Venezuela's sick Chavez misses own inauguration bash

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez remained on his sickbed in Cuba on Thursday while supporters planned to rally in his honor on the day he should have been sworn in for a new six-year term in the South American OPEC nation.
The postponement of the inauguration, a first in Venezuelan history, has laid bare the gravity of Chavez's condition after complications from a fourth cancer operation in his pelvic area.
It has also left his chosen heir, Vice President Nicolas Maduro - a former bus driver who shares his boss's radical socialist views - in charge of day-to-day government until there is clarity over whether Chavez will recover or not.
"People traveling on foot, the humble, the patriots ... tomorrow we're going to demonstrate, one proud people with one slogan: we are all Chavez!" Maduro said in a televised cabinet meeting late on Wednesday.
The president, whose legendary energy and garrulous dominance of the airwaves had often made him seem omnipresent in Venezuela since 1999, has not been seen in public nor heard from since his surgery on December 11.
Venezuela's 29 million people are anxiously watching what could be the last chapter in the extraordinary life of Chavez, who grew up in a rural shack and went on to become one of the world's best-known heads of state.
The saga also has huge implications for the likes of Cuba and other leftist allies who have benefited for years from Chavez's subsidized oil and other largesse.
A clutch of foreign friends, including the presidents of Uruguay, Bolivia and Nicaragua, were due at Thursday's events in Caracas despite Chavez's absence.
Government officials have called supporters to the streets around the presidential palace. It has been the scene of some of the biggest dramas of Chavez's rule, from protests in 2002 and a coup that toppled him briefly, to speeches after election wins and emotional returns from previous cancer treatments in Havana.
"Take your songs, take your banners, so everyone knows we are all behind Chavez in this revolution," Diosdado Cabello, the head of Congress and a close Chavez ally, urged the president's supporters.
'WHO WINS FROM CONFLICT?'
Venezuela's opposition leaders are furious at what they see as a Cuban-inspired manipulation of the constitution by Maduro, Cabello and other Chavez allies aimed at preventing the naming of a caretaker president due to Chavez's absence on Thursday.
Henrique Capriles, who lost October's presidential election to Chavez, said the opposition had no plans to risk violence by encouraging supporters to hold a counter-demonstration.
"Not calling people onto the streets is not a sign of weakness, but of responsibility," he told reporters. "Who wins from a conflict scenario? They win, the pseudo-leaders who are not the owners of the country, nor of its sovereignty."
The U.S. Embassy in Caracas advised American citizens in Venezuela to exercise caution during the next few days.
A top Venezuelan military officer told state TV the borders were being reinforced and security forces were patrolling intensively to bring people "a sense of peace and tranquility."
With government updates short on details, little is known about Chavez's actual medical condition and rumors are flying.
On Wednesday, the state telecommunications regulator told opposition TV station Globovision it was beginning punitive administrative proceedings against it for "generating anxiety" with its coverage of the president's health.
The government's version is that Chavez suffered complications including a severe lung infection after the latest surgery. But speculation is rife on Twitter that he may be on life support or at risk of major organ failure.
He has undergone four operations, as well as weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, since being diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer in his pelvic area in June 2011.
He looked to have staged a remarkable recovery from the illness last year, winning a new six-year term in a hard-fought election in October. But within weeks of his victory he had to return to Havana for more treatment.
'REVOLUTION MUST CONTINUE'
In contrast with previous trips to Cuba, the government has not released any photos or video of him recuperating, and Chavez has not made any phone calls home to state media, fueling the impression that his condition is dire.
Though supporters maintain vigils and express hope he will recover, there appears to be a growing acceptance he may not, and a slow adjustment to the idea of a post-Chavez Venezuela.
"We are all necessary but nobody should be irreplaceable and the revolutionary process in our America must continue," said one friend and close ally, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa.
Though often viewed in the West as a clownish autocrat, Chavez has a kinder image in developing nations where many admire his defiance of the United States and efforts to improve the lives of Venezuela's poor.
At home, Chavez has a cult-like appeal for many in the slums due to his "anti-imperialist" rhetoric, his pumping of crude oil revenue into welfare projects, and his own humble background.
But Venezuela is deeply split, with opponents saying he has squandered an unprecedented bonanza of oil money with misguided policies. They also accuse him of allowing corruption to flourish and oppressing political opponents and media critics.
Should Chavez die or step down, a new election would be called and it would likely pit Maduro against opposition leader Capriles, the 40-year-old governor of Miranda state.
Analysts say Maduro would be hard to beat given Chavez's personal blessing and the emotional outpouring from supporters if the president were forced to leave office, though past polls have shown Capriles to be more popular than the vice president.
Foreign investors generally hope for a more business-friendly government in Venezuela so prices of its widely traded bonds have soared over the last few weeks on Chavez's health woes, but they dipped this week as investors' expectations of a quick change apparently dimmed.

