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Greeks go diving for first gold medal
By Andrew Dampf, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, August 17, 2004 | 1 comment(s)
ATHENS, Greece - It was a glorious surprise, igniting a party complete with song and dance: The Greeks won the first gold medal of their hometown Olympics with an unexpected victory Monday night in synchronized diving.
"I still can't believe it," gold medalist Nikolaos Siranidis said. "It feels like a fairy tale. It's hard for me to speak."
Fairy tale? No. Miracle? Not quite. But Siranidis and partner Thomas Bimis only captured the 3-meter springboard gold that ignited the festivities after a series of twists and turns that ended badly for their opposition, including the Americans.
First, the favored Chinese team blew a 12-point lead by scoring zero on a disastrous final dive. Next, Russians Dmitry Suatin and Alexander Dobroskok botched their attempt, followed by a terrible landing from American brothers Troy and Justin Dumais, in second place and poised to win a medal.
Add the Greek pair's killer final dive - a well-executed inward 31/2 somersault tuck - and the celebration was on.
"We hope this is just the start, and there are more medals," Bimis said.
"Thomas Bimis and Nikolaos Siranidis with the gold medal that they won - the first for our country in the Olympic Games of Athens - proved that Greek sports has depth and future," said Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis. "To the two Olympic champions I express my hearty congratulations."
Greece earned a final-round score of 83.64 points and finished with 353.34. Andreas Wels and Tobias Schellenberg of Germany won the silver medal with 350.01, while Robert Newbery and Steven Barnett of Australia earned the bronze with 349.59.
The Dumais brothers dropped to sixth with 327.06.
"We have to give it to Greece," Troy said. "They did a heck of a job and performed the best tonight. Three out of the eight teams completely missed their final round dives, with us being one of them. Whoever does their job and performs is going to be on the medal stand."
Troy Dumais has a chance to bounce back on the individual springboard, but his brother's Olympic career is over.
"I am just glad that I had the opportunity to be here and compete with my brother and not too many people can say that," Justin said. "I feel closer to Troy right now than I ever have, and to me family is everything. No one is going to remember who won the medal tomorrow, but I am going to have my brother forever."
When the results became official, Greek music echoed through the venue and the dancing started.
Earlier, Lao Lishi and Li Ting of China easily won the women's 10-meter platform competition.
With a total of 352.14 points, Lao and Li added to their title from the world championships in Barcelona last year. Natalia Goncharova and Yulia Koltunova of Russia got the silver with 340.92, and Blythe Hartley and Emilie Heymans of Canada took the bronze at 327.78.
The American team of Sara Hildebrand and Cassandra Cardinell finished seventh, beating out only the Greeks.
Tennis
Venus Williams and Chanda Rubin lost 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 to eighth-seeded Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian of China in the first round of the Olympic doubles tournament.
Williams won the doubles gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Games with her sister, Serena, who pulled out of these Olympics last week, citing a left knee injury. Rubin filled in, marking the first time Venus Williams ever played a tournament doubles match with anyone but her sibling.
In men's doubles, the top-seeded Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, routed Russians Marat Safin and Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-2.
Basketball
The U.S. women's team overcame another slow start and beat the Czech Republic 80-61. With key contributions from Tina Thompson and reserve Yolanda Griffith, the Americans went on a 14-point spurt to take the lead for good, then blew the game open with a 16-2 run at the start of the second half.
Softball
Helped by two errors, the United States scored three runs in the eighth inning for a 3-0 win over Japan. The Americans extended their winning streak to 73 games.
Cat Osterman pitched a one-hitter with 11 strikeouts.
Shooting
Zhu Qinan of China set a world record, winning the gold medal in 10-meter men's air rifle.
Zhu scored 702.7, topping the mark of 702.5 set by American Jason Parker in 2003. China's Li Jie took the silver and Slovakia's Jozef Gonci won the bronze.
Suzanne Balogh of Australia pulled away from the field to win the gold medal in trap shooting. Maria Quintanal of Spain took the silver. American Collyn Loper, of Indian Springs, Ala., finished fourth, one point behind Lee Bo-na of South Korea, who won the bronze.
Water Polo
Brenda Villa scored four goals and Kelly Rulon had a pair as the world champion United States began the pursuit for an Olympic gold medal with a 7-6 win over Hungary.
Fencing
France's Brice Guyart rallied from an early deficit in the final to defeat Italy's Salvatore Sanzo and win the gold medal in men's foil. Guyart trailed 4-0 but quickly tied the bout and won 15-13. Andrea Cassara of Italy defeated Russia's Renal Ganeev 15-12 to take the bronze.
Dan Kellner, of Warren, N.J., fell one touch short of reaching the quarterfinals. He upset No. 7 seed Cedric Gohy 15-12 in the round of 32, and led 14-12 in his next bout but couldn't close out the win, as Britain's Richard Kruse rallied to win 15-14.
