The post-Olympic void

BEIJING -- The OIympic Green returned to being a vast, desolate space Monday.

All the security fencing remained in place, limiting access to accredited people -- media clearing out of the Main Press Center, Olympic organizing committee staff and volunteers.

There weren't many of those people out and about as I walked around many of the venues, giving myself a final look.

In fact, there was so little human or vehicle noise that an odd call and antiphon resonated across great distances:  the hum of cicadas, answered by the beep-beep-beep signals for the visually impaired at traffic lights.

While the volunteers remained as resolutely helpful and friendly as they had been during the Olympics, there was backsliding in other areas.

One worker openly defied the anti-spitting campaign Beijing had run for a year, and cigarette butts lay on the ground.

The place briefly will come back to life when the Paralympic Games begin their 12-day run on Sept. 6, and the exterior surface of the Water Cube still glowed with its changing color scheme Monday night.

But the Bird's Nest no longer shone red as it had when its interior walls were bathed in light.  The cauldron holding the Olympic flame was snuffed out Sunday, and the building was a looming, grayish hulk.

It was as if the energy that filled it for two ceremonies and nine days of track and field rather than electricity had been the light source.

That energy is gone forever.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo:  A worker takes a nap at the Bird's Nest, with the Olympic flame caldron in the background, a day after the closing ceremony for the Beijing Olympics. Credit: Ng Han Guan / Associated Press

It's tough to say goodbye

BEIJING -- Sunday night and today have been kind of like the last day of school. Everyone is cleaning up and packing. Editors and writers were working last night, some with wine glasses on their desks. People from different news organizations were hugging each other and saying goodbye.

When they get home and return to their regular beats, they'll be at each other's throats -- as they sometimes were here. But for now, the Beijing Olympic motto -- One World, One Dream -- reigns.

Everybody is wild about the volunteers, and people are getting teary-eyed saying goodbye to them. Everybody wants to go, but no one wants to leave.

One colleague of mine, who has covered more Olympics than he cares to remember, joined other writers in running a lap around the track after the final race Saturday, then became very emotional when he realized what that lap signified: the end of the Games.

"That was four years of my life," he said.

Yet he still doesn't want to go home.

-- Kevin Baxter

Photo: Soldiers stand outside the Bird's Nest, otherwise known as the National Stadium, during the closing ceremony at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Sunday. Credit: Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times.                         

PhilCam's focus at 10 a.m. Monday in Beijing

BEIJING -- Here's the 10 a.m. Monday view from PhilCam's perch, high above Beijing's Olympic Green.

And here is the first post-Olympics report from PhilCam operator and blogger Philip Hersh: "Day after. Monday, 10 am.  Torch out.  Gunk returning to air."

Here's another shot from PhilCam's perch, which is 14 stories above the Olympic Green.

The Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau website has relevant air pollution data. The Chaoyang District is home to the Olympic Green, where much of the Olympic action was.

IOC President Jacques Rogge: "no white elephant has been built"

BEIJING -- Speaking to reporters as the Beijing Olympic Games wound down, IOC President Jacques Rogge said that China and the citizens of Beijing will be far better off thanks to the Games. Declaring that none of the stadiums or buildings will become "white elephants" to the city, that the improvements to the airport and the subway will be bright spots for locals, Rogge said the legacy of these Games will be a positive one for the Chinese.

As far as the athletes and nations went, it was a huge success, according to the official website of the Olympic movement, olympic.org:

A record 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) sent athletes to China, and a record 87 NOCs joined the medal count.

The competitors established 43 world records and 132 Olympic records, although some lasted only until the next heat.

Meanwhile, the U.S. cleaned up in swimming, on the basketball court, in both arenas of volleyball, in several areas of track and field and, most important, in the Nielson ratings.

-- Tony Pierce

Medals per capita goes to the Bahamas

Just as England once lived under the Tudor, China once lived under the Ming and the American League East once lived under the Torre, we earthlings live under a dynasty these days.

It’s a benevolent dynasty, the Bahamas dynasty -- they do let us come visit their islands and serve us drinks with tiny umbrellas sticking out of them -- until it comes to the quadrennial test known as the Olympics, when they fluster the rest of us again.

The rest of the world tried everything we could to overthrow the Athens 2004 kings and queens in the crucial, vital-to-life, telltale Medals Per Capita ranking. We sent our Australia, runner-up in Athens with its population of just 20,600,856 and its vast collection of studs and studesses. We proposed Armenia, wrestling and weightlifting with the best from a population shy of three million.

We offered Slovenia, No. 5 in Athens, and we sent in Jamaica, No. 6 in Athens with its bolting Bolt and other track prowess, and we tried New Zealand, hearty archipelago, and as it concluded we even summoned Iceland with its 304,367 population and its gaudy handball team. Mongolia, a nation with cold weather and disagreeable soil, showed it mettle with two early medals and then, on Sunday, two boxing medals, from Serdanka Purevdorj (silver) and Badar-Uugan Enkhbat (gold). That made four for 3 million hardy people and made an impression.

