The Hindu : Sport : Greece emerges the big winner

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 24, 2004

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Sport - Sports : General

Greece emerges the big winner

LONDON, DEC. 23. Greece was the big winner in international sports in 2004 — with two great triumphs that few really expected.

Greece's stunning run to the European football championship and the overwhelming success of the Athens Olympics finished 1-2 in an Associated Press poll of the top sports stories of the year.

Lance Armstrong's sixth straight victory in the Tour de France was third in the survey of more than 70 AP subscriber sports editors and broadcasters around the world.

Greece had never won a single game in a major football championship and was a 100-1 shot going into the Euro 2004 tournament in July. Yet the Greeks, coached by 65-year-old German Otto Rehhagel, managed to win the most improbable of titles — upsetting France in the opening game and beating host Portugal in the final.

The Greek football win received 10 first-place votes and a total of 444 points in the AP poll. Voters listed their top 10 stories, with 10 points for first place, nine points for second and so on.

Greece was still celebrating when, a month later, the Athens Olympics started on time and with everything in place. After years of concerns over construction delays, cost overruns and terrorist threats, the summer Games went off without a hitch. At the closing ceremony, IOC president Jacques Rogge thanked Greece for putting on ``unforgettable, dream games.''

The success of the Athens Olympics attracted the most first-place votes — 21 — but still finished a distant second with a total of 310 points.

The race for third place was extremely close with Armstrong edging Michael Schumacher's record 13 Formula One Grand Prix victories by 259 to 257. Armstrong received four first-place votes, Schumacher none.

The next three places in the poll also were close.

The record 24 doping cases that rocked the Athens Olympics came fifth with 189 points and six first-place votes. The biggest scandal involved Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, who missed drug tests on the eve of the games and claimed they were injured in a motorcycle crash. They eventually pulled out of the games. On Wednesday, the pair was provisionally suspended by the IAAF.

Sixth place story

The Athens Games also produced the sixth place story — U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps' haul of eight medals, including six gold, polled 185 points.

Just behind Phelps in the poll was the Russian revolution in women's tennis, a story which gained 181 points.

Anastasia Myskina became the first Russian woman to win a Grand Slam title by beating Elena Dementieva in the French Open final. Then 17-year-old Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon. Svetlana Kuznetsova followed by defeating Dementieva for the U.S. Open title. The Russians also won the Fed Cup for the first time.

The emergence of China as an Olympic superpower, four years before Beijing hosts the next games, was eighth in the survey with 170 points. China won 32 gold medals in Athens, second only to the United States, and hurdler Liu Xiang equalled a world record in winning the 110-metres hurdles.

Swiss tennis star Roger Federer won three Grand Slam events in 2004 — Wimbledon and the Australian and U.S. Opens. His achievement was ninth with 154 points.

Arsenal won the English football championship without losing any of its 38 games and went on to set a domestic record of 49 league matches without a defeat — enough to capture 10th place in the poll with 147 points.

The list of the top sports stories (first place votes in parentheses): 1. Upstart Greece wins 2004 European soccer championship, 444 points (10); 2. Athens Olympics go off successfully despite security and organization worries, 310 (21); 3. Lance Armstrong wins sixth straight Tour de France, 259 (4); 4. Michael Schumacher wins record 13 F1 races for fifth straight title, 257 (0); 5. Doping cases rock Athens Games, 189 (6); 6. U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps wins six Olympic golds and eight medals in total, 185 (4); 7. Russian revolution in women's tennis, 181 (1); 8. China emerges as world force in Olympics and other sports, 170 (5); 9. Roger Federer wins three Grand Slam titles, 154 (0); 10. Arsenal wins English league without losing a game, sets 49-game unbeaten record, 147 (0). — AP

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