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Censors kept busy as strike-hit Chinese paper hits newsstands

GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - A weekly Chinese newspaper at the centre of anti-censorship protests appeared on newsstands on Thursday as a newsroom strike ended amid fresh calls for the Communist Party leadership to loosen its grip on the media.
The strike at the Southern Weekly in affluent Guangdong province came after censors watered down a page-two editorial in the New Year edition. Calls for China to enshrine constitutional rights were replaced with comments praising one-party rule.
The rare newsroom revolt at one of China's most respected and liberal papers hit a raw nerve nationwide, with calls for freedom of expression led by bloggers with millions of followers such as actress Yao Chen and writer Han Han.
How the party responds to those calls will be a key indicator of new party leader Xi Jinping's reformist inclinations.
About six protesters were forcibly cleared from the gates of the paper by plainclothes officials on Thursday, shouting as they were bundled into vehicles as dozens of uniformed police officers looked on.
The problem of reconciling the conflict between conservatives and liberals was illustrated in scuffles and heated arguments outside the Southern Weekly's gates all week.
Leftists carrying Mao Zedong posters and red China flags repeatedly abused scores of Southern Weekly supporters for undermining China's socialist system and one-party rule.
"After we have full stomachs, we want to say more. This is normal," said Ye Qiliang, a young man in a brown jacket who opposed the Maoists in one evening protest.
"The media is the people's voice. We are now all Southern Weekly People."
While the paper's appearance in newsstands suggested a tentative truce between Southern Weekly journalists and censorship authorities, the latest issue carried subtle signs of resistance.
"GNAWING AT BONES"
Microblog posts attributed to newsroom staff expressed dismay at censors forcing the paper to pull an editorial from its current edition, which one source in Guangzhou close to reporters at the Southern Weekly corroborated.
Buried in the back pages, however, was a call for reform.
"The party's methods of controlling the media must move with the times," the article read, citing a Monday editorial from the Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily. In its interpretation of the editorial, the Southern Weekly said the remaining necessary reforms were as difficult as "gnawing at bones".
"They need the protection and support of a moderate, rational and constructive media," it said.
The censorship turmoil has also spread to the capital. Online accounts said Dai Zigeng, the publisher of the popular Beijing News daily, announced his resignation on Wednesday after the newspaper resisted government pressure to republish an editorial criticizing the Southern Weekly.
Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for journalists, called on party chief Xi, set to become president in March, to put an end to censorship.
Chinese Internet users face the "Great Fire Wall" of censorship, especially over politically sensitive topics such as human rights, while foreign websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube are blocked.
"We believe that the system and actions of infringing on the media's autonomy and citizens' freedom of expression run contrary to the excellent Chinese political tradition as well as the modern spirit of rule of law," wrote a group of prominent Chinese scholars in one of several online open letters and petitions widely circulated on the Southern Weekly standoff.
While the newsroom revolts could be isolated, middle class patience with the denial of basic freedoms appears to be wearing thin.
"I don't want anyone recklessly deleting, changing, tying or binding me," wrote Han Han, one of China's most popular bloggers with some 30 million followers.

