People Top 5

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4 Jon & Kate's Divorce Could Be Finalized by Year's End

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September 13, 2004
Vol. 62
No. 11

Grecian Formula

By Bob Meadows

Throw in Pregame Jitters, Add Two Weeks of Great Dazzling Games. The Result? An Olympics to Remember

Note to Beijing: None of this year's dire predictions about the Olympics came to pass. Greece was not crippled by strikes, beset by blackouts or attacked by terrorists. Sure, there were doping scandals and judging controversies, but the Games also wowed 203 million U.S. viewers with Michael Phelps, the Iraqi soccer team and beach volleyball. "I had great fun," admitted Svetlana Khorkina, the diva-like Russian gymnast. As Athens digs out from its biggest party ever, here's a look back.

QUESTION: What happened to Rulon Gardner's shoes?
ANSWER: Traditionally, when a wrestler retires, he leaves his shoes on the mat. Moments after winning the bronze medal in Greco-Roman wrestling, that's exactly what Rulon Gardner did. The 33-year-old Sydney gold medalist and his wife, Lisa, went back to Utah, where he plans to coach. But what about the shoes? No one knows. Says a wrestling spokesman: "Somewhere, some janitor has a very cool eBay item."

QUESTION: What was said in that huddle?
ANSWER: Friends, training partners and roommates in Athens, Shawn Crawford and Justin Gatlin are also fierce competitors. Gatlin, 22, won gold in the 100 meters, but Crawford, though he finished fourth, was just behind him. After Crawford, 26, led a U.S. sweep in the 200 meters on Aug. 26, he and Gatlin, who finished third, sank into an emotional huddle with silver medalist Bernard Williams, 26. "We prayed that we came out fast and that no one was injured and that we swept like we wanted to," says Gatlin.

QUESTION: What's with the guy wearing the kilt?
ANSWER: After jumping out of the roadside crowd and grappling with race leader Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil, Cornelius Horan, 57, was fined $3,600 and given a one-year suspended sentence. The defrocked Irish priest has interrupted sporting events before. Last year he hopped on the track during a Formula One race in Britain. As for de Lima, he finished third. Brazil is protesting, but de Lima said, "I'm happy with my medal."

QUESTION: Why did fans go ballistic before the 200-meter final?
ANSWER: Some U.S. journalists suspect the Greek press circulated conspiracy theories that blamed the U.S. for getting star sprinter Costas Kenteris to withdraw from competition after he missed a drug test. But maybe Fani Halkia, the Greek women's 400-meter hurdling champ, helped fan the flames. At an Aug. 26 press conference, she vowed to chant Kenteris's name before the 200 that night. Other fans began chanting and booing, delaying the race. Would Kenteris have won? His all-time best of 19.85 would have placed him second, behind winner Shawn Crawford, who ran a 19.79 in Athens.

Bob Meadows. Cynthia Wang and Dimi Gaidatzi in Athens