Crouching at a starting line in a modern running outfit and trainers, Li Quanquan would look just like an Olympic athlete if not for the peasant-style bamboo carrying stick over her shoulders.

With baskets full of fake rice seedlings dangling from either side of the pole, she sprints down a track, then halts to “plant” each one in a simulated paddy field in one of the more bizarre races ever held in a large stadium.

More : http://www.desihotmasala.com/2008/09/impossible-in-nothing-amazing-adidas.html

After returning home to Boise, Idaho, I exported the GPS data to several different formats, one of which I was able to launch with Google Earth. I was then able to trace the entire course from the comfort of my home half a world away and find a similar route to train on back in Boise. This capability along with having the elevation profile proved invaluable in my preparation for my Gold Medal race. It was also very nice to be able to show family members and friends the course from the excellent satellite views presented by Google Earth.

Please watch this video irrevelant of you watching the olympics or not, the first 60 Mins are the highlights of the entire olympics. Closing ceremony follows. The kind of video that will make your hair stand up on ends…Do not miss, only available till 31st this months

Sue Barker presents live coverage of the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with Huw Edwards, Hazel Irvine and Carrie Gracie.

The Chinese are expected to stage another fantastic spectacle full of glitz, and spendour with a festival of fireworks. However, it will have an extra significance to Britain as the Olympic flag is formally handed over to the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, by the Mayor of Beijing, and the nation gets an opportunity to look forward to the 2012 Games in London with an eight-minute segment showcasing the best of London’s culture to a global audience of billions.

The Closing Ceremony is preceded at around 12.10pm by a review of the sporting moments and stories that have made a significant impact on the Beijing Games, along with an assessment of its impact and success.

Broadcast on: BBC One, 12:00pm Sunday 24th August
Duration: 210 minutes
Available until: 3:14pm Sunday 31st August

With all NBC ads about “giant feet” and the highly publicized facts about his physical features, some of my colleagues pointed out that Mr. Phelps has quite a few features of Marfan syndrome.

His height is 6’4” and his arm span of 6’7” is greater than his height. According to Cleveland Leader, “that is a ratio of 1.04, which is just shy of the clinical cutoff of 1.05. He is also said to have hypermobile joints in his knees, shoulders and ankles.” Mr. Phepls also has large hands and feet. Marfan syndrome is an inherited connective-tissue disorder which presents with tall stature, ectopia lentis, mitral valve prolapse, aortic root dilatation, and aortic dissection

South Africa’s disabled swimmer Natalie du Toit, may not have finished in the top three in this morning’s 10km open water swim at the Beijing Olympic Games, but the mere fact that she participated was worth a medal.

China’s haul of 51 gold medals was the largest since the Soviet Union won 55 in Seoul in 1988. Fielding athletes groomed since childhood in sports academies, it won medals in 25 different sports, including its first ever in sailing, beach volleyball and field hockey.

Not since 1936, when Nazi Germany prevailed at the Berlin Olympics, had a country other than the US or the Soviet Union/Russia led the gold medal list.

The United States trailed well behind the Chinese in golds with 36, the first time since 1992 it didn’t lead the category. But the Americans did break their own mark for total medals in a non-boycotted Olympics; they won 110 in all, two more than their previous high set in 1992 and 10 ahead of China’s overall tally this year.

He Kexin, who won team gold in artistic gymnastics and an individual title on the asymmetric bars, was registered as being born on January 1, 1992.

There have been persistent media allegations that He had competed in earlier tournaments under a later birthdate, and on Thursday an American computer expert said he had uncovered Chinese state documents that proved she was 14 and not 16.

The caption on a photograph published by Chinese state news agency Xinhua last year referred to “13-year-old He Kexin”.

The quote was taken from a business book, but, in sports, it’s the same. And, off his performance this week in Beijing, winning eight gold medals in eight events, the reality is that Phelps, with 14 golds in his Olympic career, is now alone in the history books — he has won more gold medals than anyone else in Olympic history and more gold medals than anyone else in any single Games.

Four others had been tied with nine golds, including swimmer Mark Spitz, winner of seven at Munich in 1972.

“I’m almost speechless,” said Peter Ueberroth, the chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee. “He’s beginning to set a whole new standard for his sport and for America.

