Conference hbahba::cam_sports

	I kinda liked the silhouette thingy.

	Kevin

    Lowlights of the opening ceremonies:
    
    1)  The opera singer lipsyncing "stronger, higher, faster ...".   That
    was a terrible end of an otherwise good opening ceremonies.
    
    2)  Lighting of the Olympic torch with a pulley system.  You would have
    thought we could have come up with something better than that.  Rather
    anti-climatic after Ali received the torch.
    
    Otherwise a pretty good show.

    
    
       That and it was too long. I fell asleep at Midnight missing the
    torch lighting live.
    
    
    
    Chap

    You lasted that long Chappy.  I couldn't get past the C's

  I agree on the pulley. Add to that the fact that it didn't seem to work
right at 1st. It looked as though it was stuck. I think that if it had zipped
up quickly the effect would have been pretty good.

  In any case it would have been hard to top the archer with the flaming arrow
from 4 years ago.

  George

    
    George,
    
    HTH, but the winter olympics were 2 years ago, not 4.
    
    Marc
    

RE      <<< Note 281.6 by CSC32::MACGREGOR "Colorado: the TRUE mid-west" >>>

>    HTH, but the winter olympics were 2 years ago, not 4.
    
  Well actually the Winter Olympics were both 2 and 4 years ago but the
Archer I was talking about lit the torch at the Summer Olympics in Spain
which was 4 years ago.

  George

    
    
    
       I had to at least see the L's. Lithuania ya know. I didn't like
    seeing Donn Nelson walking with my brothers though!!! :-(
    
    
    
    Chap

      Those women gymnasts are something else.  So incredibly
      agile.  I'm rooting for Miller to get that all-around gold.
      She was so close the last time around.
    
    

    I agree Tony.  I believe the finals are tonight for the women's
    (girls).  Last night two of the better US men's gymnasts totally fell
    apart on the pommel horse.  I would think that a couple of them may be
    in line for individual medals later in the week though.
    
    Great kick by Jenny Thompson last night, and the women's field hockey
    team beat the favorite South Koreans with 7 seconds left.
    
    					Steve

    Re. .10 - Yeah, Atlanta is just a small city compared to that paragon
    of sophistication that is Phoenix.  Give me a break.  As far as pick up
    trucks are concerned, the top selling vehicles the past couple of years
    have been pick ups.  I guess they don't have them out west, though.  Go
    crawl under a cactus.

    UMDan

    I'm usually only in here to read, but I had to chime in on 
    this one. One only has to look as far as one of the NBC tv 
    sponsors to see why the trucks were out there....
    
     2
    b

Watched the entire women's gymnastics competition last night.  By the end of 
the night I was almost in tears.  A tremendous overall effort by the Americans.

And, in my personal opinion, in a perfect world, Kerri Strug would be the one
toting around a $120mil/7yr contract.  I hope Mr. 52% Free Throw Shooter was
watching from his hotel suite - he might have learned a little something about
effort and heart.

For those who live in a cave, Kerri Strug stuck a vault that the US had to
have, immediately after spraining her ankle on her first attempt, and did so
by basically landing *on one foot*.

In doing so, she sealed the gold for her team while putting her ability to
compete in the individual events at extreme risk.

It capped a meet where every single team member contributed.  America now has
itself seven new sweethearts.

Kim was wicked psyched up about that whole competition last night.  Gymnastics
used to be her thing like rugby was mine.

Gutsy performance no matter how you cut it.......

For those of us fortunate enough not to have fallen asleep on the couch or to
have waived our right to watch the Games, we witnessed a dramatic moment in U.S.
sport: the making of an American heroine.

Sometimes in sports, it all comes down to one moment, one performance.  Two out
in the bottom of the ninth with the score tied and a full count. Fourth and goal
with two seconds left. The shot at the buzzer. This was one of those moments.

The U.S. women gymnasts were brilliant on all apparatus, in gold medal position
for the first time in history, coming into the final rotation. But then it came
down to the vault, with the Russian team in hot pursuit. Second to last for the
Americans was Dominique Moceanu, who fell on both her attempts. She was followed
by Kerri Strug, who also fell on her first attempt, injuring her ankle. So it
came down to the last vault; she needed a 9.4-something to win the gold. In
other words, she needed to stick it. She did, showing the courage to perform
through the pain.

Now I don't care if it's a sport or not, judged by referees or refereed by
judges. I don't care if it's not considered a true "team" sport, or that it's
subjectively scored. Kerri Strug won it for her team and for her country, under
extreme pressure and pain. That's sportsmanship.

    
    
    
       It was a great moment. I inadvertantly saw that they won the Gold on
    Headline Sports (trying to find a Yankee score :-). But it still was
    very climactic.
    
        This morning on the Radio, they announced that Dominique Mocineau
    had already clinched the Gold. Kerri needed a 9.4** based on the last
    Russian scoring a perfect 10. She didn't.
    
         Does anyone know how they do it if Kerri cannot compete in the
    individuals. Right now Shannon Miller, Dom.Dawes,and Kerri are our
    three participants. With Dom.Mocineau falling on her two vaults it
    knocked her out of the top 3. Will they let Mocineau in if Kerri cannot
    compete. She deserves it.
    
    
    Chap

>         Does anyone know how they do it if Kerri cannot compete in the
>    individuals. Right now Shannon Miller, Dom.Dawes,and Kerri are our
>    three participants. With Dom.Mocineau falling on her two vaults it
>    knocked her out of the top 3. Will they let Mocineau in if Kerri cannot
>    compete. She deserves it.

According to the Globe, Moceanu goes if Strug can't compete.

Interesting note:  Jaycie Phelps finished 17th, which was high enough to
qualify for the individual competition, but can't/won't because she was the
*fifth* best American:

	Miller:		2nd
	Dawes:		6th
	Strug:		7th
	Moceanu:	11th
	Phelps:		17th

Borden and Chow were way down in the rankings because they each only did two
events.

Did you ever think you'd see an American gymnastics team this deep?  I mean,
this was with Moceanu having a bad day...

    
    
       She actually just had a bad event. She looked great on the BB.
    
    
       My wife will be really happy. She loves little Dominique.
    
    
    Chap

>      She actually just had a bad event. She looked great on the BB.

True - I probably overstated it.  She also looked explosive on the uneven
bars, and she made me laugh out loud with her music choice for the floor
exercise ("The Devil Went Down to Georgia").

A 14-year-old doing hoe-down steppin'...

    Not sure how they handle an injury going into the individuals. 
    According to an interview this morning, she is going to try to go
    tommorrow night, but it looks extremely doubtful.  According to 
    Bela Karolyi the final exchange between Kerri and himself went like this-
    
    Kerri - I can't feel my leg
    
    Bela - We got to go one more time.  Shake it out.
    
    Kerri -  Do I have to do this again?
    
    Bela - Can you, can you?
    
    Kerri - I don't know yet... I will do it, I will, I will  
    
    Amazing vault and an overall gutty performance.
    
    Also, the Turkish wightlifters perfomance the other day was also
    incredible, with him and his Greek rival pushing each other to the max.
    
    The American Swimmers are stepping it up, and the womens softball team
    looks like it's on track for a Gold.
    
    The international press is whining about everything.  I guess unless
    these prima donna's get treated like the dream team they feel compelled
    to whine about everything under the sun.  The reports I hear from
    people who have attended the evetns and people who call in to the radio
    all have positive things to say about their experience.  Unfortunately
    everyone outside Atlanta gets theri news filtered by a bunch of
    reporters who increasingly feel that they should be the story.
    
    Also, lots of people are losing their shirts on these games. 
    Apparently everyone felt that the whole Atlanta area would be packed to
    the gills and that tourists would be everywhere dropping money out of
    their pockets.  It appears that people come to the venues and go home,
    without doing much venturing out afterwards.  looks like people rolled
    the dice and lost.  Tough luck.
    
