2004 OLYMPIC GAMES - Athens, Greece Aug. 13 - 29

[BOREALIS]

Will do. I didn't realize it was so soon.



BEIJING 2008 SUMMER OLYMPICS
Games of the XXIX Olympiad
From the 8th August to 24th August 2008











With public trust - everything is possible.
Without public trust - nothing is possible.
Abe Lincoln
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.
.
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[BullNBear52]

Time for you to start a new board.

[BOREALIS]

TORINO 2006 OLYMPICS - opening ceremony started

http://investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=5189

[BullNBear52]

It's time for the Olympics.

TORINO 2006
XXth Olympic Winter Games
From the 10th to 26th February 2006
ELECTION

On 19 June 1999 in Seoul, Korea, the 109th IOC Session elected Turin, Italy as the Host City for the XX Olympic Winter Games in 2006 from a total of six Candidate Cities. Six cities put forward bids for the 2006 Winter Games. They were (in alphabetical order): Helsinki (FIN), Klagenfurt (AUT), Poprad-Tatry (SVK), Sion (SUI), Turin (ITA), and Zakopane (POL).

[BOREALIS]

World Championship Tournament of Junior Hockey.....

(( This will be my next new board when the tournament begins on Dec. 25. ))

- - - - - The Little Rink on the Prairie in North Dakota - - - - -


Mike Mohaupt for The New York Times
The Ralph Engelstad Arena is a $100 million hockey rink that is the home
of the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux.

NYTimes
November 5, 2004


GRAND FORKS, N.D. - When the Red River rose and flowed across the flat land seven years ago, people fled and viewed the flood damage on television from miles away. They saw rooftops surrounded by rising water and downtown buildings burning. "Come hell or high water," said the headline. Who knew what would replace the devastation?

Today, among the new buildings and the new dikes, there stands an incongruous jewel of an ice box called the Ralph Engelstad Arena, a three-year-old hockey rink that is the home of the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux, a perennial power of American college hockey.

When the world championship tournament of junior hockey begins here on Christmas Day, The Ralph, as it is known, will temporarily become the center of the sport's universe in this season of the National Hockey League lockout.

It could dazzle the international tourists and television audience.
"This is the Taj Mahal," said Thomas Clifford, the university's former president, who helped secure a donation of more than $100 million from the arena's namesake, a former North Dakota player, to build it. "They don't come any better."

The building, the college team, the prestigious international tournament and the hockey-rich environment suggest hockey's robust underpinning, despite its disarray at the major professional level. Children, middle-aged adults and even senior citizens play the game in this city of about 49,000. High school hockey thrives and a top junior league has its headquarters here, with teams spread across the Midwest.

The Engelstad Arena is one of 9 indoor and 14 outdoor rinks in the metropolitan area, which includes East Grand Forks, Minn., a town of about 8,000 that is across the Red River. North Dakota, which has won seven National Collegiate Athletic Association championships, regularly sends players to the N.H.L. The current roster of 25 players includes 10 N.H.L. draft choices, including two from the first round, two from the second and one from the third.

The Fighting Sioux - the name has been vocally criticized by American Indians and others as insensitive - are recruiting local players like Jake Marto, a senior defenseman for Grand Forks Central High School, whose father, Perry Marto, has played for 20 years in a recreational league.

"Hockey is the No. 1 winter sport here by far," Perry Marto said. "The kids all look up to those guys at U.N.D." Marto started flooding his yard when his son was 4 years old. "Him and his little buddies would skate every day," he said. "We even put a sign up: 'Marto Arena.' ''

Marto watched from a balcony on a recent Sunday afternoon as his son scrimmaged with friends who had rented the indoor ice at the Eagles Arena, one of the other indoor rinks in town. He said Jake might delay college to play for a season in the United States Hockey League, a Tier I junior circuit whose headquarters is in Grand Forks.

The junior league includes teams in cities like Sioux City, Iowa, and Sioux Falls, S.D. It was once a professional minor league; Gordie Howe played in the league for Omaha in 1945-46 when he was 17. Like many hockey elements here, the league is intertwined in the region's culture.

Gino Gasparini, the league's president, is a former North Dakota coach; several current Fighting Sioux players came from the league. "Junior hockey is a lot more prevalent in the Midwest than it is in the East," Gasparini said. "We'll do over 100 Division I scholarships a year. We average close to 3,000 fans per game."

The league's Prospects All-Star Game will be held on Feb. 8 at The Ralph. Both the junior league and the college league offer alternatives to Canada's major junior leagues, which have been the traditional feeder systems for the N.H.L.

North Dakota, which won the N.C.A.A. championship most recently in 2000, has sent to the N.H.L. players like goalie Ed Belfour of Toronto. High over one of the nets in The Ralph are banners from N.H.L. teams with former Fighting Sioux players.

The university has had a hockey team since 1946. One of its early goalies was Engelstad, a native of Thief River Falls, Minn., which is 45 miles east of Grand Forks. Ten of the 31 games of the world junior tournament will be played there in a building also named the Ralph Engelstad Arena, a smaller version of the Grand Forks rink. It, too, was built with Engelstad's philanthropy.

Engelstad, who died two years ago, played two seasons for the Fighting Sioux, the last of which was in 1949-50, before starting a construction business and moving to Las Vegas, where he eventually owned a casino, the Imperial Palace. He is remembered by friends and foes as generous and imperious.

After pledging the money to build the arena in Grand Forks, Engelstad became upset when American Indians and others tried to change the team's nickname. In a letter to Charles E. Kupchella, the university president, Engelstad threatened to stop construction and let the harsh weather of North Dakota destroy the partly built arena.

"I will take my lumps and walk away," Engelstad wrote to Kupchella. "It is a good thing that you are an educator because you are a man of indecision and if you were a businessman, you would not succeed.''

Engelstad also wrote that his letter should not be considered a threat. "It is only notification to you of exactly what I am going to do if you change this logo and this slogan," he wrote.

Engelstad had already been known for his eccentricities. In Las Vegas, he was host to parties on Hitler's birthday and collected Nazi memorabilia. Engelstad won the nickname struggle, and the building went up according to his wishes.

It has perfect sight lines, marble floors, 48 luxury boxes and 11,400 leather chairs. In a town surrounded by farmland, about 150 miles south of Winnipeg, Manitoba, The Ralph offers amenities to impress the most spoiled sports sophisticates from New York or Los Angeles.

Among decorative touches is a monument out front honoring Chief Sitting Bull and 4,000 Indian-head emblems on the floors, walls and furniture. These are among the things that bother the arena's critics, who discussed their feelings in late October at the American Indian Center, which is in an old house less than a half-mile south of the arena.

Gary LaPointe, a senior majoring in entrepreneurship and a member of the Rosebud tribe from South Dakota, called the building "a slap in the face to Sitting Bull," who opposed the United States late in the 19th century.

"If he were here, he'd probably burn it down," LaPointe said.

Merry Ketterling, a Lakota who works as a secretary for the university's Indian Studies department, said it was insensitive to use the Sioux people as a nickname. "We don't want to be dehumanized," she said. "People think Indians are in the past. They think we are all gone. We're still here."

Jim Antes, a professor of psychology, said he was embarrassed to find in his closet apparel with the name Sioux and the Indian logo, which he will no longer wear.

He does not boycott the games, but he walks around the Sioux logo on the floor of the arena and declines to use the word when shouting encouragement to the players. "It's hard to cheer for the team," he said. "You don't know what to yell."

Roger Thomas, North Dakota's athletic director, acknowledged the sentiment against the nickname. But he said change would probably not come from within the university, although St. John's, Stanford and other universities have dispensed with Indian nicknames and logos.

"This would be one of the strongholds," Thomas said with a shrug while standing outside the alumni suite on the arena's luxury box level. "The N.C.A.A. is concerned. Political correctness is part of our world. It might take something at the national level."

Little of this affects the North Dakota players, who come not only from the United States but also from Canada and Europe. Rastislav Spirko, a freshman from Vrutky, Slovakia, said Grand Forks suited him.

"It's a hockey town, a hockey university, hockey is the most important thing here," Spirko said.

Travis Zajac, another Fighting Sioux forward, grew up in Winnipeg. He said he had chosen North Dakota over Canadian junior hockey because "I thought it was the best way to get an education and play hockey at the same time."

He wants to represent Canada in the junior tournament, which is for players under 20 years old. Zajac was chosen last June by the Devils in the first round of the N.H.L. draft. Another Sioux player, Zach Parise, was chosen in the first round the previous year by the Devils.

Parise helped lead the American team to its first world junior championship last winter in Helsinki, Finland. One of his teammates on both the American team and at North Dakota was Drew Stafford, a first-round draft choice of the Buffalo Sabres who is back with the Fighting Sioux this season and will play again for the American junior team.

When Stafford played at Shattuck-St. Mary's, an elite prep school in Minnesota, one of his teammates was Sidney Crosby, a Canadian considered to be the world's best junior player. Crosby, now with Rimouski in the Quebec Major Junior league, will represent Canada in the world tournament at The Ralph in December.

He could be the star of the show. The anticipation over Crosby in hockey has been like that for Bobby Orr in the 1960's, Wayne Gretzky in the 1970's, Mario Lemieux in the 1980's and Eric Lindros in the 1990's. "Canada has been waiting for something like Sid," Stafford said. "He's got that unteachable skill of knowing where to be and how to be there."

