Success and Failure - Its a relative thing!

mike65

This from Washington Post

ATHENS (Reuters) - With the United States suffering its worst day at the Athens Olympics, China took center stage as sporting superpowers on a night to remember on the athletics track.

The Chinese national anthem exhorts the masses to "Arise! Arise! Arise!" and their athletes did just that Friday with two stunning track golds.

Liu Xiang, who won the men's 110 meters hurdles in a world record-equalling time of 12.91 seconds, said: "My victory has proved that athletes with yellow skin can run as fast as those with black and white skin."

With Beijing hosting the next Olympics in 2008 and China eager to show its global clout, he said of his win: "This is a miracle but I believe a lot more miracles will take place in China."

One of the biggest shocks Friday evening was provided by China's unheralded Xing Huina who pounced to land the women's 10,000 meters final.

She may run awkwardly with her arms beside her but she put the pride of Ethiopia firmly in their place.

Ethiopia's Ejegayehu Dibaba was left stunned in second place because she had thought Xing was a lapped runner and that Ethiopia had swept the medals.

Finally convinced by officials of her fatal error, Dibaba said: "I didn't see where the Chinese girl came from. Had I known I would have put in more effort and passed her."

For America's star of Sydney, Marion Jones, this has been the worst season of her life and it just kept getting even worse Friday evening.

First she finished fifth in the women's long jump final and then a fumbled handover spelt disaster in the 4x100 relay.

An utterly crestfallen Jones said: "It is extremely disappointing. Words cannot put it into perspective."

Tim Mack managed to salvage some American pride when landing the Olympic pole vault title after an engrossing duel with team mate Toby Stevenson.

"It's pretty unbelievable. I can't put it into words, it kind of seems like a storybook," he said before the only triumph of the night for the Star Spangled Banner.

Argentina added insult to injury when the United States failed to reach the men's basketball final for the first time in 16 years.

For The Dream Team, it was a nightmare as they left the court to a chorus of boos after their humiliating loss.

"We fought as hard as we could but we just couldn't get it done for whatever reason," said U.S. guard Allen Iverson.

Long gone are the days when the Americans were the darlings of the tournament who would happily sign autographs and pose for photos with their pummeled opponents.

Boo Hoo! We've only won 100 (or whatever) medals this time!

Mike.

Flukey

Doesn't your heart bleed for them?