for the games willjoin me from paris, and i'll talk to the boss of one of london's leading high—tech business spaces, which was the olympic broadcast centre in 2012. and later in the show — he's produced and been the creative director of more olympic ceremonies than anyone else. marco balich tells me about the business of pitching for and producing the greatest show on earth. plus — she won two gold medals in the pool before turning her passion into a nationwide business. britain's rebecca adlington is our golden guest on this talking business olympics special. welcome to talking business. now, the olympic flame is lit in paris and the summer games are on. the games have many grand traditions, from the journey of the torch from greece to the host city, to

the closing ceremony, and all the sporting drama in between. but another, less welcome tradition has also emerged — the spiralling cost of playing host to the games. after a period of keeping costs down, a new university of oxford study reveals that since 2008, cost overruns are back. host cities like paris are locked in to spending a lot more than they were expecting to when they bid for the games. according to this academic analysis, the last three olympic games combined cost $51 billion. budgets overran by 185%. the summer games in paris this year, according to the report, was meant to cost 3.5 billion euros. instead, that cost has spiralled to 8.8 billion euros. and the next games in 2028 — that's in los angeles — they've already busted their original budget, revising an initial cost

of $5.3 billion up to $6.8 billion, and there's still four years to go. but it's notjust an olympics issue. the commonwealth games, two years from now, may not happen at all, after the australian state of victoria said it no longer made financial sense for them to hold the games, and pulled out. frankly, $6 billion to $7 billion for a 12—day sporting event — we are not doing that. that does not represent value for money. that is all cost and no benefit. so, how can the olympics make sure that the costs are controlled and the investment pays off? earlier, i spoke to the woman in charge of sustainability at the international olympic committee. marie sallois, good to have you on the programme. and talk to me... there are big challenges when it comes to putting on an event of this scale, aren't there, to make sure that all of the money that is spent is not simply wasted the minute that the games finish? talk to me how you can plan for something like that.

you're right. i mean, for us, legacy is at the very heart of the vision of delivering the games. because for us, the games are more than two weeks of competition. they are a journey. and there is an opportunity to leverage the momentum and the convening power of the games to actually deliver impactful projects for the population well in advance of the opening ceremony. just to give you an example, paris has started, even before they were elected, by introducing the olympic week at school, benefiting five million kids for experimenting new sports. but they've also had the time to experiment. for instance, the introduction of 30 minutes of physical activity at school. so, i guess, two elements to all of this, or maybe more. one is the sort of social legacy of what it means for french people, what it means for the country. there's another one when it comes to things like the infrastructure. and all too often we've seen that things like stadia or venues that have been built have turned into white elephants. they are just left

to rot afterwards. is it about using the existing infrastructure that's already in place as much as possible, and using that as an opportunity to upgrade, to reinvest and to improve what's already there rather than building from scratch? yes. so, the first institution is indeed to use what exists, and this is how paris is actually... for 95% of the venue you will see at the games will be either existing or temporary. so that's the first avenue. the second is indeed to boost the sustainability of this venue, this existing venue, and use the games as an accelerator, as a catalyst, if you wish, for sustainable measures. and then we also have added some more flexibility. it means if, let's say, a city does not have all the infrastructure to host the games, they can partner with another city or another region. so we also offer a lot of flexibility on how you define the host territory. i wonder whether olympics can ever be sustainable,

given that you're essentially flying a lot of people from all over the world into one city, be those athletes, officials, media, to cover those games. that's a lot of people taking a very polluting form of transport to get there. the games can't be sustainable, can they? that's a question we often have. and you know, for us, the games are more than sport. in a world where we have crisis, conflicts on the rise, tensions among society and within societies, we strongly believe that the games is probably the only event that is able to bring the entire world in peace through sport. this in itself has a huge value, a huge inspirational, you know, force. and this is why we consider, you know, that the games have a tremendous positive social impact. it comes with a footprint, yes. because when you bring all the world together in one place, it has a footprint. and we take this responsibility very seriously. this is why we're so happy

