The critics, skeptics and doomsayers were left speechless by a spectacular Summer Olympics in 2004.
The Olympic efforts of Athens crippled Greek finances but at the same time put the ancient city on the map as a modern European capital with sports facilities to match anywhere in the world.
Its August extravaganza — for years a cause for concern for Olympic chiefs — proved a heartwarming success. Starting with a doping controversy and ending with a stripped gold medal, the Athens Games were not just a test of Olympic ability, they were also a test of the Olympian ideals. It was not what the Greek organizers had planned but, rather than tainting the Games, Olympic President Jacques Rogge’s hard-line stance against drug cheats marked the Athens Games as a watershed in the fight against doping in sport.
Before the athletics had even begun, two of its potential heroes had disappeared in a cloud of shame. The withdrawals of Greek 200 meters Sydney Olympics champion Costas Kenteris and his training partner 100 meters sprinter Katerina Thanou cast a shadow over the first week of the Games. The pair pulled out after an unseemly cat-and-mouse episode with officials after they missed a drugs test in mysterious circumstances the day before the opening ceremony.
• Roger Federer staged a single-handed takeover of men’s tennis in 2004. In the women’s game the Russians seized control. Anastasia Myskina fired the first salvo for Russia at Roland Garros in June, becoming the first woman from her country to win a Grand Slam title. Four weeks later Siberian-born teenager Maria Sharapova demolished Serena Williams to win Wimbledon and in September Svetlana Kuznetsova powered to victory at the US Open. As the year drew to a close, Myskina inspired Russia to their first Fed Cup title against France in Moscow. Federer’s emergence to fill the vacuum left by the retirement of Pete Sampras stamped an indelible mark on the year.
• It is lucky for Michael Phelps that he is blessed with broad shoulders and an arm span like the wings on a jumbo jet. Not only does it enable him to swim like a fish but it also helps him to carry the burden of his own great expectations. The American teenager was destined to be the center of attention at the Athens Olympics from the moment he announced he would try to better the seven gold medals Mark Spitz won in Munich in 1972. It was an outrageous goal that almost everybody thought was doomed to failure. Even Phelps had his doubts and while he tried to put a lid on the hype by declaring he would be satisfied just to win one gold, the promise of a $1 million bonus only added to the weight of expectation.
• Winning an Olympic gold medal is supposed to be the crowning moment for an athlete. For some, it can turn out to be the start of the biggest battle of their lives — just ask Paul Hamm, Tyler Hamilton or Bettina Hoy. All three were crowned champions on August 18 but within days the trio’s jubilation had turned into a legal nightmare. Americans Hamm and Hamilton discovered their gold medals lost some luster when new information suggested they could have been awarded the top prize in error. While cycling time-trial champion Hamilton became embroiled in a doping row, the governing body of gymnastics (FIG) declared Hamm had been awarded the men’s all-round gold due to a judging error. Hamm had punched the air in delight after he staged a remarkable comeback from 12th place in the final to become the first American man to win the title. However, the drama on the night was quickly eclipsed by what was to become one of the biggest controversies of the Athens Olympics.
• The New England Patriots began the year by outlasting Carolina in an unexpectedly exciting Super Bowl, then opened the 2004 regular season with six more victories to extend their 2003-04 winning streak to 21 games, an NFL record. The streak-breaker, a 34-20 loss at Pittsburgh, looms as a preview to the AFC Championship Game and, considering the deflated state of the NFC, the season’s true Super Bowl.
• When Dan Marino passed for 48 touchdowns in 1984, he said he thought that record would last forever. In today’s can’t-wait culture, Indianapolis Colt Peyton Manning redefined “forever,’’ which now, in the NFL, means 20 years. Manning needed only 15 games to break Marino’s record and could reach 50 this Sunday in Denver, depending on how much pre-playoff rest Coach Tony Dungy wants to give his quarterback.
