Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
Five defining moments from a decade of sport
As the decade draws to a close, we pick five sporting moments which have defined the last 10 years.
1. Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic flame at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a Games set in a country which embraces the outdoor life and punches well above its weight in most sports.
Aboriginal Freeman, who had suffered racial prejudice as a child, symbolised the optimism of a new start in a new century for a bustling immigrant nation. She went on to surmount suffocating pressure by winning the 400 metres gold, Australia’s only track gold.
2. A tattered U.S. flag, rescued from the rubble of the World Trade Centre which had been destroyed in the attacks on the United States in the previous year, was carried into the stadium during the opening ceremony for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
There had been serious doubts that the Games and the subsequent World Cup in Japan and South Korea would go head after the events of 9/11. In the end both took place without incident albeit at enormous security costs.
3. Zinedine Zidane, the supreme soccer player of his generation and scorer of two headers in France’s 1998 World Cup final win over Brazil, emerged from international retirement to help take his team to the 2006 final against Italy.
Olympics 2016 decision day: live blog
Join us for our live blog on the day of the decision for the 2016 Olympic Games, with Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo the four candidate cities. Comments are open, so please give us your views and predictions, and we have a poll running, so give us your vote as well!
Kevin Fylan, Copenhagen
I am disapointed that chicago lost but at the same time hapy for Rio. Brazil will do a great job, of that I am sure. As a former athlete, this was probably my last chance to attend an olympic event. But Thanks to the American delegate ayt the IOC…espeially Mr & Mrs Obama…you gave it your best shot…and no matter what Glen Beck and those of his elk say…we now know who in America has the best interest of the country at heart.
Easily. One of the stupidest moves in Olympic and sports history. Michael Phelps swims fast. That’s it. Other than that, he’s a mush-mouthed idiot. He speaks English as if he’s retarded. Who wants to remember such a fool? Let’s hope he fades into the woodwork by the next Olympics.