Also expected in the tournament is Alexander Ovechkin of Russia, who was chosen first over all in the 2004 N.H.L. draft by Washington and is considered the best European prospect. Because the Americans are the defending champions, and because the N.H.L. is shut down, there is more interest than usual in the junior tournament. Jim Johannson, senior director of hockey operations for USA Hockey, said that some game times had been moved to accommodate ESPN2.

The N.H.L. lockout has also meant that tournament teams have a better choice of talent than in most years. "It helps us," Johannson said of the lockout. "For USA Hockey, it's going to be the best exposure we've ever had at this tournament."

Johannson was among several hockey notables who attended a two-game series between the Fighting Sioux and the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Oct. 22 and 23. Also there were Andy Murray, the coach of the Los Angeles Kings; Darryl Sutter, the Calgary general manager and coach; and Jason Blake, the Islanders forward who is a former Sioux player.

Johannson played for the United States team in the world junior tournaments of the early 1980's in Sweden and the Soviet Union, at a time when, he said, "it was only mom and dad and a bunch of scouts watching." Now, he said, the tournament has become a spectacle and The Ralph represents "the standard for what the under-20 championship has become.''

Smiling and looking out at the capacity crowd in The Ralph, Johannson said, "Who would have thought the world would come to Grand Forks?"

[BullNBear52]

Arbitration Court Rules That Hamm Is Gold Medal Winner in Gymnastics
By CHRISTINE HAUSER

Published: October 21, 2004

The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed an appeal by a South Korean gymnast today and allowed the American gymnast Paul Hamm to retain the gold medal that he was awarded in the men’s all-around event in the Summer Olympics in Athens.

The court’s decision, issued from its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, marked the official end of a controversy that had simmered since Hamm captured the gold after a close finish. The South Korean gymnast, Yang Tae Young, who won the bronze, had said a judging error on his parallel bars routine kept him from winning the gold.

“This is obviously a great day for me,’’ said Hamm, speaking in a telephone news conference. He said the court’s decision confirmed what he had always felt in his heart about the results. “I competed my heart out and followed all the rules,” he said.

Hamm had argued before the court last month that he should not have to give up his gold medal, but he has said that he would abide by the court’s decision and would return it if ordered to do so.

The South Korean Olympic committee had been looking to make Yang the sole champion -- no shared gold medals or shared glory, as it said in August.

The International Gymnastics Federation suspended the event’s judging panel, which mistakenly gave Yang’s routine a 9.9 start value, instead of the 10.0 it should have been. A 10.0 is the maximum score for a perfect routine.

Jeff Benz, the United States Olympic Committee’s general counsel, said during the news conference that the court’s reasoning showed it accepted that it should not make decisions on “field of play” issues, and that there was a process in which the South Korean delegation could have protested the result in a timely manner but failed to do so.

He also said that the court, which rules on international sporting disputes, recognized that simply changing the parallel bars score would not necessarily result in the true result of the overall event because it was not the final rotation.

Hamm said that he heard the news after he woke up early this morning and found a message on his phone from his agent. He then called his girlfriend to tell her. He said he was looking forward to competing again and putting behind him the whole ordeal of battling for final possession of the gold medal. He said there could now be a full celebration of his victory.

“It will be more special,” he said. “There has been a lot of fighting for this medal. I felt like I have won it three times.”

Hamm, who said he felt empathy for Yang, added that the medal was in the pocket of one of his lawyers, Kelly Crabb, as they spoke during the news conference.

“I feel like it’s mine now,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/21/sports/olympics/21cnd-hamm.html?hp

[BOREALIS]

Racial 'Handicaps' and a Great Sprint Forward

By JIM YARDLEY

NYTimes
Published: September 8, 2004


Javier Soriano/Agence France-Presse-Getty Images
Liu Xiang winning the men's 110-meter hurdles in Athens.
The Chinese say he overcame "congenital shortcomings.''


BEIJING, Sept. 7 - He is now nicknamed "the Yellow Bullet." His gold medal is said to be "the heaviest," or most significant, of the 32 that China won in the Athens Olympics. He carried the Chinese flag in the closing ceremonies and has returned home to riches and glory.

All of this adulation because Liu Xiang, a high hurdler, has proved what many Chinese have long felt was not possible: that yellow men can jump, and sprint, too.

"It is a kind of miracle," Mr. Liu, 21, exulted at a post-race news conference after tying the world record and winning gold in the 110-meter high hurdles. "It is unbelievable - a Chinese, an Asian, has won this event."

He added: "It is a proud moment not only for China, but for Asia and all people who share the same yellow skin color."

In many countries, particularly the United States, this kind of racial stereotyping often touches a raw nerve in society. But among Chinese, the proposition that genetic differences have made Asian athletes slower in sprinting than their American, African or European rivals is a widely accepted maxim, if an unproven one.

The Communist Party apparently thinks so, too. At the midway point of the Athens Games, with China in a surprisingly tight competition with the United States for the lead in gold medals, the party's chief newspaper, People's Daily, cautioned that track and field events were about to begin.

While Chinese are ''suited'' to sports like Ping-Pong, badminton and gymnastics that require agility and technique, the newspaper noted, purely athletic events are different. Chinese had ''congenital shortcomings" and "genetic differences" that created disadvantages against black and white athletes.

In an effort to give this halftime pep talk a positive spin, the commentary urged Chinese athletes to work harder. "If Chinese people want to make their mark in the major Olympic competitions, they have to break through the fatalism that race determines everything," the newspaper advised.

Mr. Liu's victory has not fully erased this ingrained belief. Chinese sports officials have explained his win, in part, by noting that hurdles also require technique, not just raw speed, an observation that invokes another, more positive, stereotype - that Chinese are disciplined and smart. His coach has been credited with developing special training methods to overcome any racial deficiencies.

But by becoming the first Chinese man to win a sprinting event in modern Olympics history, Mr. Liu's victory has been particularly embraced by a younger generation of upwardly mobile, urban Chinese who themselves are eager to shatter stereotypes. Handsome, with thick, styled hair, Mr. Liu is 6 feet 2. His playful smile on the medal stand, with his tongue sticking out, offered a far different image from that of the reserved Chinese medalists of the past.

"Glory Belongs to the New Generation of the 1980's," proclaimed China Newsweek magazine, with a picture of a determined Mr. Liu striding over a hurdle.

Yao Ming, the Chinese basketball star, was one of the first athletes to touch this chord in the national psyche. His stardom with the Houston Rockets has made him the most famous athlete in China. He is popular not just because he is a good player, but because he is tall. At 7 feet 5, he helped dispel the Western stereotype that all Chinese are short.

But if Mr. Yao was chosen to carry the Chinese flag at the opening ceremony, it was Mr. Liu who was selected to carry it at the closing. He is already being deluged with endorsement and entertainment offers. A record company reportedly offered him $600,000.

Like many Chinese, Feng Jue, 32, a marketing executive for the Chinese Web site, Tom.com, stayed up late to watch the live telecast of Mr. Liu's race. She had not even heard of him until the day before the finals. But when he won, she was overjoyed.

She thought his victory represented a significant and positive change in Chinese society. "The new generation, I think, is more civilized," she said of people in their 20's. "They think of themselves as human beings first, not the country and the party's interest."

"It is a kind of miracle," Mr. Liu, 21, exulted at a post-race news conference after tying the world record and winning gold in the 110-meter high hurdles. "It is unbelievable - a Chinese, an Asian, has won this event."

He added: "It is a proud moment not only for China, but for Asia and all people who share the same yellow skin color."

In many countries, particularly the United States, this kind of racial stereotyping often touches a raw nerve in society. But among Chinese, the proposition that genetic differences have made Asian athletes slower in sprinting than their American, African or European rivals is a widely accepted maxim, if an unproven one.

The Communist Party apparently thinks so, too. At the midway point of the Athens Games, with China in a surprisingly tight competition with the United States for the lead in gold medals, the party's chief newspaper, People's Daily, cautioned that track and field events were about to begin.

While Chinese are ''suited'' to sports like Ping-Pong, badminton and gymnastics that require agility and technique, the newspaper noted, purely athletic events are different. Chinese had ''congenital shortcomings" and "genetic differences" that created disadvantages against black and white athletes.

In an effort to give this halftime pep talk a positive spin, the commentary urged Chinese athletes to work harder. "If Chinese people want to make their mark in the major Olympic competitions, they have to break through the fatalism that race determines everything," the newspaper advised.

Mr. Liu's victory has not fully erased this ingrained belief. Chinese sports officials have explained his win, in part, by noting that hurdles also require technique, not just raw speed, an observation that invokes another, more positive, stereotype - that Chinese are disciplined and smart. His coach has been credited with developing special training methods to overcome any racial deficiencies.

But by becoming the first Chinese man to win a sprinting event in modern Olympics history, Mr. Liu's victory has been particularly embraced by a younger generation of upwardly mobile, urban Chinese who themselves are eager to shatter stereotypes. Handsome, with thick, styled hair, Mr. Liu is 6 feet 2. His playful smile on the medal stand, with his tongue sticking out, offered a far different image from that of the reserved Chinese medalists of the past.

"Glory Belongs to the New Generation of the 1980's," proclaimed China Newsweek magazine, with a picture of a determined Mr. Liu striding over a hurdle.

