My favorite moment of the Summer Games was Michael Phelps' thrilling win in the 100M Butterfly, which was one of the damndest things I've ever seen in all of sports. That race helped me forget how burned out I was of the pre-Olympic hope and just enjoy the competition. It helped, too, that each time I turned it to NBC (more accurately, my wife turned it there and I went along for the ride), the network was showing events and not endless profiles or travelogue pieces.
My second-favorite moment came last night during the closing ceremonies. The Cirque du Soleil-type stuff was kind of cool looking, but I preferred the glorious chaos that took place when the athletes came pouring into the stadium and just wandered about. Most of the smiling Olympians shared one objective, mugging for the cameras, and their pursuit of that common goal gave me a nice "we're all people" vibe. They were acting goofy, but in a respectful way, far more well behaved than, say, the crowd filing out of the stadium after an average Division I-A college football game.
They were also waving to the crowd, holding their medals with pride, and just generally enjoying themselves, and as I watched the spectacle, I let the uglier moments of the Olympics fade away--things like the murder of our volleyball coach's father-in-law, the apparent cheating of the Chinese gymnastics team, the Cuban taekwondo "artist" sucker-kicking a referee, and Usain Bolt sullying perhaps the greatest competitive sprint ever by pulling up to showboat and celebrate himself.
No, the sight of the athletes milling around together and having so much fun was enough to make me believe that maybe there is such a thing as "Olympic spirit," that maybe events like this do serve some kind of purpose of fostering international goodwill. Maybe.
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