BEIJING -- The OIympic Green returned to being a vast, desolate space Monday.

All the security fencing remained in place, limiting access to accredited people -- media clearing out of the Main Press Center, Olympic organizing committee staff and volunteers.

There weren't many of those people out and about as I walked around many of the venues, giving myself a final look.

In fact, there was so little human or vehicle noise that an odd call and antiphon resonated across great distances:  the hum of cicadas, answered by the beep-beep-beep signals for the visually impaired at traffic lights.

While the volunteers remained as resolutely helpful and friendly as they had been during the Olympics, there was backsliding in other areas.

One worker openly defied the anti-spitting campaign Beijing had run for a year, and cigarette butts lay on the ground.

The place briefly will come back to life when the Paralympic Games begin their 12-day run on Sept. 6, and the exterior surface of the Water Cube still glowed with its changing color scheme Monday night.

But the Bird's Nest no longer shone red as it had when its interior walls were bathed in light.  The cauldron holding the Olympic flame was snuffed out Sunday, and the building was a looming, grayish hulk.

It was as if the energy that filled it for two ceremonies and nine days of track and field rather than electricity had been the light source.

That energy is gone forever.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo:  A worker takes a nap at the Bird's Nest, with the Olympic flame caldron in the background, a day after the closing ceremony for the Beijing Olympics. Credit: Ng Han Guan / Associated Press

BEIJING -- Sunday night and today have been kind of like the last day of school. Everyone is cleaning up and packing. Editors and writers were working last night, some with wine glasses on their desks. People from different news organizations were hugging each other and saying goodbye.

When they get home and return to their regular beats, they'll be at each other's throats -- as they sometimes were here. But for now, the Beijing Olympic motto -- One World, One Dream -- reigns.

Everybody is wild about the volunteers, and people are getting teary-eyed saying goodbye to them. Everybody wants to go, but no one wants to leave.

One colleague of mine, who has covered more Olympics than he cares to remember, joined other writers in running a lap around the track after the final race Saturday, then became very emotional when he realized what that lap signified: the end of the Games.

"That was four years of my life," he said.

Yet he still doesn't want to go home.

-- Kevin Baxter

Photo: Soldiers stand outside the Bird's Nest, otherwise known as the National Stadium, during the closing ceremony at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Sunday. Credit: Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times.                         

BEIJING -- Here's the 10 a.m. Monday view from PhilCam's perch, high above Beijing's Olympic Green.

And here is the first post-Olympics report from PhilCam operator and blogger Philip Hersh: "Day after. Monday, 10 am.  Torch out.  Gunk returning to air."

Here's another shot from PhilCam's perch, which is 14 stories above the Olympic Green.

The Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau website has relevant air pollution data. The Chaoyang District is home to the Olympic Green, where much of the Olympic action was.

BEIJING -- Speaking to reporters as the Beijing Olympic Games wound down, IOC President Jacques Rogge said that China and the citizens of Beijing will be far better off thanks to the Games. Declaring that none of the stadiums or buildings will become "white elephants" to the city, that the improvements to the airport and the subway will be bright spots for locals, Rogge said the legacy of these Games will be a positive one for the Chinese.

As far as the athletes and nations went, it was a huge success, according to the official website of the Olympic movement, olympic.org:

A record 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) sent athletes to China, and a record 87 NOCs joined the medal count.

The competitors established 43 world records and 132 Olympic records, although some lasted only until the next heat.

Meanwhile, the U.S. cleaned up in swimming, on the basketball court, in both arenas of volleyball, in several areas of track and field and, most important, in the Nielson ratings.

-- Tony Pierce

Just as England once lived under the Tudor, China once lived under the Ming and the American League East once lived under the Torre, we earthlings live under a dynasty these days.

It’s a benevolent dynasty, the Bahamas dynasty -- they do let us come visit their islands and serve us drinks with tiny umbrellas sticking out of them -- until it comes to the quadrennial test known as the Olympics, when they fluster the rest of us again.

The rest of the world tried everything we could to overthrow the Athens 2004 kings and queens in the crucial, vital-to-life, telltale Medals Per Capita ranking. We sent our Australia, runner-up in Athens with its population of just 20,600,856 and its vast collection of studs and studesses. We proposed Armenia, wrestling and weightlifting with the best from a population shy of three million.

