It's over - final impressions and lessons-learnt

Well, the Olympics are over. Just wanted to share some final impressions and lessons learnt.

Final impressions

A great spectacle and fantastic way for China to "open" to the world. Many of the events produced amazing results (world records, olympic records), new heroes(e.g. Phelps) and quite some drama (e.g. Taekwondo's last day).

Most of the new stadiums, gymnasiums and locations were amazing: from the National Stadium (I still look at it in awe every time I go through the 4th Ring Road) to the Tennis Centre Court and many others.

So, what wasn't so good? Well, unfortunately the atmosphere wasn't so great. I think there were two reasons for this:
1) The lack of events outside close the locations (even in the Olympic Green, there wasn't much going on) and throughout the city. The limitations on company's activities and outdoor activities overall took a lot of the vibe that you typically get during these types of gatherings.
2) The lower number of foreigners versus other Olympics. There were few events where Chinese were not in majority and while this is not necessarily bad, it does diminish the impact of a truly multi-cultural event such as the Olympics.

I could call these the "Historical Games where China showed it is a super-power and the world welcomed it with open arms". Yet, ultimately the Games ended up being too orderly, sometimes close to being boring.

Although I enjoyed most of the events I went to and shouted like a mad man at a several of them, I would say that the Games were a bit disappointing, in particular because of the "too orderly" point I mentioned above.

Lessons-learnt

1) Buy less tickets: I had tickets to 21 sessions and I can assure that's way too much. Next time I will focus on 5 or 6 key sessions and that's it. The rest of the time I will try to go out and enjoy the city.

2) Focus on the "spectator-friendly and more exciting" Olympic events:
- Men's Basketball (quarter-finals and after);
- Women's Artistic Gymnastics (all-round individual or less ideal team or apparatus finals);
- Beach Volleyball (pretty much everything, but preference for men and after quarter-finals);
- Volleyball (women or men and either on preliminaries or semis and after), Table tennis (women or men and ideally finals - team or individual).

3) Do not go to certain events unless some dramatic happens to competitive landscape:
- Women's Basketball;
- Tennis - unless the atmosphere in London is very special and ATP finally gives the tournament a more tier-1 rating;
- Athletics - unless I get tickets right next to the track.

4) Only go if I have category A-equivalent tickets: unless the tickets are given to me for free, I would sincerely only go if I have the best type of seats. Even then, there is a chance your seat is crap, so why even play "russian roulette" going to category B or C.

5) Lower my expectations before the next Olympics: I acknowledge that my frustrations this time around were also strongly tied to my expectations about the Games. Next time I hope to have learnt my lesson.