Top moment of the Olympics?

[Point forward]

Maybe a bit premature, but what is your Top Moment of the 2008 Olympics?

Mine is Usain Bolt 100m, thumping his chest at the 80m mark and STILL running a new WR.

[The Raging Bull]

For me personally, there are a few.

1. Australian Sally McLellen getting silver in the 100m hurdles. This girl wasn't even expected to make the Semi-Final yet she got to the Final and ended up beating the favourite (Lolo) and came second. This girl is full of character, you can tell how hard she worked just to make it to the games and comes home with a silver. Amazing achievement.

2. Australian Anna Mears getting silver in the Womens Cycling. This girl nearly died 7 months ago and was millimeters away from being in a wheelchair for the rest of her life after a terrible cycling accident. 7 months down the track she ends up getting a silver medal at the games. Unbelievable.

3. That German guy getting the Gold in the weight lifting. His wife died in a car crash 3 years ago and was saving to come with him to the Olympics. He ended up lifting more than he's EVER lifted in his life to snatch the Gold medal away from the Russian. You could tell how much it meant to him, he kissed the photo of his wife and held it up. What a champion.

[eyeatoma]

Usain Bolt, without a doubt...both the 100 and 200m finals were spectacular athletic feats.

[DakkaFromNyc]

Team Usa Rally 4 new record.. look at ^^ avatar and u'll no what im talkin bout

.aka Phelps fifth medal and race

[Bullsmaniac]

This summer's Olympics has had a few record breakers.

Michael Phelps 8 gold medals
Usain Bolt breaking Michael Johnson's record
Walsh and May 2nd gold medals in women's volleyball in a row
Both U.S men and U.S women volleyball teams won gold (1st time this ever happened)

I'm sure there's more that I've missed.

[SportsWorld]

That mens relay race was probably my favorite moment of these Olympics.

[studcrackers]

the mens relay.

but if you were watching around 3:30 last night to see the men's beach volleyball it was very impressive, they just lost the 2nd set and seemingly lost all momentum then dallhauser, this 6'8 v-ball player for the US just went apesh*t in the 3rd and final set. he mustve had about 7 points on blocks alone, anything the brazillians tried to get past him he'd stuff back in there face. THAT was domination. ive found myself watching volleyball whenever ive seen it on, men or womens

i didnt get to see bolt and youtube doesnt allow nbc links, i saw a clip of his 200 M, just amazing

[LLJ]

Hmm:

1. Both the U.S. men's and women's relay team dropping the baton.
2. Yelena Isinbayeva
3. The Swedish wrestling guy placing his medal ever so gingerly on the ground and walking away.
4. Lolo Jones


Those are 4 of the best moments in my mind. Records are broken all the time. These 4 things do not.

[Da Schwab]

The men's 4x100 relay to beat those g-ddamn French and Phelps edging Cavic by .01 were both moments I'll remember for as long as I live.

Yao hitting the 3 pointer was pretty cool, too.

[5DOM]

3. That German guy getting the Gold in the weight lifting. His wife died in a car crash 3 years ago and was saving to come with him to the Olympics. He ended up lifting more than he's EVER lifted in his life to snatch the Gold medal away from the Russian. You could tell how much it meant to him, he kissed the photo of his wife and held it up. What a champion.

yeah, that was pretty touching.

[Bit's]

The german guy of weight lifting was the best. For me was the best moment, very emotional

The guy is a true champion, deserved a lot to win the gold medal.

------

For Brazil was our two gold medals.

First with Cesar Cielo, the fastest guy in the swimming!!! He won the 50m without difficult over Alain Bernard, Sullivan, so it was realy nice.

And today, Maurren Maggi won the long jump and became the first woman to win a gold medal for Brazil!!!

[CJ_18]

from what ive seen:

1. Phelps winning the 100 M butterfly by .001

2. Bolt Winning the 100 M while spreading his arms and thumping his chest

3. Phelps winning his 8th Gold

[Point forward]

Matthias Steiner (that is the weightlifter mentioned above) is a great story. He wins Gold, smashing his own personal best by 8 kilos (!!). Not to mention that his wife died before AND he is a diabetic AND that he is actually Austrian, but the Austrian weight lifting NT kicked him out. When he was injured during a WC and did not participate, the Austrians thought he was a malingerer and banned him for life. Steiner became German via his late wife and then showed em who was the real loser!

