U.S. wins medal count, but other countries also have reason to celebrate

THE U.S. success began with a surprise, on a Saturday morning nearly 20 miles west of downtown Sydney in an agricultural area known as the Cumberland Plain. Nancy Johnson won the first gold medal of the 2000 Olympic Games, and did so in an upset at the 10-metre air rifle event.

It ended 15 days later, with something preordained, even if it was startlingly close - a U.S. victory in the men's basketball tournament.

The United States won 97 medals in all, 39 gold, more than any other country in either category. From baseball to beach volleyball, from swimming to softball, the Americans were dominant. The U.S. team provided engaging stories and standout performances in unexpected places, like the Greco-Roman wrestler Rulon Gardner, and also when the spotlight was brightest, as with Marion Jones, Maurice Greene and Michael Johnson.

But these Games brought evidence that several national athletic programmes are growing stronger.

The Russian Federation won medals in 23 sports - more than anyone - and won the second most medals overall (88) and the second most gold medals (32).

China, despite leaving behind 27 athletes suspended for drug testing problems, was third in the medals tally with 59, 28 of them gold. It won medals in a dozen sports, and had a stranglehold on diving, where it won five golds and five silvers. It won eight table tennis medals, including golds in all four categories. It also won its first men's team gymnastics gold medal.

Host Australia had its best showing in an Olympic Games. The Aussies wanted to put on a good show, they also wanted to perform well, having poured millions into nation-wide sporting programmes after a dismal medal count at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

For a nation of 18 million, the Australians kept up with the largest nations in the world, finishing fourth in the medal count with 58 and also finishing fourth in gold medals with 16. Germany was fifth with 57 medals, 14 gold.

The countries of the former Soviet Union had an extremely strong showing. Excluding Russia, 12 countries formed by the breakup of the Soviet Union won medals in Sydney: Belarus, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.

If you combined their totals at the Sydney Games - as if the Soviet Union were still together - they would have won 48 gold medals, 48 silver medals and 67 bronze medals, or 163 medals overall. That dwarfs any other country's total.

The Americans shined in the areas that were expected. The men's and women's basketball teams won, the softball team won, and while the Australians started strong in swimming, the Americans eventually took control. The United States won 33 swimming medals, including 14 gold medals.

U.S. boxers, expected to be among the strongest U.S. teams in 24 years, started well but faltered later, failing to win a gold medal for the first time since 1948 (excluding the boycotted 1980 Games).

Marion Jones didn't win five gold medals, but she did capture three gold medals and two bronze. Greene and Johnson won two gold medals each.

The U.S. baseball team beat the mighty Cubans, pulling off an upset that harkened back to the 1980 Olympic hockey team.

Gardner, meanwhile, beat the Russian wrestling legend Alexander Karelin, who had never lost in a major international competition.

``I'm dreaming this great dream,'' Gardner said several days after winning his gold. ``I wake up every morning thinking, this dream is a great one.''

The U.S. softball pitcher Lisa Fernandez, whose team had to win five consecutive games after losing three in a row, said these Games would be remembered for the high level of competition.

``Just look at our story,'' Fernandez said. ``Here's a team that came in with a 110-game winning streak, and we got beat three in a row. It shows how far the other countries have come. The playing field is levelling. Maybe in most sports.

``That's what was great about these Games. We had cable satellite feeds in our Olympic village and we would come back from a game or practice and watch all kinds of sports, just everything. The competition level was so high.''

That proved to be true to the very end, with France, never an Olympic basketball power, testing the United States in the final minutes of the men's basketball final.

An Olympic Games of surprises almost had one last one in it.

- New York Times News Service

BILL PENNINGTON

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