A look a Paralympian Esther Vergeer from the Netherlands, the world’s top-ranked wheelchair tennis player and the defending Paralympic Gold Medalist in womens singles and doubles.

It was a Dutchman, Maarten van der Weijden, that finished first for the Gold Medal on Thursday in the first ever 10k swimming marathon, despite Great Britain’s David Davies leading for most of the race. Davies and Bronze Medalist, Thomas Lurz of Germany both drifted to the outside at the finish, allowing van der Weijden to win the race.
Van der Weijden’s victory is even more surprising since he was diagnosed with leukemia in 2001 and struggled with it through 2003, before being regaining his health and returning to swimming.

Anky van Grunsven of the Netherlands (on Salinero) edged out the competition in the individual dressage event to win the Gold Medal, her three straight Gold Medal in this event (and the horse’s second). Germans Isabell Werth (on Satchmo) and Heike Kemmer (on Bonaparte) took the Silver and Bronze Medals, respectively. American Steffen Peters (on Raven) finished fourth.

The women of the United States team bested the Romanians and Dutch for the Gold Medal in the signature event of the women’s rowing competition, the eight-man rowing event. They finished with a time of 6:05.34.

Mongolia’s Tuvshinbayer Naidan won the Gold Medal in the men’s 100kg judo competition on Thursday, giving his country its first ever Olympic Gold Medal. Askhat Zhitkeyv of Kazakhstan won the Silver Medal and Movlud Miraliyev of Azerbaijan and Henk Grol of the Netherlands tied for the Bronze Medal.
Mongolia is small country of approximately three million residents, located north of China. They have won 15 previous medals, including a Silver Medal in shooting in Beijing, but Naidan’s is the first Gold for the country.

The equestrian events continued in Hong Kong on Thursday and the Germans continued their dominance of the sport at the Beijing Games. Team Germany (anchored by Isabell Werth on Satchmo) won the Gold Medal in Team Dressage, their seventh straight Gold in that event. The Silver Medal went to the Netherlands (anchored by Anky van Grunsven on Salinero) and the Bronze went to Denmark (anchored by Andreas Helgstrand on Don Schufro), the first team dressage Olympic medal ever for that country. The United States finished in fourth place. The Canadians finished in ninth place.
The team dressage event also acts as …read more

Wednesday was opening day for Olympic baseball, with eight of the sixteen teams competing. The United States lost to South Korea 8-7; the Canadians walloped the Chinese 10-0; and Taiwan won over the Netherlands 5-0. Defending Gold Medalists, Team Cuba won over Japan 4-2.Each team plays seven preliminary games in the Olympic competition, with the four team with the best record in those games advancing to the semi-final elimination round.