text: [[foldercontrol]][[folder:General]]* The Opening Ceremonies generally qualify (the closing ones are [[DancePartyEnding much more chaotic and informal]]), but the 2008 Beijing ceremonies deserve a special mention, as do the 2012 London ones (featuring James Bond, the Queen, Mr. Bean, Mary Poppins, Voldemort, and the Industrial Revolution, among others).** Special points to one scene in the 2012 Opening Ceremony where Film/JamesBond and [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen the Queen]] ''parachute out of a helicopter into the Olympic Park''. Alright, they were stunt doubles there, but still... but the Queen in everything up to that point ''was actually her''. So much awesome in just five minutes of an awesome-packed ceremony.** The entire Industrial Revolution segment, especially the moment when you realized that ''they were forging the Olympic rings''.** Another meta one for London 2012. After criticism from the right-wing media and rentaquotes (lead loudly and unsurprisingly by the DailyMail) saying it was too multicultural (basically saying there were too many black people, and that it was wrong to praise hardworking doctors and nurses because the NHS = socialism), an InternetBackdraft ensued, forcing a particularly controversial tabloid paper (again, the Daily Mail) to edit the article, then eventually pull the article after several people chose to screenshot the article and point out what they'd said.** The 2012 Closing Ceremonies were just as amazing as the Opening, with Eric Idle singing ''[[Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life"]]'', as well as {{Queen}} performing ''"We Will Rock You"'' alongside Jessie J. (Which was preceeded by a clip of Freddy Mercury).** Writing for ''Time'', [[http://entertainment.time.com/2012/07/28/nbcs-unkind-olympic-cut/ James Poniewozik said]] the London games' opening ceremony "could not have been more British if you put a bowler hat on top of your television." * The opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, which captured one thousand epic years of Russian history, had, unlike many other opening ceremonies, absolutely no criticism. ''From anyone.'' Its been held as one of the best opening ceremonies ever, full stop.* The University of Southern California has produced a Gold Medalist in every Olympics for the last '''century''', omitting the 1980 Moscow boycott.* Team USA Women's Basketball is on a 37-game win streak.* Anytime a world record is broken or the country you support wins gold.* The 2004 Athens Opening Ceremony deserves special mention, as they manage to summarize the history of Greece - which began around 1750 BCE - in a matter of minutes. '''Without any narration.'''[[/folder]][[folder:Athens 1896]]* In the first Olympiad, the Greeks hadn't won any track and field event (a victory in discus throw, a classical Greek sport, won by American Robert Garrett was particularly painful). All that was left was the marathon. It started with 13 Greek athletes and four non-Greek athletes. After incidents like the collapse of a French runner and Australian 800m and 1500m winner Edwin Flack, Spiridon Louis took the lead. As he was arriving at the stadium, there were chants of "Hellene, Hellene!" When he appeared, there was tremendous celebrations and Louis got company in his last meters by none other than Greece's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I_of_Greece Crown Prince Constantine]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_George_of_Greece_and_Denmark Prince George]], who rose from their seats to help "Spiros". Wild celebrations ensued. Almost a century later, the Olympic Stadium in Athens was inaugurated. Its nickname is "Spiros Louis".[[/folder]][[folder: Paris 1900]]* František Janda-Suk was a Czech athlete who competed for Bohemia[[note]] The Bohemian Kingdom was a part of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy back then[[/note]] in the discus throw. This was the first time when a modern athlete threw the discus while '''rotating the whole body'''. He invented this technique when studying the position of the famous statue of Discobolus. The world of sport awed. It's slightly tinged as he got the silver medal, but it is an awesome moment for modern athletics if there ever was one.[[/folder]][[folder:London 1908]]* At the opening ceremony, track and field competitor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Rose Ralph Rose]], the U.S. flag bearer, refused to lower the flag before the royal box. Most of his teammates were [[TheIrishDiaspora Irish Americans or of Irish heritage]] and agreed to [[{{Ireland}} this]] [[TheIrishQuestion show of defiance]]. Years later his teammate [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sheridan Martin Sheridan]] was asked why they did that, and replied: "''This flag dips to no earthly king.''" They haven't dipped the American flag at the Olympic Games since.[[/folder]][[folder:Stockholm 1912]]* Jim Thorpe's performance in track and field, where he won gold in pentathlon and decathlon, were so dominant that Sweden king Gustav V said to him "You sir, are the greatest athlete in the world."[[/folder]][[folder:Berlin 1936]]* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens]] winning gold in the Olympics organized ''by UsefulNotes/NaziGermany''. To put this in perspective, a black man went to the country where [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler its leader]] declared that black people were biologically inferior to white people (especially Germans). He then handed Hitler's ass to him and dispelled the Aryan myth in front of the entire world. When ''Sports Illustrated'' made a list of the greatest Olympic moments, they put Owens' showing in the 1936 Olympics on top - above UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli at the Atlanta Olympics, above Bob Beamon's record jump at the Mexico City games, and above Michael Phelps winning ''eight gold medals in one Olympic games''. Owens is still widely considered to be a national hero to this day.** This moment is lessened a bit by the fact that Owens and another black athlete (Ralph Metcalfe) replaced two Jewish runners (Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman) in the 4x100 meter relay, the only time in US Olympic history that athletes were replaced without being injured or otherwise unable to compete. Reasons are disputed, but what is known is that the coach was a founder of a Nazi-sympathizer group, the America First Committee. Stoller claims to have been told later that Goebbels himself told the coach that Hitler would be embarrassed by Jews in the race.** Also remember that in Germany, the fact that Owens was black didn't really matter, as racial laws focused on Jews and Gypsies. He could sit wherever he wanted on German public transportation and he got huge cheers from the mainly German crowds. His victory in the long jump happened because he got a tip from his German opponent. And contrary to popular belief, he was not snubbed by Hitler. Hitler was told by the Olympic Committee that it was improper for the leader of the host country to congratulate the athletes. Owens even said Hitler waved to him as they met in passing. He waved back.*** He '''was''' snubbed by the President upon his return to the US. Roosevelt never acknowledged him in public or private.[[/folder]][[folder:Helsinki 1952]]* The 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki were amazingly awesome Games for Czechoslovakia:** Emil Zátopek, a Czech long-distance runner nicknamed "The Czech Locomotive", won three gold medals. He won gold in the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres runs, and he decided at the last minute to compete in the first marathon of his life, which he surprisingly won as well.** Emil Zátopek's wife Dana Zátopková was an outstanding athlete in the javelin throw. She won the gold medal in the javelin, only a few moments after Emil's victory in the 5 km run.[[/folder]][[folder:Rome 1960]]* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abebe_Bikila Abebe Bikila]] of Ethiopia became the first sub-Saharan African to win Olympic gold medal. In the ''marathon''. ''BAREFOOT.''** He repeated his win in 1964 (this time wearing shoes), becoming the first Olympic marathon winner to defend his gold. Just over a month after receiving emergency surgery for a burst appendix.[[/folder]][[folder:Mexico City 1968]]* Tommie Smith and John Carlos' Black Power salute while receiving their gold and bronze medals in the 200 meter dash. Nicely followed by the WhatAnIdiot moment for IOC president Avery Brundage, who denounced it for bringing a political issue into the games... and was then reminded that he had made no such objection to the German athletes making Nazi salutes in 1936.** The silver medalist, Australian Peter Norman, wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge (given to him by USA rower Paul Hoffman) to show solidarity with Smith and Carlos. Given Australia wasn't too keen on that sort of thing, especially at that time counts as a [=MoA=] for him.*** Even better, Norman collaborated with Smith and Carlos for the whole thing - they discussed the move before they went out onto the podium, and as Carlos had forgotten to bring his black gloves from the olympic village, Norman suggested that Smith give one of his gloves to Carlos, which is why the pair raised their opposite arms. The three medallists ''knew'' their sporting careers were on the line and had everything to lose (especially Norman, whose home country still supported the White Australia Policy, and what he did ended up destroying his career completely, the Australian government only apologized for his treatment in 2012, six years after his untimely death in 2006). And yet they walked out onto the podium fearlessly, consequences be ''damned''.* Another moment of protest: Czechoslovakia's [[https://youtu.be/dykBBhaoczg Vera Caslavska turning her head down and away during the Soviet anthem]], for which she too was punished when she returned home. Only a few months prior to the games, Czechoslovakia had been invaded and the Prague Spring crushed by the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. For additional (but sad) awesome, Caslavska had openly protested the invasion and had subsequently been forced to go into hiding to avoid arrest. She was therefore forced to train [[ImprovisedTraining in secret in a FOREST]] while her competitors traveled early to Mexico City to acclimate to the altitude. Despite this, Caslavska went on to win four gold medals and two silvers.* Bob Beamon beating the previous long-jump record by 55 cm (nearly two feet). His record stood until 1991.* Felipe "El tibio" Muñoz, a Mexican swimmer best known for his unusual (for the time) habit of refusing to swim in an unheated pool, managed to beat out the heavily favored Soviet and American athletes to win gold in the 200m breaststroke. He still stands as the only Mexican athlete to win gold in a swimming event.* Dick Fosbury managed to win the gold medal and set an Olympic record in the high jump with his "Fosbury Flop" technique. The admittedly silly looking technique was mocked in the media prior to the Olympics; the technique is now standard amongst almost all high jumpers.[[/folder]][[folder:Münich 1972]]* The opening ceremony. Its concept was something completely new at the time and you can see where the fantastic opening ceremonies of today's games have their roots. Especially the music during the entry of the nations is awesome, as it it is one huge, 80 minute(!) medley, where pre-recorded music is mixed with live drummers. You can listen to it, and watch the whole ceremony, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRZafGVuR0Q here]] (the music starts at minute 9). Kudos to the German organizers who gave us light pop tunes instead of martial airs, pastel colored outfits, the Olympic Flag brought in by athletes instead of soldiers as had been customary, and the adorable ''Blumenkinder'' dancing to Karl Orff's "Sumer is icumen in".* Helmut Bellingrodt Wolf became the first ever Colombian silver Olympic medal winner by finishing second in running game target shooting. The Colombian delegation went so wild that the organization had to tell them to please remain silent. Wolf repeated the feat in Los Angeles 1984, being the first Colombian sportsman to obtain two Olympic medals.* Olga Korbut's legendary performance on the uneven bars. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2NGqI6FqeQ It must be seen to be believed]]. Her signature [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korbut_Flip Korbut Flip]] is not only one of the most DifficultButAwesome skills in gymnastics, it's now ''banned'' from competition![[/folder]][[folder:Innsbruck 1976]]* Franz Klammer's spectacular, death-defying [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYj9kIxAL_o gold medal run]] in men's downhill skiing.[[/folder]][[folder:Montreal 1976]]* 14-year-old Nadia Comăneci from Romania gets the first perfect 10 in gymnastics. So awesome that ''it could not be properly registered in the scoreboard''. The scoreboard wasn't designed to handle double-digit numbers, only single digits with decimal points. They hadn't bothered to add a tens place, as it never occurred to anyone that it might actually happen. As it turned out, it happened not just once, but ''seven times''. By the ''same athlete''. That's right - out of the eight routines Comăneci performed in that Olympics, ''seven'' were perfect tens. She didn't [[BrokeTheRatingScale Break The Rating Scale]] - she left it curled in the foetal position crying for its mommy, then cackled and ground it into the dust.[[/folder]][[folder:Lake Placid 1980]]* The 1980 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gfD134ED54 Miracle on Ice]], in which the American hockey team managed to beat the heavily favored Soviets. The American team were made up of college kids and players who weren't even starters on their pro teams. Their average age was 22. The Soviet team featured a Dream Team who had been together since 1964, winning golds along the way and who had earlier crushed the NHL All-Stars team with ease. All this at the height of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar too.-->'''Al Michaels:''' Do you believe in miracles? ''Yes!''* Which completely overshadowed American speed skater Eric Heiden, who won gold in ''all five events'', at distances ranging from 500 to 10,000 m. This made him the first person ever to win five individual gold medals at a single Games.[[/folder]][[folder:Moscow 1980]][[/folder]][[folder:Sarajevo 1984]]* The '''greatest''' ice skating moment would have to go to Torvill and Dean from Britain. They have been the ''only'' team to ever get full sixes across the board. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2zbbN4OL98 Well deserved.]] Their dancing interpretation of Ravel's "Bolero" is legendary.[[/folder]][[folder:Los Angeles 1984]]* The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles was the first year that there was a Women's Marathon. American Joan Benoit came in first; but fifteen minutes later Swiss runner [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBasZWjd92k Gabriele Andersen-Schiess]] staggered into the stadium, half-paralyzed and barely able to stand from heat exhaustion. When medics rushed to stop her, she ducked away from them, knowing that if anyone touched her she would be disqualified. So the medics followed her as she painfully staggered the final lap around the stadium, occasionally stopping to hold her head before lurching on towards the finish line. When she reached the finish line she literally collapsed over it into the arms of waiting medics who rushed her to an ambulance. Anderson-Scheiss came in thirty-seventh, but was arguably more awesome than any medalist.[[/folder]][[folder:Calgary 1988]]* When the Jamaicans entered a team into the bobsledding competition for the 1988 Calgary Olympics, everyone treated them as a joke. They were Jamaicans, from a near-equatorial country that had no natural snow, and they had almost never actually practiced on ice. They did not win; in fact, they crashed rather horrifically. Then, when everyone was pretty sure they were dead, they emerged from their overturned bobsled, hoisted it up, and walked it across the finish line. [[Film/CoolRunnings And which was made into a comedy.]]** Completely untrue. First off, the Jamaicans were the number one fan favorite team. The team actually refused to leave the Olympic Village because they were mobbed by fans whenever they did. For their final race, 40,000 fans showed up - eight times the usual crowd. The other teams were exceptionally supportive as well, giving advice and support and lending spare sleds for the Jamaicans to compete with. And they pushed the sled across the finish line; they didn't carry it.* The Battle of the Brians showdown with Brian Orser and Brian Boitano.[[/folder]][[folder:Seoul 1988]]* Greg Louganis repeating is 3M-10M gold sweep from 1984. What makes this even more amazing is that in the 3M preliminaries, he hit his head on the board, but still managed to come in third; he then won the gold by just a shade under 26 points.** Did we mention that he was diagnosed as HIV positive before the Olympics?* Naim Süleymanoğlu of Turkey (he had previously competed for his birth country of Bulgaria as Naim Suleimanov and Naum Slamanov before his defection), nicknamed the "Pocket Hercules" due to his 147 cm (4'10") stature, setting records in the featherweight division (60 kg) of weightlifting by lifting 190 kg (419 lbs) in the clean and jerk (more than three times his body weight), and a combined 342.5 kg (755 lbs).[[/folder]][[folder: Albertville 1992]]* Kristi Yamaguchi's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dozwFZ5NoNs gold-medal winning performance]] that was so good that she won even though she FELL. (No doubt helped because everyone else fell, but still)* Midori Ito [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=polwvMNVgFU finally landing her elusive, signature triple Axel jump]] (she was the first woman to land one)and coming from behind to win the silver medal, after a disastrous week that left many wondering if she would medal at all.* Figure skater Paul Wylie. After years of a disastrous career, he ended up at the Olympics on a fluke and wasn't expected to win anything. Instead, he skated not only [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nLhA7CVIokthe best performance of his life]], but arguably of the night and won the silver medal.[[/folder]][[folder: Barcelona 1992]]* Anyone remember the 1992 Olympics? No? Well [[DreamTeam Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson, along with several other NBA greats]] were there. [[CurbStompBattle When they played, they won by several miles]]. The closest any team had against them was 33 points. And they never called a timeout during the entire tournament.* Vitaly Scherbo was there too. And how. A Belarusian representing the post-Soviet Unified Team in gymnastics, he won five individual golds, tying Eric Heiden's record from the 1980 Winter Games.* Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCKYiBL3fPM lit the cauldron with a flaming arrow]]. [[http://www.wimp.com/torchlighting/ Best. Torchlighting.]] [=EVER=]!* Gymnast Shannon Miller's EnsembleDarkhorse victories. She went into the games well in Kim Zmeskal's shadow --indeed, it was Zmeskal, the reigning world champion, who many predicted would come home draped in medals of varying colors -- only to emerge as the most decorated athlete of the Games, with two silver and three bronze medals --[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t_qNxHSAoc see the two absolutely FLAWLESS vaults]] that nearly cinched her the all-around gold before Tatiana Gutsu of the Unified Team, who was also competing the meet of her life that same night, just barely edged her out by twelve ''thousandths'' of a point. The results of that meet have been hotly debated for decades, and it is still the closest women's all-around in the history of the Olympic Games.* Indonesia got their first gold medal in badminton - which debut that year. Who got it? Alan Budikusuma in men singles and Susy Susanti in women singles. They're credited as "Golden Couple". And eventually, they've got married. Doubles as Heartwarming.[[/folder]][[folder:Lillehammer 1994]]* In the ice hockey final, Sweden tie favourites Canada in the final minutes and it goes to penalties. After five penalties, it's still tied. After an extra round of penalties, it's ''still'' tied. Then young whippersnapper Peter Forsberg steps up to take a penalty, skates towards the Canadian goal... and puts it in [[RefugeInAudacity one-handed, while skating backwards around the goalie]], winning Sweden's first Olympic hockey gold ever. Sweden put him on a [[http://gfx.aftonbladet-cdn.se/image/11220523/800/normal/516a33335f72f/27-frimarke-626.jpg stamp]] for that one.* Nancy Kerrigan finally putting to rest the demons that had plagued her even ''before'' her vicious attack, namely, a lack of confidence, and skating what is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7RvWbnaDZk universally believed to be her best performance]]. So what if she only won silver? ** Too bad she [[UnderStatement kiiiinda]] [[IsThisThingStillOn ruined it]] via [[SayingTooMuch whining about the one who got the gold]], the Ukrainian Oksana Baiul. Come to think of it, Baiul herself [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_fvrG3f0fI was really awesome back then]] - giving Ukraine its first and up until now only figure skating gold at age 16/17, and after quite the DarkAndTroubledPast as well. (Dead mom and grandparents, absent dad, growing up in Soviet/post-Soviet Ukraine, etc.)* Let's not forget China's Chen Lu. In the midst of the all the Tonya/Nancy/Oksana hype, it's easy to overlook that her bronze medal was the first ever Olympic figure skating medal for China. It's ''she'' who put the sport on the map for her country.* Dan Jansen FINALLY winning Olympic gold, then taking his victory lap while holding his baby daughter in his arms.[[/folder]][[folder:Atlanta 1996]]* Media coverage of the American women's gymnastics team focused heavily on Dominique Moceanu and Dominique Dawes, but after a two-fall showing from Moceanu, Kerri Strug was the last gymnast to vault on the American team rotation. She proceeded to fall on ''her'' rear on her first vault, but Kerri wasn't about to stand for that. Despite injuring her ankle on her first vault, she calmly walked back to the end of the runway, vaulted again, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwa5Bf656As stuck her landing ON ONE FOOT]] because she'd sprained her ankle when she hit the mat. [[PluckyGirl Her courageous vault]] sealed the first US women's team gold in Olympic history, and marked the first time since the dawn of the Iron Curtain that women's team gold was won by a nation outside the Eastern Bloc.** The ''entire'' women's gymnastics team. Their performance that night was so spectacular that they would have won even ''without'' Kerri Strug's valiant second vault--they had that many points and were that far ahead of the competition that even Moceanu's two falls and Kerri's one didn't dent their lead. (Note that at the time, Kerri and the rest of the team didn't know this; Kerri was slated to vault before the last two Russians had gone on floor exercise, and both were capable of extremely high scores.)* UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli lighting the torch. To put it in perspective, his participation was kept secret until the second he stepped out of the shadows to receive the torch. His body wracked by Parkinson's, his hand shaking, and it looks like the biggest effort of his career simply to hold the torch up to the crowd... and the entire audience (and probably a sizable portion of the billion people watching on TV) go silent for half a second, refusing to believe their eyes, and then they all stand up and cheer for the greatest boxer of all time.* Anti-abortion terrorist Eric Robert Rudolph planted a bomb in the Centennial Olympic Park. Security guard Richard Jewell noticed an unattended backpack and immediately began to evacuate the park. The explosion killed two and injured 111, but the casualty toll could have been in the thousands had it not been for Jewell's quick-thinking and bravery. Not to mention his heroic dignity and bravery in facing the onslaught when the media decided he was the chief - indeed, only - suspect and treated him accordingly. * KurtAngle winning Olympic gold in the men's 220 lb freestyle '''WITH A BROKEN FREAKING NECK!'''