Sweden's Gold medal hopes look bleak !

Olympics 2008 in Beijing are nearing the end this weekend, and the Sweden camp is somber with its performance this time. Sweden this time is yet to take a Gold medal and now all the hopes of one are looking bleak. The only time the Scandinavian nation did not won a Gold was in Seoul games of 1988 and there was no participation in 1904 which was attended very sparsely being the exception.


It was a mixed performance from Swede athletes who took 4 Golds at the Athens Olympics 4 years ago with their overall medal tally of 7 , but at Beijing edition of Olympics the medal tally has sharply come down to only 3 silvers and with the only one of the final competition in which Sweden participates is the Women's Long Jump in which the Heptathlon champion Carolina Klüft is taking part, after switching over from the other discipline.

Firstly, Sweden's Carolina Klüft did not want to defend her heptathlon title which she won at the Athens's Olympics, citing her lack of motivation in the event and instead opted for the Long Jump and Triple jump events which she is yet to prove in, earlier she failed to qualify for the finals of the triple jump. Finals of the High Jump competition in which she qualified are slated for Aug 22 Friday at the National stadium at 19:20.

Wrestler Ara Abrahamian's tiff with the IOC has cost Sweden camp with another medal, IOC finally rejecting his adamant repulsive behaviour with stripping his medal. And Susanna Kallur had a very unfortunate run after she fell in the 100m hurdles an event in which she was one of the strong contenders for Gold.

Now the latest, Stefan Holm lost his defence to the Men's High Jump title with a performance in which he came fourth with failing to jump more than 2.32 metres, an event which he won at Athens, eventually Andrey Silnov from Russia won the Gold by clearing 2.36 metres.

Germaine Mason of Britain won silver with 2.34m on countback from Russian Yaroslav Rybakov, who took bronze.

With all eyes on the final at the Long Jump finals on Friday in which Russian contingent are leading contenders with Tatyana Lebedeva has a personal best of 7.33 which is close to the Olympic Record set by the American athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee at Seoul Olympics in 1988, World Record of 7.52m is held by Galina Chistyakova of the former USSR. So, any one can make a guess of Sweden's Gold hopes at the Beijing Olympics.


Start List for the Women's Long Jump Final on Aug 22


Ref :-IOC, Wikipedia.

Ara Abrahamian story !

Ara Abrahamian the Swedish wrestler in the Grecoroman category was upset at the decision by the Judges to award the match against him in a match against Italian wrestler,

Abrahamian later won the bronze medal in another decider for the Bronze medal but was not happy, according to him it looked like he was sure to win against the Italian Wrestler who eventually won the Gold at the event and cited political reasons why the judges decided against him, but the Judges thought otherwise, and this led to wild protests and eventually Abrahamian rejecting the medal by leaving it off at the podium after the ceremony.

This incident made the IOC to take disciplinary action against him withdrawing the medal from him and barring his further participation in any of the events at Olympics.

Susanna Kallur World Record Video on YouTube

This is what I found out when I went searching the web for Susanna Kallur who had a unfinished run in the 100m hurdles in which she was one of the favourites to win at Beijing Olympics 2008, the other video in which she made a World Record is at this place on the web.
Susanna Kallur World Record


Sanna just was just too soon by the first hurdle and that's the reason why she fell. -> Her trainer Karin Torneklint said this to the Swedish press...and she looked forward to compete in the next races of the season, hope she break records next time, to make up for the performance here. No More

Three time World Heptahlon champion Carolina Klüft seeks to win Long Jump event at Beijing Olympics !

Defending champion in Heptathlon event Sweden's Carolina Klüft will be in spotlight in the coming days as she is trying to prove a point or two in the Long Jump, an event which she recently has switched to, altogether abandonding Heptathlon, in which she has dominated for long. Her reason towards cited is lack of motivation to defend her title instead she has invested all her efforts in the women's triple jump and Long Jump events.

25 year old three time world heptathlon champion Klüft has failed in her attempt to qualify for the Long Jump finals at Beijing edition of Olympics, as she finished 20th in the standings with a mark of 13.96 meters, where Francoise Mbango Etone of cameroon successfully defended her title at the event again with a new Olympic Record of 15.39 m and Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva who jumped season's best of 15.32m won the silver medal. Hrysopiyi Devetzi of Greece won the bronze medal.

Now, her focus will be on the Long Jump event where she finished at the 11th place in the overall standings at the Athen's Olympics and now is the event of focus for Klüft . Where Russians have made a complete sweep in the past, Lebedeva is the defending champion in the Long Jump event as she won the Gold at the Athen's edition of Olympics. Russian is not only thedefending Olympic champion but also the reigning world champion from the Osaka championships of last year.

Women's Long Jump Finals are Scheduled for Friday Aug 22 at National Stadium at 19:20 with heats starting on Tuesday Aug 19th.

And the games to look tomorrow are

Men's Long Jump - Final
Women's Discus Throw - Final
Men's 3000m Steeplechase – Final
Women's Pole Vault – Final
Women's 800m – Final
Women's 100m Hurdles – Semifinal
Women's 400m – Semifinals

Sweden medal hopefuls

Sweden medal hopefuls at Beijing Olympics 2008

1. Stefan Holm, High Jump, final is scheduled at 19th of August 1:10 pm Swedish time.
2. Susanna Kallur, Women’s 100 metre hurdles, 19th of August 4:25 pm Swedish time.
3. Carolina Klüft, Women’s long jump, participation day August 22nd Swedish time 1:20 pm.
4. Ara Abrahamian, Men’s Greco Roman wrestling, 84 kg, participation day August 14th 10:00 am.
5. Ida- Theres Nerell, Greco Roman Wrestling, 55 kg, August 16th 11:35 am.
6. Stefan Nystrand 50 metre men’s freestyle, August 16th 4:35 am.
7. Therese Alshammar, 50 metre women’s freestyle, August 17th 4:00am.