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Steroids loom in major-college football

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight - 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes - without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams.
Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-steroid policy can face a team whose players have repeatedly tested positive.
An investigation by The Associated Press - based on interviews with players, testers, dealers and experts and an analysis of weight records for more than 61,000 players - revealed that while those running the multibillion-dollar sport say they believe the problem is under control, that control is hardly evident.
The sport's near-zero rate of positive steroids tests isn't an accurate gauge among college athletes. Random tests provide weak deterrence and, by design, fail to catch every player using steroids. Colleges also are reluctant to spend money on expensive steroid testing when cheaper ones for drugs like marijuana allow them to say they're doing everything they can to keep drugs out of football.
''It's nothing like what's going on in reality,'' said Don Catlin, an anti-doping pioneer who spent years conducting the NCAA's laboratory tests at UCLA. He became so frustrated with the college system that it was part of the reason he left the testing industry to focus on anti-doping research.
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EDITOR'S NOTE - Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the first of a two-part series.
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While other major sports have been beset by revelations of steroid use, college football has operated with barely a whiff of scandal. Between 1996 and 2010 - the era of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong - the failure rate for NCAA steroid tests fell even closer to zero from an already low rate of less than 1 percent.
The AP's investigation, drawing upon more than a decade of official rosters from all 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, found thousands of players quickly putting on significant weight, even more than their fellow players. The information compiled by the AP included players who appeared for multiple years on the same teams.
For decades, scientific studies have shown that anabolic steroid use leads to an increase in body weight. Weight gain alone doesn't prove steroid use, but very rapid weight gain is one factor that would be deemed suspicious, said Kathy Turpin, senior director of sport drug testing for the National Center for Drug Free Sport, which conducts tests for the NCAA and more than 300 schools.
Yet the NCAA has never studied weight gain or considered it in regard to its steroid testing policies, said Mary Wilfert, the NCAA's associate director of health and safety.
The NCAA attributes the decline in positive tests to its year-round drug testing program, combined with anti-drug education and testing conducted by schools.
The AP's analysis found that, regardless of school, conference and won-loss record, many players gained weight at exceptional rates compared with their fellow athletes and while accounting for their heights.
Adding more than 20 or 25 pounds of lean muscle in a year is nearly impossible through diet and exercise alone, said Dan Benardot, director of the Laboratory for Elite Athlete Performance at Georgia State University.
In nearly all the rarest cases of weight gain in the AP study, players were offensive or defensive linemen, hulking giants who tower above 6-foot-3 and weigh 300 pounds or more. Four of those players interviewed by the AP said that they never used steroids and gained weight through dramatic increases in eating, up to six meals a day. Two said they were aware of other players using steroids.
''I ate 5-6 times a day,'' said Clint Oldenburg, who played for Colorado State starting in 2002 and for five years in the NFL. Oldenburg's weight increased over four years from 212 to 290.
Oldenburg told the AP he was surprised at the scope of steroid use in college football, even in Colorado State's locker room. ''There were a lot of guys even on my team that were using.'' He declined to identify any of them.
The AP found more than 4,700 players - or about 7 percent of all players - who gained more than 20 pounds overall in a single year. It was common for the athletes to gain 10, 15 and up to 20 pounds in their first year under a rigorous regimen of weightlifting and diet. Others gained 25, 35 and 40 pounds in a season. In roughly 100 cases, players packed on as much 80 pounds in a single year.
In at least 11 instances, players that AP identified as packing on significant weight in college went on to fail NFL drug tests. But pro football's confidentiality rules make it impossible to know for certain which drugs were used and how many others failed tests that never became public.
