The Olympic Gold Medalist
I captured a screen grab from the Vancouver Olympic Medal Ceremony tonight as Alexandre Bilodeau receives his Gold Medal in Men’s Moguls.
Well Done Alexandre…
Beijing Games come to a close
Sixteen days, 204 countries, thousands of athletes, 43 world records and countless lasting memories.
The Beijing Games officially came to an end Sunday with the closing ceremony, as China said goodbye to the world with a spectacular show featuring fireworks, song and dance and the athletes themselves.
It was a fitting end to an Olympics that shone on China, a country with a poor record of human rights and where the government’s wariness of dissent and free speech has not wavered, but also a nation that opened itself to the world for these Games.
The International Olympic Committee, whose selection of Beijing as host in 2001 was widely criticized by the global community, said its choice had been vindicated.
“Tonight, we come to the end of 16 glorious days which we will cherish forever,” IOC president Jacques Rogge told the capacity crowd at the National Outdoor Stadium and the global TV audience.
“Through these Games, the world learned more about China, and China learned more about the world. These were truly exceptional Games,” Rogge said, before declaring the Olympics officially closed.
Liu Qi, the head of the Beijing organizing committee echoed Rogge’s sentiments, saying the Games were a “testimony to the fact that the world has rested its trust in China.”
Human rights groups disagreed
“The reality is that the Chinese government’s hosting of the Games has been a catalyst for abuses, leading to massive forced evictions, a surge in the arrest, detention and harassment of critics, repeated violations of media freedom, and increased political repression,” said Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch.
“Not a single world leader who attended the Games or members of the IOC seized the opportunity to challenge the Chinese government’s behaviour in any meaningful way.”
The closing ceremony also looked ahead, to the 2012 Games in London.
Rock musician Jimmy Page’s electric guitar seared through the Bird’s Nest Stadium as English pop star Leona Lewis sung the Led Zeppelin classic Whole Lotta Love. English soccer star David Beckham then emerged and kicked a soccer ball into a crowd of performers on the stadium floor.
Karen Cockburn, who won a silver medal in the women’s trampoline event, served as Canada’s flag-bearer, leading the Canadian contingent of athletes onto the stadium floor.
The Beijing Games marked Canada’s third-best performance at the Olympics — Canada won 22 medals in 1996 in Atlanta and 44 in 1984 in Los Angeles, which were boycotted by the Soviet Union and several Eastern Bloc countries.
“The Chinese have not only put on a great show tonight, they also did an excellent job overall. This was China’s Olympics, it was well-deserved, and it is effecting positive change here,” Canadian kayaker Adam van Koeverden told CBC Sports.
The show came to a close with a duet featuring Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and Chinese soprano Song Zuying, followed by a barrage of fireworks and confetti that filled the air.
Openly gay diver wins gold
By Maggie Hendricks- Fourth Place Medal
Diver Matthew Mitcham, the only openly gay male athlete in the Beijing Olympics, won gold in the 10m platform. He beat Chinese favorite Zhou Luxin by 4.8 points, preventing China from sweeping gold in diving events. Mitcham is the first Aussie to win diving gold since 1924, but that’s not the only thing that makes him a trailblazer.
He is hardly the first gay athlete to compete but he is one of the first to be out while competing. American diver Greg Louganis did not share his orientation until his diving career was over. To Mitcham, he is just living his life as a gay man and as a diver, and there is nothing extraordinary about that:
“Being gay and diving are completely separate parts of my life. Of course there’s going to be crossover because some people have issues, but everyone I dive with has been so supportive.”
Though he wants to be known as more than a gay man, the LGBT community is proud of their star. At OutSports, a sports Web site that focuses on the gay community, his win is front-page news. The Web site brings up a good question — will NBC mention Mitcham’s orientation during tonight’s broadcast?
To Mitcham, that doesn’t seem to matter. He has gold, and has reached his goals: “I’m happy with myself and where I am. I’m very happy with who I am and what I’ve done.”
UPDATE: NBC did not mention Mitcham’s orientation, nor did they show his family and partner who were in the stands. NBC has made athletes’ significant others a part of the coverage in the past, choosing to spotlight track athlete Sanya Richards‘ fiancee, a love triangle between French and Italian swimmers and Kerri Walsh‘s wedding ring debacle.
Photos via Getty Images
Teammates Lift Phelps to Record 8th Gold
By KAREN CROUSE – New York Times
BEIJING — With the help of his teammates on Sunday, Michael Phelps surpassed Mark Spitz, 36 years after Spitz’s record haul of seven gold medals at the Munich Games. The United States won the 4×100-meter medley relay in 3:29.34, a world record, for Phelps’ eighth gold medal of the Beijing Games.
