BEIJING – At Sunday's Closing Ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, the keynote speeches were stuffed with words like unity and togetherness and solidarity. While that wasn't surprising at an event that promotes shared ideals, it didn't reflect what made these Winter Games unique.
The Beijing Games were ushered out the same way they began: from a safe distance and behind a mask. Like the Opening Ceremony 16 days earlier, the Closing Ceremony ended with a barrage of fireworks at the Bird's Nest stadium. The mood was just as celebratory, but this time, it felt more like a sigh of relief.
The highly restrictive "closed loop'' functioned as intended, with 1.8 million COVID tests producing only 437 positive results. It also left these Olympics feeling strangely isolated, separated from the rest of this massive city by concrete barricades and metal fencing.
