US Wins Olympic Medal Count as London Games Close Rio Gets Ready - Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic

LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS CLOSE IN STYLE

With a little British pomp and a lot of British pop, London brought the curtain down on a glorious Olympic Games on Sunday in a spectacular, technicolor pageant of landmarks, light shows and lots of fun.

The closing ceremony offered a sensory blast including rock 'n' roll rickshaws, dustbin percussionists, an exploding yellow car and a marching band in red tunics and bearskin hats.

There was a show-stopping reunion of the Spice Girls and a comedy sequence featuring Monty Python's Eric Idle performing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" accompanied by Roman centurions, Scottish bagpipers and a human cannonball.

It was all delivered in a psychedelic mashup that had 80,000 fans at Olympic Stadium stomping, cheering and singing along. Organizers estimated 300 million or more were watching around the world.

Festive and fast-moving, the ceremony opened with pop bands Madness, Pet Shop Boys and One Direction, a shout-out to Winston Churchill and a tribute to the Union Jack -- the floor of Olympic Stadium floor arranged to resemble the British flag.

Monochrome recreations of London landmarks were covered in newsprint, from Big Ben's clock tower and Tower Bridge to the London Eye ferris wheel and the chubby highrise known as the Gherkin.

Street percussion group Stomp built the noise into a frenzy, and dancers brandished brooms, in a nod to the spontaneous popular movement to clean up London after riots shook neighborhoods not far from Olympic Stadium just a year ago.

Liam Gallagher performed "Wonderwall," a 1990s hit by his former band, Oasis, Muse rocked the house with the hard-edged Olympic anthem "Survival," and Queen guitarist Brian May was joined by singer Jessie J for a crowd pleasing "We Will Rock You."

And there still was more to come.

The Who was expected to take the stage at the end of the three-hour paean to British pop, and to the country's triumphant turn hosting the games. The headline performers were each paid a pound, a little more than $1.50.

Prince William's wife, Kate, and Prince Harry took seats next to Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee. They sang along to "God Save the Queen."

But perhaps the best seats in the house were for the 10,800 athletes, who marched in as one, rather than with their nations, symbolizing the harmony and friendship inspired by the games.

As the crowd cheered their heroes and flashbulbs rippled through the stadium, the Olympians cheered back, some carrying national flags, others snapping photographs with smartphones and cameras.

They held hands, embraced and carried each other on their shoulders, finally forming a human mosh pit on the field.

The ceremony had something for everyone, from tween girls to 1960s hippies. The face of John Lennon appeared on the stadium floor, assembled by 101 fragments of sculpture, and just as quickly gave way to George Michael.

Muse, Fatboy Slim, and Annie Lennox all performed. Queen Elizabeth II, who made a memorable mock parachute entrance at the July 27 opening ceremony, was expected to be on hand.

Eight minutes were turned over to Brazil, host of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, which promises an explosion of samba, sequins and Latin cool. Following tradition, the mayor of London handed the Olympic flag off to his Rio counterpart.

There were also to be speeches by Rogge and London organizing committee chief Sebastian Coe, and the extinguishing of the Olympic flame.

What a way to end a games far more successful than many Londoners expected. Security woes were overcome, and traffic nightmares never materialized. The weather held up, more or less, and British athletes overachieved.

It all came at a price tag of $14 billion, three times the original estimate. But nobody wanted to spoil the fun with such mundane concerns, at least not on this night.

Britons, who had fretted for weeks that the games would become a fiasco, were buoyed by their biggest medal haul since 1908 -- 29 golds and 65 medals in all.

The United States edged China in both the gold medal and total medal standings, eclipsing its best performance at an Olympics on foreign soil after the Dream Team narrowly held off Spain in basketball for the country's 46th gold.

"It's been an incredible fortnight," said Coe, an Olympic champion in his own right.

While the games may have lacked some of the drama and grandeur of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, there were many unforgettable moments.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt became an Olympic legend by repeating as champion in both the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints. Michael Phelps ended his long career as the most decorated Olympian in history.

British distance runner Mo Farah became a national treasure by sweeping the 5,000- and 10,000-meter races, and favorite daughter Jessica Ennis became a global phenomenon with her victory in the heptathlon.