We offered Slovenia, No. 5 in Athens, and we sent in Jamaica, No. 6 in Athens with its bolting Bolt and other track prowess, and we tried New Zealand, hearty archipelago, and as it concluded we even summoned Iceland with its 304,367 population and its gaudy handball team. Mongolia, a nation with cold weather and disagreeable soil, showed it mettle with two early medals and then, on Sunday, two boxing medals, from Serdanka Purevdorj (silver) and Badar-Uugan Enkhbat (gold). That made four for 3 million hardy people and made an impression.

BEIJING -- By the numbers, it wasn't all that bad for USA Track & Field.

Yes, U.S. runners botched baton exchanges in both sprint relays, throwing away two almost certain medals.

Yes, only four of the 22 U.S. men in field events (throws and jumps) made the finals, and three were in one event, the shot put.

Yes, Bernard Lagat, the man of a million excuses, flopped in both the 1,500 (no final) and 5,000 (ninth), the events in which he was the reigning world champion.  He cited an Achilles tendon injury after the 1,500, then mentioned a virus after the 5,000 -- this from the man who covered up the date he became a U.S. citizen so he could still compete in the 2004 Olympics for Kenya.

For all that, the U.S. had 23 medals -- seven gold, nine silver, seven bronze.  That is just one gold and two total medals fewer than Athens, which had been the best U.S. performance since 1992.

Russia was next with 18 medals, six gold.

Jamaica swept the sprints, and Usain Bolt was not only the star of the track competition (100, 200 and sprint relay golds, all with world records), but in most of the world, he was the star of the Olympics, because far more countries care about track than swimming. 

Kenya had a particularly satisfying performance, capped by Samuel Wansiru's marathon win Sunday in Olympic record time.  That gave a country renowned for distance running its first Olympic gold in the marathon.  Earlier, Kenyan women had won their first Olympic golds, in the 800 (Pamela Jelimo) and 1,500 (Nancy Langat).

Once again, Ethiopia dominated track distance running.  Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba won the 5,000 and 10,000.

For many of these athletes, the season continues full force, with the biggest one-day meet in the world, the Zurich Weltklasse, taking place Friday.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Usain Bolt acknowledges the cheers of the crowd after helping Jamaica win the men's 400-meter relay in world-record time. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

BEIJING -- Most Americans I’ve spoken to were anxious to get back to their homes and families, but in no way was this a poor reflection of their time in China. Everyone I spoke to went on about how hospitable everyone in China has been. It’s understandable that after a couple of weeks away that feeling of homesickness starts to set in.

It was a concern of mine that the politics and protests leading up to the Games would heighten during the competitions. It didn’t, and I’m glad. My concern was that these issues would distract us from the athletes  who don’t have anything to do with politics, the athletes who have dedicated their lives to this endeavor, the athletes who earned our attention and respect for the days of the Olympic Games.

Job well done to the people of China.

Now, I'm not going to say that Bill Plaschke is getting old -- actually I could, because I'm pushing 50 and he's got a few years on me, I believe -- but you need to check out his farewell video from the Great Wall.

Here's the video, complete with Bill huffing and puffing as if he were an Olympic athlete:

-- Dan Loumena

BEIJING -- The U.S. men's water polo team claimed the silver medal Sunday after losing to Hungary, 14-10, in the gold medal match.

Tony Azevedo, a three-time Olympian from Long Beach, led the U.S. offense with four goals while Layne Beaubien of Coronado added a pair.

It is the third men's water polo silver medal for the U.S. team and the first since the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games. It also is the sixth men's medal won by the United States (silver in 1984, 1988 and 2008 and bronze in 1924, 1932 and 1972).

The silver finalizes the medal count for Team USA at the Beijing Games with 110, the most it has won at a full-participation Olympic Games, according to the U.S. Olympic Committee. The 36 gold medals won by the United States matches the number received at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

-- Debbie Goffa

Photo: Tony Azevedo gets to the ball before Tamas Kasas of Hungary during the gold medal match. Credit: Daniel Dal Zennaro / EPA

BEIJING -- Saturday's taekwondo bronze-medal match packed extra punch after Angel Valodia Matos of Cuba deliberately kicked the referee in the face after being disqualified for taking too much time for an injury.