    Tommorrow I venture into the belly of the beast.  My father will be
    taking my daughter to gymnastices, and I'm going downtown with him. 
    I'll either wander around while he's in the Omni, or I'll try to pick
    up a ticket on the street after the event starts.  I could also ride a
    contracption that looks like a round wire cage attached to two bungee
    cords that are attached to two posts.  Th cords get stretched down and
    then you get strapped into the "cage" and get vaulted into the air. 
    YeeHaa.
    
    UMDan
       
    

    
    Maybe people aren't venturing out because the traffic and
    transportation is atrocious... and the computer system is
    lousy too.  They should have picked Alpha!  We should have
    a team down there right now setting up as system as a demo!

    State your sources for the "traffic and transportation is atrocious"
    statement.  The rush hours have been lighter than usual, and with the
    exception of a couple of snafu's the transportation system is working. 
    MARTA is handling record numbers and the buses seem to be making it. 

    The computer system by IBM is not winning them any medals, though.

    UMDan

    
    What courageous performance. It's great to see an American teen with the 
    heart to give all you've got for the team. It was apparent that young lady
    was in extreme pain. Having to go down the runway, do a double twisting
    cartwheel and stick a landing with torn ligaments in an ankle would be to 
    much to ask of most.  Without a 9.4 we get silver, she sticks it and
    hits a 9.7 to knock the Russians and Romanians into tears.  
    
    

    
       
        The US women's gymnastics team were in a zone from the very 
       beginning of the night. It seemed inevitable that they'd win 
       especially after George Maiewski gave the Russian women his 
       cyanide kiss yesterday.
    
        Two gripes from last night: first, after all of the build-
       up about Kirelin, who ranks as the greatest Greco-Roman
       wrestler of our time maybe ever, they didn't even show his
       entire match. It's not a glamourous sport but the guy has
       dominated this incredibly physical sport for three Olympics.
       The other gripe is the swimming commentators specifically 
       the woman commentator. Is it really necessary to screech for
       the entire duration of the race? 
       
       
    
      

  Another interesting story was the gold medal won by Russian Greco-Roman
wrestler Alexander "The Beast" Karelin. This guy is a living legend. Not only
is he undefeated in international matches, he demolishes his opponents. Some
are said to be so afraid to wrestle against him that they don't want to win
a match if it means fighting him next.

  What's equally amazing is that American wrestler Matt Ghaffari is one of the
few who not only doesn't fear Karelin, he is obsessed with wanting to break
Karelin's streak. He's lost to Karelin 22 times in international matches.

  Here's the story of their match from the WWW.

  George

  --------------------------------
  USA TODAY Greco-Roman Wrestling:

  Matt Ghaffari, determined to pull off the greatest upset in wrestling history,
  pushed Alexander Karelin into overtime Tuesday, shoved him around, even
  took him to the mat. Nobody does that to the greatest Greco-Roman
  wrestler ever. But nobody beats Karelin, either. The 28-year-old Russian,
  unbeaten internationally for 10 years and unscored upon since 1993, came
  closer to losing Tuesday than ever before. But he held on to beat Ghaffari
  1-0 for his third, and by far toughest, Olympic 286-pound championship. ''I
  wanted victory,'' said Karelin, who won his ninth consecutive world-level
  championship. ''I was determined to win.'' 

  Tough loss 

  '''This rips my heart out,'' said Ghaffari, 34, who repeatedly fought off
  Karelin's gut wrenches and trademark reverse body lifts. ''This is my house,
  my country, and I wanted to beat him here. But I lost to a better man.''
  Ghaffari, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was escorted onto the mat by the
  ''Rocky'' theme and the glare of a hundred flashing cameras. He refused to
  back down or back off, allowing only a takedown with 1:51 gone to prevent a
  Karelin lift attempt. ''It was a smart move,'' U.S. Greco coach Rob Hermann
  said. ''But Karelin is just so big. He's a huge tank. Mentally, he stays in
  the match. Matt is one of the few guys ever to score on him.'' ''I must have
  wrestled this match 100 times in my mind,' said Ghaffari, who dropped to
  his knees, sad and exhausted, as the eight-minute match ended. ''I wanted to
  hang the gold medal around my father's neck. But it was not to be.'' 

RE        <<< Note 281.26 by MSBCS::BRYDIE "I need somebody to shove." >>>

>        The US women's gymnastics team were in a zone from the very 
>       beginning of the night. It seemed inevitable that they'd win 
>       especially after George Maiewski gave the Russian women his 
>       cyanide kiss yesterday.
    
  Swing and a miss Tommy. I said the Soviet team was unbeatable, not the
Russian team. Were you to replace the weaker Russians with the best stars from
the other former Soviet states it would be a different match entirely. 

  Still this was a great win for the Americans. The program is really coming
along well.

  George

The Americans have also been medaling in trap shooting.  

Personally, I'd like to see a bit of coverage about that.  I mean, I could
forego that amazingly in-depth look into how Kim Zmeskal has coped in the
past four years with falling off the balance beam.  I mean, it's not exactly
like she let a ball through her legs to lose the World Series or anthing 8^)

But then again, I guess I'm just one of those people who can live without
finding out how Zmeskal has coped and who'd like to see some trap shooting,
especially when we're doing well.


'Saw

>       Two gripes from last night: first, after all of the build-
>       up about Kirelin, who ranks as the greatest Greco-Roman
>       wrestler of our time maybe ever, they didn't even show his
>       entire match. It's not a glamourous sport but the guy has
>       dominated this incredibly physical sport for three Olympics.
    
    While I missed the gymnastics, I did flip on the tube at around
    9 PM and caught this segment.  First, from what we saw of the 
    actual match, and while he is no doubt the dominant athlete in 
    his sport, Karelin's image as man-eating Rasputin seemed somewhat
    over-dramatized by NBC (mais non!).  A lot of strategic grappling
    that is Greco-Roman, but Karelin wasn't throwing the opponent 
    around like his pet cow out there.  Second, NBC converted what 
    little footage they did show into some kind of dream sequence
    with overlaid storyline.  Hopefully this isn't going to become 
    the norm, where not only are the events not fully covered, but 
    where the events themselves (and not just the performers' life 
    stories) are selectively edited and packaged into a story that 
    the public can digest, whether that story reflects reality or 
    not.  Otherwise there may soon be an opening in all of this for 
    Oliver Stone...
    
    glenn
     

  NBC has said that they are not going to cover the Olympics strictly as a
sporting event. The President of NBC said that they realize regular sports fans
would prefer that type of coverage but they believe that women make up half the
audience and that while men are satisfied to know who won, woman want to know
about the people who are competing. 

  Also they have said they will continue concentrating on events in which the
United States is contending for a medal. 

  Baring an act of Congress forcing PBS to do BBC type coverage or declaring
the Olympics a News event and leaving it open to all stations, for the time
being we are stuck with this type of Olympic coverage. Still their coverage is
better than what CBS gave us for the last couple winter Olympics. 

  George 

Glenn,


	o Was there a grassy knoll in the dream sequence?

	o Were there any locked hotel doors?

If not, Oliver Stone probably won't get involved...8^)	



I used to complain about what I call "the FOX-ification" of SPORTS.  Now it
seems that NBC is giving us what SPORTS legend Bob Hunt would probably call
"Cindy coverage."


Figures....

    The Olympics is just a gross exagerration of the "Cindy" trend and
    probably where it belongs.  Frank, Skeet would be much more exciting if
    I were shooting - plenty of misses and near fatals.
    
    Now it's when the Superbowl has to be "produced" and a 12 minute nba
    quarter in the finals takes 40-50 minutes that they lose me.
    
    Also, Chappy's warning about results being posted early is well taken
    else I'd have tried harder to stay awake.

    Response to the Russian Women's Gymnastic Team from the Homeland once
    the USA won the Team Gold Medal...
    
    .....NO SOUP!  ONE YEAR!

