History

  • Sunday August 24

    0030 Athletics - Men's marathon
    0630 Boxing - Six finals
    0730 Basketball - Men's final
    1330 Closing ceremony
    All times BST
Medals Table
G S B Tot
1 CHN 51 21 28 100
2 USA 36 38 36 110
3 RUS 23 21 28 72
4 GBR 19 13 15 47
5 GER 16 10 15 41
6 AUS 14 15 17 46
Olympic History

History Timeline

It all started in Athens in 1896...

Team GB

Competitor List

Take a look at the British athletes heading for Beijing

1992 - Barcelona

  • Dream Team: Swept all aside.

    Dream Team: Swept all aside.

The Games of American basketball's Dream Team. With the event open to professionals, the USA sent their NBA All Stars, which included Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, and they swept all before them, averaging 117 points in their eight matches and never asking for a time out.

Linford Christie sprinted to gold in the 100m, Sally Gunnell did the same in 400m hurdles and cyclist Chris Boardman won the 4,000m pursuit.

On the water Steve Redgrave collected a third gold in the coxless pairs with Matthew Pinsent while the coxed pairs of Greg and Jonny Searle and Garry Herbert also struck gold.

Ethiopia's Derartu Tulu won the 10,000m to become the first female black African Olympic champion but her victory lap - hand-in-hand with white South African silver medallist Elana Meyer - was equally significant in post-apartheid times.

South Africa's participation for the first time in 60 years sat alongside a unified Germany and entries from former Soviet Union republics after the collapse of the communist administration.

Gymnast Vitaly Scherbo won six gold medals, including a record four in one day.

British gold medals: 5

More History Stories

Around the site today

Shanaze Reade: Chance of multiple gold medals

12 stars for 2012

We look at a dozen young athletes who could trigger a fresh gold rush in London in four years' time.

Egan: light-heavyweight silver

Day 16 - As It Happened

Irish boxer Kenny Egan took silver on the final day of action in Beijing.

Early stages of the marathon.

2008 Olympics - Day 16

Pictures from the final day of the Beijing Olympics including an appearance from David Beckham.

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