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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The first thing to make clear is that Paul Hamm, as he staged an amazing late comeback to win the men&#39;s all-around gymnastics gold medal last Wednesday, did absolutely everything right and nothing wrong.
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Chinese officials are treating the Games as proud confirmation of their country's emergence as a global force to be reckoned with.
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China&#39;s Olympic team returned home on Tuesday to a hero&#39;s welcome and dedicated its medals to &#39;the motherland&#39;, as the country swelled with nationalistic pride and vowed to host a &#39;glorious&#39; Games in 2008.
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Olympic supremo Jacques Rogge on Sunday gave top marks to Athens for organising a superb Games. &quot;I am an extremely happy President of the IOC,&quot; he told reporters on the day the Games wrap up.
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Berlin was celebrating on Sunday after winning its bid to host the 2009 world athletics championships, a decision that capped a week of triumph for Germany&#39;s capital city.
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The last heart-pounding race of the Summer Games ended Sunday in a white marble arena in the heart of Athens, bringing the modern Olympics full circle - back to the precise spot where they were revived 108 years ago.
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If the welcome home party was grand, the send-off was equally spectacular as Athens bid a fabulous farewell to the world&#39;s 10,500-odd sportspersons from a record 202 countries that assembled in Athens for the Olympic Games which concluded on Sunday night.
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Athens -- It&#39;s a good thing the Olympics end today. It seems the American team has overstayed its welcome by a few days. For the most part, the Greeks have been outstanding hosts.
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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.
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ATHENS, Greece -- Capping its sports-hosting triumph, Greece ended the XXVIII Olympiad with a festive splash of ethnic folklore, music and dancing.
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As some 200 athletes from North and South marched into the Olympic Stadium under the flag of the Korean peninsula in a mixed group on Sunday night, the 28 th Olympic Games finally ended two
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What doping scandals? What debts? Drunk with pride for successfully pulling off a great homecoming Olympics, most Greeks said they would happily do it all over again.
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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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Greece staged a giant party on Sunday to  celebrate bringing the Olympics back to their spiritual  homeland in triumphant style.
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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 -- 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?).