New England Public Radio

It’s time to extinguish The Torch, and end NPR’s three-week marathon of Olympic coverage. From the London Games’ opening ceremony through 302 medal events, these Summer Olympics have fed fans a rich diet of history and spectacle. I only wish I’d been able to eat it all — but part of the Olympics’ allure is that its smorgasbord is over-stuffed with intense competition.

But the buffet is now closed. If you need proof, just look at the articles coming out about how Rio de Janeiro is already feeling pressure as the next host city of the Summer Games, in 2016.

The next Olympics will be the Winter Games held at Sochi, Russia, in 2014. Preparations for the Winter Olympics don’t get as much attention as the Summer Games, because most people think that all that really has to happen is for it to snow. (I kid, Sochi; I kid.)

As for London’s Olympic Stadium, it will soon host the Paralympic Games, which run from Wednesday, Aug. 29, to Sunday, Sept. 9. A record 2.1 million tickets to the games have been sold. And in a move that many of our readers will appreciate, all Paralympic events will be streamed live online. It also has its own YouTube channel.

The Paralympics will feature South African runner Oscar Pistorius — and many other great athletes, like Spanish cyclist “Junajo” Mendez, who is a racer to be reckoned with, despite missing an arm and most of a leg. They’re among the more than 4,000 athletes who’ll be competing in London.

I wish we could keep the blog going all the way to the Paralympics, and to Sochi, and then beyond, to Rio. That’s how much I’ve enjoyed this assignment, and the discussions that have come out of it. Thank you for your thoughtful comments and emails — and for your patience with the typos and slips that can come with covering live events.

We all have our favorite moments of these Olympics, whether it was record-setting performances by legends like Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings, or surprises like U.S. gymnast Danell Leyva’s bronze win.

What I’ll remember fondly is the athletes’ attitude toward competing, and the excitement they felt just to be in London.

And that’s something that doesn’t seem to go away. Take Friday’s interview from All Things Considered, when co-host Melissa Block spoke to former Olympians Kate MacKenzie (rowing, Athens 2004) and Derek Brown (handball, Atlanta 1996).

Neither MacKenzie nor Brown won a medal — which is too bad, because they say it’s always the first thing people ask when they realize they’re talking to a former Olympian. And Brown admits that he gets emotional when he sees an American athlete get to the podium’s top step.

“But, even now, when I’m watching, I stand in my position. I tear,” he said. “I tear every time the anthem’s played, because I know what those athletes dedicated themselves to get to that point.”

“And it’s like, making the Olympics isn’t a consolation prize,” MacKenzie said a bit later. “It’s actually a really big deal. And I want people to understand. You know, like, yeah — we all want the medal. Goodness, you know we do.”

“But, sometimes, you just have to remind people that – hey, you know, it’s not about the medal, like Derek said. It’s about the experience, and wearing the colors, and representing the United States as best you can with your performance and just being proud to be an American.”

“That’s right,” Brown said. “That’s right.”

We’ve enjoyed the Olympic experience here at NPR. It’s been a fun trip — thank you for making it with us.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

It’s nearly time to extinguish The Torch, and end NPR’s little marathon of Olympic coverage. Before we do, we must note that the games have now become the most-watched television event in U.S. history, with a total of 219.4 viewers over 17 days of coverage.

Those high ratings push the London Games past Beijing 2008, which held the previous record of 215 million viewers. The number seems to include only NBC’s TV audience, not mobile or online.

The high ratings came despite vocal critics of NBC’s coverage, and its decision to time-delay its broadcast of some of the Olympics’ biggest events instead of covering them live on television.

The network provided online streaming of all but one event — the opening ceremony — but many U.S. viewers have been angry that the online stream from NBC, which is owned by cable giant Comcast, required a subscription to cable or satellite TV.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

They’ve been called the first “Social Games” — and the London Summer Olympics have delivered on that promise, making social stars out of athletes like gymnast Gabby Douglas, who saw her Facebook fanbase grow by nearly 4,000 percent during the games.