Didn't have time to elaborate this morning on why I was so moved:


Amanda Borden:  missed the cut for Barcelona by a fraction of a point,
		supposedly was so upset that she holed up for the two weeks
		of the '92 Olympics and couldn't bear to watch.  Came back
		and made the last slot of this year's team, got named as
		team captain.  The NBC team was right about one thing regarding
		the team momentum - after the problems they'd had on beam,
		they really needed their first person on beam to do a very
		solid job, and Amanda Borden delivered *big*.  I think it was
		Daggett that said it was the best beam routine he'd ever seen
		her do.  Nice timing on her part.  If you were paying attention
		to the fringes of the screen, you'd have seen her pumping up/
		congratulating/consoling her teammates whenever she could.
		To me, she kind of stood for every heady, motivated, but not
		over-talented "team player" that you've ever seen.  Just another
		example of why superstars aren't all you need in a team
		situation.

Shannon Miller:	"when it absolutely, positively *HAS* to be there".  Every
		time she or her team needs her to come up big, Shannon Miller
		does it.  The NBC announcers were talking about how Miller's
		next tumbling sequence was key, since the US needed a good 
		score from her and her first sequence was flawed.  As soon as I
		heard that she had to have it, I just turned and started
		walking out of the room to get something.  All I heard was
		that nice THUMP when someone lands cleanly.

Kerri Strug:	reviewed in detail in my previous reply.

And the idiot John Tesh did have one thing right - when the American team
walked in, he told everyone to look at their "game faces".  To counter all the 
criticism of the choices for team coaches, all you needed to do was watch the
first few sequences.  Those ladies were primed, focused, and locked, and you
had an 18-year-old kid who was ready and willing to lay it all out for her
team.  If that's not a coaching job, I don't know what is.

    >> Karelin's image as man-eating Rasputin seemed somewhat
    >> over-dramatized by NBC (mais non!).  A lot of strategic 
    >> grappling that is Greco-Roman, but Karelin wasn't throwing 
    >> the opponent around like his pet cow out there.  
    
       In all fairness, they did mention that at this stage in
       his career he is starting to show a little vulnerability.
       He still can't be beaten but he isn't the wrecking ball
       he used to be. Last Olympics, I remember they did a similar
       segement on him and they showed wrestler after wrestler sub-
       mitting rather than risk serious injury by wrestling him.
       The ones who didn't submit got tossed around like so many
       rag dolls. We're talking 300+ pounders here. In that segment, 
       it was noted that other wrestlers referred to him (behind his 
       back no doubt) as 'The Experiment" though it has never been 
       proved that he uses performance-enhancing drugs. The American 
       Greco-Roman wrestling commentator said that he believed Kirelin 
       was clean and that he's seen him train and he trains like a 
       madman. He certainly looks it.

Was talking about this with some friends last night.  One mentioned that it
was only a matter of time before the TV movie came out.  This, of course,
brought up the intriguing idea of movie casting.

So, who plays the following?

Amanda Borden
Dominique Dawes
Amy Chow
Jaycie Phelps
Shannon Miller
Dominique Moceanu
Kerri Strug

Bela Karolyi

>So, who plays the following?

Don't have 'em all in mind right now, but here's a preliminary cut...

>Amanda Borden
	Alicia Silverstone
>Dominique Dawes
	Jada Pinkett
>Amy Chow
>Jaycie Phelps
	one of the twins from Full House
>Shannon Miller
>Dominique Moceanu
>Kerri Strug
	Mary Lou Retton
	(second choice is Nancy Kerrigan, for her expertise in looking pained)

>Bela Karolyi
	himself - the arrogant scumbag never met a camera
	he didn't like

No stunt doubles needed - the movie will be cheesy enough to just work in
actual footage.

    Well, I'm heading off into the Olympics.  My father has two tickets to
    the women's gymnastics today, so he's taking my daughter and I'm going to
    wander around and try to get in after the event starts.  Given what
    happened Tuesday though (Krugh et al) it may be tough.  I may wander
    over to volleyball or weightlifting and take my chances there.

    My father also has tickets to Saturday's track and field, with the mens
    100M finals.  My daughter is thrilled.  Probably another event I won't
    be able to get into.
    
    I'm going to try and keep some notes about costs, times and random
    observations and enter them tonight.
    
    UMDan
    

Jada Pinkett ROOLZ!!!!!!!!! Just saw the Nutty Professor the other day and 
naturally she was one of the better parts of it. Eddie was great but the
humor a bit childish at times. Jada was much much better in that movie
about two brothers. One good, one bad with the good one bother by the fact 
he blew his dad aways as a kid cause he was beatin' up mom............

mike

So, who plays the following?

Amanda Borden---  Candace Cameron
Dominique Dawes ----Robin Givens
Amy Chow Oriental girl--- from "the Single Guy"
Jaycie Phelps -----Nicolette Sheridan
Shannon Miller -----Heather Locklear
Dominique Moceanu -----Pamela Lee
Kerri Strug----- Kathy Ireland

Bela Karolyi  ----Nicholas Cage
                           

    
    Bela Karolyi - Harrison Ford
    
    Shannon Miller - Jenny McCarthy

    
    Second choice Bela - Sean Connery
    Third choice - Howard Stern

    btw is there a way to get a tape of the team final?  My wife missed it;
    I didn't know how to tell her to watch it because the U.S. was going to
    win without spilling the beans.
    
    I remember the game BC beat Texas in 1973 and it was on tape delay and
    after Texas missed the field goal and lost I went over to a fellow
    alums to catch the ending again.  He said the minute I walked in the
    door he knew the upset had occurred and was pissed. 
    
    So I'm careful.  Oh, Burt Reynolds fresh from his role as God for the
    Senior Tour spots as Bela (yes, a step down).  Who plays the caddy or
    who is the caddy supposed to look like in that spot?
    
    Also, whoever plays "Clarissa" might do Moceanu.

I really like Chappy's choices for Borden and Dawes, although why you guys
are choosing blondes to play brunettes that are less than half their age
is beyond me... :-)

Sean Connery as Bela Karolyi had me rollward.  You can't understand either
of them... :-)

Actually, Melissa Joan Hart ("Clarissa") might make a good Amanda Borden.
You'd probably need a child actress to play Moceanu.

If you are going to go the "babe" route for casting, I can't see how you can
ignore Drew Barrymore.  She'd have to get some of the tattoos eliminated,
though...

    
    Drew Barrymore compared to Jenny McCarthy, get real!

Bringing the discussion back (just slightly) into the realm of sport...

It'll be interesting to see how Moceanu does in the individual all-around,
and specifically the vault.  She was obviously very rusty on the vault in
the team competition.

In the Bill Breen/Oliver Stone take on the team competition:

	NBC (with Moceanu's help) orchestrated the whole thing.  Strug
	actually twisted the ankle earlier in the day.  NBC officials
	seized the moment as a way to get their little golden girl into
	the individual competition.  They told Moceanu to ditch on both
	vaults and got IBM's help in not having the Russian results posted
	immediately, forcing Strug to vault.  Dwarves emerged from a grassy
	knoll at the Georgia Dome and placed objects under the mats at the
	end of the vault to create an uneven landing surface.  Bela Karolyi,
	never a man to turn down a buck, is bought off by NBC to svengali
	Strug into doing the second vault.  And the rest is "history"...

...supposedly uttered by him in a radio interview this morning:

	"The most dangerous spot in the Olympics is the space
	 between Bela Karolyi and a camera."

how many times do we have to hear that John Tesh can pronounce,
or mispronounce, Li Xiaoshuang?!?! Good job John you did your 
homework, now shut up!!

  Speaking of Li Xiaoshuang, I guess he finally got into the proverbial zone
last night.

  Did you see him doing the iron cross? I thought Daget called that really
well. Both the [former] Soviets looked sloppy on the rings but Li Xiaoshuang
got into a perfect Iron Cross then casually looked up at the officials without
a flinch as if he was standing on a platform.

