Totally worth it. I may be a little biased, as I'd been hyped for them since we got picked as the host city, and the Olympics are by far and away my favourite sporting event (it's wall-to-wall sport in my house for those three weeks
). However, it was amazing to see the whole country shift from mardy grumbling to fully unified support in the space of a few days. I don't think we'll ever see a national mood like it again - the closest we got before was when we hosted Euro 96 (dat summer
), but football doesn't unite the country like the Olympics does.
In terms of venues, it'll take a few years until we can see how well used the Olympic Park will be. It won't be in full legacy mode until about 2015. Having said that the stadium is being used this weekend, and my gf's brother went to a festival there last week.
Participation-wise it has been a disappointment - in my experience the British Judo Association have possibly the worst website I have ever seen, which makes participation so hard I'm beginning to think of sacking it off and doing something else. The fact is that you can encourage people all you want, but they need to make the final step and start doing it.
Staydead - Canberra is the capital of Australia, but your point is entirely correct.