The best and worst of the Games
Sunday Star Times
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Olympics 2008
As the 2008 Olympic Games comes to an end today, Sunday Star-Times sports editor Michael Donaldson, in Beijing, looks back at its highs and lows.
BEST STORIES
The man from Mars
Michael Phelps - aka his "eightness" - achieved what many thought impossible, winning eight gold medals in one Games. His tally of 14 gold medals in two campaigns makes him the greatest Olympian in terms of gold medals. Before the Olympics began someone asked Mark Spitz, the man who used to be regarded as the greatest swimmer in history, what he would think if Phelps equalled his record of winning seven gold medals at a single Olympics. "The second man on the moon," said Spitz. "What if he wins eight?" the interviewer asked. "First man on Mars," replied Spitz. Mission accomplished.
Insane for Usain
You could watch a replay of Usain Bolt's 100m win a hundred times and still scarcely believe it was possible. Against the fastest men on the planet, Bolt was in another galaxy. In the 200m he won by about 10m, which makes him around 5 per cent faster than anyone else.
Best of British
For a while it was an amusing aside, who would win more golds, Great Britain or Australia? It was 11-11 until the Poms went berserk with a 6-0 run. Britannia really did rule the waves at the Qingdao sailing venue, and the track cycling velodrome was a reminder of the glorious days of the empire when they bossed around Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The only downside to the rise and rise of British sport is that they've all started behaving like Australians, but without the ability to laugh at themselves.
Western media versus China
Despite promises of freedom of the press during the Olympics, the limitations to report remained, especially for many journalists covering any incident outside the sporting field. Reporters filing stories about protests would instantly have their internet access interfered with. Eventually the IOC canned press conferences altogether in order to avoid having embarrassing questions raised in public.
Uneven bars
From the fake fireworks to the swapped girl in the red dress, China made bad decision after bad decision. The biggest though would be He Kexin. The IOC has asked for an investigation into accusations the Chinese doctored her birth certificate to get the 14-year-old turned into a 16-year-old, which is the minimum age for gymnasts at the games. Under-16s, who have greater flexibility than older girls, are banned for fears they can be exploited by ruthless coaches.
FEELGOOD STORIES
Weight off
Matthias Steiner's life was shattered when his wife was killed in a car accident a year ago. He grieved, he put on weight; more than 30kg. He went to the Olympics as a super heavyweight lifter, the biggest of the big men. And he put everything into one lift: the memory of his wife, the fight with the Austrian weightlifting association that saw him change allegiance to Germany. Once he got all that weight off his chest, tears poured from his rock-like face. He went to the podium with a picture of his wife. One mighty moment had saved his life.
Just gotta get a letter to you
Australian rower David Crawshay was so ravaged by his failure in Athens four years ago that he wrote to himself: "Next time I race, I'm not just going to win, I'm going to wipe the floor." He gave it to a team-mate, who four years later handed the note to Crawshay's coach Rhett Ayliffe, who in turn kept it to himself until just five minutes before the double sculls final when he gave it back to Crawshay. The Aussie had forgotten all about it and promptly bawled his eyes out, composing himself in time to win gold with Scott Brennan in the double sculls.
LA Confidential 2
Straight from the Lance Armstrong school of survival techniques, Dutch open water swimmer Maarten van der Weijden comes back from the deathbed after surviving leukaemia, chemotherapy and stem cell transplant in 2001 to win the 10km Olympic title. Enough said.
Tickety-boo
A dodgy ticker looked to end the career of Hayden Roulston but the Ashburton cyclist defied the odds and won two medals. A growing maturity, a touch of Reiki (the Japanese healing treatment which he says got him back on the bike), and a dose of single-minded determination to succeed paved the way to the podium in both the individual pursuit (silver) and men's team pursuit (bronze).
Born to swim
South African marathon swimmer Natalie Du Toit lost her left leg after a motorcycle accident but thinks it is incidental to simply doing what she loves. The similarities to countryman, double amputee runner Oscar Pistorius, are obvious. But unlike Pistorius she can call herself an Olympian in every sense of the word. "I can take my leg off and I'm completely free in the water," she said. "That's who I am."
WE LOVED
Roger that
Roger Federer failed at the French Open, lost his Wimbledon title and surrendered his world No. 1 ranking during these Games. But the Swiss maestro had the media at his feet (literally) when over-enthused journalists packed themselves into a room to have a word with the tennis great.
Twin set and gold
Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell joined the ranks of Kiwi sporting immortals when they defied a form slump to win their second gold medal in the women's double sculls. The best victories are often the unexpected ones but in the twins' case the surprise gold was compounded by the margin and by the fact they are just so damn nice, straight up and lovely.