Yao Ming, the Chinese basketball star, was one of the first athletes to touch this chord in the national psyche. His stardom with the Houston Rockets has made him the most famous athlete in China. He is popular not just because he is a good player, but because he is tall. At 7 feet 5, he helped dispel the Western stereotype that all Chinese are short.

But if Mr. Yao was chosen to carry the Chinese flag at the opening ceremony, it was Mr. Liu who was selected to carry it at the closing. He is already being deluged with endorsement and entertainment offers. A record company reportedly offered him $600,000.

Like many Chinese, Feng Jue, 32, a marketing executive for the Chinese Web site, Tom.com, stayed up late to watch the live telecast of Mr. Liu's race. She had not even heard of him until the day before the finals. But when he won, she was overjoyed.

She thought his victory represented a significant and positive change in Chinese society. "The new generation, I think, is more civilized," she said of people in their 20's. "They think of themselves as human beings first, not the country and the party's interest."

[BOREALIS]

The Paralympic Games will be interesting,
but I really won't be following it as closely as the Olympics.

However, I'd probably be willing to contribute (somewhat) to a new board when the time comes.

[BullNBear52]

Controversy Is Slowly Receding
By HARVEY ARATON

Published: August 31, 2004


ncasville, Conn.

IF you had to be an Olympic victim, there would be worse identities to assume than Paul Hamm's. Nancy Kerrigan comes immediately to mind. That poor Brazilian marathoner, whose gold-medal bid was derailed Sunday by some goon in the crowd. For long-lasting misery, dial up any member of the 1972 United States men's basketball team.

Advertisement


Hamm may have had some unnecessarily stressful days over in Athens, but by last week, he and his twin brother, Morgan, were getting a rare comfy ride in business class back to the United States courtesy of the "Late Show With David Letterman." In the airport, on the street, people recognized them from their starring roles in NBC's just-concluded soap opera, and showered Paul, in particular, with sage Noo Yawk advice, Don't you give back that medal!

Hamm began making the talk-show rounds to explain why he wouldn't and guess what shocking news he discovered? He was preaching to a star-spangled congregation that didn't know the name of the South Korean opponent who had lost out to him on a technicality any more than it understood how to score a gymnastics meet.

"People seemed to have heard the whole story, and they've made up their minds that Paul should keep the gold medal," Hamm said yesterday, in the third-person manner of a newly minted news media sensation.

The men's all-around gymnastics gold medal that he won with some undisputed help from the judges - and isn't surrendering to the spineless suits of the International Gymnastics Federation - is already in what Hamm called "a safe place." Under the heat of my aggressive interviewing, he revealed that place to be Columbus, Ohio, where he will be attending Ohio State after the Rock 'n' Roll Gymnastics Tour that begins here tonight at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

In other words, time to cash in on the glitter and the gold before an American sporting public that has the attention span of a toddler in a toy store forgets this latest cheesy Olympic controversy, or which Hamm is which.

All around New York and the country, fans were fast moving on from the Olympic morality play yesterday, snapping back to the less ambiguous values of a culture that is defined by money, not medals. Balls are top-spinning again at the National Tennis Center. Uneasiness is settling into the Bronx with the Red Sox gaining fast on the Yankees. Kurt Warner, not Eli Manning, is preparing for the Giants' opening-day start at quarterback in Philadelphia. Out West, a baseball Giant, Barry Bonds, closes in on 700 home runs.

Controversy? We've got Kobe Bryant going on trial for sexual assault, for goodness sake. So have a nice life, Bruno Grandi.

Grandi is the president of the gymnastic federation that waited a week to weigh in on the Hamm fiasco before delivering a letter to the United States Olympic Committee, addressed to Hamm, suggesting he sacrifice gold for silver. The defiant American officials never passed along the letter, though Hamm said he had had it read to him over the telephone.

The request might have been more reasonable had Grandi's group made it immediately, and quietly. Even Hamm conceded yesterday that he initially pondered making what would have resonated worldwide as a heartfelt sporting gesture.

Not now, though, his position understandably having hardened with the passage of time. In the Olympic Village, athletes from everywhere - whose careers are governed by the kind of meet rules that the South Koreans failed to follow - encouraged Hamm to stand firm, he said . He also reminded himself of how the psychology of the competition would have changed had the protest been immediately lodged. And what altogether convinced him that there could be no reinterpretation of the scoring was the opinion passed along to him by gymnastic insiders that the South Korean had benefited in another part of the scoring where he might have lost two-tenths of a point and finished fourth.

"You can't look at it one way,' Hamm said.

Of course, people always have and always will, because it wouldn't be the Olympics without partisanship loosely related to politics. If Hamm had lost on the same technicality, or had been stripped of his gold by the International Olympic Committee, you can bet the same cable news cavalry that took up the cause of the Canadian figure skaters in Salt Lake City would have docked the Swift boat veterans and gone off on another Olympic mission to search and destroy.

As it's turned out, the gymnastics federation only managed to make the winner, Hamm, as sympathetic as the South Korean, extending the shelf life of the story and assisting Hamm & Company to maintain their post-Olympics box-office buzz. The South Koreans are appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but it's his understanding that the court only intercedes on cases of impropriety and doping. He isn't sweating this anymore. He can laugh about his so-called misfortune.

"We need to lighten up about the situation a little bit," Hamm said. "We're at the point where we want to make T-shirts that say something like, 'Paul Hamm gave me the gold medal.' ' Just know they won't be on sale in Seoul.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/31/sports/olympics/31araton.html

[BullNBear52]

How about sticking around for another month....

Athletes from all nations will unite in Greece, to compete in a top-level sports event, the 2004 Paralympic Games.

Focusing on the Athlete and not on disability, the Athens Paralympic Games will provide to the spectators, viewers and volunteers a unique experience showcasing the athletes’ pursuit of a lifetime performance. The Paralympic Athletes’ strength and skill to compete at the highest level will inspire the world to celebrate this great sports competition and determine the measure of human greatness, leaving a legacy for the generations to come.

The ATHENS 2004 Paralympic Games will present an elite competition of the highest standards, integrated with a unique historical, cultural and natural environment.

http://www.usparalympics.com/

And let's not forget the World Cup.

Lots of good amateur athletic competition coming up.

[Art2Gecko]

Thanks to you too, great board, appreciated all your posts.

[BOREALIS]

Thank you everyone!!

I appreciate the efforts by those who posted and those who
visited this board for the short period of time it was active.

It was fun. Thanks.

BOREALIS

[BOREALIS]

Olympic Venues Take New Roles After Games
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: August 30, 2004
Filed at 2:19 p.m. ET


ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- The athletes have packed up. Olympic banners are coming down.

The challenge is just beginning.

It's a realization that's just starting to hit the Olympic hosts: The venues and facilities they struggled so hard to build could create even greater problems after the games.

The chief fear -- especially after Athens' budget-busting Olympics -- is expensive idleness.
World-class sports centers ring up serious maintenance bills.
Finding relevant and revenue-producing roles for the arenas is the long-term quest of any former Olympic city.

In Athens, however, there's an added complication. Olympic planners dedicated so much effort to overcome delays, there was no time to think about the future. There's now more than $3 billion in new or refurbished venues begging for attention.

``There are ideas. Some plans are being studied. But there is no definite solution,'' said Christos Hadjiemmanuel, head of Olympic Properties, a state company created as a temporary caretaker for the venues and other sites.

Time is truly money in the post-Olympic landscape.

A University of Thessaly study commissioned by the Greek government predicted it will take $100 million a year for the upkeep of the more than a dozen Olympic sites, including the main stadium complex. Add this to an overall price tag expected to reach $12 billion -- nearly all of it from public funds.

Greek taxpayers are already expecting to be hit hard by the state. Even before Sunday's closing ceremony, the hunt was on for ways to lighten the post-games' costs.

Ideas -- some possibly floated by the government -- filled the Greek media. Among them: closing the venue for badminton and the modern pentathlon; seeking private buyers for some sites; and digging up part of a sports complex on attractive seaside property that was formerly the city's airport. There would probably be little local outcry. The fields were used for sports with few followers in Greece, including softball, baseball and field hockey.

The only clear plans so far involve converting the Olympic Village into apartments for low-income Greek workers; turning the media and broadcast centers into conference halls; and modifying media housing for a range of uses such as Education Ministry offices, a shopping mall and a police training academy.

There's already talk of mounting Greek bids for the European soccer championships or other high-profile sports competitions.

``Our city has been changed for the better by the games,'' Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyianni said. ``We must now decide how to keep the momentum.''

Athens has new rail links, highways and revamped public spaces that planners hope rid the city of its shabby and chaotic reputation. Police have been trained to provide security on a major scale, which officials believe could help attract conventions and other sports festivals.

This is what the International Olympic Committee calls ``the legacy.''

It's the catchall phrase for projects, transportation improvements and the general facelift for Olympic cities. But there's a caveat: The IOC has increasingly warned hosts of making costly venues that have little draw after the games.

``These are the white elephants that the IOC talks about,'' said Robert Baade, a professor at Lake Forest College outside Chicago who studies sports' mega-events. ``There are plenty of examples.''

The highly praised Sydney Games left some pricey baggage.

The privately run SuperDome went into receivership this year. The $420,000 mountain bike track was closed because of a lack of riders. The equestrian center needs more than $900,000 a year in subsidies to stay afloat.