  Guess his twin brother told him something when he made that call.

  George

Tesh did an admirable job with the names.  Chinese pronounciation is
very difficult IMO.  

As an aside, I had a Russian teacher in 7th grade who spoke fluent Chinese and
she tried to teach us some phrases one day.  For a 7th grade American it was
tough enough to wrap my mouth around some of the new Russian sounds, never mind
the nightmare that is Chinese.

However, I'm still amazed that Tesh got the nod for gymnastics.  Further,
while Dagget is very knowledgable, he is starting to grate on my nerves
like Scott Hamilton does.

    
    As someone who doesn't enjoy 98% of the olympics (and gets really 
    annoyed by the fact that Headline News' ticker contains olympic
    results, making it difficult to catch baseball scores), I've
    managed to miss most everything - but some of the results are
    deemed terribly newsworthy, such as the U.S. gymnastics team gold
    medal.
    
    When I heard about it, I was glad for the athletes, but appalled
    (if not surprised) that Miss Strug wasn't kept out by her coach
    after "spraining" her ankle (an injury that has been downgraded
    nearly as much and every bit as often as Vina's was promoted).
    
    Terry Pluto (who writes for the Akron Beacon Journal, and is,
    IMHO, an excellent writer) has an excellent column on women's
    gymnastics in today's paper, which is available on the web at:
    
    http://www.ohio.com/bj/sports/pluto/7.26pluto.html
    
    Joe

>    When I heard about it, I was glad for the athletes, but appalled
>    (if not surprised) that Miss Strug wasn't kept out by her coach
>    after "spraining" her ankle

The final assessment was:  a severe sprain and two torn ligaments.  Strug was
advised by team doctors not to compete anymore at this Olympics.  She herself
had been saying she might try to do two of the individual events.

I'm not surprised:

	a) that her coach didn't try to convince her to stay out

	b) that she didn't do it of her own volition

She and the team didn't have the numbers at the time, and the way things had
been going, her failure to stick a vault might have capped a Red Sox-grade
collapse out of the gold medal.  Both Mary Lou Retton and Nadia Comaneci,
who have been out of the sport for a while and probably have a little more
perspective now, both said (admittedly paraphrased), "You do it.  You don't 
even think about it.  Your team is depending on you - it's for pride and it's
for your team."

It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.  The kid had worked for this her entire
(admittedly short) life. 
    
>    Terry Pluto (who writes for the Akron Beacon Journal, and is,
>    IMHO, an excellent writer) has an excellent column on women's
>    gymnastics in today's paper, which is available on the web at:
>
>    http://www.ohio.com/bj/sports/pluto/7.26pluto.html

I'll take a look if I get the chance.  If it's a "gymnastics is child abuse"
column, it's probably somewhat correct but not terribly original.

BTW - don't take the previous reply as an excuse for Bela Karolyi.
A great gymnastics coach.  But from what I can see, a reprehensible
human being...

    It's really no different than taking a foul ball off your ankle.  It
    may be broken, it may not, but 99% of the time you stay in there. 
    People are making a big huff about this because it happened to a girl. 
    These girls are world class athletes.  Kerry Strugg made the final decision.
    
    					Steve

    
    w.r.t. to stories about girls gymnastics
    
    Yes, I realize it's not new or startling.  Just a well written
    article, IMHO.
    
    w.r.t. Strug
    
    I realize it was, in the end, her choice, and I'm not arguing
    with her choice.  I'm arguing that her coach should have been
    trying to convince her not to continue.
    
    Joe

  This is a tough call, obviously there are good arguments both way. My feeling
is that if you were talking about the 14 year old then yes, she should have
been held back but I believe Strug is 18 and if she is then by just about every
measure she is an adult. 

  If she's younger then she looks then fine but If she's old enough to vote for
President and old enough to fly a chopper into combat, she's old enough to
listen to various opinions and decide for herself if she wants to vault on a
bad ankle. 

  George

    
    Should milk be provided at the Summer Olympics?

    I think you need to look at the decision from the athletes perspective.
    These world class athletes train hours a day for years for a chance at
    a gold medal at the olympics.  While the olympic experience is only a
    two week event every 4 years for you and I, they are working each day
    for this opportunity.  Part of a coaches responsibility is to motivate
    and remove self doubts from athletes.
    
    While it may seem cruel to say, bones and ligaments heal.  As long as
    she was physically able to complete her last vault, I think it is the
    coaches place to try to help her block out the pain.  At least she won't
    have to wonder 'what if' for the rest of her life.
    
    Tony
    
    

>    Should milk be provided at the Summer Olympics?

Only to athletes.  All adult fans should drink beer.

The gymnasts need it because they're beating the crap out of their bones.

    All adult fans are drinking beer ( I am anyway).  While sort of
    expensive, it's readily available.
    
    UMDan

    There are no actresses in hollywood SMALL enough to play any of the
    gymnasts.  None of them is anywhere near the size of an average human
    female.  
    
    Speaking of which, the Olympic obsession NBC has with these anorexic
    dwarfs has gone beyond annoying.  THERE ARE OTHER OLYMPIC EVENTS -
    PLEASE SHOW SOME!!!!!!!!
    
    NAZZ

      My first chance to reply since a week ago...
    
      I saw the women's gymnastics team competition live and thought
      it was one of the best sporting events I ever saw.  I am amazed
      they hit as many routines as they did.  Actually, until the almost
      surreal three straight falls, it seemed almost anticlimactic after
      two rounds - their lead was formidable.
    
      I am so glad for Shannon Miller getting that gold in beam.  Her final
      Olympic routine and she strikes it big though I think the Russian
      woman actually looked a tad better to me - until she fell doing the
      front flip.
    
      Hard to believe Miller and Dawes had those problems on floor after
      nailing the hardest (beam) and perhaps 2nd hardest (bars) events.
      I think floor, all in all, is easiest.
    
      I thought the Chinese guy beat the Greek guy on floor, but that was
      cool.
    
      Karelin, I guess, was sporting an injured shoulder at these games.
      Perhaps this accounts for his not appearing quite as invincible.
      Also, the way they talked about Gafarro (sp?) with his pursuit of
      Karelin, I would have thought he was younger.  But, I think the
      ages are Karelin: 27 and Gafarro: 34.
    
    							Tony

    Carl Lewis in the men's 4x100 relay?
    
    No thanks. 
    
    MJS

      No Thank you to Carl Lewis in the men's 4x100 relay.
    
               EGO EGO EGO.
    
    
    Lil Ed

Enjoyed Michael Johnson annihilating the world record in the 200.

Enjoyed the women winning gold in softball and soccer (the winning goal in
the China game was a thing of beauty.)

Especially enjoyed the archer from California, Justin Huish.....


'Saw

>    Speaking of which, the Olympic obsession NBC has with these anorexic
>    dwarfs has gone beyond annoying.  THERE ARE OTHER OLYMPIC EVENTS -
>    PLEASE SHOW SOME!!!!!!!!

Should they have shown other events?  Absolutely.  Boxing was hosed like there
was no tomorrow.

Was it necessary to refer to all women gymnasts as "anorexic dwarfs"?  No.

Give it a rest, Nazz.  The Strug vault was one of the great moments of these
games, and there are a lot of people like myself who *do* like seeing a lot
of gymnastics.  I'd rather that it was at the expense of rhythmic gymnastics
and synchronized swimming.

  >> Should they have shown other events?  Absolutely.  Boxing was 
  >> hosed like there was no tomorrow.

