Gongs galore for London 2012 stars

The highest honour went to Lord Coe, who led the winning bid to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games to the capital and steered the events to triumph as chairman of organisers Locog.

Sheffield-raised Lord Coe is the first sportsman ever to be made a Companion of Honour and joins an elite order of 65 members, including broadcaster Sir David Attenborough and artist David Hockney.

Richly-deserved recognition also goes to the Yorkshire athletes who amassed enough golds between them for the region to have ranked twelfth in the Olympic medals table had the region been a country.

As well as an CBE for Sheffield heptathlete Jessica Ennis, MBEs go to boxers Nicola Adams, from Leeds and Luke Campbell, from Hull; Skipton archer Danielle Brown; and Stokesley rower Katherine Copeland.

Leeds triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee is also made an MBE – but brother Jonathan, who took bronze, misses out.

Paralympic wheelchair racer “Hurricane” Hannah Cockcroft, from Halifax, also receives the honour.

Ben Ainslie, the most decorated sailor in Olympic history with four gold medals at four consecutive Games, is knighted along with Dave Brailsford and David Tanner, performance directors at 
British Cycling and British Rowing, who drove their teams to success.

Sir Ben said: “This is an incredible honour. When I set out Olympic sailing 20 years ago, I never would have dreamed this would happen.”

Para-cyclist Sarah Storey is made a Dame after winning four gold medals at London 2012, taking her Paralympic gold medal total to 11.

She said: “I can’t believe the number of times we’ve said this year, ‘Oh, can 2012 possibly get any better?’. We feel so fortunate that 2012 will always stand out as being the most incredible year.”

Cyclist Victoria Pendleton, distance runner Mo Farah and wheelchair athlete David Weir all become CBEs while tennis ace Andy Murray and paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds are awarded OBEs.

They are among 78 people involved in Games to be recognised in a special list in this year’s honours, which contain an unprecedented number of figures from the sporting world – 123 compared to 44 in the last list.

The London 2012 list also recognises those who contributed in a “non-sporting capacity”, although Danny Boyle, creator of the epic opening ceremony, is missing amid speculation he turned down an honour.

The woman who was in charge of the Games Maker volunteers and the mastermind who produced the 70-day Olympic and day-long Paralympic torch relays will now get their moment in the spotlight.

Jean Tomlin, who was in charge of the Games Maker programme, gets an OBE. As London 2012’s human resources director in charge of workforce and accreditation, Mrs Tomlin faced the daunting task of mobilising a 200,000-strong workforce for the Games.

This included the 70,000 much-valued Games Maker volunteers who became the smiling face of London 2012.

Producer Deborah Hale becomes an MBE after helping to sketch the detail of the torch relays.

Sports makes up about 10 per cent of the awards, as does education, while health makes up 7 per cent, and industry and the economy make up 12 per cent.