BBC Top 50 Olympic Moments

[david]

So some a bunch of fucking Oxbridge ponses who rows fucking boats is more important than Jesse Owens defeating Hitler? The 'British' public should be ashamed of themselves. Rowing isn't even a proper sport. Steve Redgrave my arse!

[Enormous George]

> So some a bunch of fucking Oxbridge ponses who rows fucking boats is more
> important than Jesse Owens defeating Hitler? The 'British' public should
> be ashamed of themselves. Rowing isn't even a proper sport. Steve Redgrave
> my arse!

I wholeheartedly agree.

[Republican Party Reptile]

1. U.S. Hockey Team's "miracle on ice" victory against the Soviet Evil Empire.
2. Jesse Owens winning 4 golds in front of Hitler's stupid face.
3. Iraq sends Olympic team to the 2004 games, free from Uday Hussein's torture.

All three symbolize triumph over evil totalitarianisms - nazis, commies, and the Baath regime.

God Bless America!

From the Herald Sun:

Uday's torture tools revealed
Ben English
26jul04

AS Iraqis danced in the streets to celebrate their biggest sporting triumph in years, officials yesterday revealed the chilling fate that once awaited the country's failed athletes.

Medieval-style devices used during Saddam Hussein's reign by his eldest son Uday to torture Iraqi sportsmen were unveiled by Olympic officials.
The devices include a suffocating steel mask that Uday, the one-time chief of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, forced underachieving athletes to wear.

There were chain whips with steel barbs the size of cricket balls attached at the end and a full-body "iron maiden" case with internal spikes that would have stabbed the victim when the two halves were shut.

The exhibition at the Al-Shaab stadium in Baghdad comes as Iraq won Olympic soccer qualification after victory over Saudi Arabia.

A 31-strong Iraqi Olympic team will now compete at the Athens Games in three weeks.

Officials revealed Uday did not accept defeat graciously.

Athletes coming second best were often punished physically, suffered sleep deprivation or forced to walk barefoot over hot asphalt during Iraq's scorching summer.

"During the old regime, Uday was looking for results and he wanted winners," said Talib Mutan, an Iraqi Olympic committee official.

"If the athletes didn't come in first, they were punished. And he would punish the people around the athletes, their managers and coaches."

Uday was killed by US forces last July along with younger brother Qusay.




Uday's torture tools revealed

[Enormous George]

> 1. U.S. Hockey Team's "miracle on ice" victory against the
> Soviet Evil Empire.
> 2. Jesse Owens winning 4 golds in front of Hitler's stupid face.
> 3. Iraq sends Olympic team to the 2004 games, free from Uday Hussein's
> torture.

...not the Soviets' thrilling, last-gasp victory in the Basketball final of 1972, then?

As BBC's Sporting Century remembers:

"USSR beat USA in basketball final, 1972
The Americans were clear favourites in this hugely controversial basketball final - they were unbeaten in Olympic competition having won seven golds in an unbeaten 63-match run. With time running out, the USA had a one point advantage and looked the winners. But the referees added three seconds. The ball was handed to the USSR who scored with a long pass and lay-up, snatching victory by 51 points to 50. The vanquished US rejected the result and refused to accept their silver medals."

And how we all laughed...

[Republican Party Reptile]

> ...not the Soviets' thrilling, last-gasp victory in the Basketball final
> of 1972, then?

> As BBC's Sporting Century remembers:

> "USSR beat USA in basketball final, 1972
> The Americans were clear favourites in this hugely controversial
> basketball final - they were unbeaten in Olympic competition having won
> seven golds in an unbeaten 63-match run. With time running out, the USA
> had a one point advantage and looked the winners. But the referees added
> three seconds. The ball was handed to the USSR who scored with a long pass
> and lay-up, snatching victory by 51 points to 50. The vanquished US
> rejected the result and refused to accept their silver medals."

> And how we all laughed...

Yeah, a squad of American kids who had played 12 exhibition games together went against a quasi-professional and very experienced Soviet team. And America really won that game, despite this. America rightfully refused to accept the silver medals, as it was Soviet Bloc judges who let that bullshit stand.

All it shows is how commies cheat.

But baack to greatest moments of the Olympics, I feel bad that I forgot to mention that Afghanistan is being represented in the 2004 games, and by women!

Here:

http://sport.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=909432004

Less that three years after the fall of the Taliban, which banned women from sport and girls from school, for the first time ever Afghanistan will have female representatives competing. Win or lose, teenagers Robina Muqimyar and Fraiba Rezzay will enter the history books.

"My fastest time is 15 seconds," said Muqimyar, a 100 metres sprinter up against women looking to better 11 seconds, "but I’m not worried about that."

[Enormous George]

Another fine example of how US athletes (and audiences) endear themselves to the rest of the world...

WOMEN'S 3000m FINAL. LA, 1984: (courtesy of OSM magazine)

Mary Decker, the darling of American athletics in the Eighties, was considered a shoo-in to win the 3,000m at the 1984 LA Olympics. No one could argue she didn't deserve it after missing the '76 Games (injury) and the '80 Games (US boycott). Halfway through the final, she was in the leading pack, close on the barefooted heels of Zola Budd.

Budd had quite a story herself: in the summer of 1984, egged on by her father and contracted by the Daily Mail, the 17-year-old South African was granted an instant British passport and fast-tracked into their Olympic team.

The rest is infamy. At the 1,700m mark, Budd and Decker clashed. The pair faltered but kept their balance. A few strides later, they clashed again. Decker caught Budd's right heel with her spikes and fell (see above). Her race was over. She pitched forward, twisted and ended up on the infield grass, in tears*. Budd continued, to a chorus of boos. She finished seventh. She was disqualified, then reinstated, but the damage was done: Budd was the villain.

She returned to South Africa in 1988, never able to shake the Decker controversy or the political protests. She still lives there and still runs, now in trainers. 'I'll never stop running,' she told OSM. 'But it's not my whole life these days.'

She married Mike Pieterse in 1989. (They have three children: Lisa, five, and twins Michael and Azelle, three.) She has not forgotten LA: 'It was like your worst nightmare coming true. [Decker] says she's forgiven me, but she still blames me. I went to apologise after the race but she said "Don't bother!"'

* - and how we laughed...

[Republican Party Reptile]

> * - and how we laughed...

I have to agree, that one was funny as hell.

[david]

what a bitch!