Tweet
Britain Takes a Final Bow
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
By DAVID SEGAL
Published: August 12, 2012
LONDON — With a gaudy three-hour farewell that mashed up theater, acrobatics, fashion and a few generations of musical idols, London extinguished the Olympic torch Sunday night, capping two weeks of athletic achievements with a jukebox collection of songs and a marathon display of endearingly wacky stagecraft.
It felt as if the Games had suddenly been programmed by England’s version of the Chamber of Commerce, which decided to take advantage of this final moment in the international spotlight to produce one long and kinetic ad for the country’s pop culture.
Among those appearing on stage were Ray Davies, Fatboy Slim, Jessie J, George Michael, the Spice Girls, Russell Brand and Eric Idle, who led the crowd in a version of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” while surrounded by skating nuns. The Who closed the evening with “My Generation,” after a number of speeches and dance numbers to hand off the Games to Rio de Janeiro, which will host in 2016.
It was an elaborate and at times earsplitting spectacle, which unfolded in an 80,000-seat stadium, built in the Olympic park in a borough of east London that had been transformed from a toxic dump into the center of the athletic universe. The connection between Sunday night’s coda and the Games came courtesy of a few hundred athletes, who were assembled in the middle of the stadium and were entertained or dumbfounded by the proceedings.
These competitors were given cameos at this show, but they provided so many remarkable performances in the last few weeks that picking a single standout is a challenge. One choice is Michael Phelps, who became the most garlanded Olympian in history, after winning four golds and two silvers here, running his career total to 22 medals, 18 of them gold. In the end, he was given a special trophy, which looked like a piece of pewter shrapnel stuck to a base, that read “Greatest Olympic Athlete of All Time.”
But somehow, Phelps seemed eclipsed here by Usain Bolt, the irrepressible Jamaican sprinter who became the first man to win gold in the 100 and 200 meters at two Olympics and finished off a record-breaking performance in the 4x100-meter relay. Measured by sheer quantity of bling, Bolt has a fraction of Phelps’s medals. But perhaps because the designation “fastest man on earth” speaks to such an elemental physical feat, or because he celebrates with unequaled brio, Bolt might have made the deepest and most lasting impression here. At minimum, he joined the pantheon of great athletes, like Ali and Pelé, famous enough to be known by one name.
Full Hundred
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
By DAVID SEGAL
Published: August 12, 2012
LONDON — With a gaudy three-hour farewell that mashed up theater, acrobatics, fashion and a few generations of musical idols, London extinguished the Olympic torch Sunday night, capping two weeks of athletic achievements with a jukebox collection of songs and a marathon display of endearingly wacky stagecraft.
It felt as if the Games had suddenly been programmed by England’s version of the Chamber of Commerce, which decided to take advantage of this final moment in the international spotlight to produce one long and kinetic ad for the country’s pop culture.
Among those appearing on stage were Ray Davies, Fatboy Slim, Jessie J, George Michael, the Spice Girls, Russell Brand and Eric Idle, who led the crowd in a version of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” while surrounded by skating nuns. The Who closed the evening with “My Generation,” after a number of speeches and dance numbers to hand off the Games to Rio de Janeiro, which will host in 2016.
It was an elaborate and at times earsplitting spectacle, which unfolded in an 80,000-seat stadium, built in the Olympic park in a borough of east London that had been transformed from a toxic dump into the center of the athletic universe. The connection between Sunday night’s coda and the Games came courtesy of a few hundred athletes, who were assembled in the middle of the stadium and were entertained or dumbfounded by the proceedings.
These competitors were given cameos at this show, but they provided so many remarkable performances in the last few weeks that picking a single standout is a challenge. One choice is Michael Phelps, who became the most garlanded Olympian in history, after winning four golds and two silvers here, running his career total to 22 medals, 18 of them gold. In the end, he was given a special trophy, which looked like a piece of pewter shrapnel stuck to a base, that read “Greatest Olympic Athlete of All Time.”
But somehow, Phelps seemed eclipsed here by Usain Bolt, the irrepressible Jamaican sprinter who became the first man to win gold in the 100 and 200 meters at two Olympics and finished off a record-breaking performance in the 4x100-meter relay. Measured by sheer quantity of bling, Bolt has a fraction of Phelps’s medals. But perhaps because the designation “fastest man on earth” speaks to such an elemental physical feat, or because he celebrates with unequaled brio, Bolt might have made the deepest and most lasting impression here. At minimum, he joined the pantheon of great athletes, like Ali and Pelé, famous enough to be known by one name.
Full Hundred
