ESPN Olympics Blog

As the Summer Games came to a close on Sunday, some of our staff weighs in one last time before heading home from Beijing:

From ESPN.com senior writer Jim Caple:

I could say my most lasting memory of the Olympics was watching the cycling race at the Great Wall. Or seeing Michael Phelps win his eighth gold medal. Or Usain Bolt blow away the world in the 100-meter dash. I could name those athletic performances or at least a dozen more. But I know what I'll remember most.

The Mango Supreme dessert at a restaurant that's a 10-minute walk from the Bird's Nest.

My colleagues and I wound up there by accident one night when we got in a taxi with the only English-speaking cab driver in Beijing. We told him to take us to a good restaurant and he dropped us off at La Poleta. Minutes later, we were enjoying a delicious meal of dim sum, duck and Singapore noodles.

And then came the Mango Supreme. It's an enormous bowl of sliced mango, mango pudding, mango sherbet and mango juice, with a scoop of coconut ice cream to top it off. We split two bowls among the four of us the first night.

We upped it to three bowls the next meal.

By the end of the Olympics, we were up to a bowl apiece.

Sadly, my Mango Supreme days are over. I have a morning flight on Monday.

I wonder if they serve breakfast?

From ESPN.com senior writer Liz Merrill:

What I learned after 19 days in Beijing ...

That the Chinese are prideful, efficient people who can ship a postcard halfway across the world faster than I can craft an opening sentence.

That Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt are inhuman.

That softball players are human.

That the Peking duck is succulent and delicious, but I am still very afraid.

And that I now have a deep appreciation for tap water and athletes who pour their hearts out for what we call niche sports.

From ESPN bureau producer Justine Gubar:

One thing I will take away from the Games: bad pop music stuck in my brain from the dated choices played repeatedly at the venues.

Friday night, Jeremy Schaap and I went to the Bird's Nest. Crazy crowded on the walk to get there. I entertained the thought that I could be trampled to death. But we got there and experienced a plethora of riches. We saw the Jamaicans set the world record in the 4x100 relay, Bryan Clay win the decathlon and Steve Hooker set an Olympic record in the pole vault. Loved him! Of course, the staff felt the need to play Men at Work to mark his victory (Hooker is Australian).

I got in some sightseeing before it was too late. Saw the Summer Palace, which was big, hot and crowded, like most things in Beijing at this time of year.

Saturday's women's basketball gold-medal game was my last official assignment. Among the musical selections heard at the gymnasium -- "Shake, Rattle and Roll" for a cheerleader routine. Also heard:

The Ghostbusters theme ... and it's a remake!

"Everybody Dance Now"

"Living in America"

Which is now, of course, stuck in my brain. Guess that makes sense as we head home.

ESPN The Magazine senior writer Luke Cyphers:

What struck me most is the sense of being simultaneously sent forward in time, with incredible construction designs of the venues and the city -- oh, the subway! -- and back in time, with the omnipresent human labor.

Hard work, done by humans. Sweeping, cooking, greeting, guarding, cleaning up, driving. Were they paid? Was it coerced? Were they prisoners or volunteers? Hard to tell.

But the whole place felt like a buddy movie starring the late 21st and early 19th centuries, together for the very first time.

From ESPN reporter Jeremy Schaap:

Hard to believe that just five days after Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal, he's already been eclipsed as the hero of these Games.

Well, not eclipsed, not exactly, but perhaps equaled.

On Friday night Beijing time, Usain Bolt powered Jamaica to gold in the men's 400-meter relay, and not just gold, but another world record, shattering the mark shared by two American relay teams by 0.3 seconds.

Bolt has set three world records in three events -- in the 100, breaking his own record by .03 seconds, even as he celebrated before the finish line; in the 200, breaking Michael Johnson's durable record; and now this.

IOC president Jacques Rogge was upset with the way Bolt celebrated his 200 victory. Rogge should instead thank him, no, kneel before him -- for making the second week of these Games as memorable as the first.

Bolt, as you'd expect, is giving Michael Phelps a run -- for his Olympic pre-eminence.

