Olympics
That moment
Togo's first medal! Even if it's not "what the Olympics are all about," it's one of those great things that help make the games.
Benjamin Boukpeti won the first Olympic medal in history for Togo when he took the bronze in the whitewater kayak slalom. He celebrated by raising his paddle over his head, then slamming it down on the front of his boat, snapping the paddle in two.
“This really is what the Olympic Games are all about,” said NBC announcer Craig Hummer, “an unknown paddler from a lesser-known country in a sport not many people know about.”
I don’t know about that. A pretty good argument can be made — and is most emphatically being made by Hummer’s employer — that the Olympic Games are a lot more about Michael Phelps than they are about an unknown paddler from a lesser-known country in a sport not many people know about.
A whole bunch of us, I’m pretty sure, look forward to moments like Boukpeti’s victory, which was summed up pretty well afterward by studio host Jim Lampley: “How many millions of us have just now experienced the first moment in our lives of rooting passionately for Togo?”
(This column raises its hand.)
But if there weren’t the Phelpses and the gymnasts and the basketball players and the track stars, not many of us would be sitting around screaming at our TVs, “Show more judo, dammit!”
Still, stuff like the first-ever medal for Togo is the spice of the Olympics. Fabulous little moments. Someone you never heard of, doing something you don’t care about, and all of a sudden, for just a few minutes, you’re engrossed. Only in the Olympics.
Hummer and commentator Joe Jacobi mentioned that Boukpeti trained in France, but they made it sound like he was a Togolese athlete who’d been sort of taken in by the French kayaking community. He’s actually a French native whose father is from Togo, and he represents Togo because he wasn’t able to make the French team. He competed for Togo in 2004 and finished 18th.
Doesn’t matter. I’m betting they’re not making those fine distinctions in Togo right now. I’m not either. First-ever medal, and I saw it.
Can’t wait to see some judo.
King Kaufman is a senior writer for Salon. You can e-mail him at king at salon dot com. Facebook / Twitter / Tumblr More King Kaufman.
Pyeongchang awarded 2018 Winter Olympics
The South Korean city beat out Munich and Annecy, France
South Korea's figure skater and Olympic champion Kim Yu-na during the presentation of the Pyeongchang bid , in front of the 123rd International Olympic Committee (IOC) session that will decide the host city for the 2018 Olympics Winter Game, in Durban, South Africa, Wednesday July 6, 2011. The International Olympic Committee will announce the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Durban, Wednesday, choosing between three candidates Annecy, France; Munich Germany; and Pyeongchang, South Korea for the 2018 host. (AP Photo/Rogan Ward, Pool)(Credit: AP) The South Korean city of Pyeongchang was awarded the 2018 Winter Olympics on Wednesday after failing in two previous attempts.
Pyeongchang defeated rivals Munich and Annecy, France, in the first round of a secret ballot of the International Olympic Committee.
Needing 48 votes for victory, Pyeongchang received 63 of the 95 votes cast. Munich received 25 and Annecy seven.
The Koreans had lost narrowly in previous bids for the 2010 and 2014 Olympics.
Pyeongchang will be the first city in Asia outside Japan to host the Winter Games. Japan held the games in Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998.
Continue Reading CloseLindsey Vonn re-creates “Basic Instinct”
The Olympic skier pays homage to the famous cinematic crotch shot on the cover of ESPN
Olympic gold-medalist Lindsey Vonn has recreated that scene from “Basic Instinct” on the cover of ESPN magazine. And by “that scene” I do mean the one in which Sharon Stone infamously flashed her naughty bits to the world. It’s the magazine’s movie issue — why ESPN has a movie issue, I do not know — and it boasts a bunch of athletes reproducing classic film scenes. The headline accompanying the saucy cover photo is, wait for it, “Back to Basics.” Funny, I thought the magazine’s Body Issue — which came out just a few months ago and features exquisitely athletic naked bodies — was a return to “basics.” But it doesn’t get any more basic, or base, than paying homage to the most famous crotch shot in cinematic history.
Tracy Clark-Flory is a staff writer at Salon. Follow @tracyclarkflory on Twitter. More Tracy Clark-Flory.
London 2012 plans for record 5,000 doping tests
Record number of athletes to be tested prior to 2012 games
London Olympic organizers say a record 5,000 doping tests will be carried out at the 2012 Games.
The local organizing committee has signed a memorandum of understanding with Britain’s anti-doping body and will implement the testing program under the authority of the International Olympic Committee.
London 2012 director of sport Debbie Jevans says the size of the testing program will give a “strong message that drug cheats are not welcome at the London Games.”
UK Anti-Doping will train anti-doping officials and assist them during the event to carry out a 10 percent increase on the 4,500 tests conducted at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Olympic highlight reel
The most memorable moments of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver
Saturday, Feb 27, 2010 12:40 AM UTC
Raining on Canadian women’s parade
The gold medal winning hockey team boozes it up on the ice and sparks condemnation
Canada Haley Irwin, left, and Tessa Bonhomme, right, celebrate after Canada beat USA 2-0 to win the women's gold medal ice hockey game at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)(Credit: AP) Canada’s women’s hockey team has scored quite the controversy by daring to celebrate their win against the U.S. on Thursday by sipping beer, guzzling champagne and smoking cigars on the ice. After the fans filtered out of the stadium, the ladies returned to the rink still in uniform with gold medals draped around their necks. They laid on the ice, poured champagne in each other’s mouths and soaked up the Olympic glory. Their revelry hardly would have garnered any attention, except for one minor detail: there was an Associated Press photographer on hand to capture it all on film.
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Tracy Clark-Flory is a staff writer at Salon. Follow @tracyclarkflory on Twitter. More Tracy Clark-Flory.
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