Judo
World champion Lee Won-hee of South Korea defeated American Jimmy Pedro in the third round and went on to claim the gold medal in the 73kg class, beating Vitaliy Makarov of Russia in the final.
Pedro bounced back for a bronze, which he shared with Leandro Guilheiro of Brazil.
In the women's 57kg final, Yvonne Boenisch of Germany beat North Korea's Kye Sun Hui, the two-time world champion. Deborah Gravenstijn of the Netherlands and Yurieleidys Lupetey of Cuba shared the bronze.
Weightlifting
China swept the gold medals in two events and finished 1-2 at men's 137 pounds (62kg).
Shi Zhiyong, not deterred by either the pro-Greece crowd or his own teammate, held off countryman Le Maosheng and Greece's Leonidas Sampanis to win the 137-pound gold. Le won the silver and Sampanis, a silver medalist in the last two Olympics, was happy to get the bronze at age 32. His was Greece's first medal of its homeland Olympics.
Earlier, Chen Yanqing won gold at 127 pounds (58 kg), her first major title since winning the 1999 world championship in Athens. North Korea's Ri Song Hui took the silver and Wandee Kameaim won the bronze, Thailand's second weightlifting medal in as many days.
Table Tennis
Two doubles teams and a singles player lost for the United States, leaving Gao Jun as the lone American left in the table tennis competition.
Ilija Lupulesku lost in men's singles - and in doubles with Mark Hazinski. Gao and Tawny Banh lost their doubles match, but Gao will play her first women's singles match today in the round of 32.
Badminton
Americans Kevin Han and Howard Bach were eliminated by Denmark's Jens Eriksen and Martin Lundgaard 15-6, 15-4 in the doubles round of 16.
China's Gong Ruina, Zhou Mi and Zhang Ning all reached the semifinals in women's singles.
Volleyball
The U.S. women bounced back from an opening defeat to China by beating Germany in four sets, 25-22, 25-22, 22-25, 27-25. Olympic rookie Tayyiba Haneef (17 kills) and veteran Keba Phipps (16 points) led the Americans.
Beach Volleyball
Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard, the top American men's pair, were flat and out of synch for the second straight match, losing to Canadians John Child and Mark Heese 21-16, 21-10 in preliminary pool play.
The eighth-seeded Americans must upset the fifth-seeded Swiss pair Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel on Wednesday to have any chance of reaching the single-elimination medal round.
Americans Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs overcame a sluggish second set to beat Canadians Guylaine Dumont and Annie Martin 21-13, 12-21, 15-9.
The fourth-seeded U.S. team looked sharp at the start, then fell behind 9-2 in the second set after a flurry of unforced errors. The Americans resumed their solid play midway through the final set and finished the match with a 7-2 spurt.
"I still can't believe it," gold medalist Nikolaos Siranidis said. "It feels like a fairy tale. It's hard for me to speak."
Fairy tale? No. Miracle? Not quite. But Siranidis and partner Thomas Bimis only captured the 3-meter springboard gold that ignited the festivities after a series of twists and turns that ended badly for their opposition, including the Americans.
First, the favored Chinese team blew a 12-point lead by scoring zero on a disastrous final dive. Next, Russians Dmitry Suatin and Alexander Dobroskok botched their attempt, followed by a terrible landing from American brothers Troy and Justin Dumais, in second place and poised to win a medal.
Add the Greek pair's killer final dive - a well-executed inward 31/2 somersault tuck - and the celebration was on.
"We hope this is just the start, and there are more medals," Bimis said.
"Thomas Bimis and Nikolaos Siranidis with the gold medal that they won - the first for our country in the Olympic Games of Athens - proved that Greek sports has depth and future," said Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis. "To the two Olympic champions I express my hearty congratulations."
Greece earned a final-round score of 83.64 points and finished with 353.34. Andreas Wels and Tobias Schellenberg of Germany won the silver medal with 350.01, while Robert Newbery and Steven Barnett of Australia earned the bronze with 349.59.
The Dumais brothers dropped to sixth with 327.06.
"We have to give it to Greece," Troy said. "They did a heck of a job and performed the best tonight. Three out of the eight teams completely missed their final round dives, with us being one of them. Whoever does their job and performs is going to be on the medal stand."
Troy Dumais has a chance to bounce back on the individual springboard, but his brother's Olympic career is over.
"I am just glad that I had the opportunity to be here and compete with my brother and not too many people can say that," Justin said. "I feel closer to Troy right now than I ever have, and to me family is everything. No one is going to remember who won the medal tomorrow, but I am going to have my brother forever."
When the results became official, Greek music echoed through the venue and the dancing started.
Earlier, Lao Lishi and Li Ting of China easily won the women's 10-meter platform competition.
With a total of 352.14 points, Lao and Li added to their title from the world championships in Barcelona last year. Natalia Goncharova and Yulia Koltunova of Russia got the silver with 340.92, and Blythe Hartley and Emilie Heymans of Canada took the bronze at 327.78.
The American team of Sara Hildebrand and Cassandra Cardinell finished seventh, beating out only the Greeks.
