Triumphant Olympics End With Pride, Relief
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ATHENS, Greece - Efharisto! A nervous world learned the Greek word for thank you and repeated it endlessly at an astonishingly successful Athens Olympics that quelled fears, surprised skeptics and greatly honored the birthplace of the games.    Fireworks and spectacular lighting kicked off the closing ceremony Sunday night, a two-hour extravaganza of folk dancing and music in the Olympic tradition that summed up the glee and relief the games brought to Greece...
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Amanda Beard credited her new-found  maturity for ending an eight-year wait for a second Olympic  gold medal in Athens Thursday.
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The United States won the women's  basketball gold medal at the Olympics on Saturday.
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The Olympic games engages virtually everyone on the planet. The past two weeks have shown they are thrilling, intoxicating and enriching - and, of course, unpredictable.
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Athens: With a strong kick down the stretch and a kiss of the ground once across the finish line, Hicham El Guerrouj finally got what he was after: an Olympic gold medal.
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Zeus and the other gods of ancient Greece smiled on the Athens Olympic Games, whose spectacular success surprised the world, the head of the organizing committee said Monday.
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For Americans, it&#39;s just as well that the Olympics came to a conclusion Sunday. Over the weekend, the ends of America&#39;s almost
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Britain&#39;s Paralympians returned home to a warm welcome after arriving at Gatwick airport on Wednesday. Team GB finished second in the table, behind China, with 94 medals - 35 of which were gold.
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Plentiful buses, helpful volunteers, and efficient security have added up to &#39;positive surprises&#39; for the host city. There are many measures by which to judge the success of an Olympic Games: records broken, medals won, dreams fulfilled or dashed.
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ATHENS -- They did it. The Greeks did it. They gave us a top-drawer Olympics, complete with the best overall venues, the best transportation, and as helpful and cheery a volunteer staff as we've ever seen (with surely the deepest bench; I mean, was there anyone in this country who hadn't raised his or her hand when the call came?).
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India erupted with joy as shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore clinched their first medal at the Athens Olympics on Tuesday and their first ever individual silver.
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ATHENS -- The Games of the XXVIII Olympiad -- the great disaster that wasn&#39;t -- come to an emotional end this afternoon and, really, the world owes Athens an apology.
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One race, one world record, absolute joy for Michael Phelps.
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Greece staged an exuberant closing  ceremony on Sunday to bring the curtain down on the Athens  Games, which took the Olympics back to their roots and provided  drama right down to the last gold medal.
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Once more, Paul Hamm held his gold medal aloft Thursday and smiled for the cameras, secure in the knowledge that the medal was his for keeps.
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They were so close to the finish, Athens and Vanderlei de Lima - the city and the athlete, each about to complete a job well done.
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Britain's men's 4x100m relay team win a stunning gold medal in Athens.