Lord Coe admitted there are "lessons to be learned" from the riots in London and elsewhere in England before next year's Olympics.
The London organising committee chairman had been avoiding the topic since violence broke out in Tottenham on Saturday but he ended his silence following days of meetings with an International Olympic Committee coordination commission and other Olympic officials.
"There are lessons to be learned and over the next year we will continue our contingency plans," Coe said at Wembley Arena, where the World Badminton Championships are serving as a test event for next year's Olympics. "They will deal with all sorts of things including public disorder."
Coe said he had spoken with the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, and other sports leaders about the riots and said they do not believe the image of the 2012 Games will be hurt by the violence.
"They know that things from time to time come out of left field in cities. Effectively within two days we had that under control," Coe said. Although several football matches, including England's friendly with Holland, have been cancelled or postponed because of the four days of unrest, Olympic test events have gone ahead with very little trouble.
The badminton championships in north-west London have been unaffected but the first day of the beach volleyball competition at Horse Guards Parade in central London on Tuesday was stopped a few hours early to allow people to get home before dark.
Other scheduled test events this week include a cycling road race that will go through the streets of London on Sunday and a marathon swimming competition at Hyde Park on Saturday. The closest the violence came to the Olympic Park was on Monday when rioting spread to Hackney, about four miles from the site that includes the main Olympic Stadium and other key venues.
"I am neither sanguine nor cavalier about the disfiguring images which were beamed around the world," Coe said. "But at the same time we have had test events up and running quickly."
On Tuesday the IOC stood up for Coe and his organising committee, saying: "We're happy with how local organisers are dealing with the issue and we are confident they will do a good job."The smooth running of the test events has gone a long way to proving to the IOC that next year's Games will be hard to disrupt.
"We have the leadership of the IOC with us and it is important for them to see that, while we have had our challenges in London, these events have gone on in an orderly and timely way," Coe said. "They recognise that in very difficult circumstances we have managed to deliver what we set out to do. I am happy that we are on time and on track."