From ESPN.com Olympics editor Joy Russo:

IOC president Jacques Rogge recently criticized Usain Bolt for the Jamaican sprinter's postrace celebrations, saying, "That's not the way we perceive being a champion."

Rogge added that although he didn't mind Bolt put on a show (and the man did by blowing away the competition in setting two world records in the 100 and 200 meters), he believed Bolt shouldn't have flaunted it.

Our resident track guru, ESPN The Magazine senior writer Luke Cyphers, strongly disagreed with Rogge's stance. You can read Luke's rant here.

But Rogge's comments made us wonder about all the other celebrations that have gone on the past 14 days at the Beijing Games. Though we can't cover all of them, here's a glimpse at the different ways of celebrating Olympic glory. And yes, we're breaking out the pictures … again!

We'll start first with the man in question, Mr. Bolt. He waved to the crowd, danced, hugged fans -- and took off his golden shoes -- during his postrace celebrations.

Oh, c'mon, you knew he would be in here.

Natasha Kai gave the crowd her best Brandi Chastain impression after the United States soccer team beat Brazil in extra time to win the gold.

Down at team handball ... swingin' 'round your partners seems to be the trend.

Or maybe you want to say hello to your biggest fans ... who wear bad, really bad, wigs.

Gold-medal winners Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor celebrated ... and celebrated ... and celebrated some more before going to the net and shaking hands with runner-ups Wang Jie and Tian Jia.

Some teams throw their coach in the air. Here, the Japanese softball squad did that to coach Haruka Saito after upsetting the United States in Thursday's gold-medal game.

Others just throw their coaches over their shoulders. I guess when you're as big as Uzbekistan freestyle wrestler Artur Taymazov, you can celebrate however you want. Will Mr. Rogge call out Artur? Hmm.

From ESPN The Magazine's Luke Cyphers:

This is rich.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said Usain Bolt overdid it with his celebration following the most remarkable run any sprinter has ever had.

"That's not the way we perceive being a champion," Rogge said Thursday.

Just shake hands, hand the ball to the ref, act like you've been there before. Problem is, nobody had been where Bolt just went -- 9.69 seconds in the 100 meters and 19.3 in the 200, both world records, the second of which came on his 22nd birthday.

And while we can quibble over whether the lanky Jamaican merits a turn on "Dancing with the Stars," his celebrations should be a cause for, well, celebration.

Because what we saw was a breakthrough in post-contest partying. For the past dozen or so years, "fierce" has been the key to a victory dance, lap, spike. Pounding chests, dagger pantomimes, warrior looks, anger and spite and assertion of dominance.

Chad Johnson, Joe Horn and Steve Smith started the trend away from rage, but, like he does with everything else, Bolt took it to another level.

What we saw from Bolt was joy -- pure, unadulterated, genuine. "Can you believe what you just saw?! Me, neither! Commence to boogie!"

"I like having fun," Bolt said.

So do we. So let him.

And one more thing, an FYI to the IOC: How about getting your own house in order?

Allowing Wallace Spearmon, Bolt's good friend, to get three-quarters of the way through a victory lap before disqualifying him, taking away a bronze medal and thereby embarrassing him on his sport's biggest stage, was a low-class, low-life blunder.

That's not the way we perceive being a competent organization.

From ESPN.com Olympics editor Joy Russo:

Like Eli Manning, the Celtics' big three and David Cook before him, Michael Phelps has been swooped up and swept off on a whirlwind tour of interviews and sponsorship appearances that would make any mortal's head spin.

So, where has the past few days taken Aquaman?

Cue the "Wayne's World" flashback sound ... deedeloo, deedeloo, deedeloo ...

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

When we last saw our swim-capped crusader (on national television, at least), he was leaping tall photographers in a single bound, trying to reach his mother and two sisters after winning his eighth gold medal of the Beijing Games.

Bob Donnan/US Presswire`

Within a few hours of that "private" moment, Phelpsie was whisked away to another poorly lit press conference room to answer questions he'll wind up answering about 100 more times before the first week of the rest of his life is out. As humble as Mikey seemed, we have to imagine all of this was about as fun as root-canal work.

