Cyclist celebrates achievements by endangering life
Bradley Wiggins was in high spirits after securing two gold medals at the Beijing velodrome (the french term for ‘bike shed’) and decided to have a little tipple at London House (a hastily-named venue set up by the Chinese to celebrate the 2012 Games). One thing lead to another, and his night ended with some victory rolls over the bonnet of a taxi:
[Wiggins] won two golds - in team and individual pursuits - and was perhaps also trying to cheer himself up after losing out on a third yesterday.Wiggins’ stunt, rolling over the taxi’s bonnet
There was so much wrong about Hitler - the indie kid haircut, the Chaplin moustache, the ill fitting suits. Not to mention his massive racism issues and war waging. What was with that, Adolf? Seriously. Anyway, no matter, we killed him in the end, and all of his mean Nazi cohorts ended up looking like idiots. That all happened in about 1945, but it was a whole nine years earlier, in 1936, that a brilliant young black athlete called Jesse Owens kicked off the humiliation by beating a load of Aryans at running and jumping. He won four gold medals in Berlin.
As with politics and snack foods, America likes to think it is number one when it comes to the Olympics. Host nation China, however, look all set to dispute their sovereignty by claiming the most Golds in Beijing…
America’s gold medal haul is on the slide. In 1996, they won forty-four gold medals but in Athens four years ago, they ended the Games with just thirty-six.
China (1.4) are getting closer. In 1996, they finished with twenty-eight fewer gold medals than the USA. In 2000, they ended nine behind the Americans and four years ago China ended the Olympics just four golds back.
But you can’t write off the Americans. China may be catching them on the gold front but in 2004, the USA won 66 silver and bronze medals combined compared to China’s 31. That means the USA are a lot closer to increasing their gold haul and have far more opportunities to do so than the hosts.
Russia(60) have been consistent performers, winning between twenty-six and thirty-two golds in the last three Olympic Games. However, no country in the last ten Olympics has topped the gold medal table with fewer than thirty-six golds.
