Eugene Bingham: Champions earn the name

COMMENT

Brace yourself for an outbreak of bravado: here come the track and field stars.

It's not the case with everyone, but athletics sure has its fair share of trash-talking, strutting and striding egos.

During the first week of the Games, it has been noticeable that the United States team have taken heed of the call to tone themselves down. But you can bet that the with athletics dominating the programme next week, there will be more scenes like the one in Sydney when the winning US 4 x 100m team behaved like puffed-up show-offs, even on the medal dais.

Swimmers can sometimes get into the sledging - remember Gary Hall of the US who boasted in Sydney that in the relays the Americans would play the Aussies like guitars? When the Australians won, they put on an air guitar display at the medal ceremony.

In the build-up to Athens, we were told that the Greeks wanted to reunite the Olympics with their founding values, the principles of friendship, fair play and humility.

In the men's 200m backstroke final early yesterday, US swimmer Aaron Peirsol thrashed the field to win his second event of these Games, followed by Austria's Markus Rogan.

When Peirsol and Rogan finished one-two in the 100m backstroke final, Rogan was asked if winning silver was the best thing that had happened to him.

He replied that it was not so much the medal he treasured, as being lucky enough to share the victory dais with one of his best friends.

"That to me is an Olympic moment," he said.

When the results of the 200m final were flashed on the screen early yesterday, it showed that Peirsol had been disqualified for what was called an incorrect turn.

Rogan was elevated to the gold medal position. The reaction of Peirsol and Rogan was remarkable. When the crowd booed, Peirsol came back out to the poolside and waved his arms to tell the fans to stop. He then put his arm around Rogan, as if to say, "It's okay. He's with me."

Peirsol knew that he had not made the mistake alleged of him, and the US team protested, but there was not a drip of animosity.

When the decision was reviewed, Peirsol was reinstated. The two friends embraced again.

If Rogan was gutted, he did not show it.

"I think I am the shortest Olympic champion in history," said Rogan. "It reached my mind, but it never reached my heart. My friendship with Aaron is more important than a medal."

The behaviour of these two champions, their grace and sportsmanship, will go down as one of the greatest displays of those Olympic values the Athens organisers were so determined to rediscover.