Christopher Lee / Getty Images for NBC News

Exactly one year after losing his sight in Afghanistan, Navy Lt. Brad Snyder earned a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.

For one final, terrifying moment, Navy Lt. Brad Snyder could see.

In fact, the last thing he ever viewed — one year ago today — was his two intact arms and his two attached legs. After stepping on a hidden bomb in an Afghan farm field then feeling the raw heat of the blast burn his face and hurl him backward, Snyder’s first instinct was to look down and inventory his body parts.

“That gave me positive reassurance everything was going to be OK. Shortly after that, my vision went away. I thought maybe blood or dirt had dripped down over my eyes,” said Snyder, 28, a former bomb defuser. “And then it was black, just black, the same way I see now. It didn’t occur to me until the fifth day in the hospital that I wasn’t going to see again.”

Today in London, with that dark anniversary in mind, Snyder dived blindly into a pool and sprinted away with gold – earning his third medal (two golds and one silver) at the 2012 Paralympics. At the close of the 400-meter freestyle final, Snyder cruised into the wall nearly six seconds ahead of the runner up, Spain's Enhamed Enhamed, who took silver.

"It's not a poor anniversary and I'm really looking forward to celebrating how far myself and my family have been able to come over the past year," Snyder said from the Olympic Aquatics Centre pool deck. "It's a special night for all of us, (including friends and family who cheered from  the stands). We are going to look at this evening as a celebration. A celebration of conquest if you like. We are all happy to be together, being in London and enjoying the experience."

Snyder finished the race in four minutes, 32.41 seconds, a personal best. But it was a larger span of time — 365 days — that truly occupied his thoughts and fueled the best race of his life.

He swam for victory: “Yes, I’m really competitive.”

He swam for inspiration: “The idea that there shouldn’t be anything in the way of barriers presented to you that slow you down. Yeah, (stuff) happens. But I hope this shows the value of attitude, of making a decision to not look back. I made that decision. From that point, it was all just about figuring it out and moving forward.”

And he swam for love: “My support network really came to bat for me when I was down. My mom, my brothers and sister were at my side. My Navy friends demonstrated their commitment to me. So I feel an obligation to reciprocate that commitment, to show them I appreciate the love. I want to prove to them — and myself — that I can experience success on a level I experienced before, even though I am now blind.

“Competing (today) was the pinnacle of that.”

His mother, Valarie, witnessed her son's golden swim while sitting with her other two sons, her daughter, and Valarie’s sister  — the same group that surrounded Snyder’s hospital bed near Washington, D.C. when a doctor told him no surgery could restore his shattered eyes. In fact, those eyes later were surgically removed and replaced with prosthetics.

When she watched her son compete — as he once did for the Naval Academy swim team — Valarie knew she would be “weeping,” she said, while she measured the massive ground Brad already has gained in 12 months. But she also reflected on how this journey began for her: with a horrifying phone call last Sept. 7.

At 5:30 a.m., the ringing phone read “unknown number” on its screen — the same message that showed up each time Brad called home from his base in Afghanistan. But he typically called her at 11 a.m.

“At that time, it could only mean one thing,” Valarie Snyder said. “I didn’t want to answer it.”

She did, though. And her son’s commanding officer revealed to her that an explosion had hit Brad in the face, that he still had all of his extremities and that he was then in surgery. Not long after she was reunited with her wounded son at a stateside military hospital, he reassured her that his life would continue without sight. And what the woman saw today in the London pool only reinforced that sunny outlook, she said.

“He keeps saying he’s got to show me it’s not a disability, that he’s going to be fine,” she said. “He’s telling me that I don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

"He truly was swimming for (his family and friends)," said his swimming coach, Brian Loeffler. "He recognizes how much suffering they went through when he was injured.”