Matos was winning 3-2 against Arman Chilmanov of Kazakhstan, with 1:02 left in the second round, when he fell to the mat after being hit. Matos sat there, awaiting medical attention but was disqualified when he sat for longer than the allowed one minute.

Matos almost immediately charged Swedish referee Chakir Chelbat, who required stitches for a cut lip. The World Taekwondo Federation took immediate steps to place a lifetime ban on Matos. Chilmanov was declared the winner.

It isn't the first time that the sport has been marred by angry scenes at an Olympics. At the 2004 Games in Athens, there was a storm of protests over refereeing decisions.

Taekwondo survived one vote by the International Olympic Committee when it came time to trim the number of sports, but it faces another vote next year as officials for cricket, rugby, golf and karate push for their sports to be included.

"I feel this can be part of our growing pain," said World Taekwondo Federation chief Yang Jin-Suk. "With your blessings, we will overcome all the difficulties. We're going to show what the true taekwondo is down the road."

-- Debbie Goffa

Photo: After being disqualified, Angel Valodia Matos of Cuba launches a kick against referee Chakir Chelbat. Credit: Behrouz Mehri / AFP / Getty Images

BEIJING -- The U.S. men's basketball team survived a rally by Spain to win the gold medal Sunday, 118-107.

Spain had closed to within two, 91-89, early in the fourth quarter, but the U.S. responded with a 27-18 surge to close out the victory.

Dwyane Wade led the U.S. offense with 27 points. Four other U.S. players reached double figures: Kobe Bryant contributed 20, LeBron James had 14, and Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul each scored 13.

The Lakers' Pau Gasol had 21 points for Spain.

The medal is the 109th of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games for Team USA, its most in a full-participation Olympic Games. The gold medal is the 36th for the United States in Beijing, matching the total received at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

-- Debbie Goffa

Photo: Kobe Bryant celebrates the victory over Spain for the gold medal. Credit: Rungroj Yongrit / EPA

BEIJING -- Roger Federer gave an interview that was posted on the U.S. Open website. He was asked about his Olympic gold medal in doubles.

Here is what Roger had to say:

"Umm, well, I mean, some people ask me that, you know, if sort of if it made up for losing the singles, but it's completely irrelevant because it's two completely different things. I had hoped, you know, to make gold in singles and maybe in doubles, and once I lost  the singles I right away played doubles. So there was no time really to be disappointed about it, even though that was the big goal of the season for me as well.

"Like winning Wimbledon and then winning the Olympic gold. So I still got my Olympic gold, but in doubles. Honestly the celebration was much more intense. It was very different to winning alone on a tennis court. You might have heard that. So for me it was very special winning with my teammate."

He also was asked whether losing the No. 1 ranking takes the pressure off and whether the time difference between New York and Beijing will make for a difficult adjustment. U.S. Open play begins this week.

-- Lisa Dillman

Photo: Roger Federer, right, and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland celebrate after winning Olympic gold in the men's doubles. Credit: Philippe Huguen / AFP / Getty Images

BEIJING -- The U.S. men's volleyball team began the Olympics in tragedy but ended it by winning the gold medal after beating Brazil,  20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-23, Sunday.

It was the first gold for the U.S. men's team since 1988.

It is the third Olympic gold medal won by the U.S. men's team after claiming gold in 1984 and 1988. They also won a bronze medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

The Games, however, began with tragedy when the father-in-law of U.S. Coach Hugh McCutcheon was stabbed to death while visiting a Beijing tourist site. McCutcheon's mother-in-law also was attacked but survived.

-- Debbie Goffa

Photo: Ryan Millar kisses a poster of his son Max after beating Brazil in their men's volleyball gold-medal match. Credit: Koji Sasahara / Associated Press

BEIJING -- Ryan Hall had a plan heading into Sunday's marathon. An aggressive one, he thought.

"I was running three minutes per kilometer," said the Olympic Trials champion from Big Bear, who finished 10th in 2 hours 12 minutes and 33 seconds. "That was plenty fast."

Fast enough to break the Olympic record by more than three minutes, in fact. But not nearly fast enough to remain competitive in Sunday's race, which Kenya's Samuel Wansiru won in 2:06:32.

""It was insane," said Hall of the pace.

