The Australian Olympians are home, they received a bipartisan polly reception at Sydney Airport on Wednesday morning. Let’s put the wrappers on one of the darker moments of the Aus Athens campaign… The Sally Robbins Story.

Sally, as you’ll recall, collapsed in her seat on the Australian boat during the women’s eights final on the middle Sunday. There were some narky comments from some of her team-mates, and reports that some of them were threatening to chuck her overboard. (They didn’t, but I’m surprised that John Howard didn’t say that they did. But that’s another topic.)

What we saw on display was human nature, and I don’t think anyone should be overly upset about that. The Australian Olympic Committee had a “you must bite your lip at all times” clause in the athletes’ contracts without giving any guidance as how to make that practical.

ABC’s Media Watch wrapped it all up superbly on Monday night. Here’s a collection of media coverage after the event last week:

• “Australian rower under fire after Olympic collapse“, 7.30 Report, ABC-TV 23 Aug transcript.
• “Former Olympic rower discusses Sally Robbins’ collapse“, Lateline, ABC-TV 23 Aug transcript.
• “Robbins faces abuse after Australian rowing defeat“, Lateline, ABC-TV 23 Aug transcript.
• “Australian rower speaks out after Olympic collapse“, Lateline, ABC-TV 23 Aug transcript.
• “Women rowers reconcile following Robbins collapse“, 7.30 Report, ABC-TV 24 Aug transcript.
• “Rowers show united front“, Lateline, ABC-TV 24 Aug transcript.

Unsurprisingly, the Sally Robbins story makes a Reuters list of the Games’ quirkiest moments.

I never quite finished writing the beach volleyball wrap last week. This is as far as I got:

I happen to consider beach volleyball to be one of the more successful introductions to the Olympics in the past decade or so. Not for the reasons most people would think. It’s just a womderfully athletic sport, whether male or female, highly telegenic and allows the spectators to be close to the action. A total of 104 matches played over twelve days in the two competitions. Unless Atlanta or Sydney, Athens saw beach volleyball action till midnight most evenings. Floodlit beach volleyball is a bizarre thing to watch on television. I wonder what it is like live…

I stated my views last Monday week on the use of the term “beach” volleyball, and I’ve been impressed at how the Norwegians call it “sandvolleyball”. So, from now on, sandvolleyball it shall be here.

Congratulations, then, to the medallists. For the women, Kerri Walsh and Misty May of the United States with gold, Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede of Brazil with silver, and Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs (USA) with bronze. In the men’s event, Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos of Brazil (gold), Javier Bosma and Pablo Herrera of Spain (silver), Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel of Switzerland (bronze).

Australia continued a fine Olympic tradition begun in other sports and came fourth in both competitions.

Bjorn Berg. It sounds like a typo but this 32 year-old Swede made it into the round of 16, along with his partner Simon Dahl, where they were eliminated by the Spaniards. Berg and Dahl indeed share a website (in Swedish).

Still to come: A list of the best media olympic websites that I have been following over the past three weeks, and some of the olympic blogs.

Chinese portal sina.com.cn got itself in the poo on the weekend for reporting that China had lost the women’s volleyball final to Russia… before the game was finished. Which China won. Oops.

Xinhua News Agency takes up the story.

BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhuanet) — Leading commercial website Sina.com.cn publicly apologized on Sunday for erroneously reporting that the Chinese women’s Olympic volleyball team had lost to Russia before the match had concluded.

China’s Olympics volleyball team celebrate with their gold medal at Athens August 28, 2004. China embraced its first volleyball Olympic title in 20 years after beating Russia 3-2 to finish the women’s tournament at the Athens Olympic Game.

When Russia claimed the first two sets in the match, Sina.com.cn ran as a headline story on its Olympic Channel, “Chinese Girls Made Great Effort, but Were No Match for Russia. A 20-Year Olympic Dream Goes Unfulfilled.” The title remained on the site for several minutes before being withdrawn.

A Sina.com.cn employee working on the Olympics pages told the Beijing Morning News that readers were “really unhappy” about the mistake. “We announced the failure of the Chinese women’s volleyball team before the game was finished, which had a negative effect, so we deeply apologize for what we did.”

The company explained that two preliminary reports had been prepared before the match, one to run in event of a loss, the other for a win. The appropriate article was to be updated at the conclusion of the match and uploaded to the website. Tension and carelessness both contributed to the wrong story being run, according to Sina.com.cn.

The women’s volleyball event was a particularly sensitive one for China, which last clinched a gold medal in the event 20 years ago.