Gymnasts Marcel Nguyen and Jordyn Wieber were also among the big winners on Facebook, according to a research firm that tracked athletes’ fan numbers during the games.

Douglas took the Olympics and Facebook by storm when she coolly led her team to an all-around gold and then winning the individual all-around gold, as well. As of Sunday, she had 583,912 fans on Facebook. Back on July 27, the day of the opening ceremony, she had just 14,358. Those numbers are from the marketing firm Wildfire.

Here’s the firm’s top 10, ranked by percentage growth in their Facebook fans since July 27:

1. Gabrielle Douglas (from 14,358 fans to 583,912)
2. Marcel Nguyen (from 7,567 to 194,962)
3. Camille Muffat (from 5,136 to 124,294)
4. Yannick Agnel (from 5,672 to 89,739)
5. McKayla Maroney (from 10,208 to 111,835)
6. Jordyn Wieber (from 33,651 to 302,653)
7. Daniel Narcisse (from 7,775 to 67,600)
8. Chad Le Clos (from 6,090 to 52,532)
9. Aly Raisman (from 11,132 to 94,304)
10. Alexis Vastine (from 6,774 to 48,638)

Wildfire calls this group the “up and comers.” The list doesn’t include more famous names like Usain Bolt, who is a titan among Olympians with more than 8 million Facebook fans, or Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova, who are established superstars.

If you discovered an athlete that you’ll be following for some time to come, feel free to chime in below. Judo’s Kayla Harrison comes to mind. So do the boxer Claressa Shields, the wrestler Jordan Burroughs and the runner Mo Farah. U.S. boxer Jamel Herring was also impressive, even as his team struggled.

The U.S. women’s soccer team amazed me once again by being immensely likable — and winning. I now feel like I understand more about Bradley Wiggins, the cyclist not known for loving media attention. And Allyson Felix, who won as many gold medals in London as Usain Bolt (three), will be on the radar, as well.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

The London 2012 Olympics were billed as the Social Games, with Twitter, Facebook and other services making it an immersive experience. But it might be remembered as “The Crying Games,” for the swelling of emotions many Britons experienced. We run down some of the Olympics’ winners and losers:

The Losers

The Stiff Upper Lip

It helped the British tough out their more painful moments during centuries of empire and world wars, but the Stiff Upper Lip is now officially obsolete. The Brits shed anguished tears during the mass mourning that followed the death of Princess Diana. But TV talent shows soon figured out how to get viewers to turn on the waterworks, and the Brits have been getting weepier and weepier in recent years. The London Olympics Games have now established them as world-class blubberers, who’ll happily mark the success of every fellow Briton — no matter how obscure — by crying. The Brits are now, without embarrassment, calling these Olympics “The Crying Games.”

London’s Grumbling Cabbies

The drivers of London’s iconic black cabs staged several protests before the Games — against the road lanes assigned to vehicles conveying the “Olympic family” of athletes, officials, sponsors and journalists back and forth from the Olympic stadium. The cabbies, who are prone to pessimism, were convinced the “Olympic Lanes” would bring London to a standstill – and cost them mightily in lost revenues. One driver showed his anger over the issue by swan-diving into the Thames from London’s Tower Bridge. Cabbies say they did indeed lose money during the games, as London was much quieter than expected. But their predictions of chaos did nothing but secure their long-standing reputation as Olympian Moaners.

English School Kids Who Hate Sport

Anyone who cannot catch a ball; anyone who remembers the humiliation of being the last kid chosen for a team; anyone who remembers their knees knocking together as the winter winds ripped across the playing fields of England while everyone else was galloping around having fun — should spare a thought for the next generation of young sports-haters. For they are in trouble. The British government wants to follow the Olympics by introducing more compulsory competitive sports in schools. They are convinced it is character-building — forgetting the corrosive effects a sports-hating juvenile’s character might endure when he or she must feign injury to get out of games.

