The official Athens 2004 olympic games thread

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True, the reaction of the audience wasnt pretty... but understandable. The greek champion wasnt part of the contest, yet the american athlets who have a reputation for using drugs were present. From what I gathered thats what caused the outrage.
Apparently the greek people werent willing to give the benefit of doubt.

Oh and *cheers for the golden hockey ladies*

 

Yep, Germany are doing well! That was a great win in the hockey. 35 medals and counting for the Germans.

 

This is not exactly true. Sweden, Australia and USA have threatened IOC that they would withdraw their teams from the games if Kenteris and Thanou were not banned.

Now, I'm not trying to justify something but you haven't understand that the crowd hasn't booed the competing athletes but the IOC and the whole system behind it. What has happened was a result of some things that have happened here since the beginning of the games and not only of the Kenteris/Thanou case. Some of them are proven facts and some of them are rumours but all are on the headline news here and they have had a big influence to the mentality of the crowd, who has been in the studium tonight. I don't know if you are aware of these things so I will write them down.

1. One day before the Kenteris/Thanou scandal, Maurice Green went to Crete in order to avoid the IOC doctors who were looking for him in the Olympic Village. This was covered up by the IOC and the majority of the media.

2. Three days later two doctors of IOC or WADA (I don't remember well which one)went to Crete in order to do drug test to athletes of the american team. They showed their identifications to the leaders of the american team and they called the police to arrest them because they suspected that the doctors were terrorists. When the doctors were released from the police and returned to the hotel of the american team, some of the athletes had already left. This was also covered up.

3. Some journalists, who are considered reliable, are claiming that there is a secret agreement between IOC and NBA that NBAers will not be tested for drugs. They are claiming that this happened after the 1992 Olympics when Isiah Thomas failed to pass the drug test and that was covered up by saying that he was injured.

4. The Sampanis case. I don't doubt the he was doped but I am absolutely certain that he wasn't doped with tetosterone. He is very experienced to do something like this one day before the competition, his coach is a master of doping and there isn't a chance that he would do a mistake like this and afterall tetostorone doesn't help the weightlifter if he takes it few days before the game. So, IMO this case is very suspicious.

5. What happened in boxing with Pavlidis, in gymnastics with Maras, in windsurfing with Kaklamanakis.

Now, combine all these with the Kenteris/Thanou scandal and you'll understand why the booing happened tonight.

 

I've been having a look at the medal table and trying to work out which countries are doing well on a per capita basis. I thought New Zealand was doing well with 3 gold medals / 4 million people = 0.75 golds per million people. But I have found that that is not quite the best at these games. Here is my incomplete unofficial per capita medal table:

Country . . Golds - Pop (m) - Medals per mil.
Bahamas . . . 1 - 0.4 - 2.5
Australia . . 16 - 20 - 0.8
NZ . . . . . 3 - 4 - 0.75
Greece . . . 6 - 12 - 0.5
Romania . . . 8 - 21 - 0.38
Netherlands . 4 - 16 - 0.25
Britain . . . 7 - 60 - 0.12
Japan . . . 15 - 126 - 0.12
Belgium . . . 1 - 10 - 0.1
Russia . . . 15 - 150 - 0.1
USA . . . . 28 - 300 - 0.09
Canada . . . 2 - 31 - 0.06
China . . . 25 - 1300 - 0.02

Damned Australians win at everything! {EDIT: OK - just found the Bahamas have better stats than the Aussies}

Apologies if any of my population stats are out of date or inaccurate.

[ August 27, 2004, 04:10: Message edited by: Harbourboy ]

 

I loved watching the U.S. womens beach volleyball go all the way to gold. Somehow watching two athletic, attractive women smack either other on the bottom is much better than watching two offensive lineman do the same during a football game!
But in all respect they were excellent players and very fun to watch

@Harbourboy- Waaaaaay too much time on your hands, my friend.

 

@ Harbourboy

You may be right. Put Greg Henderson in that list as well - *just* missed the cut in the points race. Our cyclists rule.

