The 2012 London Summer Olympics ended with great fanfare, but athletes continued to showcase their abilities well into September at the London Paralympic Games, which ended Sunday evening with a spectacular Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony led by British pop band Coldplay at Britain’s world class Olympic Stadium. The curtain came down on the unforgettable London 2012 Paralympic Games with Coldplay joined by Jay-Z and Rihanna to play before athletes at the capacity-filled Olympic Stadium at the Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony.
The platinum-selling band Coldplay wowed the crowd with a set that saw them accompanied by Rihanna for two songs. 14-time Grammy award winner Jay-Z later arrived on stage with Rihanna to perform “Run This Town” followed by a reprise of Paradise by Coldplay with Jay-Z.
Coldplay then provided an emotional performance of “The Scientist” as sporting highlights of the past 11 days played on the big screens in the Stadium, before being joined by all the cast to perform “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall”.
The Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony ended with a spectacular firework display over the Olympic Stadium and Park, providing a fitting finale to an entirely unforgettable London 2012.
The 2012 London Paralympic Games sold 2.7 million tickets in total, almost 900,000 more tickets than Beijing four years ago and the unprecedented sales brought in nearly 45 million pounds, exceeding organisers’ original target of 35 million. Watch video footage of the sold-out London Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony featuring widely anticipated performances by Coldplay, Jay-Z and Rihanna below:
Coldplay’s music dominated the Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony, and the band was supported by singer Rihanna and rapper Jay-Z.
The amped-up crowd gave a big sigh as International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Sir Philip Craven declared the Games closed, only for Brazilian dancers to follow the mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes on to the stage and whet the appetite for the next Olympics in South America.
Paralympians rose and joined in with the Mexican waves inside the vast arena in east London even before the extravaganza was underway to signal the end of the 11-day festival of sport.
THE RESULTS ARE IN
China finished top of the medal table at the 2012 London Paralympic Games, bagging 95 golds in their 231-medal haul with Russia (36 golds, 102 overall) and hosts Britain (34 golds, 120 overall) in second and third respectively.
Russia clinched gold in football 7-a-side at the London Paralympic Games as Eduard Romanov’s strike gave them a a 1-0 win over defending champions Ukraine. Australia took home the gold medal in the London Paralympic Games’ wheelchair rugby final with a dominating 66-51 victory against Canada at the Basketball Arena.
Oscar Pistorius brought the curtain down on London Paralympic Games’ memorable track and field campaign with an imposing performance to take gold in his favoured 400m T44 on Saturday night (8 September). The South African Paralympian has certainly had an eventful Games, after being edged out in the 200m by Brazil’s Alan Oliveira, missing a medal completely in the 100m and anchoring a world record time for his country in the 4x100m.
As such, eyes were cast on “Blade Runner” more than ever before for the final track event of the Games, as he faced the prospect of returning home without an individual gold medal. Pistorius said after his 400 metres win on Saturday that the Olympics and Paralympics in London had been “the biggest highlight” of his life.
Wheelchair racing great David Weir could not have ended his London Paralympic Games’ campaign on a higher note, as he wrapped up his challenge on Sunday (9 September) with his fourth gold medal in four events by winning the men’s T54 marathon on The Mall. Weir clocked time of 1:30:20 on a scorching hot day in the British capital, finishing just a hundredth of a second ahead of his top rivals in Switzerland’s Marcel Hug and Australia’s Kurt Fearnley. “It was the toughest race I’ve ever raced in my entire life,” Weir said. “The first five miles I was actually dying to tell you the truth. I didn’t think I was going to manage to cope with the heat.”
Canada held onto its basket title with the team beating Australia at the London Paralympic Games, 64-58, to win the gold medal. Canada has now won three of the past four Paralympic Games gold medals, with a silver medal from the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games to go with the three golds.
REACTION TO COVERAGE
The ramped-up coverage and interest was felt everywhere, Alan Oliveira’s shock defeat of Oscar Pistorius in the 200 metres final even “knocked out” all the football coverage in Brazil, said IPC chief executive Xavi Gonzalez. Sir Philip Craven could barely believe the amount of coverage. “I’m floating on cloud nine, sometimes cloud 10 or 11,” he said. “When you get everything in alignment you get a damn big bang and that’s what we’ve had here,” he told a news conference earlier on Sunday.
Paralympic athletes have been quick to give thanks to viewers and supporters over the course of the London Paralympic Games, including Australia’s Evan O’Hanlon, who won the 100 and 200 metres in the T38 class for cerebral palsy sufferers. “You have massive profiles over here,” he said. “Hopefully London and Britain have set an example and the rest of the world can follow. Thanks to everyone for watching. Even just flicking on the TV is bringing our profile up.”
Interestingly, many Americans were unaware that London continued to showcase sports tournaments beyond the close of the 2012 Summer Olympics, a fact which has placed NBC’s London Summer Olympics and London Paralympic Games coverage under fire.
The IPC said that it would further scrutinize media partners in the future after NBC did not air any live coverage of the 2012 games.
NBC, the network with exclusive rights to the London Olympics, aired four hour-long highlight specials on the NBC Sports channel, and one 90-minute recap. According to the BBC, “NBC did not show any live action and its 90-minute round-up programme will not be broadcast until 16 September.”
IPC president Sir Philip Craven urged NBC to dedicate more on-air coverage time to the Paralympics. “The people of the USA…particularly the parents and families of the athletes, they are all ready for Paralympic sport,” he said.
NBC’s coverage of the 2012 London games was often the subject of criticism by members of the media and Olympics enthusiasts.
Viewers made this dissatisfaction known when NBC decided to air the biggest events on tape delay, and edit portions of the opening and closing ceremonies.