Related: Blinded Navy officer grabs gold in first Paralympic race
Related: From darkness to gold: Blinded swimmer ready to race
Related: Iraq vet: 'Now it's time to win at Paralympics'
Related: Ex-Marine's journey from homelessness to Paralympics
Related: 'Superhuman' Paralympians burst onto world stage 

It was Loeffler who realized — while first perusing the Paralympic swimming schedule — that Snyder would be competing in his best event one year to the day after losing his vision.

“It immediately became a goal of mine to do everything I could to help Brad win a medal on that day,” Loeffler said. “I initially only told his mother of the schedule.  (But) I could not keep it from Brad so I told him a week after I told his mother because I wanted him to focus in on that special day as well.”

Snyder, ironically, visualizes each of his swims beforehand, using the mental images he has concocted for the pool, the lane lines and the crowd. The tactic allows him to feel that every race is already familiar.

Slideshow: Blinded warrior has visions of gold

Lt. Brad Snyder lost his sight in an IED explosion in Afghanistan last year. The Navy officer will once again represent the U.S., this time at the London 2012 Paralympics in September.

Launch slideshow

Prior to today's race, he saw himself walking across the pool deck toward the block, standing above his assigned lane as his name was announced, then feeling the surge of competitive juices rise inside. A gold medal is what he glimpsed in his mind. And if only for four furious minutes, his new life as a blind man faded as a constant reality.

“From the moment I step up on that starting block, I just want to beat everybody in the pool,” Snyder said. “But once I hit the (finishing) pad, once the race was over, it all went back to just being an amazing experience.”

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Slideshow: Blinded warrior has visions of gold

Lt. Brad Snyder lost his sight in an IED explosion in Afghanistan last year. The Navy officer will once again represent the U.S., this time at the London 2012 Paralympics.

Launch slideshow

The man who views only black today is visualizing all the colors of his London swims. In his mind, he sees the aqua-blue pool frothy with wakes, the home stretch of the lane lines painted red, and the dark, wide mouths of roaring fans.

Behind prosthetic blue eyes — replacements for the natural pair he lost after an explosion in Afghanistan nearly a year ago — Navy Lt. Brad Snyder soaks in the scenery of a dream realized. The 2012 Paralympics open today in Britain. Snyder races for gold Friday.

Already, though, he can glimpse a distinct, happy glow.

Related: 'Meet the Superhumans': Paralympians burst onto world stage 

“During the Olympics, I read about the races, about (Michael) Phelps and (Ryan) Lochte and Missy Franklin. I heard the commentary and used that to pull out the details to produce this image,” Snyder said. “But instead of reading about Lochte, I just implanted myself in there.

“I imagine stepping onto the block, hearing “take your mark,” the sound of the start, hopping in the pool then just being smooth and strong down the middle of the lane, executing some good turns, and hitting the pad at the end. I’m imagining success. I’m imagining the good feeling that comes with competing well.”

As an elite athlete — among blind swimmers he is No. 1 in the world at three freestyle distances (50-, 100- and 400-meters) — Snyder draws such mental pictures as a preparation tool. As a result, nothing in or around the London pool, he said, should feel unfamiliar.

But in a life being rebuilt after severe injury, this ironic tactic is simply how the man endures.

“I’ll tell you a little story,” said his mother, Valarie Snyder. “He was describing his apartment to me: ‘It has the most beautiful rooftop view.’ That’s how our conversations go all the time. It’s been rare that he gets down, and even then he apologizes for it: ‘Sorry I was in a bad mood.’ ”

Related: Veterans push Paralympics back to battlefield roots
Related: Wounded warrior seeks glory representing America in London

The bright side is never far off. But total darkness came in a single stride. On Sept. 7, 2011, the former Navy bomb defuser was rushing forward to help two Afghan soldiers wounded in an initial IED blast. In his dash, Snyder stepped on a second hidden bomb in an irrigation ditch spanning a farm field. His eyes were irreparably damaged by the detonation and later were removed by a surgeon.

Once a member of the Naval Academy swim team, Snyder returned to the water about a month later — this time, seeking a familiar, soft place in a world suddenly filled with surprise, hard edges.