 

Cyclists?? Ryan Bayley and Anna Meares rule the velodrome.

 

Yes, Tassadar, Aldazar is probably right, we really only had one cyclist who really ruled, and that was Sarah Ulmer (beating the world record 3 times in one year, being world champion, and gold medallist counts as seriously ruling). But Australia did win 6 cycling golds to our 1 so they win that one.

 

Also, I could have sworn that Bayley was trailing Bos when they entered the final short straight to the line....

 

I will admit BOC, I wasnt aware of those other things happening.

 

That was great battle with a bad outcome for us dutchies but Bos is still only 21 so I see a bright future for him.

BTW the only thing the IOC should do is mandatory DNA test. From then on there can't be any cheating with someone elses urine in the drug tests.

 

BOC, you said yourself that those things were rumours and as long as they are that I will treat them as rumours. The Americans have got a buttered path in the past, no doubt about it but I have a hard time imagining they are getting one now. If so then the entire last year of internal crack downs in the US was just a play and I do not think so. There are however little doubt in my mind that Green and Jones have been using stuff in the past and possibly now but I also know that Jones is under serious investigation in the US and it is very possible that Green will be pulled further into the Balco scandal as well.

Oh, and athletes can be very stupid, Sampanis isnt alone. We had one a few years ago who had taken the most basic form of steroids and got busted big time and Kenteris's and Thanou's entire motorcycle story wasnt exactly brilliant.


Harbourboy! Where is Sweden on your list? We have four golds now! Got a new one in canoe. Four golds, one silver and three bronze I think. Nine million people! Ummm, that is, oh crap, only less than half a gold per million. We suck.

 

@Joacqin

I've said that some of them are rumours (like the NBA/IOC agreement and some of them are proven facts (like the arrest of the doctors as terrorists and the Pavlidis case in boxing). As far as the americans are concerned, sorry but personally I can't accept that a human can run as fast as a cheetah without the use of drugs.

Sampanis' coach is a master of doping as I've already said. He has been the head coach of the greek weightlifting team for almost 15 years and during this period none of his athletes has failed to pass a drug test and in cases that there has been a slim possibility that someone would fail, he simply hasn't let him compete claiming that he was injured.

The "accident" of Kenteris was a desperate and failed attempt to gain time and cover up the whole thing. When I've heard about it, I couldn't stop laughing and it was something that many people here expected that would happened. I've heard journalists from two newspapers and one radio station claiming that they knew about the accident 3 hours before it happened. Although, I believe that they were set up. By this I don't mean that they are clean and they would pass the drug test, I mean that someone assured them that they were not going to be tested and that they could enter the olympic village (the only place where an athlete is under IOC juristiction) without fear.

 

You got to love this. Would be great material for a satire.

 

Ah, the 'Dream Team' didn't make the basketball finals! Well done to Argentina.

Another silver medal for New Zealand last night too. Yay!

 

Today is shaping up pretty well for Canada, one of each medal so far and unless our guy royally screws up we should be getting another in 10m platform diving. Not bad given that we had only 9 medals going into today.

Oh, and I sent the webmaster an e-mail about mistaking New Zealand for Lichtenstein and they have corrected their error.

 

@Harbourboy
Thank you! I was just about to post our victory to the "nightmare team" and of course, our first gold medal in futbol (soccer) in centuries!
so this is de medal account for us (to your unofficial per capita medal table)
67: Argentina 1 gold, 0 silver, 3 bronze
We are almost 40.000.000 people, a country bigger than almost all european countries, but with a lack of sports support.
Edit: with that gold we are at 46th, and we can win silver or gold in basketball!

 

Carlos Tevez! What a player! I bet there will be quite a few clubs pulling at him now.

 

@joacqin

He is been watched and already some clubs has asked for him but the owner of the club where he plays (Boca Jr) wants too much money; he was about to be transfered last year but the club asked so much money that he had to stay here another year.

 

I think they will be willing to pay anything now.