BEIJING (AP) Before he got out of town, the great Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris called the Beijing Games a version of sports prison. He was joking sort of but his vision wasnt that far off.

The cordoned-off Olympic bubble that folds up when the closing ceremony ends Sunday has produced its usual collage of amazing athletes doing great things . This 17-day journey, however, has been witnessed through a sealed-off looking glass a lens warped and sterilized by Beijings organizing committee with underwriting from the Chinese government.

The ultimate sponsor: the International Olympic Committee, which has been under fire for producing Games that, to many, have felt soulless while also being tainted by scandal and political posturing.

I think that sometimes it doesnt seem like their heart is in the right place, the outspoken freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy said. It feels like its a greed game. I mean, the Olympics are so incredible. But its a TV show.