Flashback: A look at the highlights of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing

They came. They competed. They conquered. And now they’re gone. Hard to believe that last two weeks were a culmination of almost seven years of preparation, and now it’s all over. But before we gear up for life in the post-Olympics era, we’d like to take a look back on the last two weeks and reminisce over the good, the bad, and the oh-so-tacky.

Most inspiring moments (athletic)

Michael Phelps: The American swimming sensation’s eight gold medals have been lauded to high heaven, and deservedly so – particularly in light of his millisecond win the 200-meter butterfly.

Almost everything that Usain Bolt did. Michael Phelps may have won more medals and broken more world records, but the Jamaican sensation stole the limelight by being way cooler. Example: Phelps' daily diet was reported to include six times the calories of that of a normal grown man, while Bolt, on the day of the 100m final, admitted that the secret to his success were chicken nuggets, followed by a sleep, followed by more chicken nuggets, followed by him smashing the world record.

China’s 51 gold medals: Sure not all of them were in high-profile events, and some may even still be in contention, but considering how far the PRC has come since re-joining the Olympics in 1984, we are indeed impressed.

Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva: Three hours of athletics on August 18 concluded with one woman, already the gold medalist, talking to herself incessantly in front of tens of thousands of people and breaking the world record at the third attempt. What she said of the trash talking silver medalist (who had boasted about "kicking some Russian butt" before the event) – “she should know her place” – was but icing on the cake.

The taekwondo athlete from Chinese Taipei who injured her knee and fought through a few matches on one leg, very nearly finishing in third place: She'll probably be limping through the rest of her life after that, but it was truly an "Olympic spirit" moment.

Young Tom Daley diving at the age of 14 (for the UK).

Matthias Steiner (a German weightlifter) who carried a picture of his wife up to the podium and kissed it, when receiving his gold medal (we’re still blubbing over it now).

Sitting at the stunning Triathlon venue, watching the athletes work their arses off, soaking up the sun, drinking beer, and ... uh... eating dried noodles. The only thing that would make the experience sheer perfection would have been decent scran.

Watching the BMX races ... totally by accident, mind you, but it was utterly superb.

Most awe-inspiring moments (non-athletic)

Georgian and Russian athletes embracing each other on the podium.

The LED drum countdown during the Opening Ceremony - kitsch aside, it was pretty awesome.

The fireworks: China, after all, invented them.

The aerial views of the Olympic complex at night – we half expected to see the Millennium Falcon cruise by.

Most cringeworthy

Watching Jimmy Page and Leona Lewis massacre "Whole Lotta Love" – who would have thought a song about intense, deep copulation could be used as a preamble for the London Games?

Comparing the cheese-to-bile quotients of NBC/CNN/BBC/CCTVs’ Olympic coverage.

Angel Matos: Outraged at being disqualified for taking over a minute to have an injury treated (as stipulated in Olympic regulations), Cuban taekwondo star Matos kicked the Swedish referee in the face. Silly man.

The weather during the first few days – good thing those skies turned blue. Gebre Selassie eat your heart out!

One of our Chinese editors went to the Dutch House and saw only two entrances: one for foreigners and one for Chinese with invitations (they were checking for passports at the door). So were we to presume that Chinese people were not allowed to enter without an invitation? Still another of our interns reports that her Chinese friends said that Houhai was inaccessible to them on Sunday evening (they were told by security that “Chinese could not get in,” even as the two foreigners in their group, a Brit and an Austrian, were let in). Not sure what was going on there (we presume it had something to do with the fireworks), but it all sounds pretty fishy to us.

Biggest reality check

All those "No fun" Olympics media reports – we actually had a blast.

Reading on Beijing Boyce about Michael Phelps repeatedly screaming "Dirk in the House!" upon seeing Dallas Mavericks/German National team star Dirk Nowitzki arrive at China Doll (a not-so-sober reminder that Phelps is, after all, much like any 23-year-old at any given nightclub).

Us, when the cars come back and the factories start up again.

Biggest chuckles

Fuwas (the inflatable ones): Admittedly they were cute. Especially when they fell over, as they often did, which meant that scores of cheerleaders had to abandon their booty shakin' for a good 20 minutes to haul them upright. Perhaps the most surreal Fuwa moment was when Jing Jing deflated at the Water Cube. Not even the shrieks of terrified children made the spectacle any less funny.

Horses on drugs.

Watching the Beijinger Dining Editor Jessica Wang explain on NBC’s Today Show that Chivas and Green Tea is "refreshing."

The scrum after Beckham kicked the ball ten feet from the London Bus, and the volunteers killing each other trying to get it.

The Relay Races ... they were absolutely hilarious

Usain Bolt: Not content with eating the diet of the unemployed, being the best dancer at the Olympics and walking past his own world record in the 100-yard dash, he also vexed Kriss Akabussi. Totally irie.

Restarts in wrestling: We have the greatest respect for someone who can concentrate on winning a medal when we’d be worried about getting tickled by a man in a leotard.

Best Olympic Hotspots

Club Bud (for those who managed to wangle themselves an invite, at least): Free-flow Budweiser all night (yes, okay, it was Budweiser, but it was free. And at that price, we're not complaining).

China Doll: If you didn't mind the mega queues that accumulated towards the end of the Olympics, China Doll was the place to go to catch the world's finest athletes get drunk for the first time since Athens, 2004.

Sanlitun: They took away the outdoor seating, but couldn't take away the party atmosphere of the street – people stood, sat, and slept there regardless.

Houhai: The hordes did indeed descend …

The McDonald’s restaurants at the Olympic greens: Waiting in those queues was an Olympic event unto itself.

We’ll Miss

RMB 5 Beer: The only saving grace of the otherwise terrible food and beverage options on offer at Olympic venues.

Traffic: Or, more precisely, the lack thereof.

Sunlight.

We definitely won't miss

Scalpers: Not budging from 3000 RMB when the face value is 80 RMB seems greedy. I never thought it would be true but the locals made the foreign touts look reasonable, which they are not.

The Special Olympic Lane: For those envy-filled times we were actually caught in a bottleneck or made to wait as a motorcade sped past.

Subway security checks: Probably very necessary, but rather annoying at rush hour.

Biggest disappointments

Liu Xiang's tendon – especially if you’re a marketing executive at Coca-Cola, Nike, Visa, Lenovo, Amway, China Mobile, Cadillac, and Ping An Insurance.

Boxing: The judging was too tight for armchair fight fans, which led more than one defeated boxer to storm out of the ring in disgust and their fans to boo the purported winners – not exactly a great advert for the noble art, nor was the alleged lewd behavior of Britain's gypsy hard-man in the team hotel.

The food. Blech.

CCTV's coverage of the world's biggest sporting event was summed up on the final day of athletics at the Bird's Nest. Instead of tuning into a session that included women's high jump finals, the men's 1,500m final, and both the men’s and women’s 4x400m finals, they showed a rerun of the previous day's kayaking. Nice.

London House: Mayor of London Boris Johnson claimed that the 2012 London Olympics would be the most inclusive Olympics of all time. This was before retreating into the fortress that was the London 2012 "hospitality" suite that wasn't open to anyone other than stuffy IOC officials, politicians and their cronies, a smattering of journalists and British athletes. Cheers, guys.

Remains to be seen

From one of our Brit editors: “London is urban and edgy, we've got graffiti logos and street dance and Leona Lewis. No, we've got a knife-wielding underclass and a failing welfare state. The Olympics might prove that Britain is now a developing country. On the plus side though we do have Leona Lewis.”