Athens Olympics 2004

[ran 0]

And who knows maybe some female athletes will need some close protection .... hmmm women brazilian beach volley team ... women swedish wrestlers .... or these small gymnasts . grr grr grrr hmůmmm ..... erm ...

how about denoir?

I said women and as far as I know, Denoir is a man ... or a bearded woman with no boobs, but I doubt so.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh Ida-Theres Karlsson .... I sincerly hope she'll be at the Bejing Olympics .... it's a shame that she'll be 4 years older though ....

[billybob2002 0]

http://sports.yahoo.com/oly....pe=lgns

Quote[/b] ]

U.S. tops charts for third straight Summer Olympics; China leads Asian medal surge

By DAVID CRARY, Associated Press Writer

August 29, 2004

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- The United States finished atop the medal charts for the third straight Summer Olympics, with Russia the overall runner-up and China second in gold medals -- its best showing ever and the leading edge of a surge by Asian teams.

Six nations won gold medals for the first time; the trailblazers included an Arab sheik marksman and an Israeli windsurfer. Two other countries, Paraguay and Eritrea, won their first medals of any sort.

The American team amassed 103 total medals, topping its target of 100, and won 35 golds to 32 for China and 27 for Russia. But China played the lead role in the games' most significant trend -- the improvement of Asian squads in a widening array of Olympic sports as they gird for the 2008 Beijing Games.

Far East Asian nations won 63 gold medals in Athens, compared to 43 at Sydney in 2000. Japan alone upped its gold total from five to 16, the biggest increase of any nation, while China won golds for the first time in tennis and men's track.

``These were the games where we saw the awakening of Asia,'' International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said. ``The traditional strong nations that dominate the scene now will have to work extremely hard.''

Australian Olympic chief John Coates, whose team finished fourth, said China and Japan ``have sent us an ominous warning. They're gearing up for a dominant performance in 2008.''

Asia's gains came largely at the expense of Europe. Germany won 48 medals in Athens, nine fewer than in Sydney, while medal hauls also dropped for France, Italy, Poland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. Greece, despite drug scandals and other setbacks, won 16 medals, its best showing since it hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896.

Russia dipped in golds compared to Sydney (27 to 32) but, despite disappointing performances in swimming and gymnastics, exceeded its overall medal total -- 92 this time compared to 88 in 2000.

The Americans won the most medals in swimming and track, and finished just one behind Romania in gymnastics. U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive Jim Scherr, who set his team's medal target, said surpassing it was ``an exceptional accomplishment'' in light of the stiffening competition from Asia and the former Soviet republics.

Yet the U.S. gold medal total of 35 was the lowest since the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

``It's more and more difficult, as time goes on, for U.S. athletes to gain a spot on the podium,'' Scherr said.

Australia finished with 49 total medals and 17 golds, a remarkable performance in two respects.

Avoiding a traditional falloff, it became the first nation ever to increase its gold medal total four years after hosting the Summer Games; the Aussies won 16 golds in Sydney.

Also, Australia joined Cuba as the major Olympic nations winning the most medals per capita in Athens. With a population of 20 million, Australia won a medal for each 408,000 people. Cuba won 27 medals, one for each 418,000 of its 11.3 million citizens. One little country outddid them: The Bahamas, population 300,000, won two medals.

India had the worst ratio among medal winners -- just one, a silver in shooting, for its 1.3 billion people. Populous countries winning no medals included Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Vietnam.

In all, 75 of the 202 countries competing in Athens won at least one medal -- not a record. In Sydney, 80 won medals.

Countries claiming their first-ever gold medals included Taiwan in taekwondo; the Dominican Republic in men's 400-meter hurdles, Chile in tennis and Georgia in judo. Windsurfer Gal Fridman won Israel's first gold; Ahmed Al Maktoum, a wealthy sheik, won the United Arab Emirates' first gold in trap shooting.

Paraguay, without any medal in nine previous Summer Games, won a silver courtesy of its men's soccer team. Zersenay Tadesse won bronze in the 10,000-meters for Eritrea, its first medal since gaining independence from Ethiopia in 1993.

Ethiopia and Kenya led Africa with seven medals each; the continent as a whole won 35, the same as in Sydney. South American nations won 23 medals, up from 19 in Sydney.

Updated on Sunday, Aug 29, 2004 3:18 pm EDT

Good job teams!!! *Starts USA chant*    

[Tim Pink 0]

Well i must say, all in all a greaty olympics.

I must say though the last episode of "The Dream in Athens" was quite a sad one.

But i shall be looking foward to 2008 for the return of Roy and H.G.

And a great medal haul for Australia, go Aussie go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That whole debacle with the mens marathon was absolutely horrible, i was glad that Vanderlei de Lim recieved the best sports person award. he thoroughly deserverd it.