to partner with paris, because everything has been done in the host territory, but also to encourage people coming to the host, paris or france to use, you know, as much as possible, sustainable transportation, especially in europe. so we know, for instance, five delegations, you know, of the neighbouring countries, will come and use train. so these are the measures that help us, you know, but obviously in the long run, we'll have to sort out air transportation. we are not the only one. all global industry will have to face that. and this is why we will have to partner with industry to ultimately get a solution. but, you know, every edition of the games allows us to bring new solutions. and we are very hopeful for the future. marie sallois, so good to have you on the programme. thank you for your time this week, and best of luck with paris �*21i. thank you. thank you, ben. the london games of 2012 were among the most expensive ever held. they cost nearly $17

billion in today's money. but lawmakers say the investment was made back pretty quickly. the london games, from their inception, set out to change one of the city's most challenged areas, the east end of london. it locked in a legacy for the area. for one example, the building that housed the global broadcasters in the olympic broadcast centre is now called here east. it provides a million square feet of space for creative and digital companies. earlier, i spoke to the man who runs it. gavin poole, it's great to have you on the show this week. and talk to me about that site. back in 2012, what was it and what has it become now? so, in 2012 we had three buildings and it was the home for people like yourselves, ben. so hugely, hugely capable buildings, massively digitally connected, lots and lots of power and importantly, loads of space. different types of space you'd find in a location in this part of london. and it was very successfully used by about 25,000

journalists and all the tv stations. but of course, the question that was always being asked, which is, "what do you do with a building like this?" and that's where the government put out a tender and basically asked society, "what would you do with a million square feet?" and that's where we came in. how did that process work? you know, turning it from that broadcast centre into what it is now, and this, this start—up, this hub for new tech and new innovation. i think the turning point for us was that within literally three months of winning the bid to take control of these buildings, we had some of the team who delivered the olympic games for the bbc who were starting up a new challenger sports entertainment business, bt sport, knocked on our door and said, "look, we'd like to come to your studios." then we also landed loughborough university and then we already had our own business. we're starting on a large scale innovation centre for start—ups. we have game studios, like that of sports interactive, a subsidiary of sega. we have a new challenger game studio, hundredstar games.

we have the victoria and albert museum. quite rightly, as a museum, not quite. as a new storehouse for the national collection, for the study and research of design, they're coming here. the first in the world to open up the collection to the general public, who have got an interest in design, and it's more of a learning environment. we've got five universities, all focused around sports technology, data science, computerscience, gaming, digital animation and a media and film institute, building on the success of what bt sport brought to us. and a word we've used a lot in this conversation is legacy. and that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. but, you know, in this context, what do you see legacy to mean? what is a legacy of an olympic games? it means so many things for so many different people. i think if you look at what we do, our legacy is creating jobs, bringing in opportunities, upskilling young talent, making sure that people have access to these jobs. and then i think the most touching legacy for people like myself, my team and those involved in delivering it

on the olympic park, day in, day out for the last 12 years is the individual stories of people that we funded through university and have now got a job which they'd never been able to achieve. or, have done a phd, having surveyed young people before the games, thinking, "how is this going to impact their life?" and then writing to us, saying, "little did i realise "since the games, thanks to here east, "i've got a masters degree, i've now got my phd "and my life is totally transformed." so i think you can break it down into, what does it mean to different people at different points in time? it means so much. and i think from london 2012, there is no doubt in east london particularly, many, many thousands of lives have been changed for the better as a result of the games coming to town. gavin poole, chief executive of here east, thank you for being on the programme this week. thank you. pleasure. thank you.