     Boxing got hosed for two reasons. First, our team wasn't very good.
     And that seemed to be the criteria for most of the sports that NBC
     showed - how good are the Americans. If we stink at it, it'll get a
     passing mention unless it'll be big with the female fans. Despite the 
     hue and cry from our boxing coaches about the judging (some of it 
     justified but not much) we lost most ofthe bouts because we just 
     didn't have the talent. Antonio Tarver is a prime example. Tarver 
     was hyped as being our best hope for a gold medal, it's amazing that 
     we managed to win one after seeing him actually fight. Of course, he 
     wasn't the one to get a gold. He was undisciplined and one dimensional
     and displayed a lot of the tendencies that you'd see among the younger
     fighters at the Lowell Golden Gloves tournanment. He lost a close 
     fight but he really had no beef. The second problem is that the scoring
     system is absolutely awful. It renders the bouts pretty much unwatch-
     able for even hardcore boxing fans like myself. The system encourages
     fighters to stand outside and pick away . There's no incentive to dic-
     tate pace, be agressive, work the body, maneuver your opponnent into
     disadvantageous positions - in short - all of the things that boxing is
     supposed to be about and the way we remember it from previous Olympic
     games when boxing used to be entertaining. The system needs to be 
     scrapped.
    

In any case, glad this thing is over.

There were about 20 minutes of viewing that I enjoyed: Michael Johnson's
races, especially the 200; the replay of the woman's softball gold medal
winning home run which, apparently, they din't show live; Allen Johnson's
110m high hurdle; prolly a couple of others, not including the designated
highlight of the Strug vault, which in and of itself woulda been a great
moment but was rendered trivial at firsted and irritating at the lasted.

Football has started and I survived another summer of MLB.

TTom

    Well I arrived home from up in the North Country (dodged a deer on the
    way back) in what must have been a foul mood because I flipped to nbc
    and gagged.  I'd never seen a closing ceremony and I guess never will.
    
    Ttom, I was telling Billl Long this morning about the ad in North
    Country rag for a handicapper's convention up in Jefferson.  Not only
    do you get to see what the h'cappers are doing and all their latest
    technology and scams, breakfast (actually it's at the Cabot and they
    are running a very nice, cheap hotel up on rt2) but get this: you get a
    discount to the video show running simultaneously.  This is one of
    those deals where they're inviting the northern Connecticut Valley's
    finest talent to be photographed and sell the photos.
    
    And Tommy knocks New Hampshire.

Wail, I for one salute any and all attempts at making sprots more
entertaining.

My particular style seems to be going it alone. I just say no to tippies,
videos, deals, etc., etc. I want all the entertainment to be mine...

TTom

Me thinks Carl Lewis would have run a better 2nd leg than that turkey
they chose...

Shameless self-promoter ?  Definitely "yes".  Heart of a champion and
ultimate competitor ?  Most definitely "yes".

    
     re .72
    
     The first second-guesser checks in. Pssst, Joe. The Canadians were
     the defending world champs and had the world's fastest human as anchor. 
     They were the team to beat not the US. To think that a guy who ran
     dead last at the Olynpic trials and didn't work out with the relay
     team would have made the difference is pure fantasy.

    
   >> And Tommy knocks New Hampshire.
    
      There's nothing wrong with New Hampshire. Some of my favorite brown
      shirt wearing fascist militia memebrs are from there.

  What's lost in the Carl Lewis controversy is that the U.S. didn't lose the
Gold Medal, Canada won it. Trailing after the 1st leg Canada's Glenroy Gilbert
and Bruny Surin ran outstanding 2nd and 3rd legs using speed and flawless
technique to give their team a comfortable lead over the pack. 

  By the time they handed it to Donovan Bailey, the fastest man alive, he was
able to cruise to a 37.69, a home run in anyone's park and there's no reason to
believe that he wouldn't have been able to run faster if the Americans had been
keeping pace. 

  This was Bailey's Olympics at the track much as Olympics in the past have
belonged to Lewis and others. Give the man his due, his accomplishments in
Olympic Stadium were every bit as spectacular as those of Michael Johnson. The
man can fly. 

  George 

  Not collision and for some reason Tommy and I ended up on the same side of
the fence.

  Now that's weird. Anyone see the ghost of Rod Sterling standing around
someplace?

  George

>  ... Donovan Bailey, the fastest man alive, ...

Traditionally, the 100m guy is given this label.

However, thised year, Michael Johnson twice as far in less than twice
Bailey's world record time. In fack, based on some video that ESPN
studied, they estimated that Johnson ran the lasted 100 meters in well
under 9 seconds.

TTom

    
    TTom,
    
    	You gotta get going first.  You're neglecting the start.
    
    Claybone

The event is of a specified distance and then after all the judges vote
you're given a time.

	distance		/time			>
		Michael Johson	     Michael Johson

	distance		/time
		Donavan Bailey	     Donavan Bailey

TTom

  I'm looking at this note trying to understand where this is simple math.


>	distance		/time			>
>		Michael Johson	     Michael Johson
>
>	distance		/time
>		Donavan Bailey	     Donavan Bailey


  I did have chicken pox and missed a week of 3rd grade, maybe they went over
this format back then. Would this be the offset column distance/time relation
theory my 3rd grade class mates were always talking about?

  George

200/18.33 > 100/9.85

Hope this helps...

  But where do you factor in the running start?

  George

actually....

200/18.33 < 100/9.85 mathmatically speaking,

but in SPROTSese:

the guy who ran 200/18.33 is faster than the guy who ran 100/9.85



billl

main, y'all actually go to school or what.

200/18.3whatever ends up being a distance/time ratio. Kinda like
mile/hour to which you can convert it if'n you want. FWIW it comes out to
10.9 meters/sec, which is greater than 100/9.85 or 10.15 meters/second.

No matter how you slice it and dice it, it's faster.

TTom

      >> And Tommy knocks New Hampshire.          There's nothing wrong
    
    >with New Hampshire. Some of my favorite brown      shirt wearing
    >fascist militia memebrs are from there.
    
    I don't think Fascism/Nazism would go over big in NH at all, especially
    north of Manchester.  I seem to recall reading that in the 20s and 30s
    Nazis tried to drum up support in conservative circles and were run out
    of town.  In NH the vote for Buchanan was a message vote against Big
    Government, Big Corporations and in general intrusiveness in
    local/private affairs.
    
    You would be absolutely amazed at the 180 between impressions of NH and
    the reality.
    
    By the way, wasn't there a track meet in Atlanta over the last two
    weeks.  Outside of some sprints and an American Decathlon win there
    hasn't been much news in the papers.  I'm curious about what to me is
    always the best event in track: the 1500m/mile (I like the latter
    distance).
    
    Did the Moroccans beat the Kenyans or
    
     vv?

    
    Let's try comparing apples with apples rather than oranges.  Johnsons
    FIRST 100m took him OVER 10 seconds.  Any way you cut it, 9.85 is
    faster than 10.xx.
    
    BTW, let's try using the correct numbers also.  His time was 19.33 not
    18.33.
    
    Marc
    
    p.s. anyone who has ever driven a car, run a race or taken a Physics
    course knows that it takes more energy to get something up to speed
    than to maintain it.  Johnsons time, while extremely impressive, is not
    sufficient to make him the faster man.

  I asked this in the TV file but I'd be interested to hear other reports as
  well:

  In general, what does European TV Olympic coverage look like?

  Do you get a lot of hours of coverage?

  Do they cover many events a little or do they devote most of their time to
  certain sports?

  Do they focus on the athletes of their own country, on winners, or is it
  spread around some other way?

  Do you ever get stories about the athletes personal lives or do they just
  stick to sports?

  How much time is spent on controversies rather than sports?

  Anything else different from NBC's type of coverage?

  George

Oh sure, Marc, we're trying to work up a rathole and you bring in facks.

TTom

>     The first second-guesser checks in. Pssst, Joe. The Canadians were
>     the defending world champs and had the world's fastest human as anchor. 
>     They were the team to beat not the US. To think that a guy who ran
>     dead last at the Olynpic trials and didn't work out with the relay
>     team would have made the difference is pure fantasy.

Less a fantasy than picking that inexperienced bozo who blew the 2nd
leg.  And I wonder how many people thought his winning the gold in
the long jump was a fantasy too ?

