How is the British squad shaping up for Beijing?

At the last two Olympics at Athens and Sydney we've done exceedingly well, winning a sackful of gold, silver and bronze medals and we can go to Beijing with very high hopes. The fact that it's London up next will focus the minds of the athletes very keenly. Many are looking in fabulous shape, the cyclists have done brilliantly in the world championships, the rowers are doing well, even the athletes, who have had a hard time in the last four or five years, are starting to turn things around, and in Phillips Idowu, in my old event the triple jump, we have a potential Olympic champion, so there's cautious cause for optimism.

What can we reasonably expect this time given the serious injuries to some of our top athletes?

Well, there was a surprise gold medal for Christine Ohuruogu at the World Championships and the magnitude of that achievement was somewhat overshadowed by her year's ban and missing three tests, but she's in great shape this summer and could be a real contender for gold. Paula Radcliffe is still touch and go and that's going to be a soap opera that continues right up until the Games and rightly UK Athletics will give her every chance to prove her fitness. We all hope she won't go if she's not 100 per cent, we don’t want a repeat of what happened in Athens which was heartbreaking for everyone, not least for Paula.

It's a real shame for Jessica Ennis, who was looking in fabulous shape before getting a horrible stress fracture, and for Mark Lewis-Francis, but despite that we've still got a whole host of athletes who can do really well. The women's heptathlon is wide open - Carolina Kluft, who has bossed that event for so many years, is missing and Eunice Barber, who is a former world champion is not competing in that event and if Kelly Sotherton can get her javelin right, which is a big "if" as she has struggled with it for the last few years, she can be right in the mix.

Can Phillips Idowu emulate you and take the gold medal?

Phillips is coming right at just the right time. He was world indoor champion in Valencia, he opened his season with the furthest jump in the world (17.75m) and he looks in outstanding shape. His technique is more solid than it's ever been and he looks like he could become a global champion and an Olympic champion at that. It would be great privilege for me to sit in the commentary box and watch him win gold.

Who else do you fancy to succeed?

Chris Tomlinson hasn't been in sparkling form but there's three other athletes in the long jump over 8m this year - including Greg Rutherford who was silver medallist in the European Championships in Gothenburg and Nathan Morgan - and if one of those can make the final they'll be in with a chance.

Who can be a surprise package in Beijing?

I think Andy Baddeley, who won the dream mile in Oslo just a few weeks, the first Britsh man to win since Peter Elliot in the fastest time for 15-20 years, under 3min 50 secs. In a slowly run race with a big kick at the end he could sneak a bronze medal which would be an amazing achievement. We've been waiting for years and years for someone to revive the glory days of Coe, Cram and Ovett but who knows maybe he can be the man to do it. It only takes one athlete to break through to increase the aspirations of others - you can think the Africans have got it sewn up and it's not even worth trying but if someone can break that hegemony then others can follow behind.

What will be the standout event?

On the track it will be the 110m hurdles which promises to be a great battle between world champion Lu Xiang and the Cuban Dayron Robles to whom he has just lost his world record. As the expectation was on Cathy Freeman in Sydney it is on Lu Xiang here - he is the face of the games and yet he is under massive pressure. I'm not sure how aware the Chinese public are of this but he faces a huge task against the young Cuban who is super talented. It could be the race of the games.

How badly does this Olympics need to be drug free?

I couldn’t agree more. Sport in general and the Olympics in particular has been knocked by the Balco revelations, the use of designer steroids and the Marion Jones scandal. It has been horrific. You can't underestimate what impact that has on the way the public perceive our sport and it's very difficult to recover from that. The Olympic embodies all the positive values in life and cheating and taking drugs are completely against that so the impact is even greater and god willing there won't be any positive tests. The war on drugs will become more sophisticated and intensify in the run-up to 2012 and slowly but surely the battle is starting to be won.

It's now 15 years since you jumped that incredible 18.29m. Has it become the unbeatable world record?

I'd like to say it was unbeatable and I get very nervous when major championships come around! But it has stood the test of time and the longer it lasts the more attached to it I get, so while I would love Phillips to win the gold medal in Beijing I wouldn't really like him to take my world record!

How does it feel to be chosen as one of the greatest British Olympians of all time?

I feel very honoured and surprised to be included, and when it was revealed I felt quite emotional, it was a very special time. The National Lottery contributes £2.2 billion towards the physical infrastructure of the Games, and hopefully this Olympic Champions campaign will leave us with a stadium, an aquatic centre and velopark which will serve London for many years to come.

The Olympic Champions scratchcards, featuring Jonathan Edwards, Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Sebastian Coe, Dame Kelly Holmes, Sally Gunnell and Duncan Goodhew are launched by the National Lottery this week. The money raised will be put back into London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games funding.