Phelps swam the third — the butterfly — leg of the relay. His teammates were Aaron Peirsol (backstroke), Brendan Hansen (breaststroke) and Jason Lezak (freestyle).
How fabulous was Phelps’s feat? At Sunday’s start, Phelps would have ranked fourth in gold medals, ahead of all but 14 countries in the medal count. Every time Phelps dived into the water for a final here, the ripples extended into every corner of the Water Cube. On Friday, Andrew Lauterstein of Australia won the bronze medal in the 100 butterfly. Standing on the medals podium alongside Phelps, Lauterstein said he was thrilled to have had a cameo role in this recording of history.
Phelps had won his seventh gold medal on Saturday in dramatic fashion in the 100-meter butterfly, by out-touching Serbia’s Milorad Cavic.
Phelps was timed in 50.58, a personal best and an Olympic record. Cavic, a California-Berkeley graduate, was one-hundredth of a second behind. Phelps had caught Spitz by a whisker, tying Spitz’s record haul from the 1972 Munich Games and earning a $1 million bonus from Speedo, one of his sponsors.
With the win, he tied Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in one Olympics. His first six golds were all world records, but No. 7 came down to grit.
About two hours after the 100-meter butterfly, NBC’s Bob Costas interviewed Spitz, via satellite from Detroit, and Phelps, who was still poolside. Spitz said he had wondered what he would say at this monumental time.
“The word that comes to mind is epic,” Spitz said. “What you did tonight was epic, and it was epic for the whole world to see how great you really are.
“I never thought for one moment that you were out of that race,” he added. “That is a tribute to your greatness.”
Spitz went on to talk about role models, and how he admires Phelps not only for his swimming abilities, but also for the type of person he is.
“You weren’t born when I did what I did, and I’m sure I was a part of your inspiration, and I take that as a full compliment,” Spitz said. “They say that you judge one’s character by the company you keep, and I’m certainly happy to keep company with you.”
Phelps responded with admiration for Spitz, the man whose record he has been chasing for several years. In Athens four years ago, Phelps won six golds and two bronzes.
“There have been so many greats who have come before me, and what Mark did is still amazing,” he said. “It’s a very hard thing to accomplish. I think it shows whatever you put your mind to, you really can accomplish.
“When Mark won seven, he put his mind to something and he did everything he could to get there, and it’s the same thing with me.”
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Phelps wins record 8th Olympic gold
Michael Phelps has gone where no Olympian has gone before.
Phelps swam to his record eighth gold medal of the Beijing Games on Sunday, propelling the U.S. team to victory in the 4×100 medley relay.
With their 23-year-old star pushing them into the lead on the third (butterfly) leg, the Americans touched home in 3:29.34, breaking their own world record set in 2004 in Athens.
Australia took the silver and Japan the bronze.
Day 8 roundup: What the Canadians did
Canada’s Carol Huynh celebrates her gold medal on the shoulders of coach Leigh Vierling, left. (Ed Wray/Associated Press)
Finally!
Canada’s medal drought came to an end on Day 8 of the Beijing Games, with Canadian athletes winning three medals on Saturday.
Wrestler Carol Huynh, a 27-year-old native of Hazelton, B.C., won Canada’s first gold medal of the Games, winning the 48-kilogram freestyle weight class final over Japan’s Chiharu Icho by a score of 4-0 and 2-1.
“This is unbelievable,” she told CBC Sports following the medal ceremony. “I knew I wanted to go in with supreme confidence in my abilities, and not doubting myself one second. That’s what I did, and I wrestled the match of my life, and it was awesome.”
The men’s rowing pair of Dave Calder, from Victoria, and Scott Frandsen, from Kelowna, B.C., started the day by winning Canada’s first medal of the Olympics, claiming the silver on the water at Shunyi Olympic rowing park in Beijing.
“It was a tough race; we tried to ignore the fact that we haven’t had a medal yet as a country, and just focus on our two [kilometres],” Calder told CBC Sports after the race.
“We can come off the water knowing we had a great race,” said Frandsen.
Wrestler Tonya Verbeek won the second Olympic medal of her career and Canada’s third of the day.
The Beamsville, Ont., native won bronze in the 55-kilogram weight class, beating Ida-Theres Nerell of Sweden by a score of 1-0, 1-0 in one of two bronze medal matches.
Verbeek, 31, won silver at the 2004 Athens Summer Games, the first to include women’s freestyle wrestling.
She was smiling after the match, despite finishing one medal position below her 2004 Athens result. “I won a match to get the bronze and you’re losing a match to get the silver,” Verbeek said. “So it is a different feeling.”
More medals for Canada could be on the way, as three Canadians advanced to women’s and men’s trampoline finals next week.
