The Olympic Games are now less than ten weeks away, and one former Olympian is getting a brand new perspective on the sporting spectacle.

Twenty-eight years ago, Angus McKenzie was hurtling down the bobsleigh course in Sarajevo as the brakeman in the four-man event for Great Britain at the Winter Olympics, but now finds himself in a rather different role.

With preparations entering the fine-tuning stages for the highlight of this year’s sporting calendar, the Ongar resident is serving as Field of Play Group Leader, Athletics, a role which sees him co-ordinating a number of the volunteers working inside the Olympic Stadium.

The position sees him charged with the organisation of all those involved with the athletes themselves rather than the spectators, and it has given him a new insight into the management of such a competition.

Test events such as the British Universities and Colleges Sport Championships have now been held, and McKenzie is pleased with what he has seen.

“They (the test events) went very well. It gave us the chance to test the volunteers and see what was working,” the 57-year-old explained.

“Everything has to happen at the right time. It is a case of making people aware that time is important. Everyone was very complimentary. Everything went well.”

McKenzie was approached for the role following his work at the Barnet Copthall athletics facility. More recently, he has served as Club Manager at The Connaught Club, Chingford, but has taken a five-month leave of absence in order to fulfil his new role.

The opportunity of working within the Olympic Stadium was obviously too good to turn down and, with that in mind, McKenzie wanted to express his gratitude to Connaught for releasing him to carry out his new role.

And, as he explained, there is plenty of organising still to be done.

“We are currently looking at all the rostering of the volunteers to make sure the Olympic Games happen efficiently,” he continued.

“All of the volunteers have been found and gone through a strict process. Now it is a case of putting them in the right roles. We finished our test event at the stadium two weeks ago.”

As a competitor, McKenzie’s talents were not just on show in the winter months as he was considered an all-round athlete.

As well as competing in Sarajevo, he also represented Scotland in the 1974 Commonwealth Games, claimed a European bronze medal in the 110m hurdles and was also the first UK athlete to clear seven foot in the high jump.

But working in his new capacity at the showpiece venue for the summer has afforded McKenzie a unique perspective on the event, seeing the Olympics from a different angle to how he once saw it.

“I think the Olympic Games in London is successful and will be successful because of the phenomenal numbers of volunteers.

“As a former international athlete, I think we used to turn up and not realise what goes on behind the scenes,” he continued.

“It is counting down. As I said, we are currently working on the rostering to make sure we have got enough people in at the right time. There is a lot to do.”

He added: “It is all hands to the ship as it were. Everyone gets involved.”