[[/folder]][[folder:Nagano 1998]]* The Czech National Ice Hockey Team wins gold medal. In 1998, the NHL allowed for the first time to have a break for the Winter Olympics in Nagano. The national ice-hockey teams could -- for the first time ever -- send their very best players and build all star ideal teams, and Canada and the United States were nearly 100% sure that they would be playing the final. However, in the semi-finals, the USA lost to Russia and Canada was beaten by the Czech Republic in the nerve-biting shoot-outs. The Czech national team won the whole thing. The Czech national ice hockey team is usually solid and there are always some great players with lots of ice hockey heart, but Nagono took it UpToEleven. Needless to say, ''everybody'' in the Czech Republic was watching, ''every'' major square in Prague was full of people and ''everybody'' was participating (or at least watching) their welcoming ceremony. It created several [[MemeticMutation memes]] and started a new golden era of Czech ice hockey. It is fondly remembered as one of the most awesome moments of Czech sport ever.* Tara Lipinski's surprising gold-medal win (while she was expected to medal, Michelle Kwan was expected to win the gold). With nothing to lose and knowing that she was bound to win a medal of ''some'' color, she simply went out and skated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_lGt6auYDo the performance of her life]], full of energy and zest, edging out Kwan's technically flawless, but very reserved performance.[[/folder]][[folder:Sydney 2000]]* The Miracle on The Mat. Rulon Gardner was never a legend in American wrestling up to this point; he was good but never great, but through sheer hard work he found himself in the Olympic Final against the legendary Alexander Karelin, a man who had not lost in international competition for 13 years, hadn't even been scored on for 7 years, and had already won 3 Olympic Golds in Seoul, Barcelona, and Atlanta. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXDXl3Vo84g This video]] shows the resulting match perfectly.* British rowers Steve Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent, James Cracknell, and Tim Foster winning the gold medals in the coxless fours; as he had also won gold medals in 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996 (these last two in the coxless pairs with Pinsent), Redgrave became the first person to win a gold medal at ''five'' consecutive Olympics. (Pinsent won a fourth consecutive gold medal four years later.)* Colombian weightlifting champion María Isabel Urrutia won Colombia's first Gold medal ever in its Olympic history. It was so awesome that even when she retired became a politician (in the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, for Cauca Valley department, TWICE - 2002 and 2006).* ''Le dunk de la mort''.[[note]] French for "the dunk of death", the name given to this incident by that country's media.[[/note]] [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]] star Vince Carter, playing in a pool match for Team USA against France, pulls off one of the most famous dunks in basketball history. Getting the ball off a steal, the 6'6" (1.98 m) Carter drives to the basket, only to find France's 7'2" (2.18 m) center Frédéric Weis in his way. What does Carter do? Keeps going... takes off... [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91PHBZOIYOs and jumps OVER WEIS' FREAKING HEAD to throw it down]]. (OK, so he did brush against Weis' head, but still...)* The opening ceremony is just FULL of them. Special note goes to the Tin Symphony, which features among other things, [[ItMakesSenseInContext a dragon turning into a windmill and a flaming violin]] and then shortly after, a tapdancing performance (featuring Adam Garcia from the dance troupe Tapdogs) capped off with angle grinders! [[/folder]][[folder: Salt Lake City 2002]]* The opening ceremony, with the torch's final run being led by several notable past gold-medal winner, before ultimately being lit by the 1980 hockey team.** The damaged Ground Zero flag being brought into the stadium.** The Opening Ceremonies marked the first time ''ever'' that all 5 of the Native American tribes indigenous to Utah had gathered together in one place at the same time, and they conducted a ceremony bestowing gifts to the athletes, and imparting their blessing upon the games, and all done in a way that showed appreciable respect to American Indian traditions.** The beginning of the ceremonies had an announcement as follows: "Ladies and gentlemen: Tonight we continue a tradition that began seventy-eight years ago." followed by a fanfare accompanying a sequence of skaters representing each of the previous Winter Games in chronological order, with the announcer calling out the year, followed by the host city's name. Each skater was dressed in a costume based upon what was worn at those Winter Games (based on photos from each of them) carrying a flag with the year and the city's name, each flag a slightly different color, each a bit warmer and brighter color than the last, and then when the final flagbearer skated in, "two thousand two: SALT LAKE CITY!" and the Salt Lake City flag is designed to look like blazing flames (the Salt Lake City games' slogan was "Light the Fire Within"). And that was the moment that the first of that opening ceremonies' many elaborate and beautiful pyrotechnics were set off.** Also noteworthy: when President Bush declared the games open, he did so '''not''' from a private box in the VIP section, but standing amid the American athletes in their bleachers. This led later to a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}} when one of the American athletes dialed their mom on their cell-phone and handed it to the President. Judging by the looks on their faces, the surprised parent was incredulous.* Sarah Hughes' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40pX566hGTs electrifying figure skating performance]], earning her a completely unexpected gold medal. Much like Tara Lipinski in the previous Games, she knew she was bound to earn a medal of some color. But without the pressure on her to earn gold like it was on Michelle Kwan, she simply skated the performance of her life.* The US' best Winter Olympics performance to date.* An overall excellent Games, despite the September 11 attacks having taken place only 5 months earlier--there had been serious discussion of canceling the Games altogether due to security concerns.* Belarus defeats Sweden 4-3 in the quarterfinals of the men's ice hockey tournament, likely one of the greatest upsets in international ice hockey history. Belarusian Vladimir Kopat shoots the puck on Swedish goaltender Tommy Salo just past the center line, bouncing off the latter's shoulder and slowly inches into the net for the game winning goal. To add to the unexpectedness, the Belarus team had already booked their airplane tickets to go home post-game, but had to ''re-book'' them because they were guaranteed two more matches in the tournament (semi-final and bronze medal match)!* Canada was facing tough competition in men's hockey, having lost to Sweden and tying with the Czech Republic in the round robin. General Manager of Team Canada Wayne Gretzky would go on to deliver an emotional response against the media questioning the team, their competition and Canada's playing style. The most heated topic was regarding the game against the Czechs, when Canadian player Theoren Fleury was clearly cross-checked from behind, but the referees failed to call a penalty.--> "[If] we would've did what they did tonight, it would be a big story. He blatantly tried to him. I don't understand it.....If it was a Canadian player that did it, it would be a big story; if it was a Czech player, it's okay. Am I hot? Yeah, ''I'm hot'', 'cuz I'm tired of people taking shots at Canadian hockey."** These words not only reinvigorated Canadian players, but take them straight to the finals, winning their first Olympic gold medal in ice hockey in exactly ''50 years''.* Battle between Russian skating legends Alexei Yagudin and Evgeni Plushenko, which is considered one of the greatest rivalry in figure skating. And boy it was EPIC. Yagudin's short program to "Winter" is considered a timeless classic. Plushenko fell in the short program which ultimately cost him gold medal. He came back strong after freeskate; while performing the most technically difficult program which contained the crazy 4-3-3 combination jump and managed to secure a silver. [[/folder]][[folder: Athens 2004]]* Chilean {{Tennis}} player Nicolás Massú became the only male player to have won ''both'' the singles and doubles gold medals in the same Olympic Games. He first got gold in doubles with his partner Fernando González against the Germans Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schüttler and then he won singles gold against the American Mardy Fish.* Russian judoka Dmitri Nossov broke his arm in the semifinal and still won the bronze afterwards!* A cross between this and a Darthwiki/DethroningMomentOfSuck: with seven kilometers to go in the marathon, crazed priest Neil "Cornelius" Horan invaded the track and pushed Vanderlei Lima of Brazil, who was leading the race, into the crowds alongside the course. Then comes an awesome moment as a huge Greek helped Lima get free (the Brazilian NOC later paid him a trip to the country), and another as despite Lima being distressed enough to let two others pass him, he still got the Bronze, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnR7pJdjbd8 being visibly happy in the final sprint]].* The Romanian women gymnasts. Not only did they win team gold for the second straight year in a row, but they won gold in almost every event except for the all around, which American Carly Patterson won, and uneven bars, which Emilie le Pennec of France won in a [=MoA=] of her own, winning the first-ever Olympic gymnastics medal for France.* Speaking of gymnastics, Carly Patterson's win in the Olympic All-Around -- the first since Mary Lou Retton twenty years earlier, and the first for an American at a fully attended Olympics[[note]]Retton won her gold at the 1984 Games, which was boycotted by the Soviet Union; it's generally acknowledged that had their team been present, she couldn't have won[[/note]]. She began what is currently a three-peat AA women's gold streak for the Americans, followed by Nastia Liukin in Beijing and Gabrielle Douglas in London. Even better, an American -- Paul Hamm -- also won ''men's'' all-around that same year.* In the men's sailboard, Gal Fridman became Israel's first-ever gold medalist.* For the United States women's gymnastics team, disaster struck in the team final when team anchor Courtney Kupets fell to injury. Having only warmed up the three athletes planned to compete on the balance beam -- including Kupets -- the team sent up instead 25-year-old Mohini Bhardwaj, who hadn't so much as set foot on a beam in three days. Under the glare of the Olympic spotlight, in the highest-pressure situation of her competitive career, and with the Americans' medal chances riding on her slender shoulders, Mohini, a ten-year veteran of elite gymnastics, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOA42qliG-c delivered a clutch performance]] that, despite a missed connection, almost undoubtedly kept the United States in medal contention. The team won the silver medal.[[/folder]][[folder:Turin 2006]]* Chinese figure skater Zhang Dan fell while attempting a quadruple salchow jump during the free skate program, injuring her leg as a result. But her and her partner Zhang Hao decided to continue the program and they had enough points to finish with ''a silver medal''.* Canadian cross country skier Sara Renner broke a ski pole during the Women's Team Sprint event, and finished only because she was quickly handed a replacement ski pole -- by the coach of the Norwegian ski team, Bjørnar Håkensmoen. Because of this supreme act of sportsmanship by Håkensmoen, Renner and fellow skier Beckie Scott won the silver medal in the event. Adding to the significance of this act, their silver medal finish meant that the Norwegian team ended up finishing fourth in this event, instead of winning a bronze medal.* Canadian speed skater Cindy Klassen winning ''five medals'' (one gold, two silver, two bronze), making her the only female speed skater in history to win multiple medals in a single Winter Olympics.* American and Canadian women were dominating ice hockey for as long as the international scene began: at every world championship and Olympics, both nations were either a runner-up or tournament champion. However, the 2006 tournament saw a shift, as the Swedish team defeated the Americans 3-2 in the semi-finals, sending them to the gold medal game against Canada. This was the first time in women's international ice hockey history (excluding the "4 Nations Cup"[[note]]Composed of Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States[[/note]]) that another team besides the Americans or Canadians made it to the finals.* Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko skated lights out and won the men's figure skating gold medal with convincing 27,12 points lead over the silver medalist. He also set a new personal best and world record in the short program.* Russian figure skating team shows its dominance by won gold medal in 3 out of 4 disciplines (Men, Pairs, Ice Dance) and one bronze from the Ladies.[[/folder]][[folder:Beijing 2008]]* While many people will forever remember Michael Phelps winning a record eight gold medals, and also tying Heiden and Scherbo with five golds in individual events, the greatest feat of aquatics ''in the history of swimming'' goes to Jason Lezak. In the 4x100 freestyle relay, the Americans were favored just slightly ahead of the French. The French, namely Alain Bernard, decided to talk some trash (note, the following is paraphrased) [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Hall,_Jr.#1996-2000 "We're going to smash them like guitars."]] After the third leg of 100 metres in the four man relay, Bernard had a one body length lead on Jason Lezak. In the last 25 metres of the total of 400 metres race, Lezak came back and won the race by 8/100ths of a second. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcaG245UT30 Here it is.]]** Of course, Michael Phelps' eight gold medals accomplishment is still something well worth going into detail about, especially about how he won one of them with ''water in his goggles'' and another one by a mere .01 hundredth of a second.* The win of Matthew Mitcham in the men's 10m platform. China had been bragging about sweeping all of the diving competitions, and came very close. Matthew, after a less than stellar dive, was somewhere around 7th place. After an amazing dive (and a less than amazing dive by the Chinese diver) he shot up to 2nd. Another near-perfect dive (which achieved the highest score in Olympic history), and he took the gold.* As a country, Togo doesn't have much going for it. Enter Benjamin Boukpeti, a slalom canoer who was leading 2008's K-1 Kayak Single event through the final round. While he dropped to third in the end, he nonetheless earned his country their first ever Olympic medal. AndThereWasMuchRejoicing not just in Togo, but around the world just from seeing him hang on to a podium finish. Seeing him triumphantly snap his paddle in two just showed how awesome this moment was.* Usain Bolt winning the 100m and setting a world record. While showboating for the last 20 meters. With his shoelace untied. It's become one of the most defining moments of the Beijing Olympics.** He wasn't just showboating, but showboating in a way that actually increased drag and ''made him slower.'' He was just that far ahead.* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oksana_Chusovitina Oksana Chusovitina]] (who first competed for the Soviet Union, later for her native Uzbekistan, and ultimately for Germany after she and her husband got help there to save their IllBoy son's life) was made of this in Beijing. Not only is she one of the very few gymnasts to return to competition after having kids (and several girls who compete today consider her an example for that), but she won the silver medal for vault ''at the age of 34'', and four years later she did pretty well there too. She has gone to ''six'' Olympics. Most female gymnasts hardly dare to dream of going to ''one''.[[/folder]][[folder:Vancouver 2010]]* After never winning a gold medal on home soil, the Canadian athletes were determined to put an end to that drought...[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG1bQ9gUglE and they did]], with freestyle moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau leading the pack and the first historic gold medal, while saving the 14th and best gold medal for last (breaking the record for most gold medals won at a single Winter Olympics AND being the first host country to lead the gold medal count) for [[UsefulNotes/IceHockey men's ice hockey]], where Canada defeated the United States in overtime and the ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuJH2WXJGHI entire country]]'' erupted in celebration.** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yeiWaXkJSo Sidney Crosby's overtime goal and the incredible assist by Jarome Iginla in the gold medal game for men's hockey]] has to be the best way to end an Olympic tournament, while the icing on the cake is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JVEKaaurlI the fourth arm of the cauldron got "repaired" and Catriona Le May Doan was finally able to light it.]]** Everyone thought the Canadian men's hockey team would have an incredibly tough tournament ahead of them after losing to the United States in the round robin, alongside the pressures of playing on home ice. When they were pitted against their bitter Russian rivals in the quarterfinals, fear and tensions mounted, since the Canadians have never defeated the Russians in an Olympic hockey tournament for years. The game ended with Canada winning 7-3; at one point, Canada was winning '''6-1'''. As Russian goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov stated in an interview, the Canadians were "like gorillas coming out of a cage".* The US men's hockey team had very little international experience and weren't even expected to get a medal, much less have a chance at beating Canada, a team made up of the best players in the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL]]. They went undefeated in the preliminary round, including defeating the heavily favored Canadian team 5-3, and went on to win the silver medal.* Though somewhat overshadowed by the men's team performance, the Canadian women's [[IceHockey hockey team]] completely overran their opponents on their way to the gold medals. In the round robin, [[CurbStompBattle they beat Slovakia 18-0, Switzerland 10-1, and Sweden 13-1]], followed by a 5-0 win over Finland in the semi-finals and a 2-0 win over the USA in the gold medal game. This would be their third consecutive gold medal win in three Winter Olympics.** They were similarly dominant in the 2006 Torino Olympics. In the group stage, they beat Italy 16-0, Russia 12-0, and Sweden 8-1, followed by a 6-0 win over Finland in the semi-finals and a 4-1 victory in the gold medal game against Sweden.* Slovenian cross-country skier Petra Majdic takes a brutal spill in practice, falling about ten feet down a hill into a gully. She comes out for the qualifying run and qualifies collapsing in pain and unable to stand after. After returning from x-rays at the hospital, she wins her quarterfinal, then gets a lucky loser spot in the semis to qualify for the final, all in abject agony. [[MadeOfIron Four races, five broken ribs, and one pneumothorax later]], [[{{Determinator}} she came out of it all with a bronze medal.]]* Kim Yu-Na of South Korea completely cleaned the field in the 2010 Olympics when she set the world record for both the short and free program in women's figure skating by skating two [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KV9cUupflo flawless]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAXHE_BZbgE performances]], and won the gold medal in the process.* Another SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome at the 2010 Olympics, but a [[TearJerker really sad one]], was Canadian Joannie Rochette who competed in women's figure skating despite losing her mother days before the event. She skated two [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clw0TG8jIxs strong]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkfa_F2RcdA performances]], and won a bronze medal.* The fact that the games happened at all. It was one of the warmest winters on record, in a city already given to mild winters, and to even make some of the the events possible, snow had to be brought in by trucks and helicopters from north of Whistler, British Columbia, as much as 160 kilometres (100 miles) away.* Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China winning gold in figure skating pairs. They are the first Chinese figure skaters to win ''gold'' in any figure skating category. To double the awesome is their coach Yao Bin, who is considered one of the first pioneer Chinese skaters and came last in the 1980 World Champions with his partner, being laughed at and ridiculed for years. Now, he proudly watches as his former students, along with his other team Pang Qing and Tong Jian, winning gold and silver respectively in the figure skating pairs.* The opening ceremony is often overlooked - especially since Beijing was such a ToughActToFollow - but Vancouver did well with its relatively simplistic style. Case in point: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1WrdtA3TGs Who Has Seen The Wind]]'', a tribute to the Canadian Prairies. A person on a wire, huge projectors, and some beautiful music took many a viewer's breath away.* United States finally wins their first bobsled gold medal since ''1948''. This is after struggling for decades after decades; even using second-hand sleds imported from other countries up until 1992, when Geoff Bodine[[note]] Yes, that Geoff Bodine from NASCAR[[/note]] decides to build his own bobsled, because he deemed it is unacceptable that USA used sleds from other countries. Needless to say, Bodine's sleds successfully led the bobsled team to the long lost glory. Heck, Bodine even said that this victory is far more incredible than winning the Daytona 500[[note]] Which Bodine did won in 1986[[/note]]!* This sentence said by John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee, during his speech at the Vancouver 2010 closing ceremonies: "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Bilodeau Alexandre]], your first Gold Medal gave us all permission to feel like and behave like champions. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hockey_at_the_2010_Winter_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_tournament Our last one]] will be remembered for generations." The mention of Alexandre Bilodeau's name brought cheers from the audience, while the last part brought a one-minute standing ovation, ending with the chant of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Luongo "Lou."]][[/folder]][[folder:London 2012]]* The British Men's Gymnastics team winning Great Britain's first medal in gymnastics in 100 years.** Elizabeth "Beth" Tweddle, three-time Olympian and the greatest gymnast Great Britain has ever produced, ''finally'' winning an Olympic medal, a first for British women's gymnastics. She capped off her eleven-year career winning bronze on the uneven bars at the age of 27, when most female gymnasts' careers are long over.* The Women's epee semi-finals. South Korean fencer Shin A-Lam refused to leave the piste (fencing platform) after her match with Germany's Britta Heidemann. Why? Shin and Heidemann had fought to a draw. There was one second left in their overtime; however, the clock didn't start and [[http://www.buzzfeed.com/ktlincoln/an-olympic-fencer-refuses-to-leave-the-floor-after Heidemann arguably took more than one second]] to land her winning touch. By refusing to leave the piste, Shin refused to officially accept the judges' ruling (a peculiarity of the fencing rules means you can only object to the result while you're still on the piste). Even after the Korean officials appealed the decision and lost, Shin still refused to leave. She eventually had to be taken away by security. The crowd gave her [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments a standing ovation]]. Also qualifies as a TearJerker. ** The International Fencing Federation has offered her [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19073420 a "special medal"]], but she refused it.** [[spoiler: She [[EarnYourHappyEnding got a medal in the end]], when the Korean team as a whole got silver in the end. Doesn't compensate, but at least it makes the deal a little less bitter.]] * After qualifying for the finals for 200-meter freestyle, 17 year old US swimmer Missy Franklin had ''less than fifteen minutes of rest'' before she had to appear for the 100-meter backstroke finals. Proving that being a young PluckyGirl has its perks, she won the gold and broke the American record for the event. '''WOW.'''* Speaking of which, Ruta Meilutyte winning the 100-meter breaststroke. At the tender age of fifteen, she became not only the youngest Lithuanian to win the gold, but also became the first Lithuanian to win the gold medal in swimming.