Even though testers consider rapid weight gain suspicious, in practice it doesn't result in testing. Ben Lamaak, who arrived at Iowa State in 2006, said he weighed 225 pounds in high school. He graduated as a 320-pound offensive lineman and said he did it all naturally.
''I was just a young kid at that time, and I was still growing into my body,'' he said. ''It really wasn't that hard for me to gain the weight. I love to eat.''
In addition to random drug testing, Iowa State is one of many schools that have ''reasonable suspicion'' testing. That means players can be tested when their behavior or physical symptoms suggest drug use. Despite gaining 81 pounds in a year, Lamaak said he was never singled out for testing.
The associate athletics director for athletic training at Iowa State, Mark Coberley, said coaches and trainers use body composition, strength data and other factors to spot suspected cheaters. Lamaak, he said, was not suspicious because he gained a lot of ''non-lean'' weight.
But looking solely at the most significant weight gainers also ignores players like Bryan Maneafaiga.
In the summer of 2004, Bryan Maneafaiga was an undersized 180-pound running back trying to make the University of Hawaii football team. Twice - once in pre-season and once in the fall - he failed school drug tests, showing up positive for marijuana use but not steroids.
He'd started injecting stanozolol, a steroid, in the summer to help bulk up to a roster weight of 200 pounds. Once on the team, he'd occasionally inject the milky liquid into his buttocks the day before games.
''Food and good training will only get you so far,'' he told the AP recently.
Maneafaiga's former coach, June Jones, said it was news to him that one of his players had used steroids. Jones, who now coaches at Southern Methodist University, believes the NCAA does a good job rooting out steroid use.
On paper, college football has a strong drug policy. The NCAA conducts random, unannounced drug testing and the penalties for failure are severe. Players lose an entire year of eligibility after a first positive test. A second offense means permanent ineligibility for sports.
In practice, though, the NCAA's roughly 11,000 annual tests amount to a fraction of all athletes in Division I and II schools. Exactly how many tests are conducted each year on football players is unclear because the NCAA hasn't published its data for two years. And when it did, it periodically changed the formats, making it impossible to compare one year of football to the next.
Even when players are tested by the NCAA, experts like Catlin say it's easy enough to anticipate the test and develop a doping routine that results in a clean test by the time it occurs. NCAA rules say players can be notified up to two days in advance of a test, which Catlin says is plenty of time to beat a test if players have designed the right doping regimen. By comparison, Olympic athletes are given no notice.
Most schools that use Drug Free Sport do not test for anabolic steroids, Turpin said. Some are worried about the cost. Others don't think they have a problem. And others believe that since the NCAA tests for steroids their money is best spent testing for street drugs, she said.
Doping is a bigger deal at some schools than others.
At Notre Dame and Alabama, the teams that will soon compete for the national championship, players don't automatically miss games for testing positive for steroids. At Alabama, coaches have wide discretion. Notre Dame's student-athlete handbook says a player who fails a test can return to the field once the steroids are out of his system.
The University of North Carolina kicks players off the team after a single positive test for steroids. Auburn's student-athlete handbook calls for a half-season suspension for any athlete caught using performance-enhancing drugs.
At UCLA, home of the laboratory that for years set the standard for cutting-edge steroid testing, athletes can fail three drug tests before being suspended. At Bowling Green, testing is voluntary.
At the University of Maryland, students must get counseling after testing positive, but school officials are prohibited from disciplining first-time steroid users.
Only about half the student athletes in a 2009 NCAA survey said they believed school testing deterred drug use. As an association of colleges and universities, the NCAA could not unilaterally force schools to institute uniform testing policies and sanctions, Wilfert said.
''We can't tell them what to do, but if went through a membership process where they determined that this is what should be done, then it could happen,'' she said.