Rosannagh MacLennan of King City, Ont., finished third and Karen Cockburn of Toronto fourth in the women’s preliminary round, while Toronto’s Jason Burnett finished seventh among the men.
The women’s final is Monday followed by the men Tuesday.
Blythe Hartley of Vancouver, B.C., qualified for the final of the women’s three-metre springboard, finishing 10th in Saturday’s semifinal with a total of 324.6 points from six dives.
The top 12 advanced to Sunday’s final. Jennifer Abel of Montreal just missed the cut, finishing 13th in 296.1.
In other notable Canadian results:
- The Canadian baseball team lost 5-4 to the United States. With a 1-3 record, Canada must win its final three preliminary round contests to have any hope of reaching the semifinals.
- Zach Bell of Watson Lake, Yukon, was seventh in the men’s points cycling race.
- The men’s water polo team is now winless in four games after suffering a 13-7 loss to Greece.
- Carline Muir of Toronto advanced to Sunday’s semifinals in the women’s 400 metres. The 20-year-old ran a personal best 51.55 seconds to finish third in her heat and move on.
- Jessica Zelinka of London, Ont., finished sixth overall in the women’s heptathlon with 6,490 points, and had personal-best performances in four of the seven events which comprise the competition
- Kelsie Hendry of Saskatoon failed to advance out of the qualifying round in the women’s pole vault. She cleared 4.3 metres, but missed on all three attempts at 4.4.
Wrestler Verbeek captures Canada's third medal
Canada’s Tonya Verbeek fights Otgonjargai Naidan of Mongolia during a match in the 55kg weight class of women’s wrestling at the Beijing Olympics. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
Canadian wrestler Tonya Verbeek won the second Olympic medal of her career and Canada’s third of the Beijing Summer Games on Day 8 of Olympic competition.
The Beamsville, Ont., native won bronze in the 55-kilogram weight class, beating Ida-Theres Nerell of Sweden by a score of 1-0, 1-0 in the bronze medal match.
Verbeek won silver at the 2004 Athens Summer Games.
Her bronze medal in Beijing came minutes after her teammate Carol Huynh won Canada’s first gold at 48-kilograms, and less than an hour after Canadian rowers Scott Fransden and Dave Calder won silver, Canada’s first medal of the 2008 Summer Games.
A BRONZE MEDAL FOR CANADA: WOMENS WRESTLING IS ROCKING THE HOUSE
Canada’s Tonya Verbeek, right, won silver at the Athens Olympics, the first to include women’s wrestling. (Hasan Sarbakhshian/Canadian Press)
TONYA WINS A BRONZE MEDAL FOR CANADA @ 55 KG WEIGHT CLASS…
Canada’s only female wrestler to win an Olympic medal is feeling the pressure.
When Tonya Verbeek stepped on the mat four years ago in Athens, it was the first time women’s wrestling was part of the Olympic Games. She was virtually unknown to all but her competitors.
Everything changed when Verbeek won that silver medal.
“That’s what I’ve been dealing with the last few years,” says the Beamsville, Ont., native. “I had high expectations of myself thinking everyone has expectations of me. I’m really trying to work on that.”
“Intrinsic pressures,” adds her long-time coach, Marty Calder, “those are always the toughest.”
Verbeek is a four-time national champion at the 55 kg weight class, and has won nine international competitions since the Athens Games, most recently the 2008 Pan American Games. Talking to the 31-year-old, you wouldn’t know it.
“I know I’m a better wrestler since 2004, I do know that,” she says. “But I haven’t had my strongest results since the Olympics. The last two years have been very challenging.”
She’s referring to two disappointing world championship finishes – ninth in 2007 and a second-round loss in 2006.
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Canada’s Tonya Verbeek fights Otgonjargai Naidan of Mongolia during a match in the 55kg weight class of women’s wrestling at the Beijing Olympics. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
Canadian freestyle wrestler Tonya Verbeek won’t be fighting for Olympic gold or silver in Beijing, but she has a chance to win a bronze medal.
Verbeek, the silver medallist from the 2004 Olympic Games, dropped a tough semifinal bout Saturday in the women’s 55-kilogram category to Saori Yoshida of Japan, the woman who defeated her four years ago for gold in Athens.
Saori Yoshida scored two points early in the match and never looked back, winning the bout 8-0 to send Verbeek into the repechage round.
Yoshida, a six-time world champion from 2002-2007, is considered the most dominant female wrestler in the world. She had lost one match in the past seven years, a winning streak that was snapped at a World Cup earlier this year. She is scheduled to face Li Xu of China in the final.
Verbeek of Beamsville, Ont., will now fight the winner of Ida-Theres Nerell of Sweden and Natalia Golts of Russia in one of two bronze-medal bouts.
