the mad sports man

Sydney, Australia was host of these games. it was held from September 15 - October 1. 199 nations attended these games. Ian Thorpe was the first star of the games. first he set a world record in the 400m freestyle, then, while anchoring the 4x100m freestyle, he passed the leading American and beat the American by two tenths of a second, winning another gold. Simon Whitfield of Canada won the first triathlon. in the 200m freestyle Peter van den Hoogenband beat out Ian Thorpe and claimed a gold at the same time. the U.S. swim team of B.J. Bedford, Megan Quann, Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres was the first women's relay team to race under four minutes, wining in 3:58 and claiming a world record. Cathy Freeman won the 400m final in front of a jubilant home crowd in Sydney. the win made her the first athlete to win a gold after lighting the cauldron. one memorable moment happened between the U.S. and France in basketball. Vince Carter, getting the ball after a steal, drove to...

Atlanta, Georgia was host of these games. they were held from July 19 - August 4. 197 nations attended these games. these were the first games to be staged in a different year than the winter games. Donovan Bailey of Canada won the 100m with a then world record of 9.84s. he then followed that up by anchoring the 4X100m race and winning gold in that. Michael Johnson of the U.S. won the 200m and 400m gold - both in world record time. Marie-José Pérec won the women's 200m and 400m gold - minus the world records. Andre Aggasi won gold and became the first male and second singles player to win the 'golden slam' (Olympic gold, Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open). the first was Steffi Graf. several firsts include the first and only gold for Hong Kong as a British colony. Lee Lai Shan won in sailing. the U.S. women's soccer team won the inaugural women's soccer tournament here. Deon Hemmings became the first woman to won gold for Jamaica and f...

Barcelona, Spain was host of these games. they were held from July 25 to August 9. 169 nations were at these games. these were the first games not to be affected by a boycott since 1972. this was also the last time the summer games were the same year as the winter ones. starting in 1994 the winter and summer games alternate every even numbered year. the Olympic cauldron was lit by a flaming arrow as Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo. South Africa made its return to the games after serving it's apartheid policy ban. after a close women's 10000m, South African Elana Meyer and Ethiopian Derartu Tulu ran a victory lap together. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania participated in these games. with the fall of the Soviet Union, the remaining 12 republics formed the Unified team. the break up of the former Yugoslavia led to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzigovena, and Slovenia also made its debut. baseball became an Olympic sport after being a demonstration sport the previous six. badmi...

Seoul, South Korea was host of these games. they were held from September 17 to October 2. 159 nations were at the games. these were the last under the Soviet Union and East Germany, as they will not exist at the next games. North Korea did not go as four of its allies. these were the last times live doves were used as some of them got burned alive after the cauldron got lit. Daniela Silivas of Romania won three golds in gymnastics and equalled Nadia Comeneci's seven perfect 10s. Florence Griffith Joyner sets Olympic records in the 100m (10.62) and 200m (21.34). the 200m record still stands. she also adds the 4 x 100m relay gold and the 4 x 400m relay silver. she then announces her retirement after the games. Ben Johnson wins the 100m event with a 9.79s time. he is found to have stanozolol in his system and is disqualified. today he claims he was sabotaged. I doubt it though. tennis makes a return and table tennis is added to the games. Lawrence Lemieux of Canada was ...

Los Angeles was host of these games. 14 eastern bloc countries - including Soviet Union, Cuba, and East Germany boycotted these games in return of the 1980 boycott. Iran and Libya boycotted for other reasons. 140 nations attended these games. they ran from July 28 to August 12. the People's Republic of China returned to the first time since 1952 after an agreement with the IOC designating Republic of China (Taiwan)as Chinese Taipei. Sebastian Coe became the first man to win consecutive 1500m golds. women's marathon made its debut here in which Joan Benoit won. it became notable when Gabi Andersen-Schiess of Switzerland had stumbled through the last lap of the race. she had been suffering from heat exhaustion. Carl Lewis equalled Jesse Owens 1936 performance by winning golds in 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m and long jump. Zola Budd, a South African who was given British citizenship to avoid the apartheid based ban, collided with American Mary Decker-Slaney in the final of the ...