* Upon winning the 4x200 freestyle relay, Michael Phelps earned his 19th overall medal (15 of which are gold). This made him '''the most decorated Olympian of all time.''' He ended with 22 medals, 18 gold. [[ToughActToFollow Good luck to future athletes who want to surpass him.]]** Not to divert from Phelps's accomplishment, but Chad le Clos of South Africa gets special mention for beating Phelps, his idol, by milliseconds.** Phelps' American teammate Ryan Lochte should also get a mention for besting Phelps in the Men's 400m Individual Medley with a gold medal performance, whereas Phelps placed fourth.* Yi Shiwen broke the world record for the 500m individual medley on her way to the gold, beating her personal best by ''5 seconds'', her time was good enough that she could have been threatening for a medal if she swam in the men's event.* Canada has long been dismissed as a gymnastics lightweight, not really able to compete at the same level of skill or difficulty as powerhouses like the USA or Russia. What's their response to this? In the 2012 Games, Canada not only qualified for the team final, but placed ''fifth'', just a couple of points behind the "Big Four" of women's gymnastics - the USA, Russia, China, and Romania, who have dominated the sport for decades. Ladies and gents, Canada has arrived. And it was ''awesome''.** Likewise with Women's Soccer. The team came last in the 2011 World Cup and Canada has not won a medal in a traditional team sport since 1936. After having new head coach John Herdman, these girls were determined to reach that podium despite being the underdog of women's soccer. They played several amazing games to reach the semi-finals, with captain Christine Sinclair scoring 6 goals in this tournament. In the chase for the bronze medal, the team was struggling against France after an emotional 4-3 semifinal defeat against the US. And with less than a minute remaining in added time, Diana Matheson scored the winning goal and they won the bronze medal. It was not gold but the team and the rest of the country saw it as one, having reached the podium and brought soccer into the spotlight for Canada. * Two words: Clara Hughes. She had already shown her awesomeness before 2012 in being the ''only'' Olympian in history to ever win multiple medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. She's tied with fellow speed skater Cindy Klassen for the most decorated Canadian Olympian with 6 medals. However she qualified for the road race and road time trial for London 2012 despite previously retiring from cycling 12 years previous. She finished a disappointing 32nd in the road racel. Clara later admitted that during a race earlier in the year, she'd fractured a vertebrae. She had been training and competing for the last 6 weeks before London with a broken back. That makes her 5th place finish in the time trial seem a lot more awesome.* Meet [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Pistorius Oscar "Blade Runner" Pistorius]], the first double amputee to compete in the regular Olympics. Not only did he beat several full-bodied Olympians, he came in ''second'' in his heat and advanced to the semifinals! He didn't make it to the finals, but his mere presence in these games was awesome enough by itself.** The semifinals was followed by a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} when the competitor who would go on to win the 400m gold came up to Oscar and traded bibs. Even later on during the 4x400m relay heats, South Africa's runner fell just before Oscar was to take the baton. It was ruled that he was interfered with and South Africa was allowed to run in the finals in lane nine with Oscar on the anchor leg (the runner who crosses the finish line). South Africa sadly didn't win the race (they were in eighth by the time he got the baton), however Oscar put forth a sub-46s split, good for second best on the team.** Speaking of the men's 4*400m relay, in the second semi-final, American lead-off runner Manteo Mitchell ran 46.1 seconds to help his team qualify for the final (eventually winning silver). This despite '''breaking his leg''' halfway through his part of the run.* For years, British UsefulNotes/{{Tennis}} player Andy Murray had been constantly bested by Roger Federer, most painfully at {{UsefulNotes/Wimbledon}} 2012. As fate would have it, the men's singles finals turned into a rematch between him and Federer on the very same court the two had faced each other just four weeks before. Murray proceeded to defeat the World No. 1 he was never able to defeat before in ''[[CurbStompBattle straight sets]]'', causing the crowd to go wild and Britain to get its first gold medal in men's singles since 1908.* The USA's women's gymnastics squad, aptly dubbed the "Fierce Five," who first qualify as a group for winning the gold: ** American gymnast Gabrielle "Gabby" Douglas became the first African-American and first woman of color in Olympic history to become the individual all-around champion, and the first American gymnast to win gold in both the individual all-around and team competitions at the same Olympics; this was the third straight Olympics where an American won the women's all-around.** The Fierce Five's captain, Aly Raisman, wasn't even supposed to be a medal contender, but in the qualifying rounds, she upstages Douglas and Wieber and ends up knocking out the latter from the individual all-round finals. After clinching the team gold medal, she ''tied'' the score of the bronze-medal-winner in the individual all-around, but placed fourth due to having a lower execution score. Instead of giving up or getting unnerved, she proved that tenacity, perseverance, and poise under pressure have their perks by winning the bronze in the beam final (ironically, by tying ''again'', but this time having the higher execution score) and the gold in the floor final (becoming the first American to win the floor event final in Olympic history). Although not as hyped by NBC as her teammates, Raisman ended up becoming the most decorated gymnast of the "Fierce Five".** Jordyn Wieber, the reigning world champion going into the Olympics, deserves credit for recovering from the disappointment of not being in the all-around (she finished 4th in qualifying, but there's a two-per-country rule) to help start Team USA's run to the gold with the very first routine for Team USA. She continued to shine on every event she performed, nailing a beautiful vault (the ''very first'' Team USA routine), solid bars set and a spectacular floor routine to boost the USA to gold.** [=McKayla=] Maroney was brought to the Olympics for one reason: to do a spectacular vault. And she didn't just deliver -- on a ''broken toe'' she nailed a vault so unbelievably, jaw-droppingly spectacular that it earned the highest score in London Olympic gymnastics competition. Later on, despite falling and [[SecondPlaceIsForLosers settling for silver]] on the individual vault finals, she was able to [[SelfDeprecation make fun of herself]] (which is notable itself). Quick tip: sitting on one's behind on a vault landing is usually a mortal sin that knocks you right off the podium. Unless you're [=McKayla=] Maroney, in which case you merely have to settle for silver. She is just that good.*** [=McKayla=] deserves another one just for making fun of the not impressed meme. She owns it, and it culminated in [[http://bossip.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/screen-shot-2012-11-17-at-9-57-30-am-e1353164499729.png?w=636&h=443 this.]]*** Maroney deserves major kudos for even ''making'' that Olympic team; one of the team alternates was Elizabeth Price, who had a surprising surge in early 2012 and made a bid for the Olympics that very nearly succeeded. In fact, reports suggest that, after [=McKayla=] broke her toe, team coordinator Marta Karolyi was debating up until the very last possible minute whether or not to pull Maroney and put in Price; "Ebee" had the second-best Amanar vault in the world and a floor exercise nearly the quality of Maroney's, and was a much better all-arounder to boot[[note]]Maroney had an unfortunate tendency to falter on beam and bars, events where Price was solid[[/note]] -- but Maroney's vaults[[note]]and the plural is important here; to make the event finals in vaulting, a gymnast must show two different vaults, which neither Price nor anyone else on the team had[[/note]] were so far superior to anyone else on the team that they kept her in despite the broken toe meaning she couldn't be used on floor exercise. Essentially, [=McKayla=] Maroney made it into Olympic competition by being ''just that damn good'' at her job.** Kyla Ross was more than solid on the beam, as well as on the bars, shoring up a notorious American weak spot. At age nine, she whispered to her best friend, "Let's work really hard... so we can go to the Olympics." Seven years later, she won Olympic gold -- holding her best friend [=McKayla=] Maroney's hand. They've been best friends, teammates, and training partners for over a decade.** The order of finish for the podium was an exact repeat of 1996: USA, Russia, Romania for gold, silver, and bronze.* The home country had a bit of a rough start to the games, but they started to pick up the pace with a Rowing Gold and, of course, Bradley Wiggins winning the Men's Time Trial so soon after winning the TourDeFrance (in turn making him Britain's most decorated Olympian). Then came the velodrome. Out of a possible 10 gold medals, they took ''7'' (a disqualification cost them an 8th, they also took a silver and a bronze). No other country took more than ''1''. They also blew away more than a few world records in there.* Britain's 'Super Saturday', where three different athletes won gold medals in track-and-field events within 45 minutes. First was Jessica Ennis, who won a gold in the Heptathlon event. Then came Greg Rutherford, who was the champion of the long jump event. Finally Mo Farah, a former Somalian refugee turned long distance runner for Great Britain, blowing past the fierce competition from Kenya and Ethiopia to win a gold in the 10 000m event and set the seal on a magical night for British sport.** Each individual victory had its awesome moments as well. Jessica Ennis was considered the 'face' of British female athletes, and was sorely disappointed not to win gold in Beijing, but she did it in front of her home country fans. Greg Rutherford ensured the gold medal with his very first jump, without needing a second. And for Mo Farah, who didn't even make the finals in Beijing, beating the Ethiopian world record holder and previous champion Kenenisa Bekele was a supremely awesome moment. There was also the emotional bonus of seeing his best friend and training partner Galen Rupp of the USA managing to come in second, and later celebrating with his wife and little daughter on the track while a riotous hometown crowd including Sir Music/PaulMcCartney and [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Prince William and his wife, Kate]] cheered him on.* Alex Morgan's game winning goal against Canada in the 123rd minute of the Women's soccer semi-finals.** Followed a few days later by the United States defeating Japan in the final of the tournament, avenging the loss to Japan in the previous year's Women's World Cup.** How about Megan Rapinoe's Olimpico goal[[note]]scoring directly from a corner kick[[/note]] against Canada, making her the only person in the world to score one in the Olympics.* Epke Zonderland won the first men's gymnastics medal for the Netherlands with an '''epic''' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar0Yeidr9gs high bar routine]] that got him gold by a wide margin and led many viewers to dub him the "Flying Dutchman".** Plus his name is [[AwesomeMcCoolName Epke Zonderland.]]* Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings, the Golden Girls of three consecutive Olympiads and a duo so dominant they are known simply as Misty-and-Kerri, finishing their partnership as the greatest beach volleyball team the world has ever known. Three-time Olympic gold medalists, in Athens, Beijing, and London, they end their career together undefeated in Olympic play, dropping only a ''single set'' out of forty-three and winning all twenty-one of their matches over three Olympiads. Best friends, best partners, number one in setting and blocking, with a win percentage above ninety-five percent over twelve years together, they are untouchable, unparalleled and unrepeatable. With the final match of the London Games and Misty's retirement from the sport, the world waves goodbye to a team so legendary its like will never be seen again.