Herald writers’ highs and lows

Five defining moments


1. Cathy Freeman's 400m win has to be the biggest moment. A record crowd of 112,574 at Stadium Australia came to their feet as one as she fulfilled her destiny, carrying the weight of the nation's expectations over the finish line. At the end she sat on the track stunned, realising what she had achieved in terms of Olympic glory, as well as in reconciliation of the races. After lighting the Olympic flame, and going in as a raging favourite, no one has ever been under more pressure. A great win.

2. Ian Thorpe's loss - to unheralded Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband in the 200m freestyle - in his best event was as unexpected as it was electric. The crowd at the Homebush Bay Aquatic Centre was lifting the roof as Thorpe turned in front for the last lap. Silence descended in the last seconds as van den Hoogenband took the front and it became obvious the Thorpedo was off target. The race was great, pushing the world record, but it was Thorpe's behaviour afterwards that made it special. He wanted van den Hoogenband to enjoy winning gold as much as he had the previous night in the 400m and relay, Thorpe said, in the most magnanimous statement of the Games.

3 Nobody really thought Steve Redgrave, 38-year-old diabetic, love handles and all, could make his dream of five gold medals at five consecutive Olympics. In the last international coming into the regatta the Great Britain crew suffered their only defeat in three years and it looked like their time was up. But Redgrave proved everyone wrong. He beat age, six insulin shots a day, and the toughest competition at the rowing to cruise to a comfortable victory in one of the most physically demanding events at the Games. A knighthood seems certain for the most decorated rower and two-time Olympic standard bearer.

4 Hicham El Guerrouj came to Sydney as the No 1 certainty, having won every 1500m race since he fell in the Atlanta final in 1996. He has carried a photograph of himself slumped on the track ever since, a reminder that nothing is certain. Now he'll have to replace it with the one of himself looking like a stunned mullet as he gazes at a scoreboard telling him he's second behind Noah Ngeny. The Kenyan was the only person in Stadium Australia who didn't believe the race was over before it started. He ran confidently down the straight and shouldered past El Guerrouj to win by a metre.

5 Roy Slaven and H. G. Nelson have had a field day with New Zealand's poor performance at the Games. We'd be churlish if we denied them the Olympic gold medal for humour. The episode after the Kiwi team's laptops were stolen was particularly good. They had a disk sent in revealing the team plan, they claimed: "When in front, deny being a New Zealander; if questioned by the media try not to embarrass yourself." When Rob Waddell won gold, Slaven's line was that he had proved New Zealanders were at their best when sitting down and going backwards. A treat, and just as much of a treat as watching the Yanks and Poms try to make sense of South Pacific humour.

Five worst moments


1 Bulgarian weightlifter Ivan Ivanov had the ignominy of being stripped of his gold medal as a result of a positive drugs test, setting the tone for a drug- tainted Games. Up to Sunday 33 athletes had returned positive drugs tests in pre-Games or Games competition, the most ever caught.

2 C.J. Hunter expects us to believe that a testosterone level 1000 times above normal was caused by an iron tablet. Pigs might fly. Hunter has sullied the performance of the whole American track team, the only good from his bad behaviour the fact that the World Anti-Drug Authority is to conduct an investigation.

3 Still on drugs, Romanian teenager Andreea Raducan was also stripped of gold, but this one was not her fault. The young winner had been given a cold remedy containing the banned drug pseudoephidrine. It's the doctor who deserves the acrimony here, not the athlete.

4 The lawnmowers at the opening ceremony. God knows what was going through their minds with that lot.

5 The Australian walker Jane Saville was within 120m of her dream when she was disqualified for lifting her feet. She was well in front and deserves credit for blaming no one but herself for blowing the gold.