London 2012: Best Games Ever beating Sydney !

[Faster]

The Games are like children. They all have their joys and their problems and I don't pick favourites.

If you want to go around with a bumper sticker that says 'happy and glorious' or 'most exceptional' or 'wonderful, dream', then by all means, go ahead. But I love each Olympiad for what it is and the experiences and moments they bring into my life.

Than I must by a bad parent because I am incredibly fond of my first-born.

[Sir Rols]

Than I must by a bad parent because I am incredibly fond of my first-born.

Building a family now, Mate? First I've heard!

[Faster]

Playing along with Ken's metaphor.

[mattperiolat]

Right now, 24 hours plus removed from Closing Ceremonies, I think I am ready to give London an honor - my personal stamp of Textbook Olympics. Only Barcelona, Sydney and Lillehammer have achieved that in my eyes. But understand, all four cities are equal in my eyes, no better or worse. I humbly submit that if anyone is looking to organize an Olympics in their city, here are the models. Any quibbles I have are purely cosmetic, the foundation was strong, the city performed well and the people shown especially bright. I say to thee, London, well done and stand proud. As Lord Coe said, you did it right.

[krow]

Playing along with Ken's metaphor.

uh, what?

montreal???

???

???

??

?

(or ¿ as they say in spain)

you know it kind of looks like a face when you write it like that. \o-¿-o/ look he has a nose and is wearing glasses. that's cute.

[Blacksheep]

Is this really necessary? Anyway here it goes: (Apologies to everyone else for the rant)

Lend Lease Project Management and Construction won the olympic village contract based on the experience of its parent (australian) in atlanta and sydney. Guess who were the lead architects, the ones who had the most experience in designing olympic villages and of that global team, the lead architect, among some other aussies, was Australian.

This experience the same reason the british offices of populous, an american company got the contract to design the olympic stadium, as they did mind you in Sydney too, because they have the experience.

The design for London's main stadium was overseen by Brisbane-born Rod Sheard, of populous. I guess we only speak about australian

s designing things in britain when they go wrong ie wembely.

Whilst the cauldron was designed by heatherwick everyone knows that (I think by numerous posts in the Olympic Cauldron thread, it was clear I was very very aware of this - i never said Australians designed the concept btw), FCT Flames from Adelaide developed the burner system and entire electronic control and motion rig and supervised its construction. I never said it was built in Australia...

Moreover this company was responsible for the Sydney, Athens, Doha, Rio and Vancouver's Cauldrons and Sydney and Athens' torches and the rings of fire in the Athens OC.

You can learn more about their involvement in the London Cauldron here

Now to establish my point, whilst no australian was a board director on LOCOG (you wouldn't expect them to as most were consulting rather than provided direct operational roles), Australians were involved heavily in the delivery of London 2012 in the following areas:

• David Higgins, an expat living in london, had significant involvement in the planning and construction of Sydney's Aquatic Centre and OV, he was the head of the ODA in london for the first five years, if there is a more active logistical role than that outside of an OCOG chief in an olympic games I dont know what is.
  
• 8 of the 29 competition venues at London 2012 were run by Australian Venue Managers, the next closest international contribution was two US managers.
  
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  Neil Fergus, a security planner for Sydney 2000 with a background in government intelligence and security, began advising London in 2006

  
  

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  LOCOG's transport planning is largely being guided by Australian-based staff of the US consulting company Parsons Brinckerhoff, which has built on the expertise it developed in Sydney 2000.

  
  

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  One of Seb Coe's key speechwriters is australian.

  
  

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  Michael Pirrie, an Australian, was seb coe's executive assistant and was involved in the London 2012 since the bid team was formed in 2003.

  
  

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  The live sites around london are being co-ordinated by an Australian, who got her experience running the very first olympic live sites in sydney.

  
  

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  GForce TV, an Australian Company developed the underwater camera system being used in the Aquatic Centre and its staff operate the specialised cameras, inlcuding the Dive cam in the venue.

