LONDON – Seven years in the making, costing £9.3 billion ($14.5 billion) and featuring 10,490 athletes, the London Olympics opens Friday with 302 gold medals to be won and hard-fought reputations at stake. The Olympic Stadium and Aquatics Centre in London's East End will host Beijing super-heroes Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, who tore up the history books in 2008. On the other side of the city, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams will be the headline acts as Wimbledon welcomes the heavyweight tennis talent. In between, Horse Guards Parade, within walking distance of Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament, hosts beach volleyball and Wembley Stadium will stage the football final. Even Lord's, the home of cricket, gets involved, opening its doors to the world's best archers. On the track, Bolt, a triple gold-medalist in Beijing in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay, faces a mouthwatering showdown with Jamaican teammate Yohan Blake in the 100m final on August 5. Bolt holds the world record of 9.58sec but Blake is the world champion and the in-form sprinter this season, getting the better of his senior partner in the Jamaican trials last month. In the pool, Phelps, whose eight golds in Beijing took his medal tally to 14, needs five more to surpass the all-time record of 18 set by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina between 1956 and 1964. “Obviously, we always want to do our best and swim the fastest, they are the main objectives,” said Phelps, who will compete in seven events. Like Bolt, the 27-year-old Phelps also faces a national rival in the shape of Ryan Lochte, a triple Olympic champion, who can put a huge hole in his rival's dreams when the two clash in the 200m and 400m medleys. Elsewhere in the pool, eyes will also be on precocious Missy Franklin, just 17 and also racing seven events, and Australian sensation James Magnussen. Dubbed ‘The Missile', Magnussen is the 100m freestyle world champion and earlier this year swam that event's fastest ever time without the aid of the now-banned, drag-reducing ‘super suits'. Other athletics stars include Russian polevault queen Yelena Isinbayeva, Kenya's David Rudisha in the 800m and Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, the 5,000m and 10,000m champion in Beijing. South Africa's Oscar Pistorius, known as ‘Blade Runner' because he runs with carbon fibre prosthetic running blades, will make history as the first double amputee athlete to compete at an Olympics. At the velodrome, Bradley Wiggins, fresh from his historic Tour de France triumph, will fire up home hopes. Zara Phillips, the grand-daughter of Queen Elizabeth, adds a little royal luster to the equestrian at Greenwich. Federer, having won a record-equalling seventh Wimbledon title, returns to the All England Club in south-west London looking to add singles gold to the doubles he won with Swiss compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka four years ago. His rivals will be Djokovic and Andy Murray but there will be no defending champion Rafael Nadal, who pulled out to rest his ongoing knee problems. The United States will be comfortable favorite in the men's basketball with a Dream Team boasting LeBron James and Kobe Bryant but not the injured Dwyane Wade or Derrick Rose. The build-up to the Games has been relatively trouble-free, although organizers had to summon 3,500 troops for the showpiece after private security firm G4S admitted they couldn't provide a full contingent of guards. However, one subject the British enjoy discussing – the weather – continues to be at the forefront. After a wet and chilly summer, temperatures are expected to reach the high twenties by the time the Games officially get underway with Friday's opening ceremony. The Olympic flame took a festive, valedictory lap around London Thursday with Prince William and his wife Kate welcoming it to Buckingham Palace. The marathon journey of the flame will culminate at the opening ceremony. Kate, William and his brother Prince Harry applauded as the torch was brought into the palace grounds, with thousands of fans cheering outside the gates. The flame was on a tour of some of central London's most famous landmarks before it finally makes its dramatic entrance at the Olympic Stadium Friday. Earlier Thursday, Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the relay to the steps of his Downing Street office. The torch completes its 70-day, 8,000-mile (12,900-kilometer) journey Friday, lighting the Olympic Stadium's cauldron in a ceremony marking the official start of the 2012 London Games. The identity of the final torchbearer is still a closely guarded secret. — Agencies