(China Daily/China.org.cn)

The Games of the XXVIII Olympiad are over. Athens 2004 was not the shambles that many feared. Neil Horan, looking like a reject from an un-filmed Father Ted screenplay, was the only intrusion when far, Far, worse was feared. Yay.

The closing ceremony was a closing ceremony. A blend of solemnity and party, and the obligatory cultural piece from the host of the next Games. Memories of the inflatable kangaroos on bicycles at Atlanta 1996 have scarred my brain. Beijing’s balletic presentation on Sunday night was far more tasteful. At least until a Chinese Nikki Webster appeared out of a giant red lantern at the climax.

No less a director than Zhang Yimou was at the helm of the eight-minute Chinese spectacle. Coincidentally, his 2002 Jet Li martial-arts opus, Hero, topped the US box office this weekend.

Here’s the list of flag-bearers for each country at the closing ceremony. The one other comment I’ll make about the evening is to congratulate Jacques Rogge for not adopting the JA Samaranch sycophancy of calling each Games “the best ever”. For a report of the closing ceremony, I’ve chosen Deutsche Welle (in English).

China got 32 gold medals at Athens, three behind the US. Just think what they’ll be like at home. Maybe they should split China into separate provinces for the purposes of Beijing 2008. And start with Tibet.

I couldn’t help but note that if you add together the gold medals of Russia (27), Ukraine (9), Belarus (2), Georgia (2), Uzbekistan (2), Kazakhstan (1), Lithuania (1) and Azerbaijan (1), the old Soviet Union totalled 45 gold medals and would have finished on top.

More perverse statistics: of the eleven nations with populations of 100 million or more (source: CIA fact book), China, the USA, Russia, Japan and Brazil all did fairly well. And then there’s:

• India (pop. 1065 mil): 0 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze
• Indonesia (pop. 238 mil): 1 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze
• Pakistan (pop. 159 mil): nothing
• Bangladesh (pop. 141 mil): nothing
• Nigeria (pop. 137 mil): 0 gold, 0 silver, 2 bronze
• Mexico (pop. 105 mil): 0 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze

On the other hand, a total of 57 countries claimed at least one gold, and 75 claimed at least one medal. There’s a good piece in Monday’s Christian Science Monitor about the greater distribution of medals internationally.

Only 1439 days till the start of Beijing 2008. Here’s the BOCOG website… spot the non-Y2K compliance!

What is it about the marathon that attracts serial pests? It was bad enough in 2000 when Peter Hore ran onto the course, but at least he didn’t get to do anything. Neil Horan went one better at Athens, by charging onto the course at about the 35km stage and tackling Brazil’s Vanderlei de Lima, who was the leader at the time. De Lima managed to carry on but faded away to third place.

Horan’s previous claim to fame was running onto the track during the 2003 British Formula One Grand Prix to, in his words, “promote the Bible”. Personally, I think Horan should have shown a bit more flair and did his thing, not at the marathon, but during the swimming leg of the triathlon. Go and swim out and drag the leader underwater. Good advertisement for the baptism segments of the Bible, that one.

Italy’s Stefano Baldini finished in first place. He said afterwards that he would have run de Lima down regardless of the incident. Reports on the race from La Gazzetta dello Sport, Jornal do Brasil, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Plus the UCLA’s coverage of Meb Keflezighi’s silver.

Marcel Matinin of Slovakia was last of the 81 to finish, with a time of 2:50:26. Timor Leste’s Gil da Cruz Trinidade was one of 20 runners who didn’t complete the race.

Earlier in the day, Denmark won a ripper of a women’s handball final over South Korea. It was 29-29 at full-time and 34-34 after extra time before the Danes won the penalty shootout 4-2. Handball is a wonderfully fast sport that is virtually unknown in Australia, and the screening of the game live in the early evening on SBS would have really opened some viewers eyes I suspect. Here’s the play-by-play of the game, a report from Reuters, and a Danish report from Politiken. Croatia beat Germany in the men’s final, 26-24.

For what it’s worth, here is the Australian Handball Federation website.

In the men’s volleyball, Brazil beat Italy 25-15, 24-26, 25-20, 25-22. Reports from Xinhua, and once again, Jornal do Brasil and La Gazzetta dello Sport. Tournament MVP was Brazil’s Gilberto Godoy Filho. And yes he has a personal web site.

Hungary dominated the men’s water polo yet again with an 8-7 win over Serbia and Montenegro.

