The end of the Beijing Olympics

The 29th Summer Olympiad, hosted by Beijing, China, came to an end last night in a glorious display of pageantry and breathtaking scenery. I hear that the Chinese spared no expense for the entire games and that the cost of it ran somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 billion. No nation henceforth could ever possibly muster that kind of money, meaning that the Chinese have, in essence, set an impossibly high new bar for what may be expected at future Olympic Games. Future games will doubtless pale in comparison to these ones, which brought us not only spectacular venues like The Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, but heroics from the athletes to match. Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt dominated these games with almost super-human feats of athleticism. They took our breath away, they dazzled us, they amazed and astounded us and we cheered along with them as they either blew their competitors away or finished by mere fingernails to win gold. We watched agonizing screw ups and wept along with competitors who fell way short of expectations after many hard years of training for their moment in the sun at the Olympics. We watched the grace, beauty and power of gymnasts as they twirled, leapt and spun in impossibly beautiful formations. We held our breath as teams fought hard against formidable opponents and vanquished their foes to win medals. We watched an emerging rivalry occur between the US and China in the medals count, and watched as well as Jamaica soundly declared itself the land of the fastest humans on earth on the track. We watched people overcome seemingly impossible odds to make it to the Olympic games and we cheered with their triumphs and shared in their sorrows. We felt a little lump in our throats as the Olympic torch dimmed and then went dark, signaling the end of these amazing, astonishing and historic games.

These have, without a doubt, been the most exciting and interesting Olympic Games I have ever watched, Summer or Winter. The athletes, the stories, the events, the venues, the very fact that these games were taking place, for the first time in history, on mainland China, made these games perhaps the most interesting ones to watch. Stories were aired about the land and people of China, their traditions, their culture, their history, and we learned a great deal about this mysterious country that is opening itself slowly to the world as it rises to the status of global superpower. Although it has a long way to go in the way of human rights, it is slowly becoming a more open society. The Chinese showed great pride in their country and welcoming the world to come visit for two and a half weeks and to see what they have to offer. Part of me wonders if this wasn't some kind of big propaganda show on the part of the Chinese to create an artificial atmosphere of global welcoming, but the other and less cynical part of me thinks that these games will hopefully change China, and by default, the world, in some small way. I like to think that China will emerge, someday, as a free country, and maybe it will in my lifetime. But in the meantime, they've built themselves an infrastructure in the Olympic venues that will doubtless be used for years to come to train their athletes to compete on a superior level that will also probably cement their place in their ability to garner Olympic medals, thereby continuing the growing rivalry with the United States for Olympic superiority. So here's to watching and waiting for the next Summer Olympiad in four years in London, England. May new stars emerge and may the ones who dazzled us this time continue to do so in the coming years.