Getty Images for Speedo

Next stop: Wish. The location of the Speedo Athletes Party. No word yet if this was the exact location of the $1 million bonus handoff.

Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

Now, back to our sponsors ... Phelps makes an appearance for Visa. He received a nice, shiny card and was back at it, answering those questions. No official count on how many times Phelpsie said he can't wait to get home to Baltimore and see his dog.

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Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

Phelps: "I'm off serious training until February. Burgers and fries for everyone!"

Getty Images

LeBron: "Hey Mike, thanks for coming by. How do you see through these things?"
Phelps: "No problem, man. It's the least I can do after you and Kobe came out to see me swim. It's not that hard. Besides, I have X-ray vision."
LeBron: "Any interest in moving to Cleveland? I am not convinced this Mo Williams trade is going to work."

Kristian Dowling/Getty Images

"I just can't wait to get back to Baltimore and see my dog, Herman."

Getty Images for Speedo

Another Speedo event, sans shirt and cap. Insert cheesy song here; take your pick:

"I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred
"I Want You To Want Me" by Cheap Trick
"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" by Rod Stewart
"Maneater" by Hall & Oates
"Afternoon Delight" (please, people ... only the Will Ferrell version)
"Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer
"If You Wanna Be My Lover" by Spice Girls

AP Photo/Photopress/Alexandra Wey

"Hey, Thorpedo! Didn't think I could break the record, huh? HOW DO YA LIKE ME NOW?!"

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Phelps left Beijing on Wednesday night to head to London, where he'll help hand over the Summer Games from China to the 2012 host city during Sunday's Closing Ceremony. Here's one guess where he may head next, just like Eli.

From ESPN.com senior writer Pat Forde:

The Great Wall was above and behind us, Beijing below. For the moment, we were in blissful middle ground: plowing through plates of fish, lamb, pork and kung pao chicken, serenaded by cicadas. Our host opened three bottles of beer with chopsticks, a cool local party trick. As the sweat dried off of us and we gorged on delicious local food, life was awfully good.

"I think I could sit here forever," said the USOC's Bill Hancock.

A group of seven of us had just taken our first day trip away from the Olympic Games, traveling to see the truly awesome spectacle that is the Great Wall. The Olympics have been incredible to witness in person, and it's been a real privilege -- but it was great to do something other than crowd a mixed zone to get a half-sentence quote from an out-of-breath athlete.

A little culture never hurt anyone. Especially when it's as impressive as the Wall.

It's so immense in scope that it defies explanation. And belief. How a 4,200-mile long edifice was built -- especially over the mountainous terrain where we were -- without benefit of any appreciable technology is staggering.

And we did our own staggering around the Wall, laboring up and side-stepping down hundreds of narrow steps -- some of them still held in place by their original bonding agent of egg whites, glutinous rice and powdered rock. We passed Asians wearing Jethro Tull and Easy Rider T-shirts, and a European in a Run-DMC shirt. The views were amazing. The sweat was flowing. The history beneath our feet was overwhelming.

The parts of Beijing we see on a daily basis are thoroughly modern. On the way to the Wall, you steadily pass back in time -- there's a guy leading a camel on the side of the road, there are street vendors hawking bananas and nuts. When you reach the Wall, you feel as if you've reached antiquity -- dialing back to a time when the Mongols and Huns were feared invaders, and this was built as the means to keep them out.

Stephen, our tour guide, spoke excellent English -- but that doesn't mean he embraced all things American. He stayed in Los Angeles on his one visit to the United States, and one night went out for a walk in Hollywood. He was encountered on the street by three women -- who turned out to be men. This, to Stephen, was excessive personal freedom.

"That brings me to think your country has probably gone too far," he said. "You need Confucius."

Confucius can wait. We needed this mental-health trip to the Great Wall more.

From ESPN.com senior writer Elizabeth Merrill:

The conversation here in the Bird's Nest is that 2008 is shaping up to be a down year for the United States sprinters.