“The United States Olympic Committee is very proud of him, as is USA Swimming and basically every citizen in our country and in many other countries. He’s a true athlete and represents what’s best about the Olympic movement.”

Eight medals.

And, overall, now 16 in his Olympic career, just two shy of the 18 won by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina – a milestone sure to animate Phelps as he turns and sets his sights on four years from now, in London in 2012.

Only performance is reality, and the reality is that Phelps’ performances here in Beijing and over the course of his career deserve to be more fully appreciated by the wider public in the way that Tiger Woods’ majors are savored.

Dragulescu said before leaving for Beijing that he was determined to win gold for his three-years-old daughter, Beatrice, who could not hear or speak.

He badly needed the bonus promised by Romanian authorities to gold medalists; he had to pay for his daughter’s surgery in Austria.

Sushil, who bagged the bronze in the 66 kg category, has been accorded with the ‘Flying for Life’ recognition after winning the bronze medal at the Olympics, a company release said on Thursday.

SpiceJet Ltd chief commercial officer Samyukth Sridharan said: “We are delighted that Indians are making their mark in various disciplines in the ongoing Olympics.”

Sushil Kumar’s feat is also remarkable as he is the second Indian wrestler to win a medal after Kashabha Jadhav, who won it in the 1952 Helsinki Games.

“Sportsmen like Sushil Kumar and Abhinav Bindra (Olympics gold medal winner for air rifle shooting) have paved the path for more success to follow,” he added.

IOC communications director Giselle Davies said that out of 4,133 tests conducted during the Games only four positive doping cases have been revealed.

The only podium finisher caught doping in Beijing to date has been North Korea’s Kim Jong-Su, a minor medallist in two shooting events.

Before the Games began, IOC president Jacques Rogge said that he expected 30 to 40 positive tests based on what he said was “an extrapolation from Athens in 2004 where there were 26 from 3,500 tests and here there will be 4,500 tests”.

However, unless a glut of positive cases are made public in the final five days of competition, it seems the final figure will fall well short of the estimate made by Rogge.

they were on equal points after second round 7-7

but in third round georgey took an advantage of 14-8 though jietndar tried to come back in last round but it was too late

:(

He is now the father of India’s first gold medallist in the Olympics in the individual category, Abhinav Bindra. But more than that, he’s seen as the man who made Abhinav what he is today – Arjuna’s Krishna, as it were.

After completing his doctorate in veterinary science from Denmark, in 1968, Apjit started trading in dairy equipment and live cattle with agencies around the world.

This is now the greatest olympics result for india

with three medals at least secured

partyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Abrahamian took the bronze from around his neck during the medal ceremony, stepped from the podium and dropped it in the middle of the wrestling mat then walked off.

“I don’t care about this medal. I wanted gold,” he said.

A bitter Abrahamian, silver medalist at Athens 2004 who had high hopes of top honors in the 84kg competition in Beijing, announced he was quitting the sport.

“This will be my last match. I wanted to take gold, so I consider this Olympics a failure,” he said.

The Swedish wrestler had to be restrained by teammates earlier when a row erupted with judges over the decision in a semifinal bout at the Chinese Agricultural University Gym with Andrea Minguzzi of Italy, who went on the take gold.

Resuming at 4-1 after rain stopped play on Thursday, Federer and Wawrinka continued the momentum, winning the match 6-2, 6-4 in just 82 minutes.

The Swiss pairing next faces the top seeded American duo of Bob and Mike Bryan in the semi-finals.

After completing a dive, competitors swim to a ladder, climb out of the pool and head immediately to a bank of showers that sit adjacent to the diving boards. Then, in full view of the crowd and NBC cameras, they shower off. Divers keep their suits on, of course, usually appearing only to rinse off their hair and arms. Oftentimes, the divers will receive their scores while still showering off. What’s the purpose of this?

Theories have ranged from ‘to get the chlorine off’ to ‘they want to have fun’ — seriously, that last one is a direct quote from NBC’s diving analyst, Cynthia Potter. Neither are the reason.

IIT Kanpur alum and George Washington University researcher Rajat Mittal has spent the past five years studying Phelps and his dolphin kick – also known as the ‘Berkoff Blastoff’ after the Harvard backstroker who used it the first time at the Olympics 20 years ago.

