2008 Beijing Olympics

The 2008 Olympics featured several different sports. It was the last year to feature baseball and softball, which will be replaced by golf and rugby sevens in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

Aquatics

Canoeing

Handball

Table Tennis

Archery

Cycling

Judo

Tae Kwon Do

Athletics

Equestrian

Modern Pentathlon

Tennis

Badminton

Fencing

Rowing

Triathlon

Baseball

Field Hockey

Sailing

Volleyball

Basketball

Football (Soccer)

Shooting

Weight lifting

Boxing

Gymnastics

Softball

Wrestling

If you watched the Olympic opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics, you had to have been impressed by the sheer size and spectacle of it all. China is the most populous nation on the planet, and they took advantage of this by employing thousands of people in the production.

The opening ceremonies took place at the "bird's nest", where several other events would later be held for the Olympics, including all of the sprinting events. Rather than tell you about the opening ceremonies, you're better off taking a look at it yourself.

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While it's great to see the athletes accomplish great feats, I love to hear the touching stories of the athlete's accomplishments. During the opening ceremony, a non-athlete's story took center stage for a while. Lin Hao, a nine-year-old boy who survived the Sichuan earthquake that hit China a couple months before.

Out of the 30 students in his class, 20 died. Lin Hao, who was the hall monitor for his class at the time, took his position of leadership seriously. After freeing himself, he went back to search for his classmates, and saved two of their lives. When later asked why he went back to save the other students, his reply was something like "I'm one of the class leaders. I'm the hall monitor. It's my duty to help!"

For his bravery and heroic actions, Lin Hao was given the honor of marching in the opening ceremonies with NBA player Yao Ming. The two shared the spotlight in carrying the Chinese flag in the opening ceremonies.

Athletes competed in three major categories of gymnastics in 2008: artistic, rhythmic, and trampoline. In the United States, at least, the most popular event was artistic gymnastics. In artistic gymnastics, the men's team surprised, and Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson took the top two spots in the overall competition. Although the Chinese team did win, it wasn't without controversy. Many believe that the Chinese gymnasts were too young to compete (the minimum age is 16). Although the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) accepted the Chinese passports as proof of their age, an American blogger discovered documents that said otherwise. While the Chinese keep their medals for now, they are still looking into the ages of some gymnasts that performed in the Sydney games.

The US Artistic Gymnastics team did better than expected. On the men's team, Paul and Morgan Hamm were injured, and were replaced by teammates Raj Bhavsar and Alexander Artemev. The team walked away with the bronze, and Jonathan Horton took the silver medal in the high bar.

The women's team did even better. Although the Chinese team took the gold, Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson took the gold and silver in the overall competition. Johnson also took silver on floor and gold on the balance beam. Nastia Liukin received bronze in the floor exercise, silver on the balance beam, and silver on the uneven bars.

Photo of Nastia Liukin by Bryan Allison.

The women's gymnastics program at the Beijing Olympics was plagued with scandal. Throughout the entire competition, there was the question of the ages of the Chinese gymnasts. Although the minimum age to compete as a gymnast in the Olympics is 16, many of the Chinese athletes didn't look old enough. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had seen passports for all of the Chinese athletes, and deemed that they were old enough to compete.

A blogger from America named Mike Walker did a Google search and discovered some Excel documents that listed their correct ages. He Kexin, who received the gold medal in the uneven bars and shared in the gold with the Chinese team, was 14 years old, not 16 as required. The IOC had already accepted their ages and did not revoke the gold medals.

Although the gymnasts were able to keep their gold medals - for now, the Olympic committee is sometimes slow to act. Dong Fangxiao, who was a gymnast in Sydney in 2000, turned in accreditation paperwork to work as an official in the Beijing games that said that she would have been 14 when she won a bronze medal in the team competition. Yang Yun, another Chinese gymnast from 2000, is also suspected of being underage at the time. The International Gymnastics Federation ended up ruling that Dong Fangxiao was underage at the time, and the bronze medals for the entire Chinese team were taken away. The US team of Elise Ray, Amy Chow, Kristin Maloney, Dominique Dawes, Tasha Schwikert-Warren, and Jamie Dantzscher were bumped up to the bronze medal position.

