The 2008 Summer Olympics

The closing ceremony for Beijing 2008 is on as I write this.

Most will remember this edition for Michael Phelps' exploits, but for Indians these have been the best Olympics ever in terms of medal count.

Mssrs Abhinav ....
.... Sushil ....
.... and Virender ....

.... contributing a Gold & 2 Bronzes to bring up a grand total of 3 medals.


This enabled India to finish 50th (51st in terms of total medals) from among about 200 countries. It sounds bad for a country of this size, but if anyone had suggested such a final tally before the Olympics began, most wouldn't have thought even this possible. So, it's been good, but we still have a long, long way to go.

As for the Top 10 ....


..... China has emerged with the highest Golds, but trails the US in terms of total. I expected Australia to do better than they did, while South Korea was the surprise performer this year.

All in all, China have achieved what they set out to do - organize a superb Olympics efficiently & on a scale never seen before. They've proven their sporting prowess & announced their arrival on the world stage with a bang. Good for them.

Before ending, here is the Google logo for today -


And finally, a thought that has been on my mind for sometime - 70 years back, there was another country poised on the brink of greatness & wanted desperately to showcase it's superiority on the world stage. Their capital was also awarded the Olympics & in 1936, they organized them successfully. 3 years later, to complete their visions of world domination - they began World War 2.