Royal Olympic Update: The End

Oh, sadness. The Olympics are over. Let's take one last long lingering gaze at our royals in their sporting finest before we kiss the Games goodbye (picking up where we left off)...

The end of the Games finally brought appearances from some of the royals you've been longing to see, including Spain. Well, someone had to give the Cambridges a run for their PDA money.

The Spaniards proved to be most enthusiastic Olympic fans. At times, the suspense was just too much to bear: Which one of us will have to take one for the team and wear the aggressively loud Spain shoes???

And he wears them with aplomb. (Disclaimer: they may not have been as concerned with the shoes as I was. Ahem.) The only thing louder than those shoes is the King of Sweden.

Look at this display of royal team spirit, so ferocious the crowd had to take cover and Queen Sil had to bust out her best side-eye. Can you believe it?

I KNOW. I can't believe it either. But they had those obnoxious official Sweden shirts to live up to, and we don't all have hair to hold us when things get rough.

(Side note: Grumpy Spectator #1 in front of Carl Gustaf apparently had no idea the annoying man behind her was the King of Sweden. When they crossed paths again - she, this time, seated a noise-appropriate distance from the royal couple - they exchanged a merry wave.)

Anyway, back to Kate.

She was everywhere, naturally. In addition to, you know, watching sports, she resisted the urge to steal some medals along with Prince Harry, and spent some quality time catching up with Prince Albert. (Why the covered ears, hmm? It's not like Carl Gustaf was in the house.)

Harry made his much anticipated visit to beach volleyball. Obviously, he came for the bikinis and stayed for the cuddles. And HOLD UP: he's either stolen Aunt Anne's ubiquitous shades...or they're becoming a family epidemic {shudder}.

Naturally the Danish (with support from the Greeks) were in this until the bitter end, giving Christian time to take on his sister in the personality stakes by throwing up his own Bolt. 

Just in time for the end, Mette-Marit returned to take one last stab at the title of Most Enthusiastic Royal - kids included for good measure - and Joachim and Marie put in a brief appearance (they also brought their two young ones).

On Sunday night, it was all over. The Closing Ceremony was not just an opportunity for Princess Anne to get one last shot at adorning every single item of her outfit with the Olympic rings, it was a glimpse of Very Serious Harry.

Harry - or Henry, rather, as he was announced which I'm sure confused a large chunk of the audience - was Her Majesty's official representative, meaning he got the big intro and plenty of shots to show us just how seriously he was taking the whole thing. And he didn't check his nails once. (The Queen is already up at Balmoral, if you were wondering.)

And that's the end. Hopefully someone will throw a tiara event soon to put a smile back on my face, but until then, let's reminisce:

What was your favorite Royal Olympic Moment?

Photos: Getty Images/PA/Abaca/London 2012