The 2004 Athens Olympics ended this morning. Was contemplating whether to watch the closing ceremony live, but in the end I decided to tape it. I've only watched a little bit of it, but after looking at the pictures on the Net, I think the fireworks are really breathtaking. Anyway, think I've been suffering from a hangover the past week ever since swimming and badminton ended. Promised myself not to watch anymore Olympics, but in the end I ended up watching diving and a little bit of athletics. Think I was just really bored, trying to occupy myself with stuff so that I don't have to study. But I must say the weekend's been much better. I'm suddenly motivated to study. I think it's because I know that Prelims is like really really soon. Must've been really worried so started studying quite a bit. Oh well.. another last-minute studying..seems like that's always the case for me. I've tried but I don't think I can study way ahead. But progress has been quite slow as usual..lots of stoning. Anyway I'm kind of glad the Olympics are finally over..means I can really focus and that I can't stay up late now since there's no more Olympics to watch on TV. Think 4 years are like really fast! I don't think Sydney was that long ago.. and in 4 years' time it'll be in Beijing. Who knows what'll happen to me in 4 years' time.. but then I think the timing will be much better so I think next time I won't have to stay up in the wee hours of the morning to watch. Oh well..anyway I just recalled recently that I've kept pictures from the Sydney Olympics. But I seem to can't find them now..must've thrown them away. I think for me the Athens Olympics are much more exciting than the one in Sydney. The Sydney Games..well there was only Thorpe. In Athens..there's also Phelps..haha Sin Hui and I are always gushing about him. And I think I watch much more of the Olympics action this time round (opportunity cost is sleep) than last time round even though last time the timing was much better.
Anyway here are some moments from the Olympics that I find memorable:
Li Jiawei beating Wang Nan in q-finals, but in the end she lost in semis and bronze medal play-off match (table tennis)
Ronald Susilo beating world no. 1 Lin Dan in the first round (badminton)
Taufik Hidayat winning the men's singles gold medal - Indonesia's only gold medal from the Games
Michael Phelps winning a record 6 gold and 2 bronze medals (swimming)
Ian Thorpe winning the 200m freestyle - "race of the century" - beating Hoogenband and Phelps
South Africa winning the men's 4x100m freestyle relay in world-record time
Aaron Peirsol winning the men's 200m backstroke - he was promptly disqualified, before being reinstated
Justin Gatlin beating Maurice Greene, the G.O.A.T., in the 100m final (athletics)
Hicham El Guerrouj and Kelly Holmes winning the double - men's 1500m and 5000m; women's 800m and 1500m
This Russian girl who won the pole vault and breaking the world record
Liu Xiang winning the men's 110m hurdles for China's first Athletics gold medal, equaling the world record
Paula Radcliffe stopping in the women's marathon
USA 1-2-3 in men's 200m and 400m
USA being disqualified in the women's 4x100m relay
USA losing to Great Britain in the men's 4x100m relay by 0.01s
Nicholas Massu winning 2 gold medals in tennis - Chile's first ever in the Olympics (tennis)
Men's Synchronised 3m Springboard fiasco - the Chinese pair got zero for their final dive and went from first to last place (diving)
American Paul Hamm winning gold in the Individual All-Round despite landing badly - it was later discovered that he shouldn't have won the gold due to a judging error (gymnastics)
Crowd booing after the judges gave Alexei Nemov too low a score
The Dream Team being beaten by Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Argentina in semis (basketball)
Argentina winning gold in men's soccer and basketball - Argentina's first gold medals ever
Iraq making it to the semis by beating Portugal in the group stage and Australia in q-finals (soccer)
Kay..after writing so much about the Olympics, think I should really study now.