WINNERS LOSERS
The Australians won 10 medals in the pool and immediately ordered a review into what went wrong. Britain, with a far greater population, took just three but masked that failure by crowing about all their other successes elsewhere.
3. BADMINTON
The expulsion of eight Chinese, Indonesian and South Korean players for deliberately throwing away their matches to secure a better run to the medal rounds will leave a sizeable scar on the sport. Those kicked out after the farcical scenes included China’s world champions Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli.
4. THE BRITISH TAXPAYER
The Games cost Britain about 9 billion pounds ($ 14.1 billion) and were still talked of in terms of austerity. The main stadium has yet to find a tenant for after the Games and there is still the possibility of a White Elephant lumbering into view. The citizens of Montreal called their Olympic Stadium ‘The Big O’. It turned into ‘The Big Owe’. Enjoy the party.
5. YELENA ISINBAYEVA
A failure only in relation to what she has achieved in the sport. The Russian had set pole vault world records in her previous two Olympic finals and was going for a third successive title, but American Jennifer Suhr failed to read the script and beat her. Isinbayeva ended up with the bronze.
6. DRUG CHEATS
Dopey dopers are always losers. In London, 11 were eliminated from competition either by the IOC or national federations since the start of the competition period on July 16. Italy’s 2008 race walk champion Alex Schwazer owned up to injecting EPO after flying to Turkey and buying it over the counter from a pharmacist.
7. UMBRELLA VENDORS
The sun actually shined some of the time. After fears of torrential downpours, following one of the wettest months on record, and worries about the opening ceremony being a washout, Londoners enjoyed their own golden moments. Yes, it did rain — it would not be London without — but Andy Murray won at Wimbledon with the roof open.
8. THE GREAT BRITISH LOSER
Heroic failures and plucky losers be gone. Britons looked around and found they quite liked winning. Often. The cartoon of a man banging his television set because it had not shown a British winner for 20 minutes and therefore must be faulty summed it up.
“Brits historically got used to being the plucky losers,” said Hoy, the country’s most successful Olympian after celebrating his sixth gold. “It is like it is almost inevitable that the Brits are going to be beaten at some point and I think that is starting to change.”
9. LONDON SHOPKEEPERS AND CAB DRIVERS
Shops in central London and the West End, usually chock-full of shoppers, reported empty aisles while restaurants lamented vacant tables as locals and tourists avoided the area in the first week of the Games and commuters worked from home. The arrival of thirsty swimmers, rowers and others who had finished their events provided a late boost for nightclubs, however.
The drivers of London’s famed black cabs, never short of an opinion or three, were unhappy with “Zil Lanes” for VIPs hitting their earnings. One dived off the Tower Bridge in protest, which will give him plenty to talk about to future passengers.
10. NAY-SAYERS AND DOOM- MONGERS
Remember how they said the trains wouldn’t work, traffic gridlock was inevitable, the opening ceremony would make Britain a laughing stock, London would be turned into Siege City and chaos was guaranteed?