Great Moments in Socialism Update: Chinese track gold medallists Liu Xiang and Xing Huina will be given a million yuan each by a Beijing real-estate agent.

Finally, Bimbo Report: Let’s go shopping in Athens with Jennie Finch (Windows media video.)

Final wrap of Athens 2004 to come (as if I can restrain myself to one wrap, yeah right).

You can just see Steve Cram dribbling over his keyboard as he wrote his BBC Online recap of Saturday night’s athletics. But you can probably close off the polling for the 2004 BBC Sportsperson of the Year right now. Kelly Holmes has it in the bag. She won the 1500 metres to add to her 800 crown earlier in the week.

Another of the leading candidates for Athlete of the Games would have to be Hicham El Guerrouj from Morocco. He completed an extremely rare double on Saturday night, winning the 5000 after taking the 1500 last Tuesday. It’s so rare a double that only Paavo Nurmi has done it before, at Paris 1924. “Magnifique, explosif, époustouflant” says Morocco’s Le Matin. Mais oui.

Great Britain, who started their gold medal so slowly in these Games, added the men’s 4×100 relay to their treasure chest in another upset loss by the Americans.

Yelena Slesarenko is the new queen of women’s high jump, with a mark of 2.06 metres. Hestrie Cloete of South Africa took silver, which was immediately tarnished by the conduct of her family and friends as NOC president Sam Ramsamy presented Hestrie with her medal. South Africa’s Sunday Times reports what happened next.

Argentina had failed to win a gold medal at any olympics since Helsinki 1952. Saturday, they won two. Their soccer team beat Paraguay 1-0 in a final which had a 10am kickoff. This event was a milestone for Paraguay as well, being their first ever Olympic medal. Paraguay’s La Nacion picks up the story in Spanish.

Argentina’s second gold for Saturday was the climax of an extraordinary men’s basketball tournament, as they defeated Italy 84-69 in the final. Here are the match stats, reports from Argentina’s La Nacion, Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport, and NBCOlympics.com. The San Antonio Spurs are the only NBA team with an Athens gold medallist on their roster, namely Manu Ginobili.

The Team Formerly Known As Dream took the bronze medal by defeating the hapless Lithuanians. A moment of farce (well, 45 minutes actually) as the start of the match was delayed while a clash of uniforms between the two teams was resolved with the US having to change theirs. This game was but an anticlimax, as the US women had earlier beaten the Australian Opals 74-63. Here’s the match stats and Sydney’s Sun-Herald’s report.

Back to the men’s basketball one last time, Team Espana maintained their record of being the only team in the tournament to lose only one game. They beat China 92-76 on Saturday morning to finish seventh. Pau Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies averaged 22.4 points per game for Spain in the Olympics.

Ginobili and the USA’s Lisa Leslie were voted MVPs of the men’s and women’s tournaments respectively.

A thrilling women’s volleyball tournament finished on Saturday night with China defeating Russia 28-30, 25-27, 25-20, 25-23, 15-12 in two hours 19 minutes. Here’s the play-by-play and the Xinhua News Agency report. Cuba beat Brazil in four sets to take bronze.

Australia had their most successful Games in diving this year, with six medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze). Sailing was a different matter. Twenty countries picked up medals in the regatta. Australia was not one of them. A remarkable turnaround from tradition. So much for Colin Beashel carrying the flag at the opening ceremony!

Finally, there is no truth in the rumour that Waterford Crystal will be carrying the flag for Ireland in Sunday’s closing ceremony. Or that George W Bush is on his way to Athens to congratulate Georgia’s two gold medallists, and to lend his support for the 2012 Olympic bid by Paris, Texas.

Waterford Crystal won the 8.40 jump at Markopoulo on Friday night. The thirteen year-old gelding, ridden by C.O’Connor and trained by J.Doyle, finished a neck in front of French-born Brazilian stallion Baloubet de Rouet (R.Pessoa), who took second place in a photo over US stallion Royal Kaliber (C.Kappler).

Waterford Crystal has done what no human has been able to achieve at Athens 2004 - win a gold medal for Ireland. www.horsesport.ie attempts to give credit for the victory to the jockey.

Dividends for the trifecta of 336, 313 and 374 have yet to be declared. In other news, the Extra Double on Paula Radcliffe in the 10,000 and the US team in the women’s 4×100 both failing to finish paid $1.05.

