London Olympic organisers hope to harness the party atmosphere of the Sydney Games, which saw the harbour city host arguably the most successful staging of the four-yearly event.

With 367 days to go until the opening ceremony of the London Games, organising committee chairman Sebastian Coe said he hoped to replicate Sydney's version of the sporting spectacular in 2000 in the UK next year.

Using an Australian analogy, the former medal-winning athlete turned journalist and now LOCOG chief, described himself as a magpie, picking over the best of what is available.

"I have to liken my role as that of a magpie ... I was always determined as the chairman organising the committee to take the best from wherever I could find it from within my Olympic experiences," he told journalists in London on Monday.

Coe, along with LOCOG chief executive Paul Deighton, fronted media championing London's readiness for the Games, with test events already under way across the city.

"From Sydney, I really want to be able to harness ... the atmosphere (that) was athlete-generated," he said.

"And that athlete-generated atmosphere not only distinguished the venues, it also went into the city.

"So you also want the way a city engages with the Games. I think we witnessed that in Vancouver.

"I want the spirit and humanity of Barcelona, the forensic eye for detail that was Beijing. The Games I competed in, Los Angeles, an extraordinary event where volunteers were reintroduced for the first time since 1948.

"So from Sydney I think it is: how would I encapsulate, I guess, the party atmosphere, which really was, athlete-driven?"

Asked of the legacy he hoped would be left by the London Games, Coe spoke of a multi-faceted impact that acts as an ongoing promotion for the city.

"From a distance I want those sustainable legacies to be created, whether it's about sport participation, whether it's greater achievement at elite-level sport. I want to know that, I firmly believe that the community of east London is self-sustaining, and has grown the way that we want it to," he said.

"And I want people to come to London and look at London as the extraordinary city that it is and see London in a modern setting ... with 300 multicultural communities that are here and to go back and recognise that this is an extraordinary city that's at ease with itself."

Coe, along with London mayor Boris Johnson and Olympic Committee Chairman Jacques Rogge will this Wednesday attend a special event in London marking one-year-to-go until the 2012 Games opening ceremony.

Andrew Drummond
AAP London Correspondent