and even if you don't like the sport, the spectacle of the opening and closing ceremonies is often talked aboutjust as much as the action for the medals. my next guest has created more of those ceremonies than anyone else, including the games in rio in 2016 and the last games in tokyo. marco balich, it's good to have you on the programme, and we talk as the paris olympics kicks off in style. you've produced 1a of these opening and closing ceremonies — what are the component parts? i know they're all different, but they follow a similar sort of formula, don't they? well, it's a two—year progress...process. it's like a big feature film. so its six months to develop the script and the ideas and the content and to verify that, then six years to budget it and programme the execution of that, then six years in prototyping, composing music, the costumes, the projection, the enormous quantity of the involvement of the volunteers and the last six months�* rehearsals with volunteers, which make it very special because these

people, they give you time and their effort in order to celebrate something meaningful for their country. it's a beautiful feeling. how do you manage all the competing interests? to me, it sounds like an absolute nightmare. you've got, you know, the host city, the people that you're representing, you've got the olympic organising committee, you've got the athletes, you've got the musicians, you've got the actors, you've got the staging people, you've got the lighting and av people. how do you bring all of that together in one seamless show? well, it's a very interesting question. first, you have to be kind of prepared to deal with a spectrum, a wide spectrum of issues from the choreography freaking out, with volunteers creating a drama, to the head of the secret service who was in charge to protect the hundreds of heads of states there, so you have to embrace everything. and in reality, if you

programme well, you go topic by topic and you...and you rely on a big, big team. it's never a one—man band. it's always a big, big team. it's a 900 team, usually, to set up this kind of ceremony behind sort of the backstage. and then there is thousands of volunteers and actors and performers in front of the camera. so imagine just the costumes. if you have 5,000 costumes, you have to have 5,000 pairs of shoes, you need 5,000 make—up artists. so you need a great, great organisation. and it'sjust planning and having this kind of attitude or mission of "for god" kind of thing, you know? so you really fight. and i can tell you one episode which is interesting. when i produced and creative directed the rio olympics 2016, and in the process of that beautiful experience in marvellous rio dejaneiro, we had the head of state,

the president dilma, who was arrested. then we have the crisis of the zika mosquitoes. plus we have the favela rioting and coming into the city. and, you know, so it was really complicated. but the olympics, when they happen, they embrace everyone. so everyone getting peace in that. what is the hardest bit to get right? the first goal is to make your fellow countrymen very proud of what you are displaying of them, because that is the impression that will last for several decades in the minds of everyone around the world about your country. second one is to make a joyful show with all the symbols of the olympics, but with the meanings of the olympics, which is peace, which is a very hot topic today. you have to deliver big values in a spectacular way. that's the way to impress

the rest of the world. you know 700 million people will notice the mistake. that's why there are few producers to do the olympics. it's more a group of five or six of us. you try to keep going. for example, we were involved in the closing of shoji winter olympics 2014, paralympics. and in the opening was carried out officially the head of the television in russia. they did a big mistake, one rink didn't open. all of the five rings, a beautiful show but the fifth ring didn't

open. so as in the closing we try to create a hubristic approach and we did the choreography in the opening sequence of the closing ceremony in which we reproduced the ring with people that didn't open. you typically don't want those symbols not to deliver. but in case you have to have a plan b. that is especially focused on the lighting and if it doesn't light, what do you do? imagining when the london 2012, beautiful cauldron, all the children and the flowers joining in. they could've gone wrong 100 times. that was such a beautiful... i imagine they had a plan be there as well. you are no stranger to big events. you don't 14. you are no stranger to big events. you don't14. you've also done fifa world cup and big events of that nature too. what's makes the olympics difference?— what's makes the olympics difference? the olympics is something _ difference? the olympics is something that _ difference? the olympics is something that is _ difference? the olympics is

something that is the - difference? the olympics is something that is the only i difference? the olympics is i something that is the only true global event for that because it's bigger then fifa for that fifa is for men, essentially. the fifa world cup and plus regionally the world don't follow football as we do in europe. olympics, everyone that day from the emperor ofjapan day from the emperor of japan to day from the emperor ofjapan to a small village in angola, they will watch the opening ceremony because they are represented by their team, by their heroes. so i think this kind of... anyway it's bigger than the united nations. it's not fragmented by some ruling state states or nations are treated equal. there is no religion, there's no sponsorship for the it's a clean venue. it really has all the ingredients to make something that is above everyone else. i think it's a