  
  

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  Stephen

  
  

  Newport, who ran the netball and hockey centre for the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and then oversaw training venues for that year's Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, is now the venue general manager for the ExCel Centre.

  
  

• 
  

  Furthermore, t

  
  

  he five arenas at the ExCel centre will be the busiest venue in Olympic history, with more staff and more athletes than even the main stadium. Five of the 22 people in Newport's senior management team are Australians, as are the heads of several of its specialist functions such as the technology manager Martin Banfield and Peter Cussell, who is in charge of spectator services.

  
  

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  Whilst Australian production companies DAE and Spektak are not involved in these games, there was an australian company consulting on the Sound System for the opening Ceremony.

  
  

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  Jeremy Edwards, another Sydney 2000 veteran, at the equestrian centre in Greenwich Park. Shooting, water polo, volleyball, football and road cycling are among the other events whose venues will be directed by Australians.

  
  

General Contracts:

• 
  

  The contracts won in London range from accountants who specialise in estimating the cost of the Games to human resources experts to dozens of logistical niches ranging from security to cleaning and furniture supplies.

  
  

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  The Melbourne-based Spotless Group will have 1800 people providing cleaning, housekeeping, linen and laundry services for the Olympic Park, athletes' village and other sites (Of course out of their UK Offices).

  
  

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  Dandenong manufacturer Advanced Polymer Technology has made the artificial turf for the hockey pitch.

  
  

Dominant Source:http://www.theaustra...6-1226357792440

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An interesting quote from the referenced article:

"Neil Fergus, the security consultant, believes the Australian role will slide after London. "Nobody has seriously challenged the Australians since Sydney. Athens had plenty of problems and the [Chinese Government] officials who did Beijing are not exactly going around the world selling their skills so that means some Australians have had a very good run for 12 years. After London there will be a good number of Brits out there selling their skills around the world but competition is not a bad thing - the Games need an injection of fresh blood.

The pool of experienced Australians is not getting bigger and some of the more important people at Sydney are getting towards the end of their careers. We have had a good run but people are getting tired." Fergus points out that the British will have several more chances to stake their claim in the industry when they host the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the 2015 rugby world cup and 2017 world athletics titles."

================================

"Anthony Bijkerk, a Dutch historian who heads the International Society of Olympic Historians, says this Australian influence in 2012 is a break with Olympic history. "Traditionally each host city did it all by themselves," he says. "Even the smallest hosts like Helsinki (1952) and Melbourne (1956) did it on their own. That was the norm right up to Sydney, which still mostly did it by themselves."

================================

"Richard Cashman, a historian at the University of Technology in Sydney who specialises in the Olympics, says the 2000 Games "marked a change in the role of international expertise in the Olympics. Before Sydney, knowledge transfer was pretty unsophisticated. The organisers of the next Games just sent along some people to literally look over the shoulders of the officials staging the current Games.

People realised that the whole thing had become so complex and specialised that instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every four years the smartest thing was to hire people who had already developed that expertise. And the success of the Sydney Games meant that we suddenly had this new export industry because our reputation for having the skills to hold a great Olympics became this unanticipated legacy of the Games. Australia became the first country to benefit from an international Olympic 'caravan', which has travelled the world since then, operating successfully at all sorts of Games."

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Finally, it is universally acknowledged that Sydney's organisational model is the blueprint for modern olympics, so much so that "a

fter the success of 2000, the International Olympic Committee bought the intellectual property rights from Sydney's organising committee, SOCOG, and began what it now terms a knowledge-transfer program."http://m.theage.com....0722-1ht50.html"

The legislation based implementation of the Games infastructure in London is even more influenced by sydney than previous games have been:

• Legislative Authority given to OCOG and protecting the sydney 2000/london 2012 brand by law in a specific act of parliament.
  
• Creation of the ODA, directly modelled after Sydney's Olympic Co-ordination Authority.
  
• Various other organisation and logistical structures, including a similar security hierarchy.
  

And yes you are absolutely right, LOCOG's staff are consulting to Rio and Sochi as are less and less australians, the torch is being passed on as it should.

But back to your attacks, I never claimed that Australian's should take credit for the success of London, how proposterous. I only said that they should also take a small part of pride in the success.

Considering the above involvement and the lasting effect of the sydney 2000 model, do you really think that is unjustified?

I again say I thought that London 2012 was probably the best ever, I have said that from the start and I again say, that if I can admit that then you can stop slogging every other olympics because of wanting to prove london is great, London was great, but so were other olympics.. I am not trying to undermine british success in london, i am trying to show that other games were successful hence the heavy involvement of people from past games, in this case namely sydney...

It seems a number of your sources are from 'The Australian' - a paper that a number of your colleagues said opinion and comments were irrelevant and implied inaccurate. Mmmmmmm

Populous are the world's largest design architects for sporting venues. The fact they also designed Sydney's Olympic Stadium is irrelevant

So Australians created the unseen burning system yet had nothing to do with actual design of the cauldron

Again your comments about the work of 'Australians' are disingenuous.

- David Higgins was appointed based on his work with English Partnerships - the government regeneration agency - which was a key part of the bid. He'd acquired his initial experitise in UK after graduation before returning back to Australia

- the security planner was Australian ... considering this was so incompetent we had to get the army in, I wouldn't shout about this.

Like with all work, once someone has experience they are likely to move around the globe. I imagine they would be horrified to think that in the 12years since Sydney they hadn't acquire additional knowledge in other countries, in other countries, in other roles etc. Were they unemployed in the subsquent years?

I've a friend who is the Operations Manager of a Canadian Heli-Ski company, who gained his experience in New Zealand despite being from Sydney. He'd regard it as pathetic that Australians would try to claim a little bit of his success for themselves.

The fact is the Australian and the Age reported that they felt the London 2012 games was the best of all time. This was supported by the polls they conducted. Yet Olympic Fan Darcy and similar want to disagree with this despite the source being Australian. I await you trying to claim credit for the closing ceremonies because some of the acts toured Australia prior to London 2012.

Why should Australia take pride for a small part of London2012? If they had not existed then another commercial contractor would have been brought in, and undoubtedly done an equally excellent job.

[Blacksheep]

BS you are just embarrassing. You say your not anti Australian but many of your posts aren't exactly nice towards Australia. And yes London was an amazing games but you know where they learnt a lot of that from? Sydney. It is too hard to judge although i tried earlier and still stick to my own opini. You are allowed your own one. But honestly stop arguing with everyone

You are the one who is embarrassing. Principally because of your lack of intelligence.

Go back to the first post. Read it. Have someone read it to you, and explain it if you are incapable of understanding the big words.

You critise these Australian papers - the Australian and the Age - yet Juso then quotes them in trying in imply that Australia should take some pride in the triumph of the games.

The article offered no opinion of the author (me) but simply repeated the opinions of AUSTRALIANS of whom a number including the journalists who reported on both games and undoubtedly many more felt the Sydney games had finally been superceded. The reason why they were offered by the Daily Telegraph (UK) was because they were comments from a country which had previously held the title.

If that title of 'best ever' had been held by an American games - they the quotes would have been from the NY Times and Washington Post.

If you feel the article is anti-Australian, then that comes from Australians.

[Olympic Fan Darcy]

You are the one who is embarrassing. Principally because of your lack of intelligence.

Go back to the first post. Read it. Have someone read it to you, and explain it if you are incapable of understanding the big words.

You critise these Australian papers - the Australian and the Age - yet Juso then quotes them in trying in imply that Australia should take some pride in the triumph of the games.

The article offered no opinion of the author (me) but simply repeated the opinions of AUSTRALIANS of whom a number including the journalists who reported on both games and undoubtedly many more felt the Sydney games had finally been superceded. The reason why they were offered by the Daily Telegraph (UK) was because they were comments from a country which had previously held the title.

If that title of 'best ever' had been held by an American games - they the quotes would have been from the NY Times and Washington Post.

If you feel the article is anti-Australian, then that comes from Australians.

Your arguing and fighting with nearly everyone on this thread, you are being ignorant to the fact that a great part of the London games had help from Australia and also based alot of how to structure it from the Sydney games. If you can not see this obviously you are stupid. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion including you however it is obvious to nearly everyone you have some sort of hate campaign against Australians and generalize all of us as boastful when your creating a thread about 3 articles saying it's the best games in the world.

[Blacksheep]

Right now, 24 hours plus removed from Closing Ceremonies, I think I am ready to give London an honor - my personal stamp of Textbook Olympics. Only Barcelona, Sydney and Lillehammer have achieved that in my eyes. But understand, all four cities are equal in my eyes, no better or worse. I humbly submit that if anyone is looking to organize an Olympics in their city, here are the models. Any quibbles I have are purely cosmetic, the foundation was strong, the city performed well and the people shown especially bright. I say to thee, London, well done and stand proud. As Lord Coe said, you did it right.

I completely agree.

People's recollections of the games are often coloured by what occured in preceding or subsequent games, and the games are often straigtjacketed by the culture and nature of the countries hosting.

Lillehammer was fantastic. I thought Nagano was really good but barely is mentioned. Vancouver was brilliant yet I am fearful of Sochi as the Canadian v Russian psyches are so different.

After Atlanta, Sydney could not fail to lose. Athens was different because they had to operate under the burden of being the mother of the games, and clearly overstretched itself as seen in the abandoned venues. Beijing was always going to throw unlimited money at a games, but anyone who has visited China or dealt with East Asian cultures are aware that they are completely different from the West.

Hence my surprise when two Australian papers actually stated that London was better than Sydney.

My personal opinion of London 2012 - which I have not shared is this.

"I do not believe that London 2012 could have delivered the games any better. The ticketing problems were caused by the IOC and clearly they have realised this by reviewing this for Rio. I don't think any ticketing system could have coped with the massive outpouring of public enthusiam. Every country has its excellent volunteers. Britain due to its integrated multi-cultural society was always going to show support for every competitor from every country whilst maybe uncovering a surge of patriotic fervour as we always seen when Britain (or England as the games were in London) do well."

You should NEVER compare games like for like - London has existed for 2,000years, Sydney for 200, so how they would put together the games is always going to be completely different. Any expertise goes out the window because on the ground it is totally different. There is a sense of personal satisfaction though when Australians who are often rabidly anti-British towards Britain come out with praise about the mother country .... it borders on unprecedented.

[Olympic Fan Darcy]

You obviously knew what you were doing. You picked 2 Australian papers you even said i'm not being anti Australian/jingoistic obviously showing that you knew what was going to happen.

[Blacksheep]

Your arguing and fighting with nearly everyone on this thread, you are being ignorant to the fact that a great part of the London games had help from Australia and also based alot of how to structure it from the Sydney games. If you can not see this obviously you are stupid. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion including you however it is obvious to nearly everyone you have some sort of hate campaign against Australians and generalize all of us as boastful when your creating a thread about 3 articles saying it's the best games in the world.

London is 2,000 years old. Sydney is about 200 years old.

Structuring the games based on one to another is minimal. You also competely deny any expertise the individals have acquired in the subsequent years from Sydney 2000, and that for every single Australian there would be a 100 British people also providing experitise acquired from running major competitions such as Manchester 2002, and the London Marathon. All of the contracts were put out to competitive tender - if Australia won some, then good for them. Trying to claim credit for them is ignorant, undermining the achievements of these people as individuals who have turned a one off into a commercial business.

And if you actually read the link - quotes were provided from the Australian, the Age, the NY Times, The Washington Post, NZ Herald, The Globe and Mail, the National Post etc .... not only can't you read, it appears you can't count either.

If I am anti-Australian, why did I advocate Australia hosting the FIFA World Cup?

http://www.gamesbids.com/forums/topic/21652-fifa-2006-australia/

Your stupidity is limitless

[Olympic Fan Darcy]

After Atlanta, Sydney could not fail to lose.

