Both women said that they had dreamed of finishing one,two in the Olympics they just weren’t sure in what order that would dream would occur.
Well, now they know and it was the surprising Nastia Liukin who claimed the gold medal, while world champion Shawn johnson won the silver, and China’s Yang Yilin taking home the bronze despite the allegations that continue to swirl about her age.
Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson and Yang Yilin display their Olympic hardware.
There are no doubts about the validity of Liukin’s age. The 18 year old daughter of 4-time Olympic medalist Valeri Liukin and Anna Kotchneva who was a world champion rhythmic gymnast, proved her pedigree throughout the all-around competition.
Despite having start values that were below that of Johnson’s, Nastia proved the more perfect gymnast on that day sticking her landings on three out of the four apparatuses and performing beautifully throughout. Meanwhile Johnson, the favorite heading into the competition, made some small missteps that cost her a shot at gold.
With the floor exercise coming last in the competition Nastia Liukin was once again perfect, creating a lead too great for Shawn Johnson to overcome and claiming the gold medal by more then 6-tenths of a point.
Liukin began life in Moscow, but departed for America at the young age of two and arrived in Texas. And so it became that the girl from Texas with the distinctly Russian name fufilled her dream of becoming Olympic champion.
Her father had come close to that very same dream some twenty years ago. Valeri just needed to stick his dismount from the high bar, just one moment, one stuck landing and his dream would come true. Yet, as he landed, he swayed, swinging his arms to try and regain his balance and prevent his body from taking that inevitable lurch forward that would cost him his dream. Gravity won out, as it always will, and Valeri took that step, losing the gold medal by just one-tenth of a point.
Now, exactly 20 years later to the day, he can celebrate the fact that he has raised a champion, a champion who conquered the dream that eluded him all those years ago.
Shawn Johnson will have her chance at the next Olympics to claim the gold that many thought she would win in Beijing. It wasn’t that Johnson made any major mistakes, in fact she performed quite well, it was just an accumulation of small miscues that ended up costing Johnson her own gold medal dream.
Both girls dreamed of going one-two in the Olympics, but on this day it was Nastia Liukin’s dream that came true.
U.S.A Captures 4×100 Meter Relay Gold in Dramatic Fashion
Aug 11
Posted by admin in 2008 Olympics, Gold Medal, Michael Phelps, Pro Sports, Sports, Sports Events, Sports Stars, Uncategorized, fresstyle, online sports community, relay, relays, swimming | No Comments
It’s being touted as the greatest relay race in Olympic history and if you stayed up late enough to watch there is no doubt that you would feel the same way.
It was the exact type of event that makes the Olympics so compelling to watch. There was drama, there was thrash talking, and eventually there was a Gold medal.
The drama in this instance was three fold. First, there was the French telling all who would listen that thy would “smash” the Americans in their upcoming relay heat and capture the Gold. Then there was Michael Phelps, whose quest for 8 Olympic Gold’s could have been halted before it ever even got off the ground. Lastly, there was the drama of the event itself and a finish that will go down as one of the greatest of all time in Olympic swimming competition.
Take these other factors as well, not only was the World Record broken by an astonishing 4 seconds by the Americans, but it was broken by five teams total….a time that just four years ago would have insured Olympic Gold wouldn’t even have gotten you on the medal stand last night.
The drama came to a thundering conclusion in the epic final 100 meters. With American Jason Lezak- the anchor on America’s disappointing 2000 and 2004 4×100 meter4 freestyle relay teams facing off against France’s Alain Bernard, the world-record holder in the 100-meter freestyle going into the event, and the very man who had boasted of the inevitability of a French victory. Perhaps in a moment of foreshadowing Bernard had actually lost his world-record to Australia’s Eamon Sullivan just moments earlier when he opened the relay with a 47.24 leg capturing the world record.
Phelps lead off the first leg for the Americans and established an excellent pace. Weber-Gale followed and the Americans came away from his leg with the lead. Cullen Jones was the next man in the pool for the Americans and as predicted swam the slowest leg, relinquishing the American lead and giving France a six-tenths of a second advantage entering the final leg. By the time Lezak got into the pool and made his final turn that gap had grown to .82 seconds, and the Americans were declared dead by NBC commentator Rowdy Gaines. Yet, thankfully no one told that to Jason Lezak who pulled off the fastest 100-meter split in the history of the games: 46.06 second catching Bernard in the final meters and beating him to the wall, erasing every bad memory from Olympic relays past and sealing the first Gold medal for the United States in the event since 1996.
Lezak trying to surpass French swimmer Bernard
Until 2000, the U.S. had never lost a 4×100 meter freestyle. Then came the Sydney Games, when another man, Gary Hall Jr. of Australia, made a bold proclamation saying of his Australian team, “We’ll smash them like guitars.” Hall and the Australians stayed true to their word beating the Americans by .19 seconds, mockingly playing air guitars atop the medal stand while waiting for the medals to be handed out.
Then came 2004, the lowest point for the American relay team. Not only did they not capture the gold, but finished behind both South Africa and Netherlands taking home a disappointing bronze medal.
Lezak was the anchor on both teams and turned in what many classified as sub par performances. Well, redemption thy name is gold and the U.S. has one man to thank.
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