Photo of 14-year-old He Kexin taken by Tksteven.

In women's gymnastics, the two Americans to beat were Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin. Although Shawn Johnson performed slightly better at the US Olympic Gymnastics Trials, Liukin ended up outperforming her, and took away one more medal than Johnson.

Johnson performed well at Beijing, helping her team win the silver medal (she was the only US gymnast to perform in all four events), earning silver in the individual all-around, and taking gold in the balance beam event. She achieved enormous popularity, appearing on cereal boxes and in commercials at the time.

Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson seemed to have a friendly rivalry going on during the 2008 Olympics. Although Shawn Johnson received more press, Liukin came away from Beijing with more medals. She participated in three events during the team competition, helping them earn the silver medal. She earned the individual all-around gold. She was the only American that was eligible to compete in three event finals, and received a medal in all the events that she qualified for: silver on the uneven bars, silver on the balance beam, and bronze in the floor exercise.

Liukin was only the third American to win the all-around title: Mary Lou Retton and Carly Patterson were the other two. There has only been three other Olympic years where the gold and silver medals from the all-around competition went to members of the same team, and the United States never was able to do so: Romania took gold and silver in 2000, and Russia accomplished the same feat in 1952 and 1960.

Photo by Jamie Lantzy.

The biggest name in track and field in 2008 was Usain Bolt. He received three gold medals for Jamaica, but not without controversy. He was accused of showboating during one of his races.

The United States relay teams both dropped the baton during their races. This is the second time in a row for the women's team, who did the same thing in Athens. The men's team had a problem with the baton in Seoul.

During the last half of the 2008 Olympics, the swimmers had finished their races and made way for the divers. Meanwhile, the world focused its attention on the sprinters, specifically on Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter that took the world by storm.

Usain Bolt's first feat was to win the gold medal in the men's 100 meter event. His win caused a little bit of controversy, because he seemed to slow down to celebrate even before he crossed the finish line. He was accused of showboating. He said that he was happy that he was happy that he was so far ahead. Whether he was showboating or not, his win gave Jamaica the first gold medal of the games.

His next gold medal came in the 200 meter event. When he won with a world record of 19.30 seconds, he became the first sprinter since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win both the 100m and 200m events.

His third gold medal was won during the 4x100 meter relay, which he ran with teammates Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, and Asafa Powell.

While Tasha Danvers of Great Britain didn't win a gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, her story deserves to be retold here. Danvers originally competed in the 400m hurdles at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, but she finished in 8th place. In 2004, she was the sixth-fastest hurdler in the world. However, she found out that she was pregnant before the Athens games.

Some in the sport encouraged her to have an abortion. By having her baby, he lost all of her chances to compete in the Atlanta games. They thought that she was throwing away her chance of ever getting a medal.

Danvers returned to the Olympics in 2008. She competed in the 400m hurdles. She finished in third, earning the bronze. She had both her medal and her baby.

The US Men's 4x100 team is fast. Team USA had a good chance of doing well in the finals. The US was in the final stretch of the second heat. All that was left was for Darvis Patton to pass the baton to Tyson Gay, and for Tyson to finish the race. That didn't happen. The baton didn't get passed, and the United States was disqualified. Trinidad and Tobago passed them, and went on to win the silver medal in the final, second to the Jamaican team.

Later, the US Women's team ran the same 4x100 meter race. The race was going well. The third runner, Torri Edwards, had to pass the baton to Lauren Williams to begin the last leg. Woops, Williams dropped the baton. She picked it up and finished, but she was last.

Williams is not a stranger to passing the baton incorrectly. In 2004, Williams and Marion Jones were unable to complete the pass, and the American team was disqualified then.

See NBCOlympics.com for video footage of both races.

Photo available on Wikimedia Commons.

