Choice of London as host city for Olympics (part 2)

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This is a follow-up to the first part of this topic I originated. I've seen your responses and there's plenty more I would like to add (please excuse me). It doesn't surprise me that responses to my post were positive about London hosting the Olympics, especially from the Brits who replied. Unlike the presidential candidate Mitt Romney whose country I'm a citizen of myself, I had no doubt that London would be able to make the Games work from a logistical standpoint for the visitors and the participants. What I've been concerned about is whether it's good to have the Olympics take place in the world's elite cities. The Games give us a chance to sample the world and better understand it and having them in less well-known cities helps to contribute to that experience, in my opinion. Regardless of whether you agree with that or not, there's been quite an argument over whether hosting the Games was in London's own best interests. The verdict is still out on whether London had a net economic benefit from the Olympics as the numbers are still being crunched. But already there have been businesses that have complained about losses as many of the locals and regular tourists decided to stay away from the city. The Games presented a unique challenge for an elite city like London, a place always busy to the max. In contrast, cities like Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, and Sydney had plenty of room to accomodate and were looking to use the Games to raise their profiles and bring in more business for the future. After 2 failed bids recently, Paris hopes the 3rd time will be the charm in bidding for 2024. If we learn that London didn't make tangible gains from the 2012 experience, officials in Paris may have a tougher time selling the idea of hosting the Games to their people than to the IOC. Also, should it be learned that London lost from these Games like other cities have it would add fuel to the argument of ending the practice of different host cities for the Olympics each time, but we'll leave that for another day to comment on. In my original post I said that the 2012 Olympics lacked groundbreaking narratives, but now I want to make mention of those that did happen. I believe that it was great that for the first time all participant nations had at least 1 female athlete. And who could forget Oscar Pistorius of South Africa - maybe big-time sports has had disabled members, but have we ever seen a track athlete at the Olympics relying on prosthetic legs. His visibility undoubtedly makes him an inspiration. It was quite a site to see beach volleyball being played in London of all places. I'm sure for many locals it was their most unforgettable moment. And I'm surprised at how the weather held up as London is known for its ample amount of rainfall. Britain did great in the medal standings, continuing its great improvement from the disastrous '96 Games in Atlanta. I'm curious of how well it can do at the Olympics' winter version - that should be the next big goal for the British team even if they have to find a place to prepare and ski, slide, luge, etc. Cheers mates. :-)