Fellow Canadian Jonathan Crowe has a project running for the duration of the Olympics called DFL. Though “Dead F***ing Last” sounds cheeky and disrespectful, he reminds us that he’s “celebrating last-place finishes at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Because they’re there, and you’re not.” Great work, Jon!

(image from The Irish Times)

I was born in Ireland, though my family moved to Canada when I was a toddler. Nevertheless, all of my extended family live there and I still maintain a proud connection to my homeland. So, it was a bit disheartening as well as confusing to read that the great Irish runner Sonia O’Sullivan finished dead last in the women’s 5,000 metres final last night. Just looking at the numbers, I couldn’t figure out what happened.

Then I read this beautiful tribute written by Keith Duggan of The Irish Times.

(By the way, Sonia still ran 16:20.9. My own personal best for 5,000 metres is 24:16. Just to put things into perspective.)

The story had been about which Ethiopian would win the men’s 10,000 metre race yesterday. It had even been suggested that Ethiopians would take all three medals. They weren’t counting on Zersenay Tadesse, who took bronze and became Eritrea’s first Olympic medallist (also setting a new National Record for the distance).

Tadesse said, “I’ve only been running for two years. Before that I was cycling. I trained at home but never expected to get on the podium. Realistically I should have finished between 4th and 6th place.”

For those who have never heard of Tadesse’s homeland, Eritrea borders Ethiopia and despite being a distinct society, succeeding Italian and British colonial administrations tended to lump Eritreans in with Ethiopians. In 1950, the UN granted control of Eritrea to Ethiopia, which completely annexed all Eritrean territory by 1962. After a liberation struggle that lasted thirty years, Eritrea finally gained its independence in 1993. Despite some ongoing border skirmishes with its neighbour (the loss of Eritrean territory left Ethiopia landlocked), this new country born from one of Africa’s oldest cultures seems well on its way to finding its voice on the world stage.

More on Eritrean history

An interesting article about why India, with the world’s second-largest population, does so poorly at the Olympics.

The good news is that the country has already done better at these Olympics than at any other since 1980. Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won a silver medal in the men’s double trap shooting event, achieving India’s best ever individual medal performance. In cricket-crazed India, however, his fame is sure to be brief.

“She is somewhere in her mid 50s, blind in one eye and has a throwing arm that was broken in 1990 and never set properly. On top of that, her best javelin throw is well short of the current records. Despite all that, she is training in the javelin throw five days a week and hopes to carry the Iraqi flag again in an international competition.”

Iraqi javelin specialist Hamdiya Ahmed al-Sammak wasn’t chosen to represent her country for the Athens Olympic Games. But it doesn’t seem to deter her. Denied the chance to compete for almost twenty-five years, she is making up for lost time.

Read the rest of the story at the excellent Women Warriors site.