Timmeh

[Shashman 0]

In complete, unadultered honesty, I would have stamped on that stupid f**ktard Cornelius' head if I'd gotten the chance to! What a despicable thing to do! He did this in the Crystal Palace Grand Prix too! But, this anger aside..Woohoo forza Italia

Great olympics, couldn't help but nearly shed a tear when they lowered the Olympic standard

[ran 0]

That whole debacle with the mens marathon was absolutely horrible, i was glad that Vanderlei de Lim recieved the best sports person award. he thoroughly deserverd it.

Does anybody know what was the point the retard who pushed Vanderlei de Lima on the side of the road ?

[Guest]

In complete, unadultered honesty, I would have stamped on that stupid f**ktard Cornelius' head if I'd gotten the chance to!    What a despicable thing to do! He did this in the Crystal Palace Grand Prix too!

My aim in OFP is a little off. I think I need some live target training.....and I think I've found the perfect target.

[Akira 0]

That whole debacle with the mens marathon was absolutely horrible, i was glad that Vanderlei de Lim recieved the best sports person award. he thoroughly deserverd it.

Does anybody know what was the point the retard who pushed Vanderlei de Lima on the side of the road ?

To be a dumbass?

If I was in that crowd I woulda opened a can on his ass...

We're watching the delayed closing ceremony right now...

Who are some of the singers? They are enjoyable.

[Shashman 0]

They're all well known Greek artists...Well known to Greeks that is But yeah highly enjoyable, although I can't say I enjoyed the last half hour or so as much as the music and singing at the beginning which was more classical

[ran 0]

I really enjoyed the chinese artists and performers personnaly.

[Shashman 0]

Yeah so did I...Mmmmmmmm

[Akira 0]

I'm always sad when the Olympics are over

EDIT: For the US viewers, what was the dramatic music for the NBC closing credits and montage?

[korax 4]

What? It's over already? Damnit! I was just about to bring myself to finally watch an event or two

[Major Fubar 0]

I'm searching the web for a list of nations and how many (total) athletes each country sent to Athens...can't find anything...can anyone help?

[Shashman 0]

*cries hysterically* I only got to see about 10mins of women's beach volley and I didn't see ANY women's volley!

[theavonlady 2]

I'm searching the web for a list of nations and how many (total) athletes each country sent to Athens...can't find anything...can anyone help?

Have you Yahoo'd?

[Major Fubar 0]

Thanks Avon

[Tomislav 0]

could you give me a link of the page major,

can't find it

[Pathy 0]

That whole debacle with the mens marathon was absolutely horrible, i was glad that Vanderlei de Lim recieved the best sports person award. he thoroughly deserverd it.

Does anybody know what was the point the retard who pushed Vanderlei de Lima on the side of the road ?

Hes some mad defrocked Irish priest, he claimed he did it to speed up the second coming of Christ

He's got a 1 year suspended sentence for it.

[Major Fubar 0]

could you give me a link of the page major,

can't find it

http://sports.yahoo.com/oly/athletes

You can only check one country at a time, though. I haven't been able to find a chart or listing...

[SpongeBob 0]

Quote[/b] ]South Korean gymnast goes to sport court to get gold medal

Hours before the Olympics ended Sunday, Yang Tae-young appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, asking it to order international gymnastics officials to correct the results from the all-around, and adjust the medal rankings so he gets gold and the American gets a silver.

"We said we wanted this misjudgment to be corrected. That was very clear from the beginning,'' said Jae Soon-yoo, spokeswoman for the South Korean delegation. ``We are talking about our own rights, our own medal, not anyone else's.''

But USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said the appeal was a

moot point. The International Gymnastics Federation, known as FIG, has already said it won't change its results, and the IOC has refused to even consider the idea of giving Yang a gold medal.

"We consider this a closed matter,'' Seibel said. ``The IOC and the International Gymnastics Federation have both indicated there is no basis by which the results will be revisited, and we see no reason why that would happen.''

CAS said it would consider the appeal in Lausanne, Switzerland, where it is based. With the games over, there wasn't time to hear the case in Athens. CAS put off setting a date for the hearing until FIG and the USOC could prepare responses.

But there's no guarantee the case will even be heard. CAS traditionally avoids reviewing ``field of play'' decisions. If CAS does decide to hear the case, though, Seibel said the USOC will ``absolutely be there to protect Paul's rights and his gold medal.''

Hamm has repeatedly said he believes he is the rightful winner, and he won't give up the gold unless ordered to.

FIG spokesman Philippe Silacci had no comment on the appeal.

USA Gymnastics president Bob Colarossi was traveling and could not be reached. Hamm returned to the United States on Wednesday.

