Word: beijingers
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Could it really be over so quickly? Ever since the International Olympic Committee awarded Beijing the Summer Games in 2001, China had lavished $44 billion on transforming the capital into a city whose time was now. Stadiums were built, entire transportation networks laid out. The areas that couldn't be...
Meanwhile, Chinese athletes - who in Beijing garnered a record 51 gold medals, 15 more then the U.S. - had selflessly trained in sports that much of the local populace hardly knew anything about before the Games. No discipline was too esoteric in the pursuit of national pride. A gold medal in...
But as the days wore on and the number of gold medals won by China's army of athletes piled up, the approval of outsiders seemed to become less important. The Olympics became a show for the locals. It helped, too, that stringent visa regulations had limited the influx of...
The Games are moving on. And Britain, which scored its best medal haul in a century, is a counterpoint to China. London has far less to prove than Beijing. It may have plenty of troubles: a congested city center, topsy-turvy real-estate prices. But lack of confidence is not...
Perhaps, looking back on Beijing 2008, we will judge the Games as the moment that China assumed the role of future superpower. Tokyo '68 was like that, heralding the emergence of what was to become the world's second-largest economy. Or, maybe, like Berlin '36, the Olympics will shine...