COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

Well it’s over — 17 days of magical wonderment and surprise, during which the finest athletes in the world came to compete for their ultimate triumph.

Seventeen glorious days for this proud country, marred by one tragedy. A senseless act of random violence the Chinese as an entire nation still feel personally responsible for.

As I finished packing on departure day, I looked out my hotel window to the dismantling of Olympic history there in my indoor volleyball compound, The Capital Gymnasium.

I did look forward to coming home to my beautiful wife, Patti, and my many friends, but it’s nostalgically sad to see it end nonetheless.

A bit like how you feel when the fair leaves town or at the conclusion of a good book.

The competition in volleyball was fierce. You know by now the men beat Brazil in four sets to capture the gold. Brazil, the gold medal winners in Athens, looked tough, running up a big lead in the first set. The second set they knew they were in a dogfight and found out two sets later we were the bigger breed!

The women lost to Brazil in four to take a silver.

By the way, the outdoor guys, Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser took the gold from Brazil and Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, well, no contest for them against the Chinese for the big prize.

As a matter of fact, they’ve not lost a set in the last two Olympics they’ve played in together.

The closing ceremony was another extravaganza of excitement. A stunning visual assault on the eyes and ears, with the ever present Olympic flame illuminating the spectacle from its perch (pun intended) high atop the Birds Nest.

How many performers you ask? Well, I’m sure they used the other half of the 1.3 billion inhabitants to pull this one off. As sportscaster Bob Costas said of the ceremony, “Give the Chinese the gold and just retire the tradition.”

The last month in Beijing has come to an end very fast for me. How do you write about a surreal dream, something you can’t even imagine happening to you in the first place?

How do you capture the essence of magic and try to do it justice in a few columns? I’m not smart enough to attempt it. I’ll leave that to the pros.

I will just close by wholeheartedly thanking my sports presentation team.

A highly intelligent and talented group of young Chinese men and women, who helped, cajoled and guided me through the entire adventure. I will never forget them.

I also thank all of you, my loving family and dear friends who have followed me through this period by reading my little missives.

Now it’s on to London in 2012, and the journey begins from square one all over again. I’ll let you know how that’s going as I report from the Games.

MICHAEL VILLANI is a contributing writer for the Daily Pilot, and as the venue announcer for indoor volleyball in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games, he filed occasional columns. This was his final one.