For Iraqi and Afghan Olympians, victory is just being there
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Taking part in the Games is a triumph in itself for athletes who have dodged bullets, battled prejudice, and dreamed very hard to get here.
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NEW YORK -- Meb Keflezighi and Deena Kastor rescued American distance running at the 2004 Olympic Games. On Sunday, they have a chance to put their country back on the map as a marathon force.
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ATHENS -- For many Israelis, the Olympics evoke memories of a terrorist massacre and political boycotts, but windsurfer Gal Fridman provided his countrymen an historic and celebratory remembrance yesterday after he won the first gold medal in the Jewish state's 56-year history.
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You do the math. With the first, third and fourth place finishers in the 100-meter dash joining forces on one 4x100 relay team, doesn&#39;t it figure that they should beat the competition?
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OLYMPIA, Greece -- In olden times, each Olympic Games would be named after the victor of the main event.
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Iraq became the first team to reach the  Olympic quarter-finals after a comfortable 2-0 victory over  Costa Rica on Sunday.
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The Olympic Games had barely reached the halfway point when a stream of Greek politicians were already declaring victory for averting a long-feared terrorist incident.
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Italy&#39;s Alberto Gilardino scored the game&#39;s only goal in the eighth minute Friday, ending the Iraqis&#39; incredible run in the Olympic tournament and their hopes of winning their nation&#39;s first medal since 1960.
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For the athletes in Athens, the Olympics are merely at midpoint. But for TV viewers, it's a whole new game.
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What a night for US athletes in Olympic track and field. Even in the event that went to another country, an American won. Shawn Crawford, Bernard Williams and Justin Gatlin swept the 200.
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Runner Kelly Holmes has provided the ultimate proof in this Olympic Games that if at first you don't succeed, try and try again.
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The triumph of Jan. 30 is a fact. The shame is that Iraq-war foes can't admit it
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Xing Huina of China celebrates with a national flag after winning the women&#39;s 10,000m race in 30 minutes 24.37 seconds at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 27, 2004.
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Karam Ibrahim of Egypt clinched the gold in wrestling men&#39;s Greco-Roman 96kg category at the Athens Olympics on August 26 by defeating Ramaz Nozadze of Georgia 12-1.
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It is the Iraqi people who come best out of the end of the Najaf siege. This has been a triumph for the moderate majority who until yesterday felt themselves powerless to influence the wretched course of events in their own country.
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Iraq's footballers get a morale-boosting chance for gold at the Asian Games in Friday's final against Qatar.
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In many Olympics competitions winners and losers are determined by less than a fraction of a point and even the slightest error in scoring can set back an athlete from the gold to the bronze.