Markets: News  

Top 10 stories of the 2012 London Olympics

ReutersWatching athletic events during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The past few weeks have been a rollicking ride through the world of swimming, athletics, boxing and many other disciplines besides. London is now gearing up for Sunday night's closing ceremony. (It will be hard to beat Danny Boyle's extravagant opener.)

Below are links to some of the most popular posts on MarketWatch's London 2012 blog since the Games began, well, it seems like forever-ago now. Ready. Set. Enjoy.

-- Kim Hjelmgaard

One incentive to host the Olympics -- and for Londoners to put up with the disruption it was supposed to cause -- was the tourist dollars it could pull in, especially to the hospitality industries. In terms of hotel bookings, this doesn't seem to have been the case.

Wacky wagers were a feature of London 2012. Some odds reportedly included whether a UFO would fly over the opening ceremonies. That would have paid 1,000-to-1. There was even a 33-to-1 bet that Mayor Boris Johnson's hair would catch fire from the torch.

The sport deserves to be taken seriously. Tone down the theatrics and let the beach volleyball speak for itself, wrote Shawn Langlois.

From boycotts and bribes to terrorism and Tonya Harding, the Olympics have had more than their fair share of shames and scandals.

In true British style, the first day of sports meant the first day of embarrassment, when North Korea's women's team was introduced alongside a South Korean flag.

Gabby Douglas made history during the Games by becoming the first African-American woman to win the gold medal in the all-round gymnastics competition. Her future is bright, very bright.

Not everyone was excited about the opening Olympic Games ceremony in London. The Games apparently spawned some new humiliation for embattled Spaniards who are facing rather hard economic times at home.

This year's event is expected to yield around 4,700 more medals for athletes competing in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. With all this preciousness circulating in the ether you have to ask: What's it worth?

NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus said NBC is expecting to break even on London 2012, the rights for which cost the broadcaster $1.2 billion. So spread the good news about the Peacock, he said.

Assuming the U.K. and Brazilian economies continue on their current trajectories, when the Games move from London to Rio there will be a collision of two kinds. One will be cultural. The other will be economic.