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Click for more from the 2012 summer games in London.
LONDON -- Following Sunday night's Olympic closing ceremony, NBCNews.com takes a tongue-in-cheek look at those who struck gold at London 2012 -- and some others who were left in the starting blocks.
WINNERS
Boris Johnson
London's tousle-haired mayor provided a moment of comedy gold when he got stuck on a zip wire at the city’s Victoria Park. For any other politician in charge of a major city, being caught on camera for several minutes dangling in front of a crowd of children like a sack of potatoes would have been career-ending. Not for Boris, whose self-deprecating style and easy charm convinced many pundits that he'll one day be elected prime minister.
London mayor Boris Johnson attempts to make a dramatic entrance at an Olympic party—but gets stranded on a zip wire instead. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
The Paralympic Games
Maybe it’s the "Blade Runner" effect: Since South African double-amputee Oscar Pistorius made Olympic history by competing alongside able-bodied athletes in the 400m race, sales of tickets for the Paralympics Games have broken records. Some 2.1 million tickets have already been sold for the London 2012 Paralympics, which begin on August 29 – already well ahead of the 1.8 million total four years ago in Beijing.
Oscar Pistorius from South Africa became the first double amputee to compete in the games by running the men's 400-meter race. He says that having the opportunity to represent his country in the Olympics "far surpassed" his expectations.
Lanyard manufacturers
Around the most security-conscious Olympic Games in history, you’re nobody without a lanyard. The 11,000 athletes, 11,000 coaching or IOC officials, 21,000 media and 200,000 on-site workers all need laminated credentials with a barcode ID strip attached to a lanyard -- an orange-and-purple ribbon worn around the neck. Then you need 12,200 soldiers and 7,000 civilian security workers to check those credentials. And they need credentials, too. That’s at least a quarter of a million people needing lanyards. And once you’re inside the Olympic Park, you need a separate lanyard to get into individual offices and venues. It was a business opportunity on a plate.
Al Bello / Getty Images
U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps shows off his Olympic credentials -- and the lanyard holding it -- on July 24.
Westfield shopping mall, Stratford, East London
It opened its doors in the pit of Britain’s worst post-war recession and is located in a former industrial zone in one of London’s crime hotspots. Yet for the past two weeks, Westfield shopping mall, adjacent to the Olympic Park, has been the must-visit destination of the Games as athletes from around the world wander between the Apple Store and the Abercrombie & Fitch, posing for pictures and signing autographs for fans. The Cow, a bar at the end of the shopping center nearest the park entrance, is making more than $47,000 a day, according to one worker.
East London, which will host the Olympic Games, boasts a colorful history. NBC News' Jim Maceda reports.
Missy Franklin
The 17-year-old's four gold medals and a bronze propelled her to a whole new level of fame. According to a sports marketing expert and two agents, this could be worth between $1 million and $5 million a year in endorsements, The Denver Post reported. "She's got a great smile," Andrew Stroth, a sports attorney specializing in endorsement deals, told the paper. "Her story's fantastic. She seems like an all-American girl, a young lady who really cares about people inside and outside the pool."
Seventeen-year-old Missy Franklin is taking home four gold medals and one bronze from the London Olympics and tells TODAY's Savannah Guthrie that while she has a lot to discuss with her parents and coach, she'd still love to swim on a college team.
Austria House
Of all the national hospitality houses that sprang up in London – the work of tourism agencies seeking to promote their country to the millions of Games visitors – Austria House, near the Tower of London, has been the most surprising success. Crowds regularly lined up around the block to buy beer at $6 a pint and sauerkraut at $12. How Austria managed to turn an overpriced temporary beer patio in the financial district into a to-be-seen-in venue remains a mystery, but Tower Hill has been alive with the sound of music since the Games began.
Jim Seida / NBC News
Julia Sailer pours two-liter beers as fast as she can sell them at Austria's national hospitality house on Tuesday.
