Vancouver 2010| London 2012| Olympic Athletes | Hotties | Latest Olympic Updates |
August 14th, 2008 — Judo, Mongolia
Let us congratulate judoka Tuvshinbayar Naidan for winning the first ever gold medal for Mongolia. It is a historic achievement for Tuvshinbayar and for Mongolia which has won a total of 15 silver and bronze Olympic medals in the past.
With Naidan’s victory, it would be mission accomplished for the Mongolian Olympic team which targeted two medals when it arrived in Beijing. The other medalist is Otryad Gundegmaa who won a silver medal in shooting [women's 25m pistol].
August 14th, 2008 — Italy, Wrestling
This is apparently how Italian wrestler Andrea Minguzzi won his gold medal. Angry Olympian man and medal thrower, Ara Abrahamian, however believes that the medal belongs to him and not to this flag-waving Italian.
August 14th, 2008 — Scandals and Controversies, Wrestling
Is Swedish Ara Abrahamian a sore loser or did the judges rob him of a medal better than bronze? From reuters:
Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian threw down his Olympic bronze medal in protest on Thursday after his bid for greco-roman gold was ended by a decision denounced by the Swedish coach as “politics”.
August 14th, 2008 — North Korea, Weight Lifting
North Korean weightlifter Pak Hyon Suk proved to be the strongest in the women’s 63kg weightlifting competition and bagged the first gold medal for North Korea.
Photo credit: Paul Gilham via Beijing2008
August 14th, 2008 — Azerbaijan, Judo
Judo gold medalist Elnur Mammadli of Azerbaijan should be our ultimate Olympic idol. Why? Because he did everything we have been monitoring in this blog, you know, the grand old traditions of Olympic medal biting, Olympic flag waving, and Olympic arms raising. He is our three-in-one gold medalist. Go Elnur!
By the way, for those of you interested about how much money Olympians make, Elnur will be receiving AZN 100,000 and NOC–AZN 50,000 from the Azerbaijan National Olympic Committee as a reward for his gold medal victory. The amount should be about US$ 123,777 if my calculation is correct.
Photo source: beijing 2008
August 14th, 2008 — Canoeing, Slovakia
Slovakia’s Michal Martikan wins the gold medal for men’s slalom canoe single. This should make up for his disappointment in Athens where a penalty relegated him to second place. According to Reuters, Martikan, then only 17 years old, won his first [and Slovakia's first] Olympic gold during the 1996 Olympic Games.
Photo credit: Shaun Botterill via beijing2008
August 14th, 2008 — Cycling
Okay, this is another “better late than never” blog entry. Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland kisses his gold medal after he topped the men’s individual time trial in cycling. Let’s include Fabian in our list of medal kissers which, so far, contains shooting champ Satu Makela-Nummela of Finland. I’m hoping that Fabian’s countryman and Swiss flagbearer Roger Federer will join their ranks. Go Raja.
Photo credit: stu forster via beijing2oo8
August 14th, 2008 — Finland, Shooting
There’s the art of Olympic medal biting, then there’s the art of flag waving, now let’s look at the art of medal kissing as demonstrated to us by Finnish gold medalist Satu Makela-Nummela. Satu won the gold medal in women’s trap shooting last Monday [so this is a "better late than never" kind of post]. Satu’s gold is the first, and so far the only, gold for Finland in Beijing.
Photo source: mtv3.fi
August 14th, 2008 — Football, New Zealand
Embarrassed that female Olympians [Britta Heideman, Natalie Coughlin, Amanda Beard, etc] are outscoring the males in the very important Olympic art of posing naked, this group of New Zealand football players led by Sam Messam decided to equalize things by removing their shirts and performing the traditional Maori “haka” before a crowd of cheering thousands.
Now everything is all right with the world since the nakedness score between male and female Olympians is now even.
August 14th, 2008 — Georgia, Judo
Judoka Irakli Tsirekidze won the second medal for Georgia following his countryman, Manuchar Kvirkvelia’s triumph in wrestling. Irakli defeated Algerian Amar Benikhlef to bag the judo men’s 90-kg title.
