As the Summer Olympics were passed off from 2008 host Beijing to 2012 host London, Mayor Boris Johnson gave a bizarre, rambling speech in which he said table tennis, the national sport of China, is really a British game:

"I say this respectfully to our Chinese hosts who have excelled magnificently at ping pong," Johnson began. "Ping pong was invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th Century. It was, and it was called whiff whaff."

Johnson wasn't done there.

FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

After all, the Chinese did invent fireworks so you'd expect quite the pyrotechnic performance during closing ceremonies. From my vantage point about 50 yards away from the Bird's Nest, it didn't disappoint.

For those of you who've been following along with my Olympic adventures in Beijing, you may recall how the impenetrable security at the opening ceremonies thwarted any attempts I made to see some of the fireworks on 08/08/08. But after spending the past two and a half weeks in China, I learned a few key facts that helped me gain entrance to the Olympic Green for this evenings closing ceremonies. The most important of which is that I don't speak Chinese and they don't speak English so if you just act like you're supposed to be going through a certain security check point they seem cool with it.

So yes, tune in to NBC later this evening to watch the taped version of what I just saw in person. (I had to rub it in a little bit.)

The 2008 Summer Olympics are in the books, with the closing ceremony taking place in Beijing today.

As part of the closing ceremony, Beijing passed the torch on to the 2012 Olympics host, London, which was represented by England's most famous international athlete, David Beckham.

Beckham arrived aboard a trademark London double-decker bus in front of 91,000 spectators at the Bird's Nest stadium, kicking a soccer ball off the top of the bus and toward the crowd. An eight-minute presentation told the world what to expect from the London 2012 Games.

Although Beckham said he thought Beijing did a good job as Olympics host, he added, "I'm sure we will be better than them, without a doubt."

Photo: Zou Shiming of China celebrates with his gold medal after defeating Serdamba Purevdorj of Mongolia during the Men's light flyweight boxing final at the Workers' Indoor Arena.

China completed the 2008 Summer Olympics with 51 gold medals, leading the gold medal count for the first time in the nation's history. Team USA was second with 36 gold medals, the same number it won in Athens in 2004.

China won its final two gold medals today when Zou Shiming and Zhang Xiaoping became the nation's first Olympic boxing champions. France won the final gold medal of these Games when its men's handball team won the gold.

The Americans led the overall medal count with 110, making it the fourth straight Olympics that Team USA has come home with the most medals. China finished second in total medals with 100. Russia was third in both gold medals (23) and total medals (72).

Photo: Diana Taurasi bites her medal as she celebrates with teammates on the podium after the women's basketball gold medal match at the Olympic basketball arena in Beijing.

With one day of competition to go in Beijing, the China will win the gold medal tally for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games. China won two gold medals on Saturday.

China has now won 49 gold medals, an insurmountable lead over second-place Team USA, with 34. China's golds have come from a diverse group of sports, with gymnastics, weightlifting, diving and shooting leading the way.

The Americans have been strong in many of their old standby sports, with swimming giving Team USA 31 medals and track and field adding 23.

The life of an Olympic athlete isn't easy. You train for years to compete in an event that often lasts less than a minute. For four years you work out for hours a day to put yourself in position to do your best.

Many athletes will avoid junk food, alcohol and anything else that will stand between them and a chance at an Olympics medal. They'll go through workouts that leave them rubbery-legged and completely gassed in their quest for the gold.

And once their events are over, a whole lot of them are letting off lots of steam. They rush to McDonalds for their first taste of junk food in quite a while. They grab some booze, and as Matt Syed, a British Olympian in table tennis in 1992, explains, they look to hook up with anyone, and everyone, before leaving the Games.

China is under investigation by the International Olympic Committee for putting underage gymnasts on its gold medal-winning Olympic team in Beijing. And now we learn that China has violated the minimum age rule in the past.

Yang Yun, who won the bronze medal in the uneven bars in 2000 (on the right in the above photo), admitted during an interview aired on state broadcaster China Central Television that she was 14 during the 2000 Games, the Associated Press is reporting.

That makes her too young to compete under Olympic rules, and if the International Olympic Committee enforces its rules properly, she will be stripped of her bronze in the uneven bars, and China will be stripped of its bronze in the team competition for using an underage gymnast. Viktoria Karpenko of Ukraine finished fourth in the uneven bars and the United States finished fourth in the team competition, and those gymnasts should be awarded the bronze.

Unfortunately, the International Olympic Committee has made clear that it will look the other way no matter how often China flouts the rules. China cheated by putting the 14-year-old Yang on its Olympic team, but sometimes cheaters do win.

FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Americans Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers won themselves a gold medal on Friday by beating Brazil on the hot sand in Beijing. If you ever get the chance to attend a summer Olympics event in person, beach volleyball is the way to go.

Having seen a riveting performance of rhythmic gymnastics a day earlier, the gold medal match of men's beach volleyball was absolutely the most exciting event I've attended at the 2008 Olympics thus far. Not only is there high flying spikes, slams, blocks, and digs, but there is cheesy rock and roll in between plays.

Oh, and cheerleaders in bikinis.

Controversy is raging in the United States over whether the gold medal-winning Chinese Olympic gymnasts were younger than the minimum age of 16 and should therefore have their medals stripped.

But in China, it's no controversy at all. Most Chinese citizens don't know anything about it because their news is censored. The Times of London reports:

News of the investigation has set the Olympics abuzz, but the reports have been hidden from ordinary Chinese. None of the major Chinese news websites has published the story and some where reports of the inquiry had appeared have been closed down.

This has not prevented some online debate – although several chatrooms where debate had been heated earlier in the day have since been shut down as site hosting companies censor what could be a sensitive topic.

If China is telling the truth about the age of its gymnasts, why does it fear discussion of the subject?