BEIJING'S Olympic Games closed last night with a show as spectacular as the stadium in which it was held.

Uncontrollable celebration amidst a blaze of colour marked the end of an extravaganza which might be recorded as the mother of all sports festivals.

But then few expected anything less from a city which has made an unprecedented effort to keep the rest of the world glued to their seats for the last two weeks.

For the weary Chinese there were tears of relief.

They were similar to the tears that have been the hallmark of these Games . . . tears of joy, tears of exasperation, tears of distress.

The Olympics continued to carry the tag of 'the greatest show in earth", and since the Opening 16 days' ago they have shown they might also be the most emotional.

Football's World Cup has been equally riveting and watched by as many around the globe. But it would be difficult to rival the Games in terms of passion and personal triumph.

Beijing demonstrated that, for the most part, the Olympics is about ordinary people with extraordinary talent . . . competition in its purest form.

Guts, determination – and heartache – have been part and parcel of almost every event.

An exhausted Gary Reed, the Canadian 800 metres runner who missed out on a medal by just 12 hundreths of a second on Saturday night, might have been speaking for all of the athletes when he despaired: "I left it all out there. It's all on the track. There's nothing more."

For once tennis, basketball and football were made to play second fiddle.

Rafael Nadal, Kobe Bryant and Lionel Messie were left to bask in their glory at another place at another time.

For the gymnasts, the divers, the weightlifters, the triathletes, the swimmers, the high jumpers, long jumpers, javelin throwers, and every other athlete who made their mark in the so-called minority sports, this was their stage and all about how they excelled.

As the Games finished, a 16-year-old gymnast and a 61-year-old equestrian prepared to fly home with a medal dangling round their neck.

Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt will return weighed down by gold.

Phelps is already being called the 'billion dollar man' ahead of the multitude of endorsements he can expect, and Bolt should receive the same.

And few would begrudge them that fortune after they inspired so many who aspire to reach similar heights.

More than 21,000 jounalists from more than 200 countries invaded Beijing, the most to attend any previous sports event.

But still there have been many untold stories. Indeed, almost every athlete will leave with their own.

It's this that has set the Olympics apart from the high profile professional games which too often make the headlines for the wrong reason.

While Beijing has endured a few unsavoury moments, they've been few and far apart. In general, sportsmanship has been a key word with gamesmanship rarely witnessed.

London mayor Boris Johnson, whose city host the next Games in four years' time, said: "We'll match Beijing, but in our own way."

And the English capital signalled its intentions last night with the 'End it like Beckham' show, football's golden boy booting a ball into the crowd from a double-decker bus.

It might have been fitting that the final track and field event on Saturday night saw Belgian high jumper Tia Hellebaut – an unfamiliar name with most sports fans – set a new Olympic record of 2.05 metres to take the gold.

Now London needs to take the bar a notch even higher.

It will be a tall order.