London tube train and bus drivers
By threatening strike action during the Games, London’s underground train drivers -- already paid almost double the U.K. average wage -- secured a bonus payment of $1,400 to compensate for temporary changes in shift patterns. Angry at being left out, bus drivers used the same tactic to win themselves $900 regardless of whether their route was affected by the Games.
Traveling around traffic-plagued London can be a hassle at the best of times -- never mind during an event such as the Olympic Games. NBCNews.com put the city to the test in a race to the Olympic Park.
Britain's military
Britain’s soldiers stepped up to the plate when private contractor G4S failed to supply enough security workers. Despite concerns at the militarization of the Games, their placatory presence and application of much-needed courtesy and common sense at the airport-style searches was welcomed by spectators. The experience has left some Brits secretly wishing the military would also run the London Underground, most major sporting events and Heathrow Airport.
Dave Martin / AP
British troops cheer along with the crowd as they get a break from security duties to watch the Brazil vs. Great Britain beach volleyball match on July 30.
More London 2012 coverage from NBCNews.com
LOSERS
Greedy hotels and landlords
In February, NBCNews.com revealed that landlords in Britain's capital were evicting tenants in order to cash in on the Games by charging tourists many times the usual rent. Hotels also began charging exorbitant rates for rooms even in mediocre locations. However, up to one-third of those rooms were left unsold, according to The Daily Telegraph, while volunteers helping at the Games stayed at a temporary campsite rather than pay over-priced rates for accommodation. On top of that, Londoners have embraced the spirit of the Games by opening up their own homes free of charge to athletes’ families and spectators from around the world.
Around London, alternative Olympic viewing sites offer locals and tourists a cheaper, crowd-free version of the Games.
London cyclists
It was meant to be the "greenest" Summer Games in history, but although Britain won a slew of cycling medals London 2012 hasn't been much fun for the city's ordinary cyclists. Part of a popular route for cyclists down the east side of London -- a path along the River Lea -- has been closed for security reasons because it runs close to the Olympic Park. And cyclists were also not allowed to use many of the Olympic Lanes set up for officials, athletes and others involved in the Games. To cap it all, a man cycling home to help avoid traffic congestion during the Games was knocked over and killed by an official London 2012 media bus.
Jim Seida / NBC News
A cyclist uses his phone to help navigate around the security gate blocking the bike path along the western edge of London's Olympic Park on July 21.
British soccer players
The good grace and sportsmanship of Olympic athletes has thrown into sharp contrast the behavior of Britain’s highly-paid but mostly charmless professional soccer players.
This Olympics is basically a three week long PR disaster for football and footballers in this country.
— Olly Barratt (@ollybarratt) August 5, 2012
Tourist attractions
Visitor numbers at London's traditional tourist attractions such as the Tower of London and St Paul’s Cathedral fell by up to 40 per cent during the Games as dire warnings about likely transport chaos, congestion and long lines turned the city center into a ghost town.
Jim Seida / NBC News
Street and graffiti artists have been satirizing, celebrating and making jokes about the Olympic Games in London.
Small businesses
Many local businesses suffered too. Traders at a food market close to the Olympic Park face financial ruin, according to local reports, after paying up to $25,000 for market pitches on streets that turned out to be deserted. One spent more than $30,000 on rent, stock and equipment for his Thai food stall and failed to sell a single meal.
Great Britain has been struggling to find a way to recovery from deep, grinding double-dip recession. Could recovery be sparked by the Olympic Games? NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
British taxpayers
The U.K. government spent some $14.5 billion on hosting the Games, according to organizers LOCOG, although experts suspect that cost could be considerably higher when all factors – such as public employees’ time – are taken into consideration. British Prime Minister David Cameron said before the Games that he was confident London 2012 would provide a $20 billion boost to the economy over the next four years. But that figure has been met with some skepticism. Professor Richard Jackman, of the London School of Economics, told NBCNews.com the financial benefits of the Olympics were always “grossly over-estimated” and “unfortunately our taxpayers are funding this.” He suggested the Olympics might make "a few billion." And Jackman is not alone. A poll of economists by Reuters found that 23 out of 27 thought the Games would not provide a lasting economic windfall.
