28. Olympic Summer Games
Olympic Medals in the games of 2004 in Athen
926 Medals in 34 Sports in 301 Events
Athens was expecting to get the games in 1996 on the occasion of its 100th anniversary. However, when she went to Atlanta the disappointment was great. This was only reduced when Athens won the 2004 games. From August 13th to 29th, athletes from all over the world met in Greece to hold their Olympic competitions. Athens hosted for the third time after the first games in 1896 and the interludes, which were never recognized by the IOC, in 1906.
The Olympic Torch Relay started on March 25th in Ancient Olympia, and was to be carried out all over the world. The torch was transported in a specially equipped Boeing 747 called Zeus. The torch was held in all previous and already known future host cities of the Summer Olympics, and for the first time also in South America, Africa and India.
For the first time, more than two hundred countries took part in the games with 202 nations. When the nations marched in, there was a conciliatory signal from the joint appearance of North and South Korea. However, they competed separately in the competitions.
When choosing the competition location, the first games in 1896 and the ancient games were also considered. The archery competitions took place in Panathinaiko Stadium, the over 100-year-old landmark of Athens. It was also the goal of the men's and women's marathons, each of which was started in the marathon. The shot put of men and women took place in ancient Olympia.
The USA confidently won the medal table ahead of China, which took second place for the first time. Russia was in third place ahead of Australia, which had the best result of any Olympic Games in Athens.
The star of the games was the American swimmer Michael Phelps, who won six gold and two bronze medals. He should still be the most successful athlete four Olympic Games in a row. That is probably a record for eternity. At the end of his Olympic career was the Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, who won two more Olympic medals and entered the leaderboard with a total of new medals, five of which were gold.
The German canoeist Birgit Fischer had her sixth participation in the Olympic Games, again this time she won a gold medal. In 1980 she had her first gold medal at the age of 18, and her eighth and last 24 years later. There were also four silver medals. In the eternal medal statistics, she was ranked 6th in 2004. Only in 1984, as a GDR athlete, was not in Los Angeles because of the boycott. She is the only athlete to have won gold in six different Olympic Games!
The American shooter Mattew Emmons was confidently in Small-bore Rifle, 3 Positions in the lead. All he had to do was pick up gold with the last shot. He managed a very good shot. But not on his target, but on that of his Austrian Christian Planer, who was shooting next to him. So Emmons only got zero points for the last shot. He fell back to eighth place and planner still won the bronze medal. Emmons could console himself with gold in the prone shooting.
The Brazilian Vanderlei de Lima led the marathon with a 48-second lead eight kilometers from the finish. He seemed to have a good chance of winning the Olympic Games. Suddenly he was dragged off the street by a madman and pushed into the audience. It was 20 seconds before the audience released him and held the assassin. De Lima had been torn from his rhythm, and he also grabbed his thigh after the incident. He was overtaken five kilometers from the finish and finally won the bronze medal. The craziest is that Irish religious fanatic who has repeatedly disrupted sporting events. So he ran with the Bible in hand at the 2003 Grand Prix in Silverstone during the race on the race track.
The doping hunters became more and more successful, numerous doping samples were frozen and found the offenders a few years later in follow-up tests. A total of 15 medals were withdrawn in Athens. There was a scandal in the run-up to the games. The Greek sprint stars Kostas Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou faked a motorcycle accident to avoid doping control. This was seen as a refusal, which is automatically interpreted as a doping offense. In order to avoid being expelled by the IOC, both of them withdrew their participation in the games.
At the Olympic discus final Robert Fazekas had a second attempt of 70.93 meters, which would have been a new Olympic record. None of his opponents came close to this further. Fazekas had drunk several liters of liquid to give a urine sample, but he still failed to pass urine at the doping control. He was then caught trying to pass a urine sample from a stranger's plastic bag attached to his genitals. He was stripped of the gold medal by the IOC, and the subsequent athletes moved up. In addition, a two-year ban was imposed on Fazekas.