2008 Olympics: Beijing

[Jonathan]

I've very much enjoyed the Beijing Olympics. Kudos to the Chinese organisers and volunteers! Both the opening and closing ceremonies had me nailed to the tv. Director Zhang Yimou put on an exquisite show in the gorgeous Bird's Nest!

The competitions have been great and I don't know how many hours I've spent watching all kinds of sports. There was an amazing number of five new world records in the track and field events! Three of them involving Usain Bolt. And in the swimming there was an unprecedented slaughter of records, including the astonishing 8 gold medal feat by Michael Phelps. Bolt and Phelps are the undisputed kings of these Olympics. I'm glad I got to see them both in action, for what they accomplished will be remembered for many years to come.

My most heart-warming memory from the Olympics is when road cyclist Gustav Larsson of Sweden surprised the top cyclists and crossed the finish line with the best time of them all in the time trial. He eventually ended up with a silver medal. He's my friend's brother and my friend was really excited afterwards. And so was I

One of my favourite sports is tennis and it was nice to see both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal end up with gold medals (Federer in doubles, Nadal in singles). Fun was also the fact that the Swedish duo Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson won an unexpected silver medal! Their fantastic semifinal was the longest tennis match ever to be played in the Olympics - almost five hours. I watched every minute of it

On the flip side, Sweden hasn't won this few Olympic medals in a hundred years . And not a single gold medal was conquered! It could have been worse though - four silver medals and one bronze (and quite a few fourth places) is better than no medals at all. But if we keep this up, there's no way we're going to retain our position as the 10th most successful nation of all times in the Olympics.
I've been able to rejoice in other nations' successes instead. I watched as China won its 50th gold and later won its 100th medal overall. It was also fun to see Britain do so well. I was pleased when Norway and Iceland reached the women's and men's handball finals respectively. I crossed my fingers that Phelps would make the US proud and that Bolt would bless Jamaica. Good to see the Dream Team redeem themselves in the basketball too

Nothing left now but to look forward to the London 2012 Olympics. According to what was shown during the closing ceremony, it seems that we've got double-deckers and umbrellas to expect Well, I bet the London Olympics to be much more down to earth than the preceding Games


谢谢中国！(Thanks, China!)