They promised us a closing ceremony that would be one heck of a party, and as the last Olympians drifted reluctantly away from the Stadium afterwards it was clear that, once again, our organisers had delivered exactly what it said on the tin.
The spirit of the Games rising from the flames
In sixteen extraordinary days of summer in the year 2012, Sebastian Coe and his team showed us that it is possible to have a vision and, if you continue to believe in it and work hard to achieve it, then it will become reality. At the end of his closing speech, Seb captured the whole thing in four words – “We did it right!”
Sure there were a few things that were not quite up to par. The graphics were best forgotten – I still don’t really get the jigsaw puzzle logo – but what they lacked, the imagination displayed by those who decided on the venues and the backdrops to the actual events more than made up for it. Then there was the BBC TV Coverage – sportwise absolutely breathtaking throughout, news-wise at times simply nasty. Even last night, barely minutes after that stunning closing ceremony, David Bond finally reappeared on our screens to snipe at anyone unfortunate-enough to appear in his crosshairs (take my advice, Mr Director General, sack him – sack him now, and all his grubby cronies).
But the rest was nothing short of the description given by the IOC Chairman, Jack Rogge – “Happy and Glorious.” Seems I heard those words regularly in a tune that was played quite a lot in the last fortnight.