From Orin Gordon in London
London 2012 was my third Olympics.
As one of the world’s great cities with fabulous landmarks, London was hard to beat. The drive from Olympic Park to the beach volleyball venue, horse guards’ parade, was the best for sightseeing for any games. Journalists shuttling to the Excel venue for boxing, weightlifting and other sports were treated to great views of newly re-developed previously decayed East London. The weather mostly cooperated.
In Beijing, smog induced cloudy/overcast was the default setting. The real historical and architectural heart lay in its hutongs, charming old buildings built around courtyards well off the beaten track. The Forbidden City off Tiananmen Square is all tranquil beauty but Wangfujing, Beijing’s main shopping street, should be given a miss.
Athens had great historical landmarks and even better weather. Its smaller size lent to its already considerable Mediterranean charm and made it easier to get around. But for sheer scale and variety, London wins.
Gold – London, Silver – Athens, Bronze – Beijing.
Drama/Olympic experience
Usain Bolt was again the star of the games. Beijing was where he announced his outrageous and cocky talent and broke records for fun. Here he was pushed by Yohan Blake and had to work harder. Beijing was also where Yelena Isinbayeva, one of the world’s great field athletes, strutted her beautiful stuff. She was a shadow of herself in London.
London had its moments, particularly for Caribbean athletes. Jamaica’s men did a 1-2-3 in the 200m where their women had done the same at the Beijing 100m. Greece provided the additional drama of the curious incident of the motorbike crash and two missing athletes. Other sports had great drama, Phelps in the pool in China and here and the delightful American gymnast Gaby Douglas, but the Bolt factor swings it towards Beijing.
Gold – Beijing, Joint Silver – London/Athens
Facilities
High marks overall for London. What the Olympic stadium lacked in wowness compared the Beijing’s Birds’ Nest it more than made up for in atmosphere. The opening ceremony soundtrack and Annie Lennox’s heavenly clarity through a million dollars worth of hi-fi were hair raising. The velodrome is gorgeous, inside and out. A Sports Illustrated photographer told me that Lea Valley for canoeing was like being transported to the beautiful countryside without leaving London.
There were problems. Wembley Arena (for rhythmic gymnastics) is dismal and should be retired from hosting international competitions. The Basketball Arena was judged to be too small to accommodate everyone who wanted to see Kobe (Bryant) and LeBron (James). Planners got numbers wrong for Wembley for the men’s football final and had to lock out a significant number of journalists and international sports officials. Bird’s Nest and Water Cube for Swimming led a parade of stunning Chinese facilities. Beijing wins.
Gold – China, joint silver – London and Athens
Organisation
The volunteers tended to be older than those in Athens and Beijing, who in my experience were mostly students. Sign posting and information on venue layout ranged from inconsistent to poor.
From a journalist’s view, the organisers managed to station at facilities volunteers who they had not trained to know the layout of the facility. If I had a dollar for every “I don’t know” that first week I’d be able to buy everyone on Sherriff Street a round. In some cases the place you were looking for was 50 feet from where they stood. “This lot couldn’t find their scrotes with a searchlight”, I’d think regularly. It became a bit of an issue with the foreign press.
However, the London volunteers were unfailingly charming and cheerful. So were the Beijing youngsters. Many of them already spoke decent English, but they were dead keen to engage you in conversation to improve on it. Athens, the same.
Beijing is hard to beat for organization, but that came with a degree of authoritarian control that London does not have. Shutting down Facebook after midnight? Shadowing reporting crews that ventured outside the Olympic complex? Not going to give you a pass on that.
No medals awarded here.
Opening and closing
Many feared the worst at the Beijing closing. When London introduced itself through a clumsy routine involving David Beckham and a double decker bus, given the technical brilliance of what had gone on before, it stuck out like a sumo wrestler in a gym. We needn’t have worried. London didn’t try to match China’s wizardry and precision, but for heart, soul, spirit and diversity it was up there.
London’s closing was a letdown, as if they decided, “Let’s not think about this too much— just have an extended musical concert”. Ok fine, but did you need to add Spice to this dish? Beijing’s opening wowed in a different way, and their closing was better than London’s. Athens, the spiritual home of the games where it returned for the centenary of the modern era, had history on its side. It used ancient Greece symbols to great effect in opening and closing. It gets its only gold. London’s poor closing allows Beijing to sneak ahead, just.
Gold- Athens, Silver-Beijing, Bronze-London
Orin Gordon will be continuing his look back at London 2012, by assessing the way forward for Guyana in Rio in 2016 and beyond.