** The Schweiger sisters, Doris and Stefanie, of Austria deserve a small [=MoA=] for being the only team to steal a set from the duo in their Olympic career.** As revealed only ''after'' the Olympics, Kerri Walsh Jennings [[PregnantBadass was also pregnant during the games, but didn't let that stop her from being aggressive.]]* Jen Kessy and April Ross, the USA beach volleyball team who upset the top-seeded Brazilians to set up an all-USA final. They fell to Misty and Kerri in two sets, taking home silver and giving the USA a 1-2 sweep.* [[MemeticBadass Katie Taylor]]'s gold medal win in the women's lightweight boxing, essentially putting the sport on par with the men's event and causing massive celebrations among the Irish.** Claressa Shields, the champion in the middleweight division, also deserves a mention. You might ask why--she's American, after all, and aren't Americans ''supposed'' to win gold medals? Answer: Not if they're from Flint, UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}. Ireland has had a bad few years; Michigan had a bad decade or so starting 'round 2002; Flint has been in the toilet since the 1980s. Thus why when Shields' mother said her daughter's victory deserved a ticker-tape parade, people didn't say she was just an overly-proud mom; the city ''needs'' something to celebrate. * Colombian Olympic medal wins are quite rare - even a bronze medal is something remarkable. But in the London Olympics, the hard work finally paid off and they saw medals in such diverse events as weightlifting, long jump, judo, Greco-Roman wrestling, and Olympic BMX.* The Mexican soccer team winning their first Olympic medal. ''Gold'', against '''BRAZIL'''.** Even better, the first Mexican goal was scored within the first ''[[CurbStompBattle thirty seconds.]]''* The South Korean soccer team beat out the hosts in the quarterfinals in penalty shoot-outs, and went on to win their first Olympic medal, a bronze, against Japan in the bronze medal match.* David Boudia pulling off the diving performance of his life to win the gold medal in the men's 10m platform against the heavily-favored Chinese a la Matthew Mitcham. What makes this even more amazing is that he barely qualified for the semifinals and that it had been 20 years since the last time an US diver had even gotten on the podium in this event. Honorable mention goes to 18-year-old Tom Daley who managed to nab a rare diving medal for Britain in third place too.** Also a nod to the rest of the US diving team, who, after having been shut out the previous 2 Olympics, got three other medals in synchro.** And Ilya Zakharov who upset the Chinese in the men's 3m springboard.* Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda went into the men's Marathon with perhaps an outside shot at a bronze in a loaded field, including three Kenyans and three Ethiopians, who have dominated the marathon for years. In a major surprise, Kiprotich found himself in the top three, running with two of the Kenyan favorites. They tried to drop him in a series of turns and nearly succeeded, but he kept pace with them, until he finally made his own move. He blew past them and ended up with such a huge lead towards the end that he had time to grab a Ugandan flag from one of his presumably delirious countrymen and crossed the finish line flying it over his head. An ultimate DarkHorseVictory if there ever was one.* Winning the discus gold medal was awesome enough, but German Robert Harting's celebration propelled it to this category: he rips his shirt off while roaring then, for shits and giggles, decides to jump the hurdles that were being set up for a race. He cleared most of them too (all except for the last one, which was still being set up). Not bad.* Usain Bolt winning 3 golds again.* Kirani James of Grenada winning the country's first Olympic medal ever--a gold in the 400 meters.* Serena Williams absolutely DOMINATING on her way to Olympic gold. With the gold, she became only the 4th player ever and just the second woman to win a singles golden slam (all 4 Grand Slams plus Gold), and the first EVER to win a career Golden Slam in singles AND doubles. For good measure, the next day she and Venus successfully defended their doubles gold.* Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, two British brothers, getting gold and bronze respectively even after Johnny, the younger, got a fifteen second penalty. Awesome.* The fact that the aforementioned Oksana Chusovitina not only competed in gymnastics at the age of ''37'', but qualified for the vault final is a [=MoA=] in itself. Most gymnasts' careers are over well before 30, but Mrs. Chusovitina is still competing as she's nearing 40!* The female Brazilian volleyball team entered the tournament with low expectations due to bad performances earlier in the year. Then they are nearly eliminated in the group round. Following a tense quarterfinal with Russia and a somewhat easy semifinal with Japan, comes a HeroicRematch with the US team. The first set is a [[CurbStompBattle 11-25]] loss, but the following three are won for the second gold in a row!* Katie Ledecky, at 15 the youngest member of the American team, swam in the grueling 800m race. The normal conventional wisdom for such a long race is to conserve your energy, let someone else swim out in first at the start, then swim out ahead near the end after that initial first place swimmer has tired herself out. Ledecky didn't go with that. She was in first place by the end of the first lap ''and stayed in first for nearly the entire 8 minutes of the race!''(one swimmer did briefly get ahead of her at the second lap; the ''14'' remaining laps were all Ledecky) By the end of the race, she was ''several body lengths ahead of everyone else!'' * The greatest 800 metre race ever run in the men's final, when David Rudisha of Kenya trashed his own world record time and became the first man ever to run under 1 minute and 41 seconds, posting a 1:40.91 time. Every runner in the race either posted a new national, personal, or seasonal best, and the runner who finished last still finished in a time that would have won him a gold at the previous three Olympic 800 metre finals.* Can we just say the entire games were a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for Britain? There were many rumours about the stadium not being finished on time, complaints about the special Olympic lanes, bad weather, etc. In short, people thought Britain would flop. Instead, not only are some people calling them the best games '''ever''', but it got Britain's economy up and running again when it was in a pretty much hopeless state. ''And'' the organizers of the games have been called over to Rio in order to organize ''their'' games. ** A moment of awesome for Danny Boyle as well. It's a guarantee that you'll find no one who didn't get goosebumps during the Industrial Revolution scene of the Opening Ceremony. And those Olympic rings forming over the stadium... Awesome. ** Two words: Olympic Cauldron. Instead of an actual cauldron, they had over two hundred and five copper "petals" - each one carried in alongside the flagbearer and placard-bearer for one of the athlete delegations (204 for nations, 1 for Independent Olympic Athletes, namely 3 athletes from the recently dissolved Netherlands Antilles and an athlete from the just-formed South Sudan which has yet to organize an olympic committee) - and had them all come together in a perfect metaphor. Wow. * Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina tore her ACL in 2011, which is usually a career ending injury for gymnasts. But for Mustafina? Not only is she able to compete at the Olympics a year later, she came out of the games as the most decorated gymnast there, with a gold on uneven bars, a silver in the team competition, a bronze in the all-around, and a bronze in the floor. And just to make it sweeter, her uneven bars gold ended a ''twelve-year'' Olympic gold-medal drought for Russian women's gymnastics. PluckyGirl, thy name is Aliya.* Chilean gymnast and MemeticBadass Tomás González qualifying for the vault finals and being ''this'' close to get in the podium. For a guy competing pretty much alone against massive men's gym powerhouses, it was really damn good.* American Kayla Harrison [[EarnYourHappyEnding was a long way coming]]. She was abused by her trainer as a kid, became disenfranchised with the sport, and then finds a new start with an honest coach. Six years later, she competes in London, makes the world number 1 ''submit'' in the semis, and then beats the surprise home-country finalist to win America's first-ever gold medal in Judo.* Another American woman, Kristin Armstrong. By the standards of the Olympics, she's pretty old (38 during these games), and a mother of two. In fact, soon after winning gold in Beijing, she left the sport. She changes her mind, gets back on the bike. She had to ride hurt, as in the months leading up to London she broke her collarbone. In the road race, she crashed and scraped her elbow. But on the event she won four years ago, the time trial, she beats the field ''comfortably'' and goes out on top.[[/folder]][[folder:Sochi 2014]]* Barack Obama sticking it to Russia's homophobic laws by sending two openly gay athletes, and no high level politicians, to participate in the ceremonies.** In a similar vein, Google putting up a rainbow-colored Olympic doodle with a quote from the Olympic charter about how "every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind."** The UK got into the act with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6RID82Ru-k this]] and the BBC's coverage was headed by Clare Balding, who is openly lesbian.*** The Guardian website coloured its letter G with the rainbow colours.** Here is Canada's similar [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=effb2JYiKXM response]]. ** Germany may as well have been flipping the bird with [[http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/02/07/germany-olympic-outfits-opening-ceremony_n_4746511.html their uniforms]]. * Indian luger Shiva Keshavan [[http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/indian-luger-shiva-keshavan-crashes-then-makes-amazing-save crashing and recovering]]** Speaking of luge, Albert Devchenko (Russia) and Armin Zoeggeler (Italy) get silver and bronze in it... ''at age 42 and 40, respectively''. * And on the other side of the spectrum, the Russian figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya gets a gold medal alongside her fellow Russian ice skaters... at the age of ''fifteen''. [[WiseBeyondTheirYears Well done, kid!]]* Alexandre Bilodeau of Canada winning his second consecutive Olympic gold medal in freestyle skiing moguls, which has never been done before, and is the first Canadian since Catriona Le May Doan in the 2002 Olympics to win individual back-to-back gold in the same event.** Likewise, Canadian bobsledders Kallie Humphreys and Heather Moyse win their second straight gold medal in two-women bobsledding, becoming the first in the sport to do so.* The Japanese Ayumu Hirano and Taku Hiraoka get silver and bronze in halfpipe snowboarding. Even more so for Hirano -- [[WiseBeyondTheirYears like Lipnitskaya, he's 15.]] * Slovenia, a country with 7 ice rinks and 148 registered senior players, qualified for the Olympic ice hockey tournament which is a moment of awesome in its own right, and they made it into the quarterfinals too. David Rodman commented before leaving to Sochi; "Five years ago, had you asked me whether I'll ever play in the Olympics, I'd have said ''not in this life''."* 19-year-old Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan breaks his own world record for the men's figure skating short program and becomes the first male skater to score over 100 points in said short program. He then goes on to become the first Japanese male figure skater and only the second male teenager in history to win gold in spite of falling ''twice'' during his free skate; the rest of his skating was just THAT good.** From the same competition, Denis Ten was in a distant 9th place heading into the free skate but thanks to a combination of a great performance and mistakes from other competitors, he was able to climb all the way up to 3rd place to win Kazakhstan's first-ever medal in figure skating.