London prepares for an Olympics to remember

By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

July 24, 2012 -- Updated 1417 GMT (2217 HKT)

Editor's note: Are you in London for the Games, or watching the event from elsewhere? Share the sights and sounds of the Olympics with CNN iReport.

London (CNN) -- These will be the green Games, to many they will be the austerity Games -- and they may even be the rain Games.

The long wait will be over Friday for London, the city that was awarded the Games of the 30th Olympiad in 2005 on a promise of transformation. A day after that announcement, suicide bombers struck London trains and buses, killing 52 people.

Seven years on and a security staffing fiasco has again thrust potential threats to the forefront of people's minds -- but Olympic organizers and the government say they will do everything possible to keep the Games safe.

While Britain's wettest June in more than a century may have cast a cloud over the final preparations for the Games, forecasters say the weather is now set to brighten.

And as more than 10,000 athletes from 205 countries assemble in London for Friday's opening ceremony, there is the promise of two weeks of breathtaking sport.

Can Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, star of the Beijing track in 2008, win gold once again in the men's 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay events, thus cementing his status as the fastest man on the planet?