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My next sentence is one which, for much of the past year, I never considered possible I would write. There is a real chance the London Olympics will not sell out.

I'm not just talking about football tickets, which the organisers were always going to struggle to persuade enough people to buy - I'm talking about a number of other key Olympic sports, like weightlifting, beach volleyball, boxing and even basketball.

Last year there were an astonishing 22 million applications in the first round ballot for the 6.6 million tickets available to the British public. Demand surprised even the most optimistic London 2012 officials. A number of events were more than 10 times over-subscribed.

When the remaining tickets went online during the second round sale last summer, most were snapped up in minutes. The British public appeared to have an insatiable appetite for the Olympics. There were never going to be enough tickets to go round.

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When people ask me about one word springs to mind. Shambles.

It's a word that feels very out of place when considered alongside the rest of the project.

So much has gone right for London 2012 since the city - in particular the achievement in making sure that all the venues will be ready in time.

Ticketing has been the one area that has appeared to lurch from one fiasco to the next.

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The organisers of London 2012 have broad smiles today.

The number of ticket sales at this stage in the process for a

Well that's true, although if you'll excuse my pedantry for a moment then I'll point out that this has to be the case, as never before have Paralympic tickets been put on sale this far out from the start of the event.

But put London 2012's spin to one side, and the figures are still extremely impressive. 116,000 separate applications for 1.14m tickets. At least one price category for one session is going to have to go to ballot in 16 of the 20 sports.

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