Scottish Nationalists

The airwaves are jammed with people declaring that they are now proud to be British. The Union Jack flag, which once seemed to be dying out, is back, and it’s everywhere. Scottish Olympian heroes like tennis star Andy Murray and cyclist Chris Hoy marked their success by wrapping themselves in it. This is not a good atmosphere for the Scottish Nationalists to try to win a referendum on independence in just over two years.

The Winners

The Olympic Volunteers

For the past two weeks, a vast army of men and women, young and old, got out of bed and trudged off, unpaid, to airports, railway stations, sports venues, tourist spots — anywhere an Olympic visitor might need their help. Clad in purple and orange, they soon became the toast of London’s great Olympics party because, despite the British reputation for being aloof, they were actually warm and friendly and helpful. They wanted to be part of the games, and they were. Yet many of them never got to a single event. It is a measure of their popularity that, when a tribute was paid to them during Sunday’s closing ceremony, the crowd gave an enormous cheer.

The Nasty British Press

The British tend to forget they still have some great papers – notably, The Financial Times, and The Guardian. Decades of sharp practice by their highly competitive mainstream press earned newspaper journalists a reputation for being seedy, unprincipled, and cynical – a view reinforced by the scandal over phone-hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World. But editors were quick to realize that the euphoria and surge of patriotism generated by the Olympic Games could be good for them. They devoted vast amounts of space to the Olympics, giving British performers rave reviews, and disproving the old adage that “the only news is bad news.”

Monty Python

Eric Idle’s rendition of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from the Python movie Life of Brian was one of the gems of the closing ceremony, a celebration of the British appetite for the absurd.

Danny Boyle, film director

No one knew exactly what to expect from the man who made Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire. His Olympics opening ceremony certainly baffled many overseas viewers, but its exuberance, informality and humor delighted the British. He held up a mirror to the British of the 21st century, and for once, they liked what they saw.

Queen Elizabeth II

No one will ever see the queen in quite the same light, after her cameo film performance with 007 during the opening ceremony, followed by a parachutist dressed up as Her Maj in a peach dress. This was the moment the British realized these games were actually going to be fun. It is now official: at 86, Elizabeth really does have a sense of humor. Many people like that — even, one suspects, republicans who would rather Britain got rid of its monarchy.

Prime Minister David Cameron

Cameron has the asset all politicians crave: Luck. Nothing has gone wrong for which he can blamed. The success of Team GB, who won the third-most gold medals this summer, has generated a wave of pride. Being British is, for now, fashionable again. This will help Cameron in his battle to persuade the Scots not to leave the United Kingdom. The games have also distracted public attention from the profound problems facing Cameron’s government: recession, the Eurozone crisis, and worsening tensions within his ruling coalition. During the after-glow left by the Olympics, Cameron will seek to take credit for their success, but this is unlikely to last long.

Sebastian Coe, chair of the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games

Former Olympic champion runner, ex-parliamentarian, lord of the realm, Seb Coe is widely credited for the success of these games. He now takes up a top job as Prime Minister Cameron’s Olympics legacy ambassador.

London Mayor Boris Johnson

Many stunning images have emerged from these games, but few more entertaining than that of Johnson dangling haplessly from a jammed zip-line, wearing a suit, and flourishing a British flag in either fist. For most politicians, this incident during a publicity stunt at a London park would be a blot on their careers. But Londoners tend to relish Johnson’s eccentricities. He has won praise for his passionate support of the games and his central role in organizing them. This will likely outweigh the complaints from some London businesses, who accuse Johnson of driving away business by issuing dire warnings of transport congestion before the games began. The games have reinforced his stature as one of Britain’s most significant political figures, and one of the most interesting on these islands. This may explain his decision, finally, to comb his wild bright blonde hair.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

The London 2012 Olympics are officially over. But people are still buzzing about Sunday’s closing ceremony. As Krishnadev wrote last night, the closing gala was a “spectacular farewell” that included many of the highlights of British culture and history that didn’t make it into the opening ceremony.

If you missed the closing show, the site Buzzfeed has posted a collection of animated GIF images that summarize “The 25 Most Absurd Moments Of The Olympic Closing Ceremonies.”

