Olympics gone in a blink and a Bolt

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.

NBC wins the gold

One week into the 2008 Summer Olympics and the biggest winner out the water may be NBC Universal.

After paying $900 million for the rights to broadcast the summer games, NBC’s primetime ratings have been huge and the online coverage just as strong. Nearly 25 million people have visited NBCOlympics.com, viewing 456 million pages. After the amazing U.S. comeback in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay, people watched the video replay 1.7 million times.

Part of NBC’s primetime success can be attributed to the Phelps-effect. That’s right U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps has been the story of the Beijing games. What else can be said about him, Phelps is a human-performance machine.

The quest for golden history nearly ended in Phelps' second race, but teammate Jason Lezak turned in an epic performance to edge the French. Then chasing Mark Spitz’s record seven golds Phelps delivered in a legendary way.

While Phelps has been so dominant in the water, the U.S. women’s team was anything but. Katie Hoff had high Olympic hopes and was expected to pull in six medals (most ever for a female swimmer). Instead of achieving greatness, Hoff earned just three medals – one silver and two bronze.

After watching her swim, I think there was something wrong with Hoff. She faded down the stretch of nearly every race and ended up huffing for air after hitting the wall. On top of that she did not look surprised by her results. Swimming slower than her personal bests in four of five individual events, Hoff was a disappointment. Speaking of pool disappointments, what happened to Athens gold medalist Amanda Beard?

Yahoo’s Fourth-Place Medal Blog has been tackling the many mysteries of the Olympics. Staying in the Water Cube, they addressed one of the most perplexing aspects of diving. Why do divers head to the showers right after completing a dive? Fascinating answer, and it’s not to wash off the chlorine. Fourth-Place Medal also uncovered the identity of the gorgeous athlete from Paraguay, among other Olympic mysteries.

And with gorgeous mostly young athletes in top physical shape, the close quarters of the Olympic Village appears to be full of love. Olympic organizers are providing 100,000 condoms for these games, as they have distributed condoms since Barcelona in 1992. Greg Boeck examines if there’s any harm in that.

One final thought about the starlet of the Opening Ceremony, Lin Miaoke. If you actually thought the Chinese government would let a 7-year-old sing “Ode to the Motherland” live in front of 91,000 people and a worldwide TV audience, you’re a fool. It comes as no surprise here, that Lin lip-synched the song. I feel sorry for Yang Peiyi who’s crooked teeth disqualified her. But the Olympics are part of China’s coming out party, they are striving for perfection be it taped or not.

Enjoy the games!

Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images