China’s athletes earned more than twice the number of Medals than Great Britain, who ended the Paralympic Games in second place in the Medal count. Chinese athletes, including runner Li Yansong pictured above, were awarded a total of 211 Medals (89 Gold, 70 Silver, and 52 Bronze). Great Britain earned a total of 102 (42 Gold, 29 Silver, and 31 Bronze). The United States ended the Games with 99 Medals and Ukraine was fourth with 74 total Medals. Canada was awarded 50 Medals, putting them in seventh place overall.
(photo © Newscom)

Ukranian athlete, Lyudmila Blonska, who was stripped of her Silver Medal in the heptathlon at the Beijing Games, has received a lifetime Olympic ban, according to the Ukranian Olympic Committee. Blonska tested positive for methyltestosterone on August 17 and was removed from the Games. This was her second offense. Blonska tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol in 2003. Her coach/husband, Serhiy Blonsky also received a lifetime ban.

The track and field events of the XXIX Olympiad concluded on Saturday. Here are the results:

The American women took the Gold Medal in the women’s 4×400m relay, with anchor Sanya Richards passing Russian, Anastasia Kapachinskaya in the final meters. The Russian women took the Silver Medal and the Jamaican team earned the Bronze. In addition to Richards, the US team included Allyson Felix, Monique Henderson, and Mary Weinberg.

Nancy Langat of Kenya took the Gold Medal in the women’s 1500m event, followed by Iryna Lishchynskia and Nataliya Tobias of Ukraine for the Silver and Bronze Medals, respectively. American Shannon Rowbury finished …read more

The action continued at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing on Friday. Here are the results:

In the women’s 5000m event, Ethiopa’s Tirunesh Dibaba Kenene took the Gold Medal, her second of the Beijing Olympic Games. She was followed to the finish line by Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey for the Silver Medal and Meseret Defar Tola of Ethiopia for the Bronze Medal.
Dibaba also won the Gold Medal in the women’s 10,000 event. She is the first woman to win both long distance events in a single Olympics. American Kara Goucher finished ninth.

In the womens long jump competition, Brazil’s Maurren Higa Maggi …read more

Lyudmyla Blonska of Ukraine has been forced to relinquish the Silver Medal that she was awarded in the womens heptathlon event after testing positive for steroid use, the International Olympic Committee announced on Friday. She had been temporarily suspended and removed from the long jump competition on Thursday pending verification of the test results. The official ban was made on Friday.
This is the second doping offense for Blonska and she faces a possible lifetime Olympic ban. Sanctions may also be taken against her coach, Sergei Blonsky.
Blonska’s removal gives Hyleas Fountain of the United States the Silver Medal in the heptathlon …read more

The men’s individual gymnastics competition concluded on Tuesday. The Chinese made a strong showing, seizing three of the four individual Gold Medals. Below are the results:
In the horizontal bar, Zou Kai of China earned the Gold Medal. Jonathon Horton of the United States took the Silver Medal and Fabian Hambuechen of Germany took the Bronze.
On the parallel bars, Li Xiaoping of China earned the Gold Medal. Yoo Wonchui of South Korea earned the Silver and Anton Fokin of Uzebekistan earned the Bronze.
On the vault, Leszek Blanik of Poland took the Gold Medal, Thomas Bouhil of France earned the Silver and …read more

There was plenty of action in the track and field events over at the Bird’s Nest, including the sweep of the women’s 100m event by the Jamaican women. Below are the other results of the day:

Stephanie Brown Trafton won the Gold Medal in the women’s discus throw, followed by Yarelys Barrios of Cuba and Olena Antonova of Ukraine.

In the women’s 3000m steeplechase event, Russia’s Gulnava Galkina-Samitova earned the Gold Medal with a world record timeof 8:58.81. Kenya’s Eunice Jepkoir received the Silver Medal and Russia’s Ekaterina Volkova earned the Bronze.

Francoise Mbango Etone of the African nation of Cameroon won the …read more

Liu Chunhong of China earned the Gold Medal in the women’s 69kg weighlifting event, the 6th Gold for the Chinese weighlifters. Liu, the defending Olympic champion in this event, set a world record in the snatch, the clean and jerk, and in total points.
Oxana Silvenko of Russia earned the Silver Medal and Natalya Davydova of Ukraine was awarded the Bronze.

China took their fourth Gold Medal in synchronized diving in four days on Wednesday to sweep the synchronized diving events…to no one’s surprise. The Chinese have dominated this elegant sport since it became an Olympic sport in 2000 at the Sydney Games.
China’s Wang Feng and Qin Kai won the men’s 3m springboard event with a total of 469.08 points, a staggering 47.10 points ahead of the Silver Medal Russia team of Dmitry Sautin and Yuriy Konakov. Illya Kvasha and Oleksiy Prygorov of Ukraine took the Bronze Medal.
Individual diving events begin on Saturday.

Well, I’m talking about the Draw for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
It’s a list of the qualified countries divided into groups which will play during the finals group stage that can somehow be translated to a “how-to-get-rid-of-World-Cup-wannabes” process.
There is a mixture of opinions and emotions about the draw. I reckon particularly in Australia since it’s their first time to qualify for the World Cup in years only to get Brazil in the draw or England who got Sweden, a team they haven’t beaten in 37 years. But you’ll never know. I do believe that anything …read more