i think we need to separate the opening cermonies from the actual games if your talking about olympic spirit...the OC is a chance for the host country to mark their place in history BEFORE the games begin, and IMHO has minor relevance to olympic spirit unless they play on that idea within the performances during the show (children, unity, equality etc.) This was a chance for China to share some of it's historical and cultural significance with a (largely) ingnorant western world...
as for olympic spirit, there is no doubt it still exists in most sports that garner little exposure at other times...forget about the 100 & 200m men though...those races are all about potential sponsorship dollars (Michael Johnson and his stupid golden spikes started it all)...look at Bolt holding up his Puma's for all the worlds cameras to see...forget Men's Basketball too...same with gymnastics, as any American winner becomes an instant millionaire (I heard mention that S Johnson lost millions the moment N Liukin beat her for gold...the all-American girl beaten by a Russian import)...but when you look at sports like track cycling, rowing, wrestling, judo, the obscure ones that people only care about for the Oly's, you can see athletes who don't give a shit about sponsors and endorsements, just doing their best...
In case most of you don't know.... the fireworks were REAL. They used digital effects because filming from a helicopter above was dangerous. Imagine flying above fire which cannot be controlled once they're in the air. It wasn't fake.
SOURCE: I was physically present outside the stadium.
it's been accepted that there were 'footprint' fireworks on opening night...but what was shown on TV (and promoted as 'live') was a previously shot flight sequence with CGI fireworks added in...then they cut to a shot from inside the stadium looking up through the roof to show the final real footprint only...this seems cleary understood by most people...lots of reasons...safety, no-fly zone, getting the timing right....still blew me away!