Dec 20, 2008, 11:10 GMT
Beijing - American swimmer Michael Phelps and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt rewrote the record books on Planet Olympia in Beijing.
08/20/2008 - Usain Bolt - 2008 Olympic Games - Day 14 - Track & Field - National Stadium - Beijing, China © Image of Sport / PR Photos
Competition took place in a world of its own while host China's communist government ruled outside as if Olympic values had never come to town.
When it was all over and China had dominated the medal table rather than improved its human rights record The New York Times said the nation's leaders deserved 'the final gold medal - for authoritarian image management.'
'Beijing got what it wanted out of this globally televised spectacular. It reaped a huge prestige bonanza that it will surely use to promote its international influence and, we fear, further tighten its grip at home,' the newspaper said in an editorial.
Olympic supremo Jacques Rogge named the Games 'truly exceptional' after mainly refraining from criticism on China during the August 8-24 show.
China naturally patted itself on the shoulder for the staging of the Games, even more as its athletes dethrone the United States atop the final tally with a record medal haul.
But it also cried 1.3 billion tears when poster boy Liu Xiang limped out of the 110m hurdles.
Gigantic state-of-the-art venues such as the Bird's Nest and Water Cube were the stage for 11,249 athletes from 204 countries competing in 302 medal events. They recorded 43 world records and hundreds of other records.
Phelps, 23, was the king of the pool as he won eight gold medals with seven world record results, surpassing Mark Spitz' seven golds at one Games from 1972 and improving his overall golden tally to an Olympic record 14 - five more than anyone else in the Games' 112-year history.
While the world tried to find superlatives the American swimming wonder remained modest.
'I don't know what makes me different - it beats me. I do what I love. I love to compete and I love to swim. I have very, very high goals that I have set for myself and that's what really motivates me and keep me going strong,' Phelps said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
But the records didn't only tumble in the Water Cube as athletics in the Bird's Nest located just opposite also saw new milestones.
Bolt, 22, redefined the sprint when he won the 100m in 9.69 seconds, the 200m in 19.30 seconds and helped the 4x100 relay team to 37.10 seconds, a feat never achieved before the Beijing Games.
'You have Einstein. You have Isaac Newton. You have Beethoven. You have Usain Bolt. It's not explainable how and what they do,' said Jamaican athletics coach Stephen Francis.
Bolt was joined as three-time gold medallist by British cyclist Chris Hoy, Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice and Chinese gymnast Zou Kai.
There was national glory galore as China became only the third nation other than the US and the Soviet Union to top the Olympic medal table, following Britain in 1908 and Germany 1936, both also hosts at the time.
The regular sweep of table tennis golds, seven of eight diving golds, multiple gymnastics success and first ever boxing golds allowed China to end the Games with 51 gold 21 silver and 28 bronze for a total 100 medals.
The US had more overall medals with 110 on a 36-38-36 breakdown, with Russia third on 23-21-28 (72) and Britain getting their best haul in a century with 19-13-15 (47) for fourth place in a first showing of what the team could do at home in London 2012.
But there was more to the Games, most notably the hug and kiss between medal-winning shooters Natalia Paderina of Russia and Georgia's Nino Salukvadze three days into the hostilities of their countries.
'I think this kind of sportsmanship and brotherhood is really remarkable,' said Rogge.
German weightlifter Matthias Steiner tearfully kissed a picture of his late wife Susann after winning the super-heavyweight gold medal.
'She is always with me, in the hours before the competition, she's there,' said Steiner, whose wife died in a car crash in July 2007.
On the downside were the infamous kick of Cuban taekwondo fighter Angel Matos at the referee and several doping offences highlighted by Ukraine's Lyudmila Blonska who was stripped of her heptathlon silver and faces a life ban as a second-time offender.
The IOC conducted a record 5,000 tests and 39 positive cases were recorded in the month before Olympic testing. Rogge spoke of a growing deterrent effect which also comes from new rules that Olympic doping offenders are barred from the next Games.
Some cases are still pending and the IOC also plans to conduct retests for the latest generation of the blood booster EPO.
But there were reportedly hiccups in the procedures observed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which meant more bad news news for the IOC which according to many had stood helpless amid China's Olympic propaganda effort.
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