Perhaps Carl could have long-jumped his way through the leg...

I'm with the guy who had the best quote of the Olympics:

	"Lewis finished butt-naked last at the Trials."

>	"Lewis finished butt-naked last at the Trials."

Yeah, but the other guys didn't pull hammy's during the race.

  >> And I wonder how many people thought his winning the gold in
  >> the long jump was a fantasy too ?
    
     He at least managed to qualify for the long jump. And his winning jump
     of 27'10" (?) really isn't that impressive. The silver medalist in
     Barcelona jumped 28'4 1/2". If anyone but Carl Lewis finished dead last 
     at the trials and then launched a campaign to be on the realy team, 
     they'd have put a straitjacket on him. Part of what the Olympics are 
     about is hard work and scarifice rewarded. There's no parenthetical 
     "unless your Carl Lewis then you're priviledged".

    Sprint match: Bailey vs. Johnson at 150 meters?
    
    TORONTO -- So just who is the fastest man in the world? Donovan Bailey
    dominated the 100-meter dash at the Olympics. Michael Johnson set a
    world record in the 200. What would happen if the two met halfway?
    
    Bailey's agents are tossing out the idea of matching the two sprint
    stars in a 150-meter sprint. 
    
    "It's purely speculative at this stage," Ray Flynn, one of the Bailey's
    agents, said Tuesday. "We haven't gone past just the idea."
    
    Bailey, of Oakville, Ontario, won the Olympic 100 with a world-record
    time of 9.84 seconds. Johnson won the 200 in a world-record 19.32 and
    took the 400 in an Olympic-record 43.49.
    
    "It only came to the fore because American TV was so pro-Michael and
    the commentators were so full of the fastest man in the world sort of
    thing," Flynn said. "They were adding the 100-meter times of Donovan
    and equating them with what Johnson was running. It's completely
    ridiculous."
    
    At this point, the idea is just that. Flynn said he and partner Mark
    Block have yet to talk to Johnson's agent, Brad Hunt, and that so far
    there is nothing in the works.
    

>More trashsport: methinks Bailey would be dusted...

Perhaps - but the dust would be golden...

    
    It'd be great if they raced...it'd be a blanket finish if you throw out
    MJ's 200 meters in 19.32.  He broke the record by .34, so maybe this
    was a one time peak...and he will go back to running 19.66's.  If MJ is
    in a match race at a shorter distance Bailey will force him to exert
    more energy early, thus MJ will have less left for the final 10-20
    meters of the race.
    
    Some stats - MJ 200m in 19.32 = 10.35 mps
    
    	       - MJ 200m in 19.66 (old record) = 10.16 mps
    
    	       - Bailey 100m in 9.84 = 10.17 mps
    

  Of course this would all have to wait for Johnson's hamstring to heal.

  George

George, to answer your questions of a couple of days ago:

> In general, what does European TV Olympic coverage look like?

There is no "in general".  Each nation has its own approach.  I'm most
familiar with Germany and Austria (one of the benefits of living in Munich
is receiving ORF, Austrian TV, whose sports coverage in general is vastly
superior to German TV).

> Do you get a lot of hours of coverage?

Yes.  The two German public systems, ARD and ZDF, both send crews to major
events (don't ask me my opinion of this egregious waste of public money).
They alternate daily coverage, with virtually all air time devoted to the
games.  In addition, the cable channel 3Sat, a joint operation of ARD, ZDF,
ORF, and Swiss German language TV, had about 18 hours a day of coverage,
mainly of team sports.  Finally, Eurosport, a cable channel serving the
entire continent, had 24-hour coverage in two-channel sound, one in the
local language, one in English.  Thanks to them, I saw a half-hour condensation
of the baseball final (the German commentator was vastly superior to the Brit).

> Do they cover many events a little or do they devote most of their time to
> certain sports?

It varies.  Among all of the carriers available to me, I'm sure I could have
seen 80% of the sports played at the games (with judicious use of multiple
video recorders).  But of course, the national carriers emphasize the games
their viewers are most interested in.  I would guess German TV showed, say, a
whole lot more boat racing than NBC did.

> Do they focus on the athletes of their own country, on winners, or is it
> spread around some other way?

In this order: on athletes of their own country, on winners, and on human
interest stories (like the marathon runner who arrived an hour or so after
everybody else, or--BIG story--Muhammad Ali).  Eurosport, of course, must
appeal to all of Europe, and so tends to be better balanced.  Further, their
coverage is much more on events than on people.

> Do you ever get stories about the athletes personal lives or do they just
> stick to sports?

There are the inevitable "up close and personal" portraits, but they don't
usually dig deeper than is decent.  One of the most moving moments of the
games, for me, took place in the presence of ZDF's camera and reporter (Ben
Wett, who has been in America ever since I've lived in Germany, and who now
speaks German with an American accent):  a visit to Muhammad Ali's hotel
room by Dan O'Brien and Michael Johnson.

> How much time is spent on controversies rather than sports?

Depends on the controversy.  If it's genuinely related to the games, they'll
keep up with it--e.g., doping.  But there is little or no sensationalism.

> Anything else different from NBC's type of coverage?

A virtual absence of hype.  Germans who have heard American sports TV wonder
why the announcers are so hysterical all the time.  Americans who hear German
announcers wonder why they are all so boring.

Steve

    >  whole lot more boat racing than NBC did.
    
    The Olympics have boating?  ;^)
    
    I can't recall that NBC even mentioned the winners/losers of the
    sailing events, never mind show clips.
    
    We did see some sculling/rowing, and a lesser amount of kayaking.  But
    no canoeing or sailing that I recall.
    
    zamboni

    It said in today's Boston Globe that NBC did not even send a camera
    crew to Savannah to cover the sailing events.
    
    It is sort of like the tree falling in the forest thing, if NBC didn't
    cover the sailing events did any events actually take place.
    
    I guess yachtsman are to well-off to have any tear-jerking personal
    stories for NBC to tell

    My Olympic All Star Team:

 1. Michael JOHNSON, United States (Track and Field)
    First man ever to double gold in 200 and 400 meter races; broke world
    record in 200 meters by an incredible .3 seconds.

 2. Michelle SMITH, Ireland (Swimming)
    Three gold and a bronze for the Irish star; the most individual gold
    medals in the pool.

 3. Naim SULEYMANOGLU, Turkey (Weightlifting)
    Nicknamed Pocket Hercules, became first man to win three straight Olympic
    gold medals in weightlifting.

 4. FU Mingxia, China (Diving)
    Only second woman ever to win gold in both platform and springboard diving
    at one Olympics, the first since 1960.

 5. Alexei NEMOV, Russia (Gymnastics)
    A full point better than any other competitor in leading Russia to team
    gold; he also got a gold on the vault, 2 silvers (including all around),
    and 3 bronze medals.

 6. Donovan BAILEY, Canada (Track and Field)
    Double gold, with world record in 100 m, and anchoring Canadian 4x100m gold
    relay, beating U.S. for first time ever in the Olympics.

 7. Amy VAN DYKEN, United States (Swimming)
    Four gold medals, two individual and two relay, led all athletes in the
    1996 summer Olympics.

 8. Aleksandr POPOV, Russia (Swimming)
    Double gold over Gary Hall of U.S. in the two sprint events, 50 and 100m
    free style, making him world's fastest swimmer.  Popov became the only
    swimmer in history to win both the 50m and 10mm freestyle in back-to-back
    Olympic games.  Popov also got a silver in a relay loss to the U.S.

 9. Marie-Jose PEREC, France (Track and Field)
    Pulled off double gold with 200 & 400m victories on women's side, just
    before Johnson for the men.
 
10. Lilia PODKOPAYEVA, Ukraine (Gymnastics)
    Won gold twice, as all around champion and on floor exercise; first
    defending world champion to win Olympic all around gold since 1968.

