Bye Bye Beijing

The Olympic Closing Ceremonies are finishing up in Beijing as I write this. These whole three weeks have been quite an adventure, and I appreciate all of you who checked in on this blog from time to time and also read my stuff in the paper. The U.S. had a nice final day of the Olympics, winning gold-medal finals in both men's basketball and men's volleyball (see below for a description of the basketball game).

For those who wonder what I'm going to do next, I'll be starting a "Scott Says" blog within a couple of weeks after I get back from China. So look for that online at charlotteobserver.com. And I'll be up to my ears as usual in Panthers football, college sports, NASCAR, etc., writing 3-4 columns a week for the newspaper.

So my time in China is done. As the sign says, "Visit is over. If you would like to return, you have to buy tickets again." I took that picture at the Forbidden City near Tianamen Square on the way out, but it really applies to my whole visit at this point. If all goes well, the next time you read something I've written, it will have been composed inside the U.S. Yes!

U.S. Redeem Team wins gold

The U.S. men's basketball game finally got itself in a battle Sunday in Beijing, in the gold-medal game vs. Spain.

After so many beastly 20-40 point wins, this one was a beauty. Spain ran with the U.S. and stuck right with Team USA for most of the game. When you watch the highlights, you are absolutely not going to believe the dunk that Spanish player Rudy Fernandez tomahawked in over Dwight Howard. That was the best dunk of the game, and it came from Spain!

But the USA ultimately prevailed, 118-107, to return the title of Olympic champion to America.

"We put American basketball back where it belongs, which is at the top," Carmelo Anthony said.

My MVP for the game for the U.S. would have to be Dwyane Wade. He had 27 and was good offensively all day. Kobe Bryant played a nice fourth quarter, too, especially once Spain had cut the lead to 91-89. Kobe made a key four-point play in the fourth quarter -- hitting a three and getting fouled -- and held up his finger in a "Shhhh" gesture.

That was about as rambunctious as the U.S. got. They did break protocol in the postgame news conference. Instead of sending just coach Mike Krzyzewski and one player, as was standard, LeBron James decided it would be a good idea if all 12 players attended. (See photos above: Coach K had LeBron on his right and Kobe on his left).

This made for a somewhat chaotic but rather enjoyable news conference, with Kobe and LeBron taking the lead and Krzyzewski calling the Olympic experience the greatest of his life.

Women's team rolls as Kobe watches

If the U.S. men's team was looking for inspiration Saturday night in Beijing, it certainly could have found some in the form of the U.S. women.

The women -- coached by Charlotte resident Anne Donovan -- were superb throughout this tournament. In the gold-medal game, they blasted Australia, 92-65. The Aussies and the U.S. had both entered the final with 7-0 records here, but it was no contest.

Donovan said she had never seen a more "selfless" U.S. team. It was led by Lisa Leslie, who won her fourth Olympic gold medal here. Leslie wore all of her medals to the press conference and, when she got up, clanked them on the microphone. She was much more graceful on court, scoring 14 points for the balanced U.S. attack.

Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and about half the U.S. men's team were in attendance. They play in their own gold-medal final Sunday against Spain (2:30 p.m. Beijing time, 2:30 a.m. U.S. time on the East Coast).

U.S. men's hoops advances to gold medal game

The U.S. men's basketball team has moved onto the gold-medal game here with relative ease -- again.

The men jumped out to a huge early lead against Argentina. At one point, the U.S. led 16-4 and Argentina had committed six turnovers. Argentina got untracked in the second quarter, cutting the U.S. lead down to nine at halftime.

But then the "Redeem Team" got interested again, had a big third quarter and led by a comfortable 20 or so points throughout the fourth quarter. The final score was 101-81.

The U.S. will play Spain in the gold-medal final -- the Spaniards beat Lithuania in the other semifinal. That game will be at 2:30 p.m. in Beijing Sunday, which translates to 2:30 a.m. Sunday in the U.S. Unless Pau Gasol goes for about 40 for Spain, it's hard to imagine the Americans losing -- they have played a wonderful tournament under Coach Mike Krzyzewski so far.

Were the Chinese gymnasts too young?

This is the controversy just won't go away. Gymnasts must turn 16 in 2008 -- or already be at least 16 -- to compete in these Olympics. But various online and media reports have said that at least a couple of the Chinese gymnasts weren't old enough who competed here, and China's team success with those gymnasts has fanned the flames of discontent.

There are some official-sounding Olympic investigations going on at the moment, and the U.S. contingent is officially welcoming that, saying "an investigation would help bring closure to the issue and remove any cloud of speculation from this competition."

But it sounds like the Chinese have all their documents in order -- passports and so on. And no, it doesn't count for you to watch the Chinese gymnasts on TV and say "they look about 12 years old, don't they?"

Yes, some of them do. And yes, some of it sounds suspicious. But I don't think any medals are ultimately going to end up being taken away from anybody for this.

U.S. volleyball continues to rock

Score it two gold medals down and two to go for the U.S. Volleyball teams, which arguably are having the best Olympics of any of the American squads.

The U.S. won the men's beach volleyball final Friday here in Beijing to go along with the women's gold in the same sport. Now both the men's and women's indoor teams have advanced to their respective finals, which neither were expected to do. They are each assured of at least a silver medal.

Relay blues for Shelby's Padgett

Can you believe that BOTH the U.S. men's and women's 4x100 relay teams dropped the baton on the same night in the preliminaries of their races?

Those weren't even the finals. The U.S. only had to make the top three in its heat. All they had to do was NOT drop the baton. Yet they did.

Who do I feel most sorry for in this scenario? Probably Shelby's Travis Padgett, who now stars at track at Clemson.

Padgett made the Olympic team only in the relay, missing a spot in the regular 100-meter dash by .01 of a second in the U.S. Trials. So he waits around the whole Olympics to run the relay, then he does his part, executes a clean handoff and runs fast in an early leg.... and then his teammates let him down.

No final. No medal.