Verbeek’s bronze-medal bout is scheduled for 5:25 a.m. ET.
Earlier, Verbeek swept her round of 16 bout against Mongolia’s Otgonjargal Naidan 7-0 and topped Ludmila Cristea of Moldova 6-1 in the quarter-finals.
Canadians row to silver medal
The Canadian men’s rowing pair Scott Frandsen and Dave Calder are the first Canadians to reach the podium in Beijing.
The pair won a silver medal on the water at Shunyi Olympic rowing park on Saturday, finishing in a time of six minutes, 39.55 seconds. They went up against a tough field, including Australian pair Duncan Free and Drew Ginn, who took the gold.
This is the first medal for Canada at the Beijing Olympics. Wrestler Carol Huynh advanced to the gold medal match earlier Saturday, guaranteeing Canada either a gold or silver, but had yet to compete when the men crossed the finish.
Phelps Ties Spitz’s Record With 7th Gold
New York Times: Olympic Edition
BEIJING — Michael Phelps has caught Mark Spitz, 36 years after Spitz’s record haul of seven gold medals at the Munich Games. Now it may take only a day for Spitz to be left behind.
Phelps won the 100-meter butterfly Saturday morning, barely out-touching Milorad Cavic of Croatia in 50.58 to claim his seventh gold medal of the Beijing Games. On Sunday, Phelps will swim the third leg — the butterfly leg — of the 4×100 medley relay with a chance to set himself apart in Olympic history with eight golds. This was Phelps’ toughest race yet, but when he touched the wall, he had his 13th career gold medal, elevating his own record set Friday with a victory in the 200-meter individual medley.
Phelps came to Beijing with heavy expectations on his shoulders. He had won six golds and two bronze medals in the 2004 Games in Athens, falling short of his goal. But in Beijing, when the pressure is on, Phelps seems to turn it on.
He smashed his world record in the 400-meter individual medley on Sunday and set an American record on his leadoff 100 in the Americans’ record-setting 4×100 freestyle relay on Monday. He also set records in the 200-meter butterfly, the 4×200-meter freestyle relay and the 200-meter individual medley.
Phelps is finished with individual races in Beijing. Now the eighth gold medal is somewhat out of his control; he’ll stand on the deck as a cheerleader for his teammates’ legs of his last event, the 400 medley relay, on Sunday morning.
The relay features swimming’s four disciplines — backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle. Things can go wrong. At the 2007 world championships in Melbourne, Australia, Crocker left too soon in the butterfly leg and the United States was disqualified.
Phelps has commanded attention throughout much of the world for his performances here, but the buzz is curiously mild in Beijing. He is hardly the star attraction, at least among fans on the Olympic Green and the news media. Coverage of his races is often tucked deep inside the sports pages, and the American athletes who garner most of the attention are the N.B.A. starts like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
Michael Phelps also wins a bonus of $1 million dollars from Speedo for his medal achievement.
Ryan Lochte
BEIJING – AUGUST 15: (L-R) Bronze medalist Arkady Vyatchanin of Russia, gold medalist Ryan Lochte of the United States and silver medalist Aaron Peirsol of the United States pose during the medal ceremony for the Men’s 200m Backstroke Final at the National Aquatics Center on Day 7 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 15, 2008 in Beijing, China. Lochte won in a new world record time of 1:53.94 (Photo by Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty Images)
US swimmer Ryan Lochte poses with his gold medal after the medal ceremomy for the men’s 200m backstroke final at the National Aquatics Center at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing on August 15, 2008. Lochte broke the men’s 200m backstroke world record in winning Olympic gold in 1min 53.94sec. AFP PHOTO / GREG WOOD (Photo credit should read GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images)
BEIJING – AUGUST 15: Gold medalist Ryan Lochte of the United States listens to the national anthem from the podium during the medal ceremony for the Men’s 200m Backstroke Final at the National Aquatics Center on Day 7 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 15, 2008 in Beijing, China. Lochte won in a new world record time of 1:53.94 (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
Seventh heaven for Phelps?
Michael Phelps’s bid to tie the record of seven gold medals at a single Olympics on Day 8 will likely face the greatest opposition, if any, from two swimmers born in America, one of whom is representing Serbia.
Phelps can tie the record established by Mark Spitz at the 1972 Munich Games with a win in the 100-metre butterfly at the Beijing Aquatic Center. The final is set for 10:10 p.m. ET on Friday.
Phelps made it six gold medals — and six world records — blowing away Ryan Lochte and the rest of competition in the 200-metre individual medley on Day 7.
Not that Phelps needed the help, but Lochte had just won gold in the 200 backstroke in world-record time about a half hour earlier.
