Olympicados - The Drama Medal Update

Yesterday brought with it a big drama in the 49'er series at the Beijing Olympics. Today was the day when it was to be decided if the Danes would get their gold, or they would have to settle for 4th place.

It was all we could talk about at work. I'm sure none of us did much productive except talk, and read online news about the big drama. It was all settled this morning much before I woke up. Still before you saw them with the gold medal around their necks it was not certain. The most incredible thing, or surprising really, is that it seems like everyone in Denmark knows everything about sailing now and are intensely interested in the sport. It seems a little fake, and you could say that most of my interests in the Olympic sports are fake. I normally hate watching sports on TV but there is something about the Olympic Games. Something unifying or something. I love it. Anyway even my mother was all up in arms about the 49'er. It was a little more real at work as I work with financing of boats. Not 49'er boats mind.

Anyway back to the issue at hand. The plot thickens. The story I told you isn't completely true. I just told you what I was told, so it's not like I embellished the story, but I apologise about misleading you ever so slightly (the misleading, not the apology).

I told you that the Danes was offered the Croatian 49'er. Apparently this is not the exact truth. They stole it. Well they went in the place where the boats that were not sailing in the Medal Race and picked one. The Croatian boat. Then took it and went to sail, while their helper man who takes care of the paperwork called the Croatian team and asked for their blessing. The Croatians were quick to give their blessing so the Danes sailed for their life (and their Gold medal which had been safe until their mast broke just minutes before the Medal Race).

When the Medal Race was over there were protests from almost all teams. The Spanish team especially were not happy. Would the Danes have been disqualified the Spanish team would win the Gold and the Germans would win the Silver. Still, today it was decided that the protests had nothing on them and the Danish team was awarded their Gold Medal.

The Danish 49'er team in their ugly red outfits with the GOLD MEDALs around their necks

The German team was quite quick to congratulate the Danish winners. They had not protested against the Danish win and said they would rather win a deserved Bronze medal than a Silver medal they didn't deserve. The Spanish Silver medal winners were not sharing the German view of things. While they did congratulate the Danes, they doubted very much that the right decision was made. For the sport you see. For the sport.

You'd think with all this drama, things would be over for Denmark. We'd go pack up our bags and go home. No, we still have athletes competing and medals to receive (and win). One of which we were given today in Cycling - Track Mens Team Pursuit.

The Danish Silver Medal winners (and no they didn't lose gold)