Category — Countries

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

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

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

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

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.

New Zealand related stories:
Olympics Fashion: New Zealand Unveils Uniform
Quote of the Day: New Zealand’s Tash Hind
Selection Controversy: Liza Hunter-Galvan to Sue Athletics NZ

Photo source: Chinadaily