Sydney 2000: total collapse of the organizers, records of Torp and Van den Hogenband

The fourth and last Yugoslavia to compete at the Olympic Games won only three medals in Sydney - one of each color. FRY became Olympic champion in volleyball

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Photo: Olympics
Photo: Olympics
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

When it comes to the financial aspects of the Olympic Games, two examples are cited as indicators of success and failure - Los Angeles in 1984 was the most successful project, while 16 years later the organizers of the Sydney Games experienced a complete collapse.

In the desire to organize the 27th Olympics as well as possible, the Australians lavished money, built very expensive facilities, which served only for those 17 days, from September 15 to October 1.

Aware of how much money they lost, the leaders of the Organizing Committee tried to dress up the financial statements, but the auditors were relentless - the Games cost an incredible 6,6 billion Australian dollars (then about four, and now about 5,6 billion euros), and some facilities , such as equestrian and softball stadiums, were never used again.

At the largest Games in history until Beijing in 2008, in which 10.651 athletes (4.069 women and 6.582 men) from 199 countries of the world participated, the Olympic torch was lit by a local athlete. Keti Frimen.

Keti Frimen
photo: Olympics

It is not usual for an active athlete to do this, but the Australians wanted to prove that the whites and the Aborigines, of which Freeman was a representative, live in harmony. 10 days later, the great Australian woman won gold in the 400 meters in style, which set the audience on fire at the "Australia" stadium.

The inhabitants of the smallest continent were not too worried about the financial collapse, one man, besides Cathy Freeman, took their minds off it - Jan Torp. The legendary swimmer, who was only 17 years old at the time, shone at the "Sydney International Aquatic Center" - he won three gold medals, at 400 meters and in the 4X100 and 4X200 freestyle relays, and in all three races the world record was broken. Torp had a big advantage over his competitors - huge feet, which, when they were crushed, served as flippers.

However, he couldn't do anything Piteru van den Hogenbandu in the 200 meter race - the great Dutchman broke the world record (1:45,35) in the semi-final, and then repeated the same result in the final. Van Hogenband later grabbed the gold in the 100 meters, while an unusual situation was seen in the shortest discipline - the Americans Entoni Irvin i Gary Hall Jr they reached the finish line in the same time (21,98) and shared the gold.

Marion Jones was the first star of athletic competitions. She announced that she came to distant Australia with five gold medals, but she won three (at 100, 200 meters and in the long jump), as well as two bronzes. She was in the center of attention of the world media, athletic personality of the year, heroine of the United States of America...

It all came crashing down like a house of cards seven years later - a tearful Marion admitted to using the banned substance tetrahydrogestrinone, which caused the IOC to strip her of all Sydney medals.

The final race at 10 meters will remain written in the history of the Olympic movement. Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie defended the gold from Atlanta (it only worked Emil Zatopek i Lase Viren), but the way he did it was spectacular - he crossed the finish line after 27 minutes, 18 seconds and 20 hundredths, just nine hundredths ahead of the Kenyan Pola Tergata!

One of the best long-distance runners of all time ran the last 200 meters in an incredible 25,4 seconds, and Tergat "only" 26,4.

How equal the idols of Africa were, the fact that he is an American speaks volumes Moris Grin reached the gold in the 100-meter race with 12 hundredths of an advantage over the runner-up Ata Boldona from Trinidad and Tobago.

If Sarajevo's "No Smoking" was together in its original composition, it might have slightly changed its lyrics, "Hail Selassie, Emperor of Africa and Asia", and with the addition of Gebr, could have paid tribute to one of the most famous Ethiopians of all time...

Keti Frimen
photo: Olympics

For the first and last time in a major competition, Cameroon's football players justified the nickname "invincible lions" - Samuel Eto and the comrades reached the gold, although in the final they met with Spain, for which they played Ćavi, Pujol, Marćena, Angulo, Albert Luke, Albelda, Kapdevila, Tamudo...

In a match that was watched live by 104.098 people at the "Australia" stadium, "Furija" took the lead in the 2nd minute with a goal by Xavi, and in stoppage time of the first half, his then teammate from Barcelona made it 2:0. Gabri.

Ivan Amaja scored an own goal in the 53rd minute, and Eto equalized at 58:2 in the 2th minute. It reached the penalty shootout, in which the Africans were infallible, and Amaja grew into a complete tragic, because in the 3rd series he shook the crossbar so hard that it swayed all the way to Athens in 2004...

For the first time since competing, America's basketball dream team was on the brink of defeat. In a spectacular semi-final, Lithuania could have won, but they did Karter Wines, Kevin Garnet and comrades somehow repelled the attack of the then phenomenal Šarunas Jasikevičius and celebrated with 85:83.

In the final, France fell (85:75), but that was the prelude to the end of dominance, which followed four years later, when Argentina defeated the USA and then Italy in the semi-finals.

The fourth and last Yugoslavia (after the Kingdom, FNRJ and SFRJ) to compete at the Olympic Games won only three medals in Sydney - one of each color. FRY became Olympic champion in volleyball. The chosen ones Zoran Gajić, among whom were three Montenegrins - Goran Vujević, Igor Vušurović i Vladimir Batez, they struggled in the first phase.

In the first two rounds, they were defeated by Russia (3:1) and Italy (3:2), and they caught the last train for the quarterfinals with victories over the USA (3:0), Argentina (3:1) and South Korea (3:2). ).

Great Holland fell in the quarterfinals only after 17:15 in the 5th set, and in the semifinals and finals there were no dilemmas - the first line-up in which they played Nikola i Vanja Grbić, Vujević, Vušurović, Đula Mešter, Ivan Miljković i Vasa Mijić, with a score of 3:0 each, she overcame the selections that caused her losses at the start, Italy and Russia.

Jasna Šekarić won the fourth Olympic medal (silver in air pistol shooting), and the bronze went to water polo players. Montenegro was represented by an assistant coach Petar Porobić, To Veljko Uskokovic i Nenad Vukanić.

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