Moscow was host of these games. they were held from July 19 to August 3. 80 nations were at these games. this was the U.S. led boycott due to the USSR invasion of Afghanistan. at U.S. president Jimmy Carter's insistence, 65 nations boycotted. some of the nations that were at the games participated under the Olympic flag. Allan Wells of Great Britain beat out Silvio Leonard of Cuba in the 100m event. they both had a time of 10.25s and a photo finish was used here. Poland's Wladiyslaw Kozakiewicz won the pole vault with a jump of 5.78m (19 ft). it ended up being a world record jump - the second time a world record fell at the Olympics. with jeers and whistles going on during this event (there were pleas for silence from the P.A. announcer) Kozakiewicz responded, after his gold medal jump, with an obscene bent elbow gesture. Teofilo Stevenson of Cuba won the heavyweight boxing gold for the third consecutive games. and the only boxer to win gold in the same event in thr...

Montreal, Quebec was host of these games. they were held from July 17 to August 1. 92 nations were at these games. many of the African nations, plus a few others, boycotted due to the IOC not supporting a ban of some countries who had participated in other competitions in South Africa under apartheid rule. these games were the first under Michael Morris, 3rd Baron Killanin. Nadia Comaneci of Romania scored seven perfect 10's and won three gold medals. the scoreboard held three digits so when she got her 10, the scoreboard had shown 1.00. Clarence Hill of Bermuda won a bronze in heavyweight boxing, making Bermuda the smallest nation population wise to win a medal. Thomas Bach won gold in team foil fencing. he now sits as IOC president. Poland won gold in men's volleyball over USSR = after being down two sets to none. Alex Oakley of Canada was the oldest athlete in track and field. he was 50 when he competed in race walking. it was also his 5th games. New Zealand won g...

Munich was host of these game. they were known for the unfortunate massacre of the Israeli team, by the Palestine terror group Black September. 11 Israeli's died, along with a West German police officer and five of the eight Palestinian terrorists. the games went from August 26 to September 10. 121 nations were at the games. these were IOC president Avery Brundage's last. a mascot appeared for the first time in the summer games. a dachshund named Waldi. Mark Spitz won seven gold medals in swimming. all of them world records. with the two golds he won in 1968, his lifetime total was 9. he was asked to leave before the closing ceremonies. with the massacre and him being Jewish, there were fears he would be targeted. in the most controversial finishes in basketball, the U.S. team lost to the Soviet Union in the gold medal game. the U.S. thought they had won 50-49, but due to "confusing signals from the scorer's table" the final three seconds of the game w...

Mexico City was host this year. it was held from October 12 to 27. second Olympics in a row and third of four that it was held in the fall. 112 nations participated in these games. in terms of elevation, these were the highest games at 2240m (7350ft) above sea level. it turns out the high elevation had an influence on most of the events, especially in track and field. Bob Beamon had one of those records in the long jump. he went 8.9 m, or 29.2 ft, which broke the record by 55cm (22 in). it was eventually broken in 1991 by Mike Powell. East and West Germany competed as separate countries. the IOC forced them to compete together in 1956, 1960 and 1964. Al Oerter won his 4th consecutive gold in discus, becoming the first to do so in track and field and the second overall. Dick Fosbury won the high jump gold using the technique that was named after him - the Fosbury Flop. this was the first of three times Jacques Rogge participated in yachting. he would be president of the IOC ...

Tokyo was host for these games, the first Asian city to do so. they were held from October 10-24. 93 nations were at the games. these were the first games to be televised by satellite. previously they had them taped, then sent overseas to air. October was chosen to avoid the summer heat and typhoon season. these games were the last to use a cinder track. a smooth, synthetic all-weather track made its first Olympic appearance in Mexico City. Yoshinori Sakai lit the Olympic cauldron. he was born in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 - the same day the atomic bomb was dropped on that city. the women's pentathlon was introduced to the games here. the Soviet Union's Larisa Latynina won 5 medals in gymnastics (2g, 1s 2b). she had held the record for most Olympic medals at 18 (9g 5s 4b), until Michael Phelps broke it in London. fibreglass pole vaults were used here for the first time. Abebe Bikila won his second marathon, becoming the first Olympian to win two Olympic marathons....

Rome was awarded these games. they were held from August 25th to September 11. they were originally awarded the 1908 games, but the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius forced Rome to pass the honors to London. 83 nations participated in these games. Aladar Gerevich of Hungary won his sixth consecutive gold in the team sabre event in fencing. the Japanese men's gymnastics team won the first of five straight golds. Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals in sprint events, thus acclaiming her "fastest woman in the world." she had beaten polio earlier in her life. Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia won the marathon while running it barefoot. he was also the first black African champion. Muhammad Ali, under the name Cassius Clay, won gold in the light-heavyweight class. Pakistan upset India to claim gold in men's field hockey, ending India's streak of six consecutive golds. South Africa made its final Olympic appearance until 1992 because of its apartheid regime. Canada won one meda...