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The saddest athletes of 2012

Disclaimer: This list is depressing enough without death and police reports; as such, we've omitted some notable tragedies.

McKayla Maroney, gymnast, U.S.A.

More so than Usain Bolt's dominance or Michael Phelps's swan song, Maroney's "not impressed" face will likely be the most lasting image of the London Olympics. But the levity of one of the year's most widespread memes overshadows what a devastating loss her silver medal in the vault was.

Let's revisit the back story: there are four events in the women's team gymnastics competition. Maroney was included on the team for one event because she is by far and away the best woman on the planet at the vault. Side-by-side photo comparisons showed her exploding higher off the vault than male gymnasts with 30 more pounds of muscle. During the team competition, experts excoriated the judges for not giving Maroney's flawless Amanar a perfect score.

Her specialized dominance helped the Americans win gold, and reinforced a firm and realistic expectation of gold in the individual vault event. Maroney hit the Amanar for a half-point lead going into her second and final vault, but under-rotated and fell onto her butt during the landing.

(GIFs via BuzzFeed)

And yet she still held the lead with one gymnast to go. Think about it: over the course of two vaults, McKayla Maroney can fall on her ass on one of them and still be better than anyone in the world -- anyone except the final competitor, Sandra Izbasa of Romania, who hit her vault to win gold by just .108 of a point. This wasn't an upset like the 18-0Patriots losing to the Giants in the Super Bowl; it was like the 18-0 Patriots losing to Purdue.

Forget the damn meme. Look at the face of a 16-year-old girl whose cast-iron dream just crumbled.

(Photos: Mark Rebilas - USA TODAY Sports)

Since the medal ceremony, Maroney's had nothing but the best attitude about her meme -- posing with the "not impressed" face on her Instagram with her teammates and reenacting it for photo ops with dignitaries as high up as the President. Who knows? Maybe the fame from the meme will be more beneficial to Maroney in the long run.

Me? I'd rather have the gold medal.

Chad Johnson, wide receiver, Miami Dolphins

After an invisible season in New England -- his worst as a pro -- things were looking up for Chad Johnson this summer. He got married to Evelyn Lozada, for whom he professed a very real love ("If you pause Call of Duty for someone, then that's the f-----g one"). He changed his surname from Ochocinco back to the original Johnson. He signed with his hometown Dolphins and seemed dedicated and serious about keeping his career alive.

The first episode of this season's "Hard Knocks" showed Johnson leaving team headquarters on the players' day off. "Stu, I promise I'm getting arrested while we're off,"he joked to a team employee.

Four days later, Johnson was arrested on domestic violence charges after allegedly head-butting Lozada. The Dolphins cut him the next day. Lozada filed for divorce after 41 days of marriage -- just 0.57 of a Kardashian (standard unit for short-lived marriages). VH1 canceled production of their reality show.

How could being arrested, getting fired, and losing your wife in the span of three days possibly get any worse? Easy: HBO records you getting fired and airs it on TV four days later.

For all the drunken antics, grainy night-vision hook-ups, and manufactured drama that have become the hallmarks of reality television, few reality TV scenes over the last two decades have been more real or more dramatic than Joe Philbin's frank and businesslike -- but not unkind -- dismissal of a visibly anguished Johnson.

Marcus Lattimore, running back, South Carolina

In 2011, Marcus Lattimore tore his left ACL, then worked incredibly hard to get back on the football field in 2012. It worked: he was running all over the SEC until Oct. 27, when he suffered possibly the most gruesome sports injury of 2012:

Instead of returning for his senior year in 2012, Lattimore will enter the NFL Draft in April with two surgically repaired knees -- a medical history that will likely cost him millions of dollars.

Lance Armstrong, cyclist

Do not mistake this for pity. Armstrong himself isn't sad:

Lance Armstrong

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@lancearmstrong

Back in Austin and just layin' around... mob.li/_r4zAz

11 Nov 12

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"Doo dee doo, hangin' out and reflectin' on all those Tours de France I didn't win. Weird how I still have all these yellow jerseys, huh?"

Armstrong isn't sad, because he still has his fame and his millions of dollars (if not the Nike contract to keep those millions regenerating). What's sad is that millions of cancer patients found strength in Armstrong's vitality and character. The former was boosted with performance-enhancing drugs; the latter was never there.

Professional Hockey Players

It's generally a bad sign when your best career move is "relocate to Russia."

Aubrey Huff, IF/OF, San Francisco Giants

Huff came into the 2012 season broken down after his worst year. His wife filed for divorce in January. In April, he filled in at second base against the Mets and failed to cover second on a double play ball, costing the Giants the game.

The next day he went on the disabled list to treat anxiety issues; rumors persisted that his divorce was a factor. After returning from the DL, he sprained his knee jumping over a rail in celebration of Matt Cain's perfect game. He came back and promptly went back on the DL with tendinitis in the same knee. A fair appraisal of his baseball skills come September: he can no longer run, hit, or field.

