Throughout the Beijing Games, love and humanity have glittered, in and out of the competition venues, to overshadow even Olympic gold.
Oksana Chusovitina, 33, picked a silver behind DPR Korean vault champion Hong Un-jong on Monday, thus becoming the oldest woman in five decades to grasp an Olympic gymnastics medal.
"This medal is for my son, I could not have done this without him," said Chusovitina.
The former Uzbek gymnast prolonged her career and moved to Germany to raise funds for her son Alisher, who was diagnosed with leukemia six years ago.
Deeply moved by the motherly love behind many laureates, a Beijing bank employee wrote a letter to Xinhua to describe the power of love.
"I love Du Li. I Love Phelps. I love them for their affection to their moms," said Zhang Tianxing, citing how the Chinese shooter cried during a phone conversation with her mother after taking an Olympic gold, and how the American superfish wanted to give his mom a hug the moment he got out of the pool.
Zhang recalled how his mother, a peasant woman who worked day and night to feed a big family in the rural Henan Province back in the 1960s, bought him a pair of sneakers with the money that should have been spent on medicine for her acute stomachache.
"She said I could have been the fastest runner at school had I had better shoes," said Zhang in his letter.
He did not grow up to be a runner, but a bank employee in Beijing. But the bitter-sweet memories of his mother, now dead, have clung to him particularly at these Games.
For winners and losers, love is always there, from families, friends and strangers alike.
Love from his wife and Olympic gold winner Katerina Emmons was the best heal to Matt Emmons after he repeated his Athens misfortune to blow away gold in the last round of men's rifle finals.
Colombian weightlifter Oscar Figueroa may never find out how many Chinese shed tears for him when all his attempts failed in the men's 62kg class finals.
"The grief and helplessness in his eyes became apparent after several failed attempts. Everyone shouted 'go, go' and prayed for a miracle," read a posting at sina.com shortly after last Tuesday's competition.
When Figueroa broke into tears after one last futile attempt, the entire audience felt his pain. "Everyone was heartbroken until his teammate Diego Salazar won a silver," said Si Ren, a spectator who later shared his feelings with thousands of people on the Internet.
Toward the end of the Beijing Games, many Chinese are working out a personal archive listing their own heroes, quotable quotes and inspiring stories.
Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang, who pulled out of the 110-meter race on Monday because of foot injury, was in the netizens' list of top 10 tragic heroes as well as the 10 most attractive men at the Beijing Games, according to 21cn.com.
Liu said he would come back and run even faster after the pullout. His Olympic record of 12.91 seconds, set at Athens in 2004, was not broken by Cuban Dayron Robles in Thursday's final.
Liu's tragic farewell from the Games was witnessed by 90,000 audience who had expected him to defend his title, or at least to enter the finals. Among them were four rural workers who helped build the Bird's Nest, where the track and field events were held.
Su Jian, an artist from the southern Guangdong Province, had financed their trip to Beijing and tickets to the Bird's Nest, a commitment he made a year ago when they agreed to pose for a portrait.
Su's painting was sold for 32,000 yuan (4,570 U.S. dollars), with which he covered the workers' transportation, ticketing and sightseeing costs in Beijing.
A Beijinger offered them a three-bedroom apartment for free.
(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2008)