Kickin’ him around
Gold medalist Steven Lopez handed a present to Iraq’s Raid Rasheed before their first-round matchup — a U.S. taekwondo T-shirt.
The gesture didn’t help him win friends in the crowd.
Fans were against Lopez from the start Saturday, chanting “Iraq!” and repeatedly drowning out a small group of American fans with boos. Lopez began his drive to a second straight Olympic gold medal with a 12-0 win in the 176-pound (80kg) class.
“The United States is the best country,” he said. “It’s the strongest country, the most powerful country, and everyone’s envious. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Olympics, World Cup, world championships. Everyone always wants the United States to lose.”
Lopez beat Bahri Tanrikulu of Turkey later Saturday to win the gold medal.
U.S. men settle for bronze
It wasn’t the color of preference when the U.S. men’s basketball team arrived at the Athens Olympics two weeks ago, but after Saturday night’s 104-96 victory over Lithuania, bronze had a nice glint.
“We wanted gold,” said Shawn Marion, the Phoenix Suns’ forward, who scored 22 points to lead his team, “but I’ll take anything right now.”
“This is perhaps the hardest game I’ve ever been involved in,” said U.S. coach Larry Brown. “To come back after that loss (to Argentina), with all the expectations that were on this team, and to win tonight, well, it is as great thing for USA basketball.”
Winter Games up next
As soon as the flame is extinguished in Athens tonight, the clock starts ticking in Italy.
Seventeen-and-a-half months from now — 530 days to be exact — the Olympic flame will be ignited at the opening ceremony of the Winter Games in Turin.
Turin, the industrial capital of the northwestern Piedmont region, will be the first Italian city to host the Winter Olympics since Cortina D’Ampezzo in 1956.
Attention shifts to China
Activists hope to use the Olympics’ closing ceremony as a way to send the world a message about human rights abuses in China, the next host of the Summer Games.
At the closing, Chinese organizers will stage an eight-minute ceremony and receive the Olympic flag. Protesters are asking spectators to withhold applause during that ceremony to bring the alleged problems in China into focus.
“Lots of people are still suffering under the current situation,” said Wangpo Tethong, spokesman of the International Tibet Support Network.
It’s hard to know if 75,000 people attending the celebration will refrain from clapping. But protestors hope to at least draw attention to the human-rights issues in China.