But he played in the World Series! (He pinch-hit in one game and grounded out on the only pitch he saw.) The Giants declined his $10 million club option in November.

Larry Fitzgerald, wide receiver, Arizona Cardinals

In the five seasons from 2007 to 2011, Larry Fitzgerald never had fewer than 90 receptions or 1092 yards receiving. This year he had just 71 catches for 798 yards and a career-low four touchdowns despite being targeted just as often. So what happened?

Kevin Kolb, John Skelton, Ryan Lindley and Brian Hoyer, respectively (though there were several weeks where it was a Lindley-Skelton coin flip). That list is so bad, it's almost unfair to lump in Kevin Kolb with the other three. "Hey, that's not fair to Kolb! He's almost mediocre!"

Football trivia: quarterbacks are pretty important.

John Wall, point guard, Washington Wizards

The Wizards finished 20-46 in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season. The only reason they weren't the worst team in the NBA was [BOBCATS], and the lone bright spot on the team was Wall.

Before the season, Wall was diagnosed with the beginning of a stress fracture in his knee, and doctors thought he'd be out for eight weeks. Ten weeks after those eight weeks, the timetable was changed to "there's no timetable." That was four weeks ago. The most recent guess is "some time in January." The Wizards are 4-24.

The good news? At least he's not Greg Oden.

Greg Oden, center, Portland TrailBlazers

If I compiled this list annually, this would likely be Oden's fourth or fifth consecutive appearance here. On the off chance you haven't been keeping up with Oden:

• February 2012: underwent third microfracture surgery
• March: waived by Portland
• May: opened up in an interview about drinking heavily during rehab
• June: Kevin Durant -- the guy who, y'know, was drafted right after him in 2007 -- made the NBA Finals as the best player on the league's most electric team
• still injured
• still hasn't played since '09-'10 season
• hoping to sign with a team and play in the '13-'14 season

WELP.

Alex Smith, quarterback, San Francisco 49ers

Smith started his year by playing maybe his best game as a professional in a 36-32 victory over the Saints in the playoffs. It was an incredible turnaround for a beleaguered quarterback who struggled for six seasons before coming into his own under coach John Harbaugh.

What a great story! Alex Smith was finally The Man in San Francisco! ... until the 49ers openly sought Peyton Manning to replace him in the offseason. Smith visited the Dolphins during free agency, but re-signed with the Niners when their bid for Manning fell through.

But hey, that's just business, right? Smith was still the starter, and he got the job done throughout the first half of the season. In beating Arizona to raise the Niners' record to 6-2, Smith completed 18-of-19 passes for 232 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. The next week against St. Louis, he started 7-of-8 with a touchdown before going down with a concussion.

Colin Kaepernick filled in for Smith admirably, then got a start against the Bears and looked AWESOME. Like, SO MUCH BETTER than Smith on his best day. Kaepernick kept the starting job, and Smith became the first quarterback to get benched with a completion percentage better than 70% and a passer rating of 104.1. Now he looks like this when Kaepernick leads the team to a touchdown.

Alex Rodriguez, third baseman, New York Yankees

Perhaps you have heard of Alex Rodriguez. He is 37 years old and makes thirty million dollars a year to play baseball, which is more than anyone else in the world is paid to play baseball. Let's see how his 2012 went:

• Broke his hand and went on the DL
• Finished the season with 16 home runs and 62 RBI, ending his 13-year streak of 30-HR/100-RBI seasons
• Went 3-for-25 during the playoffs, including 0-for-18 with 12 strikeouts against right-handers, resulting in his benching
• Used his benching as an opportunity to hit on women in the stands (the New York media and Yankee fans were somewhat displeased by this)
• Good news: he played poorly because his hip was injured!
• Bad news: he'll undergo surgery on the hip in January and be out of the Yankees lineup until at least June or July
• This Deadspin post

