@MattMcAllester
BRITAIN FELT LIKE a rather tired and battered place in the first half of 2012. The global financial crisis had hit the U.K. economy hard, and the government had implemented deep cuts in public services. Even the weather was awful. Britain did not seem like a country in the mood to throw a party.
OH RIO: Massive spending on Brazil’s Olympic stadiums and other facilities has angered some at a time of economic gloom and political corruption.
MATTHEW STOCKMAN/GETTY