BEACH volleyball is to be staged on Horse Guards Parade near Buckingham Palace if London succeeds in its bid for the 2012 Olympics.

The arena where the Queen presides over the annual trooping the colour ceremony will be transformed by giant sand pits and stands for thousands of spectators watching bikini-clad athletes rather than bearskin-wearing guardsmen.

The sport is being lined up as one of the showcase events in London’s official plans which will be handed to Olympic chiefs in Lausanne, Switzerland, next week.

Barbara Cassani, the American businesswoman and chairman of London 2012, which is organising the Olympic bid, aims to use the capital’s most popular tourist landmarks to transform the image of the campaign, rather than rely on the plans for the Olympic village in less glamorous Stratford, east London.

“[Horse Guards] is a fantastic venue,” said a bid source. “This is one of the capital’s most iconic sites.”

Other central London events will include the triathlon in Hyde Park, equestrian events in Regent’s Park, archery at Lord’s cricket ground and fencing at Alexandra Palace.

Bid officials will hand their blueprint for the games, which could cost more than £5 billion to host, to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on January 15. A day later Cassani will unveil the plans at an official launch at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

London’s leading rivals in the race include Paris, New York and Rio de Janeiro.

Although London has just 11 days to finalise its plans, discussions are still being held over where to stage indoor sports including boxing, badminton, judo, table tennis, weightlifting, wrestling and tae kwon do.

Officials have to decide how to distribute sports between the Millennium Dome at Greenwich, the ExCel centre in Docklands and new venues in Hackney, east London, and Earls Court in west London.

Central to the plans is a complex including an 80,000-seat stadium, a 50m swimming pool and aquatics centre, a velodrome and an athletes’ village to be built on wasteland near the Channel tunnel rail link at Stratford. Rowing is to take place at Dorney Lakes, the new £10m rowing facility owned by Eton College.

The Oval, the south London home of Surrey cricket club, will hold baseball events. Sports to be held outside the capital would include sailing at Weymouth, Dorset, and football at grounds around Britain.

The move to stage beach volleyball on Horse Guards Parade is a direct response to French plans to stage the sport beneath the Eiffel Tower.

Beach volleyball’s prominence is as much due to its sex appeal as to the sport’s intrinsic excitement. In 1998 the International Volleyball Federation provoked accusations of sexism when it introduced rules stipulating that tops should be “close-fitting . . . with open back and upper chest” and “bikini bottoms cut on an upward angle towards the top of the leg”.

Next week’s presentation of the London bid is only the start of a long process. Officials must provide the IOC with government guarantees on financing and public support. The vote takes place in 19 months.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Donor organ allowed child’s own heart to heal
• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating