And so after 16 days it was all over. The world record breaking, the multiple medal-winning, the anthem-singing, the referee-attacking, the arguing over the ages of gymnasts and a quite uncharacteristic British surge up the medal table: it was all brought to an end by a closing ceremony that felt, at times, like it was going to last until 2012.
For those who missed it, London was initially represented by Boris Johnson, complete with no-doubt-soon-to-be-trademark Nervous Salute Action, receiving the Olympic Flag from his Beijing counterpart.
Then we were treated to a multicoloured and occasionally hallucinogenic video montage, featuring all the things that make London recognisable to the world, if not necessarily those who live there. Animated red phone boxes, double-decker buses, umbrellas (lots of them), the London Eye and Tate Modern were all on show.
The capital’s allotted eight minutes peaked atop a bus inside the stadium with David Beckham kicking a ball into the crowd, X-Factor’s Leona Lewis singing something and an animatronically resurrected Jimmy Page strumming away. Beckham’s popularity in the Far East clearly outweighed the fact that he has never competed at the Olympics and that Britain hasn’t even had a football team at the games since 1964.
Most neutral observers would probably place the Beijing Games with Sydney at the top of a post-boycott era list. However, in his closing speech, IOC head Jacques Rogge failed to crown the event ‘The Best Games Ever’ – a compliment previously paid to all host cities except terrorist-affected Munich and Atlanta.
Inevitably, questions will be raised over whether London will be able to achieve that specific accolade, but many more questions will need to be answered first.
Can Gordon, Boris, Tessa et al work with each other and ‘Lord of the Rings’ Seb Coe, his people at LOCOG and the ODA to actually deliver the Games?
The budget for the London Games, currently £9.3bn, will be less than half what was spent in Beijing. Will that be enough for our capital to compete in the eyes of the world? Will the much-vaunted legacy and regeneration, the cornerstone of the London bid, become a reality? Who will even be in Number 10 to preside over events?
Will facets of modern London life such as binge drinking, obesity and knife crime feature? Can Boris Johnson be expected to comb his hair twice within a four year period? Are Chas and Dave playing a massive pub piano necessarily the best idea for an opening ceremony? Will Simon Cowell’s inevitable Opening Ceremony Idol do the trick?
Even those more familiar with Jeremy Thorpe than Ian Thorpe must now understand that the Olympic circus is coming to town, our town, and over the next four years everyone from Stratford and beyond will be talking about it with rapidly increasing frequency and volume.
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