11. Martin DOKTOR, Czech Republic (Canoeing)
    Won gold in both individual canoeing sprints at Lake Lanier, C-1 (single)
    500m and 1000m events.

12. Aleksandr KARELIN, Russia (Greco-Roman Wrestling)
    World's top amateur wrestler, the six-time world champion (undefeated
    in international meets since 1987) won third straight Olympic gold medal
    at 130kg.

13. Steve REDGRAVE, Great Britain (Rowing)
    Redgrave, as bow, teamed with Matthew Pinsent to win the coxless pairs,
    edging Australians Rob Scott and David Weightman in the finals, earning his
    4th Olympic gold medal in the process.  Redgrave and long jumper Carl Lewis
    join Paul Elvstrom, Aladar Gerevich, and Al Oerter as the only individuals
    to ever win an Olympic gold medal in one event for 4 consecutive Olympics.

14. Dan O'BRIEN, United States (Track and Field)
    World record holder won gold in decathlon, after stunning failure in 1992;
    now can be hailed as world's greatest athlete.

15. Ghada SHOUAA, Syria (Track and Field)
    Heptathlon gold medalist following injury to 2-time defending champ
    Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Shouaa wins the first gold medal ever by a Syrian
    athlete after a nearly perfect first day of competition.

16. Josia THUGWANE, South Africa (Track and Field)
    First black South African to win a gold medal, winning closest ever Olympic
    men's marathon.

17. Jason HUISH, United States (Archery)
    Won individual gold, and led U.S. to team title in tough gold medal match
    versus South Korea.

18. Orestes KINDELAN, Cuba (Baseball)
    Set Olympic single game and tournament home run records, including a 521'
    home run versus Japan, as the Cubans used the long ball to continue their
    international domination with a gold medal.

19. Aleksandr PARYGIN, Khazakhstan (Modern Pentathlon)
    Modern Pentathlon combines swimming, fencing, shooting, show jumping (i.e.,
    on horses), and a 4000m run, all on one day.  The 4000m was a staggered
    start; i.e., the start times for the 4K race are staggered based on the
    amount of points garnered in competition to that point - that way, the man
    who finishes the race first wins the overall competition.  Edouard Zenovka
    of Russia passed Parygin with 100m to go, but a final burst of energy
    allowed Parygin to re-take the lead with 5 meters left for the gold medal.

20. Manuel ESTIARTE, Spain (Water Polo)
    35-year old Estiarte, the leading goal scorer in the previous four Olympics,
    led Spain again in scoring, with two goals in a tough 5-4 quarterfinal win
    over the U.S. and with three key goals in the gold medal match in which
    Spain topped Croatia, 7-5.

21. Knut HOLMANN, Norway (Kayak)
    The reigning world champion won the 1000m kayak sprint by more than 1.2
    seconds over the runner-up, Beniamino Bonomi of Italy.  While the ICF does
    not keep official world records due to different weather & water conditions
    on various courses, Holmann's time was 8 seconds faster than any previous
    Olympic, World, or European championship times recorded.

22. KYE Sun, North Korea (Judo)
    The 16 year old from the People's Republic of Korea sent shock waves
    around the judo world by ending Ryoko Tamura's incredible streak of 84
    straight victories by scoring early in the gold medal match and then
    holding on for a major upset.

23. Lisa LESLIE, United States (Basketball)
    Star center for U.S. women's basketball team led team to gold medal, and
    led U.S. team in points and rebounds.

24. Felix SAVON, Cuba (Boxing)
    Savon easily won his second consecutive 91kg heavyweight gold medal with
    a 20-2 decision (with two standing eight counts in the match) over Canada's
    David Defiagbon.

25. Ralf SCHUMANN, Germany (Shooting)
    The world record holder in the 25M rapid fire pistol shooting event, the
    toughest of the Olympic shooting events, Schumann scored a new Olympic
    finals record to edge Emil Milev of Bulgaria for the gold.



    
    50 Honorable Mention Candidates, in alphabetic order:
    
    Derrick ADKINS, United States (Track and Field)
    World champion Adkins, at home in Atlanta and a Georgia Tech grad, beat his
    arch rival Samuel Matete of Zambia, in the 400m hurdles to win the gold in
    front of his hometown crowd, the only Atlantan to take gold in these games.

    Simona AMANAR, Romania (Gymnastics)
    Amanar was the best of the favored Romanian gymnasts, with a gold in the 
    vault, a silver on floor exercise, and 2 additional bronze medals.

    Alyson ANNAN, Australia (Women's Field Hockey)
    Annan paced Australis's women's World Cup champion hockey team to the gold
    medal, ending as the tournament scoring leading, including two goals in the
    3-1 championship game over South Korea.

    Laura BADEA, Romania (Fencing)
    Won Romania's first gold medal of the games with a 15-8 victory over
    Valentia Bezzali of Italy, then helped lead Romania to a silver medal in
    the team foil competition (this time losing to Bezzali's Italy team).

    Randy BARNES, United States (Track and Field)
    Gold medal heave on his final shot put attempt lifted Barnes from 6th place
    and may help to relieve stigma of past missed opportunities (losing on final
    throw in 1988) and scandal on the world record holder.

    Antonella BELLUTTI, Italy (Cycling - Track)
    Bellutti won the individual pursuit gold medal at the Stone Mountain
    Velodrome with consistent sub-34 (under 3:34) rides.

    Patrik CAVAR, Croatia (Handball)
    Center back Cavar was the tournament's leading scoring throughout most of
    the Olympic tournament and led high-scoring Croatia to a team gold medal.

    Andrey CHEMERKIN, Russia (Weightlifting)
    Chemerkin won the over-108 kg superheavyweight gold medal with a world
    record in the jerk at 260 kg, beating defending gold medalist Ronny Weller
    of Germany.  Chemerkin's total of 457.5 kg tied the world record total.

    Lindsey DAVENPORT, United States (Tennis)
    Davenport won the biggest match of her singles career, defeating Arantxa
    Sanchez-Vicario 7-6, 6-2 in the gold medal final.

    DENG Yaping, China (Table Tennis)
    Defeated Taiwan's Chen Jing in a five set final for the singles gold medal,
    and combined with Qiao Hong for the doubles gold medal.
    
    Gail DEVERS, United States (Track and Field)
    Won the 100m dash for the second straight Olympics.  Fourth place in the
    100m hurdles put her in the Honorable Mention category.

    Pyrros DIMAS, Grece (Weightlifting)
    Defended Olympic title in 83kg category after setting world record in the
    snatch, clean and jerk, and total.

    Krisztina EGERSZEGI, Hungary (Swimming)
    Egerszegi made Olympic history by winning a gold medal for the third time
    in the same event, destroying the rest of the field by 4 seconds in the
    200m backstroke.

    Jens FIELDER, Germany (Cycling - Track)
    The defending world champion, and defending Olympic champion, defeated
    American Marty Nothstein the men's sprint finals for the gold medal.
    
    Oliver FIX, Germany (Kayak Slalom)
    The world champion won the final race of the canoe/kayak slalom competition
    on the Ocoee River with an outstanding first run down the course.

    Laura FLESSEL, France (Fencing)
    Won individual gold in the epee, then turned around a 15-10 deficit to
    Italy in the team competition with a 15-8 rout of Italian Elisa Uga to
    take a lead it would not yield for the team gold.

    Kathleen HEDDLE and Marnie McBEAN, Canada (Rowing)
    Heddle and McBean won the coxless pairs rowing, becoming the first Canadians
    ever to get three gold medals, after earning two golds each in Barcelona.

    Ariel HERNANDEZ, Cuba (Boxing)
    Hernandez won his second straight olympics gold medal at the 75 kg
    (middleweight) class, easily outpointing Turkey's Malik Beyleroglu 11-3
    in the championship bout.