Rosie MacLennan. she was chosen less than an hour ago on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. she is the first gymnast to carry in the Canadian flag at the Olympics. she will be leading the 313 Canadian athlete (at least scheduled) delegation at the opening ceremonies in Rio de Janeiro. congrats to Rosie. well deserved.

Melbourne, Australia was host here. they ran from November 22nd to December 8th, right during Australia's summertime. 72 nations went to these games. due to quarantine laws, the equestrian events here held in another location. the equestrian events were in Stockholm, Sweden in June of that year. this makes it the second time the Olympics were in two different nations. 1920 was the first. these games were under Avery Brundage for the first time. in water polo, Hungary vs Soviet Union (involved in an armed conflict. Soviet Union took out the Hungarian revolution which caused three nations to boycott due to their presence here) was embroiled in a nasty match in which one Hungarian player had a nasty gash over one eye. this incident almost led to a riot, which led the police being called to settle the situation. the game was called with Hungary leading 4-0. they ended up winning gold. the entire Hungarian delegation were cheered for. Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon did not parti...

Helsinki, Finland was host of these games. they ran from July 19 to August 3. 69 nations were at these games. these games had the most world records fall - until Beijing in 2008. the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, Israel and Saarland (a part of Germany (the only games in which they were separate part of Germany) all participated for the first time. Sigfrid Edstrom's final Olympic games as president was here. Soviet Union's first gold came from Nina Romashkova in discus, and their women's gymnastics team wonthe first of eight consecutive games. Indonesia also made its first appearance at these games with three athletes. Paavo Nurmi and Hannes Kolehmainen each lit cauldrons. Nurmi lit the one inside the stadium while Kolehmainen lit the tower after it was relayed to him. Emil Zatopec of Czechoslovakia won the 5000m, 10000m and marathon. the marathon he had never run before until now. the U.S. topped the medal charts with 76, the Soviet Union with 71 ...

London was host city for these games. they were the second city to host twice (Paris being the first). they were held from July 29 to August 14. 59 nations were in London for these games. one star was Dutch sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen. nicknamed "the Flying Housewife", the mother of two won four golds in athletics. another was American Bob Mathais. the decathlete became the younges male to win a gold at 17 years old. Veikko Huhtanen of Finland won the most individual medals with 3 golds, a silver and a bronze in men's gymnastics. these were know as the austerity games due to food, petrol and building were still being rationed. athletes were housed in existing housing because building a new village was deemed too expensive. Olympic pictograms were used for the first time. Canada won three medals at these games (1s and 2b). tomorrow - the 1952 games. below on the left is the logo and on the right the poster of these games.

these games were held in Berlin from August 1-16. 49 nations participated in these games. they were held at the height of Adolf Hitler coming to power. he used these games to promote his racist ideals. he eventually lost later on. although the Olympic flame was introduced in 1928, these were the first games to have a torch relay. an interesting thing happened during the opening ceremonies. 25,000 pigeons were released and flew around the stadium. someone then fired a cannon, thus scaring the pigeons enough for them to poop all over the place. poor people ended up wearing it. the guys wore straw hats and pitter patter could be heard, but the ladies got it in their hair. damn. the best moment came from African American Jesse Owens, who won four medals -all gold - in sprint and the long jump events. key note here is Owens barely qualified for the long jump final. Luz Long of Germany gave Owens a couple of pointers to improve his technique. the advice worked, as he won gold....

these games were in Los Angeles. they were held from July 30-August 14, in the midst of the world wide great depression. Los Angeles was the only city that bid. many of the athletes and nations couldn't afford to go. 37 nations did actually go. highlights include: an Olympic village was used for the first time. the victory podium was used for the first time. three nations took part in field hockey. the U.S. lost 24-1 to India and 9-1 to Japan and they still got the bronze. the 3000m steeplechase had a lap counting error. this led to one extra lap in the race. apparently the official who was supposed to ring the bell got distracted watching some of the decathletes taking part in the long jump. the race ended up 3460m. the winner had such a big lead he would have won either way. but it affected the silver and bronze position. Volmarri Iso-Hollo of Finland won (he would have had a world record had the error not happen. Joe McCluskey of the U.S. was in second after 3000m b...

