With 10,708 athletes competing from 204 countries for 906 medals in 28 sports, two competitors will be propelled into immortality by their outstanding performance in Beijing 2008: Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.

photo credit: sagicel

Michael dominated the pool, breaking Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals set at the Munich Olympics in 1972, snatching 8; seven of them being World Records. This adds to the 6 he bagged in Athens in 2004 making him the closest human relative to a fish. The 6 ft 4 inches, 195 pounds, 23 year old native of Baltimore Maryland, confessed to doing nothing but eating, sleeping and swimming.  To be swimming in 8 events is no mean feat as each has its rigorous rounds. To win all including a 7 World Records is truly super-human. He swam 17 times over 9 days breaking the record in 4 out of 5 individual events in which he participated. His 3 relay teams also set world records.

Phelps who started swimming at age 7, made his Olympic debut in Sydney at age 15 when he qualified for the 200m fly by finishing second at U.S. Trials, but despite his age and lack of international experience, he made the final in Sydney and finished fifth. Five months after that race, Phelps became the sport’s youngest male world-record holder when he claimed the 200m fly mark. Now we will speak of him with the same reverence as Mark Spitz.

photo credit: rich115

Usain Bolt won three gold medals on the track, all in World Record times.  He won the 100 meters in 10.69, the 200 meters in 19.30 and ran the third leg on Jamaica’s 4×100 meters team that posted 37.10 seconds. Bolt will also be long remembered for his dancing and celebrations after winning the events, and people who don’t understand him have criticized him for everything from walking barefooted after the race, not shaking hands after the race, beating his chest after the race, lifting up his shirt, looking in the camera and saying “I am number one”, his mother running through the crowd to hug her son in the front row and sticking out his tongue are just a few that come to mind.

I have never heard a champion so criticized, yet his records will stand and we will soon forget the critics. The 21 year old from Coxheath, Sherwood Content in Trelawny has realized his true potential after winning the World Junior 200 meters title at 15 years old. What makes his performance more impressive is the fact that the 100 meters was never his race; he was originally a 200 and 400 meters runner and only ran a few competitive 100 meters races before this Olympic win.

There are other memorable results for me from Beijing 2008:

1. The dominance of the Jamaican sprinters on the track.
2. The brilliant performance of the British in hauling in 47 medals, including 19 golds, 13 silver  and 15 bronze coming from 9 golds, 9 silver and 12 bronze in 2004.
3. The Chinese surprisingly winning the overall medal standings over the USA and Russia with 51 golds to the USA 36 and Russia 23.
4. The Swedes having their worst Olympics since 1896, placing 56th in the medal table, winning only 4 silvers and a bronze down from 4 golds, two silver and a bronze in 2004.
5. The Jamaican team placing 13th out of 204 countries with 6 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals up from 2 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze in 2004.
6. The depth of the USA in winning the most silver, 38 and the most bronze, 36 to go along with 36 gold medals, winning in the total medal count 110 to China’s 100.
7. Jason Lezak posting the fastest relay split in history, 46.06, to catch Frenchman Alain Bernard for the win, by just .08 of a second in the 4×100 meters freestyle relay to keep Michael Phelp’s hopes of 8 gold medals alive.
8. Rebecca Lyn Hammon from Rapid City, South Dakota, USA, playing for Russia against her native USA in women’s basketball.
9. USA “Dream Team” re-claiming gold after losing in the last 2 Olympics.
10. Argentina re-claiming gold by defeating Brazil 3-0 in semi-final and Nigeria 1-0 in the final of men’s soccer.
11. The USA defeating Brazil in women’s soccer.
12. The performance of the Chinese “baby” girls in gymnastics.
13. The brilliant opening ceremony.
14. South Korea upsetting Cuba for baseball gold.
15. China sweeping the medals in table tennis (one of my favorite sports).
16. Ethiopian and Kenyan dominance of the long distance athletics races.
17. USA and Jamaica disastrous baton changes in sprint relays (USA in men and women’s 4×100 meters and Jamaica in women’s 4×100 meters).
18. The poor performance of South Africa in bagging only one medal, a silver and placing 71st in the medal table.
19. Matthew Mitcham of Australia winning the Men’s Platform, preventing a clean sweep of the diving medals by China.
20. Chris Hoy of Great Britain winning 3 gold medals in cycling.

It has been a wonderful, memorable olympic games. There are many more great moments and everyone will have their favorites, but these are the ones that will stick with me. Now on to London 2012.