Events mark one year to 2012 Olympic Games in London

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The BBC's Tim Muffett's exclusive tour of the urban park created for London 2012

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Events are being held in London to mark the start of the 2012 Olympic Games in one year's time.

The Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park in Stratford will be unveiled with Olympic hopeful Tom Daley making the first dive into the pool.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge will be at an event in Trafalgar Square where the design of the medals will be unveiled.
London 2012 chairman Lord Coe said the organisers' plans were on schedule.
He said the day was a "big moment" for the London 2012 Organising Committee (Locog).
Lord Coe added that 23 million ticket applications had been made from two million people and that 250,000 people had put their names forward to be volunteers at the Games.
"There was an extraordinary demand so there's a massive opportunity to build on that level of excitement. No sporting event in the history of sport or Olympic Games - no sport in my lifetime - has had that kind of demand."
'Distant dream' The event in Trafalgar Square will see Mr Rogge invite the world to come to London to celebrate the Games next summer.
It comes as the British Mission at the United Nations in New York holds a one-year-to-go event featuring nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis and the UN's Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

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• London 2012: Latest Olympic news, sport, features and programmes from the BBC

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has organised a range of events at nearly 100 of its posts across the world to encourage visitors, businesses, students and sports people to get involved.

And the Royal Mail has announced that it will issue special gold medal stamps to celebrate all Team GB Olympic gold medal wins.
'Incredible honour' With a year to go, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said construction had finished on all six of the main permanent Olympic Park venues.
The £269m Aquatic Centre, which will be unveiled later, was designed by Zaha Hadid with the aim of being the "Gateway to the Games".
Tom Daley, the double Commonwealth gold medallist, said it was an "incredible honour" to be the first person to dive into the pool.
"Only a few years ago, this was a distant dream. The fact that I qualified at the weekend and am taking the first dive is a complete privilege. I can't wait for next year and the honour of representing Team GB," he said.
John Armitt, the chairman of the ODA, said the project had created jobs and training at a critical time for the UK economy with about 40,000 people working on the project to date, and 98% (£6bn) of the building contracts going direct to UK businesses.
'Lack of capacity' As the final countdown to the Olympics gets under way, the Metropolitan Police is facing challenges as it gears up for the biggest peacetime security operation in its history.

On Wednesday evening, Olympic hopeful Tom Daley will be the first person to dive into the new Aquatic Centre

Two senior police officers, including Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, resigned this month over the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, but Lord Coe says security plans for London are "robust".
"We will do anything we need to do to make it as safe and secure as we possibly can," he told BBC's Breakfast.
"Of course you want to protect the athletes and people coming to this country, spectators and the beautiful venues, but you want to get the balance right.
"You want people to come to a city feeling safe and secure but not locked down so we get that balance right."
The force itself says it is "business as usual" and the Met branch of the Police Federation has said although there is low morale it had more to do with major reform and cuts in police budgets than losing their leader.
On Tuesday, a BBC London poll of 1,000 people found 73% backed London hosting the Games, with 38% saying they felt "more positive" about the event now than last year.
The survey also found that 52% of people felt London's transport system would not be able to cope.
BBC London's transport correspondent Tom Edwards said the main problem on London's network was the lack of capacity.
He said Transport for London (TfL) had admitted that it could take an hour to get on a train at St Pancras station, from where the high-speed Javelin train to Stratford will depart.

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Year-to-go celebrations

• Special programme live on BBC One 1900 BST
• 2012 medals unveiled
• Nations invited to compete in London
• Tom Daley performs first dive in Aquatics Centre

• London weather forecast
• Travel planner
• BBC broadcast coverage

TfL needs a 30% drop in commuters to reduce waiting times and it is rolling out a publicity campaign and a series of workshops for businesses. It also wants to encourage commuters to work from home or use different routes.

Taxi drivers are also threatening to block the Olympic Road Network, a series of exclusive lanes for officials, athletes, IOC members and accredited media - but not cabs.
Another potential difficulty for TfL is the relationship with the transport unions. Currently, a five-year pay deal with a 4.75% rise in the first year has been turned down by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).