Defending champion Lin Dan beat great rival Lee Chong Wei in a gripping men's final as China sealed a historic clean-sweep of all five Olympic badminton titles on Sunday.
The legendary "Super Dan" battled back from a game down to win 15-21, 21-10, 21-19, adding to his list of accolades as he became the first men's singles player to win the Olympic title twice.
Shortly afterwards, Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng won the men's doubles final 21-16, 21-15 against Denmark's Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen, clinching the fifth and last badminton title for China.
China's team had been rocked when women's doubles top seeds Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli were among eight players disqualified in a match-throwing scandal which prompting a public apology from their head coach, Li Yongbo.
But they won the women's doubles regardless, as well as the mixed doubles and the women's singles, through Li Xuerui in an all-Chinese final, to become the first country to take all five since badminton's Olympic debut in 1992.
In the men's final Malaysian top seed Lee, who had almost missed the Games because of an ankle injury, faded a little from the middle of the second game, allowing Lin's magnificent range of strokes to flourish.
When Lee's final shot dropped long, Lin, often described as the best player in badminton history, sprinted round the stadium, ripped off his shirt and wept in celebration, saluting the crowd as he held the Chinese flag.
Meanwhile Lee cut an inconsolable figure as he sat alone on the empty court.
"It wasn't easy to retain this title after four years," said Lin.
"Lee Chong Wei is such a brilliant rival that I treasure the chances to play against him. We are very good friends and I welcome him when he comes to China and hope he comes frequently."
Lee confirmed that the two are good friends. "But I have issues playing against him, because he is such a fantastic player. I am sorry I didn't win gold," said Lee.
There had been moments, especially when Lee was leading 18-16 in the final game, when it seemed he would sensationally his avenge defeats to Lin in the Beijing Olympic final and the world title-match in the same arena last year.
Lee claimed to have had only two weeks' training after suffering a serious ankle injury in June. But he lasted the 79-minute thriller extraordinarily well.
In the end, however, Lin was just a little mentally stronger, and was able to make use of an unequalled repertoire of strokes in which the element of surprise is always present.
Lin's extravagant celebration must have accentuated the misery of Lee, who has spent 199 weeks as world number one, as he lost yet another major final to his career nemesis.
Lee, who had looked below his best pace for much of the tournament, moved much better than before, perhaps given adrenaline by huge crowd support as he claimed the first game 21-15.
There was however a tidal shift in the flow of the match after a dozen rallies in the second game.
It happened after Lee made a brilliant kill at the net, rolled from almost below the height of the tape, levelling the scores at 6-6, and bringing a fist-pumping celebration.
This may have triggered something in Lin because he upped the pace, with a dynamic jump smash which got him to 8-6 and an acceleration which carried him to 11-7 and then to 17-8.
By the interval he was at 11-9 and he reached 13-12 before Lee made his last spectacular surge, summoning what remained of his energy to launch three winning smashes, two of them spectacular airborne efforts.
That got him to 15-13, and to 18-16, but from 19-18 he was mostly just hanging, using his rhythmic movement and tactical lift, clear, drop patterns to stay in the match. At 19-19, two big attacks from Lin proved unstoppable.
"It doesn't matter whether I win or lose, as long as I perform to the best of my efforts," said Lin.
"If all five gold medals have gone to the Chinese team, that only demonstrates one thing -- which is that every member of the Chinese team made their best personal effort."