London 2012 Olympics: The winners and losers

Recounting the highs and lows from the Games.

HIGHS

Usain Bolt

Bolt arrived in London with question marks over his chances on the track and left as one of the greatest Olympians of all time. Bolt blasted away his compatriot Yohan Blake in the 100m final, before leading home a Jamaican 1-2-3 in the 200m. He capped it by smashing the world record in the 4x100m relay.

Chris Hoy

Hoy’s status as an Olympic legend was acknowledged when he played the role of flag-bearer at the opening ceremony, and he then cemented it further with two more gold medals. Victory in the team sprint and the keirin gave the 36-year-old a record six Olympic gold medals.

Michael Phelps

The American swimmer became the most decorated Olympian of all time when he won gold in the 4x200m relay. The 27-year-old was not finished there though and added a further three podium finishes to end his Olympic career with 22 medals - 18 of them gold.

LOWS

Mark Cavendish

Cavendish was supposed to kick-start Team GB’s gold medal rush in the road race, but the hosts’ all-star team was never allowed to settle him into a position where his fêted sprint finish would prove decisive.

Liu Xiang

Liu suffered Olympic heartbreak for the second consecutive games after crashing out of his heat in the 110m hurdles. The Chinese had been the star hope of Beijing four years ago when injury ended his dream, but his bid for redemption in London was ended when he failed to get over the first hurdle

and was left needing surgery on his Achilles.

North Korea flag

The Olympics were almost cast into farce a day before the opening ceremony when North Korea’s women’s footballers refused to play for an hour after the flag of their rivals, South Korea, was shown next to their names on the big screen at Hampden Park. Games organisers offered an unreserved apology

CONTROVERSIES

Cycling

Philip Hindes admitted deliberately crashing before propelling Great Britain to team pursuit glory, but the IOC and International Cycling Union said the gold medal would stand. The 19-year-old’s admission appeared to be naïve, but not a contravention of the rules. Hindes fell after making a wobbly start in qualifying, before picking himself up to help Britain to two world record rides, as Sir Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny successfully defended their title.

Badminton

The badminton competition was hit by a match-fixing scandal when eight players were kicked out for deliberately trying to lose. Two Chinese players, four from South Korea and two from Indonesia all tried to fix their matches to manipulate the women’s draw. All four pairs had already qualified for the last eight and were trying to avoid meeting the favourites.

Swimming

Rumblings over the remarkable performance of Chinese teenager Ye Shiwen changed to overt suspicion when a leading American coach described her world-record-breaking race as “disturbing”. John Leonard, the executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, questioned how the 16-year-old (below) took five seconds off her personal best and more than a second off the world record in the 400m individual medley. The IOC insisted there was no reason to question her performances.

Fencing

South Korean fencer Shin Lam thought she was through to the final of the women’s epee when, to her horror and that of her coach, Shim Jaesung, the clock was reset from zero to one second. When the action resumed, German Britta Heidemann scored a do-or-die hit that gave her a place in the final against Ukraine’s Yana Shemyakana. Shin broke down in tears and refused to leave the piste for two hours.

THE TOP TEN

1. Usain Bolt – three golds in Beijing, three golds again in London, the running sensation dominated the 100m, 200m and 4x400m relay, cementing his status as a global star.

2. Mo Farah – two Saturdays, two gold medals for the British distance runner, in the 10,000m and the 5,000m.

3. Sir Chris Hoy – already knighted for his Beijing Olympic achievements, the Edinburgh cyclist took two more golds in London to become the greatest British Olympian ever with six golds and a silver medal.

4. Michael Phelps – with more gold to his tally in the pool, the American became the most decorated Olympian in history with 22 medals.

5. Nicola Adams – the 29-year-old from Leeds became the first women’s Olympic boxing champion.

6. Jessica Ennis – the face of the London games, she beat many of her own personal bests to secure heptathalon gold.

7. David Rudisha – the 23-year-old Kenyan set a world record in the 800m, the first new record on the track in London, clocking 1:40.91.

8. Andy Murray – four weeks on, the Scot, avenged his defeat by Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final by beating the Swiss legend in straight sets in the Olympic final on the same Centre Court.

9. Bradley Wiggins – ten days after becoming the first British winner of the Tour de France, Wiggins took gold in the time trial in emphatic fashion.

10. Katherine Grainger – three times the silver “bridesmaid”, the Glasgow rower finally took the gold medal in the double sculls.