** He may not have won a medal, but the 17-year-old Michael Christian Martinez deserves a mention on this page for teaching himself to skate in the Philippines -- a country that has a grand total of three ice rinks -- and succeeding in becoming the first-ever Filipino athlete to qualify for the Winter Olympics and also the first-ever Southeast Asian figure skater at the Winter Olympics, where he qualified for the free skate and scored the best out of his opening group.* Swiss skier Dominique Gisin just barely qualified for the Sochi Olympics after a career that included ''nine'' knee surgeries and a horrific crash in her only run in Vancouver which resulted in a concussion and immediate withdrawal from those Olympics. However, in Sochi, she has the run of her life, posting a score that was ultimately tied by Slovenia's Tina Maze. [[EarnYourHappyEnding After all she went through, she won the gold medal]] [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments and immediately called her grandparents when she won]].* Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland wins gold in the women's cross-country skiing classic...''on a broken foot''.* Jeremy Abbott of the United States crashed ''hard'' on his attempted quad in the men's short program and hit his hip hard on the boards, looking like he would have to withdraw. After lying on the ice for a few seconds, he got up, and landed his triple-triple combination and skated the rest of the program cleanly.** Jeremy, who has been criticized many times throughout his career for crumbling under pressure, skated an amazing long program and was one of the few who skated cleanly that night.** [[RuleOfThree All this]] after Jeremy, who drew the unlucky position of skating after home country favourite and skating legend, Evgeny Plushenko in the team event, fell apart and was panned by people on message boards and the press* Noriaki Kasai from Japan gets a silver medal in ski jumping... ''at age 41''. Against jumpers who are at least between 15 - 20 years younger than him. The only one who could beat him was the Pole Kamil Stoch, ''and with a minuscule difference'' that mostly came from his first jump.* TJ Oshie of the United States scoring ''4'' shootout goals in the USA vs Russia hockey game. And that's just one part of the truly epic game!* The ice dancing free dance was a cavalcade of personal bests. From Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat in fourth to Meryl Davis and Charlie White in first, the top four teams broke their own records for scores, with Davis and White scoring the highest score ever recorded in the history of the sport under the new code. And to make it even better, they won over training partners Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who had beaten them for gold in Vancouver. Sochi was, simply put, a triumph of an Olympics for ice dancing.* Ole Einar Bjorndalen of Norway wins gold in the biathlon mixed relay event, his 13th Olympic medal in ''six'' Winter Games, becoming the most decorated Winter Olympian in history.* In the Switzerland vs Sweden women's hockey match for the bronze medal, the Swedes lead 2-0 by the start of the third period. The Swiss women react and shift momentum, and with less than 10 minutes left until the end of the game, turn the tables against the Swedes and make it a 4-3 victory, giving Switzerland their first medal in women's ice hockey.* Darya Domracheva from Belarus and her ''three gold medals'' in Biathlon.* Latvia upset Switzerland in men's ice hockey during the qualifiers, and then went on to hold gold-medal favourites ''Canada'' to a 1-1 tie up until the last several minutes of the game. Special credit to their coach, Ted Nolan, who is a Native Canadian from northern Ontario who has inspired the players with his positive coaching style, and to Latvian backup goalie Kristers Gudlevskis, who stopped ''55'' shots from the Canadians (compared to Latvia's 16 total shots on goal) and needed medical attention after collapsing from exhaustion and dehydration at the end of the game. ''That'' is an Olympic performance!* In a heart-stomping, sweat-breaking minutes until the end of regulation time, the Canadian women's ice hockey team comes back from trailing 2-0 to tie the gold medal game against the Americans, winning 3-2 in overtime, making this their ''fourth consecutive'' victory at the Winter Olympics. This also makes Canadian forwards Caroline Ouellette, Jayna Hefford and Hayley Wickenheiser (considered the greatest female ice hockey player in the world) the first athletes in the sport to achieve four back-to-back gold medals.* The Canadian women's curling team led by skip Jennifer Jones goes undefeated during the entire round robin ''and'' the rest of the tournament, winning the gold and making her the first female skip in Olympic history to achieve a perfect 10-0 record; this also marks Canada's second gold medal for women's curling since its inception in the 1998 Winter Olympics (and also redemption after losing the gold medal match four years ago in extra ends). ** The Canadian Men's curling team, led by skip Brad Jacobs, winning gold over Great Britain 9-3, making it the first time Canada has won gold in both Men and Women's curling.[[note]] In a lesser moment of awesome for the British team, the silver was their first medal in men's curling since the sport had been re-introduced as an Olympic event in 1998, and Team GB's fourth medal overall - tying their record Winter Olympic medal haul.[[/note]]* [[{{Determinator}} Kelsey Serwa]] of Canada winning the silver medal in women's ski cross, despite having surgery on ''both'' knees for torn [=ACLs=].* Mao Asada skating probably the best long program of her career after having a complete disaster in the short program that included a fall and an omission of a required element. The long program included landing the triple axel, the hardest jump a female can perform and the jump Mao fell on in her short program. She cried TearsOfJoy, and her brilliant long program pulled her all the way from 16th place to 6th place. * Evgeni Plushenko skating his FOURTH Olympic at age 31, and be the second person in history of figure skating who collects four Olympic medals (the first one would be Gillis Grafstrom in 1932). He managed to place second in the short program and placed first in the Team Event long program while competing with boys 10 years younger than him. He ultimately contributes massive 19 points which secures Russia's hold on figure skating Team Event gold, despite a) being 31, which is geriatric in figure skating terms, and b) [[{{Determinator}} having to skate with torn meniscus in both knees and four bolts holding his spine together]]. Badass.** It should be noted that the only reason he withdrew from the men's event was because one of the bolts in his spine ''broke''. To paraphrase a quote, only God could keep him off the ice. The broken bolts are made from medical-grade metal, which is also used as materials for ''aircraft''. Now imagine how much force his body takes after each landed jump.** The music he skated to was nothing to sneeze at either: a combination of the most memorable parts of Plushenko's most well known programs, arranged by long time friend and collaborator Edvin Marton. The title? "The Best Of Plushenko".* As controversial as it may be, Adelina Sotnikova's winning performances in Sochi were unexpected due to her history of inconsistency. She was left out of the team event in favor of Lipnitskaia, and she used this as motivation to ''finally'' put together two clean skates and win. Her win may be disputed, but most will agree that she earned her place on the podium.* Canada defeats Sweden 3-0 in the Mens Hockey Gold Medal game, causing both Canada's Mens and Womens hockey teams to have a perfect Olympic Winter Games, going 11-0 combined(6-0 for the Men, 5-0 for the Women). In the Mens case, Canada finally erased the ghosts of the 1994 Lillehammer Games hockey shootout loss to Sweden from their collective minds.* On 15 February 2013, a meteorite exploded above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. One year later, the first anniversary of the event happened during the Winter Olympics in Sochi. To mark the anniversary, all of the gold medals awarded on that day had pieces of the Chalyabinsk meteorite embedded in them with the date of the meteorite explosion inscribed, because a meteorite impact is as global an event as the Olympic Games are.[[/folder]]


text:
Page 1
When and Why?
To recap, nutritional data is analyzed in the present context to contribute to policy and program design, analysis, and evaluation. In practice -- and as focused on here -- this means addressing questions like:
needs for targeting and coverage of programs; analyzing how programs are actually reaching those who need them; examining likely causal factors for malnutrition, whether contextual, open to long-term policy change, or to be addressed within specific programs;
evaluating whether program activities appear to be causing nutritional improvement --
this latter has not yet been explicitly looked at, but is exactly the same in principle as treating the activity as a potential causal factor.
In earlier chapters we have gone quite some way in determining what associations may exist in a cross-sectional dataset. If these associations are genuine, they are good candidates for causal factors; and if correctly chosen, may thus be suitable as processes for change by policies or programs. We have also looked at interactions which may make the interventions more or less effective. One main purpose of extending the analysis to look at a number of variables at one time is to try to decide which factors are in practice most likely to be actually causing malnutrition. To return to the example used earlier, we might be interested in the effect of education, and need to take account of the likelihood that better educated people are better off in terms of income, housing, environment, and so on.
Multi-way analysis, as used in this manner, still examines the association of one dependent variable with a set of independent, determining or classifying variables. If these are categorical (male-female, good-bad housing, etc) and the sample size is large enough, multi-way tables are effective and quite easy to envisage: 2 dimensions are common, as columns and rows in a spreadsheet, for instance; 3 dimensions are now used in spreadsheet programs, adding layers or sheets; these and even more dimensions can be envisaged on a 2 dimensional sheet by progressive sub-division of columns or rows. The same does not apply for continuous variables. For these the standard presentation is a graph or scatterplot, which only easily accommodates two variables (in 2 dimensions); three variables are sometimes displayed, as a rather clumsy 3 dimensional graph on a 2 dimensional page or screen. More than 3 dimensions boggles the mind if one tries to envisage it -- yet we have much less problem thinking about using 4 variables in a much-subdivided table. This is one of the difficulties in picturing multi-way analysis when some of the variables are continuous. Nonetheless, regression can be expanded seamlessly from one to many variables.
Although hard to envisage, multiple regression is such a convenient and usually robust technique that it is widely used for this application. In fact, although we could use multi-way tables and the associated ANOVAs, regression for nutritional data is generally used for categorical (often 0-1' or dichotomous) variables, as well as for continuous variables (the most powerful method), or a mixture of the two. Reverting to graphical examination, displaying or investigating by tables, are crucial as part of the approach, but regression more and more forms the core, and is the major technique used here.
Three applications are common, to study:
1. Whether bivariate associations are likely to be genuine, or are confounded by other associations; this applies particularly to making judgements on causality to suggest program content (causal models); confounding is almost always present, and may be:
expected -- in the sense that a number of causes, like environment and socio-economic status, tend to be bundled, but program design may need to try to isolate the effects of one or a few factors in the bundle;
unexpected -- alternative explanations that you might not think of straight off, but which may invalidate your conclusions (and waste weeks of your work, or even lead to a flawed program design); the association of measles immunization with age and nutritional status is an example.