Birgit Fischer won her eighth gold medal on Friday morning in the 500 metre K4’s, capping an Olympic career that began at Moscow 1980. Writing in the message board on the official Birgit Fischer website, Kevin summed up the sentiments of all of us when he said:

SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER BIRGIT DU BIST EINFACH KLASSE!!
nochmal herzlichen Gl�ckwunsch zum Gold gestern und zur Silber-medaillie heute!!!
auf nach Peking 2008!!!!!!!!
liebe gr��e aus m�ggelheim an die beste Kanutin der Welt!!

Another remarkable serial gold medallist was Poland’s Robert Korzeniowski, who completed a three-peat in the 50km road walk. Together with the 20km road walk in Sydney, he now has four gold medals. He, too, has his own official website. Feel free to post your own “Brawo Brawo Brawo” message to his forum. Bob has his own designer label range of clothing. You can pick up one of his T-shirts for a cool 29,95 zloty (plus, I presume, postage and handling).

Friday was a tempestuous day in the taekwondo hall, with the Central African Republic’s Bertrand Gbongo Liango was kicked in the head by Tuncay Caliskan of Austria in their 68kg bout. He was taken to hospital unconscious, but only after he had been counted out by the referee. His condition was reported to be stable. He was released from hospital on Saturday morning.

Technical controller Oh Young Youl (that’s his name, not a song title) gave a press conference, and the Olympic News Service distributed some quotes, which I publish here without comment:

On the scoring system:

“Computers make mistakes, so far I see no mistakes.”

On the number of protests by coaches:

“Maybe many coaches are too eager to win. These are the Olympics.”

On Bertrand GBONGO LIANGO (CAF) being counted out while face down and unconscious before first aid was called:

“I think the referee was behind and could not see his expression (when he was kicked). Sometimes people lie before continuing. That is why he counted.”

On the Italian athlete Carlo MOLFETTA, and the stoppage of his contest after receiving a head kick:

“The safety officer inspected him and said he should be inspected, therefore for safety reasons the contest was stopped.”

(By the way, the gall of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). I type in “Gbongo Liango” and it asks me “Did you mean: Bingo Lingo”?)

The Saving Grace Sixty-Eight! kilo division of the men’’s taekwondo was eventually won by Hadi Saei Bonehkohal of Iran, wearing bib number Was She Worth It Fifty-Six. Chih Hsiung Huang of Taiwan (Five Dozen SIX-TY!!!) took silver, with Song Myeong-Soeb (South Korea, Make Them Wait Fifty Eight) the bronze. \r\n\r\nItaly beat Iraq 1-0 for the men’’s soccer bronze medal, but the match was played in the shadow of the murder of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni in Iraq on Thursday. Here are some comments from the FIFA  press conference held prior to the game.\r\n\r\nFollowing up on the final day of the men’’s hockey, in which Australia won their first-ever gold medal in the event, here as promised are some more reports:\r\n\r\nThe Telegraph reports on Britain’’s win over South Africa for ninth spot. Former Indian hockey captain Vasudevan Bhaskaran comments on India’’s 5-2 win over South Korea for seventh. Khalid Hussain of The News reports on Pakistan’’s 4-2 win over New Zealand for fifth. And I'’ve gone back to El Mundo for a Spanish look at their 4-3 loss to Germany in the bronze medal game.\r\n\r\nFinally, that most dubious of sports, synchronised swimming. How this got into the Games without a men’’s event I do not know. How this got into the Games in any case is beyond me. Still, I'’m fascinated by Friday’’s happenings in the pool. Russia won the gold medal in the team’’s event (that’’s 8 of them) had to restart their routine after their music broke down. They still got perfect 10′’s for their performance. Japan took silver, and the USA bronze. US team-member Tammy Crow will be taking her bronze medal with her to jail when she gets home, to serve a 90-day sentence for vehicular manslaughter.\r\n\r\nAnd in what has to be The Costume Of The Games, the Spanish team paid tribute to Salvadore Dali, whose 100th birth anniversary came up in June, by wearing cozzies featuring his photo, and performing a ballet based upon his famous clock. They came fourth.

“What was easily the worst day of the Athens Games for the United States team also could be considered among the nation’s worst at any Olympics.” So said the unbylined Associated Press reporter discussing USA’s performance in Athens on Friday.

The Dream Team lost its semi-final to Argentina. The womens 4×100 relay team failed to finish their final. There won’t be American diver on the medal dais for the first time since 1912. Only one US boxer will win a medal… Oh woe is US!

Colin Powell was so upset, he cancelled a planned visit to Athens at the last minute.