BONUS LAST-MINUTE ADDITION! Tony Romo, quarterback, Dallas Cowboys

 

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Tears and smiles by the billion at London Games

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain spent nearly nine billion pounds ($14.42 billion) to create a magical and ambitious wonderland of venues for the 2012 Olympic Games, where fans were thrilled across a capital whose grime and grandeur alike got a makeover of global glamour.
The Games proved a timely shot in the arm, spiritually if not financially, for a bruised nation struggling with economic recession. The government, citing figures that were all but unmeasurable, said they would even deliver monetary benefits, to the tune of some $20 billion, though others were skeptical.
As for sport, the cash delivered a gold rush of medals for the somewhat startled hosts - placing them third, their best result since 1920, if well behind the table-topping United States and China, which returned to the number two spot after dominating its home Games in Beijing four years earlier.
More importantly, though, the July and August Games gave Britain - and Britishness - a reputational boost, at home and abroad, at a time when few who are younger than the 86-year-old Queen Elizabeth can recall its days of imperial glory.
Instead, 2012 showcased a new, modern London as a tolerant, welcoming and multicultural city.
Britain delivered, or, as the otherwise rather beleaguered Prime Minister David Cameron put it after the Games: "We showed the world what we're made of; we reminded ourselves of what we could do."
Many overseas agreed. Recalling prophecies of doom, about terror and traffic and Londoners' deep reserves of cynicism and, well, reserve, Italy's Corriere della Sera declared: "Thank you, London - A lesson to the pessimists ... When it comes to parties, festivals and ceremonies, no-one can match the British."
"The neo-British...are emotional," marveled the Italians, traditional champions in the heart-on-sleeve stakes. "They feel the tension beforehand; they weep on the podium and watching the television; they put down their beer and hug their neighbor."
What the investment left behind was an unforgettable sporting tapestry of tears, drama and raw emotion played out against backdrops from Buckingham Palace to a grand new stadium where factory hulks once blighted the blitz-scarred East End.
These were the Games that Olympic chief Jacques Rogge called "happy and glorious", echoing Britain's national anthem "God Save the Queen" as Elizabeth celebrated 60 years on the throne.
They opened with seven young, unknown athletes lighting the cauldron and had as their motto "Inspire a Generation".
As he closed the Games, Rogge said: "The human legacy will reach every region of the world. Many young people will be inspired to take up a sport or to pursue their dreams."
The 2012 Olympics proved the perfect stage for the world's fastest man Usain Bolt, who became the first man to defend the 100 and 200 meters double on the running track.
As he accelerated to the 200 title, Bolt put his finger to his lips - silencing the doubters. With his Jamaican team mates, he went on to a "double treble", breaking the world record to retain the 4x100 meters relay title.
"I came here to become a legend and I am now," Bolt told Reuters before an early-hours turn as a nightclub DJ. "I've got nothing left to prove. I've shown the world I'm the best."
PHELPS QUITS
In the pool the supremacy issue was resolved emphatically when Michael Phelps swam to a status as the most decorated Olympian with 22 medals, 18 of them gold. His victory set off a debate about whether that meant he was the world's greatest.
Phelps, too, had nothing left to prove and promptly quit the sport. "It's kind of weird, it's very strange, the first day of not having to swim and never having it again," the American told Reuters. "I'm not sure right now how I feel. It's really confusing."
There was no confusion on the subject of sporting domination, though, with the U.S. finishing the Games on top of the medals table. Having trailed China in Beijing, the Americans beat the Chinese into second place with a haul of 46 golds among their 104 medals. China won 38 golds and 87 in all.
"We like to come in first," U.S. Olympic Committee chief Scott Blackmun said. "And there is nothing wrong with that."
The London Olympics were a party for the world, marshaled by Britain's soldiers, sailors and airmen, after a private security contractor caused a scandal two weeks before the start by announcing it would not be able to provide enough guards.
The military solution proved a masterstroke as 18,000 troops flooded Olympic venues, leaving fans comforted by their professionalism and impressed by their cheerful good humor.