In July, Australian officials forecast it could take a decade to break even from the cost of staging the 2000 Olympics. Taxpayers, meanwhile, are paying about $32 million a year to prop up the underused venues.

Atlanta immediately converted the 85,000-seat Olympic stadium into the home field for the Braves. Smaller venues had a less fortunate afterlife. The shooting venue was closed. So was the beach volleyball arena, which is now used for wedding receptions and may be part of a future senior center.

The 2002 winter host, Salt Lake City, fared better than most: a $76 million endowment left behind by the organizing committee for a winter sports complex. A $1.6 million operating deficit, however, forced cutbacks and layoffs earlier this year.

Montreal, host of the 1976 Summer Games, was stuck with a public debt worth billions in today's dollars.

The ultimate shakeout for many cities could resemble Mexico City. The sombrero-shaped Olympic stadium from 36 years ago is still in good shape as a venue for pro soccer. It contrasts sharply with the facilities that could not find their footing after the games. The indoor Olympic pool has the feel of an abandoned factory. Graffiti covers the modernist sculptures created for the games

``This whole idea of a bright, shiny Olympic legacy is a terrible sham,'' said Anita Beaty, an activist who fought Atlanta officials over plans to restrict movement of the homeless and others. ``There are dark sides.''

That is what Athens is trying desperately to avoid after silencing critics and pulling off well-run games.

The soccer stadiums, including the 75,000-seat Olympic centerpiece, will be used by Greek soccer clubs, although only a few thousand fans generally turn out for many matches. Basketball teams will take up residence in some of the halls. Sailing, a popular pastime in Greece, probably will benefit from the new marina facilities.

It's the smaller sites that are the biggest worries. Greece, with about 11 million people, might not have the sports base to sustain venues for shooting or indoor cycle racing.

Greece's deputy finance minister, Petros Doukas, said the government is seeking to shift a ``big chunk'' of Olympic venue management into private hands. The reason is as obvious as red ink.

``There just isn't much public money left after the games,'' he said.

Some Greeks have opposed widespread selloffs of the venues, saying they should remain a public resource. But others acknowledge the debt-smothered government can't handle it alone.

``Privatizing the venues or charging a price for their use is preferable to their being given free-access status yet left to rust,'' an editorial in the Kathimerini newspaper said.

After a meeting last week on the future of the Olympic sites, the government spokesman summed up the state of the blueprint.

``We're open to all ideas,'' Theodoros Roussopoulos said. ``It's an open book.''


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-OLY-The-Athens-Legacy.html?pagewanted=2

[BOREALIS]

FINAL COUNT OF MEDALS AWARDED

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2004/medaltracker/medalTrackerByTotal.html

Last Updated Mon. Aug 30, 11:26 AM


Sort By Total Medals Gold Medals Silver Medals Bronze Medals Countries Sports

Country Total Medals Gold Silver Bronze
United States 103 35 39 29
Russia 92 27 27 38
China 63 32 17 14
Australia 49 17 16 16
Germany 48 14 16 18
Japan 37 16 9 12
France 33 11 9 13
Italy 32 10 11 11
South Korea 30 9 12 9
Great Britain 30 9 9 12
Cuba 27 9 7 11
Ukraine 23 9 5 9
Netherlands 22 4 9 9
Romania 19 8 5 6
Spain 19 3 11 5
Hungary 17 8 6 3
Greece 16 6 6 4
Belarus 15 2 6 7
Canada 12 3 6 3
Bulgaria 12 2 1 9
Brazil 10 4 3 3
Turkey 10 3 3 4
Poland 10 3 2 5
Thailand 8 3 1 4
Denmark 8 2 0 6
Kazakhstan 8 1 4 3
Czech Republic 8 1 3 4
Sweden 7 4 1 2
Austria 7 2 4 1
Ethiopia 7 2 3 2
Kenya 7 1 4 2
Norway 6 5 0 1
Iran 6 2 2 2
Slovakia 6 2 2 2
Argentina 6 2 0 4
South Africa 6 1 3 2
New Zealand 5 3 2 0
Chinese Taipei 5 2 2 1
Jamaica 5 2 1 2
Uzbekistan 5 2 1 2
Croatia 5 1 2 2
Egypt 5 1 1 3
Switzerland 5 1 1 3
Azerbaijan 5 1 0 4
North Korea 5 0 4 1
Georgia 4 2 2 0
Indonesia 4 1 1 2
Latvia 4 0 4 0
Mexico 4 0 3 1
Slovenia 4 0 1 3
Morocco 3 2 1 0
Chile 3 2 0 1
Lithuania 3 1 2 0
Zimbabwe 3 1 1 1
Belgium 3 1 0 2
Portugal 3 0 2 1
Estonia 3 0 1 2
Bahamas 2 1 0 1
Israel 2 1 0 1
Finland 2 0 2 0
Serbia and Montenegro 2 0 2 0
Nigeria 2 0 0 2
Venezuela 2 0 0 2
Cameroon 1 1 0 0
Dominican Republic 1 1 0 0
Ireland 1 1 0 0
United Arab Emirates 1 1 0 0
Hong Kong, China 1 0 1 0
India 1 0 1 0
Paraguay 1 0 1 0
Colombia 1 0 0 1
Eritrea 1 0 0 1
Mongolia 1 0 0 1
Syria 1 0 0 1
Trinidad & Tobago 1 0 0 1

Last Updated Mon. Aug 30, 11:26 AM

[SpillWay]

Thank you.

[BullNBear52]

Brazil Protests to CAS Over De Lima Assault

Sun Aug 29, 4:25 PM ET

ATHENS (Reuters) - Brazil's Olympic Committee will protest to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over the assault on Vanderlei de Lima who was pushed off the road when he was leading the Olympic marathon on Sunday.

The Brazilians protested immediately after the event, asking for De Lima -- who finished third -- to be given a duplicate gold medal, but it was denied.


The International Olympic Committee (news - web sites) gave De Lima a special medal for his sportsmanship. Brazil have now decided to go to CAS, team officials said.


They want the result reviewed on the basis that De Lima was not given the necessary security on the streets of Athens and this stopped him winning.


A former Irish priest man was arrested and taken to a police station. A government spokesman said he was a former Irish priest, Cornelius Horan, who interrupted the British Formula One Grand Prix last year by running on to the Silverstone track.

[SpillWay]

I read on another board that this wacko that jumped the marathon runner is the same nut that ran onto a Formula 1 track during a race, with cars coming around a corner right at him at near 160mph.

Can anyone verify this? In any event, it's outrageous that this person cost someone a possible gold Olympic medal. There's not much punishment that would be too severe IMHO.

[originunknown]

Great coverage Borealis, thanks!!

[Churak]

Great job, dewd.

[Bunny]

It was nice while it lasted...

[BOREALIS]

Thanks, Merci.

I appreciate good quality photos, and the Olympics seemed to provide an endless supply.
So my messages were mainly geared toward the photo telling a story with a short message in most cases.
Sometimes articles explained the situation better.

I made copies of a few of the better photos, as I assume they will not be on-line forever.


It was fun. But now it is over.

[BOREALIS]

Thank-you Athens



The closing ceremony were a image of colours and lights as the Athens Games came to a conclusion.

http://www.athens2004.com/en/featureClosingCeremony

Sunday, 29 August 2004 last day of the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad

As the Greatest Celebration of Humanity reached its final phase, host-city Athens bade a final farewell to the athletes and its guests. The Ceremony was held on 29 August at the Athens Olympic Stadium, under Attica's full moon.

At the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games, athletes were, for once more, on the spotlight. However, this time, they entered the Olympic Stadium in the absence of any distinctive national emblems, in order to celebrate unified the end of the Greatest celebration of humanity and to set the foundations for new competitions at the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games.

During the Ceremony host city Athens delivered the Olympic flag to the mayor of the next host city of the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing. Immediately after, the IOC president Dr. Jacques Rogge, declared the end of the Games and the Olympic flame, that kept on lighting on the Cauldron of the Olympic Stadium through the 2004 Games, went out.

"It was a human celebration, full of music and singing. We danced the Greek way, while a patchwork of music from all over Greece played on a continuous flow, just like an energy river". That's how D. Papaioannou, Ceremonies concept creator and Artistic Director described the Closing Ceremony of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games.

Popular Greek artists participated on both parts, accompanied by 2,200 artistic volunteers. "100 tin bells bearers-an ancient Greek custom- and 60 dancers of Greek descent coming from the region of Pontos, also participated, which constitutes a strong part of the Greek tradition" D. Papaioannou, underlined.

[BOREALIS]

Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan waves the Olympic flag as Jacques Rogge,
president of the IOC looks on during closing ceremonies at the Summer Olympics
in Athens Sunday, August 29, 2004.
(AP Photo/Ryan Remiorz

[Bunny]

These were great... thank you guys for the time spent to bring these wonderful snap-shots to us. :)

[BOREALIS]

Looking ahead to 2008


AFP
JEFF HAYNES

In a symbolic gesture towards the next Summer Games in 2008,
children from the Beijing Opera performed at the closing ceremony on Sunday.


FOXSports
08/29/2004 23:29 © AFP

[BOREALIS]

Games to remember


AFP
ADRIAN DENNIS

The Greek team march into the Olympic stadium at the closing ceremony on Sunday.
The Games featured a number of exciting and controversial incidents
inside and outside the competition.

