Worst With a Gold Medal

[andyjgt]

... the 1980 400H gold medalist has to rank as an also ran in any fully attended fantasy championship that year.

Although agreed that the boycotted Olympics count a bit less, I would agree that Volker Beck has what I would call the most de-valued gold medal in Olympic history. I think Moses could have beaten him wearing a lead vest.

I focused on that race in particular not to pick on Beck, and not even to highlight the great one Moses... heck we cant fault Beck for being born in the wrong decade for this event... the brutal fact is that he ran a mediocre time and wasnt even the best German at the time let alone best in the world.

There was of course however more than one Germany at that time!

[Powell]

Tiainen himself said (quoted in the Athletics Weekly issue covering the Games): 'I would have got a medal, but maybe not a gold medal'.

Did you expect him to say "I'm crap, I would have struggled to finish in the top 8 had the Eastern Block been there" ?

[andyjgt]

Tiainen himself said (quoted in the Athletics Weekly issue covering the Games): 'I would have got a medal, but maybe not a gold medal'.

Did you expect him to say "I'm crap, I would have struggled to finish in the top 8 had the Eastern Block been there" ?

No, because he'd probably have been no lower than 5th even if he didn't medal. I know Rodehau was strong but I'm sure the FRG hammer throwers, and indeed much of the FRG male team, was as strong as the GDR team, and he beat all 3 of them. Or maybe Kwasny could have beaten him, but we don't know.

[mump boy]

alonso babers

not saying he wasn't a worthy winner just that he has absolutely nothing to back it up

[Powell]

Did you expect him to say "I'm crap, I would have struggled to finish in the top 8 had the Eastern Block been there" ?

No, because he'd probably have been no lower than 5th even if he didn't medal.

His Olympic winning distance of 78.08 was beaten by the following athletes from the boycotting nations in 1984 (only 3 per country included):

86.34 Yuriy Sedykh URS
85.20 Sergey Litvinov URS
84.40 Yuri Tamm URS
80.64 Emanuil Dyulgerov BUL
80.50 Detlef Gerstenberg GDR
80.20 Guenther Rodehau GDR
79.90 Roland Steuk GDR
79.46 Mariusz Tomaszewski POL
79.06 Jozsef Vida HUN
78.84 Frantisek Vrbka TCH
78.84 Imre Szitas HUN
78.60 Henryk Krolak POL

Of course Tiainen himself threw much further that year as well, but my point is that throwing as he actually did in LA, he would have had no chance whatsoever of getting near the podium.

I know Rodehau was strong but I'm sure the FRG hammer throwers, and indeed much of the FRG male team, was as strong as the GDR team, and he beat all 3 of them. Or maybe Kwasny could have beaten him, but we don't know.

Actually, the top 3 GDR throwers all had better season bests in 1984 than the best West German (that was Riehm with 79.44). Kwasny was very much a one-season wonder - by 1984 he was no threat. There were many other strong HTers in Eastern Europe, though, as evidenced by the list above.

[Pego]

The worst overall event at least in the past 50 years in non-boycotted games must be the women SP in Athens. Pretty pathetic.

[Jay Peterman]

Certainly not the worst, but she disappeared very quickly - for me, anyway . Ellie van Langen. What happened to her?

[mcgato]

I think van Langen was mentioned during the van Damme coverage. She was in the outside lanes cheering on runners in the 5000 or some such distance event. I think they said that she worked for the meet, something like athlete coordinator or whatever.

[thorshammer]

I agree, although Tianen probably would have managed to medal even if all 3 soviets were there, it would just be bronze instead of gold

With a throw just over 78 meters? Very, very unlikely.
Even if he had managed to throw farther with stronger competition, the top three Soviets that year all had SBs of over 84 meters, which was waaaay beyong Tiainen's capabilities. One of them would need to have a very bad day to finish out of the medals.

Tianen could have easily thrown over 78 if he had been forced, he only had to beat some very old West Germans. The reason why I suggest Tianen is because his actual form in 1984 was closer to Soviet style technique than any of the other competitors there.

I'm not suggesting Sedykh or Litvinov had anything to worry about, Tamm has been beat by non Soviets in international meets so thats what I think would have happened

[thorshammer]

Bill Green (5th at 84 OG Hammer) has suggested that Tianen would have medaled had Sedykh and the rest been there.

[gh]

The worst overall event at least in the past 50 years in non-boycotted games must be the women SP in Athens. Pretty pathetic.

Or was it the first "honest" women's OG shot competition in almost 40 years? Would seem unfair to trash a field simply because it was a lot cleaner (notice I didn't sahy completely clean) than many of those which preceded it.

[Jon]

I think van Langen was mentioned during the van Damme coverage. She was in the outside lanes cheering on runners in the 5000 or some such distance event. I think they said that she worked for the meet, something like athlete coordinator or whatever.

She works alongside Jos Hermans for his athlete management company.

After 1992 she suffered from a load of injuries. Managed to come back for the 1995 WCh (finished around 6th I think) and retired a few years later.

[Jon]

The worst overall event at least in the past 50 years in non-boycotted games must be the women SP in Athens. Pretty pathetic.

Or was it the first "honest" women's OG shot competition in almost 40 years?

My thoughts exactly. I, for one, was pleased with the (corrected) results of the '04 OG wSP.