The Great Britain Olympic team at the Athens Games in 2004 and at the Sydney Games four years earlier were subject to what was described yesterday as “specific security threats”, and this is one reason why they have decided to retreat to the security of the Aldershot army barracks during the build-up to London 2012.

The BOA confirmed yesterday that Aldershot would host the home team for their pre-Games training camp. Three strands of security will be in place: the local constabulary, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) police and the Army.

Simon Clegg, the BOA chief executive, refused to expand on the threats that the team faced at the past two summer Games, but he confirmed yesterday that in opting for the Hampshire town ahead of other contenders – Bath and Loughborough universities and Millfield School – “the security of the team was of paramount importance”. There is, however, not the remotest hint of any compromise in the standard of resources. Indeed, the BOA will benefit from state-of-the-art facilities that the heads of the Olympic sports can design to fit their requirements.

Aldershot is 18 months into a 35-year, £8 billion private finance initiative, of which £400 million is to be spent on facilities. When the athletics facility is redesigned, UK Athletics (UKA) will be able to advise what type of surface it wants on the track. The link between the Army and British Olympians has been led by the synchronised swimming team. They have adopted the barracks as their permanent training base and a tour of facilities yesterday showed them hard at work in the pool.

The hope of the MoD and the BOA is that such links will only get stronger, that Aldershot will not be a mere stopping-off point for Olympians en route to the 2012 Games and that British elite athletes will begin to use its world-class facilities regularly. UKA, for instance, may use it as a holding camp before the World Championships in Berlin next year.

Sir Clive Woodward, the BOA’s director of elite performance who put his England rugby union team through the full Royal Marines experience at Lympstone, Devon, emphasised yesterday the benefits of armed forces expertise. “There is a huge crossover as to how these guys perform and think under pressure,” he said before adding that, apart from the preGames training camp, he is working on arrangements to give teams of British Olympians the same military experience as his rugby players.

General Peter Everson explained how working around the Army may be of benefit. “Talk to any soldier,” he said yesterday. “You will find real focus, terrific team spirit, enormous courage and huge commitment – all the qualities that I believe an Olympic athlete would need, too.”

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