08/29/2004 23:29 © AFP

[BOREALIS]

See you in Beijing


AFP
GREG WOOD

The Athens Games came to a close on Sunday as dancers perform
in a wheat field as part of a lavish ceremony to conclude festivities.
The next Summer Olympics are set for Beijing in 2008.

FOXSports
08/29/2004 23:06 © AFP

[BOREALIS]

Bringing down the curtain


AFP
JEFF HAYNES
People young and old turned out to participate in Sunday's closing ceremony
that brought down the curtain on the 2004 Athens Games.

FOXSports
08/29/2004 23:06 © AFP

[BOREALIS]

U.S. tops Summer Games medal charts again

Updated: Sunday August 29, 2004 5:01PM

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.


Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/olympics/2004/08/29/medal.race.ap/index.html

[BOREALIS]

Totals of Medals Awarded

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2004/medaltracker/medalTrackerByTotal.html

Last Updated Sun. Aug 29, 3:02 PM

Sort By Total Medals Gold Medals Silver Medals Bronze Medals Countries Sports

Country Total Medals Gold Silver Bronze
United States 103 35 39 29
Russia 92 27 27 38
China 63 32 17 14
Australia 49 17 16 16
Germany 48 14 16 18
Japan 37 16 9 12
France 33 11 9 13
Italy 32 10 11 11
South Korea 30 9 12 9
Great Britain 30 9 9 12
Cuba 27 9 7 11
Ukraine 23 9 5 9
Netherlands 22 4 9 9
Romania 19 8 5 6
Spain 19 3 11 5
Hungary 17 8 6 3
Greece 16 6 6 4
Belarus 15 2 6 7
Canada 12 3 6 3
Bulgaria 12 2 1 9
Brazil 10 4 3 3
Turkey 10 3 3 4
Poland 10 3 2 5
Thailand 8 3 1 4
Denmark 8 2 0 6
Kazakhstan 8 1 4 3
Czech Republic 8 1 3 4
Sweden 7 4 1 2
Austria 7 2 4 1
Ethiopia 7 2 3 2
Kenya 7 1 4 2
Norway 6 5 0 1
Iran 6 2 2 2
Slovakia 6 2 2 2
Argentina 6 2 0 4
South Africa 6 1 3 2
New Zealand 5 3 2 0
Chinese Taipei 5 2 2 1
Jamaica 5 2 1 2
Uzbekistan 5 2 1 2
Croatia 5 1 2 2
Egypt 5 1 1 3
Switzerland 5 1 1 3
Azerbaijan 5 1 0 4
North Korea 5 0 4 1
Georgia 4 2 2 0
Indonesia 4 1 1 2
Latvia 4 0 4 0
Mexico 4 0 3 1
Slovenia 4 0 1 3
Morocco 3 2 1 0
Chile 3 2 0 1
Lithuania 3 1 2 0
Zimbabwe 3 1 1 1
Belgium 3 1 0 2
Portugal 3 0 2 1
Estonia 3 0 1 2
Bahamas 2 1 0 1
Israel 2 1 0 1
Finland 2 0 2 0
Serbia and Montenegro 2 0 2 0
Nigeria 2 0 0 2
Venezuela 2 0 0 2
Cameroon 1 1 0 0
Dominican Republic 1 1 0 0
Ireland 1 1 0 0
United Arab Emirates 1 1 0 0
Hong Kong, China 1 0 1 0
India 1 0 1 0
Paraguay 1 0 1 0
Colombia 1 0 0 1
Eritrea 1 0 0 1
Mongolia 1 0 0 1
Syria 1 0 0 1
Trinidad & Tobago 1 0 0 1


Last Updated Sun. Aug 29, 3:02 PM

[BOREALIS]

Games closing with grand ceremony

Greece earned its own olive wreath by
silencing pessimists, now it's party time


Ben Curtis / AP
Fireworks fly over the Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony on Aug. 13.

ATHENS, Greece - The Greeks certainly know how to party and they want to prove it to the world on Sunday night.

After a triumphant Olympics that have confounded the pessimists, the spiritual homeland of the Games is determined to go out in style.

“They have had a great Games and they have a lot to celebrate,” said Lois Jacobs, producer of Sunday’s closing ceremony.

Greece will be bidding an ebullient farewell to billions of television viewers around the world, while for the 10,500 athletes from a record 202 countries it is the perfect opportunity to let their hair down at last.

“Greece is going to go out with one big party,” Jacobs promised. “And it is going to be a full moon. We could not have planned it better. The broadcast will last a couple of hours but we will be partying on afterwards.”

All those disastrous pre-Games headlines about construction chaos and security concerns will be forgotten. The smallest country to stage a Summer Olympics since Finland in the 1950s, Greece is ready to award itself some well earned olive wreaths.

“It has been a good Games,” Jacobs said. “Of course there have been doping stories but there are at every Games. The Greeks have been very hospitable and what people feared has not transpired.”

International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokeswoman Giselle Davies, whose performances over the last two weeks have proved she is not given to hyperbole, said: “The Games are a great success. The host country has welcomed us so warmly we look forward to these two days and the Games closing ceremony.”

The stadium is being turned into a giant wheatfield. About 250,000 balloons will cascade down from a night sky exploding with fireworks.

With the Olympic torch now passing to Beijing for the 2008 Games, famed Chinese film director Zhang Yimou has promised to dazzle the Athens crowd with a “fusion of Chinese heritage and youth culture.”

He was not giving anything away in advance but said the costumes of the 270 Chinese dancers and acrobats were created by the costume designer for the worldwide hit martial arts film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Among the performers will be 28 young monks from the Shaolin temple in central China, the country’s most famous training center for kung fu.

Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

[BOREALIS]

Danish delight


AFP
PHILIPPE DESMAZES
The Danish women's handball team taste the euphoria of winning the Olympic title
after they defeated South Korea in an epic final.
The match was decided on penalties after the two teams finished 34-34.

08/29/2004 20:01 © AFP

[BOREALIS]

Attack on race leader mars marathon

Brazilian finishes third after being grabbed by protester


NBC Sports
Brazil’s Vanderlei Lima is attacked by a man in costume while leading the men's marathon Sunday.
Lima, who was leading at the time of the attack, finished third.

The Associated Press
Updated: 2:10 p.m. ET Aug. 29, 2004


ATHENS, Greece - Stafano Baldini of Italy took the lead two miles from the finish to win the gold medal and American Meb Keflezighi took a surprising silver Sunday in an Olympic marathon disrupted by a costumed intruder who grabbed the race leader with about three miles to go.

Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil, whose lead had been slowly shrinking, was pushed to the curb by a man dressed in green beret, red kilt and knee-high green socks. Lima was able to get back into the race, but he appeared to have been injured in the incident. He lost several more seconds and eventually was overtaken by Baldini and Keflezighi.

Lima, who took the bronze, drew big cheers from the crowd at the finish line in Panthinaiko Stadium — the beautiful marble structure that was the site of the first Olympics of the modern era 108 years ago. He smiled broadly, spread his arms like wings and weaved from side to side as he crossed the line.

The intruder, who police said was from Portugal, was arrested. He had a piece of paper attached to his back bearing a religious reference.

His name was not immediately available. He was taken to a police station for questioning.

Keflezighi moved to San Diego from Eritrea in 1987. He became a U.S. citizen in 1998 and competed for UCLA. He's the first American to win a medal in the men’s marathon since Frank Shorter, who took the silver in 1976, four years after he won the gold medal at the 1972 Munich Games.

At Munich, a hoaxster ran onto the course and entered the stadium ahead of Shorter. The crowd cheered, thinking he was the leader, before authorities stopped him and dragged him away.

Deena Kastor won the bronze in the women’s marathon a week ago, marking the first time the United States had medaled in both of the sport’s epic endurance competition.


Track & field - Men's Marathon (medals: Aug. 29th)
Medal Athlete Country Result
Gold Stefano Baldino Italy 2:10:55
Silver Meb Keflezighi United States 2:11:29
Bronze Vanderlei de Lima Brazil 2:12:11
• NBCO: Schedules, preliminary result and complete final results


© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[BOREALIS]

Unidentified man grabs Marathon runner Vanderlei Lima


(AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
An unidentified man grabs Vanderlei Lima of Brazil during the Men's Marathon event
at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Sunday, Aug 29, 2004.

August 29, 2004 10:38:10 AM, PDT

[BOREALIS]

MARATHON second place goes to USA's Mebrahtom Keflezighi


(AP Photo/Diether Endlicher)
USA's Mebrahtom Keflezighi waves to the crowd after he finished second as Italy's Stefano Baldini, bottom right, sits on the track after finishing first in the men's marathon race on the last day of the 2004 Olympic Games in the Panathenean Stadium in Athens, Sunday Aug. 29, 2004.

August 29, 2004 10:59:40 AM, PDT

[BOREALIS]

Baldini of Italy wins dramatic MARATHON


(AP Photo/Diether Endlicher)
Stefano Baldini of Italy won a dramatic men's marathon at the Olympic Games on Sunday after long-time race leader Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil was attacked by a spectator in the latter stages of the race.

August 29, 2004 10:39:10 AM, PDT

Baldini crossed the line in 2hr 10min 55sec, Mebrahtom Keflezighi of the United States took the silver medal and De Lima recovered and hung on to win the bronze medal.

