Good-Bye London 2012

It has been just under a week since the Closing Ceremonies concluded which officially ended the London 2012 Summer Olympics.

 The 30^th Olympiad in the end will go down as a successful games overall. Prior to the games, people around the world and in England were skeptical whether it was a good idea for London to have the games. Security was going to be really tight and financial problems were a concern. At the end of the games, none of that mattered; security was fine and financial problems were overshadowed from Team G.B.’s success on the podium.

To me, the games seemed to mirror the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. There were a few distractions, but for the most part, both Olympiad’s seemed to be a success for their respected countries during their time of hosting the Olympics. Both times the host country over achieved in the Gold medal column. Canada won 14 Gold’s in Vancouver and Great Britain 29 Gold medals.

As for Canada at the 2012 Olympics, 18 medals are bittersweet for sure.  Canada tied their total from Beijing and it was tied for their third best showing at a non-boycotted Olympics. Personally, for the country of Canada, whenever we can average a medal per day is something to be proud of.

The unfortunate side was the lone Gold medal by Rosannagh MacLennan in Trampoline. In addition, gold medal favorite Dylan Armstrong failed to even win a medal in Shot Put. Interestingly enough, I met Dylan Armstrong at Harold Jerome Track and Field Olympic Qualifiers at Swangard Stadium in June. Despite him not winning a medal, I really like his attitude towards his sport.

Lastly, Canada had a chance to surpass their Beijing medal total on the second to last day of competition in the 4X100 Relay. Canada appeared to win the bronze but they were controversially stripped of their bronze medal cause they stepped on the line during one of the turns. I still don’t understand how at this level of competition at such a critical time a team could screw up like that but I guess it happens.

 This was a very typical Olympics for Canada. They did very well but they also could have done so much better if our athletes didn’t screw up so many times. Likewise for Great Britain, the citizens had a blast over the two-week Olympic period and now that the Olympics were a success, most Brit’s will say it was a really good idea to host the Olympics in 2012.