Usain Bolt made himself a living legend — just ask him. Michael Phelps swam a last lap into history. A man ran on carbon blades. Two track stars and a long jumper produced perhaps the greatest night in British sports history.
Take a victory lap, London.
The nightmare that was supposed to be the 2012 Olympics —
gridlock and chaos Underground and overground, a city locked down by terrorist
threats, day after day of gray and drizzle — simply never materialized.
Instead, London threw a five-ring party.
“Nobody wanted to sit this dance out,” said
Sebastian Coe, the two-time Olympic 1,500-meter champion and chief of the
London organizing committee. “Everybody has wanted to be involved.”
Or, as the stately Economist said: “Britain looked at
itself and liked what it saw.”
The games were not without controversy. Eight badminton
players were sent home in disgrace for trying to lose — doing it to gain a
better draw in their tournament, but violating the Olympic spirit of
competition.
Organizers scrambled to sell last-minute tickets, and ended
up giving some to the military, after unsightly photos of empty seats were
splashed across the famously cantankerous British press.
Some moments were downright ugly. A Greek triple jumper made
a racist joke on Twitter. A Swiss football player used a slur to describe the
South Koreans who had just won, and said that they “can go burn.”
At what were called the first social media Olympics, both
remarks made it around the world in seconds. The punishment came almost as
quickly: Go home.
The athletes who misbehaved were drowned out anyway. Tens of
thousands of people flocked daily into Olympic Park. They filled Olympic
stadium for morning heats. They gave the handball arena a new name: The Box
That Rocks.
They camped out on the grass to watch the action on big
screens. Flags — the Union Jack most prominently — became shirts and shorts,
caps and capes, earrings and nail polish. Fans wore their national colors
proudly, and literally.
And what a show they saw.
Bolt, the Jamaican track sensation, blew away the field in
the 100 meters in 9.63 seconds and the 200 in 19.32, becoming the first athlete
to win both sprints at consecutive Olympics.
He was so dominant that sometimes the question was not just
whether he would win but whether he would run at full speed to the finish line
— and what theatrics he would produce to celebrate.
He did pushups on the track. He struck the pose of an
ancient, triumphant Olympian, or perhaps a superhero.
“I am now a living legend,” he said. “Bask in
my glory.”
Bolt struck a third time on the next-to-last night of the
games, running a blistering anchor leg to set a world record in the 4×100 relay
for his third gold. He was so good that track officials let him keep the baton.
Elsewhere on the track, Kenya’s David Rudisha led for the
entire race in the 800 meters and broke his own world record by a tenth of a
second. The standout performance of the games, proclaimed no less a track star
than Coe himself.
Carmelita Jeter anchored the American 4×100-meter relay team
to a winning time of 40.82 seconds, more than half a second better than a mark
that had stood for more than a quarter-century.
The United States used a dominant showing in track and field
to blow past China and lock up the races for total medals and for golds.
In the pool alone, they won 31 medals. And Michael Phelps,
in a dazzling farewell, became the most decorated Olympian of all time. He came
away with four golds and six overall to eclipse not just his contemporary
rival, Ryan Lochte, but Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who held the previous
record for most Olympic medals, with 18.
Phelps has 18 golds alone to show for his career, and 22
overall medals.
He left just as another American swimmer, 17-year-old Missy
Franklin, was stepping into the spotlight. She captured four golds, equaling
the U.S. mark for a female swimmer.
She was only one star at a breakout Olympics for women.
Gabby Douglas, the 16-year-old American gymnast, won two
gold medals, including the all-around — and got to meet Kate, the Duchess of
Cambridge, to boot. Six women’s world records were set in the pool.
Alex Morgan scored a late header that sent the U.S. women’s
football team to a semifinal victory against Canada and propelled them to an
eventual gold. Serena Williams won golds in women’s singles and in women’s
doubles with sister Venus.
Women’s boxing made its debut, and was a huge hit. Britain’s
Nicola Adams, Ireland’s Katie Taylor and U.S. teen Claressa Shields became
stars in their gold-medal bouts.
Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor did what they
always do — own the sand. They won their third straight gold in beach
volleyball and did it at perhaps the best setting of the games — within a long
serve of 10 Downing St.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei sent female Olympians for the
first time. Saudi judo fighter Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani lost, in
a headscarf and in less than 90 seconds. But she drew an ovation and made a
statement just by being here.
So did Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee from South Africa
with carbon-fiber blades who ran both the 400 and the 4×400 relay. He reached
the semifinals in the 400 and ran anchor on the relay team that finished last
in the final. Nobody minded.
“When I left the stadium last night I just turned
around and looked at the crowd, and it’s something I will definitely remember
for the rest of my life,” Pistorius said.
By the tens of thousands, Londoners shared the sentiment.
For the host nation, a cast of athletes cemented their place in British lore.
Bradley Wiggins followed up his victory in the Tour de
France with gold in the time trial and became the most decorated British
Olympian. Track cyclist Chris Hoy won his sixth career gold. Ben Ainslie sailed
to his fourth.
Andy Murray finally won a title at Wimbledon, thrashing
Roger Federer in straight sets on Centre Court — just a month after losing to
him in the Wimbledon final.
Britain piled up 28 gold medals and will finish third in the
table. Not since another London Games, in 1908, has Britain performed so well.
It peaked on a Saturday night, when Britain won three gold
medals in track and field in less than an hour — Jessica Ennis in heptathlon,
Mo Farah in the 10,000 meters and Greg Rutherford in long jump — to a deafening
roar inside Olympic Stadium.
The reserved president of the International Olympic
Committee, Jacques Rogge, made no secret of his delight at it all.
“For two weeks,” he said, “the Olympic Park
has been the beating heart of the world.”
Normally reserved Britons embraced, put down their
newspapers and spoke to each other on the Tube, and reveled in sports like
never before.
“The doom mongers said it couldn’t be done,” said
London Mayor Boris Johnson, who was responsible for one of the few mishaps of
the games — getting himself stuck on a zip line.
“Well, they were wrong,” he said. “It was
done, it was stunning, and it will live long in the memory.”
The cycling road race blazed by Buckingham Palace. The race
walk went by, too, with considerably lower speed but no less enthusiasm. The
marathon, on Sunday, will finish nearby.
And perhaps appropriately, these games will mark a changing
of the guard.
Phelps is going into retirement. Bolt has hinted he won’t be
back in 2016. An American basketball team stacked with superstars toyed with
its opponents and was playing for gold on Sunday, but NBA stars may be
sidelined if the Olympic basketball tournament adopts an under-23 age rule like
football.
After three-time host London, the Olympics will move to new
territory — Sochi, Russia, for the 2014 Winter Games; Rio in 2016; and
Pyeongchang, South Korea, for the 2018 Winter Games.
London spent about $14.5 billion in public money on its
Olympics. The project has regenerated East London, and organizers have pledged
a long-term legacy with no white elephants.
For now, though, no one in London is worried about that.
It’s been a jolly good show.