There was a lot to report in the swimming pool. The story of the games was, of course, Michael Phelps, who walked away with eight gold medals, which is a record. Counting Athens, he has a total of fourteen gold medals. He received another two bronze medals in Athens.

Although all eyes were on Phelps, there were other swimmers who accomplished a lot as well. Natalie Coughlin set some records of her own. At 41, Dara Torres became the oldest swimmer to ever receive a medal. Natalie du Toit swam in the marathon swim, an amazing accomplishment, considering that she only has one leg.

Photo of the Beijing National Aquatics Center, otherwise known as the Water Cube, by Angus.

Who could forget the record-breaking performances of Michael Phelps? Or his 12,000 calorie per day diet? He won eight gold medals over the course of the Olympics, racing in seventeen races in nine days. Although his attempt to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals was talked about in the beginning days of the games, it wasn't until he actually started getting the gold medals that people really started to pay attention. By the time he won his eighth gold medal, he had become a household name.

One of the most memorable races that Phelps participated in was the 4x100 Men's Freestyle relay, which he raced with Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak. The French team had been bragging beforehand about how they would beat the United States, and they almost did. Alain Bernard was in first place on the last leg of the relay race. Jason Lezak was in second place, with Australia close behind. Lezak caught up to Bernard in that last leg and passed him. The United States won by .08 seconds.

Phelps received his fourth gold medal of the games by beating László Cseh in the 200 meter butterfly. He swam the race in 1:52.03, which was a world-record winning time, despite having his goggles fill up with water on the last leg.

The 100 meter butterfly, which Phelps swam for his seventh gold medal, was the closest race yet. Phelps swam in 50.58 seconds, but Milorad Čavić of Serbia swam almost the identical time. The official record says that Čavić swam in 50.59 seconds, only .01 seconds behind, but the underwater footage shows that Phelps was only a fingertip ahead as he touched the wall.

Photo by Shealah Craighead as part of White House duties, and is in the public domain.

At the end of the games, only Larissa Latynina, the Soviet gymnast, had more lifetime Olympic medals (16 as opposed to Phelps' 14).

While the world had their eyes on Michael Phelps, another swimmer was breaking records. Natalie Coughlin was busy earning six medals in Beijing. She received gold in the 100m backstroke, silver in the 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley, and bronze in the 100m freestyle, 200m medley, and 4x200m freestyle events. Her six medals were the most received by any American woman in any sport. After receiving five medals in Athens, she has 11 medals total. Only Dara Torres and Jenny Thompson have more.

Her plans for after Beijing included taking a break, getting married, and coming back in 2012 for the London Olympics.

Photo by Kathy Barnstorff of NASA. In the public domain.

Dara Torres, whose Olympic career began in the 1984 Los Angeles games, where she received a gold in the 4x100m freestyle, returned to the pool in 2008 at age 41. This made her the oldest woman in history to swim in the Olympics. Not only did she swim, but she earned three silver medals: one in the 4x100m freestyle, one in the 50m freestyle, and another in the 4x100m medley. She has a total of 12 Olympic medals, tying the number of medals received by a swimmer with Jenny Thompson.

Not only did she swim in the Olympics at age 41, but she did so 15 months after having a baby. She swam right up until the day she gave birth.

Although she did not medal, Hannah Miley gained some attention from viewers when she swam for Britain. Fans of Hannah Montana, aka Miley Cyrus, might have been cheering her on during the Beijng Olympics just because of her name.

Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus fans could have been disappointed. Hannah Miley did make it to the semifinals in the 200m individual medley, but she didn't advance to the finals. She swam in the 400m individual medley and placed sixth.

There's always 2012. Miley is still swimming strong, and currently holds the European 200m individual medley record, which she took in August 2009 at the British SC Grand Prix.

While the swimming world was focusing on Michael Phelps, another amazing athlete was competing in the swimming world. Her name was Natalie Du Toit. She was born in Cape Town, and competed for South Africa.

She didn't come home with the gold, or even a medal, but she did something that no other swimmer did: she competed in the Olympic games with one leg. Her event was the women's 10k swim, or "marathon".

