Farewell to the Olympics.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Forget the judging controversies, doping cases and allegations of bribery, the XIXth Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City were a twirling, swooshing, puck-smashing success.

The games drew to a close Sunday night with a joyful, raucous closing ceremony that combined thundering fireworks, Donny and Marie Osmond, hovering dinosaurs, past gold medalists, the rock band Kiss and a moment of sublime melancholy courtesy of Willie Nelson.

With a crowd of 45,000 watching and cheering in Rice-Eccles Stadium, athletes from 78 countries partied and boogied on the stadium floor, celebrating the Games that may have been one of the best Winter Olympics ever.

Hyperbole? Try to remember another Winter Games that ran as smoothly, provided better security, offered warmer hospitality - and, most importantly, produced as many memorable performances.

The Salt Lake City Games saw the flat-out best performance ever by a U.S. team. A silver medal won Sunday by a gutsy men's hockey team gave the United States a record 34 medals, eclipsing the previous American bests of 13 apiece at the 1998 Nagano Games and the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. Only one country, Germany with 35 medals, took home more metal from Salt Lake than the United States.

Granted, the Salt Lake City Games were not without serious problems, but even the way they were handled set this Olympics apart as exemplary.

After an outcry that vote-fixing had robbed a Canadian pairs skating team of a gold medal for a flawless performance, the IOC moved swiftly to investigate, awarding the Canadian team a gold medal and suspending a French figure skating judge for misconduct. The move led to a flurry of sour-grapes protests from other athletes and nations who believed they had been wronged, and Russian political and sports leaders threatened to leave the Games and to boycott the upcoming Summer Games in Athens. But those threats had faded by Sunday's closing ceremony, as Russia's athletes joined those of other countries in dancing on a color-splashed stage and watching as the Olympic flag was lowered and the flame extinguished.

Under its new president, Dr. Jacques Rogge, the IOC also acted decisively late in the Games when cross-country skiers from Russia and Spain tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance so new it's not yet on the list of banned drugs. The three athletes were tossed out of the games, two of them forfeiting gold medals. The message was clear: The IOC does not intend to lose the fight against increasingly sophisticated athlete doping.

Security at the Games was extraordinary and effective, with police officers replacing cuddly Olympic mascots Copper, Coal and Powder as the unofficial symbols of the Games. While a sad necessity in a post-Sept. 11 world, the $310 million security effort allowed athletes and spectators to concentrate on the Games themselves.

Next, it's Greece's turn, specifically the city of Athens where the Summer Games will return to their ancient birthplace. After that comes Turin, Italy, where the 2006 Winter Games will be held.

For the IOC and the host nations of future Games, Salt Lake City should serve as a model and inspiration, a reminder of how controversies and scandals fade into the background when the spotlight focuses, as it always should, on the athletes themselves.