Olympics are a Halley's comet moment, says Sebastian Coe

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Lord Coe interview: London 2012 organisers have extra responsibility of lifting nation's spirits amid economic gloom

On the track, Seb Coe made the hardest part of the race look effortless. But as the London 2012 chairman he –admits the task of delivering the Games "weighs heavy" as he takes the final bend into the Olympic year, believing organisers now have the additional responsibility of lifting a nation's spirits amid the economic gloom.

Admitting organisers (Locog) would be living "hand to mouth" financially until the opening ceremony on 27 July, he says Britain will enthusiastically embrace a "Halley's comet moment" unlikely to be repeated for generations to come.

It is seven years and seven months since the double Olympic gold medallist and former Tory MP took over as leader of London's then faltering bid. But the person who became intrinsically linked with the promises that secured the Games looks further back to articulate how it feels to be finally entering 2012.

"There are two things that are very similar to an athlete. When you wake up on 1 January in an Olympic year it's very different. Waking up just 200 days away from the biggest thing this nation will have delivered in the living memory of the vast majority of the population is a massive responsibility. That's very similar to athletes," he told the Guardian.

"The other similarity is just the ability is just to grind stuff out. The days are long, there are no fanfares, no bells and whistles. It's doing that day in, day out for those big, big moments."

On the cusp of 2012, the advent of which will be marked with an more lavish than usual fireworks display on the Thames, Coe says his "unique" organisation is well placed to deliver but admits to feeling pressure.

"If you thought about how to breathe, you'd probably stop. It does weigh heavy. You know you are delivering something that people want to go well and the overwhelming emotion among people in this organisation is that they don't want to let them down," says the chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog).

"They want to deliver something that makes people feel really proud about what we are as a nation, our ability to do these things. And at a time when the world is a pretty difficult place for a lot of people, I think we also know we have a responsibility to try and help lift people's spirits."

The questions around the legacy promises that helped secure the 2012 Games for London will not go away, and will return at greater volume afterward the summer. But the focus for the next seven months will increasingly be on Locog's ability to deliver on the day.

"This does not come alive on the balance sheet or in select committee meetings or in political chambers. It actually comes alive because we're going to deliver something that has not been delivered in the lifetime of the vast majority of the population," says Coe.

In the early days of the bid, he "felt a bit like a slightly dodgy timeshare salesman" as he sold the vision of transforming an east London wasteland to the rest of the country and then the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

With the Olympic Delivery Authority having delivered the venues on time and on budget, over the past year a series of test events have given a taste of what is to come. During that time Locog has emerged from the laboratory to come "blinking into the light", he says.

"This is so complex, it is barely describable. There is no other organisation that goes from three people in a pub thinking it's a good idea to 6,000 people. It follows none of the normal rules. Then everyone gets sacked on the last day," adds Coe.

Even if Locog deliver, some of the biggest factors that will affect memories of the Games – the weather and the number of medals secured by Team GB among them – are beyond its control.

Locog won plaudits for raising £700m in commercial income during a recession and displaying sure-footed progress since. It also survived criticism from those who missed out amid the deluge of 22m ticket applications earlier this year, with most people ultimately accepting that the system was fair and Locog able to bank £537m in revenue.

But in the past month it has come under fire over a huge increase in the security required within venues and the details of transport planning, as well as facing questions over the provision of additional public funding for the opening and closing ceremonies.

The number of security staff required rose from an initial estimate of 10,000 to 23,700, almost doubling the cost to £553m. Coe defends Locog's planning, claiming that the final numbers and budgets have to wait until the gritty detail is worked through.

"There is an assumption that you get to day one as an organising committee and you have all the answers. You don't. In security and transport, you have virtually none of the answers. You have some parameters and you then start incrementally putting a little bit more meat on the bone as you go forward."

The need to draft in 13,500 military personnel and the recent emphasis on having military hardware on standby has raised concerns about the possible effect on the atmosphere of the Games. Coe stresses that a sense of "proportionality" has to be maintained.

"There is no appetite for risk. Everybody knows this is a complex, complicated world and this is a big global city. But we also want people to come here and leave feeling they've had an extraordinary time and want to come back," he says.