In past years, Marion Jones was a catalyst for the Americans' dominance. But the last time we checked, she was finishing up a six-month sentence at a federal prison facility in Texas for lying to investigators about her steroid use and her involvement in a check-fraud scheme.

Has the Jones scandal cast a pall on the Americans in Beijing?

Muna Lee is trying to reverse the United States' early misfortunes.

Lee ran the fastest time in the 200 meters Tuesday morning, coming in at 22.71 seconds. She was .01 ahead of France's Muriel Hurtis-Houairi.

Three Americans made it to Round 2 -- Lee, Allyson Felix and Marshevet Hooker. Jamaica also has three qualifiers. The United States was shut out of medals in the 100 over the weekend, as the Jamaican women swept. It was the first time the U.S. was denied a medal in the event since 1976.

"I'm a little sluggish," Lee said, "but I'm just getting into the flow like everyone else."

From ESPN bureau producer Justine Gubar:

I experienced Olympic culture a few nights ago -- a far cry from the Barenaked Ladies concert I went to during the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. My friend Ruichun, who is a journalist here, got tickets to the opening night of "Marco Polo" at the National Center of Performing Arts. It is a building they call the "egg." Well, it does look like an egg; it lights up at night and is surrounded by a giant moat.

It's stunning, but I was a bit confused trying to navigate to the entrance. I kept walking around the moat until finally I realized there was no door, you had to go back out to the street for the entrance, which is under the water! Once I got in, I learned it's like Lincoln Center rolled into one building. The opera house, dance hall and theater are all under one roof. It felt like just another Olympic venue, actually -- vast, tiring to navigate, lots of security and lots of picture takers. Although they made you check in your camera once you were inside.

The performance had everything -- opera, modern dance, classical ballet, hip-hop, smoke machines, rear-projected animation straight out of a graphic novel and, sometimes, straight out of a Grateful Dead drum solo. There were midair suspensions that reminded me of the Opening Ceremony; there were haute couture costumes and even a pointy Madonna-like bra. Here's a review.

I thought the audience was somewhat rude. People got up and left, talked a lot and text-messaged throughout the performance. I really wanted to tell the serial text messager next to me to cut it out. I was tired of being distracted by the light of his phone, but my Chinese doesn't extend beyond "Hello," "Thanks," "Goodbye," "How are you?" and "What is your name?"

Now that swimming is done, maybe I'll have more free time to work on my Chinese -- or my Spanish, with all my friends from Mexico and Argentina who work for ESPN International.

From ESPN bureau producer Justine Gubar:

One of our main goals during the Games up to this point was to secure an interview with Michael Phelps after he completed his historic run.

Today was the day.

Our crew was told to set up in a beautiful pagoda with a park-like setting. (The restaurant that hosted all of the festivities used to be a palace.) First, Phelps would hold a press conference and then give 10 minutes each to a finite number of camera crews, including ESPN.

I checked out the press conference and he was a true rock star. He walked in to a serious crush of still and video cameras. Once he got to the stage, everyone was yelling at the cameras to get out of the way, but no one was listening. I was half expecting some Sprockets (our word for the Chinese rent-a-cops) to come out and start dragging people out of the room. Somehow, the room settled down and he started to speak.

He's speechless ... he owes it all to his mom ... he loves his country.

The poor kid probably has had to answer the same questions a billion times over the past 24-plus hours. He talked for about 40 minutes and then came out to where the individual camera crews were set up. Phelps came into our pagoda (how often do you get to say that) trailed by many handlers, still photogs and who knows who else.

He might have been more excited to see Jeremy Schaap than we were to see him. He told Jeremy: "I watch you all the time." It's been well established that Phelpsie is a big SportsCenter fan -- we love it.

Phelps gave us a great interview. No trace of the burnout factor. After Phelps left, Jeremy said he was "charming."

So, you'll have to check out the interview on SportsCenter, ESPNEWS and ESPN.com. The big iPod mystery is solved, and I love that he's going to take up golf. I definitely see that Lake Tahoe celebrity tourney in his future.

And I hope he gets to take a break during his upcoming trip to London -- and just be the 23-year-old kid that he is.