• In a year dominated by BALCO and stories of shot-putters testing positive for steroids at Olympia, there was no escaping the innuendo, no matter how fast Lance Armstrong pedaled. Armstrong’s bid for a sixth consecutive Tour de France victory was greeted by a book, “L.A. Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong,’’ that featured a variety of doping allegations, which Armstrong continues to deny, and hostile French spectators who derided his ride with chants of “Cheater!” The record shows that Armstrong won the Tour again in 2004, an all-time record, without testing positive. Until proven otherwise, his streak remains one of the greatest athletic achievements on the books.
Before Puerto Rico, Larry Brown had 10 days of career-topping glory in the NBA finals, directing his no-chance Detroit Pistons to a convincing five-game victory over the superstar-laden Lakers. It was the first NBA championship for Brown, whose triumph was cheered by proponents of team basketball, inspired long-shot underdogs from here to New England and effectively dismantled the Laker dynasty. If only he had quit while he was ahead.
• Steroids, stimulants, hormones, blood boosters and even insulin have been combined in potentially life-threatening cocktails by elite track athletes, according to evidence collected by US federal investigators. The lengths to which athletes are prepared to go to gain the extra edge have been documented in chilling detail during the investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO). As a result double world sprint champion Kelli White and former Olympic 4x400 relay gold medalist Alvin Harrison have been banned after admitting taking the designer steroid THG (tetrahydrogestrinone). World 100 meters record holder Tim Montgomery, the partner of triple Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones, has been charged with serious doping violations and BALCO laboratory head Victor Conte said last week he had supplied Jones with THG and the blood booster EPO (erythropoietin).
• The Black Sea Cossacks choir backed by a full orchestra lent an exotic twist to the Brussels Golden League meeting in the week after the Athens Olympics. To the delight of a noisy crowd who had enjoyed some splendid athletics, including two world records, the choir were joined on stage by Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, who belted out an enthusiastic version of her national anthem. Isinbayeva had set her seventh world record of the year while winning the gold medal in Athens. In Brussels she extended her mark another centimeter to 4.92 meters and picked up another $100,000 bonus.
• Muttiah Muralitharan lost his world record, had one of his most dangerous deliveries banned, refused to tour Australia after a prime-ministerial put-down, lost five months to the surgeon’s knife and ended 2004 as the happiest cricketer alive. All those setbacks were to shrivel into insignificance when the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced proposals to review the laws on throwing. Should they opt next February to allow bowlers to flex their arms by up to 15 degrees, Muralitharan will never again have to worry that Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard considers him a “chucker”.
• The best thing that happened to rugby in 2004 was the return of South Africa as a major force in the international game. With so few teams up at the top level, the sport cannot afford to be without a competitive Springbok team and their revival is all the more welcome after the depths they plumbed on and off the field in previous seasons. South Africa’s triumph in the Tri-Nations, the exciting arrival of their double world player of the year Schalk Burger and the way new coach Jake White has turned round the team culture should be cause for celebration whatever one’s allegiance.
• American sports fans had little else to celebrate as a plague of violence, drugs and labor strife swept across US ballparks, stadiums and arenas leaving disillusion and chaos in its wake. A year that began with pop diva Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” overshadowing the Super Bowl ends with ugly scenes of NBA players brawling in the stands with fans and a small San Francisco Bay Area laboratory sitting at the vortex of the biggest doping scandal in sport history. While there was no lack of controversy, athlete role models were in desperately short supply in the United States as some of America’s biggest sporting heroes, including San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds and sprinters Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, had their accomplishments and reputations tainted by allegations of drug use.
Even squeaky clean swimmer Michael Phelps, the US golden boy of the Athens Olympics with six gold medals, saw his halo slip when he was arrested for drunk driving. It was a year that saw Kobe Bryant spend more time in court than on one until rape charges against the Los Angeles Lakers All-Star were dismissed when his accuser decided she could not continue after a series of courthouse blunders. Indiana Pacers bad boy Ron Artest and four of his teammates will also be hoping to escape jail time for their part in one of the ugliest incidents in NBA history.
— Agencies
