Part of the paragraph reads as follows:
There were five finalists in the race to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Were the mayors of London, Madrid, Moscow, Madrid, and Paris all certifiably mad when deciding to bid for the most important and complex sports event on the face of the planet?
Well, it's obvious that at least one of these mayors was certifiably mad. Apparently the mayor of Madrid suffered from multiple personality disorder.
The fifth finalist, by the way, was New York City. In case you can't tell the difference between Madrid and New York, I should note that one of the two cities has a thriving Spanish artistic community. The other city is in Spain.
As for the HBR thesis - namely, that many recent Olympics have brought long-term benefits to the host cities that long outlast the games themselves - we're seeing some evidence of that in London, as Jill Lawless has noted:
Now that the games are over, [Olympic Park] is eerily deserted....Small groups of construction workers are working to transform the venues for use in the Paralympic Games, which begin Aug. 29....It will be closed to the public until the Paralympics - and for almost a year afterwards, while some venues are torn down and others are modified. It will open in stages from next summer as the 560-acre (227-hectare) Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