Natalie was competing in international swimming competitions by the age of 14. She almost qualified for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, but that was not meant to be. In 2001, she was hit by a car while coming home from swimming practice, and you would have thought that her Olympic swimming days were over. That was not to be the case. Natalie competed (and received five gold medals) in the Paralympics in Athens in 2004, and almost qualified for the able-bodied Olympics.

She did not give up. She qualified for the 10k swim in the Beijing Olympics. Although she finished in sixteenth place, her accomplishment was amazing.

China dominated the diving world in Beijing, taking away 11 of the 24 medals that were awarded in the sport. They earned three of the men's gold medals (Australia's Matthew Mitcham was the only non-Chinese man to win a gold medal), and all of the women's gold diving medals.

Guo Jingjing received two of the women's gold medals; one for the 3 meter springboard, and the other for the 3 meter synchronized springboard (with Wu Minxia). In addition to the synchronized springboard, Wu Minxia earned the bronze medal in the 3 meter springboard. Wang Xin took the 10 meter synchronized platform (with Chen Ruolin), as well as the bronze in the 10 meter platform. Chen Roulin took away the gold in the 10 meter platform, along with the gold that she received with Wang Xin.

The men's Chinese team spread out their medals more evenly. The only male Chinese diver to receive more than one medal was Qin Kai, who received the bronze in the 3 meter springboard, and the gold, along with Wang Feng, in the synchronized 3 meter springboard. He Chong, Lin Yue, and Huo Liang also received gold medals, and Zhou Luxin earned a silver.

Photo of Guo Jingjing by Tksteven.

Kirsty Coventry received four medals during the 2008 Olympics. She took the gold in the 200m backstroke, the silver in the 100m backstroke, 200m individual medley, and 400m individual medley. She received all of the medals that Zimbabwe received in the games in 2008.

In taking gold in the 200m backstroke, Coventry broke the world record, which she still holds.

Beijing is Coventry's second Olympics. She won three medals in Athens in 2004.

The United States took gold in both the men's and women's basketball competition in Beijing. Although the women have won the gold medal in basketball in every Olympics since 1996, the men's basketball team came home with the bronze in 2004.

The men beat Argentina in the semifinals, who went on to win the bronze medal, and beat Spain 118-107 in the gold medal game. The ladies beat Russia in the semifinals, who went on to win the bronze medal, and beat Australia 92-65 in the gold medal game.

Although the basketball teams are dominated by NBA and WNBA players, other teams have NBA players on them as well. The Chinese men's team, who lost to Lithuania in the quarterfinals, had Yao Ming, who plays for the Houston Rockets, Sun Yue, who plays for the Lakers, and Yi Jianlian, who plays for the New Jersey Nets, on their team. The silver-medal winning Spanish team had Pau Gasol from the Los Angeles Lakers, Rudy Fern&Yaacute;ndez from the Portland Trail Blazers, and Marc Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies.

Misty May-Treanor and Kerry Walsh took beach volleyball gold for the second Olympics in a row in Beijing. They beat the Chinese pair of Tian and Wang in the final round. Another Chinese pair, Xue and Zhang, beat a Brazilian pair for the bronze.

The men's pair of Rodgers and Dalhausser won gold for the US over Brazil, and the men's indoor volleyball team took gold as well. Brazil won gold in women's indoor volleyball, but the US did get silver.

Misty May-Traenor's mother died of cancer in 2002. She spread some of her mother's ashes in the volleyball court at Athens, and continued in the tradition by spreading a small amount of her mother's ashes over the volleyball sand in Beijing.

Togo is not exactly known as an Olympic powerhouse, but in 2008, Benjamin Boukpeti put the country on the map. Boukpeti earned a bronze medal in the men's slalom K-1 event. Not only was Boukpeti's bronze the only medal that Togo received in the 2008 Olympics, it was the first medal ever for that country.

Beijing was Boukpeti's second Olympics. In 2004, he raced in the semi-finals of the Men's K-1 Kayak singles, but only placed eighteenth, and did not make it to the finals.

