Imagine if the 10,500 athletes currently preparing to descend on London for the 2012 Olympics were informed they would have to bring their own towels and food and make their own sports clothes. They might have something to say about it. And it would probably reflect pretty badly on the UK's ability to stage the event if we resorted to illuminating the running and cycling tracks after dark by merrily circling them with parked cars and whacking the headlights on. Times have moved on then ' from the last time London hosted the Olympics because, back in 1948, that is exactly what happened.At first glance, the organisation and eventual staging of the £750,000 1948 Games sounds farcical. The running track at Wembley stadium - the main venue for the event - was a dog track converted by using cinders from coal fires, in the hope that they would bind together to create a hard, even surface.
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