USA looks back then ahead BEIJING — As the last gold medals won by U.S. athletes were awarded Sunday, as The Star-Spangled Banner was cued one last time, U.S. Olympic basketball player Jason Kidd turned to his teammates on the medal podium and reminded them to put their hands over their hearts.

"You can forget, in the emotion of winning, about the country and what that means," Kidd says. "We did it the whole tournament, put our hands over our hearts. I didn't want any slippage, because it wasn't over yet."

FINAL RESULTS:

Now that the Beijing Olympics are over, history will be the ultimate judge of how the U.S. team did, from the women's sabre fencers sweeping on the first day to NBA stars winning its last gold. U.S. Olympic officials are using superlatives in their assessment.

"In terms of all the measures that we look at — our athletes' behavior, their reception in the country, the medal production, how this has captured the attention and reinvigorated the Olympic movement in the United States — all those make this, at least since (the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics), our best performance ever," says Jim Scherr, CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Redoubling efforts

Medal tallies are the made-for-the-record-books measure, and in those, the USA took a blow to the gut, losing the gold medal count to China 51-36. Although the U.S. total equals the number of golds the Americans won four years ago in Athens, it is the first time since 1992 that U.S. athletes didn't win the most golds at a Summer Games.

"We're going to have to re-double our efforts in future Games," says Peter Ueberroth, the USOC's outgoing chairman. "We need to focus and mesh sports where we really don't show up."

Among the areas of concern: The USA went a second consecutive Games without a diving medal, won no medals in track cycling and just one in boxing.

The U.S. team did, for the fourth consecutive Summer Games, top the overall medals table, with 110 medals to China's 100. The 110 medals overall are the USA's most in an Olympics in which the rest of the world fully participated. At the 1984 Games, boycotted by the Soviet Union and 13 other nations, the U.S. team won 174 medals.

In Beijing, swimming and track and field athletes contributed, as they traditionally have, nearly half the medals. U.S. fencers had a breakthrough Games, winning six medals. The USA also won three of the six medals in the new Olympic sport of BMX.

But U.S. Olympic officials are looking beyond medal counts to assess their team. To them, the across-the-board success in team sports, from water polo to volleyball to basketball, is a point of much pride. And to have the basketball players standing at attention as the U.S. flag was raised was as crucial as the color of the medals against their chests.

"The way the athletes have carried themselves and respected their opponents, respected our flag, the other flags, I think the U.S. Olympic team has delivered a message of friendship and respect and at the same time been furiously competitive. That's what we need," Ueberroth says.

The only breach came before the Games began, when a group of U.S. cyclists arrived at the Beijing airport wearing face masks, apparently concerned about the city's pollution. After a talk with USOC officials, the cyclists apologized to Beijing organizers.

Before heading to Beijing, U.S. athletes went through the USOC's new "ambassador program," which was aimed at outlining the behavior and etiquette expected from Olympians and at helping them develop a better understanding of the Chinese culture and their surroundings.

Once in Beijing, Michael Phelps got the U.S. team rolling as he began reeling off record-breaking performances with victory after victory on his way to a historic eight golds. U.S. swimmers won 31 medals overall, surpassing the 28 they won in Athens.

The U.S. track and field team, the country's primary medal winner, was not as successful, finishing with 23 medals. That matches the team's total from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and exceeds the 17 it won in 2000. But it is less than the 25 medals won in 2004.

The men's and women's 4x100-meter relay teams both dropped the baton, losing their grips on medals that seemed certain for the stacked sprint squads.

"The Olympics are about good timing, good luck, good preparation and good execution," USA Track and Field CEO Doug Logan wrote in his blog last week. "All those things have to come together."

On the dropped batons, he added: "Dropping a baton isn't bad luck. It's bad execution. Responsibility for the relay debacle lies with many people and many groups, from administration to coaches to athletes."

The track and field team countered with highlights such as medal sweeps in the men's 400 meters and 400 hurdles and relay victories in the men's and women's 4x400.

Team sports excel

Many U.S. teams hit high notes at the Beijing Games, which is important to the USOC because of the interest it creates in the USA, a team-sports oriented country, and the corporate support that follows.

"Our performance across the board in team sports, in these Games, may be the best ever," Scherr says. "We will not abandon those sports in an attempt to earn medals in individual sports, which sometimes may be less expensive."

In Beijing, the baseball team won bronze after not qualifying for the Athens Olympics. The women's soccer team won gold after losing its top scorer, Abby Wambach, to a leg injury last month. The soccer gold came on the same night the three-time defending Olympic champion softball team lost to Japan, helping to ease that shock.

The men's water polo team entered the Beijing Olympics ranked ninth in the world and rose to win silver. The women's water polo team also won silver. The women's basketball team won its fourth consecutive gold.

The men's and women's beach volleyball teams both won gold. The men's and women's indoor volleyball teams both medaled for the first time since 1992.

The men's gold medal effort on Sunday was one of the Games' most poignant moments, coming after head coach Hugh McCutcheon's father-in-law, Todd Bachman, was slain while touring Beijing two weeks before.

"This team that probably a year ago no one would consider to be worthy of being Olympic champions has come out and proved everyone wrong," McCutcheon said.

Since the first NBA stars played in the Olympics, in 1992 as "The Dream Team," everyone has thought the USA should be the Olympic champions in men's basketball. But in Athens, U.S. players seemed disinterested and ended up with a bronze.

Jerry Colangelo, managing director of the U.S. men's team for Beijing, set out to change that, recruiting players for a three-year commitment and asking them to buy into a concept of "team ego." They stepped up to the medal podium arm in arm Sunday, then heeded Kidd's reminder as the U.S. flag was raised.

"Let's put it this way: Had we won and had we not won humbly and do it with class and dignity, it would have left a sour taste," Colangelo says. "They didn't do that. They did everything right. So it's doubly better."