Female athletes took center stage in a way they never had before. American gymnast Gabby Douglas soared to gold, the U.S. soccer team made a dramatic march to the championship. Packed houses turned out to watch the new event of women's boxing. And women competed for Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei for the first time.

And then there was Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee from South Africa running on carbon-fiber blades, who didn't win a medal but nonetheless left a champion. And sprinter Manteo Mitchell, who completed his leg of the 4x400 relay semifinal on a broken leg, allowing his team to qualify and win silver.

"It was a dream for a sports-lover like me," Rogge said of the two weeks of competition.

Coe said the closing ceremony didn't aim to be profound, not even the irreverent romp through British history offered by Danny Boyle's $42 million spectacle on opening night.

The theme for the close, Coe said, could be summed up in three words. "Party. Party. Party."

In a switch from opening night and what appeared to be a concession to its vocal critics, NBC decided to stream the ceremony live online, in addition to broadcasting it during prime time.

London organizers tried to keep the ceremony under wraps, but photographs of their rehearsals, in an old car plant in east London, made the British papers almost daily.

The show was to include performances of 30 British hit singles from the past five decades -- whittled by Gavin from a list of 1,000 songs.

The soundtrack ranged from Edward Elgar, composer of the "Pomp and Circumstance" march, to The Kinks and "Waterloo Sunset." Frontman Ray Davies performed the 1960s song, a love letter to London.

While creators of the opening ceremony could rehearse for weeks inside the stadium, Gavin and his team had less than a day between the end of track and field competition and Sunday's ceremony before 80,000 people.

Even as spectators filed in early Sunday evening, performers did final run-throughs, including actor-comedian Russell Brand in a top hat aboard a psychedelic magical mystery tour bus. Jets of steam shot up from the stage as dancers in warmup clothes shimmied and shook.

Britons seemed exhausted and exhilarated after two glorious weeks in the world's spotlight, and just months after the country celebrated the queen's 60th year on the throne with a magnificent pageant and street parties.

Some at Olympic Park acknowledged happy surprise that not much had gone wrong, and so much had gone right.

"I was a bit worried we wouldn't be able to live up to it," said Phil Akrill of Chichester. "But walking around here it's just unbelievable."

Even non-Brits were proud of their adopted homeland.

"It's just been a really nice thing to see," said Anja Ekelof, a Swede who now lives in Scotland. "The whole country has come together."

MEDAL COUNT

So did Britain, riding the wave of home-field advantage for its best Olympic showing in over a century. Some of that may have come at the expense of China, which finished only five medals ahead of Russia, where the Winter Olympics are next, in 2014.

The competition is over. The U.S. was best - but the success stories from London truly spanned the globe.

''I think these games were absolutely fabulous,'' International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said.

The final numbers: 104 medals for the United States, 46 of them gold, their highest total at a ''road'' Olympics. China won 87 medals, 38 of them gold, down from what they did as the home team in 2008. Britain won 29 golds, third-most of any nation, and 65 overall - fourth in that category behind Russia, a winner of 82 medals, 24 gold.

Grenada had its first gold medalist, and six other nations sent athletes to the Olympic podium for the first time. Meanwhile, Australia took another step back in its Olympic freefall after a scintillating show in Sydney 12 years ago.

In all, 85 nations won something in London, from the U.S. to Tajikistan and dozens of points in between.

''We are immensely proud of the success that our athletes had in London,'' U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun said Sunday.

With good reason.

Red, white and blue was everywhere in London over the last two-plus weeks, waved proudly and often.

And remember, that's not just the color scheme of the U.S. flag, but the Union Jack of the British, too. The hosts delivered on a promise of greatness in 2012 - and possibly set the stage for continued success.

''What I've witnessed in the last couple of weeks has been both uplifting and energizing,'' London Games chief Sebastian Coe said. ''I don't think any country that has staged the games or any city that staged the games is ever the same afterwards.''

Neither are the athletes who win them. A boxer from Thailand protested losing a gold-medal fight to a Chinese opponent, and shed tears of disbelief when the decision was announced. He cried again 10 minutes later, holding his silver medal for the first time.

