Beijing Games are over in a flash, but some images stick with us

BEIJING — Michael Phelps' lunge.

Usain Bolt's laugh.

The gold the U.S. men's volleyball team won as tribute to Todd Bachman, their coach's father-in-law who was brutally killed as these Games began.

This was an Olympics where athletes set near-impossible goals and then surpassed them.

Phelps swam to eight gold medals and seven world records. Bolt ran to three gold medals and three world records. China aimed for 40 golds and won 51.

These wondrous three weeks were dominated by two athletes above all, but there were so many other moments I'll remember:

• U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo's magnificent vindication, winning gold and shutting out Brazil, the team and the game that was taken away from her when she was benched before the semifinal loss in the World Cup.

• Lauren Jackson's undeniable pain. Standing on the medal podium, the silver medal around her neck — her third in three Olympics — she was losing the fight to staunch her tears. Jackson played on a numbed ankle and postponed surgery because she thought this could be the year Australia broke through for the gold, but the team fell short.

At every Olympics, after the torch is lit, we never quite know where the drama will come. We don't know how much we'll see. Or who will stay in our minds for the rest of our lives.

Covering the Olympics is a different and personal experience for every writer.

We go different places. We see different things. We are touched by very different people.

I'll remember a few fleeting moments far away from the venues.

• Talking with Nicole, a 17-year-old Chinese water polo player, after her team's practice. Nicole is an only child, as so many children in Beijing are. She holds on to the side of the pool with her right arm and sweeps her left arm across the water at her teammates and says they are the sisters she never had. They are her family.

• Walking through the hutongs, a maze of ancient, one-story homes and businesses in the heart of downtown Beijing, and being invited into the courtyard and the home of the Ren family. Meeting their neighbor, Li Tieniu, who was former Chinese premier Zhou En Lai's bodyguard and watching as he proudly pulls down pictures that hang above his bed as proof.

The unambiguous kindness and openness of the people I met in my few excursions outside the sports venues will stay with me as long as my mental snapshots of Phelps and Bolt.

Beijing did it. Most of the concerns we brought with us, like a third suitcase, were answered affirmatively. Transportation was a dream, security mostly unobtrusive. The skies were grayer than Seattle in winter, but the air cleaner than expected.

Probably more than any other modern Olympics, the place was a huge part of the story.

The Games began tragically, with the attacks on Todd and Barbara Bachman. At the Drum Tower, one of the city's landmarks, Todd was stabbed to death and his wife seriously wounded by a Chinese man who then took his own life.

There were brief worries that some group might be targeting Americans, but this became a sad, isolated case.

China's human-rights record here didn't match its gold medal count. The government suppressed protests, even jailing some who applied for permits to protest.

And China revoked the visa of American Joey Cheek, a gold medal speed skater, and leader of Team Darfur, a group of athletes who are dedicated to shining a light on abuses in Sudan.

But let's make sure we separate the people from their government. The people were universally friendly.

And the place gave us thrills past the performances of Phelps and Bolt.

• Cyclists blurring past the Forbidden City and the giant picture of Mao on the opening day of competition.

• The United States' women's eight crew, including Washington alums Anna Cummins and coxswain Mary Whipple, winning gold and dedicating their medals to the pioneering spirit of the United States' gold-medal rowers from the 1984 Games.

• The joy of basketball's Sue Bird, juxtaposed with the sorrow of friend and Seattle Storm teammate Jackson. Bird was given the ball by coach Anne Donovan and told to run this mighty U.S. offense. She won her second gold medal and admitted that, in part because of her expanded role, this medal meant more to her than Athens.

• Bainbridge's Emily Silver swimming the time trial of her life, just weeks away from breaking her hand, qualifying for a spot on the 400 freestyle relay, then swimming in the qualifying heat and earning a silver medal.

And on the last day of competition, the American men's basketball team survived a fistfight of a game from very tough and talented Spain and reclaimed the gold it lost in Athens, winning an entertaining finale, 118-107.

These players were asked to commit to the team for three years and this redemption was the result. Now the question is: How many will re-up for another three years?

I'm homesick and ready to get on a plane for Seattle. But I have to admit that after Kobe Bryant converted a four-point play that finally gave the U.S. breathing room at 108-99, I almost wished I could have just one more day.

One more swim from Phelps. One more sprint from Bolt. One more save from Solo.

An Olympics this good always feels as if it passes much too quickly.

Steve Kelley: skelley@seattletimes.com.