[Tom Baker]

Hmm:

1. Both the U.S. men's and women's relay team dropping the baton.
2. Yelena Isinbayeva
3. The Swedish wrestling guy placing his medal ever so gingerly on the ground and walking away.
4. Lolo Jones


Those are 4 of the best moments in my mind. Records are broken all the time. These 4 things do not.

Well, if that's the way you're playing, then I'll add this:

5. In the bronze medal match for men's Taekwondo, the Cuban gets injured (opponent thought he had a broken toe), takes more than the 1 minute allowed for his injury time-out so gets disqualified, then gets up and kicks the referee in the face. Looks like he was good to go after all. And it looks like he and his coach will be banned for life.

This summer's Olympics has had a few record breakers.

Michael Phelps 8 gold medals
Usain Bolt breaking Michael Johnson's record
Walsh and May 2nd gold medals in women's volleyball in a row
Both U.S men and U.S women volleyball teams won gold (1st time this ever happened)

I'm sure there's more that I've missed.

Walsh and Traynor were the story I followed most. Incredible feat. Between 2004 and 2008 (the two Olympic gold medals), they won 3 world championships and never lost a match of even a game. Complete and utter dominance.

Plus for the "best moment", for the gold medal point, instead of doing the usual 3-touch bump/set/smash, Walsh surprised the Chinese team by looking like she was going to set for Misty May and then doing a 180 in the air and smashing the ball straight down between the stunned defenders. Perfect way to end their historic run.

And now they're likely going to hang it up and retire on top.

HONOURABLE MENTION:

In the triathalon, Simon Whitfield (Canada) who won the first ever gold medal in the event in (IIRC) Sydney, was something like 58 seconds behind the leaders after the cycling segment but managed to rally to catch up. During the final lap in the stadium itself, he managed to pass the three leaders but the German runner passed him back in the final seconds to take gold. Whitfield took silver by mere seconds. The guy who was leading most of the 3rd segments of the race fell back to 4th.

One of the best come from behind wins I've ever seen.

[Whiteman]

A few faves:
- Usain Bolt in the 100 and 200m
- Steiner, the weight lifter
- Tia Hellebaut, high jump, breaking her PR to beat the invincible Vlasic, giving Belgium their first and only gold medal.
- Maarten van der Weijden, marathon swimming. After surviving leukemia 7 years ago, he gets his career back on track and wins olympic gold. His buddy Pieter van den Hoogenband was in the studio during the race and went absolutely ****, yelling and cheering so much he nearly lost his voice.

[BlackMamba]

for me in the following order:
- 2 gold medals for mexico in taekwondo
- bolt's 100 and 200
- phelps race vs. cavic and the relay vs. france and lezak winning it
- bronze medal for mexico in sync diving

[hsb]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-C9m3Vzuno

[Bullsmaniac]

My favorite moments and most memorable were...

Mens relay with Lezak coming from behind to win.

Shaun Johnson FINALLY winning gold, that girl's smile is infectious.

Nastia winning the all around especially since so much of the gymnastic meet has had questionable judging and scores.

Men's gynmastic when that guy won the silver and the team won bronze w/o the Ham brothers.

Bolt's first win, pumping his chest to the finish line and he kept on going.

Walsh and May keeping their winning streak and the gold!
Men's beach volleyball winning gold!

Men's indoor volleyball winning GOLD and their coach who's father in-law was murdered. That's so sad.

Seeing Coach K with all the guys' gold medals around his neck!! much deserved!!!

Forgot to add.. Craig Seger asking Lebron after the U.S won gold..
"So what can you say to the non-fans who called you Lebronze after the last Olympics?"
LOL Lebron looked surprised like he never heard that before and said "Witness Gold"

[Blame Rasho]

3. That German guy getting the Gold in the weight lifting. His wife died in a car crash 3 years ago and was saving to come with him to the Olympics. He ended up lifting more than he's EVER lifted in his life to snatch the Gold medal away from the Russian. You could tell how much it meant to him, he kissed the photo of his wife and held it up. What a champion.

I saw that that gave me goosebumps....

[Blame Rasho]

Found the montage...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XX5vnm60os