The 16 day sporting spectacle ended yesterday at the Bird’s Nest stadium in brilliant fireworks. I shall always remember the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing as one that is grand and truly filled with memorable moments, be it on the track or the dazzling Beijing Olympics organizers effort to make it ‘flawless’

The Beijing Olympics which cost the organizers close to $50 billion to plan and host, saw great competition in the 28 sports being contested with a total of 308 events offering gold

Being host country, there was an added motivation as China proved to be a sporting powerhouse by winning their biggest gold medal haul ever, since joining the Olympics NOC back in 1984. They collected 51 gold medals, 21 silver and 28 bronze, making it a total of 100 medal haul to break even. The American was trailing behind in second while Russia settled for third spot, all based on number of golds won

The closing ceremony is as grand as the opening ceremony, a two-hour extravaganza of fireworks and spectacular lighting. The closing ceremony somehow slightly reminded me of a ‘getai’ show as Jackie Chan and the rest of the Hong Kong & Chinese mainland stars started to sing, but in all it was all a good clean fun

The remaining athletes still in Beijing, some 10,500 strong from 205 countries bid their goodbyes at the iconic Bird’s Nest and promise to meet again in 2012 London games

As Chinese president Hu Jintao handed the Olympic flag to to Gordon Brown, prime minister of England and the giant torch atop of the Bird’s Nest stadium is slowly extinguished, Beijing leaves an unforgettable memory to the world

Despite the lack of time I had to bring more focus and articles, I hope my Olympics athletics coverage is suffice enough. Do read up on the old reports of Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10. This is Singapore Athletics and I’m signing off

Interesting Facts

• 28 sports encompassing 302 individual events
• A total of 87 countries won medals, and 55 of them won at least one gold medal, both categories set records
• 302 gold medals awarded
• 958 total medals awarded
• Singapore is ranked 71/81 countries for countries with medal tally
• Almost 11 thousand athletes participated in the games from 204 NOC countries
• 21,880 touch bearers will have run 137 thousand kilometers over 130 days before the opening ceremony
• National Stadium (Bird’s Nest) covers an area of 258 thousand square meters
• Highest ticket price is 5 thousand Renminbi (650$US) with the lowest being 200 Renminbi (26$US)
• Attendance exceeds half a million internationally and 2.5 million domestic spectators
• Over 800 hotels and 4 thousand hostels are providing 420 thousand rooms
• Over 5 thousand IT professionals will help information flowing on over 12 thousand computers and two thousand printers
• Beijing 2008 Environment Construction Command Office proposed 65 laws under five categories regarding keeping pollution down to a minimum during the games including a possible mandatory vacations for entire cities who don’t directly service the venues
• The level of pollution has been nowhere near as bad as feared. Whether by design or accident, thunderstorms have kept the skies for the main part clear.
• Beijing demolished over 3.32 square km of ‘illegal construction’ to improve the aesthetics around the game venues
• Smoking was banned at all venues
• Olympic expressways will open on nine Beijing freeways and five co-hosting cities
• China has launched a special zip code specifically for the Olympics in order to have speedy mail service during the games
• Pigs that will be fed to athletes are on a specific organic diet to ensure they are drug free
• On August 15, 2008, the International Olympic Committee announced North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su had tested positive for the banned substance of propranolol and thus stripped of his two medals from the 2008 Summer Olympics, making Kim the first medal winning athlete to test positive for a banned substance at the 2008 Olympic Games
• Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian was originally awarded a bronze medal in the Greco-Roman 84 kg event. However, at the medal ceremony he walked off the podium and dropped/put his medal on the mat. On August 16, 2008, the International Olympic Committee decided to strip him of his medal because they felt it amounted to a political demonstration and was disrespectful to other athletes

via legendarylife & wiki

Graphical Stats

via zoho