Olympian honors a fallen rival, and more

last updated 8 January 2015

Olympian honors a fallen rival

Olympic swimming champion Daniel Gyurta will have a copy made of the gold medal he won in the 200-meter breaststroke this year to dedicate to a fallen rival. The Hungarian swimmer will send the replica to the family of Alexander Dale Oen, a Norwegian swimmer who died from a rare heart disease in April at the age of 26. Dale Oen, the reigning 100-meter breaststroke world champion, had been a favorite for Olympic gold. “I’m sure that he would have won the 100 here in London,” said Gyurta. “This is the least I can do to pay respect to my friend.”

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Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt came through with his signature panache this week, sailing to victory in the 100-meter sprint and setting a new Olympic record to replace the one he made four years ago. Many had written Bolt off ahead of the London Games. He was disqualified from last year’s world championships after a false start, and was beaten twice by his teammate Yohan Blake at the Jamaican Olympic trials last month. But Bolt saved his best for the final on the eve of Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of its independence, when he beat Blake by 12-hundredths of a second to retain his title as the world’s fastest man.

An Olympic consolation prize

Just missing out on an Olympic medal must be tough. That’s why one sports fan has come up with a consolation prize for Olympic also-rans—a fourth-place medal. David Mitchell of Cromford, England, plans to send medals he designed himself to athletes who missed out on bronze this year. The number of competing nations has grown so large, he says, that more winners ought to be recognized. The first recipients will be British divers Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield, who placed fourth in the men’s 10-meter synchronized diving this year. “I hope they don’t find it insulting,” he said. “It’s meant seriously.”