The man, apparently wearing traditional Greek dress, ran across the road and pushed a shocked De Lima into the spectators lining the road.

Spectators rushed to pull the man off De Lima and he began running again. Within five minutes he had been caught and passed by Baldini and had slipped back into third place.

[BOREALIS]

Phenom Sanderson captures wrestling gold
4-time NCAA champion beats Cuban nemesis, then South Korean for title


David Guttenfelder / AP
Cael Sanderson, of the U. S., celebrates with his coaches after defeating Moon Eui Jae, of Korea,
in the freestyle 84kg wrestling final.

WRESTLING ROUNDUP
The Associated Press
Updated: 3:26 a.m. ET Aug. 29, 2004


ATHENS, Greece - Cael Sanderson has fulfilled all of his promise, met all of the expectations. The best wrestler in U.S. college history is now the best in the world, too.

A winner since first pulling on a singlet for his father-coach in Heber City, Utah, Sanderson beat South Korea’s Moon Eui-jae 3-1 Saturday in the Olympic 185-pound freestyle finals to cap his unequaled career.

Four-time high school champion. Four-time NCAA champion at Iowa State. Now the world champion. Sanderson has long been held to a higher standard than any other active U.S. wrestler, and he has never disappointed.

He wasn’t about to disappoint now, either, not in the biggest match of his life on the world’s biggest stage. He came through, just like he always has, after two surprising American finalists, Stephen Abas and Jamill Kelly, lost their gold-medal matches.

Down 1-0 early in the second period after Moon slipped a clinch, Sanderson became more aggressive and rolled Moon for a two-point back exposure, then tripped him with a single-leg takedown in the final minutes for his final point. He had to rally in two of his final three Olympics matches.

“I didn’t wrestle perfect, I made mistakes and gave up some points,” Sanderson said. “But I was able to score and get wins.”

Doesn’t he always? Just to get to the gold-medal match, Sanderson beat Cuba’s Yoel Romero — a wrestler he had never beaten — 3-2 in the semifinals earlier in the day. Then Moon upset Russia’s Sazhid Sazhidov, who had narrowly beaten Sanderson in last year’s world finals.

“You can say all you want about talent, but the reason Cael Sanderson is an Olympic champion is he has the heart of a champion,” said Iowa State coach Bobby Douglas, who was in Sanderson’s corner. “His college career was great, but that can’t compare to this. This was the greatest moment of his life.”

And right at that moment, he didn’t exactly know what to do. Sanderson, 25, has never been truly comfortable with the attention focused on him, the Wheaties boxes and magazine covers, so he certainly didn’t have a celebration scripted.

He waved to the crowd, including wife Kelly and father Steve, and displayed the flag, but that was about it for a guy who has made no plans except to go back home and get a milk shake at the Dairy Queen.

“I had to get out of there before I made a fool of myself,” Sanderson said.

Not likely. As good as he was in college — he was 159-0 — he has improved since ending his Iowa State career two years ago. He is as quick as ever — Douglas calls him the fastest big man in U.S. wrestling history — and is becoming ever wiser in the often peculiar ways of international wrestling.

“The whole thing is unreal,” Sanderson said. “At this very moment, it’s hard to believe it’s here. I’ve spent so long thinking about it.”

It’s also hard to believe he almost didn’t make the Olympic team. He lost his U.S. title to former Iowa wrestler Lee Fullhart in April, then needed three close and difficult matches to win his spot back from Fullhart at the Olympic trials in May. None of the other six freestyle team members came so close to losing their spot.

Now, he finds himself on the short list of the all-time best U.S. wrestlers.

While excellence has long been projected for Sanderson, it certainly wasn’t for Kelly — perhaps the most overachieving U.S. wrestling silver medalist ever.

He never won a California high school title or made All-American at Oklahoma State, but won three straight Olympic matches before losing to two-time world champion Elbrus Tedeyev of Ukraine 5-1 at 145½ pounds (66kg).

“I got a little timid,” Kelly said.

Kelly nearly lost in the semifinals — the referee was about to raise the hand of Russia’s Makhach Murtazaliev — before Kelly was awarded two points via video replay and a 3-1 overtime decision.

Abas, a three-time NCAA champion at Fresno State, was older (26) than 121-pounds finalist Mavlet Batirov (20) of Russia and more experienced internationally, but it hardly mattered in Batirov’s 9-1 victory.

Batirov was wrestling in juniors two years ago and was just 14th in last year’s world championships, but won his five Olympic matches by a combined score of 43-3.

Also Saturday, Americans Daniel Cormier (211½ pounds, 96kg) and Joe Williams (163 pounds, 74kg) powered through two pool round matches to advance, but Eric Guerrero (132 pounds, 60kg) lost twice and was eliminated

[BOREALIS]

A step short of the promised land
Pain of second place can be almost overwhelming



Ricardo Mazalan / AP
Japan's Kaori Icho, left, celebrates her gold-medal victory as Sara McMann of the U.S.
leaves the mat in dejection after the women's freestyle 63kg wrestling final.


COMMENTARY
By Jim Litke
Associated Press columnist
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:14 p.m. ET Aug. 23, 2004


ATHENS, Greece - The brother who taught Sara McMann how to wrestle is gone. The trial of the man charged with his murder is scheduled this fall, soon after she makes her way home from the Olympics.

The sport she put her life on hold to pursue may disappear from the Summer Games almost as quickly as it arrived.

And there she sat with a silver medal around her neck, weeping so uncontrollably it would break your heart.

“I don’t think there’s anything more painful in the world,” McMann said.

It’s sad how often you hear things like that from athletes who lose in the finals of sports that are making their Olympic debut. They are pioneers, fearless and overachievers by nature. They’ve sacrificed more, endured more pain and bottled up their emotions just to continue the long, difficult march to find a place to play. They don’t have to be told to act like ambassadors. They always know exactly what’s at stake.

And maybe that’s why, the moment they finish a step short of the promised land, all that hurt comes spilling out.

“I just felt like I did everything I could, worked as hard as I could,” McMann said, “and it just wasn’t good enough.”

She is a bright, 23-year-old who will return from Athens and move from the U.S. Olympic Committee’s training facility in Colorado to Washington, D.C., with her boyfriend, former Arizona State wrestler Steven Blackford. He’s going to law school at Catholic University. She plans to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology.

Stories like hers are all over women’s wrestling, just as they are in women’s hockey, soccer and softball. McMann’s teammate, Patricia Miranda, who won a bronze Monday night, got two degrees from Stanford and deferred her admission to Yale Law School for two years to be here.

“I don’t know,” Miranda said, when asked about sticking around to wrestle in 2008 at Beijing — assuming the International Olympic Committee doesn’t yank the sport in an effort to streamline the games.

“Maybe I’ll be able to shake it out of my blood by then. Either way,” she said, referring to law school, “I’m looking forward to the climb from the bottom of another mountain.”

That is hardly an exaggeration. Both McMann and Miranda wrestled against boys most of their school careers, never complaining when teammates punished them in grueling practices for the incontrovertible sin of being a girl. Both eventually won the boys over, but the indignities never stopped there. Sometimes, opposing teams simply forfeited matches or faked injuries rather than wrestle them. Other times, those teams sent out boys who were a few years older and more skilled than any of their counterparts.

McMann went through her senior year of high school with a 15-13 mark against all-male competition, a tribute not just to a tireless work ethic, but the time her older brother, Jason, put in teaching Sara to love wrestling when they were kids.

Five years ago, Jason McMann was beaten unconscious, driven to a remote part of Clinton County, Pa., and left to die. Prosecutors there said the slaying was drug-related, and it shook the McMann family, perhaps Sara most of all. Her life rent by tragedy, wrestling became the vehicle that helped her move on.

“It only comforts me that my brother would have been proud of me either way,” McMann said, her eyes swollen and red, matching the dried blood from a cut across the bridge of her nose.

Everybody who saw her defeated by reigning world champion Kaori Icho of Japan had to feel the same way. The two have trained together, fought each other a handful of times and this time, Icho strung together three consecutive takedowns, the final one with 23 seconds left, to score a 3-2 win in the 138 1/2-pound (63 kg) gold medal match.

“She’s my best rival,” Icho said. “When our eyes meet, we smile, and sometimes it’s a bitter smile.”

A half-hour earlier, Icho’s sister, Chihari, was beaten by Irina Merleni of the Ukraine in the final of the 105 1/2 (48 kg) class. She, too, came to the interview room and sat there, her features the definition of disconsolate.

Japan is a powerhouse in the emerging sport, but it wasn’t a failure to meet the expectations of a nation, or even of the packed crowd of mostly her countrymen, that left Chihari despondent. The pain was purely her own.

And when asked if she took any joy at all in winning the silver, she said through an interpreter: “The word ‘joy’ is not what I’m feeling. All I’m feeling is regret.”

Miranda, who’d been beaten by Merleni earlier, sat at the end of the same table, a smile offsetting a large welt peaking out from the corner of her right eye. She understood better than anyone in the room exactly how Chihari felt. But Miranda also understood it was time to move on.

“I hope in time,” she said softly, with a glance at Chihari, “that would change.”

