Olympics 2008 -- Moment I Will Remember

I did not get to see much of Olympics this year. I generally love to watch gymnastics, but it's always on much too late for me to catch it (except right now, because apparently I've turned into an insomniac). I caught random moments during the weekend and some week nights when I happened to turn on the t.v.

NBC, obviously, focused mostly on American athletes. But the moment that I think I will remember is watching one particular swimming event, where the gold medal did not go to an American. I would have to be blind and deaf not to be aware of Phelps and Torres. I cheered them both on and was rather heartbroken that Torres did not win the gold. But the race I will remember is a rather long men's swimming event (I forget the exact distance), where the commentators focused on an Australian swimmer as the favorite to win. The gold medal, though, went to a Tunisian swimmer. No one even talked about him. Why is this the moment I think I will remember? Because as my sister correctly observed, that swimmer is the only athlete from Tunisia that won a medal, and it's gold at that.

I checked the standing again today, and he's the only Tunisian to bring home the gold medal.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/medals/2008standings/index.html

There are other countries that send so many athletes that mathematically, they have to be one of the countries that will have won the more medals than others. I think, though, it must be incredibly special for an athlete to be the sole representative of his or her country. And how proud that entire country must be that an internationally (or at least by American news commentators) unheard of athlete captures the gold!

If you study the standings, there are quite a number of countries with just one medal. With so many competitions and sports, it's probably not easy to have caught the moment where you saw an athlete proudly wins that sole medal for his or her country. During the random moments where I turned to Olympics, I was lucky enough to have watched that precious moment for Tunisia!