“I was there the first day he got back in the pool,” his mother recalls. “Just to see the sheer joy on his face. On the ride home afterward he told me: ‘I can do this, mom. I can swim competitively. Everything new that I can do just makes me realize: this isn’t such a bad thing.’ ”

The warm water also rekindled an ultra-competitive, inner furnace, driving Snyder to begin training in Baltimore with Brian Loeffler, head swimming coach at Loyola University. His new goal: earn a spot on the U.S. Paralympic swim team and compete at the world’s second-largest sporting event, the Paralympics. He punched his London ticket in June after a series of spectacular sprints at the time trials in Bismarck, N.D.

He strolls into London’s Olympic Stadium today with 226 other disabled American athletes — one of 20 active or former service members on the U.S. team, and one of six wounded during combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“There’s a girl who was in a coma for four years. There are people dealing with moderate cerebral palsy,” Snyder said. “It puts everything in perspective when I’m contending with my own little issue to see what everybody on the team puts up with. It humbles you. Every person on the roster is one of the most amazing people I’ve met.”

Yet each teammate also is an accomplished athlete who outperformed hundreds of Paralympic hopefuls to make the cut. For context, simply peruse two of Snyder’s post-injury times. In the 50-meter freestyle: 26.54 seconds — better than 10 Olympians who swam in London; and in the 100-meter freestyle: 57.75 — quicker than three 2012 Olympians.

The 100-meter free on Friday offers Snyder his first crack at a medal, and it unleashes an aggressive schedule of seven events over nine days. In addition to his three world-best times, he’s currently ranked No. 2 among blind swimmers in the 100-meter butterfly and No. 4 in the 200-meter individual medley. For each event, Loeffler works as Snyder’s “tapper,” using a walking cane to touch Snyder’s shoulders to alert him that the wall is near and that a flip turn or final push is required.

“His order of events sets up well since the sprints are early in the week (and) I do expect he will do well in his early events,” said Loeffler, who also serves as the co-head coach of the American Paralympic swim team. “(But) we have focused his training toward the 400 free.”

For Snyder, his coach and his family, that is the race of races, scheduled for Sept. 7 — exactly one year to the day he stepped on the bomb.

“It’s difficult to imagine and quantify the emotions I’ll be running through that day. But it’s going to be a moment that I’m going to enjoy. Because to me, competing on that day means that I was presented a challenge and I experienced some success in my transition to blindness. I conquered my adversity to some extent. Obviously, the adversity is not conquered. I’m still blind at the end of the day,” Snyder said. “But it means I’ve walked the path from being chained to the bed at exactly a year ago to competing on an international level at event like the Paralympics. It means I won a little bit.”

All of the people who huddled near that bed last September at Bethesda Naval Hospital outside Washington, D.C. will be in the crowd in London — his two brothers, his sister, an aunt and his mother — who calls herself “a weeper” and who fully expects a gush of tears, win or lose.

“From getting the phone call that morning from his commanding officer to not knowing what we were about to go through to what we went through the past year and then to see all that he has accomplished, well, it’s going to be amazing,” Valarie Snyder said.

“He shared something with me not long ago. He said that every little boy dreams of doing something great in their life in sports. If you’re a runner or a swimmer, you dream of one day going to the Olympics. But when you grow up," she added, "you realize that was just a dream."

“He believes has been given the opportunity to actually fulfill his dream.”

Bill Briggs is a frequent contributor to msnbc.com and author of “The Third Miracle.” 

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Dan Koeck for msnbc.com

Blind swimmer Tharon Drake, right, seeks the hand of fellow swimmer Lt. Bradley Snyder to congratulate him on winning the 400-meter freestyle event in record time on Thursday at the 2012 U.S. Paralympics Swimming Trials in Bismarck, N.D. Snyder earned a spot on Team USA's swim team for the Paralympics later this summer in London.

London is calling for Lt. Brad Snyder.

The former Navy bomb defuser, who last September lost both eyes in an Afghan explosion, formally gained a roster spot Sunday on the U.S. Paralympic team bound for England, after swimming what he agreed was the race of his life.