The lead pack passed five kilometers in 14:34, fast enough to win last week's women's 5,000 meters on the track by more than a minute. Yet these guys still had 23 miles to go.

"You're just hoping the crowd will come back. Hoping that guys will drop out or something," Hall said.

Nearly a quarter of the field did. But most of those runners were behind Hall, not in front of him. So while he didn't leave Beijing with a medal Hall, 25, still got a lot out of the race, which was just his fourth marathon.

"I'm happy with the effort. I gave 100 percent of what I had today," he said. "I did the best I could. Sometimes everything clicks and it goes great. And sometimes it doesn't. So you just take what you get on the day and do the best you can.

"I'm going to take a break [now]. I need to work on some things if I'm going to be competitive with these guys."

-- Kevin Baxter

Photo: U.S. marathoner Ryan Hall nears the finish line. Credit: Mark Dadswell / Getty Images

BEIJING -– On the one hand, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said in a Sunday morning press conference that Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps were the icons of the 2008 Olympics.

On the other, Rogge stubbornly stuck to his earlier criticism that Bolt's exuberant celebration of his victories in the 100 and 200 meters was disrespectful to other competitors.

Both the chair of the IOC athletes commission, Olympic sprint medalist Frankie Fredericks of Namibia, and the president of the international track federation, Lamine Diack of Senegal, since have said they found nothing unacceptable about Bolt's behavior.

Rogge's defense of his earlier statement about Bolt sounded more than a little like colonial-era patronizing of a young black athlete from a developing country. Rogge is white and old enough, 66, to remember when his country, Belgium, was a colonial landlord in Africa.

"The Bolt issue, I take with a big smile,'' Rogge said. "I gave Usain Bolt what I think is fatherly advice, and I stand by what I said.

"He should show more respect for his opponents.  He is a young man of 22.  He has time to mature.''

Asked what moved him most in these Olympics, Rogge cited the attitude of U.S. shooter Matt Emmons in accepting a heartbreaking defeat on his final shot for the second straight Summer Games -– but while the IOC president knew the details of the story, he admitted he had forgotten Emmons' name.

"What moved me is the attitude of this man, that 'this is a big failure, but I will take responsibility, and I'll come back and win gold,' '' Rogge said. "I think this is the true spirit of the Olympic Games.

"The Games is not only about winning. It is about the struggle of the athlete every day and having this resilience to say 'I will not give up, I will come back.'''

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: IOC President Jacques Rogge, center, watches the final of the men's beach volleyball competition in which Americans Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers beat Fabio Magalhaes and Marcio Araujo of Brazil. Credit: Peter Parks / AFP / Getty Images

BEIJING -- One thing that may have been missed after the U.S. softball players were awarded their silver medals was a picture of a different kind of ceremony.

Five players left their cleats on home plate, symbolizing their retirement from USA Softball.

Three of them are from the Los Angeles area: Lovieanne Jung of Fountain Valley, Laura Berg of Santa Fe Springs and Crystl Bustos of Canyon Country.

Joining them were Tairia Flowers of Tucson, Ariz., and Kelly Kretschman of Indian Harbour Springs, Fla.

The U.S. loss to Japan marked the final time softball will be played at the Olympics.

-- Debbie Goffa

Photo of the cleats on home plate by Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images

BEIJING -- Another sunny day, taken at 10 a.m. Sunday.

Wish I had PhilCam of last night's sunset, with orange sky.  Prettiest of the Games.

-- Philip Hersh

BEIJING -- Samuel Kamau Wansiru on Sunday became the first Kenyan to win an Olympic marathon.

Running past crowds of people, three to four deep in many spots along the streets of Beijing, the 21-year-old covered the 26.2-mile course in an Olympic record of 2 hours, 6 minutes, 32 seconds.

Jaouad Gharib of Morocco won silver in 2:07.16. Ethiopian Tsegay Kebede took the bronze in 2:10.00.

Ryan Hall of Big Bear came in 10th with a time of 2:12.33.

-- Debbie Goffa

*Updated with Ryan Hall's finish time.

Photo: Kenya's Samuel Wansiru crosses the finish line to win gold in the men's marathon. Credit: Itsuo Inouye / Associated Press

For two heaving weeks, you could sense a planet cringing over the prospect that its Godzilla Olympic nation, the Bahamas, would get more than one medal and put the old chokehold on the vital Medals Per Capita proceedings.

