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| The United States qualified eleven teams to the 2008 Beijing Games (two each in soccer, volleyball, basketball and water polo; one in baseball, softball and field hockey). Nine had new coaches, hired since the 2004 Athens Games. The two returning coaches, Guy Baker of women's water polo and Mike Candrea of softball, led their teams to silver medals. The first-timers, however, showed no rookie jitters in their first appearances on the sidelines of the U.S. team, with four golds, two silvers and one bronze. | |||
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New coach
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Hire date
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Result
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Soccer: women (Pia Sundhage)
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November 2007
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Gold medal
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| Basketball: men (Mike Krzyzewski) | October 2005 | Gold medal | |
| Basketball: women (Anne Donovan) | January 2006 | Gold medal | |
| Volleyball: men (Hugh McCutcheon) | February 2005 | Gold medal | |
| Volleyball: women (Jenny Lang Ping) | February 2005 | Silver medal | |
| Water polo: men (Terry Schroeder) | June 2007 | Silver medal | |
| Baseball (Davey Johnson) | September 2005 | Bronze medal | |
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Field hockey: women (Lee Bodimeade)
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March 2005
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8th place
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Soccer: men (Peter Nowak)
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December 2006
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Out in prelims
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Returning coach
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History
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Result
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Softball (Mike Candrea)
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2nd Olympics
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Silver medal
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Water Polo: women (Guy Baker)
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3rd Olympics
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Silver medal
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Kicking sibs
The Lopez siblings -- Steven, Mark and Diana -- each won
medals in taekwondo on August 21 and 22. With that achievement, they became the
first sibling threesome of different genders to win medals at the same Olympic
Games. However, they are only the fourth group of three or more siblings to
have won medals at the same games.
The first were:
Fuzzy math
When midfielder JO (given name: Joao Alves de Assis
Silva) scored Brazil's second and third goals to help his side clinch a bronze
medal, it sparked a question around the NBC Research Room: does he become the
medal-winning athlete with the shortest name in Olympic history?
It is very much subject to interpretation. There has not been an athlete with a one-letter ("'I' won a medal many times, but only as a pronoun) or two-letter full name. Should Jo be given credit for the shortest name distinction when his given name is 19 letters longer?
If Jo has the shortest name in history, can there be any doubt that Thai weightlifter Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon, gold medalist in the 53kg weight class, has the longest?
Compiled by the NBC Olympics Research Room
Rating:
“Apolo Ohno, Short trackAny athlete at this level and the elite level knows really when they should turn the light switch on and off. It's been on all summer.
”