Oda / Getty Images
From Wimbledon to Wembley Stadium to The Dome, a look at the venues for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Athletes in disgrace
Swiss soccer player Michel Morganella, 23, was stripped of his Olympic accreditation for posting a racist message on Twitter after his team lost 2-1 to South Korea. Swiss officials said the message was offensive and threatening. Triple-jumper Voula Papachristou was also cut from the Greece team after posting a comment mocking African immigrants. Eight badminton players, from South Korea, Indonesia and China were disqualified after they tried to lose games in order to get an easier draw in the next round. The crowd booed the competitors when it became obvious they were not competing. Sebastian Coe, chairman of Games organizers LOCOG, said the spectacle was "depressing," adding "who wants to sit through something like that?" However, disgruntled fans were not given their money back.
Tullio M. Puglia / Getty Images
Swiss soccer player Michel Morganella lost his accreditation after sending a racist tweet.
As the Olympics come to an end in London, there are the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia to look forward to. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
Leave a Comment:
The winners were the those who worked hard and brought their best to the games,no matter where they finished. The losers were those who complained they didn't get enough from them, no matter how much was given. The winners were those behind the scenes who did their best to make the games a success for all those who came and watched. The losers were those who were lost out because they were too busy to take time to enjoy, appreciate all that hard work resulting in so many incredible, thrilling moment
NBC really sucked, the live TV coverage was atrocious. they are big loser but probably taking it to the bank
The Real winners: All the Olympic competitors
The Real loser : Romney Mittens being Romney Dumbass in London....
The funniest moment : The London mayor gettin stuck on the line - stunt gone wild!
The best moment : Phelps second to last final race.
Awesome moment : Mo Farrah races
Most memorable moment : The women's 4X100 race - Go USA
The worst moment : The men's 4X100 race - losing the race to those weed smokin Jamaicans!
The we'll get you next time sucker : Usain Bolt taunting the US - I hate that dude, see in 2016...
Nice win and deservingly so - Felix Jones
This is Doc in the wild west and I approve this message....sent from an Ipad on the range with my Horse Big Tex's approval!
The winner - NBC as they march to the bank with wads of advertising cash
The Losers - everyone who watched NBC's extremely pathetic coverage of the biggest CORPORATE spectacle worldwide.
Shosyn, well said....NBC and the corrupt IOC.....lol.....cash is king baby!!! worked liked crazy and did not catch any of the olmpyics tried the to catch some stuff on the internet....nope just pictures......gotta keep the copyright tight....don't lose any cashola
@Soshyn - the incredible chutzpah of the executives at the Closing Ceremonies (after the terrible coverage and the cult of the Bob Costas and Matt lauer non-personality drivel) to put the animal/monkey sitcom on (w/o commercials - doncha love that?) to cut the WHO and Ray Davies. Okay - I assume they were on after the stupid sitcom - which is doomed to failure anyway - but some of us have to get up to go to work the next day. If had any idea that would happen, I would have set the dvr and edit out the commercials.
EPIC FAIL - NBC.
The ability of the Olympics to give the host city and country an economic boost has usually been greatly over-rated. In fact, Athens and Montreal are examples of host cities damaged economically by the huge costs of extra facities, infrastructure, security, etc. Hosting the Olympics may have contributed to Greece's delicate condition.
Without federal help any city in the US trying to host the summer Olympics would be crazy, costs have gone thru the roof. I remember even back in 1976 when Colorado got the winning bid for the winter Olympics and the voters turned it down, I was disappointed then but looking back on it Im glad we did. Salt Lake City needed 340 mil from the Feds, suspect in a more built up area like Denver that would just be just the start.
Square dude - I agree. I'm also am glad that Denver won't have the chance to bid on the 2020 Olympics. We dodged a bullet this time, too.
Um... folks, if cash is a problem then would it make a certain amount of sense to re-use some of the previous Olympic sites that are still in pretty decent shape?
Winter Games in 1976 wouldn't cost much and probably make money. Post Munich games (and its even worse since 911) can't make money. Just the security costs 1-2 billion.
