ATHENS, Greece - Little things meant a lot in Athens: a tear from Mia Hamm's eye, or a smile across Jennie Finch's mouth, was as good as gold.

A pair of abandoned wrestling shoes, size 13, signaled goodbye for Rulon Gardner. A track baton, about a foot long, turned to kryptonite as the U.S. women's 400-meter relay team fumbled the last medal hopes of Sydney superwoman Marion Jones.

These snapshots make up the bigger picture in Athens: 17 days of emotion and excitement in the birthplace of the games, 108 years after the first modern Olympiad in the same Mediterranean city. Athletes followed the ancient footsteps of a doomed distance runner from Marathon, or collected medals in arenas long reserved for Olympic ghosts.

The Americans embraced the history and made a little themselves: They broke the 100-medal mark to eclipse their team goal. With 103 medals (35 gold, 39 silver, 29 bronze), they topped the Athens medal chart and enjoyed their largest haul since Barcelona's 108 in 1992.

But they left Greece with more than just a cache of precious metals.

"It's not about the medal," said soccer star Mia Hamm, a two-time gold medalist making her third Olympic trek. "It's about the journey."

For the U.S. team, the journey began once Michael Phelps plunged into the Olympic pool. When he finally toweled off for the last time, the 19-year-old had a record-tying eight medals - six gold, two bronze in the first eight days of the games.

The classy youth demonstrated grace beyond his years by surrendering his spot in the 400-meter medley relay final to his teammate and top rival, Ian Crocker.

Even Mark Spitz, whose record seven golds in a single games survived Phelps' onslaught, never turned that trick. Crocker won, too, as the U.S. swimmers ruled the Olympic pool, winning 12 golds and 28 medals.

Phelps led a bright new generation of U.S. Olympians: softball pitcher Finch and sprinter Justin Gatlin, soccer's Heather O'Reilly and hoopster Diana Taurasi, boxer Andre Ward and gymnast Carly Patterson - gold medal winners all.

The old guard, some ending long Olympic journeys, left their successors a legacy. Hamm, Joy Fawcett and Julie Foudy retired after winning their golds in an overtime thriller. Dawn Staley, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes won their third straight basketball gold; Staley won't be back, either.

Gardner, who settled for a bronze after nearly dying two years ago after a snowmobile accident, provided an unforgettable tableau: tears streaming down the face of the super heavyweight as he deposited his shoes in the middle of the mat and walked away from his sport for good.

Yes, there is crying in wrestling. Or there is if you're Rulon Gardner. But that's the way things went in Athens.

Not even Nostradamus, in his most outrageous quatrain, could have predicted such drama and delight. The games were preceded by massive cost overruns, blown construction deadlines and dire predictions. This would be "Fear and Loathing in Athens," with the specter of terrorists supplying the first and the Americans targeted for the latter.

But it never came to pass, and the U.S. teams even turned the occasional, relatively mild anti-American outburst into motivation.

"The audience - there was a love-hate relationship," explained 100-meter gold medalist Gatlin, who also took home a silver and a bronze. "Every time I stepped out on the line, I had chills. It was electrifying."

The electricity meant victories. The Americans dominated at the track, collecting an Athens-best 24 medals. Even better, none were caught using banned substances in the year of the burgeoning BALCO scandal.

The drug-free Americans weren't ugly, either. The U.S. athletes, after getting pre-Olympic instructions on proper decorum, behaved perfectly - as did their hosts. The Athens Games were a success by acclamation, as pretty as the blue skies above the Acropolis each sunny morning.

"It was incredible to come in here, to be so safe, to feel confident and relaxed," said Phelps, who stayed around an extra week for the closing ceremony. "I can't say how great the city of Athens has been."

Great? Yes. Perfect? That described the American softball team.

The softballers, winning a gold for their recently widowed coach, did everything right in Athens, taking nine straight games while outscoring their opponents 51-1. It was their third consecutive Olympic title.

The ancient city did suffer some modern Olympic woes - doping problems (a record high of 23 cases, with six medals stripped), a gymnastics scoring mistake that left gold medalist Paul Hamm twisting in the wind, and angry protests over the later-canceled visit of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Few, however, could dispute International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge's contention that the games were "splendid" and the security just "flawless."

That was vital in the first Summer Games since Sept. 11, 2001, with athletes competing under 202 flags. The sight of a blimp wafting across the sky once signaled a sponsor's advertisement; now, it was part of a $1.5 billion security plan.

But the attention turned quickly to the athletes after the opening ceremony.

There were disappointments: The men's basketball team, undefeated since NBA players joined the mix in 1992, went home with a bronze after losing three games in Athens with its youngest roster ever.

And track star Jones, the winner of five medals in Sydney, won nothing in Athens - losses that only intensified the speculation fueled by allegations she used steroids in Australia. A botched handoff in the 400-meter relay led to a disqualification for the American team, shortly after she failed to medal in the long jump.

Jones wept, too.

But the downers were overshadowed by the only-in-Athens moments, where the athletes of the 21st century enjoyed a bit of time travel.

In Ancient Olympia, where the games were born 28 centuries ago, American Adam Nelson won a silver in the shot put. Following the route first run by Pheidippides in 490 B.C., U.S. marathon runner Deena Kastor captured the bronze, running her last lap around the marble Panathinaiko Stadium that hosted the 1896 games.

The games ended in the new Olympic Stadium, the 72,000-seat facility designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, with a closing ceremony attended by thousands of Olympic athletes from around the world. The journey to Beijing is next for many of them.

"It's amazing and it never gets old," said soccer player Kristine Lilly, herself a three-time Olympian. "It's an experience I'll cherish forever."