OPINION: London is still abuzz from the recent royal celebrations, deemed the perfect lead-in for this year's Olympics.

And in typical fashion, Australians are pushing their way to the forefront of this sporting bonanza.

From BBC newsrooms to boardrooms the Australian accents are present and many of a Gen X and Gen Y vintage are making their own mark on London society.

The build-up to the 30th Olympics has seen every body from Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to the irrepressible Sacha Baron Cohen as his new character The Dictator in an orange Ferrari surrounded by 20 beautiful bodyguards pushed to the fore to promote the UK.

But Australians are quietly infiltrating the party as London prepares to host its first Olympics since the post-war games of 1948 under what were then times of austerity (a term used a lot in European political circles nowadays).

All the big names in Sydney 2000 are there again - Sandy Hollway, Michael Pirrie, David Higgins, and Simon Baulderstone along with newer players like Rob Abernethy, the ex-FFA official who runs the aquatic centre and Mark Evers, an Australian who runs the transport and logistics side of the games.

Even the BBC studio at White City is full of Australian accents.

The Sydney 2000 Games is now considered the model Olympics for London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) itself.

Newly re-elected London mayor Boris Johnson constantly talks of Sydney being the benchmark and the need for the British Olympic team to win more medals than Australia.

We are just waiting for the inevitable bet with Sydney mayor Clover Moore to fly the winners' flag over the Tower Bridge or the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Many Australian companies have also been involved in London 2012.

In the East End of London, Stratford Westfield dominates the skyline and Frank Lowy's vision has been to leave a strong legacy in a new town centre and shopping complex to help ameliorate depressed conditions in that part of London.

Architects that were prominent in Sydney and in Beijing, like PTW (headed by rock-star architect John Bilman) and Populous are building key facilities.

Behind the scenes Spotless (Cleanaway) are continuing on from numerous international sporting events since Sydney 2000, Advanced Polymer Technology is laying down the Astroturf, and a small company from the Adelaide Hills, Steriline Racing, is again working on an equestrian arena with an eye to Rio de Janeiro 2016.

The Australian Government, like before, will be holding a major networking event.

The Business Club Australia concept was set up in Sydney to give companies a chance to meet major international business visitors and according to the BCA's own architect Ashley White, the Sydney Games launched a whole new concept about using international sporting events to make business contacts and build the nation's business brand.

Austrade's senior trade commissioner in London, Kym Fullgrabe, says the Sydney Games was where a whole cluster of world-class Australian companies began delivering excellence at the Olympics.

It is well known that Australia played a big role in Beijing in 2008, given our strong presence in China but even in Athens 2004, there were 43 companies.

So bring on the Games, hopefully it will help to lift some of the economic gloom in Europe but we will still come home with a major share of the medals.

Tim Harcourt is the JWNevile Fellow in Economics at the Australian School of Business, UNSW and author of The Airport Economist. He visited London in his new role as Adviser on International Engagement to SA Premier Jay Weatherill.

This opinion piece first appeared in The Herald Sun.