It all began when Mittal, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, got involved in a US Navy project to study dolphins, thought to be the ultimate swimmers. ‘‘We were asked to understand how fish swim so efficiently,’‘ Mittal recalled in an interview Wednesday, ‘‘and it seemed like a natural extension to apply this to human swimming.’‘

He was even on points till 2nd round, but then he lost next two rounds 4-0, 4-1

another sad result for sorry india

more at http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/BX/C73/BXM054303.shtml#BXM054303

With the victory, Phelps overtook compatriot Mark Spitz, who won seven swimming gold medals at Munich in 1972.

Phelps had opened the swimming competition with a victory in the first event, the 400m individual medley, and went on to win the 200m medley, 100m and 200m butterfly, 200m freestyle and both the 4×100m and 4×200m freestyle relays.

Nadal, whose tennis domination will be confirmed when he becomes world number one for the first time on Monday, blew away the 2004 bronze-medallist 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 to claim his eighth title this year.

After a cautious start and making a 2-0 lead in the first round, Vijender went all out in the second round extending the lead to a healthy 6-1.

A hapless Thai, trying too hard, saw his punches going haywire in the face of nimble footwork by the Indian.

Angkhan could not score a single point in the third round while Vijender added another four making it 10-1 and the writing was clear on the wal

Bindra, India’s first individual gold medalist in Olympic history, arrived here in the wee hours on Thursday and since then he was relentlessly followed by the media and the fans all over the city.

So much so, the ace rifle shooter, who hit the bull’s eye in 10-metre air rifle competition in Beijing, did not get enough time to have his breakfast.

Later, Bindra admitted that he had not slept properly from the time he won the gold medal.

The tumultuous welcome that Bindra received at the airport at 1.30 am went on the expected lines. But what baffled the fans was his nonchalant approach towards everything that was happening around him.

If you watched the Opening Ceremony on Friday night, chances are you said something like, “no way that’s possible” at least once. It turns out you were right.

London’s Telegraph newspaper reports that some of the fireworks which appeared over Beijing during the television broadcast of the Olympic Opening Ceremony were actually computer generated. But — hold on — it’s not necessarily as bad as you think.

The faked fireworks were actually set-off at the stadium, but because of potential dangers in filming the display live from a helicopter, viewers at home were shown a pre-recorded, computer-generated shot. It sounds dishonest, but I’m not sure it’s such a terrible thing.

The Opening Ceremony is, at its core, just one big performance. And isn’t it accepted that some things might not be legit at a performance? The final torch bearer wasn’t actually running around the top of the stadium, does the fact that everyone could figure that out make it any less impressive? It might have been unnecessarily deceptive, but the firework-faking isn’t really that big of a deal. But, if I found out that the lighted-drum thing wasn’t on the up and up, then we’ll have problems, China.

More : http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Some-Opening-Ceremony-fireworks-were-faked?urn=oly,99745

He was trailing after the first two rounds but made up the points with a stunning assault on the world champion. By the time the final round came around; the players were locked on points and it ended at nine-points all.

The judges then went on to tabulate the total punches landed and to the shock of the Russian, the Indian boxer was declared victorious.

Bravo Akhil!!

It is festival time for thousands roaming across the vast acres of landscaped garden that houses two of the architectural marvels of the sporting world, the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube. The place is simply a feast for the eye. But most of the visitors are residents of Beijing.

Very few foreigners are seen in the area, which is populated by some stunning sculpture and symbols of the Olympic movement. This is partly because the 2008 Games have so far drawn much less foreign spectators than what was expected.

Most of those who have managed to enter are those with special contacts in sponsoring companies and institutions connected to Beijing Olympic Organisation Committee. A significant portion of the crowd comprises volunteers.

Dozens of global companies including the 12 top sponsors of the 2008 Games have spent millions of dollars to put up massive exhibition structures with additional facilities for entertainment and cultural events to draw in crowds. Executives of these companies are fretting over the little value they have been able to derive for the expenses.

2. Mark Spitz (Munich 1972): Seven events, seven gold medals, seven world records, one brilliant moustache. Nuff said.

3. Jesse Owens (Berlin 1936): Four gold medals in any Olympics is an outstanding achievement, but to do it in Berlin at the height of Hitler’s Aryan supremacy propaganda show provided a beautiful irony to underscore a superhuman effort.

