Just an Abstract Thought: The Olympiad

this is from chariot's of fire> had to post it in honor of the beijing olympics> they have been quite exciting this year - michael phelps is swimming his way soundly into the history books> he has become an american hero, really> you just can't help getting excited when you see him hit the water and slice through it like there's no tomorrow> everyone across the nation watches him and cheers for him> wonder what it feels like to be michael>

after some reading, i hear he is actually human> phelps was arrested in 2004 for dui>

but much more interesting than phelps' momentary bad behavior is the atrocious actions of many years past>

1956 > a water polo match between hungary and the soviet union dissolved into an all-out fistfight prompted by political hostilities between the two nations> the game was abandoned and the bloodied players were removed from the building>

1972 > pakistani field hockeyers stomped on their silver medals after being defeated by west germany> they were banned for life>>>

1972 > american basketball team gets mixed up in a scoring dispute during the basketball final against the soviet union and they refuse to accept their silver medals>

while we're on interesting trivia>

1900> a tug of war team made up of athletes from denmark and sweden wound up without enough men on their team and ended up with a nearby danish journalist as a last minute substitute> yes, they won gold> of course, there were only three teams entered>>>

1904 > felix carbajal of cuba stopped in the middle of his marathon to eat some green apples and sustained such a terrible stomachache he had to forfeit>

1904> american gymnast george eyser won gold in rope climbing, parallel bars and vault> why is this interesting? he had a wooden leg>

unidentified gymnast in 1940's

1908 > london built the first arena specifically for olympic games> it cost only 64 grand>

london games, 1908

1932> the officials monitering the 3,000m steeplechase lost count of the laps and everyone ended up running a 3,400m> oops>

United States of America field hockey team, 1932

1936 > boxer thomas hamilton-brown of south africa was mistakenly eliminated> he followed this elimination with a meal so large that he was unable to reenter and complete the competition when they discovered he was the true winner> the glutton never does win>>>

Norway's 1936 boxing team

1964 > giovanni pettenella and pierre trentin stood at a standstill for almost 22 minutes after the starting signal of the 1,000m cycling semifinal> giovanni ended up with the gold>