Segun Tobiola of Nigeria will be participating in his SEVENTH Olympics in table tennis. holy crud. I was hoping Ian Millar would be at the games in equestrian, but his horse got hurt, so he won't be able to be in his 11th games. the fact that he has been to 10 and the longevity of being in equestrian is remarkable. that is a lot of Olympics.

the 1928 summer games were in Amsterdam, Netherlands. they were held form July 28 to August 12. 46 nations participated in these games. these were the first under new IOC president Henri de Baillet-Latour. the Olympic flame was lit for the first time. the parade of nations also began at these games. Greece led the parade as they still do today. athletics started using the standard 400m track. the first games to use the 16 day schedule. Paavo Nurmi of Finland won his 9th and final medal in the 10,000m. Canada's Percy Williams stunned everyone and won the 100m and 200m events. South American soccer (football everywhere else) made a breakthrough when Uruguay and Argentina played in the gold medal game. Uruguay defended its gold from 1924. Mikia Oda of Japan became the first Asian person to win a gold, winning the triple jump with a distance of 15.21m (49 ft 11 in). Coca-Cola made its first appearance as Olympic sponsor. these games were the first to bear the name "...

these games were held in Paris, France. they were held from May 4 to July 27. they were Pierre de Coubertin's last as IOC president. 44 nations participated in these games. an official logo for the games was introduced to the games. (will be shown at the end of this post). the games were the first to use the standard 50m pool. Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell won the100m and 400m respectively. they were the basis of the film Chariots of Fire, telling their stories. the marathon distance were fixed at the current 26.219 miles (42.195km). Johnny Weissmuller won three golds in swimming and a bronze in water polo. the motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher, stronger) was introduced. in association with these games, the "international week of winter sports" was held in Chamonix (also in France) was from January 25 to February 5. they were later renamed the first winter Olympics. the Olympic village was introduced. Canada won 4 medals (3s, 1b) at these games...

these games were in Antwerp, Belgium. they were held from August 14 to September 12. the aftermath of world war one and the Paris Peace Agreements in 1919 affected the Olympics, not only with new states being created, but sanctions on other nations that not only lost the war and were blamed for starting it. Hungary, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire were manned. Germany remained until 1925. Lyon, France mad a bid but decided to support Antwerp. Cleveland, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Havana Cuba bid for the games. shortly after the armistice was signed in November, 1918 the IOC gave Antwerp the first choice if they wanted to, and in march 1919, they decided to host the games. 29 nations participated in the games. these games were the first to have an Olympic oath and showed off the Olympic flag for the first time. figure skated made an appearance for the second time and ice hockey was on the schedule for the first time in a week that was designated for winter spor...

these games were held in Stockholm, Sweden and ran from May 5th to July 22, 1912. they officially began July 6 with the opening ceremonies. 28 nations competed in these games. women's diving, women's swimming, the pentathlon and decathlon began at these games. Jim Thorpe won the latter two. the U.S. won the most gold medals with 25, while Sweden won the most with 65. Canada won 8 medals (3g, 2s 3b). Berlin won the right to host in 1916, but those games were eventually cancelled due to World War 1. they eventually got the 1936 games. more on that later. tomorrow, the 1920 games in Antwerp, Belgium. below is the poster for the 1912 games.

the 1908 summer games were held in London, England and were held from April 27 to October 31. these games were originally awarded to Rome, Italy but the disastrous eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, so the finances that were going to the games ended up going to the rebuild. so they got moved. this was the first games to have a parade of nations. Finland was a part of Russia so it was unclear whether they would march under their own flag or the Russian flag so they entered without one. the Swedish flag was not displayed at the stadium so Sweden did not participate in the parade of nations. 22 nations participated in the games. one highlight was one of the more memorable incidents in the marathon. Dorando Pietri was the first runner to enter the stadium. he collapse several times and even went the wrong way. not far from the finish line, he got help from two officials to cross the finish line first. runner up Johnny Hayes protested the result and Pietri ended up disqualified. another ...

