The last gold medal has been won, the last world record broken, and the Olympic flag is now in the care of London. What now? London has received the Olympic flag to signal the start of its reign as Olympic host city and spark wild celebrations in the capital. Mayor of London Boris Johnson was given the flag by IOC President Jacques Rogge at the closing ceremony in Beijing. An eight-minute handover presentation, featuring a red double-decker bus, footballer David Beckham and musicians Jimmy Page and Leona Lewis followed. An estimated 40,000 people celebrated the handover at a party in London. Johnson waved the flag four times, as scripted, before handing it to an usher. He brought the flag back to London on Tuesday and flew it outside City Hall alongside the Paralympic flag when those Games have concluded in September. Johnson displayed the flag at a major celebration in Beijing on Sunday for athletes, organisers and senior politicians including Prime Minister Gordon Brown, spectators and the media. "I'm profoundly humbled by the immense privilege I've been given today," said Johnson. "I'm also intensely proud. Proud of the athletes who pulled in the best medal tally for decades. Proud of the people behind them who've delivered this stunning success. And proud beyond all that London is now in charge of the Olympic legacy. "The next Games return to a country which I frequently boast has either invented or codified just about every major world sport. We will draw on that heritage and we will draw on our wit, flair, imagination and ingenuity to build on what we've all witnessed in Beijing and deliver a fantabulous Olympics in what I consider to be not only my home, but the home of sport. "Sport is coming home. See you in London!" At the celebration at London House in Beijing, Johnson told the BBC: "It was a little daunting picking up the flag, but the baton has been passed to a London administration that will deliver. "This is not going to be a cost-cutting Olympics, but it is essential we watch every penny to deliver a Games that is value for money." In London thousands of people attended a party in The Mall outside the Queen's residence, Buckingham Palace. They were entertained by musical acts including McFly, Scouting for Girls, Katherine Jenkins, The Feeling and Will Young. Several British Olympians, including cycling's triple gold medallist Bradley Wiggins, silver medal winning triple jumper Phillips Idowu and past stars Sharron Davies, Roger Black and Kate Howey were also present. Wiggins, who won two golds in Beijing to add to his one from Athens, said: "When I left, it was all 'recession, recession, recession' and we've come back to a country overwhelmed by Olympic success. "There's an overwhelming sense of people being excited by the next Olympics being in London." Idowu added: "London's going to be crazy. If we have support like this now, it's going to be amazing." America's swimming sensation Michael Phelps, who won an record eight gold medals in Beijing, also dropped in. He said: "This is my first trip to London and I am looking forward to coming back in four years to compete in the London Olympics. "It's been an amazing few weeks, (winning eight gold medals was) a dream come true." A spectacular flypast by the Royal Air Force's aerobatics team, the Red Arrows, with their trademark red, white and blue smoke wowed the crowd. And former M People singer Heather Small rounded off the party with a rendition of her hit single Proud. Numerous cities, including 2012 football venue Glasgow and sailing venue Weymouth were hooked up to London via giant screens. The International Olympic Committee awarded the Games of the 30th Olympiad to London on 6 July, 2005. The city won a two-way fight with Paris by 54 votes to 50 at the IOC meeting in Singapore, after bids from Moscow, New York and Madrid were eliminated. Mayor Johnson has told the BBC he is "absolutely determined" the 2012 Olympics will cost less than the current �9.3bn budget. London will become the first city to stage the Olympics for a third time in 2012. On both previous occasions, the capital has staged the Games at short notice. Rome pulled out of hosting the 1908 Olympics following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906. And in 1948, London staged what became known as the Austerity Games following World War II. But how can London follow spectacular Beijing? According to The Economist, as far as the games themselves are concerned, China delivered the good, the bad, and the odd. The opening and closing ceremonies and the sporting venues were astonishing, and if London's experience with Picketts Lock, the Millennium Bridge, the Dome, Wembley Stadium and Terminal Five is representative, then the UK will be hard-pressed to match them. In other respects it will be easy to surpass China's benchmark: filling empty seats and allowing journalists access to the internet should do the trick, as will not jailing citizens who respond to an invitation to apply for a protest permit. It was reassuring to discover that China's sensational opening ceremony relied on some computer wizardry. The British opening ceremony should probably be more modest -- bonfires, union-flag bowler hats, and lots and lots of bunting should do the trick -- even if there is a precedent for using performance-enhancing techniques. The 2012 organising committee may even decide to organise a dance-off between thousands of computer- generated Morris dancers and Scottish pipers. The real lesson of this Olympics is not to take the myth of the Olympian aura too seriously. Among all the rituals of the modern Olympic movement, the most baffling is the declaration that the Olympics bring some benefit to the hosts that is broad, profound and enduring. The Beijing Games were supposed to assist China's economic, environmental and political development. There is little sign of that. The economy needed no help, the environment will not be improved by the emergency shut-down of factories for the duration of the Games, and there is no sign of progress on transparency or human rights. The International Olympic Committee overpromised and failed to hold the Chinese authorities to account. Under self- imposed pressure to make the Games run smoothly, Beijing left nothing to chance. The spotlights of the world's cameras often threw its authoritarianism into sharp relief. The London Olympics come packaged with their own myth: that they will regenerate east London and, if not set the nation jogging, inspire it to more active lifestyles. Both aims are worthy, and both are not beyond reach -- but the Olympics themselves will not suffice. The bigger prize is to revive east London's fortunes. A three-week festival of sport, even of Olympian proportions, will do nothing to help. East London needs better transport links, for which the Olympics are a convenient excuse -- although it is depressing to think that the Olympic bid was necessary to rejuvenate plans for Crossrail, and more so to reflect that the east- west rail link is still years away. Yet east London also needs better schools; the current crop scare off some of the young, ambitious families that the area needs, while those who choose to stay deserve better. Tony Blair's academies have been a modest step in the right direction, if one that Gordon Brown and Ed Balls are trying to reverse. The singular virtue of the Games as a catalyst for regeneration is that they concentrate resources and bureaucratic attention on east London. Those resources, and that attention, are overdue. But they do not guarantee success. Lord Coe, chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, is on firmer ground in promising that the Olympics will inspire the nation. Naturally, it would help if the Olympics did not cannibalise too much of the lottery funding for grass-roots sport. But on the basic point, Lord Coe is quite right. And as the past three weeks have reminded us, the greatest inspiration comes from letting the acts of sporting heroics speak for themselves.
