Olympics Fanatic

Disclosure: I'm a huge Olympics fan. Summer. Winter. Doesn't matter. I love them. You've been warned.

So the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics ended on Sunday Night. The Closing Ceremony wasn't as extravagant as the Opening Ceremony, but then again, it usually isn't. It was a very unusual Games -- a competitor died, there was a giant inflatable beaver, people who were supposed to medal didn't make the qualifying rounds and people who weren't considered likely medal candidates walked away the Gold. And it was all covered by NBC.

NBC Universal did very well overall with total number of viewers, according to Neilson, but lost an estimated $250 million. Even so, the L.A. Times Blog thinks that the bidding wars for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games will heat up in the near future. NBC still has the rights to the 2012 games in London, but USA Today reports that ESPN/ABC (and the parent company Disney) are strong contenders to broadcast the 2014 and 2016 games.

Amidst the controversies at the 2010 games and the unsure broadcasting future of the 2014 and 2016 games, news came out about the 2012 games in London. Yep, that's right. It's still two years away and London's already making headlines. Although, the press isn't exactly positive.

The 2012 logo was released in 2007. It's making news again because the summer Olympic games are around the corner. That and it cost some $800,000 USD to create. It looks something like this.

Firestorms erupted when the news spread that the animated version had to be pulled because organizers were afraid it might cause epileptic seizures. Other people thought it was just plain ugly. The Metro designed a game for its readers to create their own logo using the jigsaw puzzle pieces from the old logo. Blogs and websites have been created for people to submit their ideas for a new logo. One such blog (that hasn't been updated since 2007) is simply titled LondonLogo. More reader designs can be seen here.

There is some good to come out of the logo, however. This will be the first time that the same logo will be used for the Olympic and Paralympic games, according to BBC Sport. Several Olympic partners have already incorporated the logo into their advertising campaigns, using their own company colors.

So, what do you think of the new 2012 Olympic logo? Want to check out what other Olympic logos looked like? Someone did a great mash up of them, which can be seen here.

I thought the Olympic coverage was good. Ratings data can be found here. Any thoughts?