“I’m super excited,” said Snyder, 28. “Normally, I’m a little too prideful to admit I am nervous before a race. But I was a little nervous. There was a pretty sizable uncertainly” that he would swim well enough to qualify.

To earn a ticket to London later this summer, Snyder needed to swim at least 41 seconds faster than his previous best in his top event, the 400-meter freestyle. In competitive swimming, where outcomes usually are measured in tenths of seconds, 41 seconds is an eternity.

But Snyder didn’t simply meet his goal. He demolished it, going 54 seconds faster than he ever had since losing his sight. Snyder clocked a 4:35.62 – now the current, world-best time at that distance for fully blind swimmers.

Need more context? That time was just 1.5 seconds behind the mark he posted at that distance while swimming for the Naval Academy seven years ago, when he could see the lane lines, the competition and, most importantly, the wall.

Editor's note: This is the third installment that chronicles Lt. Brad Snyder's efforts to earn a spot on Team USA's roster for the 2012 London Paralympics. Read the first story here and read the second story here.

Lucky No. 12
Still, he had to wait until Sunday morning when the U.S. Paralympic swimming coaches announced the 14 names on the American men’s roster. To hear the news, hundreds of athletes, family members and coaches packed an academic hall at Bismarck State College, host of the meet. Dozens more people couldn’t be seated and waited for news while standing in a nearby hallway. Eleven names already had been read before Snyder finally heard his.

He stood, felt a massive wave of emotion rising in his throat and then walked, led via one arm by his brother, Mitchell, toward most of the rest of the men’s team already gathered at the front of the room.

Slideshow: Blinded warrior has visions of gold

Lt. Brad Snyder lost his sight in an IED explosion in Afghanistan last September. The Navy officer is now training to represent the U.S. at the London 2012 Paralympics.

Launch slideshow

“As I was walking him over, I was just staring down at the floor. I didn’t want look at anyone because I thought I was going to cry,” said Mitchell Snyder. “I was mostly thinking how far he’s come since September. I couldn’t have been prouder.”

At the swimming trials, Mitchell served as his brother’s “tapper” – a person assigned to touch a blind swimmer on the head or shoulder with a walking cane to warn him or her that the wall is near and that a flip turn or a finishing kick is needed. No other communication is allowed between the tapper and a swimmer.

“The moment his name was announced everyone erupted and I guess he got a standing ovation,” said Mitchell Snyder, 25. “He couldn’t see it. And I didn’t want to see it because I thought I was going to lose it.”

Snyder joins a rising corps of wounded U.S. servicemen and servicewomen who will again battle for their nation overseas – this time as Paralympians vying for gold medals in track, cycling, archery, wheelchair tennis and an array of other sports. More than 30 active-duty and retired soldiers and sailors are expected to make the 2012 American Paralymic team – double the number that competed for Team USA at the Beijing Paralympic Games four years ago.

Golden favorite
“You can look at it and say, unfortunately, we’re having a lot of guys hurt. But at the same time we’re having a lot of guys hurt who are finding relevancy in going out there and succeeding post-injury,” Brad Snyder said. “We’re finding a way to get past, finding a way to strive for success just the way we were in the military.

“After joining the military, you want to be the best in the world at your job because it means life or death. (After injury) we’re stripped of the ability to do that the way we used to do. But we can still find an avenue through elite competition.”

This week, Snyder will return to his intern job at a Baltimore software company. And he will continue training at a Baltimore aquatic center with his coach, Brian Loeffler, in preparation for the London Games. At the 2012 Paralympics, he also will be considered a front runner for a gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle. At the Bismarck trials, Snyder swam that event in 57.75 seconds – now the current, world-best time for blind athletes.

But he’ll never forget, he said, his very first race in Bismarck – the chase that offered Snyder his first solid proof that he could, once again, be the best in the world at something.

