The 17-day run that was the Beijing Games came to end with another spectacular party in the Bird’s Nest. What a fitting end to an Olympics that witnessed a second week of competition equal to that of the first week.
Michael Phelps, and his eight gold medals, passed the baton off to Jamaica’s Usain Bolt who fittingly sped into the spotlight. Bolt was electrifying in a double-gold performance in the 100 and 200 meters sprints. The Jamaican erased world records and proved to be the fastest man on earth. Who knows had Bolt not thumped his chest in triumph the last few meters during the 100m, his 9.69 second mark could have been untouchable.
Where Bolt and the Jamaicans flourished, the U.S. Track teams floundered. Both the men’s and women’s 4x100 teams dropped the baton in the preliminaries. The men’s team won only four gold medals and big name athletes like Tyson Gay and Jeremy Wariner failed to defend their titles from 2007 world championships. Still the Americans took home 23 medals from Beijing – most of any country on the track.
However, the most crushing blow on the track came when China's Liu Xiang dejectedly walked away from 110m hurdles due to a leg injury. Liu was the most popular athlete in the country and his failure to compete clouded the second week of the Games for the Chinese fans.
Story lines away from the track included U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo getting redemption. Solo carried her squad, bailing out her teammates again and again as the U.S. topped Brazil 1-0 to claim the gold medal in women’s soccer for a third time. This victory came a little over a year after Solo was ostracized by her team for comments she made following a sound U.S. defeat by Brazil in the women’s World Cup.
Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor were golden again becoming the first pair, male or female, to repeat as Olympic champions in beach volleyball. And the American men’s indoor volleyball team downed Brazil in an emotional capstone match, after the father-in-law of U.S. coach Hugh McCutcheon was stabbed to death in Beijing at the start of the Games.
The U.S. leaves Beijing with 110 medals in the overall medal count, surpassing the previous record from the Barcelona Games (108). However, the Chinese dominated the gold-medal tally with 51. The U.S. gold medal total, 36, matched the American count from Athens in 2004 and included a resounding gold in men's basketball.
A notable gold medal that the U.S. team did not capture was in softball. Team USA was stunned 3-1 by Japan in the sport’s last appearance in the Olympics for at least eight years – maybe forever. Why softball is being dropped as an Olympic sport, but glorified ribbon twirling (aka rhythmic gymnastics) remains, is just mind boggling!
The Beijing Olympics were stunning, and I can’t wait for Vancouver in 2010 and what lies beyond.
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