It takes more than gold to make a hero

When fencer Ruben Limardo set off for the London Olympics, he little imagined that he would be cheered through the streets of the Venezuelan capital Caracas on top of a truck on his return, and honoured by the president.

-London Olympics 2012 - Complete coverage

Limardo's gold, in individual epee, was Venezuela's first for 44 years. President Hugo Chavez gave him a replica of the sword used by South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.

Nor could Shin A-lam have known that a tearful, lonely hour sobbing over the loss of her bout would make her known to millions and put fencing on the map in South Korea.

Many of London's medallists will see success rewarded with money and glory in their home countries, but just as many have won hearts and lifted spirits with their determination, dignity or sheer hard luck.

South Korea felt a surge of sympathy for Shin, who sat in tears in a pool of light after losing her semi-final, refusing to leave the piste because to step off would have meant accepting the judges' ruling.

Tweets and Facebook postings took her side but fencing itself had stepped out of the shadows in South Korea, and media reported that suddenly everyone wanted to learn the sport.

Her countryman Yang Hak-seon took over the sports pages not only for winning South Korea's first gymnastics gold, with a vault that he invented, but also because it emerged that he had used his training money to support his family, so poor that they had for a while lived in a greenhouse on a farm.

American gymnast Gabby Douglas became her country's Olympic sweetheart overnight with her individual all-round gold and her winning smile.

"The gold medal alone doesn't get you to first base in marketing -- it's the persona that goes with it," said Lynn Lashbrook, a sports agent in Portland, Oregon.

China's Olympians would once have been feted at home as standard-bearers for communism, but can nowadays look forward to material rewards as well as national adulation.

Compatriot Sun Yang, winner of two swimming golds, is similarly attractive to Chinese sponsors and sports fans alike.

The number of his followers on Sina Weibo, China's popular Twitter-like microblog, has jumped by 2.5 million since the start of the Olympics -- dwarfing even Usain Bolt's following.

Four wrestlers and weightlifters will have to make do with adulation and more prosaic rewards for bringing golden glory to Iran in sports in which the nation has traditionally excelled.

Japan, the inventor of judo, is lamenting the fact that its men's team will go home without a gold for the first time since the sport was introduced to the Olympics in 1964.

Sport-crazy Australia finally has its heroes after hurdler Sally Pearson and track cyclist Anna Meares won the country's first individual golds of 2012 but it had already been inclined to forgive its great swimming hope, James Magnussen, who failed by 0.01 seconds to land the gold that he had loudly promised.

"Even the fact you failed, it has got you the immediate attention," said marketing expert Andrew Hughes at the Australian National University.

"He is still very marketable, because he has got a natural, fresh appeal to him which makes people notice."

France likes its heroes to be intellectual, and has found the perfect one in Yannick Agnel, the swimmer who grabbed gold from the United States on the last leg of the 4x100m freestyle relay, then added an individual sprint gold.

Agnel reads poetry in his spare time, is learning Russian for fun and speaks like an intellectual.

"Being an Olympic champion is my dream...but being a writer must be nice too," he told Paris Match magazine.

For many countries with less history of Olympic success, any medal is a cause for national celebration.

Irish boxer Katie Taylor carries her adoring nation's hopes not only for her unquestioned skill but also because of the taint that hangs over Ireland's last gold medals, the three won in 1996 by swimmer Michelle Smith, who was later suspended in a doping controversy.