Most observers are eyeing countryman and current world 100m butterfly record holder Ian Crocker as the man who can derail the quest for history, but not Gary Hall Jr.
Hall, who has won 10 Olympic medals and five gold in his career but didn’t qualify this year, is picking Milorad Cavic of Serbia.
Cavic set an Olympic record in the preliminary heat with a time of 50.76 seconds. He also had the top time in the semis, at 50.92.
The Serb’s result helps heighten interest for the final even more after Phelps and Crocker had collectively held the top 17 swims ever in the event heading into Beijing.
“An upset would be the upset of all upsets, it’s true, but I think Mike [Milorad] can beat Michael,” Hall said Friday in a column for the Los Angeles Times.
Cavic, 23, was born in Anaheim and attended the University of California at Berkeley.
The six-foot-five Cavic, who has battled back problems in the past, said in a posting on his website Friday: “So here I am, in the eve of battle, feeling physically better than ever with a chance to show the world and myself what I’ve worked so hard for. I’m feeling good … and I’m excited, so here we go.”
Baltimore native Phelps may not be feeling “better than ever” but he appears in as good shape as a man can be after 15 elite races in seven days.
Crocker looking to turn tide
Within an hour of winning medal No. 6, Phelps came back to win his semifinal butterfly heat in a time of 50.97 seconds.
“I have to conserve as much physical and emotional energy as I can now that I’m down to the last two races,” Phelps told reporters afterward.
The potential record-breaking race for Phelps is Sunday when he is due to take part in the men’s 4×100 medley for the United States.
Crocker beat Phelps at the 2003 and 2005 world championships, setting a world record in the latter meet in Montreal in the process (50.40).
Recent history, however, hasn’t suggested Crocker will pull off the Olympic upset, despite this being his only event in Beijing.
The two were involved in a similar scenario at the U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha, Neb. In the last of his eight events at the trials, Phelps was the one fresher at the end, overtaking a brief Crocker lead to win in a time of 50.89.
The turning point in the rivalry between them seems to have been the 2007 championships in Melbourne. Phelps edged Crocker by 0.05 seconds to win the butterfly, and heading into Beijing had posted the three fastest times of 2008.
Crocker said he is not getting caught up in history or past results.
“You can start by not worrying about what everybody else thinks,” Crocker said. “Nobody knows what I’ve really gone through in the last eight years and what has gotten me to this point, besides myself and a few people that I know well. So it’s my own personal deal at this point.”
Crocker was second to Phelps in the semifinal heat despite being the more rested, but it may well have been a tactical move. The Portland, Me., native shared the third-best qualifying time, with Australia’s Andrew Lauterstein.
Spitz has been complimentary of Phelps although he has also said he would have taken eight gold in Munich had the 50m freestyle been in existence. Of the many swimmers Spitz defeated at the 1972 Games, one was Gary Hall Sr.
With two days of swimming left, the powerful U.S. team has piled up 25 medals, including 10 golds.
Phelps easily wins 6th Olympic gold medal in pool
BEIJING (AP)—Michael Phelps won his sixth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics on Friday in record time, defeating rivals Laszlo Cseh and teammate Ryan Lochte in the 200-meter individual medley.
Phelps defended his title from four years ago in Athens, winning in 1 minute, 54.23 seconds and lowering his own world record of 1:54.80 set at last month’s U.S. trials. It was the American’s sixth world mark in Beijing.
Cseh of Hungary took the silver in 1:56.52, his third runner-up finish to Phelps in these games.
Lochte earned the bronze in 1:56.53, 29 minutes after he upset defending champion Aaron Peirsol to win the 200 back.
It was the 21st world record set during the swimming competition.
Phelps Adds 2 Gold Medals in One Night
New York Times Olympic Coverage
BEIJING — The United States 4×200-meter freestyle relay team smashed the world record on Wednesday morning, helping Michael Phelps keep his gold-medal streak alive. The relay victory, in 6:58.56, helped Phelps earn his fifth medal of these Games, as he attempts to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in one event, which Spitz set in 1972. Earlier in the night, Phelps had earned his fourth gold medal with a world-record performance in the 200-meter butterfly.
Competing in the 200-meter butterfly Wednesday morning at the Water Cube — an inhospitable place to anyone who has dared dive in with Phelps — he captured his fourth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics and continued his march toward a record eight golds. He had less than an hour to take the podium and then rest before his next event, the 4×200 freestyle relay, scheduled for 11:19 a.m. local time. Phelps finished in 1 minute 52.03 seconds, topping his world record of 1:52.09. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary won silver in 1:52.70, and Takeshi Matsuda of Japan took bronze in 1:52.97.
If Phelps remains unbeaten, on Saturday morning he will catch Mark Spitz, who holds the record with seven golds at the 1972 Munich Games, and will pass him on Sunday morning in the 4×100 medley relay.