Tennis
Venus Williams and Chanda Rubin lost 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 to eighth-seeded Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian of China in the first round of the Olympic doubles tournament.
Williams won the doubles gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Games with her sister, Serena, who pulled out of these Olympics last week, citing a left knee injury. Rubin filled in, marking the first time Venus Williams ever played a tournament doubles match with anyone but her sibling.
In men's doubles, the top-seeded Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, routed Russians Marat Safin and Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-2.
Basketball
The U.S. women's team overcame another slow start and beat the Czech Republic 80-61. With key contributions from Tina Thompson and reserve Yolanda Griffith, the Americans went on a 14-point spurt to take the lead for good, then blew the game open with a 16-2 run at the start of the second half.
Softball
Helped by two errors, the United States scored three runs in the eighth inning for a 3-0 win over Japan. The Americans extended their winning streak to 73 games.
Cat Osterman pitched a one-hitter with 11 strikeouts.
Shooting
Zhu Qinan of China set a world record, winning the gold medal in 10-meter men's air rifle.
Zhu scored 702.7, topping the mark of 702.5 set by American Jason Parker in 2003. China's Li Jie took the silver and Slovakia's Jozef Gonci won the bronze.
Suzanne Balogh of Australia pulled away from the field to win the gold medal in trap shooting. Maria Quintanal of Spain took the silver. American Collyn Loper, of Indian Springs, Ala., finished fourth, one point behind Lee Bo-na of South Korea, who won the bronze.
Water Polo
Brenda Villa scored four goals and Kelly Rulon had a pair as the world champion United States began the pursuit for an Olympic gold medal with a 7-6 win over Hungary.
Fencing
France's Brice Guyart rallied from an early deficit in the final to defeat Italy's Salvatore Sanzo and win the gold medal in men's foil. Guyart trailed 4-0 but quickly tied the bout and won 15-13. Andrea Cassara of Italy defeated Russia's Renal Ganeev 15-12 to take the bronze.
Dan Kellner, of Warren, N.J., fell one touch short of reaching the quarterfinals. He upset No. 7 seed Cedric Gohy 15-12 in the round of 32, and led 14-12 in his next bout but couldn't close out the win, as Britain's Richard Kruse rallied to win 15-14.
Judo
World champion Lee Won-hee of South Korea defeated American Jimmy Pedro in the third round and went on to claim the gold medal in the 73kg class, beating Vitaliy Makarov of Russia in the final.
Pedro bounced back for a bronze, which he shared with Leandro Guilheiro of Brazil.
In the women's 57kg final, Yvonne Boenisch of Germany beat North Korea's Kye Sun Hui, the two-time world champion. Deborah Gravenstijn of the Netherlands and Yurieleidys Lupetey of Cuba shared the bronze.
Weightlifting
China swept the gold medals in two events and finished 1-2 at men's 137 pounds (62kg).
Shi Zhiyong, not deterred by either the pro-Greece crowd or his own teammate, held off countryman Le Maosheng and Greece's Leonidas Sampanis to win the 137-pound gold. Le won the silver and Sampanis, a silver medalist in the last two Olympics, was happy to get the bronze at age 32. His was Greece's first medal of its homeland Olympics.
Earlier, Chen Yanqing won gold at 127 pounds (58 kg), her first major title since winning the 1999 world championship in Athens. North Korea's Ri Song Hui took the silver and Wandee Kameaim won the bronze, Thailand's second weightlifting medal in as many days.
Table Tennis
Two doubles teams and a singles player lost for the United States, leaving Gao Jun as the lone American left in the table tennis competition.
Ilija Lupulesku lost in men's singles - and in doubles with Mark Hazinski. Gao and Tawny Banh lost their doubles match, but Gao will play her first women's singles match today in the round of 32.
Badminton
Americans Kevin Han and Howard Bach were eliminated by Denmark's Jens Eriksen and Martin Lundgaard 15-6, 15-4 in the doubles round of 16.
China's Gong Ruina, Zhou Mi and Zhang Ning all reached the semifinals in women's singles.
Volleyball
The U.S. women bounced back from an opening defeat to China by beating Germany in four sets, 25-22, 25-22, 22-25, 27-25. Olympic rookie Tayyiba Haneef (17 kills) and veteran Keba Phipps (16 points) led the Americans.
Beach Volleyball
Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard, the top American men's pair, were flat and out of synch for the second straight match, losing to Canadians John Child and Mark Heese 21-16, 21-10 in preliminary pool play.
The eighth-seeded Americans must upset the fifth-seeded Swiss pair Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel on Wednesday to have any chance of reaching the single-elimination medal round.
Americans Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs overcame a sluggish second set to beat Canadians Guylaine Dumont and Annie Martin 21-13, 12-21, 15-9.
The fourth-seeded U.S. team looked sharp at the start, then fell behind 9-2 in the second set after a flurry of unforced errors. The Americans resumed their solid play midway through the final set and finished the match with a 7-2 spurt.
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