The 5 Most Breathtaking Events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (1-2)

Marathon Swimming: The Sweetest Victory of All

While Michael Phelps may be stealing the show in the shorter swim races, and has proven to be the world’s strongest swimmer with a gold medal almost every day of the first week of the Olympics, the marathon swim is also a true test of stamina: 10km in the open water.


Van der Weijden is all smiles after winning gold

This year’s race was especially exciting, as the first finishers kept close together all the way through the final 100 meters. Despite the length of the course, the gold medalist, Maarten van der Weijden, won the race by only 1.5 seconds. Van der Weijden was considered to be one of the best long-distance swimmers in the world at the turn of the century. In 2001, he was diagnosed with Leukemia, and his career appeared to be over. His victory in the Olympics this year was also a victory in his fight against cancer, making it all the sweeter.


Modern Pentathlon: Don’t Spook the Horses

The modern pentathlon consists of 5 events: epee fencing, pistol shooting, 200m freestyle swimming, a show jumping course on horseback, and a 3 km cross-country run. Despite such a variety of events, there is only one gold medal at stake. The modern pentathlon is an exciting event because the competitors go at it in 5 completely different sports, which allows the events to take sudden twists and turns depending on which events a particular competitor excels at… and which events represent a competitor’s weak area. It’s even more exciting because all 5 events happen in one day, making completing the event successfully a very demanding task.

Andrey Moiseev of Russia became the first male in 52 years to win back-to-back gold medals at the 2008 modern pentathlon event.


This year’s pentathlon featured many incompliant horses

One of the most interesting aspects of this event is that during the equestrian portion, competitors usually ride mounts that they have never ridden before. This made for numerous refusals, several falls and repeated instances of horses plowing through the fences during the event. The worst fall occurred when John Zakrzewski of France flipped over and was dragged along the ground with his foot still in the stirrups. The Frenchman was later stamped on by his mount, leaving him with a bloodied face.

Posted at 04:01PM Aug 22, 2008 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[1]