Posted on 08/29/2004 10:20:07 AM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy
The leader of the Olympic Marathon was charged by a spectator and pushed into the crowd. The assailant appeared to be an adult male who wore clasic Greek garb and had a placard or sandwich board covering his upper chest. Vandelei Lima of Brazil was leading the race at about one hour fifty seven minute point when a man ran from the far side of the street and held Lima as he pushed/threw him into the crowd. The assailant was subdued by spectators in the crowd and Lima was able to rejoin the race.
I wonder if it was some left-wing protestor trying to make a political point.
That's a real shame. Here's a guy who has trained for years to participate, has spent his energy to achieve the lead and then this. I hope they throw the book at that protester and make it very public.
He was wearing the Italian tri-colors , in a traditional outfit of unknown ethnicity, imo.
Maybe Greek, maybe Sardinian, maybe ???.
Lima was in sight of the stadium when the assault occurred, leading the field by a large margin. Can we expect a huge debate on whether he should be awarded a gold medal?
This may be the first time an Olympic athlete was directly assaulted during an event.
Amazing!
Oh, Gee.
He was dressed in Scottish gear not Greek gear
The Brazilian runner showed magnificent grace and class when he entered the stadium.
I'm sure his bronze will be feted in the Brazilian press as having as much honor as the gold.
And so it will.
LIVE thread with the incident here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1202385/posts
The guy looked like he was wearing Italian colors and obviously theit guy was in contention (later went on to win). Not trying to spin a conspiracy, but when I first saw him that is what I thought. Hopefully they can clear this up.
It was terrible. I'm just glad he didn't get injured and was able to hold on for a Bronze.
To me the assailant was wearing some kind of dress/kilt kind of thing with some kind of "poofy" blouse (ala Seinfeld). Were the colors blue and white? Isn't that the Greek national colors or what?
No they were Green and yellow.
If a federal air marshall had been present, he would have arrested the spectators.
They've been talking about it since it happened.
Earlier thread: Olympic marathon surprise and shock (spoiler)
They were Italian colors. That is why I immediately thought conspiracy since they had a viable gold medal chance.
Link and story found at the "live" thread,
http://sport.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3428065
Marathon Leader Attacked
Brazilian Vanderlei de Lima was tonight involved in the first high-profile security breach of the Olympic Games as a spectator watching the men’s marathon accosted the long-time race leader.
With three and a half miles of the race remaining, De Lima was stunned to be jostled into the crowd by the spectator, dressed in costume, who was allowed to run from one side of the wide road to the other.
Although there are road-side barriers along the course, the spectator was not stopped by security and briefly chaos ensued.
De Lima held a convincing lead at the time, although he was being sucked in by a pack of athletes who were rapidly making up ground.
The incident delayed De Lima by several seconds, and he was then passed by two athletes.
Didn't the Italian runner win?
Those crowds would toy with the riders, waving flags and stuff in front of them, until the very last millisecond, and then the wave would part. Made me nervous just watching...
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