Looking back fondly on the Beijing Olympics

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BEIJING -- Hugh McCutcheon watched the celebration and put his hands to his head and, suddenly, started to weep. He left the court, tears streaming down his cheeks, the joy of victory overcome by the pain of real life.Two weeks earlier, his father-in-law had been stabbed to death in Beijing. Now his United States men's volleyball team was celebrating Olympic gold.Your heart ached, just watching. Ached and swelled with pride, too.That is the Olympics. That is why we will miss it now that it's done.Here's a guy you never heard of, coaching a sport you never cared about, and he touches you, and me, and everyone who hears his tale.No, we aren't all going through exactly what McCutcheon went through these last two weeks. But as humans, we will. We'll struggle. We'll grieve. We'll suffer disappointment and heartbreaking loss.So we pull for McCutcheon in a way we don't necessarily pull for our standard-issue sports stars. We pull for other Olympians, too.Oksana Chusovitina is a 33-year-old gymnast who returned to compete for Germany to raise money for her 9-year-old son. He has leukemia. Who ever heard of a 33-year-old gymnast? Chusovitina won a silver medal on the vault.Shawn Johnson is one of the American gymnasts who lost the gold to the Chinese in the team competition. When asked if the Chinese were too young to compete, Johnson didn't hesitate."I've looked up to the Chinese ever since I was little," she said. "I could never have anything bad to say about them because I respect them totally."Johnson is 16, mind you. And had the grace to say something like that. When she finally won a gold on the balance beam, the Chinese roared and roared."I'll never forget these two weeks," said Johnson.How could she? How could any of us?It was the Olympics of Michael Phelps, the Olympics of Usain Bolt, the Olympics that reminded us how much fun the Olympics could be.Not long ago, we were skeptical. Some Americans cyclists got off the plane in Beijing wearing masks. The air would ruin the games. Or steroids would ruin the games. Or censorship, or the time difference, or NBC, or something.Then along came Michael Phelps and you couldn't leave your TV. The guy was incredible. An authentic American tale. A child of divorce, a kid with ADHD. He grew up to win eight gold medals in Beijing, one more than Mark Spitz won in Munich in 1972. What a thrilling ride it was, too. The impossibly close relay. The even closer 100 butterfly. Look at the tape, and you still can't figure out how he won that won that one. He was an Olympian for the ages. We'd never see anything like that again. Until the next week, that is, when in burst Usain Bolt, or Lightning Bolt, which is the name he prefers. Bolt struck once, then twice, then three times. He won the 100, the 200 and the 400 relay in world record times. "Michael Phelps is in water, I am on the track," he said, though maybe you'd already figured that out. If Phelps was cool, Bolt was white hot. If Phelps was understated, Bolt was over the top. Which guy did you like better? Geez, wasn't it nice to have the choice? The greatest swimmer ever or the greatest sprinter ever? The man who knocked off Michael Johnson or the man who knocked off Spitz?This is how these Games will be remembered, for those two eye-popping stars. And for Beijing, the host city, which was eye-popping, too. No Olympics has been better organized. No Olympics has had better facilities or more helpful, smiling volunteers. The Opening and Closing Ceremonies were jaw-dropping. The buses ran on time. It was an absolutely fabulous party thrown by the Chinese. But it's hard not to have some misgivings about how it was all done. Fake fireworks? Fake singers? Fake breezes for the flags?Was this real or some fantasy created by the Chinese central government? Were we living in a land of make-believe?The Chinese government invited people to apply for licenses to protest. Then they arrested some who did. How to square that with the public celebration of peace and understanding? One world, one dream, one year in a labor camp?The hope is that the Olympics will speed the process of change in China, but maybe even that's unfair. The Super Bowl doesn't change the world. The World Series doesn't bring us peace. Isn't it enough that the last couple weeks have been indisputably fun?India got to celebrate a gold medal in shooting and Togo got to celebrate a bronze medal in kayak. Thailand got to celebrate a gold in weightlifting by - ready? -- Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon.She wasn't always named Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon, mind you. She used to be known as Charpim Kantatian. But after some rough performances, she consulted a fortune teller. The fortune teller advised her to change her name.Hence, Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon. It sounds like it's spelled. Sure enough, Jaroenrattanatarakoon won gold. So she really did make a name for herself.As did Gerd Canter, a discus thrower from Estonia. He was so thrilled with his gold medal, he got down in the blocks and sprinted around the track."It's an amazing feeling," said Canter, which is exactly what Kobe Bryant said.Bryant and his teammates on the United States basketball team beat Spain Sunday to recapture the gold. Afterwards, they danced and bumped and couldn't stop smiling for the better part of an hour. The Olympics can make even hardened pros act like kids. Hardened fans, too.Maybe that's the greatest gift of these Games. The way they've made us feel. When's the last time all of America gathered around the same television set? When's the last time we all pulled for the same things? We all pulled for Henry Cejudo, the son of an illegal immigrant. We all pulled for Shawn Johnson and for Phelps. There's no blue America or red America when we watch the Olympics. There's just America, home of the free. That's over now, too. The Democratic and Republican conventions are on their way. Then the debates, then the election. You support yours and I'll support mine. It's the way of the world, of course. The Olympics might inspire us, but they aren't meant to last. We have work to get back to. We have the business of real life. Hugh McCutcheon understands this as well as anyone. After spending a moment to collect himself Sunday, he finally emerged to rejoin his volleyball team. They had their golds. They had their memories, too."We need to get home and get on with it," he said. "Our work here is done."(Contact Geoff Calkins of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., at calkins(at)commercialappeal.com.)