Some random news about Beijing Olympics 2008…
Liu Xiang leaving the track
Liu Xiang quits
World and Olympic champion Liu Xiang has withdrew from the 110m hurdle event following a right foot injury.
Liu’s appearance was in doubt when it was reported last weekend that he was suffering from a sore Achilles tendon, but he showed up for the qualifying heat anyway.
The 90,000 crowd at the Beijing National Stadium didn’t manage to catch Liu Xiang in real action though, as he quit after a false start (by another hurdler), limping out of the race track into the tunnel. The Chinese are generally disappointed, but showing plenty of support for the iconic athlete.
Liu Xiang was China’s best (and probably the only) hope for a gold medal at the track and field event.
Michael Phelps the Martian
Michael Phelps completed his quest for a record breaking 8 golds at a single Olympic Games. Scientist should bring him in for research to determine if he’s human at all…
The power of twins
Slovakia’s twins Pavol and Peter Hochschorner made history last Friday by winning the unprecedented third canoeing slalom Olympic gold.
Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell from Hastings, New Zealand won the double sculls (rowing) on Saturday. They were also winners in Athens 2004. The Hastings District Council is planning to name a street after the twins.
Abrahamian ditching his medal
The Swedish who ditched his medal
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has stripped off the bronze medal won by Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian as a punishment for violating the spirit of fair play.
Abrahamian took off his medal and left it on the mat at the awarding ceremony last Thursday, claiming that his semifinal defeat by Italian Andrea Minguzzi was unjustified and that the judges were corrupted.
The Jamaican sprinters
The Jamaicans showed their dominance in 100m sprinting by winning the gold medals in both the men and women event.
Usain Bolt was clearly a class above the rest during his race, claiming the men’s gold with a world record breaking (9.69s) feat.
No world record from the women, but it’s a clean sweep by the Jamaicans… Shelly-Ann Fraser with the gold (10.78s) while Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart sharing the silver with identical time.
Michael Phelps is awesome!
The jamacan runner was pretty amazing. He was so far ahead of everyone that he started slowing down a bit before he reached the finish line. They say he probably robbed himself of an even faster time than he did. ….He made it look so easy. It was almost a no contest with the other runners. Wow.
Yep, Michael Phelps has done what everybody was starting to believe could be never be done. Break Mark Spitz’ seven medal record from the 1970’s
Sorry to hear about the Chinese hurdler’s injury. Alot of hard work he did leading up to the games.
Bad Swede, bad Swede. Not a sportsman like conduct at all.
i was quite shocked when i heard that liu xiang couldn’t race.
i was rooting for him and he really was a great hope for gold.
after that other chinese athlete who missed his race, here’s another one.
good thing that china is still topping the chart.
so what exactly did that swedish athlete do?
i’m a bit unclear on what was unfair.
before, i heard from somewhere that bolt wasn’t going to attend the olympics because of the bad air quality in beijing, but guess not…..anyhow, jamaicans are really amazing sprinters!
bb… the Swedish threw away his medal as a protest to the biased call during the semifinal. In the spirit of fair play, the judges’ decision is final and should be respected… throwing away your medal and interrupting the award presentation shows a lack of sportsmanship… IOC didn’t like it obviously.
I am not sure if the semifinal was unfair as he claimed, he could be right… but when there are judges involved in a game, there will always be controversies… it’s part of the game unfortunately, and the athletes should live with it.
thanks for the clear explanation, lol.
i guess this doesn’t affect him much?
if he left the medal on the mat, that means he doesn’t want it himself.
does he really think that making a protest like this would help?
I’m not so sure that he would think it would help. But it’s the symbolism that counts with some people. If it made him feel better and he and/or his team are satisfied then so be it. I imagine they already figured it would disqualify him for the medal. Ans as bb said, apparently he didn’t want it anyway.
Symbolic gestures by atheletes have been around for quite sometime. Some even involve politics (which many disagree with doing) such as the 1968 Summer Olympics when the two US athletes made the black power fists on the awards platforms in a gesture of “black pride”. It created alot of controversy (which was obviously probably intended). But that was a sign of the times back then with civil rights and all being fresh on people’s minds.
Ya, he probably won’t mind not having the medal.
I am not sure if the act provides anything positive for the sport. To be frank lots of the people would not know what actually happens during the competition; especially when the sport isn’t really popular globally… most will only remember that there’s a man who ditched his medal, and that’s it.
Perhaps years from now the act might be seen as a turning point for better judging for that sport, but it is most likely to be a forgotten event soon. Time will tell.
Countries offering Cash awards for Gold Medals.
____________________________________
- Singapore offering $735,000 to anyone who can win a gold medal.
(Singapore has only won a silver so far. They lost to China in table tennis.
Singapore has not won a gold since 1960)
- Malaysia offering $300,000
(malaysia has never won a gold so far. However, Li Chang Wei has won a silver for Malaysia this olympics)
- Phillipines offering $220,000 to a gold winner.
(Phillipines has not won a gold since 1924 olympics)
- China government is offering $37,000 for a gold. A Chinese entrepreneur is offering $80,000.
- US. gold is worth $25,000
- Canada gold worth $19,000
* All cash awards for medals are tax free.
so that’s where athletes’ money come from!
imagine how rich phelps would be with those 8 golds, lol.
8 golds x $25,000 = $ 200,000. Phelps can earn much much more with his endorsement deals :p
The bonus should be more meaningful for the Chinese, but they too are catching up with all the commercial appearance these days.
sorry to see liu xiang quits, he is a great athelete, he will bounce back.
Wow, Usain Bolt from Jamaica breaks Michael Johnson’s world record on the 200 meters. clocking in at 19.30 sec. …And this time he sprinted full speed all the way to the finish line. He was so far ahead of the rest of the runners it was unbelievable. Made it look easy.
kyon… I hope so.
cole… ya, that fellow is amazing. He is a class above everyone else at the moment.
I thought Malaysia Government offered RM1mil for gold medalist? Rm300k for silver medalist.
Lee Chong Wei was awarded ‘datuk’ship…Congrats!
Ken… cole’s figures are in USD… $300k is roughly RM1mil.