London Olympics 2012 – Success or Failure?

Many people said that it was too soon for England to host the Olympics again after the 1948 ‘Austerity’ games. Then, the very day after the UK won the bid yet again, the capital was hit by terror attacks. In the following years the capital would face controversial changes in government, an economy crisis and riots that would destroy many of the high streets. In the build-up to the games, the infamous Boris Johnson (mayor of London) even reportedly stated that he wasn’t sure that London transport would be able to handle the games if they came to the city. In other words then, the London 2012 could very well have been a disaster, so the question we’re examining here then is… has it been?
The Olympics So Far
Well it would seem so far that the overriding answer to that question is a resounding ‘no’, and that by-and-large the Olympics has been a success this year. The opening ceremony of course is where most eyes were fixed, and where London would immediately be compared to Beijing. Comparatively this was a low-key affair costing significantly less and going a lot lighter on the fireworks, but still it managed to be powerful and moving thanks to music from Underworld and Mike Oldfield. While some parts were a little too ‘British’ and director Danny Boyle lost some of the audience not familiar with English TV, the portrayal of the industrial revolution, the birds of peace, the appearance of Bond and of course Mr Bean on the keyboards all had every talking. And the lighting of the torch was also highly unique and ambitious and came off splendidly.
Since then the games have continued mostly flawlessly. There was a hiccup or two of course – with some controversy surrounding the women’s badminton and a suspiciously fast swimming lap – but overall nothing has touch wood gone massively wrong.
Infrastructure
Meanwhile London seems to be chugging along nicely. Despite the fears of the city coming to a standstill as Boris Johnson allegedly predicted, it would actually seem that some of the time the underground is even quieter than it would normally have been with many commuters sensibly opting to avoid the busiest areas or to change their working hours. And the Olympic Park is seemingly a feat of engineering itself also (even if the red tower next to it is a little bizarre…).
However Boris’ London transport fears perhaps weren’t entirely unfounded, as he did find himself hanging around for a while rather awkwardly in Victoria Park after his zip wire stunt went wrong and he was left dangling from the wire in front of a crowd of spectators for around five minutes. Perhaps the most British part of the whole Olympics…