all in the tradition of aristotle and gang

athens 2004 closed with a massive flourish on sunday night.

it was a time where i witnessed not only sad stories of champions faltering at their last bid to add an olympic title to their names, but also triumphs of many a victor over adversary.

on the track, what stuck in my mind was the number of athletes who stumbled literally at their first hurdle. gail devers, allen johnson and stacey dragila. world champions in their own rights, but fell at the first hurdle and pole vault attempt. and both american 4 by 100m relay team -- interestingly both their men's and women's teams screwed up their 2nd baton changeover. except that the men made up for the botch and at least claimed a silver, and the women failed to finish. and who can forget how consipicuous marion jones' absence was from the sprint events. in the end, one wonder -- if she wasn't on the american team, maybe they could have claimed that title that eluded them. and of course, paula radcliff's amazing break down -- i feel sorry for her more than anything else.

in the pool, michael phelps won 6 gold medals. hackett barely wins his 1500m free event, but it was a victory in more ways than one because he's been through injury and all. and how thorpe became so emotional when he claimed the 200m free -- an event he technically didn't make because he false started at the australian trials a few months back. and how the australians stunned the americans into second place in the women's relay events. and the number of elite swimmers who didn't make the final of their events because they over conserved in their morning heats. alexander popov, the all time swim sprint king didn't make the final for the 50m and 100m free events in what is his last olympics.

and the emergence of china. was quite surprised to see it win so many gold medals. there were stunning weightlighting victories for thailand and indonesia. how the korean women fought valiantly in that handball final with denmark -- they lost in a penalty shootout. and of course, iraq's run to the semi finals of the men's football competition. the american ladies win in the soccer competition -- such an excellent send off for the old guard like mia hamm and gang.

till beijing 08. at least my weird biological clock is going to be set back to normal hours again.