    Penny HEYNS, South Africa (Swimming)
    Gold in 100 and 200m breaststroke, edging Amanda Beard in both races with 
    a strong start; also set 100m world record in prelims.

    Stepanka HILGERTOVA, Czech Republic (Kayak - Slalom)
    Hilgertova and Dana Chladek of the United States finished in a rare tie of
    their best K-1 slalom run through the Ocoee River course, but Hilgetova
    had a decided advantage on the secondary run to win the gold medal.

    Poul-Erik HOYER-LARSEN, Denmark (Badminton)
    With a 15-12, 15-10 victory over China's Dong Jiong in the gold medal match,
    Hoyer-Larsen became the first European badminton player ever to win an
    Olympic gold medal.

    Aleksandra IVOSEV, Yugoslavia (Shooting)
    Ivosev shot an Olympic finals record of 686.1, including a 99.1 finals
    mark to overtake Renata Mauer, who set an Olympic record earlier in the
    qualifying round, in the 50m Rifle 3x20 (3 position) gold medal competition.

    Ronald JANSEN, The Netherlands (Hockey)
    The Netherlands captured hockey's gold medal, defeating Spain in the title
    game, 3-1.  Jansen, the Netherlands goalie, kept the Dutch team ahead with
    a fine game (and tournament) as the very fast Spanish team kept on the
    pressure all game, more than doubling the Dutch in shots on goal, but Jansen
    allowed only one goal in victory.

    Nwankwo KANU, Nigeria (Football)
    Nigeria trailed heavily-favored Brazil at the half, 3-1, in the soccer
    semifinals, but rallied to tie the game at 3-3 in the final minute of play
    on a goal by Kanu.  Kanu scored again in overtime to give Nigeria the
    stunning upset, sending them to a gold medal match with Argentina, which
    the Nigerians also won to take the gold.
    
    Joseph KETER, Kenya (Track and Field)
    Keter took the 3000m steeplechase gold medal by passing world record
    holder Moses Kiptanui (also of Kenya) on the home straight, as the Kenyans
    went gold-silver-bronze in the steeplechase for the 2nd straight Olympics.

    Rasull KHADEM AZGHADI, Iran (Wrestling - Freestyle)
    Iran has the world's most vociferous wrestling fans, but it took the
    victory by the two-time world champion Khadem over 2-time defending Olympic
    gold medalist Makharbek Khadartsev, 3-0, to give them the gold they wanted.

    Ulrich KIRCHHOFF, Germany (Equestrian)
    Aboard Jus De Pommes, Kirchhoff won second gold medal as only rider with
    3 clear rounds in individual show jumping finals.

    LEE Lai Shan, Hong Kong (Yachting)
    Lee saved her only outright win for the final race of the Boardsailing Women
    (Mistral) competition in Savannah, giving her an Olympic Regatta gold medal,
    the first Olympic gold ever for Hong Kong.

    Carl LEWIS, United States (Track and Field)
    Dispute over relay possibility overshadows 4th straight gold in long jump,
    record-tying 9th gold medal overall.

    LI Xiaoshuang, China (Gymnastics)
    Won individual all around gold, but his 29th position in compulsories
    dropped favored China to silver in team competition.

    Yuriy MELNICHENKO, Khazahkstan (Greco-Roman Wrestling)
    Claimed gold in 57kg weight class by defeating defending world champion
    Dennis Hall of U.S., 4-0, in gold medal match.

    Tiffany MILBRETT, United States (Football)
    Millbrett had two game-winning goals, including the decisive goal in the
    goal medal match with China, as the U.S.women took the gold in front of the
    largest crowd in women's soccer history.

    Shannon MILLER, United States (Gymnastics)
    High scorer for U.S. women during team competition in getting first U.S.
    team gold, then overcame poor performances in all around for gold on beam.

    Venuste NIYONGABO, Burundi (Track and Field)
    One of the world's foremost 1500m runners, Niyongabo opted out of his
    speciality to run in the 5K race, a distance he had raced only twice
    before.  However, he won the race in 13:07.96, just .2 seconds ahead of
    Kenya's Paul Bitok, to take the first Olympic medal ever for Burundi.

    Paula PEZZO, Italy (Cycling - Mountain Biking)
    Pezzo overcame a first lap crash to win the 31.9 km mountain bike race,
    winning the first ever gold in Olympic history in this sport.

    Stanislav POZDNYAKOV, Russian Federation (Fencing)
    Pozdnyakov won the individual sabre gold medal, then led the Russians
    in an overwhelming 45-25 rout of Hungary for the team gold.

    David REID, United States (Boxing)
    Trailing 15-5 in gold medal round, Reid KOs Cuba's Alfredo Duvergel to win
    only U.S. boxing gold, in the light middleweight classification.  Reid's
    KO was the only boxing gold to be decided by a knockout.

    Kim RHODE, United States (Shooting)
    17-year old won first women's Olympic Double Trap gold medal.

    Pascal RICHARD, Switzerland (Cycling - Road)
    Richard won the men's cycling road race, leading a three-man charge that
    held off many of Europe's (and America's) finest road racers, then sprinting
    at the end to edge Rolf Sorensen and Max Sciandri take the gold medal.

    Dot RICHARDSON, United States (Softball)
    Leader of U.S. softball team, hit first ever Olympic home run, then homered
    for decisive runs in gold medal game.
 
    Antonio ROSSI, Italy (Kayaking)
    Double gold in sprints on final weekend at Lake Lanier, in the
    K-1 500m (single) and K-2 1000m (pairs).

    Dmitri SAUTINE, Russia (Diving)
    Sautine, after a very lackluster performance in the 3m springboard
    competition, dispensed with all competition in the 10m platform dives,
    taking thee gold and prevent a Chinese sweep of the diving gold medals.

    Ekaterina SEREBRYANSKAYA, Ukraine (Rythmic Gymnastics)
    Serebryanskaya scored 9.950 on first three of four events to win gold medal.

    Jackie SILVA, Brazil (Beach Volleyball)
    Teamed with Sandra Pires, the veteran Silva, a former indoor player with the
    powerful Brazilian national team, defeated fellow Brazilians Monica Samuel
    and Adrianna Rodrigues, 12-11, 12-6, for the gold medal.

    Kent STEFFES, United States (Beach Volleyball)
    Although gold medal teammate Karch Kiraly got more attention, Steffes came
    up with more of the big plays in their march to the gold medal, particularly
    in their 12-5, 12-8 championship round over Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh.

    Kerri STRUG, United States (Gymnastics)
    Injury on final vault overshadowed high-scoring clutch performances as
    anchor on floor exercise and vault to cement U.S. team victory.

    Blyth TAIT, New Zealand (Equestrian)
    Aboard Ready Teddy, Tait won the equestrian individual three-day
    event (combination of dressage, cross country, and jumping) gold medal by
    turning in a double-clear in round in the jumping phase which finished the
    competition.

    Olof VAN DER MEULEN, The Netherlands (Volleyball)
    The Netherlands, led by Van Der Meulen's 34 kills in the championship
    match, edged its chief rival Italy for the gold medal, defeating the
    Italians 15-12, 9-15, 16-14, 9-15, 17-15, in an exciting match.

    ZHAN Xugang, China (Weightlifting)
    Broke world records in the snatch, clean-and-jerk, and total weight in
    winning gold at 70kg.

    
    	Just one.  The guy from Greece who won an individual gold in
    	the floor exercise.......although I thought Li ???????? from
    	China was robbed.
    
    Claybone

        And in a semi-final note about the Olympics...

    The opening ceremonies for the Para-Olympics was last night and there was
    one interesting moment.  Apparently Vice President Gore was introducing
    various dignitaries who were on the stand with him to the crowd.  When
    he introduce Tony (Franco is dead?) Samaranch the crowd went dead
    silent.  Gore quickly introduced Billy Payne and the crowd went crazy.

    I don't think ol' Juan will be keeping Atlanta on his list of cities to
    visit, at least I hope not.

    UMDan