From ESPN The Magazine senior writer Alyssa Roenigk:

Not to harp on this new gymnastics scoring system (or, more accurately, to harp on it), but after these Games are over, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) is going to have to re-evaluate the system, beginning with the start values.

Saturday, I spoke with Nadia Comaneci and her husband, 1984 Olympic gymnast Bart Connor, for an espnthemag.com piece regarding the new system. Nadia scored the first "perfect 10," at the 1976 Olympics, so I wanted to know what it was like for her, and Bart, to watch the first Olympics without the possibility of an athlete scoring a 10.

Their thoughts didn't surprise me. They feel the new open-ended scoring detracts from the average fan's understanding of the sport, as well as robs gymnastics of its brand identity. They also fear that with this new system, as Bart put it, "the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer." Meaning athletes who have the ability to learn extremely difficult maneuvers will continually up their start values (A score), but won't have to worry about their execution (B score) of these skills. And they will win doing it.

Those who don't have the ability to increase their start value (difficulty) with impossible maneuvers will instead continue to perfect the skills they are able to perform. But this will create such a marginal change in their overall score that they will land perfect routine after perfect routine and lose to someone who hucks their way through a routine with a high start value. Bart said his biggest fear with this new scoring is that he will see an athlete fall and win a gold medal.

That came darn close to happening Saturday night in the women's individual competition on vault. Fe Cheng of China fell to her knees on her second of two vaults and took bronze. Oksana Chusovitina of Germany performed both of her vaults with separation in her legs and imperfect landings and took silver. Hong Un Jong of North Korea took several steps on her landings and stepped out of bounds, and won gold. Alicia Sacramone performed two beautiful vaults with solid landings and finished fourth. All because of start values.

The indecipherability of this new system never hit me as hard as it did during that competition, as I spent the event sitting in the stands with three members of the U.S. BMX team, Donny Robinson, Kyle Bennett and Jill Kintner. All three are gymnastics fans. Donny is a former gymnast, and Kyle says he watches gymnastics any time it's on TV. But none of them had a clue what was happening. And, like most fans, they got angry when the scores popped up and yet another fumbly-bumbly athlete moved into the lead. It didn't take long for them to understand the mechanics of the new scoring system. But they still couldn't understand the scores. As each athlete took the floor, Bennett leaned over and asked, "OK, what's her start value?" followed by, "What B score does she need?"

That's when I realized something must change.

From ESPN.com senior writer Elizabeth Merrill:

Lauryn Williams plans to go to the zoo on Monday and cram in a day's worth of other touristy stops. Anything to get the sound of Jamaican music out of her head.

The Americans were foiled again by their sprinting rivals, watching Jamaica's women sweep the 100-meter dash Sunday night. Shelly-Ann Fraser smoked the United States' three qualifiers, finishing .20 seconds ahead of her silver medalist teammates with a time of 10.78 seconds.

It was the same margin of victory that countryman Usain Bolt clocked on Saturday night when he gave Jamaica its first victory in the 100.

Williams finished fourth for the Americans, behind Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart, who had to wait for several minutes as judges reviewed the tie finish. Teammate Lee Muna was right behind her in fifth, and Torri Edwards finished last.

"I just think maybe it's time for America to humble themselves," Williams said. "We're getting a pretty good taste of what it's like to be at the bottom, and it's going to make us hungry to get back to the top.

"We're always at the forefront and we're not going to take it lightly."

Fraser flashed a tin grin and had a cell phone pressed to her ear as she entered the media zone late on Sunday night. Her homeland newspaper, the Jamaica Gleaner, recently said the 21-year-old "popped out of nowhere" in her journey to Beijing, placing second in the trials behind Stewart.

"I think I'm going to visit Kingston and do some training with the Jamaican girls," said Great Britain's Jeanette Kwakye, who finished sixth. "They're fantastic, mon."

The Americans weren't quite as enamored. Muna thought there was a false start and was frustrated afterwards, saying she should've just ran.

Williams tried to set her thoughts on a possible 4x100 relay medal later this week.

"We've got to turn it around," she said. "We definitely need something to turn the morale around."