There is a sense of personal satisfaction though when Australians who are often rabidly anti-British towards Britain come out with praise about the mother country .... it borders on unprecedented.

Sydney could not fail to lose because Atlanta was so bad. Wow so the reason people reflect on them as being so good is because Atlanta sucked so much? WRONG. They were amazing games nothing to do with the failure of Atlanta. It is always hard to follow a great games. It was hard for Athens and was hard for London however Sydney and Beijing got the lucky aspect of not having to live up to extremely high expectations however they were exceptional anyway.

But stop with the generalizations, I have a British friend, amazingly friendly there's British people on here who are so kind aswell however you are putting shame to them. They are happy upbeat and reflect greatly on the country. I am NOT anti-British. I am anti you.

[Blacksheep]

You obviously knew what you were doing. You picked 2 Australian papers you even said i'm not being anti Australian/jingoistic obviously showing that you knew what was going to happen.

Are you really this dumb?

Sydney has been regarded as the benchmark for successful games

So the first press comments you take are from that country which had previously held the title used by many of the best ever games. I took them in the order they were reported in the press article.

You really are clueless

[Olympic Fan Darcy]

London is 2,000 years old. Sydney is about 200 years old.

Structuring the games based on one to another is minimal. You also competely deny any expertise the individals have acquired in the subsequent years from Sydney 2000, and that for every single Australian there would be a 100 British people also providing experitise acquired from running major competitions such as Manchester 2002, and the London Marathon. All of the contracts were put out to competitive tender - if Australia won some, then good for them. Trying to claim credit for them is ignorant, undermining the achievements of these people as individuals who have turned a one off into a commercial business.

And if you actually read the link - quotes were provided from the Australian, the Age, the NY Times, The Washington Post, NZ Herald, The Globe and Mail, the National Post etc .... not only can't you read, it appears you can't count either.

If I am anti-Australian, why did I advocate Australia hosting the FIFA World Cup?

http://www.gamesbids...2006-australia/

Your stupidity is limitless

I'm sure there were heaps of newspapers saying Sydney was better then Barcelona too. It's all about peoples opinions.

Again with the whole i can't read if i couldn't read i wouldn't be able to put 2 words together.

(Begin sarcasm) I'm so sorry your all pro Australian because you wanted Australia to host the FIFA world cup. (End sarcasm)

We are a great nation, like Britain is, Sydney games were spectacular and so was London. Leave it at that. It is all about peoples opinions.

Are you really this dumb?

Sydney has been regarded as the benchmark for successful games

So the first press comments you take are from that country which had previously held the title used by many of the best ever games. I took them in the order they were reported in the press article.

You really are clueless

Why no comments about how these games weren't better? Yes some thought it was, alot of people didn't. Just shut the hell up already

[Blacksheep]

Sydney could not fail to lose because Atlanta was so bad. Wow so the reason people reflect on them as being so good is because Atlanta sucked so much? WRONG. They were amazing games nothing to do with the failure of Atlanta. It is always hard to follow a great games. It was hard for Athens and was hard for London however Sydney and Beijing got the lucky aspect of not having to live up to extremely high expectations however they were exceptional anyway.

But stop with the generalizations, I have a British friend, amazingly friendly there's British people on here who are so kind aswell however you are putting shame to them. They are happy upbeat and reflect greatly on the country. I am NOT anti-British. I am anti you.

I am saying Sydney could not fail. And the pressure on London not to be embarrassed was immense.

Generalisations ... after two days, the Aussie press and the Aussie Olympic Team were going on about Team Borat mocking the British because we'd not won a medal. If that is not a rabidly anti-British attitude I don't know what is. Having worked in Sydney, and worked with Australians, I have never known a nation to take delight in seeing another beaten in any sporting arena, even to the point of it a defeat for Britain is more important than a victory for Australia. And therefore many British take great delight when Australia come unstuck.