He defends the decision to accept a further £41m from the public sector budget of £9.3bn to double spending on the opening and closing ceremonies, and rejects claims that the government has demanded a grander spectacle. "I was in the room on all those occasions, when the prime minister, the mayor [Boris Johnson], Jeremy Hunt [the culture secretary] sat down and looked at what we were doing, and looked at what we could do over and above what we'd identified as the protocol we're mandated to do," he says. "I know what the reaction was. This was something they liked. I've never been in any organisation where somebody has said, 'That's crap, but I'll invest in it.' It's not very Dragon's Den, is it?"

Coe, who says he was impressed by opening ceremony director Danny Boyle's plans, adds that the benefits for UK plc were worth the extra money. "This was not an easy judgment, but it was the right judgment. Sometimes you have to make that judgment on the basis of what is going to be most beneficial over the long haul." He says the Locog will not have to go cap in hand to the government, which according to the contract signed with the IOC is responsible for any cost overruns to its privately raised £2.1bn budget.

But he adds: "I'm very pleased that as of today our budget is well in balance. But it gets tight, everybody knows that. It will be tight between now and the Games. It's hand to mouth. It only gets tighter."

Coe believes the cross-party support that has marked the project to date will hold, despite the looming prospect of a bitterly contested London mayoral election and the inevitable escalation in tension as the opening ceremony nears.

The former middle distance runner is confident that cynics will be silenced as the Games gets closer and the hoopla surrounding the torch relay, which begins at Land's End on 19 May, takes hold.

Nor, he believes, will the unprecedented run of events that also takes in the Diamond Jubilee, Euro 2012, the Festival 2012 cultural, the Olympics and Paralympics result in flag-waving fatigue.

"I think people will realise they're in a very special year. It's a bit like Halley's comet, it doesn't come around that often and everything is in alignment. I really do try to resist sitting here and force-feeding people the idea that they'll be whipped up into a frenzy of excitement at the torch. I think that will happen," says Coe.

"But one thing I think we're quite good at [as a nation] is figuring it out ourselves. There are things we can do – we've got the live sites, we've got the torch, we've got the volunteers programme.

"We've got all the stuff in place. But people will decide how they respond to that and my judgment is that they're responding in a massive way now."

An Olympic year: calendar of events

January

6 Olympic and Paralympic ticket resale programme opens

10-18 Visa international gymnastics, test event, in the North Greenwich arena

27 Six months to go to the opening ceremony

February

16-19 UCI track cycling world cup, test event, Velodrome

20-26 18th Fina Visa diving world cup, test event, Aquatics centre

29 Six months to go to Paralympic Games

March

3-4 London 2012 Festival's Music Nation weekend across UK

3-10 British swimming championships, test event, Aquatics Centre

28-30 IOC's final co-ordination commission visit to London

31 National Lottery Olympic Park fun run for 5,000 people ending in Olympic stadium

April

18 Hundred days until the start of the Olympics

18-19 International invitational wheelchair rugby test event, Basketball arena

18-22 Fina Olympic Games synchronised swimming qualification, test event, Aquatics centre

23 Men's Olympic football tournament qualification play-off match, test event, City of Coventry stadium. London 2012 Festival Shakespeare festival opens

May

2-6 International invitational hockey tournament, test event, Olympic Park

4-7 British University & Colleges Sport outdoor athletics championships, test event, Olympic stadium

8 London disability grand prix, Paralympic athletics test event, Olympic stadium

9 School Games events in Olympic Park venues

19 Olympic torch relay starts at Land's End

June

3 Olympic torch relay reaches Northern Ireland

6 Relay reaches Dublin

8 Relay reaches Scotland

21 London 2012 Festival starts

23-24 London 2012 Festival Radio 1 Big Weekend event, Hackney Marshes

25 London 2012 world sport day celebrations in UK schools

July

20 Olympic flame arrives in London

21-22 London 2012 Festival river of music concerts along the Thames

23 Olympic flame visits Albert Square in EastEnders episode

25 First Olympic Games sports events: women's football preliminary matches at Cardiff, Coventry and Glasgow

27 Olympic Games opening ceremony

August

12 Closing ceremony of the Olympic Games

24 Paralympic flame is lit in London

26 Paralympic flame lighting and festival in Edinburgh

28 Paralympic flame festival in Stoke Mandeville, start of the 24-hour torch relay to London

29 Paralympic Games opening ceremony

September

9 Paralympic Games closing ceremony.

2012 Guardian