Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony

The Beijing Olympic Games started with the bang of thousands of drums and fireworks.

They ended with a bang as well.

BEIJING -- To the roar of pyrotechnics over the Bird's Nest, the symbol of a new China, and a simultaneously timed circle of yet more fireworks over Tianmen Square in central Beijing, the 2008 Summer Games drew Sunday night to a close, an Olympics that in virtually every regard made history.

The Games came to the end of their 17-day run after a ceremony -- a party, really -- featuring bouncing and flying men, drum carts, rotating poles, light wheels precisely 2.008 meters in diameter and 1,148 silver bell-wearing dancers in yellow dresses, all of it a lead-up to the entry of the athletes of the world, who by tradition on the night of closing ceremony mingled together, without regard to nationality, in the center of the stadium.

The palette of colors on the field, the rousing lights around and above - all of that in turn served as mere prelude to the moment when the Olympic cauldron was extinguished, the stadium suddenly so hushed the hiss of the gas feeding the huge flame above the Bird's Nest rim clearly audible.

And then it was gone.

These Games, perhaps the most memorable Summer Olympics since the Games were reborn in Athens in 1896, were over.

"These were truly exceptional Games!" International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge declared from the center of the stadium. Unlike his predecessor, Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, Rogge does not describe one Games or another as "best ever."

It was clear what was at issue here from the outset -- the very first drumbeats at the opening ceremony on Aug. 8 serving notice of China's arrival among the front ranks of the nations of the world, a station Chinese athletes emphatically underscored over the next two weeks, their performance topping the gold-medal chart, with 51.

Moreover, these 2008 Games established on several fronts benchmarks against which successive editions of the Olympics are sure to be measured.

The venues were first-rate, several architectural marvels. The buses ran on time. Pollution-related concerns ultimately played no part in the sports schedule. And the thousands of blue-shirted volunteers could not have been more friendly, polite and welcoming -- even when, as was frequently the case, the language barrier proved formidable.

Regarding the final medal count, I found this to be interesting:

The U.S. team won the overall medal count, with 110.

That surpassed the total from the Barcelona Games, 108, which had been the most-ever won by a U.S. team at a non-boycotted Olympics.

The U.S. gold-medal total, 36, matched the American count from Athens in 2004.

The way Olympic medals work, a medal for a team sport - such as the golds each of the men on the volleyball team was awarded Sunday - counts as just one.

If, instead, the medals awarded to each individual are counted, the totals underscore the American commitment to team sports. They read like this:

Americans: 315 medals.

Chinese: 186.

Some closing thoughts on the closing ceremony and the Olympics in Beijing--

I'm so proud of the American athletes and how they represented our country.

Some had to overcome judging irregularities and cheating controversies. The athletes treated us to soaring achievements, some for the ages, like those of Michael Phelps. We also witnessed their crushing disappointments. But they all should be proud of themselves for being what few get to be-- Olympians.

I love the competition and the drama of the Games, and I won't forget Beijing 2008.

I thought the opening ceremony was spectacular, until I learned about the conditions that some of the performers were subjected to as they rehearsed.

Read about the dreadful treatment of the Tai Chi students here.

The prison-like conditions they were forced to endure are shocking.

Another instance of abuse involved the people operating the scroll that encircled the top of the stadium.

Torture.

Then there was Yang Peiyi, the little girl with the lovely voice but a face judged not cute enough to participate in the opening ceremony.

To be sure, the opening ceremony was a remarkable display, but knowing what the Chinese did to stage it is sickening on a number of counts.

Watching the closing ceremony, I wondered if there were any human rights violations in putting on that spectacle, too.

At one point in the coverage, the commentator referred to the significance of flight in the performance and how it symbolizes liberation, very important to the Chinese.

Huh?

Liberation?

I don't think so.

NBC didn't focus on the oppression in China. I don't find fault with that. The sports took center stage. That's as it should have been.

I do give the Chinese credit for being very good hosts; but what we saw was what the Chinese wanted us to see, not the complete reality of China.

It's wrong to pretend that China is other than what it is -- a place of widespread, institutionalized violations of human rights.