U.S. not so far off-track

BEIJING -- By the numbers, it wasn't all that bad for USA Track & Field.

Yes, U.S. runners botched baton exchanges in both sprint relays, throwing away two almost certain medals.

Yes, only four of the 22 U.S. men in field events (throws and jumps) made the finals, and three were in one event, the shot put.

Yes, Bernard Lagat, the man of a million excuses, flopped in both the 1,500 (no final) and 5,000 (ninth), the events in which he was the reigning world champion.  He cited an Achilles tendon injury after the 1,500, then mentioned a virus after the 5,000 -- this from the man who covered up the date he became a U.S. citizen so he could still compete in the 2004 Olympics for Kenya.

For all that, the U.S. had 23 medals -- seven gold, nine silver, seven bronze.  That is just one gold and two total medals fewer than Athens, which had been the best U.S. performance since 1992.

Russia was next with 18 medals, six gold.

Jamaica swept the sprints, and Usain Bolt was not only the star of the track competition (100, 200 and sprint relay golds, all with world records), but in most of the world, he was the star of the Olympics, because far more countries care about track than swimming. 

Kenya had a particularly satisfying performance, capped by Samuel Wansiru's marathon win Sunday in Olympic record time.  That gave a country renowned for distance running its first Olympic gold in the marathon.  Earlier, Kenyan women had won their first Olympic golds, in the 800 (Pamela Jelimo) and 1,500 (Nancy Langat).

Once again, Ethiopia dominated track distance running.  Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba won the 5,000 and 10,000.

For many of these athletes, the season continues full force, with the biggest one-day meet in the world, the Zurich Weltklasse, taking place Friday.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Usain Bolt acknowledges the cheers of the crowd after helping Jamaica win the men's 400-meter relay in world-record time. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

Well done, and thanks

BEIJING -- Most Americans I’ve spoken to were anxious to get back to their homes and families, but in no way was this a poor reflection of their time in China. Everyone I spoke to went on about how hospitable everyone in China has been. It’s understandable that after a couple of weeks away that feeling of homesickness starts to set in.

It was a concern of mine that the politics and protests leading up to the Games would heighten during the competitions. It didn’t, and I’m glad. My concern was that these issues would distract us from the athletes  who don’t have anything to do with politics, the athletes who have dedicated their lives to this endeavor, the athletes who earned our attention and respect for the days of the Olympic Games.

Job well done to the people of China.

Bill Plaschke bids farewell to the Beijing Games

Now, I'm not going to say that Bill Plaschke is getting old -- actually I could, because I'm pushing 50 and he's got a few years on me, I believe -- but you need to check out his farewell video from the Great Wall.

Here's the video, complete with Bill huffing and puffing as if he were an Olympic athlete:

-- Dan Loumena

U.S. men's water polo team has to settle for silver

BEIJING -- The U.S. men's water polo team claimed the silver medal Sunday after losing to Hungary, 14-10, in the gold medal match.

Tony Azevedo, a three-time Olympian from Long Beach, led the U.S. offense with four goals while Layne Beaubien of Coronado added a pair.

It is the third men's water polo silver medal for the U.S. team and the first since the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games. It also is the sixth men's medal won by the United States (silver in 1984, 1988 and 2008 and bronze in 1924, 1932 and 1972).

The silver finalizes the medal count for Team USA at the Beijing Games with 110, the most it has won at a full-participation Olympic Games, according to the U.S. Olympic Committee. The 36 gold medals won by the United States matches the number received at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

-- Debbie Goffa

Photo: Tony Azevedo gets to the ball before Tamas Kasas of Hungary during the gold medal match. Credit: Daniel Dal Zennaro / EPA

Taekwondo battle for bronze had an extra nasty kick

BEIJING -- Saturday's taekwondo bronze-medal match packed extra punch after Angel Valodia Matos of Cuba deliberately kicked the referee in the face after being disqualified for taking too much time for an injury.

Matos was winning 3-2 against Arman Chilmanov of Kazakhstan, with 1:02 left in the second round, when he fell to the mat after being hit. Matos sat there, awaiting medical attention but was disqualified when he sat for longer than the allowed one minute.

Matos almost immediately charged Swedish referee Chakir Chelbat, who required stitches for a cut lip. The World Taekwondo Federation took immediate steps to place a lifetime ban on Matos. Chilmanov was declared the winner.

It isn't the first time that the sport has been marred by angry scenes at an Olympics. At the 2004 Games in Athens, there was a storm of protests over refereeing decisions.

Taekwondo survived one vote by the International Olympic Committee when it came time to trim the number of sports, but it faces another vote next year as officials for cricket, rugby, golf and karate push for their sports to be included.

"I feel this can be part of our growing pain," said World Taekwondo Federation chief Yang Jin-Suk. "With your blessings, we will overcome all the difficulties. We're going to show what the true taekwondo is down the road."

-- Debbie Goffa

Photo: After being disqualified, Angel Valodia Matos of Cuba launches a kick against referee Chakir Chelbat. Credit: Behrouz Mehri / AFP / Getty Images