Phelps grabs another golden world record
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 12:03:00 08/15/2008

BEIJING — American phenomenon Michael Phelps won his sixth gold medal with his sixth world record of the program to claim the 200 meters individual medley final at the Beijing Olympics on Friday.

The 23-year-old superstar was under world record pace throughout and hit the wall in one minute 54.23 seconds, shaving 0.57sec off his own record of 1:57.80 set in the US Olympic trials in Omaha, Nebraska on July 4 this year.

Phelps was unstoppable once again and finished well clear of Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh, who posted a European record of 1:56.52, with American teammate Ryan Lochte taking the bronze in 1:56.53.

Only 30 minutes earlier Lochte had broken the men’s 200m backstroke world record in winning Olympic gold in 1min 53.94.

Phelps, the dominant story of the Beijing Olympics, has now won the 400m medley, 200 freestyle, 200 butterfly, 4×100m free relay, 4×200 free relay and now the 200 medley, all in world record time.

The three podium finishers in the 200m medley duplicated the medal winners in the 400 medley final.

The bronze medal belonging to …
Reuters - Aug 14, 6:20 am EDT

Bronze medallist Ara Abrahamia…
Reuters - Aug 14, 6:08 am EDT

Bronze medalist Sweden’s Ara A…
AP - Aug 14, 8:35 am EDT

Sweden’s Ara Abrahamian, top, …
AP - Aug 14, 8:55 am EDT

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By Douglas Hamilton

BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian threw down his greco-roman bronze medal in protest on Thursday after his bid for Olympic gold was ended by a decision denounced by the Swedish coach as “politics.”

Abrahamian took the bronze from around his neck during the medal ceremony, stepped from the podium and dropped it in the middle of the wrestling mat then walked off.

“I don’t care about this medal. I wanted gold,” he said.

A bitter Abrahamian, silver medalist at Athens 2004 who had high hopes of top honors in the 84kg competition in Beijing, announced he was quitting the sport.

“This will be my last match. I wanted to take gold, so I consider this Olympics a failure,” he said.

The Swedish wrestler had to be restrained by teammates earlier when a row erupted with judges over the decision in a semifinal bout at the Chinese Agricultural University Gym with Andrea Minguzzi of Italy, who went on the take gold.

Abrahamian shouted at the referee and judges then went over to their seats to speak to them up close. He angrily threw off the restraining arm of a team official then turned and left.

(L-R) Silver medallist Zoltan …
Reuters - Aug 14, 6:16 am EDT

Swedish fans booed loudly as the judges filed out of the arena. Abrahamian said nothing to waiting reporters but whacked an aluminium barricade with his fist as he left the hall.

Abrahamian later said he believed his loss to the eventual gold medalist Minguzzi was “totally unjustified.” The wrestler said his friends “called me just 20 minutes before the (bronze) competition, begging me to compete.”

“I decided that I had come this far and didn’t want to let them down, so I wrestled,” he said.

Swedish coach Leo Myllari said: “It’s all politics.”

Myllari did not say if he intended to lodge a formal protest over the decision by referee Jean-Marc Petoud of Switzerland, judge Lee Ronald Mackay of Canada, and mat chairman Guillermo Orestes Molina of Cuba.

Other favourites went out in the semi-finals or earlier.

Athens 96kg gold medallist Karam Gaber of Egypt failed to make it to the quarterfinals. Aleksey Mishin of Russia, who took Athens gold in the 84kg class, was beaten by Minguzzi. Ramaz Nozazde of Georgia, who took silver in Athens, succumbed to Marek Svec of the Czech Republic, still fighting at age 35. Svec then lost to Russia’s European champion Aslanbek Kushtov, who caught him with a spectacular fall.

In the heavyweight 120kg class, Armenia’s Yuri Patrikeev and Dremiel Byers of the United States, both favored as finalists, failed to go through.

(For more stories visit our multimedia website “Road to Beijing” at http://www.reuters.com/news/sports/2008olympics; and see our blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/china)

Spanish basketball team poses for offensive picture

By Chris Chase

Updated: 4:43 p.m. EDT

Spain’s Olympic basketball team posed for an advertisement prior to the Games which appears to show all its players slanting their eyes, a move that could offend its Olympic hosts in Beijing. The ads, for a Spanish courier company, appeared in the Spanish-language newspaper La Marca.

As the uproar over the picture has grown today, more information about the advertising shot has come to light. The New York Times reports that Spain’s basketball team is sponsored by Li-Ning Footwear, a Chinese company founded by Li Ning, the final torchbearer who was hoisted along the top of Beijing National Stadium during the Olympic Opening Ceremony finale. The ad reportedly references the Spanish team recently extending their contract with the footwear giant for another four years.

The Spanish-language paper El Mundo has a piece debating whether the ad was racist that basically calls out the British press for trying to smear Spain’s good name. But they miss the point. Whether the picture was made in good fun is irrelevant. It was a ridiculous idea that was bound to upset a lot of people.

It’s baffling that nobody involved in the picture — from the photographers to the players — even seemed to consider that this ad would be looked at negatively. Did it not occur to somebody that it might not be a good idea to mock an entire continent before the world’s largest athletic competition that, by the way, happens to take place on that continent. Were they not aware of an invention called “the Internet” that allows pictures taken in Spain to be transmitted all over the world for the eyes of everyone?

And now that the inevitable controversy has hit, they’re still defending themselves when a simple, “the ad was in poor taste, we apologize” would have sufficed. This story would be slowing down if the Spanish Basketball team had apologized immediately. Now it’s just picking up steam.

The Organization of Chinese-Americans has released multiple statements condemning the picture. George Wu, deputy director of the group, said, “it is unfortunate that this type of imagery would rear its head during something that is supposed to be a time of world unity.” Response in Beijing has been muted so far.

Madrid is thought to be one of the frontrunners to land the 2016 Summer Games (the site will be announced next year). Could this controversy hurt Spain’s chances of landing another Olympics?

Interestingly, the Spanish basketball team took on China tonight, winning 85-75 in overtime. No word on whether Pau Gasol was on the receiving end of any elbows from Yao Ming. The Chinese crowd did have a message for the Spainards though, booing vigorously during the game.