Ian O'Riordanleaves Beijing but Beijing will never leave him
THE SENSE of melancholy that comes with closing time at the Olympics is always tinged with the sense of "glad to get out of there alive". If people think a free trip to Beijing with an access-all-areas pass must be the best gig in town they should see the size of the bags under my eyes right now. You could carry home a week's shopping inside them.
There is also the realisation that all you've been through and all you've seen and all you've experienced will stay with you for the rest of your life. Nothing about the Olympics is forgettable; it's just some things are more unforgettable than others.
China had made a big deal about eight being their lucky number, and there was an awful lot riding on it. As it turned out, it was lucky enough to help clear the smog, help avoid any big drugs scandal, help create Olympic history, help keep the human rights and "free Tibet" protesters at bay, and help get China to the top of the gold-medal table for the first time.
We've all taken on eight as our lucky number too.
They set it off on the perfect beat with The Best Sound of the Olympics when 2,008 traditional percussionists drum-rolled the final countdown to the opening ceremony and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. Usually, opening ceremonies are something to be avoided. This was one I'm glad not to have missed.
From early on it was quite clear what would become The Best Story of the Olympics and Michael Phelps didn't disappoint.
It was just fitting his record eight Olympic gold medals were achieved in the most dazzling swimming venue ever constructed, even though we are still not sure how they actually constructed the Water Cube. No matter how many times you walked in there the feel and atmosphere were like nothing else on earth.
The only problem with the swimming in Beijing was it all became a little too good to be true. By the end of the first week, 25 world records had been set in the Water Cube, and three of those weren't even in finals. Phelps is a phenomenal human specimen, yet all but his 100-metre butterfly gold medal had been accompanied by a world record, and in the end, this just got a little tiresome.
Even more incredible was the fact a whopping 66 Olympic records were set in the Water Cube. Most people seemed satisfied to put all this down to Speedo's new swimsuit, and if that is the key, then surely it's the most blatant case of performance enhancement in the history of sport.
Yet the argument for things being a little too good to be true looked silly when an American journalist came out with The Worst Quote of the Olympics and said Usain Bolt had to be on drugs, because he was "definitely too good". Clearly, an argument for the narrow-minded and ignorant.
I don't know if Bolt is on drugs, but I don't think he is, and his 100-metre victory was undoubtedly The Best Moment of the Olympics and that was even before we knew what was coming next.
Running 9.69, easing up, and then celebrating as if he'd just walked on air is already among my YouTube favourites.
By the end of the week, Bolt had twice run himself into the record books in less than 30 seconds, then helped Jamaica to another world record in the relay, and in the end was a class apart, even at Olympic level.
Bolt was The Best Athlete of the Olympics but not because the rest paled in comparison.
Ethiopia winning the men's and women's 5,000-10,000-metre doubles through Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba was still the Best Result of the Olympics, given that between them they'd run exactly 100 laps of the track to achieve it.
China's hopes of muscling its way into the athletics medals failed miserably, and when Liu Xiang failed to get over the first hurdle - literally - we had the Worst Moment of the Olympics for obvious reasons.
This was to be China's Cathy Freeman moment, the moment 1.3 billion people had been waiting for, and it never happened. It may well rank as the greatest anti-climax in the history of sport.
Liu had been under a lot of pressure and he wasn't the only one. There were several candidates for Best Upset of the Olympics, including Jeremy Wariner's loss to American team-mate LaShawn Merritt, but in the end that honour went to the Belgian high jumper Tia Hellebaut and the way she stunned the Croatian favourite Blanka Vlasic.
With five world records and 17 Olympics records, Beijing may well have produced the Best Athletics in Olympics, as in best ever.
Sydney eight years ago was pretty good, but there were no world records. They said it would be hot in the Bird's Nest, and they didn't just mean the temperatures.
Trying to prepare for the inevitable question - "How was Beijing?" - is futile because there is no way of summing up the vastness and scale of what these Olympics became. China said it would deliver the greatest Olympics in history, and no one who has been in Beijing for the past 17 days can argue with that.
The organisation has been entirely without fault; the venues have been as spectacular as they have been practical; the crowds have been terrific across all sports; and if you couldn't raise at least one smile to match the volunteers then it's definitely time for the Prozac. No previous Olympics can boast such unanimous success.
There was always going to be the argument that China was hiding its ugly side and this was just the wrong place to be staging the Olympics but it didn't gain much strength from what I saw.
In the end, the Best Quote of the Olympics was repeated every time I showed up at any of the Olympic venues, on every bus and every night I walked out of the Bird's Nest.
"Thank your for your cooperation. Enjoy your work!"
Well my work here is done. Thank you, Beijing 2008!
