Holmes: There will be tears

Kelly Holmes believes the London Games will see tears, drama, new British stars and established names cracking under pressure.

Holmes, who won gold over 800m and 1,500m in Athens in 2004, feels having the event on home soil will have advantages and disadvantages for the British team.

"Around 75 per cent of the team are going to be first-time Olympians," Holmes said.

"Some of those are not known at all, they are going to be so overwhelmed that they are in the team that that's the biggest achievement.

"There are going to be some who are already in Great Britain teams but are not yet medallists who feel this is their platform and we will have brand new stars born, people that we don't know that become champions.

"On the established side there will be those that we expect to do well that will pull it off and will remain our big champions, and then those that we expect to be champions will just fall at the wayside because it's become too much, they've put too much expectation on them and the rest of the country have.

"The best thing about sport is drama, you just don't want to be the one that has the horrible side of it. But that's what it's going to be. It's going to bring new champions and make legends, and it's going to have tears."

Holmes also feels Britain's athletes will have to stay out of the media spotlight to give themselves the best chance of success in London.

"When I was in Athens, there were such a high-profile set of people who were continuously in the papers, the medals around their neck," added Holmes.

"Paula (Radcliffe) unfortunately was one of those (but was unable to finish the marathon). I knew all the press would think I would get a medal, but I don't think anyone believed I would get gold apart from myself and my team around me.

"Training had gone fantastic, we hadn't talked about, I let my legs do the talking in the training and that gave me the confidence and the belief that I was ready and it's the best thing I could have ever done, to come from nowhere and take one step at a time."