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Reactions: World stories of the year Additions to our list of world stories of 2000Posted: Thursday December 21, 2000 5:11 PM
CNNSI.com listed its top 10 world sports stories of the year and users were asked to submit their "story of the year" suggestions. A sample of the responses received follows: The gold belongs to the Romanian Gymnast, Andreea Raducan. It was such a humiliation that IOC made. That kind of decision is made and revised by humans. Thus, they should be flexible and reasonable in handling each case.
Funny how there are no Africans anywhere in your entire feature. Did you happen to miss either the 10,000 meters or the 1500 meters in the Olympic Athletics program? If you are looking for a five-medal wonder, Steve Redgrave is your man. If you wanted the swimming sensations in Sydney, they were the Dutch.
Steve Redgrave wins his fifth gold medal in five Olympics. Unlike Marion Jones, he went for one gold medal at each of the Olympic Games in which he rowed. He has a 100 percent success rate during the Olympic Games, and that is not only phenomenal but also unprecedented.
The Cameroon soccer team winning the African Cup of Nations, the 2000 Olympics and then, immediately after, flying to France to tie the European-World Champs. As a returned Peace Corps volunteer who had to endure my village screaming during the 1994 World Cup that saw Cameroon allow ONE Russian score FIVE goals against them, I can tell you that the team is the story of the year. Yes, the games were controversial but, what heart and confidence from a country that is struggling on all fronts except the soccer field! The BBC reported that the country had a collective hangover after the all night/day/night festivities! Wish I were there to celebrate! Here's to hoping for an African team winning the World Cup and successfully acting as the host country in the very near future.
In my opinion Brazilian tennis star Gustavo Kuerten should have his historical victory in Lisbon's Masters included in the 10 most exciting sports stories of the year.
To see the debate over who should have received the greatest soccer player of the decade between Maradona and Pele would have been a great inclusion because of the never ending constant debate and passion which this topic always brings to the surface
1. Boca Juniors winning the South American Championship and then winning the intercontinental championship against Real Madrid for the first time in many years since a fellow named Maradona played for them.
In all your lists for top-performances in 2000 I do miss two names: Pieter van de Hoogenband and Inge de Bruijn. The credit everyone gives to the Aussies (Thorpe, Susie O'Neill) is correct, but there can be no doubt about the true Queens of the swimming-pool. The dominance of De Bruijn and the great races between, Hoogenband and Thorpe at the 200m freestyle and between Hoogenband and Popov at the 100m should be among the top of everyone's list who loves the game of sports.
Brazilian tennis player Gustavo Kuerten won the Masters Cup in Lisbon beating Pete Sampras in the semis and Andre Agassi in the final, becoming only the second player to defeat them in a row, after Michael Chang did that back in 1990. More than that, Guga, who was battling back and hamstring injuries, took the number one spot in the rankings, ending the American dynasty of eight years (one with Jim Courier, six with Sampras and one with Agassi). He is the first South American to hold the number one position in the year-end rankings. Also, he won his second French Open title in May.
I would put the Dutch swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband into the list. He was THE MAN at the swimming event at the Sydney Olympics. He was just something special there.
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