Truly exceptional Olympiad

THE head of the International Olympics Committee rightly called the Beijing Olympiad ‘truly exceptional games’, with the number of records shattered itself becoming a record of sorts. For the human spirit to go beyond conceivable limits, in terms of physical and mental capacity, as seen in Beijing, captured the imagination of billions around the world. The unassuming, almost shy, Michael Phelps splashed his way in the glittering Water Cube to a record eight gold medals in a single edition of the event — seven of them in world record times. His contrast was provided by the flamboyant, almost impudent, Usain Bolt, who became the fastest man on the planet ever and still had time to indulge in exaggerated chest-thumping even before he had crossed the finishing line. His characteristic ‘marksman’ celebrations, pointing to his own images on the giant screens inside the superlative Bird’s Nest when he came out for his next two gold medal sprints, will forever remain the image of the event. As is the nature of sporting meets, the ecstasy of success always comes with the agony of failure. At Beijing, especially for the home crowd, it came in the shape of the premature exit of Liu Xiang and Yao Ming from their respective disciplines. But that did not dampen the Chinese spirit for they still edged out the United States from the top of the rankings table which is but a rarity in Olympics history.

The extravagant opening and closing ceremonies apart, China also deserves the proverbial pat on the back for having organised the massive 17-day show with such perfection that all the fears that were expressed in the run-up to the main draw — smog, political tension, security threats, human rights concerns and so on — turned out to be absolute non-issues. In fact, the $40bn investment China made in the games would have earned it the awed admiration of millions of foreigners who were there as athletes, officials and spectators. Post-visit, many of them would now be able to see through the western propaganda, which will make the Beijing Olympics ‘truly exceptional’ in a much wider sense of the description than being limited to sporting excellence. In terms of organisational skills, event management and hospitality, China has certainly set a new standard that London, the host of the next Olympics, will find hard to meet.