After 12 days of Olympic competition, there are 22 countries which have earned but one medal. Of those 22, only 5 have garnered the elusive gold as their lone medal. So, of course, we'll highlight them and ignore the loser silver and bronze solo medalists. That's the breaks. I imagine for the five below, if the Olympics ended today, they'd be national heroes? (or at least I think they would...I must admit I'm not entirely familiar with the reception a Women's Triple Jump gold medalist might get in Cameroon**)Bahrain - Rashid Ramzi
Track and Field/Men's 1500m
All Mr. Ramzi did was win Bahrain its first Olympic medal...ever. They've been entering Olympics since 1984 and coming home each year with nothing but Rod Roddy's parting gifts to show for it. And you know Morocco's gotta be pissed...Ramzi is Moroccan born. He and Bahrain have one GOLD medal. Morocco? One little bronze. Point Bahrain.
Cameroon - Francoise Mbango Etone
Track and Field/Women's Triple Jump
Francoise Mbango Etone of Cameroon has been here before. In 2004 in Athens she won Cameroon's first gold medal (again, ever) in this very same event. In fact, this time around she set an Olympic Record to boot: 15.39 meters (seems pretty damn far to me).
**Well, based on this, I'd say she does indeed get a heroes welcome:
“Yesterday was Cameroon’s day of glory at the Beijing Olympic Games,” wrote the Cameroon Tribune. “The green-red-yellow flag was paraded around the capacity full Beijing Olympic stadium by the nation’s golden girl.”
Panama - Irving Jahir Saladino Aranda
Track and Field/Men's Long Jump
Irving just won Panama their first gold medal...ever. Seems to be a recurring theme. Maybe he and Rashid should hang out, play Risk or something. Total number of medals Panama has in the history of the modern Olympics? Three.
Thailand - Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon
Weightlifting/Women's 53kg
Come on, honestly, take a look at that name again? That has to be the best name in the 2008 Olympic Games, bar none. I mean, seriously? That is awesome. It's no secret that certain members of this editorial staff really like their female weightlifters, so they'll be happy to know Prap Jar (for short) set an Olympics record with her 126kg lift in the second clean & jerk. She finished with a 221kg total after topping out at 95kg in the snatch. Typing those things make me laugh.
Tunisia - Oussama Mellouli
Swimming/Men's 1500m Freestyle
Oh good, the redemption story of our group, someone get Mary Carillo out of her pod. Mellouli won the 1500m free on Sunday to claim Tunisia's first gold medal since the '68 Mexico City games. The kicker - he won this gold after returning from a doping ban. It's the Olympics, second chances for all. Oussama got banned for 18 months for popping greenies, but that's all behind him now. Tunisia has gold again.
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11 comments:
a kid from uzbekistan won his nation's first-ever medal in the parallel bars last night, too. but it was bronze, so it's really sorta lame.
Yep, we don't take kindly to those solo bronze and silver medalists round these parts.
Shouldn't we just annex all the "-stan" countries into one swarthy powerhouse anyway?
Team USA 116
Australia 85
Who's next...Lithuania? Argentina?
well, thanks to fucking cnn.com and their banner headline, i now know what happened in the men's 200m final. cocksuckers.
It sure was nice of Australia to talk a little trash and ensure that our guys didn't overlook today's game.
You know what else is nice? This storm has decided to stop moving directly above my town causing yet another day off for everybody that consists of nothing more than high winds and non-stop rain. In all my years, I've never seen anything quite like this.
Rhyming USA with make them pay.
A team is going to have to go something like 20-25 from 3 pt range to have a chance.
Staying off the mainstream interwebs today to avoid results. Only soccer blogs.
Does anyone else think that Phelps resembles Gheorghe? I don't know if he embodies the Gheorghe spirit, but he sure looks like Gitza to me...
Okay...maybe I shouldn't have mocked this storm. We've gotten over 2 feet of rain and there's no end in sight. Most streets are flooded (including mine), sewer's are backing up (including my parents) and my pool is about to overflow. So, I'm on my way outside to drain the pool in the longest running rainstorm I've ever been a part of...
I'm sure it still beats a day of... whatever the hell it is you do for work.
Well...I do editing/publishing/graphic design work from home so its not that big of a deal for me. But, yes, it does beat a normal tuesday or wednesday since I got drunk and watched the Olympics yesterday and am about to go play wii and elect a pope or two in a few minutes.
This is quite ridiculous though...my street is at least two feet under water right now.
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