Olympic Games 2004 in Athens,Greece

Sweden's track team, including golden girl heptathlete Carolina Kluft, is considering boycotting the Athens Olympics if Greece's reigning 200 metres champion Kostas Kenteris is allowed to compete.

Kenteris and his training partner Ekaterini Thanou, who won the women's 100m silver medal at the same Games in Sydney, are facing a disciplinary hearing on Monday to explain why they failed to turn up for doping tests.

We've talked about even boycotting the Olympics if they are allowed (to compete). That's how strongly our athletes have reacted to this," Swedish federation captain Ulf Karlsson told the Expressen daily.

Kenteris and Thanou were involved in a mysterious motorcycle accident as they allegedly rushed back to the Olympic Village to comply with the request to submit to tests on Thursday. The Greek team said their injuries meant they had to stay in hospital on Friday, forcing their hearing to be postponed for three days.

"There just can't be so many coincidences at the same time. It's obvious," Karlsson said. "We have had these suspicions for such a long time. The Greeks have improved their results from one year to the next in a way that is quite unbelievable, and they're never available for tests. This is just the tip of the iceberg," he added.

Kenteris, 31, who also won the 2001 world title and the 2002 European crown, has never tested positive for a banned substance. He made a dramatic improvement in the space of a year before winning the Olympic gold in 2000.

I would like to have seen them for a longer time.

But, it's the matter of taste after all

The parade of nations is too damn long.

Did anyone else watch the Argentina-Serbia/Montenegro basketball game? You can hardly find a more exciting third and fourth periods. I found myself rooting for the Serbians, and at the end acknowledging that the Argentinians deserved the win.

ANother exciting game was Cuba-Germany on women's volleyball. But I think Thok is the one who should brag about it.

The US lost at basketball . I'm so glad. It seems to me that American NBA players would play better if they had a dollar sign in their shirts, instead of the initials of their country.

Mexico is doing terribly We've already lost 3 of our so-called "medal chances", and won none.

Iraq qualified for quarterfinals in football. Wouldn't it be cool if they got a medal?

A member of the Danish Olympic sailing team was charged with manslaughter yesterday after the car he was driving hit and killed a British pedestrian in Athens.

Errol Strachan, 45, who was working as a caterer during the Games in Athens, was killed instantly as he was struck while trying to cross a busy arterial road, part of which is dedicated to Olympic traffic.

Nicklas Holm, 23, a former Danish sailor of the year who is competing in the star class, was at the wheel of the car carrying a team-mate and a coach when the accident happened at 9.15pm on Thursday.

Mr Holm appeared in court yesterday and was charged with manslaughter and released without bail while he awaits the results of police blood tests for alcohol and drugs. His two passengers, a crewmate Claus Olesen and coach Thomas Jacobsen, were not charged.

The accident happened on Posidinos Avenue, a six-lane coastal road south of the capital, as the Danes were travelling to watch their women's handball team play France.

According to the Danish Olympic Committee, Mr Strachan crossed two lanes of queuing cars and entered the Olympic lane, unaware that it was used by traffic. Danish Olympic officials said that Mr Holm had "no way of foreseeing" the pedestrian or avoiding the collision and the sailor himself declared on Danish television: "I feel no guilt." Mr Holm said he was travelling at 31mph, well within the speed limit of 70kmh (44mph) which applies across the capital. Greek traffic police said yesterday that their investigation would be given added urgency because it involved an Olympian.

Mr Holm, originally from Copenhagen, is a professional sailor and member of the Royal Danish Yacht Club, where his father, a senior accountant at Deloitte & Touche, is chairman. He once smashed into a container on his father's 42ft sailing boat on his way to the European Dinghy Championships in Sweden. He took up sailing at the age of six and started racing aged nine, since when his ambition has been to win an Olympic medal.

"He is very upset," a Danish Olympic team spokesman, Morten Molholm Hansen, said. He added that the team had flown a psychologist in from Denmark to counsel Mr Holm.

The team would decide later this week if Mr Holm was fit to compete in his first race on Saturday. No one will be brought in as a substitute if he cannot compete in his star class.

Mr Molholm Hansen said the results of the blood tests had not been released but he was sure Mr Holm had not been driving under the influence of alcohol.

"We are quite sure he had not been drinking," he said. "A team official arrived at the crash scene 15 minutes after it happened and Nicklas was sober. There was no smell of drink on his breath."

Mr Strachan, an Anglo-Jamaican who is believed to be a tour guide in London, was staying in Athens for the duration of the Games. A spokeswoman for the British Embassy said: "He was a pedestrian crossing the Olympic lane on one of the main roads when he was hit by an oncoming vehicle.

"Next of kin have been informed and we are providing consular assistance."

fbaezer wrote:

The US lost at basketball . I'm so glad. It seems to me that American NBA players would play better if they had a dollar sign in their shirts, instead of the initials of their country.

many top player has withrawn from olympia and now there are only young player.
Apart from (as far as I know) Iverson and Duncan.