View Single Post
Old 08-10-2008, 12:20 PM   #16 (permalink)
jorgelito
All important elusive independent swing voter...
 
jorgelito's Avatar
 
Location: People's Republic of KKKalifornia
The Georgian's aren't innocent either. The real victims are the thousands of civilians massacred. Funny how there isn't much outrage over this.

Anyways, I thought this was touching.

Quote:
Olympic shooters hug as their countries do battle

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Sharpshooters from Russia and Georgia embraced Sunday after earning medals for their countries, which have been teetering on the brink of war since the Beijing Summer Olympics kicked off last week.
Russia's Natalia Paderina, left, and Georgia's Nino Salukvadze wave during a medal ceremony Sunday.

Russia's Natalia Paderina, left, and Georgia's Nino Salukvadze wave during a medal ceremony Sunday.

Russia's Natalia Paderina and Georgia's Nino Salukvadze hugged after winning Olympic silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the women's 10-meter air pistol competition.

The rivals kissed each other on the cheek after standing on the medal podium with China's Guo Wenjun, who won the gold medal in the event.

Waving flower bouquets high, the women smiled broadly at the audience.

"If the world were to draw any lessons from what I did, there would never be any wars," Salukvadze, 39, said afterward, according to media reports. The reports described the two as friends.

Georgia said it launched an operation in South Ossetia on Thursday after artillery fire from separatists killed 10 people. Russia, whose forces entered the republic Friday, accuses Georgia of plotting to wipe out Ossetians loyal to Russia. Georgia says Russia merely wants control of an oil pipeline.

Before Sunday, Paderina and Salukvadze had competed against each other several times, including at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics; the 2005 European Championships in Tallinn, Estonia; the 2006 World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia; and the 2008 European Championships in Winterthur, Switzerland.

Salukvadze's bronze medal marked the first for her country in these Games.

She won a silver medal in the same event two decades ago at the Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, where she also took home a gold for the 25-meter pistol competition. Salukvadze was a member of the then-Soviet Union's 1988 Olympic shooting team.

Sunday's silver medal was first in an Olympics for Paderina, 32.

Despite reports that the Georgia Olympic delegation might return home, team spokesman Giorgi Tchanishvili said Sunday the athletes would stay and compete, according to The Associated Press.

Tchanishvili said that the competitors were ready to leave China if it would help the situation back home, but that Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili sent a message saying the athletes should remain at the Games, AP reported
__________________
"The race is not always to the swift, nor battle to the strong, but
to the one that endures to the end."

"Demand more from yourself, more than anyone else could ever ask!"

- My recruiter
jorgelito is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360