Athens closing

[Colovion]

it's too bad for teh Brazilian Marathon runner.

First place at just about the 2 hour marker...... guy runs out of the crowd and pushes him

and the Greek president called the security "flawless" pffft

[Helot]

Myself being American, loved seing them dominate again this olympics. Though I was disapointed about our men's basketball performance, the women's softball made up for it. They went the whole entire olympics while only giving up a handfull of runs. Also for all of you who think Paul Hamm's gold medal should be taken away from him have good points, but how can we really strip a somewhat deserved gold medal from a rising star?

Well there are my two cents. I think this is good enough for a first post...

Be sure to visit Strategoi.net

[Soulflame]

Well America, China and Russia will always be among the top in the Olympics.. they are simply the largest developed countries.

For us Dutchies, I think our best moment was Pieter winning the king's race (100m) in swimming and Inge winning the 50m.
Odd that both our hockey teams entered the finals with nice win chances, but both lost... Funny was also our badminton player praising the Lord when she played a dream game in the semifinals and won hands down... but you didn't hear anything about that Lord when she was crushed in the finals.. heh.. (this is not meant as religious offence.. but just to show how 'strong' her faith was..)

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I heard that China claims they will win the most medals in the next olympics. Seems they have a ways to go.

[Colovion]

Well America, China and Russia will always be among the top in the Olympics.. they are simply the largest developed countries.

For us Dutchies, I think our best moment was Pieter winning the king's race (100m) in swimming and Inge winning the 50m.
Odd that both our hockey teams entered the finals with nice win chances, but both lost... Funny was also our badminton player praising the Lord when she played a dream game in the semifinals and won hands down... but you didn't hear anything about that Lord when she was crushed in the finals.. heh.. (this is not meant as religious offence.. but just to show how 'strong' her faith was..)

WHy would she thank the Lord if she lost? And that didn't show anything besides you like jumping to conclusions.

[Papewaio]

G S B
1 United States 35 39 29
2 China 32 17 14
3 Russia 27 27 38
4 Australia 17 16 16
5 Japan 16 9 12
6 Germany 14 16 18
7 France 11 9 13
8 Italy 10 11 11
9 South Korea 9 12 9
10 Great Britain 9 9 12


Australia 17 gold and a population of 20 million

So about 220 gold medals if it had the population of the USA.

Or if it had the population of China... about 1000 gold medals.

Norway, New Zealand and Canada all did better then the 'top 3' if you look at numbers of gold per head of population.

[KillerKadugen]

I wish they would have shown more wrestling. Granted, it was nice of NBC to show a match now and then, but where is all the love for one of the oldest sports in the world?

[hotingzilla]

If olympics soccer could become a big international tournament, it would be quite interesting and exciting.

[Soulflame]

WHy would she thank the Lord if she lost? And that didn't show anything besides you like jumping to conclusions.

She thanked Him after the semifinals, because she won that game very easy, against the number 1 placed.

[Bigus_Dickus]

I liked the ancient Olympics.
I dont think there were medals for 2nd and 3rd place.
Nowadays its all this crap about,well at least we participated,at least we tried ,at least we got 3rd place,what a load a bull. lol
Winning means everything ,second place is for losers.
hehe cat-pigeons
go to it.

[Bigus_Dickus]

I`m jk,being there and doing something is good enough. ;)

[CherryDanish]

The games were good, no boycotts and some larger teams from countries that had not competed before and several countries won for the first time in like 50 years. Too bad about the drugs and the anti war protesting (I'll leave my own anti war views out of this, but the olympics are about competeing in peace and the things that we have in common, not about war or disputing war, not the place for it IMHO).

I only have one complaint and that's that it looked like (especially in track and field) that some atheletes dogged it when it looked like they'd win. Their goals seemed too focused on medals and not enough on breaking records. I didn't hear too many atheletes say things like "my goal was to break the world record and stretch the known physical limitations of humanity." The wins and loses are all largely irrelevant to me. I look for spirit and for people who are out to set the bar higher for the human race.

[Katana]

I hate Shaq because he's a big fat cross-eyed moron who succeeds because he just happened to be over 7 feet tall and weigh 300+ pounds. The refs also apparently have some agreement to let him break all the rules (i.e. just push everyone out of the way, then dunk it and have a foul called on them), like he needs any more of an advantage throwing his weight around.

And anyways, I don't have to justify my opinion to you, because (get this): my opinons are not inherently right or wrong. So what the hell, I have no valid reasons for hating Shaq! It's totally irrational! Too bad you still can't do anything about it. SHAQ SUCKS.

[cutepuppy]

... Too bad about the drugs ...

I only have one complaint and that's that it looked like (especially in track and field) that some atheletes dogged it when it looked like they'd win. Their goals seemed too focused on medals and not enough on breaking records. I didn't hear too many atheletes say things like "my goal was to break the world record and stretch the known physical limitations of humanity." The wins and loses are all largely irrelevant to me. I look for spirit and for people who are out to set the bar higher for the human race.

Well, well, complaining about not focussing on breaking records and at the same time about drug abuse.
You seem to forget that many of the records in track and field are very likely set by athletes which used a lot of drugs. Examples of this are all the old 'communist' records (marita koch, chinese women on 1500 and 10000, 4*100 and 4*400 m,...). The WR holder on 100m (tim montgory) is suspected for drug abuse, WR holder 3000m steeple chase (brahim boulami) was tested positive when he broke the WR for a 3rd time, there are severe suspicions on the WR of 'Flojo' (100 and 200 m, women),...

My highlights for the Olympics: hicham el Gerrouj on the 1500 and 5000 m double (first time since 1924 someone does this), the last lap of Bekele in the 10000m race (a lap in 53.03!!! and a new OR), that chinese on the 110 m hurdles.