“Of the 20 gold medals available at the Olympics on Friday, only one went to an American,” the AP report says. Reality check: the US is still ahead on both the gold medal count and (by a wide margin) the overall medal count, and yes they still won 1 gold on Friday. What of the 147 competing countries who have not won a single gold medal in the entire fortnight.

America’s solitary hero for Friday was Timothy Mack, who cleared 5.95m to win the pole vault. Toby Stevenson cleared 5.90m to make it a US quinella. Mack is of the three nominees for the NBC’s Kleenex Moment of the Day for Friday. The others? The women’s basketball team for winning their semi-final, and Nia Abdallah winning a silver medal in the 57kg women’s taekwondo.

The Great Basketball Calamity is one that everyone should have seen a mile off. USA lost to Argentina 89-81. Here is a report in Spanish from Argentina’s La Nacion. NBA.com’s Athens Blog was surprisingly upbeat about the loss, rightfully calling the tournament “arguably the most competitive ever”.

A bigger upset was the loss by Lithuania to Italy in the other semi-final, 100-91. The good folk of La Gazzetta dello Sport loved it. Lithuania will be going for a four-peat bronze medal against the US later today. I think they’ll get it.

There was sympathy for Spain, whose acrimonious quarter-final loss to the US was their only defeat in the tournament. In comparison, Argentina and Italy go into the final having both lost two games. (Just going back to the US-Spain quarter-final, here is El Mundo’s report of the game, and comment by Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post.)

I’ve only picked up on this today, but NBA.com’s coverage of the Athens basketball tournament is quite outstanding.

Marion Jones… Lauryn Williams… what happened? A botched baton change brought the US’s 4×100 relay campaign to a halt on the back straight. (Or, if you were sitting on the non-dignitary side of the stadium, the near straight. Or, if you were in the pleb seats, those tiny dots down there.) ESPN.com reports on the decline of Marion Jones, but I leave the final word on this race to the Jamaica Gleaner, the national newspaper of the gold medallists.

If it was a bad day for the US, China’s historic day on the track deserves acknowledgement. Lui Xiang became China’s first ever gold medallist on the track, winning the men’s 110 hurdles. Later in the evening, Xing Huina won the women’s 10,000. Xinhua News Agency gloats.

There’s a scary thought here… if China is doing so well in Athens, how many gold will they pick up in Beijing?

I never thought I’d see this day come. After following 28 years of near and not so near misses, I wake up this morning to see Channel 7’s Randy Hobbits announcing that the Kookaburras - Australia’s men’s hockey team - had won the gold medal. It was Australia’s first olympic gold in men’s hockey, and ended Holland’s dream of a three-peat.

Australia defeated the Netherlands 2-1 with a penalty corner in sudden-death extra time, following a Dutch infringement in front of goal. The Kookas were ecstatic. Not quite so the Dutch contingent.

Reports: Sydney Morning Herald, De Telegraaf (in Dutch), Associated Press. Here are the match stats.

Germany beat Spain 4-3 in sudden-death extra time to take bronze. More reports and reaction from Friday’s hockey later.

Great stuff Australia!

It’s 1pm Friday in Athens, 8pm here in Sydney on a balmy Friday evening in late winter. We’re getting down to the Bismuth End of the Athens Games. Here’s where the team sports are up to:

Basketball: Women’s semi-finals, starting from 9.30pm Sydney time: Russia v USA and Australia v Brazil. It’s hard to go past the Dream Teamettes and the Opals in these. Men’s semis, from 3am Saturday my time: Argentina v USA and Italy v Lithuania. You don’t really know with the Dream Team these days, but I think my money is on Lithuania now for the gold. USA are currently the mens favourites with PaddyPower at 1.67, Lithuania 2.50, Italy 9.00, Argentina 16.00.

Soccer: With USA having won the women’s gold on Thursday, Iraq play Italy for bronze on Friday night, with Argentina playing Paraguay in a 10am local time kickoff on Saturday. Geez, even in Sydney the soccer final didn’t start till midday! Argentina are short priced favourites, but anything can happen in Olympic soccer. My trifecta: Paraguay, Argentina, Iraq (which will make them happy at the RNC next week).

Handball: The only sport in which Australia does not enter a team. Men’s semis today: Croatia v Hungary and Germany v Russia. In the women’s event, France v South Korea and Denmark v Ukraine. I don’t have a clue here sorry… Finals are not till Sunday, the bronze medal matches tomorrow.

Hockey: The Germans won their first women’s hockey gold yesterday. This evening, the German men play Spain for bronze, Australia play the Netherlands for gold starting at 3.30am Saturday Sydney time. This is one event where I will let parochialism run riot. Holland are favourites with PaddyPower at 1.53, Australia are 2.37. And Spain for bronze, if only to keep the Telediario crew happy tomorrow morning. (I’ve just put two euros on the Aussies.)