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[BOREALIS]

U.S.'s new generation of track stars start fast


Stuart Franklin / Getty Images
Gatlin, Felix, Wariner prove Americans have the goods to start ‘taking over’ at meets
Justin Gatlin, who won the men's 100-meter dash, leads a group of young U.S. track and field stars that emerged as a promising group for the future, writes the Washington Post's Michael Wilbon.

By Michael Wilbon
Columnist


Updated: 2:01 a.m. ET Aug. 29, 2004
ATHENS, Greece - They've done pretty well at the track this past week, these American kids whose faces and names we're still learning. For the longest time, we didn't need to constantly check the program to learn who was running and jumping for the United States. We didn't have to ask, "Is that Justin Gatlin or Shawn Crawford?" They were entirely familiar because they seemed to stay forever, whether we're talking about Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson or Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Gail Devers.

They showed up big in the early 1980s, people like Ed Moses and Evelyn Ashford, and stayed competitive so long, and represented the United States in the Olympics so many times, even with a boycott in 1980, that the thought of breaking in a whole new generation seemed overwhelming.

But of the 24 track medals won by the United States, 21 are for individual events, and of those, 13 were won by athletes 26 or younger. Gatlin, the 100-meter gold medalist who attended University of Tennessee, is 22 years old. Jeremy Wariner, the 400 gold medalist from Baylor, is 20. Lauryn Williams, the 100 silver medalist from the University of Miami, has another two weeks of being 20. Muna Lee, the LSU grad who runs the 200, is 22. Sheena Johnson, from Gar-Field High in Northern Virginia and UCLA, finished fourth in the 400 hurdles and is 21. Bryan Clay, the decathlon silver medalist, is 24. And of course, there's Allyson Felix, the 18-year-old phenom from California, who won silver in the 200 meters.

"We're just trying to bring a new wave here and get people thinking positive things about track and field," she told reporters here last week. "We're just so eager. We have the passion. All this is new to us. We're just taking it all in."

As Felix was talking, behind her stood one of the stars from the 1980s, her agent Renaldo Nehemiah, the former world record holder in the 110 hurdles. On the subject of the transition from old familiar faces to those including Felix and Gatlin, another of his clients, Nehemiah said: "It's wonderful, it's about time, and it reminds us the sport is alive and well. The transition if coming at a much needed time. And we're seeing some new kids, unscathed and wholesome kids."

Of Felix specifically, Nehemiah said: "She's just scratching the surface. We have no idea of what her range is . . . 200, 400?" Overhearing that, Felix said: "I love the 100. . . . I think I could learn to love the 400. I'm not sure what direction I'll take it."

And at 18, there's certainly no rush. Four years from now in Beijing, Felix will still be only 22. With good health, she's looking at the kind of longevity Joyner-Kersee and Ashford enjoyed. In 2016, Felix will be just 30, which is eight years younger than Devers is now.

Dee Dee Trotter, the 21-year-old University of Tennessee student who led the United States to gold in the 4x400 relay Saturday night, said immediately after her race, "I'm proud to be part of this youth movement and so much here."

This is the youngest U.S. team since 1992, and it's the first team since 1956 to be younger than the previous team. In Atlanta, the average age of the team was 28.5, and that's down to 26.9. The women's team had no choice but to get younger, considering it went from an average age of 21.6 in 1976 to 29.2 in Sydney four years ago.

Gatlin told reporters, "The young guys, the young women, we're all taking over."

Well, they've taken over the team, but it's going to take a while longer before they have replaced the previous generation of stars in people's hearts or in the record books. In fact, the American record book underscores just how dominant the previous generation was and how difficult it's going to be for these kids to be suitable replacements, no matter how talented they are.

The 100 and 200 world records on the women's side are still held by FloJo, and she set them in 1988. Valerie Brisco's U.S. record in the 400 was set in the '84 Olympics in Los Angeles. The American record in the 1,500 is still held by Mary Decker Slaney, and it's 21 years old. Devers holds the U.S. record in the 100 hurdles. The national 4x400 relay record was set 16 years ago in Seoul by a team that included Brisco and FloJo. Joyner-Kersee set the heptathlon world record 16 years ago in Seoul.

It's not a whole lot different on the men's side. The names Michael Johnson, Sydney Maree, Henry Marsh, Roger Kingdom and Dan O'Brien are noticeable. Michael Powell's long jump record is now 13 years old. And what all this means is plenty of American athletes have had chances to move aside these old geezers and haven't been able to.

The medal takeaway by the American youngsters here is either a flying start at years of gold and big records, or a tease that will only serve to remind us and them on how difficult it will be to live up to a standard already set.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

[BOREALIS]

Wrestling heats up; rivals take match off mat
Russian, Belarusan fight briefly on arena floor after point dispute

The Associated Press
Updated: 5:16 a.m. ET Aug. 29, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Five-time world champion Bouvaissa Saitiev of Russia and Belarus’ Murad Gaidarov fought briefly off the arena floor minutes after their disputed 163-pound (74 kg) freestyle match on Sunday.

At least one spectator jumped from the grandstands and tried to get into the skirmish, which bystanders said was quickly controlled by police and Olympics volunteers.

Saitiev was awarded the decisive point in his 3-2 quarterfinal victory for escaping a clinch at the start of overtime. In a clinch, the two wrestlers lock hands behind each other’s backs and try to escape or throw their opponent for points.

Television replays appeared to show Gaidarov escaping first, but Saitiev was given the point. Gaidarov was so unhappy that he began arguing with the referee, and initially declined to shake hands or stand for the ceremonial end-of-the-match hand raising. He eventually stood for just a moment.

As he left the mat, Gaidarov, 24, screamed at his coach and again at referee Grzegorz Brudzinski of Poland. Their brief tussle took place in the mixed zone, an area just off the arena floor where wrestlers meet with reporters en route to their dressing areas.

John Fuller, a USA Wrestling spokesman, was standing nearby when the off-the-mat spat took place.

“Two wrestlers who don’t like each other met each other,” Fuller said. “That’s all you’re going to get out of me.”

The two have a history with each other, as Saitiev beat Gaidarov in overtime on criteria in the 2003 world championship finals in New York.

This is an important tournament for Saitiev, 29, who was beaten by America’s Brandon Slay in Sydney in one of the biggest upsets in Olympic wrestling history. Saitiev, a 1996 Olympic gold medalist, has won every major international championship he has entered since 1995 except for those 2000 Sydney Games.

Saitiev has won the last two world championships he has entered, 2001 and 2003.

After Saitiev lost in Sydney, his younger brother, Adam, won the gold medal at 187 pounds. Adam Saitiev has since lost his spot on Russia’s team to Sazhid Sazhidov, who took the bronze Saturday at 185 pounds, the class won by America’s Cael Sanderson.

Gaidarov, who lists his occupation as jurist, has wrestled for three countries since 1996 in an attempt to find a spot on a junior or senior level world team. He wrestled on a Russian junior team in 1996, then failed to qualify for the 2000 Olympics with Azerbaijan. He returned to the Russian team later that year, but switched to Belarus in 2001.

Despite often changing loyalties, Gaidarov has a long history of top finishes. He was second in the European championships in April — Saitiev did not wrestle — and in 2002 and third in the 2003 European championships.

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[BOREALIS]

IOC head praises Greek Olympic organizers
Rogge: ‘I’m an extremely happy president’

The Associated Press
Updated: 9:09 a.m. ET Aug. 29, 2004


ATHENS, Greece - International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge praised Athens organizers Sunday for putting on “splendid” games and defying the skeptics who thought Greece wouldn’t be able to deliver.

In a wide-ranging news conference on the final day of the Summer Olympics, Rogge said Athens had pulled off a rousing success despite the concerns over construction delays, security threats and cost overruns.

“I’m an extremely happy president of the IOC,” Rogge said. “We always expressed our confidence in our Greek friends. I’ve always said I believed there was enough time to finish the preparations in due time. Many did not believe me.”

“I think our friends have delivered in Athens in a very splendid way.”

The Greek government spent upward of $8.5 billion to get venues and transportation systems ready in time. That included an unprecedented $1.5 billion security system featuring 70,000 police and soldiers, surveillance cameras and a blimp.

Praising an Olympics that had gone off without major incident, Rogge said the security had been “flawless.” He also noted that ticket sales of 3.55 million had topped the figures from Seoul and Barcelona, international sports federations praised the venues as “outstanding,” and global broadcasters reported that TV ratings were up more than 15 percent from Sydney four years ago.

Rogge said he would offer a “very warm” final verdict on the games in his speech at Sunday night’s closing ceremony. Unlike his predecessor, Juan Antonio Samaranch, he will not consider calling them the “best ever.”

“The Olympic Games is a competition between athletes,” Rogge said. “It’s not a competition between organizing committees.”

Moving to other topics, Rogge said the IOC will consult with international sports federations to avoid the judging and scoring errors that affected gymnastics, equestrian, fencing and other sports.

Rogge reiterated the IOC will not consider changing the result of the men’s all-around gymnastics competition in which America’s Paul Hamm won the gold after judges incorrectly scored the parallel bars routine of South Korea Yang Tae-young.

The international gymnastics federation, FIG, has asked Hamm to give up the medal in a gesture of sportsmanship. But the U.S. Olympic Committee called the request “deplorable” and said FIG should take responsibility for its own mistakes.

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

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

“This is final,” he repeated.

