Sir Craig Reedie, who has died aged 84, was a key figure in London’s successful bid to stage the 2012 Olympics. As a member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games from 2005 to 2013, he formed a brilliantly effective campaign partnership with Sebastian Coe, the bid leader, doing much crucial work behind the scenes, first by helping to win the support of British politicians and then by marshalling the all-important votes of Olympic delegates who would determine where the Games would go.
Coe, to whom Reedie was a long-time mentor, was under no illusion that without the older man’s diplomatic skills and influential presence within the Olympic and Paralympic movement, which he had developed earlier as chair of the British Olympic Association (BOA), London might never have won the right to host the 2012 Games.
