OLYMPICS TRIVIA

11 ISRAELI ATHLETES KILLED BY PALESTINIANS


Munich played host to the infamous 1972 Olympic Games at which Palestinian guerrillas kidnapped and murdered 11 members of the Israeli delegation.

The drama began on September 5, just six days before the end of the Games, when eight members of the "Black September" group killed two Israelis and took another nine hostage at the Olympic village.

The competition was suspended and negotiations began. German authorities persuaded Black September to move to a military airport, where a plane was to whisk them off to Cairo.

However, the German police tried to storm the gang at the airport, and a bloodbath ensued in which all the hostages, five of the terrorists, one policeman and a helicopter pilot were all killed.

The world was in shock, but IOC president Avery Brundage declared that "the Games must go on," and on they went, albeit under a dark cloud of mourning.

Synchronized swimming has been on the Olympic program since 1984. The female-only competition features two categories, duo and ballet.

The duo: In the preliminary round, 24 pairs put on two routines, a technical one and a free one. The best 12 pairs go through to a final round where only the free routine is practiced as the score from the first round technical routine is added to the final round score.

In the ballet, there are eight teams of eight, who compete in a one round event. All teams present both a technical and a free routine.

In the 1996 Atlants Games, Russian wrestler Aleksandr Karelin became the first in the sport to win the same weight division three times in a row.

Trying for a fourth consecutive title in the super heavyweight class in Sydney, Karelin's 59 win streak finally ended when he was defeated by American Rulon Gardner in the final.

NEW YORK, Aug 08 - The rest of the world might have been dazzled by the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony but US viewers clamoring for a glimpse of the spectacle were made to wait after a media blackout.

US network NBC, which owns exclusive rights to Olympics coverage in the United States, refrained from showing the opening ceremony live, preferring instead to delay coverage by 12 hours for a prime-time evening slot.

It was long feared Athens would not be ready for the 2004 Games, but the Greeks silenced the skeptics with an Olympian effort in the last few months -- albeit at a mammoth cost of 8 billion euros ($12.5 billion), making them the most expensive Games ever.

That budget, however, was swollen by a security bill of 1.2 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in the first post-September 11 Summer Games, which went off without any security hitches.

Beijing has not revealed its security budget for the 2008 Summer Games, but its Olympic website says there are 150,000 security guards plus 290,000 volunteers patrolling the city. And during the Games, it says, there will be be at least 80,000 security guards directly involved in the Olympics.

During a fifteen-year period, charismatic US athlete Carl Lewis coupled immense talent with an impeccable personality to make him one of the biggest sporting stars of the 20th century.

His results speak for themselves: nine Olympic gold medals in four disciplines (long jump, 100m, 200m, and the 4x100m relay) and eight world championship titles.

"King Carl" is inextricably linked to his illustrious compatriot Jesse Owens (four titles at Berlin in 1936) by winning four gold medals in the same events (100m, 200m, long jump and the 4x100m relay) at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.

The Olympics moved from Europe for the first time in 1904 when St. Louis hosted the Summer Games, and the big star turned out to be US runner Archie Hahn, who won three gold medals, in the 60m, 100m and 200m.

The St. Louis Olympics drew only 651 competitors from 12 nations, compared with 994 competitors from 24 nations for the 1900 Paris Olympics. IOC founder Pierre de Coubertin missed the Games as well.

As in 1900 Paris with the International Exhibition, the 1904 Games were overshadowed by a competing event, the St. Louis World's Fair. And they were again spread out over several months, running from July 1 until November 23.

In just their second Olympics, the Soviets finished first in the overall medal standings at the 1956 Melbourne Games, with 97 (including 37 gold) to the US'74 (32 gold).

The USSR's athletic prowess didn't make it popular with the Melbourne crowds, however. Its athletes were often greeted with booing, due to the Soviet invasion of Hungary only weeks earlier -- which also led several nations to boycott the Games, marking the first major Olympic boycott. (Several other nations also boycotted due to the Suez crisis.)