Australia turned up in Beijing muscular as ever. Armenia surfaced and spent five days at No. 1. New Zealand had banner Beijing Games and menaced. Here came Slovenia, of course. Jamaica became a blur on the track and a Zeus in the standings. The Bahamas surfaced with a first medal as a fur-flying race loomed.

And as the final weekend dawned, up popped a name so lyrical to Medals Per Capita ears that the mere thought of it constitutes a Medals Per Capita dreamscape.

Iceland.

Why, that’s Medals Per Capita poetry.

An immediate MPC darling, Iceland clinched a medal Friday by reaching the team handball final in a convulsive upset of Spain that nobody outside of Reykjavik saw coming. Iceland’s president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, attended the match and called it the biggest climax in Icelandic athletic history. Iceland’s first lady, Dorrit Moussaieff, gave a 10-minute pre-match shoulder massage to player Logi Geirsson, Reuters reported, surely one of the coolest moments in Medals Per Capita history, Olympic history, sports history and first-lady history.

"Before the game we form a ring and take each other’s hands like the Vikings did 500 years ago," Geirsson said in the Reuters article. "And we say we’re going out on a ship to fight for our lives."

And we say at MPC headquarters, please get me a tissue, given such runaway appeal plus an understated population of 304,367 people with thick skin. Once those medals go onto Icelandic handball necks, MPC reckoned on Saturday morning, that would make Iceland a late entry at No. 2 in the standings, behind only Jamaica, which then added an 11th track medal (women’s 4-x-100) to whittle its MPC rating to an imposing 254,939 (one medal for every 254,939 Jamaicans).

Right about then, though, seeing such insurrection from everywhere, the Athens champion the Bahamas finally decided it had to bring the kibosh. Its 4-x-400-meter relay team of Andretti Bain, Andrae Williams, Michael Mathieu and Christopher Brown came through in 2:58.03, easily beating everybody but the United States.

That lifted the Bahamian medal total to two, one medal for every 153,725 Bahamians, with no word on whether that includes those using it as a tax shelter.

With one day to go, that out-of-this-world numeral would appear insuperable, unless Jamaica can come up with eight more medals, or unless Australia can get 134 more, or unless China can find about 9,000.

Or unless Iceland, beyond handball glory, could find just one.

Medals Per Capita minutiae after Saturday after the jump...

BEIJING -- This has been the Olympics of order and regimentation, with brilliant organization but such a concern for doing things just so, for making sure security was airtight, that the Chinese success as 2008 Olympic host has sometimes made the Games seem soulless.

So I was a little hesitant about even trying to relive a moment that always had provided me with a wonderful last memory.

Since the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona, a few U.S. reporters have taken what now is a traditional lap around the Olympic Stadium track late on the night the track and field competition ends.

When I sized up the situation for taking the lap Saturday night at the Bird's Nest, I saw Chinese police approaching a few people who were posing at the finish line.  But the police let the photo session continue, so my colleague Tim Layden (in photo, center) of Sports Illustrated and I (at left) walked out of the stands onto the track and began walking around.

No one stopped us, so Tim went back to get another colleague, Jere Longman (right) of the New York Times, who had joined us for the lap in previous Olympics.

Tim and Jere had jogged one lap around the track, with volunteers jogging bemusedly alongside, before I joined them for a second lap.  By the time we finished, the police were taking pictures for others who were doing the same thing.

From the track, the Bird's Nest was even more stunning and imposing than it seemed from our seats only a few rows up in the stands.  I wondered if any of the runners who had toured the track considerably faster had found the time to be as overwhelmed and appreciative of the grandiose  beauty as I was.

It had been a long, hot trudge at times during  nine days of work at the Bird's Nest.

In the 400 meters on the night before the closing ceremony, all that faded away, replaced by the exhilaration of being on the track where Usain Bolt had run faster than any man before him.

It was even better because the Chinese volunteers, police and Games workers had let us do it, smiling at what clearly seemed a little goofy to them, leaving us to drip with sweat and feel  warmer about the 2008 Olympics.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo:  Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune, left, Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated and Jere Longman of the New York Times take a victory lap at the Bird's Nest.