The London Olympic Games opening ceremony has won a special award in the annual London Evening Standard theatre awards.

Australia's top sports authority has chosen double Olympic gold medallist Kieren Perkins to be part of a review panel charged with probing the national swim team's flop at the London Games amid reports of bullying and disharmony away from the pool.

Olympic 4x100 freestyle relay champion Clement Lefert has quit swimming to go back to university, saying he will not be able to make a living out of his sport.

Schoolboy pranks, over-inflated egos, a lack of team unity and unrealistic expectations filtered into the public domain on Thursday as reasons for Australia's poor showing in the Olympic swimming pool.

Basking in the glory of being India's lone medallist at the recently-concluded Paralympics, London Games silver-winner Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda's joy multiplied when he received a phone call from star cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

London Paralympics men's high jump silver-medallist Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda was accorded a warm welcome at the Bangalore International Airport on his arrival on Wednesday from the Games.

Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda was accorded a warm welcome at the international airport here on his arrival from the London Paralympic Games, where he won a silver in the Men's High Jump F42 event.

London's spectacular summer of sports was given a rousing send-off as Coldplay and an all-star support cast brought the curtain down on the most-watched and best-attended Paralympic Games of all time, ending a six-week-long festival of sport in the British capital that began with the hugely successful Olympics.

The 33-member Indian paralympic team, including silver medallist Girisha Hosanagara Nagaraje Gowda, will be returning to the country on Tuesday morning.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday honoured Olympic medal winners MC Mary Kom and Yogeshwar Dutt at a gathering of top police and intelligence sleuths of the country.