Olympics Post Mortem

And so London 2012 is over, and by almost all accounts it's been a hugely successful games both in terms of organisation and for performances (Rudisha's 800m WR being for me THE standout performance). Team GB exceeded all but the wildest expectations with 29 gold medals.

SO how about a few thoughts and nominations:
Star of the Games (Individual or Team)
Performance of the Games
Disappointment of the Games
Controversy of the Games
Other Comments - what was good and what could have been improved.

For me:
Star - Can only be Usain Bolt, with honourable mentions to Mo Farah and Michael Phelps.

Performance - Rudisha, then the Dutch men's hockey team in that SF

Disappointment - Both 1500m races. Come on guys, do some running. Oh, and I am very suspicious about the performances of both winners.

Controversy - The badminton fiasco. At least the IOC did the right thing in DQing the guilty parties. Too many empty seats in the first few days because of corporate and 'Olympic Family' tickets not being used - one of the issues here is that these tend to be very good seats that are obvious on the TV coverage.

Other comments - The venues were largely brilliant, with Greenwich providing a great backdrop for the equestrian events. The one exception may have been the swimming arena, where I understand (from someone who was there) some seats could not see the 10m diving platform.
Obviously after the badminton match-fixing, the IOC need to look at the arrangement of such tournaments so that there is no motivation for such activities (same as FIFA did 20 years or so ago when a similar situation occurred).
The volunteers by all accounts have been the unsung (or at least little-sung) heros of the Games.

We've discussed elsewhere the issues with the track cycling programme and how it is imbalanced towards sprint events. Lose the Kierin and bring back the individual pursuit.
Scheduling in the athletics - Ridiculous that the men's 800m heats were being run the day between the 1500m sf and final, and the silly situation with the Algerian stepping off the track, being DQed then reinstated before winning the 1500m final. Not sure whether the issue was too many entrants to both events, necessitating an additional round of races, or if it was simply bad planning (also, I'm not sure who would be responsible for scheduling events like this - LOCOG? IOC? IAAF?).

Star - Mo
Performance - Rudisha
Disappointment - Swimming team
Controversy - Badminton and very well handled by the IOC.
And Boris

Star - Jess Ennis, poster girl and delivered.

Performance: Rudisha was amazing.
I also have to mention the French handball team, who have now won Olympics 08 and 12, worlds 09 and 11 and european (quasi-world in handball) in 2010. Certainly the best sports team around in any sport.
Tony Estanguet now has 3 olympic golds in 4 attempts, with a fabulous downhill run in the canoe.

Disappointment: agree that the 1500 m races were poor. Too many drugs cheats (ex and probable) flourishing again.

Controversy: the badminton obviously. The algerian 1500 winner. Not much has been said of GB deliberately crashing in the cycling...

Comments: it's been brilliant, organisation superb, practically no queues (apart from for food), volunteers have been wonderful. The people have really taken to the games with enthusiasm, the atmosphere has been electric. I've loved every minute of it. Managed to get along to fencing, rowing, athletics (200m heats!) and volleyball. Any criticisms would really be quibbling. It's been awesome.

Star - Ennis. Face of the Games, and rose to the challenge. It was nice to see the other heptathetes join her on the lap of honour. Real camardarie.

Performance - Team GB Cycling mob. Just awesome.

Disappointment - Swimmers.

Controversy - Showing the wrong Korean flag. Hot on the heels of that stupid Indian woman gatecrashing, i feared for the worst.

Comments - great stadia, well organised, well done London.

Mike
For the purposes of the crash, Philip Hines is German

I don't know how much you picked up from the TV and radio coverage, but handball has been the great discovery of these Games, at least as far at the British public is concerned. Hopefullly there are enough facilities to allow the sport to really take off over here now. I heard on the radio this morning that when the Games were awarded to London, there were less than 100 registered handball players in the country, but this has obviously expanded sufficiently that we could put out two teams that performed with credit throughout (beaten but not disgraced), and now we should be looking to really kick on.

Star - Bradley Wiggins. I was there when he was on BBC balcony, and the reception he got was just amazing.

Performance - Rudisha, and everyone else in that 800m race deserves a mention fro trying to go with him as well! It was probably my favourite stat of the game that Osagie who finished 8th, would have won gold at the last three Olympics with his time!

Disappointment - Phillips Idowu, the saga. And Gatlin getting a medal, really don't think he should have been there.

Controversy - The fact that we didn't let the Aussies get into the country to compete.

Comments - Brilliant Olympics. It's likely to be the only home one most of us will get in our lifetimes and I don't think anyone can de disappointed by it. It was amazing.

dummy_half wrote:Mike
For the purposes of the crash, Philip Hines is German

That explains a lot

dummy_half wrote:I don't know how much you picked up from the TV and radio coverage, but handball has been the great discovery of these Games, at least as far at the British public is concerned. Hopefullly there are enough facilities to allow the sport to really take off over here now. I heard on the radio this morning that when the Games were awarded to London, there were less than 100 registered handball players in the country, but this has obviously expanded sufficiently that we could put out two teams that performed with credit throughout (beaten but not disgraced), and now we should be looking to really kick on.

I've been a handball fan for a while. It's a great spectator sport, very big on the continent. Hopefully we will see a lot more of it now.

Star - Mo Farah. 2 primetime Saturday night Gold medals. Who writes his scripts?! Perfect in every way.

Performance - Mo again for GB. Like everyone else will go Rudisha for other countries

Disappointment - Men's Road Race. Would have loved to see Cav get a shot at Gold but negative riding from the Peleton put paid to that

Controversy - The Chinese swimmer. Seems like a lifetime ago now but that dominated the early days of the games

Fantastic games anyway. Other moments that stick out for me are Wiggins destroying the time trial. Rutherford's obvious disbelief at winning. Daley's unbridled joy on a fantastic Bronze medal. Jade Jones's winning celebration.

The best 2 weeks of sport I've ever seen are over