the 1904 summer games were in St. Louis. they were originally awarded to Chicago, but with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, they didn't want another event elsewhere. the games were held from July 1st to November 23rd. the games, just like in 1900 in Paris, were treated like a sideshow. European tension of the Russo-Japanese war and the difficulty getting to St. Louis diminished the participation. key highlights had American George Eyser win six medals in gymnastics despite his left leg being wooded. Martin Sheridan and Ralph Rose threw the same distance in discus (39.28m), so judges decided to have a throw off, to which Sheridan won. one of the more bizarre moments happened in the marathon. it happened in hot weather and on dirt roads to which when the cars moved out of the way, they created dust which proved difficult. Frederick Lorz was the first to cross the finish line, after dropping out after nine miles, got a ride to the finish line to pick up his clo...

it took extra time to do it, but Portugal wins the European championships with a 1-0 win over France. the only goal was scored in the 108th minute. this final was the first euro final to go through the first 90 minutes with no goals. Cristiano Ronaldo had to come out of the game, I think with a knee problem and he was there rallying his team. he now has a major trophy to his name. congrats to Portugal - 2016 European champs.

the 1900 Olympic games were held in Paris, France. these games had women compete for the first time and Helene de Pourtales was the first womens champion in the 1-2 ton sailing event. Charlotte Cooper was the first individual champion in tennis. Pierre de Coubertin was president of the IOC. the games were from May 14-October 28 and were held during the 1900 Exposition Universelle. odd way to promote the Olympics. de Coubertin admitted to friends that "it was a miracle that the \Olympic movement survived that celebration." some unusual events were held such as motorcycle racing, ballooning, 200m swimming obstacle race and underwater swimming, croquet and cricket. Canada participated at the games for the first time and won two medals - a gold and a silver, both by George Orton - in the 2500m steeplechase and 400m hurdles. tomorrow - the 1908 games in London. below is the poster for these games.

its four weeks to the Rio de Janeiro (wow 28 days) and I figured its time for some flash backs starting in 1896 when Athens, Greece hosted the first of the modern games. Athens was chosen after the international Olympic committee was formed Dimetrius Vikelas was named first president of the IOC until after these games were done. these games ran from April 9-15. the first hero of these games was fittingly Greek. Spyridon Louis won the marathon. shown here is the first poster of those games.

Canada's Milos Raonic has made history my being the first Canadian to reach the Wimbledon final. he beat Roger Federer in five sets in the semi finals. it was the first time Raonic bear Federer. and he also became the first player to beat Federer in the semi final. wow. I don't know who he will be facing. win or lose he has done himself proud.

France is going to the final on home soil after beating Germany 2-0. even though Germany carried most of the play, France scored on their opportunities given to them and had plenty of other chances to score. Antoine Greissman got both goals for France, the first one on a penalty after Schweinsteigger had the ball go off his hand while battling for the ball. so it will be Portugal vs France for the European title on Sunday afternoon.

Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring, and Portugal added another one as they beat Wales 2-0 to advance to the final on Sunday. both goals were three minutes apart. they will face either Germany or France for the final. Germany vs France is tomorrow. we're getting close to the end here. getting nerve wrecking.

can't believe it is one more month to the Rio Olympics. wow. some last minute qualifying happening. there is a last chance mens basketball tournament happening in the Phillipines and i believe the winner advances to the games. the U.S. track and field trials have been happening. the U.S. swimming trials i believe are now done. the Canadian athletics trials are this weekend in Edmonton. there are still some issues with the water where the sailing event is happening. there are plans to skim the water. but they will go back to leaving the crud in the water once the games are done, which is disappointing. and with Brazil in a serious recession, there has been no money to fix the problem, which is even worse. i don't know how the security is going to work out. even with the presidential event happening the last couple of months is there in a smaller scale now, but i think is still there. and the zika virus has been public, with some athletes pulling out afraid of getting t...

this one was over by half time. France went up 4-0 going into the half time break and ended up winning 5-2 over Iceland. they will face Germany in the semi finals on July 7th. Portugal vs Wales is on July 6th. two very good semi finals games coming up. winners go to the championship game one week from today.

this one also went to penalty kick. and it was nerve wrecking. the early part of it either it was stopped or missed the net. then they were putting it in the net. by the end of it Germany meat Italy in penalties 6-5. (they took 9 shots each). Germany will face either France or Iceland in the semi finals on July 7th.

wow. this is big. Wales has knocked out the top European team in the tournament, beating Belgium 3-1. it is also Wales first trip to the semi finals in this tournament. they will play Portugal in one semi final game on July 6th. Cristiano Ronaldo vs Garreth Bale qill be a good one. tomorrow has Germany vs Italy to decide the other semi final game. crunch time.