Volleyball: The Peace and Friendship Stadium sounds like somewhere the Hussein brothers would torture the Iraqi national football team after another loss. But it has been the scene of some great action over the past two weeks. Men’s semis tonight: Russia v Italy and USA v Brazil. I wouldn’t be unhappy to see an Italy-Brazil final. Saturday night, the women’s competition wraps up. Brazil plays Cuba for bronze, Russia and China for gold. China will do me. The men’s medal games are on Sunday afternoon.

Water polo: The women’s event is over, and congratulations to Italy. The men’s semi-finals are on tonight. Hungary play Russia and Greece play Serbia & Montenegro. Medal games on Sunday. I’ve never seen so many events continue on the final day right up almost till the closing ceremony starts. I’ll go with HUN to beat SCG.

The final classification matches in the men’s hockey have all been completed now. Pakistan are 5th, beating New Zealand 4-2. India are 7th, beating South Korea 5-2. Great Britain are 9th. They were 1-1 with South Africa after extra time and won the penalty shootout 4-3.

We’ve come a long way since Rick DeMont lost his swimming gold medal because of his asthma spray in 1972. Are there really more drug cheats in the Olympics these days or is the IOC just doing a better job of catching them? Two words: (i) East. (ii) Germany. Two more words: (iii) Stella. (iv) Walsh.

Since the start of these Games, the following medal-winners have been disqualified because of drug breaches:

• Leonidas Samparis (Greece), bronze in 62kg weightlifting (Israel Jose Rubio of Venezuela the beneficiary)
• Irina Korzhanenko (Russia), gold in the women’s shot put at Olympia (Yumileidi Cumba of Cuba receiving gold)
• Robert Fazekas (Hungary), gold in the men’s discus (the gold going to Virgilijius Alekna of Lithuania)
• Olena Olefirenko (Ukraine), bronze in the women’s quad sculls (the Australian team taking bronze)

Thursday was a good day for countries entering the Gold Medal roll of honour for the first time. Taiwan (Wikipedia explains some of this “Chinese Taipei” nonsense) broke their duck when Chen Hsih Hsin won the women’s 49kg taekwondo final. The very next event on the mat saw them go one better, Chu Mu Yen winning the men’s 58kg event. Here is how Xinhua reported the double victory for the island China likes to think of as “Taiwan Province”.

The Dominican Republic scored their first gold medal on Thursday night, albeit with an athlete born and raised in the USA. Felix Sanchez won the 400 hurdles with a time of 47.63 seconds. He was born in New York, but his parents are from the Dominican Republic and he has represented them internationally since 1999. Sanchez is a product of the University of Southern California, who proudly boast that they have had at least one gold medal in every summer Olympics since 1912. Hoy in the Dominican Republic reports Sanchez’s victory (in Spanish).

USC has been rather more successful in Olympic competition than Egypt. Karam Mohammed Gager Ibragim, as Karam Ibrahim is known on the FILA database, won the 96kg greco-roman wrestling to be Egypt’s first gold medallist since 1948.

New Zealand, who took home more gold medals from Los Angeles 1984 than Australia, picked up their third at Athens when Hamish Carter won the men’s triathlon.

The women’s hockey, water polo and soccer all wrapped up on Thursday. Germany beat the Netherlands 2-1 to take the hockey gold. Here’s the Reuters report of the game, and the Frankfurter Rundschau report in German. Argentina beat China (apparently known as the “Snow Lotuses”) 1-0 for bronze. Xinhua tipped me off about the nickname. South Africa consigned Spain to the wooden spoon with a 4-3 extra time win. The Hockeyroos finished fifth. They’ve never been less successful than that. Meanwhile, Mihir Bose of the Telegraph paints a gloomy picture of the future of British hockey.

Water polo, and a double-overtime 10-9 win to Italy over Greece. La Gazetta dello Sport has the story in Italian. USA beat Australia 6-5 for the bronze.

Soccer: The USA did it. 2-1 in extra time against Brazil. George Vecsey of the New York Times reports on what might be the end of the road for the 91ers. Notre Dame have claimed gold for the third time in their history, with Shannon Boxx and Kate Sobrero Markgraf being members of Team USA. Germany beat Sweden 1-0 for bronze.

Next: Preview of the last three days of team sports, and an extremely multilingual wrap of the beach volleyball.