With each lap in the pool, Phelps has commanded more attention on the Olympic Green and around the world. NBC, the Olympics rights holder in the United States, knew such a run of golds would be great theater, so it prevailed on the Games’ organizers to hold swimming finals in the mornings in Beijing to capture live prime-time audiences in the States. The time of day has not appeared to matter to Phelps, who will be the heavy favorite in each of his remaining races.
In the 200-meter freestyle Tuesday, he left the field far behind and crushed his own year-old record. Sixteen months after becoming the first swimmer to crack the 1:44 barrier, he was the first to go under 1:43.
Phelps Captures 4th Gold of Games
BEIJING — Michael Phelps continued his dominance of the swimming events on Wednesday morning, with a world-record victory in the 200-meter butterfly in 1 minute 52.03 seconds. It was the fourth gold medal of the Games for Phelps, who is trying to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in one Olympics, which Spitz set in 1972. Phelps swims again later tonight in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.
With each lap in the pool, Phelps has commanded more attention on the Olympic Green and around the world. NBC, the Olympics rights holder in the United States, knew that his race for the golds would be great theater, so it prevailed on the Games’ organizers to hold swimming finals in the mornings in Beijing to capture live prime-time audiences in the States.
In the 200-meter freestyle Tuesday, he left he field far behind and crushed his own year-old world record to win his third gold medal. Sixteen months after becoming the first swimmer to crack the 1:44 barrier in the event, he was the first to go under 1:43. Phelps finished in 1 minute 42.96 seconds, nine-tenths a second better than his previous best. His second gold medal came in the 400-meter freestyle relay, thanks largely to an incredible anchor-leg performance by his teammate Jason Lezak.
In winning his first gold medal of the Games, in the 400-meter individual medley on Saturday, Phelps also broke the world record, with a time of 4:03.84.
Phelps wins record 10th Olympic gold
Michael Phelps has broken the record for most Olympic gold medals in a career after winning the men’s 200-metre butterfly final Wednesday in Beijing.
The American clocked one minute 52.03 seconds to lower his own world record by 6-100ths of a second and collect his 10th Olympic title.
Hungary’s Laszlo Cheh took the silver in 1:52.70. Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda got the bronze in 1:52.97.
With the victory, Phelps topped the all-time mark of nine golds shared by U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz, American track and field athlete Carl Lewis, Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi and Russian gymnast Larissa Latynina.
Phelps, who won six golds among his eight medals at the 2004 Athens Games, is halfway to his goal of capturing eight titles in Beijing. That would better Spitz’s 36-year-old record of seven golds at a single Olympics.
Russian grapplers win double Greco-Roman gold
Nazyr Mankiev of Russia, in blue, competes against Rovshan Bayramov of Azerbaijan in the men’s Greco-Roman 55kg gold medal final on Tuesday. (Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images)
Russian grapplers won the first two gold medals in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Olympic Games on Tuesday, while Azerbaijan picked up two silver medals.
Nazyr Mankiev won the first gold of the day, defeating Azerbaijan’s Rovshan Bayramov in the best-of-three match by a score of 4-3, 2-2.
Bayramov, a two-time European champion, got off to a good start in the match, lifting Mankiev for three points to take an early lead. Mankiev, 23, immediately fired back, scoring the last four points of the period. Mankiev and Bayramov tied the second period 2-2, but the Russian won because he scored last.
Mankiev, who won bronze at the 2007 world championships, wasn’t expected to win gold in Beijing. He beat Iran’s three-time defending world champion Hamid Soryan in the quarter-finals to advance. Soryan was upset again in the bronze medal match by South Korea’s Park Eun-Chul. Park is the 2007 world championship silver medallist.
Armenian wrestler Roman Amoyan won the other bronze medal at 55kg, blanking Cuban Yaqnier Hernandez, 3-0, 5-0. Amoyan won silver at the 2008 European championships and gold in 2007.
Greco-Roman 60-kilogram weight class
Russia’s Islam-Beka Albiev took gold in the 60kg category without surrendering a point to Azerbaijan’s Rahimov Vitaliy. The Russian, who placed 8th at the 2007 world championships, won the match 2-0, 4-0.
Vitaly was competing in his second Olympic Games. He placed 14th in Athens four years ago.
Kyrgyzstan’s Ruslan Tumenbaev won the first bronze medal at 60kg, defeating Cuba’s Roberto Monzon without giving up a single point. The 22-year-old Tumenbaev won 6-0, 3-0.
Picking up the second bronze medal in Beijing was Kazakhstan’s Tengizbayev Nurbakyt, who battled hometown favourite Jiang Sheng of China in a match that forced a third, deciding period.