Despite winning Togo's first Olympic medal, Boukpeti does not live there. He had only visited the country once when he was a child (his father is from Togo). He lives in Toulouse, France.

The IOC's decision to allow Beijing to host the 2008 Olympics was slightly controversial. Some of the complaints about Beijing hosting the games was that they broke their pledge to allow open media access, that they do not support human rights, and that they support repressive regimes. They have been known to put Christians in prison. Some athletes complained about the air pollution in the city. Others were afraid that the Chinese Olympics could become the target of a terrorist attack.

Although there were no terrorist attacks, there was one murder. Todd Bachmann, an in-law to US volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon, died in an attack by a Chinese man, Tang Yongming. His wife Barbara and a tour guide were also attacked. Todd's daughter Elisabeth was there at the time, but was not injured.

Nation

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Total

China

51

21

28

100

United States

36

38

36

110

Russia

23

21

28

72

Great Britain

19

13

15

47

Germany

16

10

15

41

Australia

14

15

17

46

South Korea

13

10

8

31

Japan

9

6

10

25

Italy

8

10

10

28

France

7

16

17

40

Afghanistan

Botswana

Cyprus

Guam

Albania

Brazil

Czech Republic

Guatamala

Algeria

British Virgin Islands

Denmark

Guinea

American Samoa

Bulgaria

Djibouti

Guinea-Bissau

Andorra

Burkina Faso

Dominica

Guyana

Angola

Burundi

Dominican Republic

Haiti

Antigua and Barbuda

Cambodia

Ecuador

Honduras

Argentina

Cameroon

Egypt

Hong Kong (China)

Armenia

Canada

El Salvador

Hungary

Aruba

Cape Verda

Equatorial Guinea

Iceland

Australia

Cayman Islands

Eritrea

India

Austria

Central African Republic

Estonia

Indonesia

Azerbaijan

Chad

Ethiopia

Iran

Bahamas

Chile

Fiji

Iraq

Bahrain

China

Finland

Ireland

Bangladesh

Chinese Taipei

Fance

Israel

Barbados

Colombia

FS Micronesia

Italy

Belarus

Comoros

Gabon

Jamaica

Belize

Congo

Georgia

Jordan

Benin

Cook Islands

Germany

Kazakhstan

Bermuda

Costa Rica

Ghana

Kenya

Bhutan

Côte d'Ivoire

Great Britain

Kiribati

Bolivia

Croatia

Greece

Kuwait

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Cuba

Grenada

Kyrgyzstan

Laos

Myanmar

Russia

Switzerland

Latvia

Namibia

Rwanda

Syria

Lebanon

Nauru

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Tajikistan

Lesotho

Nepal

Saint Lucia

Tanzania

Liberia

Netherlands

Saint Vincent and the Grenedines

Thailand

Libya

Netherlands Antilles

São Tomé and Príncipe

Timor-Leste

Liechtenstein

New Zealand

Samoa

Togo

Lithuania

Nicaragua

San Marino

Tonga

Luxembourg

Niger

Saudi Arabia

Trinidad and Tobago

Macedonia

Nigeria

Senegal

Tunisia

Madagascar

Norway

Serbia

Turkey

Malawi

North Korea

Seychelles

Turkmenistan

Malaysia

Oman

Sierra Leone

Tuvalu

Maldives

Pakistan

Singapore

Uganda

Mali

Palau

Slovakia

Ukraine

Malta

Palestine

Slovenia

United Arab Emirates

Marshall Islands

Panama

Solomon Islands

United States

Mauritania

Papua New Guinea

Somalia

Uruguay

Mauritius

Paraguay

South Africa

Uzbekistan

Mexico

Peru

South Korea

Vanuatu

Moldova

Philippines

Spain

Venezuela

Monaco

Poland

Sri Lanka

Vietnam

Mongolia

Portugal

Sudan

Virgin Islands

Montenegro

Puerto Rico

Suriname

Yemen

Morocco

Qatar

Swaziland

Zambia

Mozambique

Romania

Sweden

Zimbabwe