''I'm happy. I'm still really happy that I've got this silver medal,'' said the Thai fighter, Kaeo Pongprayoon. ''I'm really proud. It might not be gold, but it's a medal I can bring back to the Thai people.''

The U.S., well, they brought a whole slew of hardware back to the American people. The 46 golds in London were one more than the gold haul from Paris in 1924 and Mexico City in 1968.

LeBron James recognized that winning gold means more than, well, winning gold. He and the U.S. men's basketball team won the Americans' final Olympic title in London on Sunday afternoon.

''It means more than myself, it means more than my name on my back,'' James said. ''It means everything to the name on the front.''

The final numbers for the Americans in London won't go down as record-setting for all Olympics.

They won 83 golds (174 overall) at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, boycotted by most of the Soviet bloc countries; and 78 golds (a whopping 239 overall) at the 1904 St. Louis Games, when U.S. athletes won roughly seven out of every eight medals.

Different eras, different dynamics. By any measure, 2012 will be considered a booming success for the U.S. Many thought the Chinese would go home with more medals than the Americans, and that didn't come close to happening.

''We're Americans and we're human,'' said Teresa Edwards, the five-time Olympian for U.S. basketball. ''When I was competing, when I went up against another country, I felt they wanted the same thing I wanted. But we were given an opportunity to prove it at that moment, and that's what these games give us.''

Celebrations weren't limited to the big nations - Grenada's first Olympic gold came from Kirani James winning the men's 400-meter dash.

But Australia's medal total, seven, was just half of the number from Beijing - and the Aussies won no individual gold medals in the swimming pool for the first time since 1976, something that would have seemed unthinkable a few years ago when the likes of Ian Thorpe were among the world's very best.

The Summer Olympics next hit Brazil, site of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

They have some work to do over the next four years, in addition to all the construction that comes with getting ready for sport's largest spectacle. The Brazilians won three golds in London, those coming in women's volleyball, judo and gymnastics, and their overall medal haul of 17 was its best at an Olympics.

Still, that's not exactly what fans of the home team at an Olympics have come to expect. The Brazilians already have plans in place for an Olympic Training Center to be built in Rio, and levels of funding for athletes and teams will likely be unprecedented for the South American nation.

''We need gold medals up front,'' Rogge said. ''That is so important for the mood of the public, of the general atmosphere of the games.''

Michael Phelps ended his Olympic career in London with a record 22 medals, the last six of them won here, the most of any athlete in London, as his amazing run ended with - what else? - a splash. Four other athletes in London won five medals, three of them American swimmers, including 17-year-old Missy Franklin.

Swimming and track combined to deliver 60 medals for the U.S., and to the athletes, the medal count most definitely mattered.

''I do feel it's important for us to be the No. 1 team because we've held that title and to lose that title would be somewhat disappointing,'' said Dee Dee Trotter, who won gold on the U.S. 4x400-meter relay team. ''We just want to maintain the level of talent and the level of medals we always bring home, and if we fall short, that would mean we're not bringing our 'A' game. So, yes, absolutely important for us.''

Blackmun said the medals are just part of what he'll remember about London.

Sure, there were the stars - Phelps, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, British cyclist Chris Hoy - but there also were those who just missed, like triathlete Sarah Groff and modern pentathlete Margaux Isaksen, both fourth-place finishers.

''They fell just short but inspired us with their determination,'' Blackmun said. ''Just as importantly, all of our athletes were good ambassadors, and we have no doubt that they left a positive impression both in London and with the hundreds of millions of Americans who were watching back home.''

RIO PREPARES

As the London Olympics closed, the next host, Rio de Janeiro, was set to kick off four years of preparations for games that some see as Brazil's entrance onto the world stage.

Many are bracing for a rocky ride as Rio - a laid-back beach city not known for its efficiency or punctuality - rushes to build four main Olympic sites and undertake a massive infrastructure overhaul.

Rio native Joao Carlos de Figueireiro said that despite the "mess" that was sure to come, he had faith things would work out in the end.

"There are definitely things we need to work on, organization-wise," said Figueireiro, a 56-year-old barman at a neighborhood cafe. "But we're experts at pulling rabbits out of hats at the last minute and I'm sure that's what we're going to do."