The list includes Winston Churchill reciting Shakespeare, DJ-producer Fatboy Slim working the decks from atop a gigantic (translucent) octopus, and Victoria Beckham, a.k.a. Posh Spice, taking a pose-break as her bandmates sing and dance.

A different view of the ceremony comes from New York Magazine’s Culture Vulture blog, where Matt Zoller Seitz calls the closing ceremony “both kitschy and irresistible” — sort of like a movie made from a musical made from an Abba song, I guess.

On The Daily Mail’s story on the ending ceremony, the top-rated comment comes from an American, “Critch” from Missouri, who wrote: “You’re Great Britain for a reason, excellent Olympics….congratulations.” That sentiment was “liked” 3,513 times by the story’s readers.

But in an unfortunate bookend to these Olympics’ start, American audiences are raking NBC over the coals for the way it handled the finale. The Twitter hashtag #NBCfail has exploded with new activity. As the Poynter Institute’s Andrew Beaujon wrote, “NBC enrages Olympics viewers one last time.”

In the finale, NBC reportedly excised nine songs. Here are some of the network’s least-loved decisions:

• Tape-delaying the extravaganza, and enforcing its usual no-cable no-access rule online.
• Promising music from The Who — and then chopping the end off the show, to shoe-horn a new show’s premiere into the evening. The Who’s performance was aired around midnight in most markets.
• Cutting music from Kate Bush (“Running Up that Hill”), The Kinks’ Ray Davies (“Waterloo Sunset”), and Muse (“Survival”). Okay, some folks have actually thanked the network for cutting Muse. But that’s not a universal view. And their song was the official anthem of the London Games.

You can see and/or purchase the full songlist via iTunes — it’s being called a “Symphony of British Music.”

Personally, I was floored that organizers found time to give Queen’s Freddie Mercury a wonderful video tribute, and for his former bandmate Brian May to solo on guitar before launching into “We Will Rock You” with Jessie J — but that there wasn’t room to include “We Are the Champions,” which has long been paired with the other song.

And evidently, I’m not alone. One inagist user called it “heresy” to omit the second half of the Queen classic. The band played it as a medley as recently as last year, with Adam Lambert singing Mercury’s vocals.

The athletes who filled the floor of Olympic Stadium surely know the words to “We Are the Champions,” and its emotional range suits their sacrifices and experience — from “I’ve paid my dues” in failures and losses, and the perseverance of “I need to go on and on and on,” to the proclamation, “We are the champions, my friends. And we’ll keep on fighting til the end.”

If you think the song’s line “No time for losers” might cut too close to the bone, I’d answer that it doesn’t cut very deep. Surely these athletes know by now that you’re not a loser if you don’t act like one. And what better way to move past self-pity than to stand with the people you beat, and with those you lost to, and belt out, “We are the Champions… of the world.”

Because together, these nearly 11,000 athletes really are our champions. They’re the world’s best at what they do — and they should celebrate the fact that they made it to London, to compete with the handful of people alive who have a hope of beating them.

Still, most of my qualms with the night were largely obliterated by Eric Idle singing the Monty Python song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” Even amid prancing nuns, Roman centurions, and Indian Bhangra dancers, Idle kept it very real, not skirting the song’s briefly scatological lyrics. Or, perhaps in this instance as with most involving Idle, it’s best to say he kept it surreal.

The real shame is that the time-tested song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” couldn’t make it into the program. I guess it’s too affiliated with Liverpool, and its soccer stadium (where it’s sung before every game) to be endorsed in London.

Still, that’s not a problem for Americans. And it’s a good way to say goodbye to the Olympics, while looking toward the future.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

The closing ceremony to the London Games got under way today, with a celebration of the athletes and their countries.

There was a shout-out to Winston Churchill and a performance from the Pet Shop Boys to mark the end of two weeks of competition and stunning athletic displays.

The surviving members of the rock band Queen, The Who and the Spice Girls were on the schedule to entertain millions watching around the world.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.