Indeed, the situation sparked the most violently contested match in Olympic history when the water-polo semi-final pitted the Soviets against Hungary. The match turned into an outright brawl and had to be stopped as blood literally spilled into the poll. Hungary, which was leading 4-0, went on to win the gold.

At the 1924 Olympic Games, Petro Janos "Johnny" Weissmuller 's solid technique and his excellent diving ability made him virtually unbeatable and he won the 100m freestyle, the 400m freestyle and 4x200m relay gold medals in devastating fashion.

He went on to win 52 national swimming championships and in 1950 was selected by Associated Press as the greatest swimmer of the half century.

After an equally successful showing at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, Weissmuller's physique and photogenic face came to the attention of Hollywood and won him the starring role in the Tarzan films between 1932-48.

BEIJING, Aug 08 - Agnes (pictured) and Erzsebet Valkai are hoping to avoid each other at the Olympic Games until the final of women's water polo, as the siblings are on rival national teams.

They were both members of the Hungarian team that finished sixth at the 2004 Olympics. But two years ago, Erzsebet, 29, who lives in Naples and is married to an Italian volleyball champion, switched allegiance, having played in the Italian league.

In Beijing, the earliest Hungary and Italy could meet is the quarterfinals August 16.

LAHORE, Pakistan, Jul 21 - Pakistan Monday announced their 16-man hockey squad to be led by full-back Zeeshan Ashraf for next month's Olympics in Beijing, where they hope to regain their former glory.

Either India or Pakistan took every gold medal in field hockey between 1928 and 1968. In the 1972 Munich Games, their reign was finally toppled by Germany who took the gold. Pakistan took the silver, and India the bronze.

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art whose name comes from the words tae (foot), kwon (fist) and do (way), which together translate as "the way of the foot and fist." It became an Olympic sport in 2000. Stars of the sport include South Korea's Jung Jae-eun and the US's Steven Lopez; each has won two Olympic gold medals.

The 1972 Munich Games basketball final between the USSR and the US was thrown into confusion when the Americans thought they had won 50-49 and were already in wild celebration.



The Soviets, however, petitioned the referees for an additional three seconds to be played because of an error in the timing. The three seconds were added, and the Soviets took advantage with the winning basket.



The embittered US team consequently refused to pick up its silver medals.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, Jul 25 - US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) officials are increasing educational efforts for US Olympians ahead of the Beijing Games by advising athletes about new drug testing rules.

US delegation members will be subject to International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules from Sunday's opening of the Olympic Village through the closing ceremony on August 24, meaning they can be tested anywhere in the world.

TOKYO, Jul 31 - Japanese Olympic cyclist Tomohiro Nagatsuka plans to wear Speedo's record-breaking LZR Racer swimwear beneath his track racing suit in his quest for a medal at the Beijing Games.

Knee-length LZR shorts helped him slash his personal 250-meter record by about 0.2 seconds to 17.8 seconds in training, Nagatsuka told reporters, according to local media on Thursday.

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2008 (AFP) - Sheila Taormina has coped with threats from a stalker, faced down her own self-doubts, started over twice in her sporting career and even sold her house to finance her Olympic dream.
The result is Olympic history.

The 39-year-old motivational speaker will compete in her third different Olympic sport next month at Beijing when she appears in her fourth Games, this time in the modern pentathlon.

The world record in the javelin is held by Jan Zelezny of Czechoslovakia, with a throw of 98.48 meters (323 feet 1 inch). The record for the hammer is 86.74 meters (284-7); for the discus 74.08 meters (243-0); and for the shot 23.12 meters (75-10).

LONDON, Jul 27 - Olympic heptathlon favourite Kelly Sotherton will head to Beijing next week after an "encouraging weekend" which saw her win a four-event challenge at the London Grand Prix.

BEIJING, Jul 16 - Beijing has recruited more than 74,000 volunteers to work at next month's Olympic Games, state media said Wednesday, with the eldest aged 87.

