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The closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Games, replete with spectacle, pageantry and parades. An on-the-scene account ...

China's goal coming into the Beijing Games was clear: win the race for most gold medals. With a dominant victory in hand, China now faces questions about how to spread the its athletic success across the nation.

With Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser winning the men's beach volleyball gold medal, the U.S. becomes the first country in Olympic beach volleyball history to sweep gold at the same Games. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh may have earned the title of "Best Team Ever," but Rogers and Dalhausser's gold medal was a tougher one to obtain.

When it comes to the medal count, Americans are on the defensive while China has overachieved. But you won't find the Chinese gloating. Still, China's success means more to this nation, than it does to America.

For winning a gold medal that everyone except the players on the other side of the net expected them to win, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh unfurled the purest release of unbridled joy upon securing an unprecedented second straight Olympic gold medal. There was absolutely no taunting, preening, or show-boating, and not a single person was surprised.

If He Kexin or other Chinese gymnasts are not 16 -- where's unassailable proof going to come from? How, NBC's Alan Abrahamson writes, practically speaking, is that going to happen?

Hosting the Olympics has ushered in substantial change across Chinese society, while the nation's gold medal haul has replaced Liu Xiang as the memory of choice from the 2008 Games.

There was less buzz on the Beijing streets for tonight's closing ceremony than there was for the Opening Ceremony 16 days ago. Crowds that filled the police-lined streets close to the Bird's Nest then were largely absent tonight, although several corners still were packed.

With just three days until the Games end, China is on its way to winning the race for most gold medals. As expected, it has dominated sports such as weightlifting and diving. But it has found new areas of success, too.

When Alan Paul came to watch China's Zou Shiming fight for a shot at the gold, he expected pandemonium in the crowd. What he didn't expect is that it would come from the Mongolians.

I have studied the Serbian shooters for countless hours and it paid off. Now we will play Hungary on Sunday for the gold medal.

BEIJING -- The opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Games in all its spectacle, pageantry and color.  An on-the-scene account ...

 

Janet Evans watches the oldest world record in swimming fall. Hers. Set in 1989. But as Janet's mom points out: Janet is still the American record-holder.

I know, it sounds great! We beat the Australians tonight to advance to the gold medal match against the Netherlands.

In his first entry, Alan Paul explains the significance the 2008 Olympics carry for not only the city of Beijing, but the country at large.

The U.S. men's and women's 2008 Olympic swim team had finished dinner, had taken a team photo and had filed back into a meeting room at their Palo Alto, Calif., hotel that night, the atmosphere in the room getting drowsy, when men's coach Eddie Reese announced that breaststroker Eric Shanteau had something to say.

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh cruised to the final, where they'll put their 107-match winning streak and unblemished Olympic record on the line against China's best. 

It's the day that the U.S. Softball Team has waited four years for -- the opportunity to defend its Olympic gold medal and play for a fourth. Not surprisingly, the anticipation has kept Jessica Mendoza awake nights.

Unlike Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, the team they'll face in the men's gold medal match Friday morning, Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes of Brazil haven't had the best of seasons in 2008. That can all change, however, should they win an Olympic gold medal on Friday.

"OK, Bosh, you can leave to go have a rest. OK, thank you," and news conferences in China are just a little different.