[Olympic Fan Darcy]

And what they did was worse... They must didgeri-DO better!" (Quote from The Sun)

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/london-olympics/oh-no-weve-offended-the-brits/story-fn9dirj0-1226444531757

And after the Beijing games, and for those that don't know Australia had a tourism campaign where the slogan was where the bloody hell are you?

I actually found that kind of funny. I didn't get my panties in a twist but again EVERYONE knows that there has always been a rivalry between Australia and Great Britain. A population difference of 40 million and the fact that they were our "mother country" and we were beating them was actually pretty good however you guys have improved since Atlanta.

[squonk]

Blacksheep.... you have some interesting ideas and raise some good points, but this is all made irrelevant with your abusive tone. No one will argue intelligently with you unless you can remain civil. Britain has been welcoming to the world for the last 3 weeks, lets not ruin it now?

[Michelle]

Why has this thread descended into the gutter! London and Sydney staged amazing games, why do people have to cut throats on which was the 'best ever', does it matter that much?

Heck, its like asking someone what flavour of ice cream they like best? You're always going to get different answers. Obviously, there is a lot of national pride!! If you're British you're more likely to have a greater pull towards London - thats normal! Same with the Aussies love for Sydney and how they staged the games.

London was good. Sydney was good. The end!

[squonk]

I don't believe that any games are better than any other, they are all so different, and being there is so different from watching on TV.

But I think London should be highly praised for a number of reasons:

1) More people had tickets to watch this olympics than any other. With the exception of the football, every venue was sold out, every day, every session. Tickets were in massive demand. The empty seats issue was a result of IOC family allocated seats not being used, whilst there were people sitting at home who were desperate to buy a ticket and be part of this great experience. The same situation would have existed in previous Olympics and not been seen as an issue, as there were always normal tickets available. The empty seats issue, rather than being a failing, is a testement to how brilliantly the UK supported these games. In addition the crowds to watch the free events, cycling road race, marathons, walks and triathlon were unprecendented. Every athelete talked about how incredible and supportive the crowds were, not just for GB, cheering on every athelete with kindness and sportsmanship.

2) This was the most transparent games in history. Not just because the UK is a western democracy with a free press, but because of social networking. At any point, athletes, coaches or olympic representatives could say on twitter their feelings, and certainly complain if they were unhappy. To be honest I fully expected this to be London's undoing, with every small mishap, every minutiae, blown up and dissected by the World's press, many keen to see London fail. The fact that everything ran so smoothly, and everyone was so happy with the games, is quite frankly, miraculous!

3) London had the huge burden of being the first true Summer games post 9/11. Athens and Beijing would not have been as enticing a target to terrorist groups that London would be. The extra burden of keeping everyone safe could have ruined these games, and although we may not know for a while what terrorist attempts were made and thwarted, the security did its job admirably, with a friendly smile, and people were still able to gain access quickly and rarely had to queue. A lot was made of the G4S situation, but there was a contigency, like all good planning has, and in hindsight having more of the excellent British army was probably for the better.

4) How could London follow Beijing? It couldn't, so it did its own thing. Rather than a show of power and might, it showed a human face, with warmth, intelligence and reflection. The ceremonies were very, very British, and quite frankly bonkers, in a way that the British love. Danny Boyles opening ceremony was genius, it may have not had universal appeal, but it told a cynical British audience, that these games are for you. From that moment on the whole country was behind the games, creating a new sense of British pride. There has been a lot of global questionning about the NHS segment, but the British are incredibly proud of the NHS and it really is such a huge part of the culture, in a way that many other countries can't imagine.

[Alexjc]

This page just ended up being a Aus v Brit bash up...Which is fun for the rest of us.

Sydney was an over the top spectacular that was needed to polish up the Olympic image after the Atlanta debarcle, having IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch saying 'well done Atalanta' and nothing more was the ultimate slight!

Sydney also launched the new century so there were very high expectations on Sydney.

London cleverly pulled of an incredible performance after having to follow the near militiristic Beijing masterpiece which many were left over awed by. Yes they had the state of the art facilities BUT London had the atmosphere, people and panache...And that's what memeories we are left with.

