It’s going to be a Beckstravaganza

ON your marks... get Becks...Go!

Football legend David Beckham writes for The Sun today and tells of his pride as the Olympics get under way.

Londoner Becks played a major role in bringing the Games to his home town and will have what he calls "a small part" in tonight’s opening ceremony.

Here, he tells of his pride...

I HAVE been lucky enough to have been involved in some amazing sporting moments in my career, but nothing can compare with what is about to take place in London.

You can feel the excitement building to a fever pitch wherever you go in the country and I am as excited as anyone.

This is an amazing sporting event — probably one of the biggest sporting events in history — and for it to happen now, in London, and especially in the East End of London mwhere I grew up, is just brilliant.

I know every part of the Games is going to be spectacular and tonight is the night it all kicks off, with the whole world watching Great Britain and the opening ceremony.

It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. I know I am biased but, what the rest of the world will see, I don’t think any other country in the world could do it better.

Focal point ... Olympic Stadium

No other country could offer an opening ceremony which includes The Queen, our royal family, James Bond, Shakespeare, The Beatles, country villages, NHS nurses, centuries of history and some of the greatest music ever produced. It is an amazing mix that represents exactly what makes Britain so great.

Even our weather is special, and it might yet play a part!

On top of that, we’ve got some of the best film directors in the world, in Oscar-winner Danny Boyle and Stephen Daldry, to bring it all together in a fantastic celebration of what Great Britain is all about.

The ceremonies in Beijing were really impressive, because of the number of people they had involved; Sydney produced the impressive People’s Games; and other countries, like America, have the scale to produce amazing shows.

But no one else has the personality and humour and diversity — and the soundtrack, varying from orchestral to punk — that we have.

I am honoured to have a very small part in the opening ceremony and I feel privileged to be involved.

I would love to tell you what that part is — and some of the other secrets of the opening ceremony — but you will just have to watch it and see for yourself.

I was involved seven years ago when we first bid for the Games and Seb Coe has been kind enough to keep me involved since then. He is an amazing man who with his team has done fantastic things leading up to the Games and continues to work hard every day.

At the time we were trying to win the Games I said I felt a bit strange being involved in an Olympic bid team because I was not an Olympian; I had never performed in an Olympics.

Honour

But it was a real honour to be asked to be part of the bid and I am so proud that we were successful.

The seven years since has passed so quickly and so much has changed in the part of London I knew as a kid. The legacy is going to be incredible. One of the poorest parts of our capital city has been transformed, with wasteland turned into beautiful parkland with fantastic sporting facilities.

To have seen the Olympic park taking shape has been amazing, but now that the finishing touches have been added and the athletes are arriving it is just so exciting.

Because the MLS football season is carrying on throughout the Games I have had to do a fair bit of travelling but I am happy to do so. It is a privilege to get the chance.

I would still like to come back to London, because, just like any other Brit, I want to be able to take my children and to experience the once-in-a-lifetime moment of an Olympic Games in our country.

I hope everyone in Great Britain is as excited at I am and will enjoy the Games as much as I and my family will.

I honestly think that, when they see the opening ceremony tonight, everyone will feel as proud as I am of our country, and the rest of the world will be amazed.

It will be one of those moments people will always remember watching.

I just can’t wait for it all to start.

Let the games begin.