Why London 2012 Is The Greatest Olympic/Paralympic Games Ever

With the 2012 Paralympics coming to a close this weekend, the truly wonderful and personal saga of London 2012 also concludes. The 30th Olympiad will forever be remembered for invoking patriotism and emotion like never before not only in the United Kingdom but all over the world.

In a nutshell, London 2012 was the Greatest Olympics Ever Held. 

Yes, the Beijing Olympics were quite vivid and memorable but there was always the impression that the Chinese were always going to turn the 29th Olympiad into a show of the rise of the Chinese as an economic and cultural force in the world. As a result, the 2008 Olympics, excellent as it was, felt a bit cold in the face, even artificial - especially considering the girl singer and fireworks were artificial and recorded before the opening ceremony.

On the other hand, Lord Sebastian Coe and LOCOG knew that the 2012 Olympics would never be able to match the financial cost of the Beijing Olympics - stricter financial measures along with the current turbulent economic climate put paid to that. Look at the Olympic venues - most of them will be taken down at the conclusion of the Paralympics and sent to different parts of the world to be recycled.

As a result, more effort and cost was placed onto creating an emotional Olympics, one that people around the world could connect with and this was evident in the Opening Ceremony, as LOCOG used the huge advantage that the country had over the rest of the world; the English language and the world's familiarity with the huge English culture & music, i.e. witches, Mr Bean, the Beetles, BBC, etc.

Plenty was also done by the British Olympic committee to get the public behind their team. As a result, a huge wave of British pride engulfed this Olympics, sweeping up the athletes as well who led their country to their greatest medal haul at the Olympics since 1908. Even non-British fans became fans of Team GB with the thousands of British volunteers helping to make this a truly happy Olympics.

This Olympics also broke ground - the first ever Olympics where women and men competed in the same number of events in all sports. The first ever Olympics too where Saudi women could compete in the Olympics even wearing their hijab.

Of course, what would a great Olympics be if records weren't broken. Thankfully, Usain Bolt underlined the fact that he is one of the greatest runners the world has ever seen, retaining his 100m and 200m titles, while the USA experienced a resurgence on the running track with the women smashing the world record in the relay. Stars were also born - the most notable being 15-year-old Colorado swimmer, Missy Franklin, winning 5 medals in her first Olympics - 4 of them being gold medals against more established names. With her fellow compatriot, Michael Phelps bowing out after this Olympics, the USA may still yet have a star in the pool for years to come in the Usain Bolt-like build of Missy Franklin.

However, often the achievements of the other nations were overshadowed by the almost unprecedented achievements of the locals. As the British media lapped up gold medal after gold medal, one could not help shed a tear as Mo Farah won gold medal after gold medal, as the face of British Olympics, Jessica Ennis lapped the track after her win in the pentathlon.

For the first time in a long time, the British were proud to be British.

And for the first time in a long time, the world truly felt like a better place.