The closing Olympic ceremony's human element made for an emotional goodbye, writes Clifford Coonan
BREATHTAKING pyrotechnics transformed the Bird's Nest into a halo of light, while gymnasts in fluorescent costumes sprang around the Olympic stadium on wires, to the cheers of the partying athletes below. Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page heralded the London 2012 Olympics with some killer licks and Hong Kong kung fu legend Jackie Chan led a galaxy of Chinese stars to end the evening on a high note.
As expected, the Beijing Olympics finished as it began, with an awe-inspiring spectacle that thrilled the audience in the 91,000- seater stadium, as well as the hundreds of millions watching on TV.
After two weeks of ecstasy and agony, the ceremony to close China's great debs ball was an emotional affair, more focused on the human dimension than on the technical expertise that characterised the opener. Both events were carefully choreographed by China's masterly director Zhang Yimou.
International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge, declared the "truly exceptional" Beijing Games closed and told competitors: "You have shown us the unifying power of sport.
"The Olympic spirit lives in the warm embrace of competitive rivals from nations in conflict. Keep that spirit alive when you return home," Mr Rogge said.
In the same stadium where the world's fastest man, Jamaica's Usain Bolt, produced sprints that left the world gasping in wonder, over 1,100 dancers with jingling silver bells pranced around the stadium before the arrival of two "heavenly drums". A giant video screen around the rim of the stadium replayed the greatest images of Beijing 2008, while a 23-metre "memory tower" became a centrepiece for the evening's action.
London was represented by Boris Johnson, who struggled gamely to wave the Olympic flag, while David Beckham did what he does best, kicking a ball from the top of a double-decker bus. The bumbling mayor and the crop-haired epitome of British celebrity culture were a reminder that the London Olympics will be more eccentric, probably funnier, and certainly more celebrity-obsessed than Beijing.
As part of an eight-minute taster for 2012, Leona Lewis accompanied Jimmy Page in a storming rendition of Whole Lotta Love, and you wonder what President Hu Jintao thought of all this heavy riffing. He was probably on firmer ground when Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and Chinese singer Song Zuying sang a stirring version of Flame of Love.
These were without a doubt the best-organised games in history and China left nothing to chance. It paid off in sporting terms - China reaped quite a haul during the 16-day competition with 51 gold medals, 15 more than the US. And it paid off in terms of generating the kind of historic moments that spectators will remember all their lives - Bolt's magnificent display lingers, while people were still talking about American swimmer Michael Phelps and his record eight gold medals.
For human rights groups, the games proved to be even tougher on dissent than they had feared.
The sporting success of the games has largely sidelined the mostly small protests calling for Tibetan independence, but many protesters were detained, some of them sentenced to 10 days in prison, although they were all released and deported last night. The Chinese authorities set up three protest zones, but not a single demonstration was allowed.
Not a great display of the oft-promised openness, then, but what an exhilarating two weeks it has been. As the Olympic flame was extinguished over the stadium, a column of writhing bodies formed a giant human flame, symbolising the human dimension to these Olympics, which have warmed the hearts of hundreds of millions of Chinese.
Despite the crackdown on dissent, the pressure on the organisers and occasional lack of humour, these Olympics were truly awesome. They are only just over and I miss them already.