlight on the humbling heroism and courage of local Torch carriers from all cultures and walks of life.

They have lifted the country’s spirits, reminding us of the best we can be, and demonstrating that the Olympic values still matter in real and relevant ways in the 21st century.

These Games have been inspired by many people and many motivations, including parents who prepare breakfasts, make school lunches and drive their children to sports centres in the pre-dawn darkness; the belief of the world’s most admired person, Nelson Mandela, in London as the city that can stage Games that unite the world; sporting greats who have captured our imagination and redefined the boundaries of human achievement on and off the sporting field; and athletes from every culture and country who have dedicated half their young lives for this Olympic moment in London.

Young people everywhere know that something special and important is about to happen as the world gets ready for the Games. We want London 2012 to be a beacon of hope and possibility, and to inspire a generation, as athletes from more than 200 nations – more than the United Nations – come together in tonight’s Opening Ceremony, in the world’s greatest peacetime gathering of countries and territories, providing a glimpse perhaps of what the world might look like as one nation or as the United Nations of Sport.

We hope you enjoy the Ceremony this evening – an extraordinary experience is about to begin.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Tonight’s Opening Ceremony marks the official beginning of the Games of the XXX Olympiad, the moment when people around the world come together for 16 days to celebrate sport and human excellence.

For the thousands of athletes participating at London 2012, the Games represent the culmination of years of dedication, sacrifice and training. Athletes are the true heart of the Olympic Games, and this is their time to shine, to put in the performances of their lives and to inspire a generation.

For many competitors, London 2012 will be the highlight of their sporting careers. Some will of course reach the podium and set records along the way. But win or lose, it will be those athletes who compete in a spirit of excellence, friendship and respect that will set an example for us all.

I have no doubt that London will offer them ideal conditions in which to achieve their personal bests. The local organisers have done a terrific job preparing for the Games and the athletes are eager to get started turning their Olympic dreams into reality.

Sixteen days of world-class athletic performances await us, and the hosts are ready to deliver an excellent Olympic Games that will leave a positive legacy for London, the United Kingdom and the Olympic Movement for many years to come.

Like the billions of Olympic fans in London and around the world, I too will be watching and willing on the athletes. I wish each one the best of luck and an excellent and memorable Games, and to everyone in attendance tonight an enjoyable evening.

Let the Games begin!

It is with tremendous pride that the people of London and the United Kingdom welcome the world to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

We look forward to celebrating the uplifting spirit which distinguishes the Olympic Games, drawing on Britain’s unique sporting and Olympic heritage.

Athletes from every corner of the globe speak of their enormous desire to represent their country through sport. It is at the Olympic Games that their many years of dedication and commitment are truly realised. The athletes’ endeavours and triumphs will excite and inspire people wherever they live.

I look forward to memorable Games that leave a lasting legacy for London, the UK and the worldwide Olympic Movement.