marvellous celebration of humanity. marco balich of balich wonder, it's so good to have you on the programme. thank you for being with us. thank you for having me. thank you. my final guest knows all about what it takes to win at the olympics, and then later in business. at the age ofjust 19, she won two gold medals in the swimming in the beijing olympics of 2008. four years later, she carried home even more medals in london. and then, at 23, started an entirely new career. today, in partnership with other former olympians, steve parry and adrian turner, she runs swim. it's a network of classes that teach 30,000 children how to swim every week. rebecca adlington, so good to talk to you on the programme this week. and take us back — you were, what, 19 when you won your first gold medals? yeah. what was it like to deal with that level of success at such a young age? yeah, 19, it feels like

a lifetime ago because i was so young and such a baby, but i just went to beijing with the mindset of "great, "it's a perfect stepping stone for london olympics, "perfect experience," because i'd never really done anything on a world stage before. so, to come away with two gold medals bettered any expectation that i could have ever have hoped or wished for. and what are the transferable skills, if that's even the right phrase? you know, going from that dedication and that mental resilience and that passion to win, how do you then translate that into business? what skill—set do you take with you? passion, definitely one of those. i have such a passion for the sport, and kind of whether that's in elite swimming or grassroots, i'm just passionate about swimming. and then a lot of other skills — communication, teamwork, dedication, routine, all these different things.

i think something that we do really great as a business is goal setting. i think as an athlete, we always were goal setting. we knew where we were going to be and what kind of we wanted to achieve in a four—year cycle, because that's the olympic cycle. and in business, obviously not everything works in a four—year cycle, but it's certainly one of those

that you've got to have that one—year vision, your three—year vision, and then, like, that big kind of ten—year plan as well. one of the other parallels, of course, is money and funding. you know, elite sports requires a lot of cash to invest in people to get them to deliver. business is just the same. and i wonder when you go to meetings, becky, you know, do more doors open because you're an olympic gold medallist? i mean, do they say, "look, it's rebecca adlington. "of course we can fund this business"? i wish it did. that would be great! i think it's one of those that, it's always different obviously, depending on what kind of supplier or client or customer or whoever it is that you're speaking to, that completely changes. but i think in meetings it's one of those that i don't really notice that as much, i guess because there's myself there's also steve parry mbe, who's an olympic medallist, and we've always been an olympian—led company that i guess we've never known any different. so i don't know the flip side to whether it does open more doors or not, but it's certainly one of those that, for many years i almost had, like, impostor syndrome because i was like, everyonejust kept thinking of me as becky the swimmer, not kind of the businesswoman or somebody that had that kind of employed role in a business. so it's something that

sometimes is a bit more of a challenge because i'm not just an ambassador of my company. i fully work full—time day—to—day on the business, and that's sometimes a little bit tricky because people don't appreciate that, just because so many people do have ambassadors in their business areas. so it's one of those that it's, yeah, trying to get over that impostor syndrome to start with, but now i've fully switched and i'm completely the other way and sometimes forget that i was ever an athlete, to be honest. it's so interesting you use the phrase "impostor syndrome", because so many bosses that we talk to on this programme say the same, that, you know, they kind of fake it till you make it. all of those sorts of things tend to apply. how did you get your head around that? how did you come to terms with, "you know what, i got this, i can do this"? i think it was one of those that hindsight�*s a wonderful thing, right? and i think when you look back, it was one of those, the first couple of years, i didn't really realise that it was impostor syndrome, because you don't really recognise it when you're in the thick of it. and i think it was when i kind of really sat back and kind of took a bit of time to think about it, that, actually, you have that in all walks of life. you have it when you

become a parent. i totally was a bit like, "oh, my gosh, becoming a parent." and all parents are winging it and you've just got to understand that you know your child best. there's no set thing and formula with how to raise children, but, actually, you just do it your own way and you find your way. and it was exactly the same in olympic sport, that i never thought i could even contest against some of these worldwide hitters that were absolute megastars, and it was one of those that i never thought i'd be getting olympic medals. so again, i've had impostor syndrome in so many different areas of my life, and i think we all do that. and, actually, i think itjust took that recognition of going, "hold on, this happens all the time." and actually, you've kind ofjust got to break down those barriers and as long as you're passionate, as long as you've got your data and your evidence there to back up your opinions and find your voice, etc, i think itjust naturally fits into place. and ifeel like i really have that now, but it took a long time. i mean, my business has been going 12 years now, so it's one of those that it's certainly taken its time. in those 12 years you've had to encounter some tough patches, all business owners knew how damaging and difficult it would be to get through.—