So countries compete to host the Olympics - and then complain how expensive it is?
Funny huh? I guess there are always someone who has to complain. If it started to rain money, someone would complain about the litter or that too many pennies and not enough quarters landed at their house.
England wanted the games and they got them so you have to take the bad with the good and that is the way it is.
I am just glad that NOTHING happened to hurt anyone in the park but it is sad that someone was killed outside the park.
Thank GOD for the most part everything went well.
Thank you London.
You forgot to put NBC in the losers column. What a bunch of losers at NBC !
CTV in Canada was live all day and evening with five feeds in english and two in french. You could pick your event and watch in HD. Lots of US athletes and teams were featured and we saw it as it happened including ceremonies, Bolt, US soccer, Phelps, everything. NBC dropped the ball and US viewers missed out.
State television in our country had two TV channels with 24-hour programming and six internet channels, which together provided complete coverage of all events. The website was very nicely organized, making it easy for viewers to see what was available and when.
In Hawaii, I watched the opening and the closing ceremonies, and many events in between online, from three different British sports channels. The London Olympics were great, I salute the Athletes, the support staff, and citizens of London, and the British people as whole, for a wonderful Olympic Games, thank you so very much, you should be very proud!! It was a show case of the people of our planet, again thank you.
Snake & Hohum: Were the TV and online coverage in your respective country free (no cable subscription required)? If so, I am very impress and super jealous.
I dont think I saw a complete award ceremony through out the whole 17 days.
And the cutaway to a dull interview during the opening ceremony shall never (I hope) be forgotten)
Even with all its cable channels NBC did not cover many of the "less popular" sports, Sporting clays (Skeet), Sailing, comes to mind.
Oh well, they say they had record viewers (but who believes a networks hype?)
I agree Farsight. I have a feeling, just like NFL coverage, Fox or CBS could have done a better job.
Just look at NASCAR coverage, Fox is so slick & proffesional
I agree with farsight and tmstz, but add this---the real losers were the viewers in USA. We had thoughtless coverage, and thoughtless, meaningless talking throughout the events.
I agree with that (the needless talking!). From the opening ceremony, when they talked over the great music, to the very end ... NBC NEVER stopped talking!
They could have shown three or four times the athletic events (or even highlighted more athletes -- I do enjoy those, especially from the other countries) if the commentators would have quite commentating so much!
I guess if there is an Olympic gold medal for needless chatter, NBC won.
BTW: To add to the incredible glut of commercials! UGH. We recorded it on DVR, watched something else for 1 1/2 hours, then skipped the commercials. Amazingly enough, we ended up at the same time NBC did!
Missy Armstrong isn't as "All American girl" as the article claims. Both her parents are Canadian and has duel citizenship. She could have easily swam for Canada too.
A lot more money to be had for swimming USA
And why are only white girls called "all american"?? You never hear that about a non-white girl, no matter where or how she was brought up
A lot of the complainers were people who were looking to the Olympics just to make money. These are the Olympics and if you look at it as an international athletic competition full of good-will and harmony then these games were successful. Great Britain got some great press and tourism will continue perhaps even grow.
The winners were all those who made it to the Olympics and gave it their best. The winners are also the ones who labored unrecognized behind the scenes to make it all come together.
I do feel that NBC didn't provide the complete coverage of events that we've had in the past. It seems they did more meaningless (at least it was to me) talking. I noticed that from the start. However, I didn't let that detour me into watching something else. I enjoyed watching the Olympics regardless of this. Next time though, hopefully someone else will do the coverage.
Please move Boris Johnson to the "Losers" column. He reminded me of the Catholic Bishop in our town who tried to ride a donkey into the cathedral one Easter mass. What narcissism! The donkey wouldn't move, so the Bishop ended up looking like an ass.
In both cases--Boris Johnson's getting stuck and the Bishop, I'm guessing that "divine intervention" played a large part. :-)
--So, the bishop couldn't move his ass, eh?