With an entry time of 5:29, Snyder wasn’t fully sure he could finish close to the 4:43 mark held by Spaniard Enhamed Enhamed – formerly the holder of the record in the 400-meter freestyle. Among blind swimmers, Enhamed has been a giant for years, collecting four gold medals at the Beijing Paralympics.

Unforgettable performance
Last Thursday morning, amid the preliminary heat for that same event, Mitchell Snyder glanced at the pool clock several times from his tapper position as his brother churned his arms and kicked his feet. 

“But I was at the finishing end, so I had to make sure he was going to hit the wall safe and I couldn’t watch the clock when he touched,” Mitchell Snyder said. “Earlier in the race, though, it became abundantly clear during the first hundred meters, and the second hundred and the third hundred that, unless something drastically wrong happened, we had a No. 1 time in the world on our hands.”

“They’re strict in what the tapper can or can’t say,” Brad Snyder added. “So when I finished, I didn’t know what my time was. I can’t look at the scoreboard. And none of the people in front of the (starting) blocks can tell me. But I was fortunate that the announcer of the meet – and only by virtue of the fact that I was the first one to the wall – announced the time, 4:39. I kind of heard it. And I thought, 4:39, wow that’s kind of fast.”

Knowing he had a world-best time already tucked away in the prelim, Snyder said he was able to relax and swim the event’s final race that night much more freely.

But again, after he touched the wall at the finish, he didn’t know how he had fared.

Then somebody – somebody who was sitting behind the blocks – and I don’t even know who it was, whispered to me, “4:35!” I had shaved four more seconds off my time. They weren’t supposed to tell me. But I could definitely hear the excitement in their voice.”

Bill Briggs is a frequent contributor to msnbc.com and author of “The Third Miracle.” 

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Dan Koeck for msnbc.com

Lt. Bradley Snyder, swimming his preliminary 400-meter freestyle heat at the 2012 U.S. Paralympics Swimming Trials in Bismarck, N.D., is about to be "tapped" by his brother, Mitchell.

Even in the water, amid a furious race to win back his confidence, the blind swimmer needs a cane.

Actually, Lt. Brad Snyder relies on two canes to avoid the sort of ugly collisions he has suffered repeatedly on dry land.

At one end of the pool, his swimming coach stands above Snyder’s starting block, clutching a walking cane affixed with a tennis ball. As Snyder nears that hard edge, his coach leans down, extends the cane and taps the Navy officer on the back of his head with the ball, alerting him to abruptly finish his stroke and execute a flip turn. At the opposite end of the lane, Snyder’s brother, Mitchell, is armed with the same device and the same task.

“Any communication between the tapper and the swimmer is illegal -- other than: ‘You’re close to the wall!’ ”said Mitchell Snyder, 25, a former college swimmer. “Of course, you’re natural instinct is to tell him how he’s doing. You’re the one who can see the clock and see the whole pool. You want to tell them where they’re at in the race. But I don’t give him any extra signals.”

The tap is merely one of the tactics and tools that Brad Snyder -- blinded last September by an Afghan bomb blast -- now uses to swim competitively in utter darkness. During each length of every race, he silently tracks his stroke count to hold a steady clip. He occasionally brushes a finger or shoulder, lightly, against the lane marker to verify his location. And, oddly, he must wear blacked-out goggles, by rule, over both of his blue prosthetic eyes. 

Slideshow: Blinded warrior has visions of gold

Lt. Brad Snyder lost his sight in an IED explosion in Afghanistan last September. The Navy officer is now training to represent the U.S. at the London 2012 Paralympics.

Launch slideshow

Through Saturday, the former Naval Academy swimmer is vying for one of 14 roster spots at the U.S. Paralympic Swimming Trials in Bismarck, N.D. If Snyder, 28, equals or nears a current world-best time in one of his five events, he’ll join the American team bound for the 2012 London Paralympics, held later this summer.

Wearing one of his old college caps with the Navy emblem on one side and the American flag on the other, he’s racing to again represent his country, this time on the international sports stage. He’s racing to help restore his self-image as a fully capable man -- a sacred piece of himself he lost when the IED detonated in his face. He’s racing to deliver a deeper message about thriving amid life’s occasional rough waters. 

