The Unofficial 2008 Beijing Olympics Blog

The competition’s favorite and defending Olympic holder, Chen Yanqing, didn’t have any problems winning the gold in the Women’s 58 kilogram Weightlifting final on August 11, with a total of 244kg. Chen’s stellar performance confirmed her unparalleled status in this weight class. The 29-year old is the current world record holder for the Snatch (111kg) and total weight (251kg).

Russia’s Marina Shainova lifted 129kg just six seconds before the time ran out and took the silver medal with a total weight of 227kg. O Jong-ae of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea lifted 131kg with her last attempt, tying her total weight with Thailand’s Wandee Kameaim and taking the bronze medal thanks to a slightly lower pre-competition weigh-in.

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Today, the Water Cube witnessed one of the most spectacular competition, since the opening ceremony on the 8th, namely the Women’s 400m Freestyle.

Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain took gold in the Women’s 400m Freestyle with a time of 4:03.22, beating the “Female Phelps,” Katie Hoff (4:03.29) of the United States, who came in second. Joanne Jackson, also from Great Britain, won bronze with a time of 4:03.52.

Lin Yue and Huo Liang took gold in Men’s Synchronized 10m Platform with 468.18 points to keep China’s hope for a Diving sweep alive. Sascha Klein and Patrick Hausding of Germany won silver, while Dmitriy Dobroskok and Gleb Galperin of Russia won bronze.

India’s Abhinav Bindra  won gold in Men’s 10m Air Rifle with 700.5 that edged China’s Zhu Qinan of 699.7 points. Henri Hakkinen of Finland come at a honorable third place with 699.4.

Italian fencer Matteo Tagliariol has won gold in the final of the Men’s Individual Epee at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 10 at the Fencing Hall with a score of 15-9 against silver medalist Fabrice Jeannet of France.

Seventeen-year-old Long Qingquan of China became the new Olympic champion of the Men’s Weightlifting 56 kilogram class after lifting a total weight of 292kg, out-lifting competition favorite, Cha Kum Chol of the Democratic People’s Republic of Koreajust.

Long won the final with a total weight of 292kg, which is another world junior record. Runner-up Hoang Anh Tuan became the second Vietnamese athlete ever to win an Olympic medal, and bronze medalist Eko Yuli Irawan grabbed the third Olympic Weightlifting medal in his country’s history.

Four teams, who participated today at the 4×100m Freestyle Relay, would’ve been Olympic champions in the previous Sydney edition, as each team beat the previous Olympic Record settled in 2004.

e Netherlands came in the fastest to take the gold with a time of 3:33.76. The United States and Australia took silver and bronze, touching in 3:34.33 and 3:35.05, respectively.

Host China (3:35.64) failed to make it to the podium, though the relay team also broke the OR of 3:35.94, which was set by Australia in the Athens Games four years ago.

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When seeing this, one can only wonder how the Olympic’s motto “One World, One Dream” fits into all of this….

Michael Phelps, one of the 5 athletes that we believe can break historical Olympic records, took the gold today at the 400m men’s medley. Congrats, Michael, but during the medal granting something very unexpected happened.  Michael Phelps had his right hand on his heart, an Olympic gold medal around his neck and was listening to the closing notes of “The Star-Spangled Banner” when suddenly …. the music went dead.

Phelps, unsure what to do, simply put on a wide grin and began clapping. The music, however, never resumed. After that, teammate Ryan Lochte, the bronze medalist, and silver medalist Laszlo Cseh of Hungary gathered on the top spot of the medals podium for photographers.

The glitch occurred as President Bush, wife Laura and daughter Barbara, and his father, former President Bush, were in attendance at the Water Cube.

We Olympics are in full swing, with thousands of athletes from all around the globe fighting for medal and Olympic pride. However, some try to hard and, well… fail miserably. Bellow you can watch an awesome video of the ‘best’ Olympic bloopers ever. Have fun!

Olympics Funny - More free videos are here