2. Interactions:
|with other causal
factors, affecting program design -- bottle feeding with sanitation, or water supply with
latrines, are demonstrated examples;
|with who people
are (this is also an interaction if it affects malnutrition and its relation to
causes), used primarily for targeting decisions -- age,gender, location are examples.
Click Here to review some feature discussed previously about interactions (use the web browser Back button to return)
All types of INDEPENDENT VARIABLES -- continuous, quasi-continuous, categorical, dichotomous, dummy (0-1) variables --may be used in regression analysis. Regression is the method of choice when the variables are continuous, and GLM/ANOVA is an alternative when the variables are categorical -- they reduce to the same answers anyway.
A guiding concern is that the relationship of the independent variable with the dependent (the latter assumed to be continuous) should be inherently as linear as possible. This means that the continuous variable may need to be transformed (CLICK HERE to link to the Transformations page). There are several approaches, discussed here for the independent variable when continuous.
First, for example with income or GDP, the logarithm (natural or base-10) is taken --
this allows for the common skewed distribution and lesser effect of higher incomes;
where the real relation should be with a simple power of the variable (including
reciprocal) but this is not known, the logarithm can again be used, rather than
transforming by the power itself
Second, especially with prevalence, a logit is calculated: logit p = ln((1-P)/P). This
allows for extremes of high or low prevalence to have less weight.
Third (this is not exactly a transformation, but has the same effect and intent), where
a more complex curve is expected, a second variable may be created and included
in the equation. This is the common approach for using weight or height as the
dependent variable, instead of weight-for-age, when AGE and AGE-SQUARED
are used on the right hand side of the equation. In theory, but not often in practice,
a cubed term could also be included.
A process of trying out transformations and scatterplotting is appropriate for investigating the best approach. Better still is to calculate the residual, and plot this against the predicted value of the dependent variable. What you are looking for is a nice even scatter of residuals around the horizontal y = 0 line.
When the variable is quasi-continuous it may be tempting to treat it as continuous. Years of schooling is an example, as a measure of education; or numbers of children in the household. Here a similar question of linearity of the relationship applies as discussed above, and can be dealt with in a similar way.
A related but somewhat different issue arises when a few categories are artificially created and its not necessarily clear that the categories all are of a similar type, nor that the distance between them has a similar meaning. For example, scales are sometimes created based on number of assets owned, or number of different food types eaten, and so on; while 5 is probably better than 4, is it one unit worse than 6, and so on: are the differences comparable? Sometimes a difference might mean buying a car, others a radio. Under these conditions the safe approach is:
create a few categories (say 3 -- e.g. 0-3, 4-6, >6); dont ascribe values of 1, 2, 3 to these in a single new variable,
but create three 0-1' dummy variables, one for each group.
(Dont forget youll exclude one of these dummies in regression.
But the third dummy will give you flexibility in the analysis, and you
might as well create it now in case its useful later.)
This makes the minimum of assumptions, but preserves much of the information (if the sample size was big enough and it was important, you could always create a dummy for each value 0 through 6 or more; but thats going a bit far).
There is then a gradual shading into categories that are likely to be ordered in their relation to outcomes of interest, and those that are probably not ordered. For example, piped water is probably better than well water, in turn probably better than river; but its better not to assume that, and to treat them as unordered categories. Even less sure would be (say) occupation: experience hints that professionals are better off than farmers, but we certainly shouldnt assume that. Finally, where the category is location -- urban-rural, or district, perhaps -- then usually we would have no basis for ordering anyway. All these are best treated the same, as unordered categories: they should be grouped if necessary and 0-1' dummies created for each, just as for quasi-continuous variables.
CLICK HERE to see how to Re-categorize and Create Dummy Variables.
Finally, inherently dichotomous variables -- gender is one example, alive-dead or pregnant-non-pregnant are others -- behave exactly as dummy variables. Its probably worth coding them as 0-1 rather than, say 1-2, as it will be slightly easier to interpret the meaning of the intercept and slope in regression results -- but only slightly easier and not worth any argument over, for example, whether M or F is coded 0 or 1, or 1 or 2! (But numbers DO have to be assigned...)
Return to Top of Page

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Founded in 1998, Equity Methods is the international leader in equity compensation compliance solutions. We provide services to finance, accounting, and human rMore
$10 mil. - $25 mil.in Revenue
20 - 50EmployeesContact people at this company
accounting reporting solutionsequity compensationemployee stock option valuationMore
Software Development & DesignSoftwareAccounting & Accounting ServicesMore
15300 N. 90th Street, Suite 400ScottsdaleArizona85260United Statesview map
(480) 428-3344(480) 998-0862Fax
Enterprise_Iteration-NT.1472[04] SEIDXWK-26


text:
The Apple iPad Mini is in such high demand that Apple has sold out of it's initial inventory of the popular tablet. Presale orders for the iPad Mini began three days ago, and the company announced today that they have already sold out. Shipping times for the Wi-Fi version of the iPad Mini have been pushed back to two... Read more »
It can be a struggle for parents to find activities to keep their children active during those summer breaks from school. Most kids now are tech savvy enough to operate computers, cell phones, and tablets with their eyes closed. Digital Lifestyle Specialist Mario Armstrong recently demonstrated a few apps that he thinks are good for helping kids learn and have... Read more »


text:
Now that you have been admitted and are on your way to UAA, this section of the website will help you with your transition period so you may be fully prepared to begin your story once you arrive on campus.
For students who are coming to America we have provided information on what you should do now in your home country to be prepared to start at UAA and also offer you direction on what you can expect when you arrive.
For students in the US, you can find information on transferring your visa to UAA or changing your status to an F-1 visa.


text:
Grain-Free Chocolate Muffins
Have you tried using golden flaxseed meal yet? It is such a great ingredient that is inexpensive, high in fiber and high in other nutrients, too. It has a very mild flavor and I try to include it in as many recipes as I can. Here are the chocolate muffins we have been enjoying lately. I like to top these with cream cheese frosting and strawberries to make mini strawberry shortcakes, just like the original ones, except chocolatey!
Delicious, high fiber chocolate muffin. Gluten-free, wheat-free, grain-free, low carb.
- 1.25 cups golden flaxseed meal
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
- 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1.5 tablespoons cinnamon
- 2.25 teaspoons stevia glycerite (or sweetener equal to 2.25 cups sugar)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup coconut oil or butter
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Slightly beat the eggs, then add the sour cream, vanilla and coconut oil. Mix with a whisk until smooth.
In a separate bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients together until well blended. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing thoroughly until smooth (this may take a minute).
Let the mixture sit while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees (325 for a dark pan). Grease muffin tin and, after the mixture has set for about 5 minutes, pour batter in, almost to the top.
Bake 20-25 minutes.
Made with coconut oil, each muffin contains 6.4 g protein, 9.6 g carb, 8.3 g fiber (1.3 g net carb), and .4g sugar.
To make these cinnamon only (and reduce net carbs to .6 g each), simply omit the cocoa powder.
This recipe was featured on Nourishing Treasures, Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free and Adorned From Above!
I shared this recipe with Seasonal Celebration Sunday, Sweet Confessions Sunday, Sunday School, Sugar Free Sunday, Weekend Gourmet, My Meatless Monday, Gluten-Free Recipe Roundup, Inspire Me Monday, Monday Mania, The Better Mom Mondays, This Week's Cravings, Make Your Own Monday, Made From Scratch Monday, Make It Pretty Monday, Gluten-Free Monday, The Gathering Spot, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Domestically Divine Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Living Green Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table, Traditional Tuesdays, Hearth and Soul, Gluten-Free Wednesdays, Real Food Wednesday, Allergy-Free Wednesdays, Healthy 2Day Wednesdays, Whole Foods Wednesday, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Adorned from Above, Lil' Luna Link Party, Mom's Library, Eat Make Grow, Keep It Real Thursday, Pennywise Platter, Simple Lives Thursday, Thursday's Treasures, Full Plate Thursday, Your Green Resource, Natural Living Linkup, Fill Those Jars Friday, Fresh Bites Friday, Freaky Friday, Allergy-Friendly Friday, Fight Back Friday, Fit and Fabulous Fridays, Little House Friday, Gluten-Free Fridays, Sweet Saturday and Snacktime Saturday.


text:
I started crafting at age 10, My mother would always encourage my creativity. Recently, my mother had been fighting Hodgkins Lymphoma and undergoing chemo treatments. On October 8, 2011 she lost the fight. I had a dream of an angel breaking chains. I woke up and sketched the image and started wire wrapping the angel together. Now my avatar is my mothers angel. I will begin crafting again. My mother would want that.
Showing 1 - 1 of 1 saved projects
Take Craftsy with you!
Craftsy Apps for iOS and Android. Read more »


text:
Comments about 'Utah A.G. Mark Shurtleff to take job with international law firm'
- Oldest first
- Newest first
- Most recommended
Sandy, UT
My best to the Attorney General, thanks for you tireless service to the people of Utah.
- 7:12 p.m. Dec. 17, 2012
- Like
- Report abuse
Login to comment
DeseretNews.com encourages a civil dialogue among its readers. We welcome your thoughtful comments.
— About comments
What You May Have Missed
Most Popular
Across Site
In Utah
- What Utah voters need to know for the 2016...
- Jonathan Johnson says voters 'ready for a...
- Gov. Gary Herbert running hard for second...
- Utah business, refugee leaders urge community...
- Wasatch Back co-founder finally gets to run...
- 'Fearful' restaurateur changed locks,...
- Drone sightings hamper Utah wildfire...
- Utah energy group pursues nuclear power project
Most Commented
Across Site
In Utah
- Immigration ruling called hurtful, a... 70
- Preventing mass shootings? Utah... 67
- Nearly 70 percent of Utahns say Donald... 62
- Poll: Trump up over Clinton in Utah,... 42
- Chaffetz: I'm going to be 'kid in a... 29
- Utah energy group pursues nuclear power... 26
- ACLU sues the state over inadequate... 24
- Rio Grande neighborhood 'more unsafe... 20