4. Bob Beamon (Mexico 1968): Beamon’s remarkable long jump in the rarefied atmosphere of Mexico’s Olympic stadium moved the world record a remarkable 55cm and made Beamon the first man to jump both 28 and 29 feet. His record stood for 23 years and has only been bettered once in the intervening 40 years.

This article has been written by Craig Hackney by at http://www.sportingo.com

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) — Michael Phelps tied the career gold- medal record of nine when he won the 200-meter freestyle swimming race at the Olympics today.

The 23-year-old American earned his third gold of the Beijing Games in 1 minutes, 42.96 seconds, breaking his own world record of 1:43.86. at the Water Cube pool. He finished more than a body length ahead of Park Tae Hwan of South Korea. Peter Vanderkaay of the U.S. took the bronze.

Well, kind of. He mentioned it. He said he used it to help him have a look around the swimming venue. Here’s exactly what he said. We suspect something may have been lost or added in translation.

In the 51kg category, Jitender Kumar pounded Ulas Memis until the 17-year-old pugilist from Turkey retired while trailing 1-21.

Later in the evening, Akhil tamed Ali Hallab of France 12-5 in the 54 kg category to reach the second round.

Jitender now meets Tulashboy Doniyorov of Uzbekistan while Akhil takes on 2007 world champion Sergey Vodopyanov in the pre-quarters.

Akhil was in control right from the beginning and led 4-2 after the first round. A lop-sided second round saw him stretching the lead beyond Hallab and the Indian did not break sweat in the last two rounds as he ambled to an easy win.

Baranyai was trying to snatch 148kg in his third lift in the men’s 77kg division, when his elbow popped out of its socket.

No longer able to support the weight of the barbell, his right forearm bent backward. The 24-year-old Hungarian fell to the floor in shock, shaking and crying out in pain.

Hungary’s coaching staff and competition officials rushed to Baranyai’s aid as he lay trembling on the floor, his arm limp and twisted out of position.

BEIJING: Pakistan began their Olympic hockey campaign with a disappointing performance against England when they were beaten by an embarrassing score of four goals to two in the first match of the pool B in the Beijing Olympics 2008 here on Monday.

England’s Tendil scored first goal in the first minute of the match followed by another goal in the 13th minute to extend the lead by 2-0.
Pakistan wasted several chances of scoring goals while England’s Jackson hit third goal in the 28th minute to take the lead 3-0 lead by the end of first half. 

However, Pakistan’s Shakeel Abassi scored a goal followed by another goal by Waqas, which reduced the England lead.

Later, England scored one more goal in the 28th minute of second half and maintained the lead in rest of the match to secure a convincing 4-2 win.

Abhinav Bindra, 25, became the first-ever Indian to take home an individual Olympic gold medal, beating top Chinese and Finnish competitors Monday in a nail-biting finish during the 10-meter air rifle shooting competition. Bindra, a bespectacled M.B.A. from the north Indian city of Chandigarh, had shown promise as a teenage shooter but failed to win a medal in Athens, and hopes were not high before he competed in Beijing.

Instead, the gymnast did America proud in Beijing [Images].

The 28-year-old Houston lad, born to Gujarati parents Bob and Sue Bhavsar, was part of the six-member American men’s team which won the bronze medal in artistic gymnastics in the Beijing Olympics [Images] on Tuesday.

Raj, a member of 2001 and 2003 World Champion US team, thus became the second Indo-American gymnast, after Mohini Bhardwaj, to win an Olympic medal.

Mohini was part of the American women’s team which won a silver in Athens in 2004.

They have all been telling me what a huge achievement winning Gold is. I realise that but frankly the enormity of the goodwill generated has caught me by surprise. Honestly enough it really has not changed me, I am still the same Abhinav who just a day ago was hanging around alone in my room in the Olympic village. Frankly, all the attention is a bit overwhelming. I am not much good at making loud public pronouncements. That in no way means that this is not the most intense experience of my life.

For more than a decade now my life has been all about my sport. In fact, I do not have a life beyond the confines of the 10m range. I have had a range built in my own home to cut down any possibility of distraction and to be able to practise my sport whenever the fancy strikes me. It all did pay off, didn’t it?