Nurbakyt won the first period 4-1, and Jiang battled back to win the second 2-1. In the final period, Nurbakyt kept Jian scoreless to win 3-0.
Jiang’s victory in the bronze medal match would have marked the first Olympic wrestling medal in Chinese history.
China takes the gold, Americans win the bronze
By NANCY ARMOUR, AP National Writer
BEIJING (AP)—The roar began as soon as Chen Yibing’s feet hit the mat, a primal scream that was four pressure-packed years in the making.
Only half the meet was over, but so was this competition.
China has the Olympic title it has long craved and everyone else expected. The Americans, meanwhile, won the bronze with a roster patched together at the last minute when not one, but both Hamm brothers were knocked out with injuries.
Japan, the defending Olympic champion, won the silver.
“They told me, ‘We succeeded. We are the world champions.’ I told them we reached our target,” coach Huang Yubin said. “Other teams were good, but we were better. We performed perfect today. Everyone was excellent.”
The Chinese began celebrating even before their last event, high bar, was finished. When little Zou Kai’s feet hit the mat with a thud, his teammates jumped up and down. They stood behind a large Chinese flag, tears flowing.
There were no tears from the Americans, only elation. When the final standings popped up, Jonathan Horton screamed: “Nobody believed in us! Nobody believed in us.”
China finished with 278.875 points, more than seven points ahead of Japan. That’s such a blowout the Chinese could have brought three fans in for the last event and still won. The Americans had 275.850.
“It bothers me a lot, especially if people from home kind of put down our team, saying, ‘Count the U.S. out. We can’t wait to see how China, Japan and Germany do,’” Horton said. “I wish more people in the U.S. believed in us like we believed in us. Now I hope more people realize the U.S. is a force to be reckoned with.”
The Chinese have won seven of the last eight world titles, including the last three, and have more individual titles than a royal family. For all that, though, they were still considered underachievers. There was just one Olympic title during this reign, and their collapse four years ago was one of epic proportions. Not only did they not win the gold they were supposed to, they went home with just two medals, only one gold.
But the failure fueled China, as did all those chants of “Jia You” that rang out throughout the arena Tuesday.
“Since Athens, the Chinese team has run into a lot of failures which tested the team,” Huang said. “I know them, and they do work very hard and put a lot of hard work in their training. We worked as team, we enjoyed it, and that’s more important than anything.”
The Chinese strutted onto the floor, waving at their cheering fans and pumping their fists as if to remind everyone this was their party, and the other countries were simply lucky to get an invitation.
They started slowly on floor exercise, one of their weaker events. When they sauntered over to pommel horse, the show really began.
Xiao Qin had the crowd oohing and aahing, his hands a blur, his body a perfect plane. Not even a sliver of light was visible between his legs and his every move was performed with perfect control. When he finished, he pumped his fists at the crowd, smiling broadly at his teammates.
On still rings, the Chinese were simply dazzling.
Rings is all about brute strength, an event so physically demanding spectators wince just watching. But Yang Wei moved effortlessly from one strength pose to another, the bulging veins in his arm and forehead the only sign of his exertion. He took a small hop forward on his landing, but he grinned as he exchanged a high-five with Chen.
As impressive as Yang’s show was, Chen’s was even better. He is the two-time world champ on rings, and it’s easy to see why. When he lifted his body into a plane, his arms extended, his back so straight you could iron on it. He moves easily from one position to another and holds his strength moves for what seem like minutes, never showing the slightest sign that his muscles are screaming.
Even before his feet hit the mat, the crowd was in a frenzy and a roar that shook the arena exploded as he thrust his hands into the air. Chen raised his head and closed his eyes, knowing the gold was finally in China’s reach. The Chinese finished the event—the third—behind the Americans, but that was simply math.
Silver medalists four years ago, the Americans completed their own journey of redemption. With no members of the 2004 team around, the young U.S. men were a dismal 13th at the 2006 world championships, a stunning fall. But they grew up quickly, finishing fourth at last year’s worlds.
With reigning Olympic champ Paul Hamm and his twin brother, Morgan, back, they were sure to contend for a medal in Beijing.
But Paul Hamm broke his hand in May and couldn’t recover in time, withdrawing from the U.S. team July 28. Last Thursday, an ankle injury knocked out Morgan Hamm. With no Olympic veterans, nobody expected much from the Americans.
Nobody, that is, except themselves.
“We always believed in ourselves, and we kept at it. … Tenacious,” U.S. coach Kevin Mazeika said. “And we believed that our day would come.”
They are a scrappy bunch, and they gutted out one impressive routine after another Tuesday. Horton threw himself so far into the air on his high bar release moves the folks in the lower rows had to look up to see him, and he caught the bar on the way down each time as easily as if he were grabbing a drink.