be to get through. are we good be to get through. are we good be able to _ be to get through. are we good be able to get _ be to get through. are we good be able to get through - be to get through. are we good be able to get through this? . be able to get through this? it's the unknown. and then we built two or three swim centres during lockdown. we were the only business in the whole entire country that was open in the building, not running because we weren't allowed. we were moving forward rather than closing. it's always been that difficult challenge. i think one thing that always helped us, we've always come back to what our mission is. i think that really, really helps us in those tricky periods. going back to business values, your core values, your mission, your vision, what you try to achieve can help navigate that through it really helped us make some

really tricky decisions. rebecca adlington, so good to have you on the programme. thank you for talking business with us this week. thank you. well, that's it for this week. i hope you enjoyed the show. don't forget, you can keep up to date with all on the global economy on the bbc website or smartphone app. thanks for watching and we'll see you soon. bye for now. hello there! the weekend started with some more showers around, but those showers have moved away now and for the next few days at least we can look forward to some dry weather and some sunshine. temperatures are going to be rising, particularly across england and wales. the reason for the change in the weather? well, high pressure that's building across the uk, giving us the clear skies overnight, it will be a little chilly first thing on sunday morning. it'll warm up quickly though in the sunshine. some cloud will affect the far north—west of scotland, otherwise it'sjust a bit of fair weather cloud bubbling up. not much of that really, lots of sunshine to come and the winds will be quite light.

a gentle southerly breeze developing. some sea breezes are possible, but it's going to be a warmer day on sunday than it was on saturday. two degrees warmer generally for scotland and northern ireland, and for many parts of england and wales temperatures will be four degrees higher than they were on saturday. the high pressure is still around as we move into monday, particularly across england and wales. there is this weather front now approaching the north west, it does mean the sunnier skies will be for england and wales. the far north of england, more especially scotland and northern ireland, will see more cloud and breeze. that weather front bringing a little bit of rain, but many places will be dry, some sunshine coming through. temperatures in scotland and northern ireland aren't going to change too much. it's across england and wales that the heat will be building, we could be getting close to 30 degrees in the south east on monday afternoon. and generally across western parts of europe temperatures are on the rise. that heat is pushing up from iberia into paris for the olympics as well, and also across the uk. those temperatures rising quickly again for england and wales on tuesday,

could be over 30 degrees across the south east of england. now temperatures aren't going to be as high for scotland and northern ireland, 20—21 degrees quite widely. there will be a bit more cloud around here, but still some sunshine, it looks like being dry. plenty of sunshine for england and wales. there is more cloud though, threatening to move from northern france across the channel, maybe bringing one or two showers. and this is where things start to change, really, because the pressure is going to be falling as we head into wednesday, some heavy showers moving up from the south, heading northwards overnight. and then this is when the weather changes. we've got showers and more cloud and slightly lower temperatures i think through thursday and friday, but the start of the week is going to be very warm and hot in places.

live from washington, this is bbc news. dozens of projectiles are fired towards northern israel. at least 12 people are killed in a town in the israeli—occupied golan heights. donald trump says he will carry on holding outdoor rallies, despite advice not to from the us secret service. and france takes its first gold on day one of the paris olympics, winning the men's rugby sevens.

un officials in lebanon have urged restraint along the lebanese—israeli border after a rocket attack in the israeli—occupied golan heights. at least 12 people were killed and many others injured when a rocket hit a soccer field in the town of majdal shams. many of the casualties are thought to have been children who were playing at the time. the israeli military described the attack as the deadliest in the area since 7 october and blames hezbollah, a lebanese armed group. hezbollah has denied responsibility. israel's foreign affairs minister, israel katz, said the country is approaching a moment of all—out war with hezbollah. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is flying back early from his trip to the us and has warned that hezbollah will pay a heavy price. israel prime minister benjamin netanyahu spoke earlier.

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