The media, as usual, is afraid, actually terrified will be a better way, of talking about the obvious 800 Lbs gorilla in the room and all over London and in the world of sports and since this nation, the world can't live w/o hypocrisy to the nth degree, hypocrisy as well. All sports, olympic, professional even non-pro or if you prefer amateur use drugs. The olympics now have become a way to find out who has more juice, not more talent.
The whole world knows, that passing a drug test is as easy as citing your ABCs. It used to be that "athletes" would be caught with their juiced bodies a la Ben Johnson, which BTW, I knew from the moment I saw him that he had to be doped, cause that body of his couldn't be achieved w/o drugs, ergo, when he was "caught" was not to find out if he used drugs, but to corroborate that the sports world looks more like pharmacies on two legs than true sport, based on the true meaning of let the best man or woman win sans dope, and sportmanship.
Now that is out the window. Everybody uses drugs. The fact that some "athletes" don't get caught is not that they don't use drugs, but they have found the way, a la Lance Armstrong, Michael Phelps, Roger Clemens of beating the system, period. When a cocroach gets caught, the others try to find a way to avoid capture the next time and if the cocroaches can do it, why not a Michael Phelps.
Now, talking about hypocrisy. Have you heard what Americans say when the Chinese, any Chinese wins gold? Yeah, you got it, they are all juiced up, even w/o proof and yet when the see Michael, the dope, Phelps winning "his victories" left and right, everybody keeps a tombly silence about his obvious drug use.
If bugs can learned to defeat those poisons that the industrialized world throws at them, don't you think we could be better at that than them? But of course, don't be ridiculous. Well, let me give an excellent example: Marion Jones. She aced every test and yet the rumors were out there and to be fair, she wasn't as bulged as those other female "athletes" that look more like Myke Tysons than women and yet when those Tysons run nobody even thinks about their obvious drug use, as long as America can rake medals, the means matter not, the merrier.
Drug use in sports has been so widespread, that I have seen documentaries that demonstrate, corroborate its use even in high school competition. That is insane and should be criminal. Money is good to have, but above every thing else? I don't think so, but I also recognize that I'm a dying minority. Sports have to go back to basics and if people do it, it should be based on what they can get out of it physically speaking, not monetarily speaking. And what the rewards will be? Well, men sana in corpore sana and that has to be the ultimate prize: A healthy body in a healthy mind. Of course, this is as possible in a materialistic society as Hercules coming back to make it so, in other words, it's impossible. Let the games begin and open up all the pharmacies. Don't trample each other, we have all "juices" for all kind of sports. And please don't push or cut in line, we have plenty for the whole world if necessary.
the losers were the unlucky ones that Had to watch the terrible coverage by NBC. From opening to close, what a waste of airtime. NBC you have four years to get ready for Rio. Please leave Ryan Seacrest at home, and tell you play by play announcers that their constant dribble and drool is not necessary.
Agree with you, gruntersdad.
NBC TV coverage was as wasteful as one could imagine. Two channels deveoted to soccer and basketball, respectively. Really? Why did we need to see the gamed multiple times, when entire sports went uncovered even once? Why the Access Hollywood type show on the main channel? Who cares?
My family will not buy from advertisors who sponsor this kind of coverage. I recommend that everyone boycott advertisors of NBC, unless they announce a plan for improving the coverage of the 2016 games.
The winners were clearly the outstanding athletes and London. The clear losers were the American viewers. The coverage was beyond awful! Way to much talking over taped events, and really, it was taped, you could have said what you had to say at lags in the event. Not you though, you had to talk over everything. That is when you decided to show them at all. And I won't even get in to the cuts you made to the opening and closing ceremonies! I saw the opening uncut elsewhere and when I saw what you put on it made no sense at all. Then after that massive failure did you learn? Nope, you did it again at the closing! NBC coverage from start to finish was an EPIC FAIL!
Hm, the real winner is Jamaica. They sent just 50 athletes who won 12 medals!!!! That is very efficient team!
I hope whatever television network televises the next Olympics, that they learned what NOT to do. NBC sucked with their coverage. Hardly watched any of the events....why? Because of the delayed coverage and finding out before it was aired, who won!! DUH!!! What's the use in watching them when you already know who's going to win.