The women
Men are bad, we accept that. But the Olympics are a blessing ... Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and her body extraordinaire, gorgeous Italian swimmer Frederica Pellegrini, Hungarian boardsailor Diana Detre, gymnast Alicia Sacramone ... the list goes on.
The Redeem Team
The fact Kobe Bryant stopped in the street and gave an interview to James McOnie from The Crowd Goes Wild says everything about the way the American basketball team have turned around their image. Gone is the arrogance and the sense of entitlement (failing to win the most recent Olympic and world titles saw to that). In losing the attitude they gained respect but yet they still delivered a form of basketball that could be called art.
Nick Willis
Who could have thought a bronze medal would mean so much. Nick Willis took us on a journey through our heritage and allowed New Zealand to revel in memories of Jack Lovelock, Peter Snell and John Walker. It was a joy to watch the black singlet back where it belongs.
DISASTERS
Queen bea
Beatrice Faumuina managed not one gaffe but two. After finishing 28th in the discus she delivered a haughty and aggressive attack on the media whom she accused of insulting her and her family by previously writing her off. She then demanded the New ZealandOlympic Committee cough up for an early flight home as she wanted to quit the village and the team environment earlier than planned. She showed judgement as poor as some of her throws.
Shooting yourself in the foot
American shooter Matt Emmons became a celebrity in China for again missing out on a shooting medal. In Athens, the American shot at the wrong target when duelling for gold and this time he needed only an average shot to claim gold but a shocking final attempt saw him slip out of medals altogether as the home nation triumphed.
Big Liu-ser
Liu Xiang was everywhere in China. Liu is revered because he won Athens gold in a power-and-speed event. His success was supposed to be the official sign-off on a successful Games. But the tendon strain which rubbed him out before the first round allowed Cuban Dayron Robles a runaway success. With it came a second insult as Robles is the highest-profile signatory to an Amnesty International letter condemning China's human rights record
Gay old time (not)
The under-performing United States track and field team suffered their final humiliation when both their 4x100m sprint relay squads exited the Olympics after blunders on the final changeovers. For world champion Tyson Gay it was the ultimate insult as he left Beijing without even contesting a final. Gay dropped the baton in the men's race. "I take full blame for it," Gay said. "I kind of feel I let them down."
Empty-handed
If South Africa had a checklist for these Games they must have forgotten to write: "Bring the best athletes". For a country that built a fortune on gold mining the best it could do at these games was a solitary silver medal. Can't say we're too upset.
HEARTBREAK
New Lolo
Four years of training. Hardly a hit hurdle in all that time. Never further back than second in any race in 2008. Lolo Jones: World indoor champion.,Olympic favourite in the women's 100m hurdles. Leading easily. The gold is in the bag. To the beautiful victor the spoils. Endorsements, fame. With a face like that, the world was at her feet. And suddenly it was not the world, but a hurdle at her feet. Hitting the second to last obstacle. Coming second-last. Her pain was palpable.
Mahe's collapse
It hardly seemed believable. Two days after being on a drip to replace fluids lost through illness, Mahe Drysdale had cruised to the lead in the men's single sculls rowing final. In the dreaded lane one, he was bearing down on the finish line, inside the final 200m of a 2000m slog. It had fairytale written all over it. And then he hit the wall. He crawled over the line in third, a bronze medal gained but a dream shattered.
Wrestling with demons
Daniel Cormier is a 29-year-old wrestler from Louisiana and when he was seven, his father was shot and killed during an argument with his father-in-law. At school, he lost both a close friend and then a cousin in separate car crashes and at Oklahoma State college, his best friend was one of 10 in the basketball team who died when a plane went down. Five years ago an 18-wheeler truck slammed into the back of a car killing his three-year-old daughter, Kaedyn. These Games were about redemption and a way out of depression but the world No. 3 never even got to compete after failing to make the weight for his 96kg class.
Tipping point
Serbia's Milorad Cavic could have gone down in history. Instead he went down by a fingernail. In the 100m butterfly he had Michael Phelps beaten for 99.99m of the race. But somehow Phelps touched first to claim his seventh gold medal of the Games. The replay to this day suggests Cavic won the event and the Serbs thought so too, protesting the result. But the Neptune of the pool wouldn't and couldn't be denied, leaving Cavic to be remembered as the nearly-man.
Spanish Inquisition
The Black Sticks men's hockey team were holding top dogs Spain to a 0-0 draw in an early group match at the hockey. A draw would be a huge boost to the campaign and would have set the team on the road to a possible semifinal. But as the clock ticked down to single digits, the Spanish found a way through the previously impregnable Kiwi defence to score the winner with 5sec left. From there, the juice was sucked out of the Sticks' and they tumbled out of medal contention.
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