Editor's note: This is the second installment that chronicles Lt. Brad Snyder's efforts to earn a spot on Team USA's roster for the 2012 London Paralympics. Read the first story here.

Racing the clock
“All sorts of people have contacted me on Facebook, or by e-mail, or they come up to me in person and say, ‘You really inspired us, just by the fact that you’ve moved forward, that you don’t let this thing slow you down.’ I want them to see that, hey, you can go out (despite this type of wound) and excel at something -- become a really good writer, or a good cook; it doesn’t matter,” Snyder said. “Hopefully, we can utilize this as a platform.”

That platform, he understands, will become far larger if he makes the 2012 U.S. Paralympic team. But getting to London is all about minutes, seconds and tenths of seconds -- the fewer of those during his heats, the better. And as a swimmer without sight, ensuring a brisk time is all about maintaining tight direction: the straighter he goes, the quicker he touches the finish line.

But, much like his delicate job in Afghanistan and Iraq -- dissecting and dismantling homemade explosives -- haste in the pool can be Snyder’s enemy.

When he swims fast and tries to increase his (arms’) turnover rate, he ends up almost pin-balling in the lane -- one side to the other, one side to the other -- ricocheting off that lane line,” said his coach, Brian Loeffler. “If he gets going too much and crashes into a lane line, he can just be stopped in the water and lose all forward progress.”

When he swam for Navy in the early 2000s, Snyder’s initial style was to dive in and sprint -- no other strategy, no clean technique, just winning on pure guts. Eventually at the Naval Academy, he began to hone his strokes, evening his pace and becoming more efficient. Now, he and Loeffler are focused on keeping each 50-meter race length (or “split,” in pool jargon), as even as possible to all other trips up and down the pool -- both in terms of his times and his stroke counts.

That physical symmetry allows Snyder to better hold his course and avoid side-swiping the lane markers.

“When he can keep a long, steady stroke, he has a real good rhythm,” said Loeffer, the head swimming coach at Loyola University in Baltimore. He also will serve as one of the assistant swim coaches for the U.S. Paralympic team. “We’ve got to find a balance between that kind of speed but also being able to be real straight in the water.”

Golden vision
Snyder’s best shot at making the American team, he believes, will come in the 400-meter freestyle. At the Bismarck trials, he’ll also aim to notch qualifying times in the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle heats as well as the 100-meter butterfly and 200-meter individual medley.

For each heat, he’ll don special goggles – not, however, to boost his pace. Swimmers competing in the Paralympics’ fully blind division must wear the black, plastic eye covers to ensure that they can’t see even a glimmer of light. That would give those swimmers an advantage in a sport that takes itself as seriously as any Olympic endeavor.

“When I swam in my last Paralympic-sanctioned meet, every time I got out of the pool after racing, an official came over and looked at my goggles to make sure he couldn’t see through them,” Snyder said. “But there’s another reason for them. If one of the prosthetic eyes comes out, my goggle would catch it. I wouldn’t have to ask someone to go search the pool for my eye.”

But behind those artificial eyes, Snyder has begun to visualize a blissful finish – especially if he makes the U.S. team. The final men’s Paralympic swimming roster will be announced on Sunday.

“I really hope to bring attention to the wounded warriors (fellow servicemen and servicewomen hurt in Afghanistan and Iraq). And I hope my story maybe gives people some perspective,” Snyder said.

“You know how people get upset about silly things, like they get all fired up in rush hour? Well, let’s give them a story they can rally behind and say, hey it’s not that bad, maybe I should probably calm down a little bit.”

If Snyder earns a Paralympic slot, his best race – the 400-meter freestyle – is scheduled in London for Sept. 7. That means exactly one year to the day that the U.S. sailor lost his sight after stepping on a battlefield bomb, he’ll be wearing American colors, swimming for gold. 

