Walking in the Valley A weekly column for those who live and walk in Silicon Valley by Barbara Dahlgren

Going for the Gold Column for the week of September 5-11, 2004

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Now that the Olympics are over I kind of miss tuning in each night. Not that I stayed glued to NBC but it was comforting as I channel surfed to click back once in a while to see what was going on. I was one of about 4 billion viewers who watched and swelled with pride when my national anthem was played. That happened often with the USA winning over 100 medals in all (35 gold, 36 silver, 29 bronze). Russia and China came in second and third.

The Olympics originated in Greece in 776 B.C., so it was quite moving to see them take place there again after all these many years. It seems that certain traditions live on as athletes go for the gold. Some high lights I’ll remember from this year are:

After winning a bronze medal for the U.S. Rulon Gardner poignantly left his wrestling shoes on the mat to signify his retirement.

What about that clean sweep for gold, silver, and bronze for the US in the 400 meter foot race led by Jeremy Wariner, all decked out in gold necklace and sunglasses? Was he cool or what?

Carly Patterson was the first U.S. woman to win the all-around gold in gymnastics since Mary Lou Retton in 1984.

Swimmer Michael Phelps won 8 medals then relinquished his spot on the 400-meter relay team to his teammate, Ian Crocker, so he could share in some of the glory. Classy move!

(As an aside note, Gatlin, Phelps, and Patterson will all have their pictures on a box of Wheaties soon. After all, Wheaties is supposed to be THE breakfast of champions.)

However there will be no Wheaties box for Paul Hamm whose gold medal in gymnastics is still being contested by the South Koreans. Evidently Korea ’s Yang Tae Young was given a lower start value than he was supposed to have, an oversight by the judges, which made his score slightly lower than Hamm ’s. Hamm has no intention of giving up his medal unless commanded by the Olympic committee to do so. Both the International Olympic Committee and the International Gymnatistics Federation say results are final.

I watched as poor Hamm got caught in the crossfire of another controversy after four-time gold medal winner, Russia ’s Alexei Nemov, did a crowd-pleasing routine on the parallel bars. For 10 minutes the audience booed the scores before Hamm could take his turn. Nemov finished fifth. The audience was not pleased.

Brazil is contesting, too, but probably to no avail. Former Irish priest Cornelius Horan disrupted the men’s marathon by tackling Brazil ’s Vanderli De Lima. As if churches haven’t had enough bad publicity this year? De Lima who was in the lead when the assault took place finished third. Evidently Horan has disrupted other sporting events. One might call him a bit fixated or whack-o. I’m sure De Lima would like to whack him around a bit.

One of my favorite stories is about sharp shooter Matthew Emmons. I didn’t see this one but evidently Emmons needed a mediocre final shot to lock in a gold medal in the 50 meter 3 position rifle target competition. The good news: he had a pretty good shot. The bad news: it was on another person’s target. Fortunately he already had a gold medal in another event. I like his style though! When asked about it he replied, “Crap happens. I’ll live to shoot another day.”

U.S. women’s team sports rocked! Soccer, basketball, beach volleyball, and softball were all big medal winners.

In fact, the summer 2004 Olympics had the highest number of women athletes ever. This was not so at the original Olympics. There were no women athletes there. They had strict rules. Single women could attend the event but married women were forbidden. One law said if a married woman came she would be thrown off a cliff. This made it easier to “party” at the nightly festivities. However, prostitutes of both sexes were welcome.

Be sure to visit this page every week to read the next edition of Walking in the Valley. You can write to the author at bdahlgren@wcgsouthbay.org.