And an extra DING to the website! For those of us TRYING to avoid learning who won BEFORE we got the chance to watch it, couldn't they have just posted an "Olympic Spoiler" alert that we click on to see? In other words, it was annoying to want to read the rest of the news, and find out the Olympics too.
That ding also goes to MOST other news sites out there as well!
Oh, and we want to watch the EVENTS..not biographies on the athletes. And we don't want to hear constant awful critiquing by your announcers. DUH! Who was that woman announcer they had critiquing the diving events? Good GAWD! She just thought she knew everything.
The real losers were people in the United States who had to put up with pathetic, boring coverage of the Olympics. Bob Costas needed to go several Olympics ago. People tune in because they want to see ATHLETES COMPETING AT EVENTS.
We don't want to see endless dissertation about what we just saw and what we're about to see; JUST SHOW IT TO US!
We don't need to see a documentary on WWII.
We don't need to see coverage of a reporter's vacation in London (or wherever else the Olympics are held).
We don't want an event we're watching interrupted to watch another event, only to return to the original event just as it's ending; if they cut out the BS chatter there would be time to show both events in their entirety.
When an athlete is interviewed on the field, mix the sound better so we can actually HEAR IT OVER THE SCREAMING CROWDS. And try to find someone who can come up with a question more intelligent than, "How does it feel?" UGH!
If you advertise that the Olympics start at a certain time, start showing the games at that time and not another hour of documentaries.
And why can't the West Coast coverage start before 8 pm?
And why does MSNBC post RESULTS of games that haven't yet been shown on the West Coast? (Ever heard of "spoiler alerts?")
We dialed away from television coverage every day because they weren't showing what we wanted to see, and we weren't alone. We heard this same feedback from numerous friends and I've seen it chatted up online. It is getting worse for every Olympic event -- more BS, more chatter, more documentaries, more commercials, and LITTLE coverage of the games. It's getting harder and harder to want to spend time watching this crap and I'm dialing away more and more; ADVERTISERS, LISTEN UP!
And we don't want to hear from Ryan Seacrest OR to hear about what people are Twittering or Facebooking. Really? UGH!
I agree with you 100%. You forgot that during the Closing Ceremonies, NBC showed a lame sitcom late in the evening, then finished up the Closing afterward. I turned it off--Animal Hospital sucks--after 5 minutes and went to sleep.
So THAT'S what happened!
NBC cut to commercial with "Stay tuned for The Who!"
And when they came back, it was straight into some new sitcom about a vet that opened with a cat trying to commit suicide by jumping off a building. WTF???
NBC should have finished showing the Closing Ceremonies, and then premiered their new show on Monday when people would actually want to watch it-- or be awake for it.
Combine that with NBC's incredibly terrible broadcasting of the entire Olympics-- Yeah, I don't think I'll be watching next time. I'll ask my tech-knowledgeable friends how to mask my ISP so I can watch the Olympics as broadcast from other countries.
I didn't know NBC did that. We were so disgusted with the coverage we didn't even watch the closing ceremonies.
Again, I watched from Hawaii , the online British channels, the events were live, the announcers informed, although I had to watch real early in the morning some events, many morning to midday, it was great. Thank you BBC.
The coverage by NBC was dreadful to say the least, but the real losers are the British taxpayers who are stuck footing the bill for this expensive and useless exercise in the aggrandizement of sports.
Congratulations to all the athletes that participated! London really did a great job at being host to the Olympic games.
Its a shame that NBC didn't seem to share that same enthusiasm because of its pitiful coverage. NBC clearly demonstrated to the world viewing audience that the Olympics didn't matter.
Gee. Do you think Mitt Romney will apologize for his nay saying? Somehow, I doubt it. "Mitt the Twit" just about nails it!
Yep, he's a MittWit.
The real losers were those of us that had to watch NBC and the dreadful job they did covering events. Edits and cuts to both the opening and closing and pushing back The Who's performance to flog a new sit-com.
NBC: are you taking notes?