COMING MONDAY: Did Lt. Brad Snyder make the U.S. men’s Paralympic swimming team? 

Bill Briggs is a frequent contributor to msnbc.com and author of “The Third Miracle.” 

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Alastair Jamieson / msnbc.com

Jim L., left, and other members of the Occupy Mile End protest group at their camp in east London on Thursday.

LONDON -- An eviction notice has been served on dozens of Occupy protesters who have set up camp in a park next to Team USA's Olympic track and field training base.

About 50 demonstrators are occupying Mile End Park – two miles from the main London 2012 site and next door to a sports stadium where American athletes will prepare for events in July.

The park is also visible from the priority traffic lanes that will be used to whisk VIPs and other participants from central London to the Olympic Village, which is located to the east of the U.K. capital.

The protesters say they are part of the anti-capitalist Occupy movement, which has seen sit-ins and clashes with police in cities including New York, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Oakland.

An Occupy London camp was forcibly removed from the grounds of St Paul's Cathedral by police at the end of February, resulting in 20 arrests.

Local authorities have now secured a court order to close down Occupy Mile End, which began five weeks ago and includes about a dozen tents, a campfire and makeshift toilet facilities.

Police evict Occupy London protesters from camp

Tower Hamlets Borough Council applied for the order following complaints from local residents. The manager of a nearby nature reserve also accused camp members of damaging important trees by taking branches for firewood, according to a report in the East London Advertiser newspaper.

One of the protesters, who gave his name as Jim L., told msnbc.com the group had agreed to leave the site voluntarily on Sunday.

"This is one of Britain's poorest boroughs and we don't want to take council resources away from things like schools and hospitals so we have agreed to vacate the site without costing the council a penny," he said.

Mark Taylor, spokesman for the Mile End Residents' Association, said locals were "looking forward" to a "constructive and companionable relationship with Team USA."

He said: "We are very pleased that the council has secured a possession order to reclaim the park for its intended purpose. It's very sad that trees had to be pulled down for firewood and children's activities disrupted before the council acted."

Slideshow: When the Olympics is your neighbor

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A diverse community in East London will welcome the world to Britain for the 2012 Olympic Games. Meet residents and hear how they feel about having a huge, world stage in their backyard.

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Council officials insisted that nobody from the United States Olympic Committee, Team USA or the London 2012 organizers had expressed concern about the Occupy protest on their doorstep.

A spokesman for the council told msnbc.com: "The USA track and field team will be training at Mile End Stadium during the Olympic Games. They have funded extensive improvements to the stadium, and will be providing a variety of community benefits including free coaching sessions and opportunities to watch the team training.

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"We are working with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) on security issues, understandably these issues are sensitive and therefore we are not able to comment in detail, but we do not anticipate that these will impact on the local community."

The council said it would go to the High Court to have the protesters moved if they did not leave the site, which is owned by a private trust on behalf of the council for use as a public park.

Brits revel in gloom ahead of London Olympics, but don't believe the gripe

Jim L. said the Occupy camp would move to a new, unidentified, site on Sunday. He added that there was little chance of protests targeting the Olympic Games.

"It would be impossible because of the security, in my own view," he said. "We're not against the Olympics as everybody likes a bit of sport, but I believe it is just one big advertising event for the benefit of corporate sponsors."

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He said the camp location had been chosen to highlight the issue of poverty in Tower Hamlets and not because of the proximity to Team USA's stadium.

Slideshow: Venues for 2012 London Olympic Games

Oda / Getty Images

From Wimbledon to Wembley Stadium to The Dome, a look at the venues for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Launch slideshow

"There are huge problems here -- lack of affordable housing, unemployment and poverty," he said. "This is not so much a protest as a process, which is why we've come here – to listen to people and gather support. There isn’t much point in trying to occupy private land in order to disrupt the institutions of capitalism.”

American competitors at the Games will have several bases across London for different sports. Other sites include the University of East London campuses in Docklands and Stratford.

Langdon School, in the nearby Poplar area, will be home to the Canadian Olympic team.

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