When he stuck his dismount, Raj Bhavsar jumped up and down. The rest of the Americans hooted and hollered, and Horton practically sprinted off the podium. Justin Spring was just as good, showing the circus types a thing or two with his flips and twists. He does a triple somersault for his dismount, and he got such great air, he landed halfway down the podium.
“They’re high-risk, high-rewards,” Mazeika said, “and our guys knocked it out of the park. It was just amazing.”
Those routines put them solidly in second, behind the Chinese, with two events to go. But they had uncharacteristic struggles on floor, with Joey Hagerty stepping out of bounds twice. They slipped behind the Japanese going to pommel horse, their last event—and their weakest.
They didn’t start well, with Kevin Tan sitting on the horse at one point. After a serviceable routine by Bhavsar, it all came down to Sasha Artemev, who was tapped Thursday night to replace Morgan Hamm.
Artemev has perhaps the most talent of any of the Americans, and he’s far and away their best on pommel horse, where he won a bonze medal at the 2006 world championships.
Consistency, though, has been an issue, costing him a spot on the original Olympic team. He paced back and forth on the podium as he waited for what seemed like hours for Bhavsar’s score, the pressure building with every second.
But Artemev came through like a pro, his legs whirling like a propeller as he scissor-kicked around the pommels, his body straight and his toes perfectly pointed.
The Americans were celebrating as soon as his feet hit the mat. The bronze medal was theirs.
“He pulled off the performance of his life,” Horton said.
BEIJING OLYMPIC MEDAL UNVEILED
(BEIJING, March 27) – On the occasion of the 500-day countdown to the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games, the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) unveiled the Games’ medals.
BOCOG Executive Vice-President and chairman of the evaluation panel Jiang Xiaoyu attended the unveiling ceremony and delivered a speech at the Capital Museum on Tuesday.
The medals are designed with inspiration from “bi”, China’s ancient jade piece inscribed with dragon pattern. The medals, made of gold and jade, symbolize nobility and virtue and are embodiment of traditional Chinese values of ethics and honor.
The medals are 70mm in diameter and 6mm in thickness. On their obverse side, the medals adopt the standard design prescribed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) — a drawing that represents the winged goddess of victory Nike and Panathinaikos Arena, while on their reverse side, the medals are inlaid with jade with the Beijing Games emblem engraved in the metal centerpiece.
Noble and elegant, the medals are a blending of traditional Chinese culture and the Olympism. It gives the winners of the Games great honor and acclamation as recognition of their achievement.
The IOC has strict stipulation on the Olympic medals’ material, identification, weight, size and drawing. The medals for the champion and the runner-up are made of pure silver, and the champion’s medal must be plated with gold weighing not less than six grams each. For the first time jade is used for the Olympic medals. The design not only meets the IOC requirements, but also expresses praise and honor that the Chinese people cherish for the Olympic Spirit and the Olympic athletes.
In his speech, Jiang Xiaoyu said the Beijing 2008 Games medals will be a major part of the Olympic legacy for China. The design of the medals is a result of hard work and enthusiasm of many people. The medals, he said, embody strong Chinese style and elegant art, and are a harmonious combination of the Chinese culture with the Olympism, making them a vehicle to spread the Olympic Spirit and the concepts of the Beijing Games, as well as to showcase Chinese culture and arts, and the high levels of design and technology.
The medal box, ribbon and certificate, which were released simultaneously, also embody aesthetic taste of traditional Chinese culture and reflect the distinct Chinese characteristics and style.
The medal box is made of a wooden lacquer box with traditional Chinese techniques. The box is rectangular in shape, with four slightly curving sides of its lid and base, a symbol of heaven and earth, which conveys the message of happiness and best wishes for the world. The ribbon is exquisitely designed with cloud pattern woven on the red strap, sending out joyful and festive atmosphere. The certificate is made of thin silk and rice paper, an integrated whole of traditional techniques and modern printing.
On January 11, 2006, BOCOG launched a global campaign to solicit design proposals for the medals of the 2008 Games whilst inviting eleven professional organizations, including China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Academy of Arts & Design of Tsinghua University, to the campaign. The campaign was sponsored by BHP Billiton, the diversified minerals and medals sponsor of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games.
Within three months, 265 entries were sent in from 25 provinces (municipalities, and autonomous regions) and Hong Kong Special Administration Region (SAR) of China, America, Australia, Russia and Germany.
BOCOG called in a panel of experts and academies in the fields of arts, sculpture and mintage, thereafter, for two round selections of the 179 valid entries, and had the medal proposal improved during the process.
BOCOG and IOC passed the final proposal on January 11, 2007 and February 8, 2007 respectively.