The 74,615 people were chosen from a record 1.1 million applicants, Xinhua news agency quoted Zhang Juming, deputy director of the volunteers' department of the Beijing Olympic Committee, as saying.

BEIJING, Aug 07 - Outgoing world number one Roger Federer faces a tricky Olympic opener against muscular Russian Dmitry Tursunov after the draw was made on Thursday.

But there should be no problems for Rafael Nadal, soon to replace Federer as the top men's player, who was matched against Potito Starace of Italy.

Nadal could meet former world number one Lleyton Hewitt in the second round with Britain's Andy Murray a potential foe in the quarter-finals. The winner of that tie could earn a semi with third-ranked Novak Djokovic. Fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko has a tough start against highly rated Latvian Ernests Gulbis.

Defending champion Nicolas Massu of Chile, currently ranked 125, received a kindly draw against Belgium's Steve Darcis.

HONG KONG, Aug 05 - Age and sex are no hurdle to winning Olympic equestrian gold medals, the two most senior Japanese riders taking part said on Tuesday.
Hiroshi Hoketsu, 67, said being the oldest athlete at the Beijing Games had never been an important issue to him.

His age also makes him the oldest athlete ever to represent Japan in the world's largest international sporting event.

Hoketsu began riding as a 12-year-old and finished 40th at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

He later changed his specialty from jumping to dressage and went on to win several international competitions before qualifying for his second Olympics 44 years later, to be held in Hong Kong from August 8-21.

BEIJING, Aug 07 - Gymnasts may well dazzle the judges with their skill, grace and power at the Beijing Olympics but none will receive the coveted "perfect 10" score awarded at past Games.

Beijing is the first Olympics staged under a new scoring system that scraps the perfect 10 first awarded to Romania's Nadia Comaneci in Montreal in 1976 in what is still the defining moment for gymnastics at the Olympics.

Instead, gymnasts receive two scores -- one an open-ended mark measuring the difficulty of the routine, the other a mark out of 10 for how well it was executed.
The new system means a good score at an elite level meeting ranges from about 15-17

BEIJING, Jul 23 - The final tickets for the Beijing Olympics went on sale at event venues in late July. About 820,000 tickets were left after three previous sales, according to organizers.

Beijing allocated around 75 percent of the 7 million tickets in total to its vast domestic audience, with the rest made available overseas through each country's national Olympic committee.

BEIJING, Aug 06 - Sheikha Maitha bin Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, part of the United Arab Emirates' ruling royal family, will make history on Friday when she becomes the first Gulf woman to carry a flag at an Olympics opening ceremony.

JOHANNESBURG, Jun 19 - South African swimmer Natalie Du Toit almost qualified for the 2000 Sydney Olympics in three events. Then, in February 2001, Du Toit was riding her scooter in Cape Town when a car pulled out of a parking lot and crashed into her left leg. She lost the leg, but she finally realized her Olympic dream by earning a spot in the 10km open water race at the Beijing Games.

Writing about his design, IOC founder Pierre de Coubertin said, ""These five rings -- blue, yellow, black, green and red -- represent the five parts of the world now encompassed by Olympism and ready to compete against each other. Moreover, the six colours (including the white background) thus combined represent those of all nations, without exception. The blue and yellow of Sweden, the blue and white of Greece, the French, English, American, German, Belgian, Italian and Hungarian tricolours, the yellow and red of Spain are side by side with the new Brazilian and Australian flags, the old Japan and the new China. It is a true international emblem."

The 1936 Summer Games saw the introduction of the torch relay, in which the Olympic flame is carried from Ancient Olympia in Greece to the site of the Games.
Adolph Hitler planned to use the Berlin Games as a platform for proving his theories of Aryan racial superiority. As it turned out, the star of the 1936 games was African-American sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals.

btw, can you tell me .. how do they get the OLYMPIC name?

I know it... wait a minute...

it's already more than a minute jon .. can't wait can't wait..

Phe, you better ask wikipedia and post it here why it's called Olympics. Hehe

haha

HAHAHA.