The Olympics are finally over, just over two weeks after they began, but they were of course, far more than an ordinary two weeks. Diehard fans and casual enthusiasts alike tuned in across the world to root on their athletes, and to witness historical performances sprinkled throughout the games. If sport is a story of triumph and tragedy, this 29th Olympiad was an epic novel. Records were broken, yet dreams were shattered. Nations came together, yet peace was broken. A wise proverb says that no book worth reading once is not worth reading again. Instead of mourning the loss of one of the greatest Olympics in recent memory, let us venture back into the drama, watch the heroes clash, and the underdogs inspire. Read on, friends. Read on.

• USA Basketball - After eight years without a title in a major international competition, this year’s team, aptly dubbed the Redeem Team, lived up to America’s win-or-bust mentality, bringing the gold medal home, and basketball supremacy back to the United States. However, the USA Basketball team did so much more than win games. They won hearts. They were role models. In a league so often associated with showboating, selfish play, and callous, egotistical superstars, USA basketball carried themselves as true champions. Despite utterly destroying all but a few opponents, the team did not brag. The team remained focused on their goal. The superstars, Kobe, Lebron, Carmelo, Dwayne Wade, the list goes on and on, did not complain about a lack of playing time or lack of scoring opportunities. The team was a team. In recent years, it has not been often that a writer swells with pride when writing about USA Basketball, but this one is guilty as charged.

• 100m and 200m Dash - Although two of the major headliners failed to reach the podium (Jamaican Asafa Powell took 5th, and American Tyson Gay did not qualify to the finals due to a string of injuries), Usain Bolt did not fail to impress. Bolt took gold easily, breaking his own world record, despite throwing his arms down in celebration a full 30 meters from the finish line. Bolt was absolutely uncontested from the start, and repeated his dominance in the 200m, taking gold and another world record, this time edging Michael Johnson’s world record which had stood since 1996. Usain Bolt amazed the world with the ease at which he powered down the track, making championship caliber athletes look like they were feeble children. American Walter Dix also deserves an honorable mention, as the recent Florida State graduate took Bronze in both the 100m and 200m events. Although he may not challenge Bolt, keep an eye out for Dix in the future.

• Michael Phelps - There is nothing I can say about Phelps that you do not already know. This man is an absolute enigma. Everyone in the world knows everything about him. From his Baltimore beginnings to his 12,000 calorie diet, Phelps was the early star of these games, and is now considered one of, if not the greatest Olympian ever. To his name, Phelps added eight gold medals, the most ever in a single Olympiad, with seven world records, and the other an Olympic record. In total, Phelps has 14 gold medals, by far the most of any Olympian. However, this is by no means a final total. Phelps is likely to swim in London in 2012, and only Phelps knows what he will do there. With the conclusion of these games, Phelps has cemented his place as one of the greatest athletes of our generation, and century.

• Jennifer Stuczynski - Despite the killer name, Stuczynski had a disappointing Olympic games, taking the silver to her rival and world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva. Although still a very successful games in the eyes of most, Stuczynski was hoping to finally dethrone Isinbayeva, and to do it on the grandest scale. Isinbayeva may have risen the bar (breaking her own world record), but Stuczynski is not going away any time soon.

• 110m Hurdles - Reigning world record holder Dayron Robles took gold with ease, only .02 seconds off of the Olympic record, and .06 seconds off of his world record. This race fell into the background when China’s celebrity hurdler Liu Xiang was forced to drop out due to an acute injury. No one can say that Liu didn’t try though. Despite grimacing all the way through, Xiang nonetheless lined up in the starting blocks, set to give it a go for his nation, but scratched the race after a false start by another member of the field. China’s premier track and field athlete, Xiang was expected to take gold, but will have to settle for international dominance in the upcoming years- if he can hold off Robles that is.

Of course, these storylines were far from lonely these past two weeks. In the gym, China flexed its muscle, dominating several competitions, but running into a brick wall in the graceful Nastia Liuken. Liuken took the coveted all-round women’s gymnastics title, edging out several Chinese athletes looking suspiciously young for Olympic competition. Alongside Nastia, Shawn Johnson captured hearts with several medals, and finally a gold on the balance beam to match her award winning smile. On the men’s side, China impressed the world, systematically destroying the competition and increasing their gold medal count. Second only to their gymnastics program, the Chinese diving teams executed near perfectly, easily distinguishing themselves as the class of the sport.

On the diamonds, which will remain empty at least through 2016, USA Softball lost their first game ever in Olympic competition at just the wrong time. Japan defeated the US en route to becoming the first non-American team to win the Olympic gold in the sport since it was incorporated into the games. The US is now 22-1. The New England Patriots offer their condolences, but at least they get to play next year.

USA Baseball gets little media attention due to its collection of minor league players, (lacking the big names tied up in the middle of the MLB season), yet made headlines in the sports world in its game with China. In the game, the Americans instigated several brutal collisions at the plate, resulting in prized Cleveland prospect Matt LaPorta getting pegged in the head, and leaving the game with a concussion. Altogether, seven batters were hit, and the game was a very poor showcase of the sport struggling to attain readmission to the games after being dropped along with softball from the 2012 program. The US eventually took bronze, but unless you followed the competition like school does summer, you would have never known.

Usain Bolt finishing far ahead of his competitors and setting a new 100m world record while capturing his first gold.

Despite Bolt’s historic, nearly unbelievable performances, USA Track and Field did very well, claiming tons of medals, and a good number of golds as well. With depth unmatched by any other program in the world, the US took a majority of the relays in both men’s and women’s competitions. Despite its success, the US did not lack heartbreak. The aforementioned Tyson Gay, America’s finest sprinter, was not defeated by any athlete, but by injury alone. Middle distance runner Bernard Lagat, a native Kenyan now representing the United States, did not fulfill his high expectations, failing to claim a single medal despite being the world champion in both the 1500m and 5000m races.

In the distance races, his former countrymen dominated the field, contributing to the prestigious track and field history of the African nations of Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Morocco to name a few. In the marathon, Kenyan Samy Wanjiru took the gold in Olympic record time despite the hot and humid conditions in the streets of Beijing. Wanjiru will forever be immortalized in his country for winning Kenya’s first gold in the event, despite its prolific runners.

In the medal count, the US defeated China by 10 overall, but China was in a league of its own in terms of gold, with 51 to their credit in comparison to 36 brought back to the US. Russia was a distant third in both overall medal count and golds, with 72 and 23 respectively. Rounding out the top five nations in the medal count were Great Britain and Australia, neither challenging the US, China, or Russia for a spot in ever-important top three at the Olympic games.

These Olympics were envisioned by China as a way to model the nation to the rest of the world, to exemplify its credentials as a world power alongside the United States, and to impress individuals around the world. Perhaps it is too soon to consider whether this Olympiad was one of the greatest two week spectacles known to man, or if it will melt away as just another Olympics, remembered solely for Phelps and Bolt, but as of now, I rank these games as the best of my lifetime to this point, and can only hope that 2012 will not be a dissapointment.

Now that the games are over, the world must return to its ordinary motions: political turmoil, the violation of human rights, starvation and global warming, the list goes on and on and on, and is far from hope inspiring. However, if it is possible for Georgian and Russian athletes to compete alongside one another regardless of their warring nations, perhaps it is possible for the world to make small steps forward, towards a brighter future. It is far from guaranteed, but if people gave up hope and were short of determination, gold medals would never have been won in the first place. Borrowing from the NBC commercials:

Go World.