IOC president says Olympics opened up China

On the sports front, Rogge noted that athletes from a record 87 teams won medals, and that more than 40 world records and 120 Olympic records had been set. He singled out American swimmer Michael Phelps, winner of a record eight gold medals, and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who won three golds and broke three world records, as the two “icons of the games.”

Rogge stood by his controversial comments criticizing Bolt for failing to show respect to his fellow competitors after winning the 100 and 200 meters, but said he meant it as “fatherly advice.”

“Yes, of course I have been criticized for various issues,” said Rogge, who has been accused of being out of touch. “The Bolt issue, I mean I take it with a big smile.”

“I stand by what I said,” he added. “I said that he was the icon of the games together with Michael Phelps. I have great respect for his abilities. I thought that, and I repeat what I said, he should show more respect for his opponents but I’ve also said in the same way he was a young man of 22 and that he has time to mature.”’

Rogge also offered praise to American shooter Matt Emmons, who lost gold for a second straight Olympics when his gun went off before he aimed on the final shot of the three-position rifle. His wife Katerina, a Czech Republic shooter, approached him after his misfire to console him.

“What moved me most is the attitude of this man,” Rogge said. “The positive attitude to say: ‘This is a big failure, I take responsibility but I’ll come back and I will win gold.’ I think this is the true spirit of the Olympic Games.”

“There are issues London will not be able to equal,” Rogge said. “It is clear that the ability to bring in hundreds of thousands of volunteers in the different sites ... is something that number-wise is not going to be easy for London.”

Rogge described Britain as the nation that invented modern sports, codified its rules and “brought in the values of fair play and other values. So I think that is the identity that has to be built around London. London is also a very cosmopolitan city, multiethnic, multicultural, multi-religious so this is something you can also use as an asset.”

Sebastian Coe, head of the London organizing committee, has promised London will be fun games.

“We are going to work on generating a party atmosphere,” he said a few days ago.

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