Oscar winner Danny Boyle's quirky opening ceremony, featuring a playful - and first - cinematic performance by the Queen herself, alongside James Bond actor Daniel Craig, captivated the world and set the stage for a spectacular Games.
Britain's Olympians took up the baton to finish third, ahead of traditionally mighty Russia, with 29 golds across the field.
Fresh from Britain's first win in the Tour de France, Bradley Wiggins, a fashion throwback to the 1960s Mod era, won the men's cycling time trial early on. His gold gave him seven career medals, more than any other British Olympian.
British success snowballed. Jessica Ennis dominated the heptathlon and became a national heroine overnight, along with Somali-born 5,000 and 10,000 meters double winner Mo Farah. His hands-on-pate "Mobot", an M-for-Mo victory salute, rivaled Bolt's arrow gesture for most emulated pose in souvenir snaps.
Kenya's David Rudisha smashed the 800 meters world record to win gold in one minute 40.91 - a run that Games chief Sebastian Coe, himself a former Olympic middle-distance champion, called the "stand-out performance" of London 2012.
Not since topping the table - in London - in 1908 had Britain won so many golds. One went to Nicola Adams; with a dazzling smile and down-to-earth Yorkshire grace, the 29-year-old gave the performance of her life to win women's boxing's first Olympic final.
MAGICAL FINAL
London was also the first Games to feature women from every nation, as the remaining Arab states who had resisted abandoning their all-male team rosters relented under pressure.
Women's soccer got a major boost and a crowd of more than 80,000 attended a memorable, magical final where the U.S. beat Japan 2-1 for a third successive gold. On the men's side, five-times World Cup winners Brazil were left seeking the one major title to elude them when they were beaten by Mexico.
Andy Murray put Wimbledon heartbreak behind him to win tennis gold with a breathtaking thrashing of Roger Federer, a victory that prefaced his first grand-slam title at the U.S. Open five weeks later.
Britain ruled the velodrome and Chris Hoy wept tears of joy as the hosts ended their Olympic track cycling campaign with seven titles.
Other tears were shed in bitterness. South Korea's Shin A-Lam wept for an hour on the fencing piste after a timing quirk denied her the place in the final she thought she had secured.
Top-seeded Chinese badminton player Yu Yang quit the sport altogether in despair after being sent home following a tactical "play-to-lose" scandal: "You have heartlessly shattered our dreams. It's that simple," she said. "This is unforgivable."
Regardless, China completed a sweep of all five badminton golds, but the treatment of the women, and a whispering campaign about doping against swimming sensation Ye Shiwen angered the Chinese. "There are double standards that have taken aim at the Chinese team and its athletes," said The People's Daily.
One American who contributed to their gold collection, and at the same time won hearts the world over, was 16-year-old "flying squirrel" Gabby Douglas who became the first African American to win the women's all-around gymnastics crown.
"I was kind of America's sweetheart leading into the Games, which made me feel so good, you know, that America loved me," she grinned.
America's giants of the NBA beat an inspired Spain to retain the Olympic basketball title. Kevin Durant led the way with 30 points.
South Korea's women extended their archery domination by winning their seventh consecutive Olympic team title and took the individual gold for the seventh time in eight Olympics.
Another constant, at these Games at least, was the British monarchy; the royals popped up at venues everywhere - none more so than at the equestrian where the Queen's grand-daughter Zara Phillips won silver in eventing, then was presented with the medal by her own mother, former Olympic rider Princess Anne.
The war on doping was fought fiercely; 12 competitors were expelled or left the Games for violations, while Belarussian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk was stripped of her gold and Uzbek wrestler Soslan Tigiev had his bronze medal taken back.
Former anti-doping chief Dick Pound said the message was clear, at least every four years: "I would not expect many cases at the Olympics," he said. "Because if you test positive here, you fail not a drugs test but an IQ test."
What began with a quirky mish-mash of an opening ceremony ended with a thumping celebration of London and British music. The Spice Girls and George Michael sang. So too did The Who, with their global anthem for the future "My Generation", and Queen - though not the monarch this time, just the band.

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