Yang, who finished with a bronze, was wrongly docked a tenth of a point on his second-to-last routine, the parallel bars. He finished third, 0.049 points behind Hamm, who became the first American man to win gymnastics' biggest prize. But add the extra 0.100, and Yang would have finished 0.051 points ahead of Hamm. That, however, assumes everything in the final rotation played out the same way.

Three judges were suspended because of the error, but FIG said the results would stand because the South Koreans didn't protest after the meet.

Nonetheless, the South Koreans refused to drop the case, which has brought back bitter memories for them. At the 2002 Winter Games, short track speed-skater Kim Dong-sung was disqualified in the 1,500-meter race, allowing American Apolo Anton Ohno to win the gold.

After being turned down by FIG in the Yang case, the South Koreans appealed to the USOC and the IOC. But IOC president Jacques Rogge flatly refused to consider duplicate gold medals, and reiterated that stance Sunday.

"Our position is extremely simple. The FIG has certified the result of the gymnastics competition. The IOC has awarded the medals according to the certified results,'' he said. ``Paul Hamm was declared the winner and therefore he has received the gold medal, and for us that is final.''

FIG president Bruno Grandi asked Hamm in a letter to give up the medal as a gesture of sportsmanship, saying, ``The true winner of the all-around competition is Yang Tae-young.'' But the USOC called the request ``deplorable'' and said FIG should take responsibility for its own mistakes.

Rogge said the IOC would not be part of any effort to ask Hamm to hand back the medal.

Grandi's description of Yang as the ``true winner'' might have given the South Koreans encouragement to take the case one step further, though.

"This,'' Jae said, ``is our last resort.''

In the 1992 summer games, a Brazilian judge screwed up when she press a wrong button on the scoring keyboard.  That gave Canadian synchronized swimmer  Sylvie Fréchette the silver, and an American the Gold.  18 months later, the IOC says "sorry, we were wrong, here's another gold medal for you."  The American got to keep her gold.

I wonder why the IOC is refusing to do the same in this case.  Or maybe the South Korean will get his a few months down the line.

[Akira 0]

In the 1992 summer games, a Brazilian judge screwed up when she press a wrong button on the scoring keyboard. That gave Canadian synchronized swimmer Sylvie Fréchette the silver, and an American the Gold. 18 months later, the IOC says "sorry, we were wrong, here's another gold medal for you." The American got to keep her gold.

I wonder why the IOC is refusing to do the same in this case. Or maybe the South Korean will get his a few months down the line.

As I stated in my previous post...

The sports commentators here did an analysis of the S. Korean's parallel bar routine. It turns out that he does a total of 4 holds when the rules only allow 3 holds. The penalty for that would be a 0.2 automatic deduction, however that penalty was not taken. Even if his original difficulty setting had been correct, he only would have gotten the bronze. With his present score, if the deduction had been taken, he wouldn't have gotten a medal at all.

In the end, Hamm really did win.

For the FIG to send Hamm a letter asking him to return a medal he rightfully won, is ludicrous.

The fact is, the gymnastic's scoring was horrendous, and this is only one example of it.

[ralphwiggum 6]

in Hamm's case, he fell nearly into judging tables after landing in one of competitions. if we consider that, maybe Hamm will not win any medals?

The South Koreans have a case. It is clear that the points he started with was not correct, and that's such a dumb error. If Hamm wants to argue the loss of medal, he can do video analysis of the Korean gymnast and take the same path as the Koreans are doing.

[Akira 0]

in Hamm's case, he fell nearly into judging tables after landing in one of competitions. if we consider that, maybe Hamm will not win any medals?

The South Koreans have a case. It is clear that the points he started with was not correct, and that's such a dumb error. If Hamm wants to argue the loss of medal, he can do video analysis of the Korean gymnast and take the same path as the Koreans are doing.

Not necessarily, as the deduction for Hamm spilling onto the judge was taken at the time. Everyone thought he was out of it, until everyone else started making mistakes as well, allowing Hamm to catch up.

[The-Architect 0]

Once again the Olympics have totally failed to interest me. Every time it comes around I do my best to convince myself that there will be something to catch my eye and every time I'm disappointed.

I do believe that its good that people turn up compete and see who's the best in the world at their sport, but its oh so boring. Plus the coverage kicked Fresh Prince off BBC 2.

[ralphwiggum 6]

Not necessarily, as the deduction for Hamm spilling onto the judge was taken at the time. Everyone thought he was out of it, until everyone else started making mistakes as well, allowing Hamm to catch up.

unfortuantely, subjectiveness was taken into account IMO. Hamm's fall was IMO(not neccessarily expert) a devastating one that did not gain more loss in points.