As the Olympics ended in Beijing with a spectacular display of choreography and fireworks, Londoners wondered if their city -- facing budget constraints -- will be spruced up in four years, let alone match Beijing's elaborate opening and closing ceremonies.

China may have been the biggest winner at the Games as organizers called the event exceptional. China disarmed the world with a firm but polite pageant, one that in the end was dominated by athletic achievement instead of politics.

Cutbacks in Olympic sports at U.S. colleges may hinder a valuable repository of Olympic-bound athletes in future competitions. The retreat stems from the dominance of college football, according to some, to the implementation of Title IX, according to others.

China has just held the most lavish Olympic Games ever by a developing nation, the capstone to an extraordinary run of achievements. Now comes the hard part. For a nation that has achieved so much, China has a surprisingly murky future.

Li Ning, the former Olympian and sportswear tycoon who lit the flame during Beijing's opening ceremonies, shares his thoughts on the meaning of the Beijing Olympics, and what it felt like to perform in front of the world

China has released 10 foreign activists jailed for protesting during the Olympics after the U.S. Embassy criticized Beijing for failing to use the games to show "greater tolerance and openness."

To the rest of the world, he's Michael Phelps. But for most Chinese, he's Maikeer Feierpusi. Like most of the other 10,000 athletes who aren't Chinese, Phelps has been assigned a Chinese name that is used by a vast domestic audience for whom Western names are just so much Greek.

Usain Bolt's historic Olympic victories have provided his shoe sponsor, Puma, with an unexpected burst of publicity on the global stage. And yet the company's immediate reaction is almost the opposite of the sprinter's now-famous celebratory antics.

The Beijing Olympics has been about superlatives: the biggest stadium, the longest torch relay. Tokyo officials have been busy wooing IOC delegates with an entirely different message: Small is beautiful.

Culminating a three-year mission to end years of embarrassment, the U.S. Olympic team survived a huge challenge from Spain, winning 118-107 Sunday in the gold-medal game.

A team struck by the murder of its coach's father-in-law ended its surprise Olympic run Sunday with a 3-1 victory over defending champion Brazil -- a team it was never expected to beat.

Mongolia came to Beijing with no gold medals in a less-than-illustrious Olympic career. Then Tuvshinbayar Naidan won the first medal in judo last week. On Sunday, boxer Badar-Uugan Enkhbat earned the second.

In a country chock-full of bicycles -- and a contingent of top athletes -- some are asking: Where are China's cyclists? A poor showing at the Olympics is hardly indicative of this country's love of bikes.

Beijing's famous Silk Street market remained a major tourist draw during the Summer Games, continuing to sell counterfeit goods as long as they kept out fake Olympic goods.

The U.S. Embassy pressed China to release eight Americans who were detained after pro-Tibet independence protests during the Olympics.

Even after a triumphant Olympics, the disputed age of its female gymnasts is snowballing into an issue that could taint the Beijing Games.

Despite China's success making medal winners, the pressure is building for deep and lasting changes to its state-controlled sports system. The infrastructure is growing too expensive for the state to maintain on its own.

The ancient Chinese sport of cuju, which some historians say is an ancestor of soccer, is enjoying renewed attention as officials try to revive awareness of China's sporting tradition.

Golf's highest powers are making a major push for the game's inclusion in the Olympics. Establishing golf as an Olympic sport, the reasoning goes, would open up spigots of funding for grassroots development in countries where golf is not widely played.

NBC's decision to limit its Olympics footage on its Web site ticked off sports fans and left NBCOlympics.com generating just $5.75 million in video-ad revenue from the Games, according to estimates.

The national director of the U.S. men's basketball team explains his efforts to overhaul the organization and assesses how the so-called "Redeem Team" has performed so far in Beijing.