With at least 22 athletes caught for drug violations in Athens, Rogge said the anti-doping program had been a major success. More athletes could be exposed — and medals stripped — in coming months when the IOC analyzes samples which have been stored for further analysis, he said.

“Definitely this is one of the weapons we want to use,” he said.

Rogge said the IOC will expand drug testing for the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, and 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. Nearly one in four athletes was tested in Athens, and that figure will “vastly increase,” he said.

Most of the banned substances detected in Athens have been drugs which go back decades, including the steroid stanozolol. Rogge said that’s because those drugs are effective and easy to purchase on the black market. He attributed the absence of any positives for EPO, human growth hormone or other high-tech drugs to a deterrent effect.

As for the outcome of the games, Rogge singled out the emergence of Asia, which recorded a 50 percent increase in gold medals from Sydney, and predicted an even stronger performance in Beijing.

“These were the games where we saw the awakening of Asia,” Rogge said.

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[BOREALIS]

Center frustrated by rules, fouls and poor play at Games



COMMENTARY
By Mike Wise
Washington Post

Updated: 11:59 a.m. ET Aug. 29, 2004


ATHENS, Greece - Tim Duncan wore a haggard look as he emerged from a locker room of bronze medalists. Hardly an emotional guy, he mumbled that his international basketball career is "95 percent" over and that, oh yeah, "FIBA [stinks]."


Now, Duncan rarely sounds off. The Duke student section used to call him "Spock" after the stoic, all-too-logical Star Trek character. He doesn't do emotion.

But something about his Olympic experience turned him off, made him never want to play internationally again.

And you know what? You can't blame him.

Duncan gave up two summers of his life -- not to rehabilitate his image on behalf of his sneaker company and not to actually accomplish something in basketball. He had already done the latter: two NBA championships, two MVP awards, unparalleled respect among his peers as the game's most complete big man.

Duncan came here because he believed in the ideal of representing his country in basketball. And he must have figured if he was going to head overseas, risk security concerns and his professional reputation as arguably the best player in the game, players such as Tracy McGrady and Mike Bibby would surely follow.

Instead, he was joined by a cut-and-paste team that had little practice time together and ended up fouling out twice in eight games, after fouling out approximately two times in eight years. He battled the ticky-tack calls of international referees. He endured jeers and whistles from people who treat American basketball players like Boston treats the Yankees. Criticized back home and castigated abroad, Duncan walked out of that locker room Saturday night at Olympic Indoor Hall and figured, "Enough already. This just isn't worth it."

But he also always bit his tongue. He could have had an issue with those teammates who chose not to come -- players who, unlike Duncan, haven't won anything. He could have blamed the officials or his coaches. He did none of those.

The league's premier power forward honored his two-year commitment when lesser players did not. But in the international game, Duncan never got the star treatment that every franchise player in the NBA receives. He may as well have been Angola's sixth man.

"How can you make sense of the officiating," said U.S. assistant Gregg Popovich, Duncan's coach in San Antonio. "If Tim Duncan knew this is how the games were going to be called, he would have thought seriously about not coming."

Duncan actually took pride in the bronze medal, happy to earn some reward for sacrificing two summers to the NBA's global marketing machine. While Kobe Bryant consulted his lawyers and Shaquille O'Neal was trying to reach a truce with his appetite, Tim Duncan of the U.S. Virgin Islands wanted to wear USA across his chest.

Bottom line, this team lost an exhibition game to Italy, a team with no NBA players. They opened the tournament with a loss to Puerto Rico, a team whose best player is a backup point guard in Utah. They lost to a Lithuanian team that has only one NBA player, Sacramento reserve Darius Songaila, and is led by Sarunas Jasikevicius, whom the supposed greatest basketball league known to man will not offer a decent contract.

At the end, they avenged that loss to Lithuania with perseverance, an offensive rebound scooped up off the floor and put-back by Lamar Odom, and accuracy, a 15-footer from the right wing from Allen Iverson, who can still knock down a medium-range jump shot if you give him more than five.

What's done is done. Change will come, you can be sure. Following a shocking upset of every U.S. basketball team, change is almost required.

In 1972, the Soviet Union beat the United States after more time was inexplicably put on the game clock after the game had seemingly ended. The result: End-of-game measures were put in place to make sure a timing device -- and not an arbitrary FIBA official -- decided a competition.

In 1988, the American collegians lost to an experienced Russian team. The result: The Olympics were overhauled, and professionals were allowed to compete for the first time, a decision that affected many other sports as well.

If history follows suit, rules changes will follow. Larry Brown kept moaning about the differences from continent to continent. Even NBA Commissioner David Stern got in the act Friday night, prior to Team USA's loss to Argentina in the semifinals.

"You run track and field, you run the same event," Stern said. "You swim, you swim. You fence, you fence. You play basketball, you have to adapt to a different set of rules. I think there's some interesting questions that should be asked what we're seeing, about how it should or shouldn't impact our game."

Translation: adopt some of the rules that made much of this tournament a joy to watch. The wider key won't go over well, and the 10-minute quarters won't happen. But you could see the NBA adopting the use of real zones, rather than the partial, toe-in, toe-out rules they have now.

Alexander Gomelsky, the diminutive Russian coach who beat John Thompson's team in 1988 in Seoul, was asked if major changes need to be made, given that every United States loss in Olympic basketball is viewed as a national sporting tragedy.

"No," Gomelsky said. "America play 118 games and only lose five. But they lose three in one week. Why? Europe catch up.

"Americans jumping is very nice. But sometime against zone, this is not possible."

Regardless, rules changes won't change what needs to be fixed back home. And nothing, it seems, can get Duncan to buy into playing for the United States again. He was asked if his own misgivings about playing internationally would hurt the recruitment of other marquee players.

"I hope not," Duncan said. "I'll try not to share my experiences with anyone."

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

[BOREALIS]

Tibetan activists breach Olympic security in Athens
Olympic flag showing five rings as
bullet holes unfurled at main stadium


Petros Giannakouris / AP
The International Tibet Support Network stage a sit-in Sunday after scuffling with police as they displayed a banner with five bullet holes replacing the Olympic rings in the main stadium of the Olympics.

Updated: 1:08 p.m. ET Aug. 29, 2004
ATHENS, Greece - Tibetan activists breached security at the Olympics on Sunday, unfurling a flag in Athens main stadium complex just hours before the closing ceremony to protest alleged human rights abuses in China, host of the 2008 Games.

The Tibetan activists, who have been targeting China ahead of the Beijing Olympics, took security by surprise and displayed the flag inside the sprawling Olympic complex. The flag showed five bullet holes instead of the five Olympic rings.

Two dozen police officers found the group after five minutes and confiscated the flag. Police searched their backpacks and found several more flags and t-shirts with the logo “China plays games with human rights.”

The five women and one man, all wearing the traditional chupa dress, sat down for two hours as hundreds of curious visitors looked on before being led away by police.

Chinese troops occupied Tibet in 1950 and Beijing considers the Himalayan region part of its territory.

“Beijing and China do not deserve the Games as long as human rights are violated in Tibet,” said Tenzin Sewo, a spokesman for the International Tibet Support Network.

Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

[BOREALIS]

Picture Of The day


AFP
ODD ANDERSEN
Alina Kabaeva performs her gold medal winning routine as she becomes Olympic champion in the individual rhythmic gymnastics. The Russian adds the gold to her three world titles, the last of which was in 2003.



Alina Kabaeva

08/29/2004 19:08 © AFP

[BOREALIS]

Volleyall - U.S. awarded Bronze



The United States' Lloy Ball, left to right, Erik Sullivan and Riley Salmon all dive at a ball during their volleyball bronze medal round match against Russia at the 2004 Olympics Games in Athens, Sunday, Aug. 29, 2004. Russia won 25-22, 27-25, 25-16. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)

[BOREALIS]

Argentina's Walter Hermann cuts down the net



Argentina's Walter Hermann cuts down the net after Argentina defeated Italy, 84-69, to win the men's gold medal basketball game at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens Saturday, Aug. 28, 2004.
(AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)

[BOREALIS]

Evander Holyfield is seen among spectators



Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield is seen among spectators during the boxing finals in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympic Games at the Peristeri boxing hall in Athens Sunday, Aug. 29, 2004.
(AP Photo/Rick)

[BOREALIS]

Denmark's fans and Team celebrate...


Denmark's fans celebrate their team's victory to take the gold medal in the women's handball final at the Olympic Games 2004, in Athens, Sunday, Aug. 29, 2004.
(AP Photo/Alastair Grant


Danish coach Jan Pytlick is lifted up by his team's players as they celebrate after they beat Korea to win the gold medal in the women's handball final at the Olympic Games 2004, in Athens, Sunday, Aug. 29, 2004.
(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

[BOREALIS]

Kindelan the King


AFP
JOE KLAMAR

Boxing legend Mario Kindelan bowed out of the sport on Sunday when he won his second Olympic title by beating British hope Amir Khan. The Cuban also won three world titles in a glittering career.

08/29/2004 17:44 © AFP

[BOREALIS]

Kabaeva comes good


AFP
ODD ANDERSEN

Alina Kabaeva of Russia won the Olympic individual rhythmics gymnastics crown on Sunday to go with her world title won last year. Compatriot Irina Tchachina won silver and Anna Bessonova of the Ukraine took bronze.

08/29/2004 17:44 © AFP