With the Olympics in Athens now officially over, sports talk radio is asking what people will remember of this installment of the summer Olympics.Well, since I only watched about five whole minutes of the Olympics I wonít remember much. There is the whole Paul Hamm gold medal dispute and the USA basketball team choking, but other than that what is there to remember?
On the issue of Paul Hamm my thoughts are simple. If the IOC didnít take the gold medal away from the Russians in the 2002 Salt Lake winter games, then why should Hamm even have to consider relinquishing his gold medal. Like in Salt Lake, the Hamm incident was a judging snafu.
The Canadians got a second gold medal and Yang Tae Young of South Korea should get a second gold medal too.
The U.S. basketball team was a joke. These guys say they are the best in the world, but they canít beat teams like Italy in an exhibition game and Puerto Rico during the games. Prior to the Athens Olympics, the U.S. basketball team had only lost two gold medals, one of those under controversy at the 1972 Munich games. A disputed call gave the Russians the gold medal.
To this day the U.S. silver medals still sit in Munich waiting to be accepted by the U.S. players.
This yearís U.S. basketball team was an embarrassment to the game and our country. Instead of playing as a team they treated it like an all-star game trying to showcase their individual talents. From what I saw in the highlights and from those who did watch the games, the U.S. got beat by the fundamentals. Passing, shooting and dribbling. Apparently the NBA players found out what traveling really is.
The other thing I will remember from the Athens Olympics will be all the security concerns and the worries if the different venues would be completed before the games started. The concerns over security is part of the reason the U.S. basketball team was unable to send some of its best players.
The interesting thing about all the hype about the security concerns and the construction of venues amused me. As one of the NBC commentators pointed out, every city that has hosted the Olympic games has faced the same security concerns and questions of whether certain venues would be completed.
If we think back to the Atlanta games of 1996 weíll remember there were concerns over construction. I remember hearing about one of the rapids that was used for kayaking and how it was feared that it may not be completed. When the athletes marched in for the opening ceremonies in Athens every venue was complete, just as they were in Athens.
Then there were the concerns about security in Athens, especially since TWA flight 800 had blown up just before the opening ceremonies. Then as we all remember, there was the bombing in the park.
If you ask me these Athens games werenít too bad. Sure the U.S. didnít win gold in basketball and we didnít even qualify in baseball, but the gymnastics teams won a few medals they havenít won in a while and the U.S. athletes left with 108 medals total. There wonít be too many distinct memories from the Athens games, but at least there werenít any mishaps or boycotts.
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