Both were good...Both had issues, but in the end we have reluctantly walked away wanting more...Which make both, along with Barcelona, successful.

[Rob2012]

London has refined the Sydney model to the nth degree Getting Australian know-how on board was a masterstroke, and good for both our countries' reputations in the end. I'm not quite sure what the argument is about in here.

[Blacksheep]

Blacksheep.... you have some interesting ideas and raise some good points, but this is all made irrelevant with your abusive tone. No one will argue intelligently with you unless you can remain civil. Britain has been welcoming to the world for the last 3 weeks, lets not ruin it now?

I can be remain civil but if one poster deliberately misreads and distorts what has been said, and been abusive about it, then I will abuse them back.

It apparently is the only language certain people understand

I don't believe that any games are better than any other, they are all so different, and being there is so different from watching on TV.

But I think London should be highly praised for a number of reasons:

1) More people had tickets to watch this olympics than any other. With the exception of the football, every venue was sold out, every day, every session. Tickets were in massive demand. The empty seats issue was a result of IOC family allocated seats not being used, whilst there were people sitting at home who were desperate to buy a ticket and be part of this great experience. The same situation would have existed in previous Olympics and not been seen as an issue, as there were always normal tickets available. The empty seats issue, rather than being a failing, is a testement to how brilliantly the UK supported these games. In addition the crowds to watch the free events, cycling road race, marathons, walks and triathlon were unprecendented. Every athelete talked about how incredible and supportive the crowds were, not just for GB, cheering on every athelete with kindness and sportsmanship.

2) This was the most transparent games in history. Not just because the UK is a western democracy with a free press, but because of social networking. At any point, athletes, coaches or olympic representatives could say on twitter their feelings, and certainly complain if they were unhappy. To be honest I fully expected this to be London's undoing, with every small mishap, every minutiae, blown up and dissected by the World's press, many keen to see London fail. The fact that everything ran so smoothly, and everyone was so happy with the games, is quite frankly, miraculous!

3) London had the huge burden of being the first true Summer games post 9/11. Athens and Beijing would not have been as enticing a target to terrorist groups that London would be. The extra burden of keeping everyone safe could have ruined these games, and although we may not know for a while what terrorist attempts were made and thwarted, the security did its job admirably, with a friendly smile, and people were still able to gain access quickly and rarely had to queue. A lot was made of the G4S situation, but there was a contigency, like all good planning has, and in hindsight having more of the excellent British army was probably for the better.

4) How could London follow Beijing? It couldn't, so it did its own thing. Rather than a show of power and might, it showed a human face, with warmth, intelligence and reflection. The ceremonies were very, very British, and quite frankly bonkers, in a way that the British love. Danny Boyles opening ceremony was genius, it may have not had universal appeal, but it told a cynical British audience, that these games are for you. From that moment on the whole country was behind the games, creating a new sense of British pride. There has been a lot of global questionning about the NHS segment, but the British are incredibly proud of the NHS and it really is such a huge part of the culture, in a way that many other countries can't imagine.

Brilliant points.

I wish I could be as eloquent.

[Mainad]

Deleted.

[Mainad]

This page just ended up being a Aus v Brit bash up...

It seems to be more a Blacksheep v Aus bash up!

Sydney was an over the top spectacular that was needed to polish up the Olympic image after the Atlanta debarcle, having IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch saying 'well done Atalanta' and nothing more was the ultimate slight!

Sydney also launched the new century so there were very high expectations on Sydney.

London cleverly pulled of an incredible performance after having to follow the near militiristic Beijing masterpiece which many were left over awed by. Yes they had the state of the art facilities BUT London had the atmosphere, people and panache...And that's what memeories we are left with.

Both were good...Both had issues, but in the end we have reluctantly walked away wanting more...Which make both, along with Barcelona, successful.

Exactly. What on earth is there to argue about?

[Aphrodite007]

Blacksheep, again, your tone isn't representing Britain very well here. Most people in GB are enjoying the Games for what they were, sabre rattling like this isn't really what the Olympics are all about.