IOC Members: How They Rated the London Olympics

(ATR) Eight IOC members give their verdict on the London 2012 Games to ATR’s Mark Bisson.

Gerhard Heiberg of Norway praised the volunteers and suggested the friendliness of the Games-makers and British public’s mood during the Games echoed what he had experienced at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics. He was head of the organizing committee at those Games.

"It depends a lot on the success of the home team. We had that in Lillehammer and that made the public very enthusiastic, happy and smiling. That’s exactly what happened here, when the medals start coming people are crazy about sports and the athletes and the atmosphere is extremely positive. I can see some of the same background here as I saw in Lillehammer.

"The highlight was giving the only gold medal we have got in Norway to a Norwegian in kayaking [Eirik Veras Larsen in the 1,000 meters canoe sprint]. I gave the gold medal to him in Athens eight years ago, a silver medal to him in Beijing and we always agree that every four years we meet and I give him a medal. And that happened again here. That was to me a very precious moment. The second thing was the opening ceremony. I really enjoyed the British humor and the history and the culture. It was a very good one."

Toni Khoury of Lebanon: "It was wonderful, especially the spectators in all the stadiums. The most important thing, all the U.K. was happy. The [athletes] techniques were at a high level. My favorite moment? The [men’s] basketball between Russia and Spain… nobody believed Spain could win. I am satisfied with everything… for transport, for accommodation. It was a good plan to put all those sports in ExCeL. The organizing committee did the best of the best."

Willi KaltSchmitt of Guatemala: "These Games were very good. I think the volunteers have been exceptional and the venues very good. Most of all it is the first time you see full venues even in sports that are not that popular. It is the engagement of the whole city. The British people and other people who came here showed their passion and enthusiasm. My highlight? The country won its first medal in the history of Guatemala [Erick Barrondo won silver in the 20-kilometer racewalk]

Valeriy Borzov of Ukraine labeled Sebastian Coe and his team as "absolutely professional", adding: "Each Olympics have their own face depending on the culture and traditions and other elements. These Games were full of the traditions of the British. They were exceptional because we had a lot of world records, a unique [men’s] 800m and Ukraine came third in the women’s 4x100m relay."

Pat McQuaid of Ireland: "It’s brought cycling to a whole new level and promoted cycling around the world to a whole new level. We are extremely happy with what we have got from these Games.

Overall, very happy with the organization. None ofthe problems that were envisaged in advance materialized. They have been a wonderful Games, wonderful atmosphere, wonderful crowds, all venues have been full. The first couple of days there were issues but since then everything has been full. My personal highlight was to see 1.5 million people on the road – the biggest crowd ever for a bike race on the roads of Surrey on day one. That’s been commented on by [some cyclists]… who have seen many times at the Tour de France a million people on the roadside and they know what it looks like. But they had never seen so many people in depth, five or six or seven deep that’s what amazed all the cyclists."

Urgur Erdener of Turkey: "In general I can easily say it was a very successful organization. Of course, there were some transportation problems in the city because this is one of the big and very crowded cities of the world. For archery, my sport, we had really top level organization, everything was perfect at Lord’s cricket ground. It was an important step for archery, for our sport’s improvement.

We took very many positive comments from almost all of our stakeholders and media coverage for archery was very good. I am very proud and happy for my sport. All volunteers did a great job. I would like to congratulate Seb Coe and his team. In the last part of the Games I visited some different venues… almost everywhere there was some very hard competition, for instance in water polo and track and field, and very high level organization, events and records."

Mario Pescante of Italy (London 2012 were his last Games as an IOC member): "There were some problems particularly concerning the transport. This system didn’t work. I don’t speak about transport for athletes just for the Olympic Family. In the previous Games in the modern era we have two drivers… eight hours for one, the other eight hours. But we only had one driver for 10 hours. Secondly, for the first time we didn’t have a hostess assistant. I can communicate. But a large number of people don’t speak English, they cannot use the driver as an interpreter. The rest is fantastic, all venues, the fantastic enthusiasm of the people. I carried the torch 350m… I brought the torch seven times [in previous Games]. I thought that Sydney was the top, but the atmosphere of London is inimitable. We cannot forget that Great Britain is the country of modern sport. You can touch it. Lastly, the fantastic kindness of the security, the soldiers and people on the roads.

With a few exceptions, Ung Chang of DPR Korea agreed with the assertion that it had been a well-run Games: "At the beginning there were some problems, for example about the DPR Korea flag because they mixed it up [the South Korea flag was used on a stadium video screen to introduce North Korea’s women’s football players in their match against Colombia] and some transportation problems but then it was ok."

Reported by Mark Bisson

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