The Top 5 Sporting Events of 2008

The Top Five Sporting Events of 2008
by rick olivares

Who says that it’s only Santa Claus who makes year-end lists? Everyone does from favorite music albums, movies, books, right down to the movers and shakers in the world to the best and worst dressed personalities. It can be fun, controversial, and well, a time capsule for future generations.

We not only throw our hat on to the fire but we want to immortalize forever our top five sporting events of 2008.

1) Beijing Olympics
The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics were the first-ever financially and commercially successful quadrennial games. After the massive financial losses of Montreal and Moscow that preceded the XXIII Olympiad, only two cities submitted bids for the 1984 Summer Games – Los Angeles and Tehran of which the latter almost immediately backed out of. Yet despite the boycott of the Soviet bloc in response to the West’s own non-participation in the midst of the Cold War years, the LA Games were a success largely due to the marketing and planning savvy of Peter Ueberroth (who was named Time’s Man of the Year for his achievement) where after the games, left the International Olympic Committee with a surplus of $250 million.

It set a template on what to do and what not. The LA Olympics were a benchmark that has been eclipsed time and again as the Summer Games reclaimed the mantle of the world’s most watched and anticipated event.

Now, the Beijing Games has officially become the benchmark for all future Olympics with IOC President Jacques Rogge affixing his own two thumbs up rating of the games as “Truly exceptional. Truly a great success.”

There were 10,500 athletes who competed in 302 events in 28 sports that were coordinated by half a million volunteers. A record 204 national Olympic committees out of the world total of 205 (Brunei was the only country that did not participate) attended the Games in Beijing. Forty-three world records were broken; a record for one Summer Games which was also the most expensive one ever hosted at a cost of a staggering $42 billion! And the XXIX Olympiad was the first-ever broadcast in high definition.

The spellbinding Opening Ceremony that was attended by 80 world leaders amongst a crowd of 91,000 was directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou and Chinese choreographer Zhang Jigang and featured a cast of over 15,000 performers.

The games saw established and new stars become indelibly inked onto the world’s consciousness.

The star of the Olympics was undoubtedly swimmer Michael Phelps who won a phenomenal eight gold medals to hike his total haul to 14.

There was Jamaican sprinter Usain “Lightning” Bolt who won three golds in the 100 and 200 meter and 4x100 relay events making him the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to accomplish that feat.

He Kexin, Yang Yilin and Nastia Liukin became some of the latest in a long line of gymnasts to become Olympic darlings.

And there was the Redeem Team, America’s NBA basketball stars who reclaimed the basketball gold medal in spectacular and devastating fashion.

The Closing Ceremony at the Bird’s Nest was a delightful contrast to the Opening which was a celebration of Chinese Culture. Light-hearted and fun yet nevertheless breathtaking, it closed only a most wonderful Summer Games but kept open the door to China. Perhaps more importantly, gave another testament to world unity if people can put their hands together.

2) The Pacquiao Hit Parade aka The Dream Match
The odd time zones and schedules of the Olympics kept people up at different parts of the day, but when Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao exchanged fisticuffs in The Dream Match to end a glorious sporting year, everyone was riveted to their television for one hour.

For De La Hoya, it was supposed to be a perfect way to cap a stellar career that begin with a Gold Medal in the Barcelona Olympics.

For Pacquiao, beginning with his three-fight series win over Erik Morales, he’s taken down some of the baddest Mexican boxers in the business – Hector Velasquez, Oscar Larios, Jorge Solis, Marco Antonio Barrera, and David Diaz. And you can almost sense Brad Pitt’s portrayal of Greek Warrior Achilles, scouring the boxing landscape asking, “Is there anyone else?”

Poof. Enter Oscar De La Hoya who despite obviously being in the twilight of his career, standing line also wanting to avenge his Mexican brethren. He has fought sparingly in the last few years as he has chosen to run his business Golden Boy Productions including a controversial attempt to sign Pacquiao away from Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions a few years ago.

In the last three years, he’s fought thrice and won two. He most recently beat Steve Forbes and Ricardo Mayorga and lost only in Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s final match.
Whether because of inactivity, age, or the power failure due to the weight loss or all of the aforementioned, De La Hoya was nothing more than a belated Thanksgiving turkey shoot for the Mexicutioner who beat the Golden Boy so badly that he decided not to answer the bell for the ninth round.

Is there anyone else?

3) UAAP Men’s Basketball Finals
In Season 70, De La Salle University showed the local basketball world that they could come back from a year’s suspension to reclaim the most prestigious collegiate basketball title in the country. On their way to their seventh UAAP men’s basketball title, the Green Archers beat arch-rival Ateneo De Manila in the Final Four (after five riveting matches) before they upset the University of the East Red Warriors who swept the elimination round 14-0 and gained an outright final seat.

If that was the perfect script for the Taft-based team, then it was a year of redemption for the team from Loyola Heights. After their stinging loss to La Salle, they won the 2007 Champions League and the 2008 Nike Summer League.

With new additions to an already potent line-up, the Blue Eagles posted some shaky wins before gathering steam for the juggernaut that finished off early favorites UE and DLSU for their fourth UAAP basketball crown.

The men’s basketball season not only enjoyed stellar ratings and gate receipts but also posted attendance highs for the finals and the cheer dance competition that was held within days of each other.

As it was in 2002, the last time the two squads met for the championship, the finals were preceded and followed by an intense media frenzy that is the most followed, watched, and enduring since pro basketball Crispa-Toyota rivalry.

4) NBA Finals
In 1980, Larry Bird helped mastermind a Boston Celtic revival when the team from Beantown went from one of the league’s worst to one of the league’s best and turned the battle for the Larry O’Brien Trophy into an annual two-team tussle (with occasional cameos by the Houston Rockets and the Philadelphia 76ers).

Before Bird’s arrival, the Celtics finished fifth in the Atlantic Division with a 29-53 slate. In the former Indiana State Sycamore’s rookie season in the NBA, Boston finished 62-20. The following season, with the addition of Robert Parish and Kevin McHale, the Celtics completed their climb back to basketball greatness when they raised their 14th championship banner.

This past year, Boston once more paraded its 2K version of the Big Three with additions Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to its long-suffering captain and lone All-Star Paul Pierce.

During the 2006-07 season, the Celtics finished with an even worse 24-58 record. With the arrival of Allen, Garnett, and key players like James Posey and PJ Brown, Boston not only reclaimed the record of the biggest single-season turn-around in NBA history by finishing the regular season at 66-16, but their also claimed their 17th league title at the expense of their long-time rival the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Celtics humbled the Lakers with some of the stingiest defensive play that even stifled the league’s Most Valuable Player in Kobe Bryant.

The Celtics’ return to glory was also received with much fanfare and celebration as they added to Boston’s ever-growing reputation of championship city with the recent success of the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox.

5) Euro 2008
Outside the FIFA World Cup Finals, no other football tournament is as keenly followed than the UEFA European Football Championship or very simply Euro 2008.

Sixteen national teams squared off in 31 matches in 22 days of competition in pitches across Austria and Switzerland the second time two countries hosted the competition (the first time was in 2000 when the event was co-hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands).

By virtue of making the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals, Italy and France were favorites to make it to the championship. But both teams were however placed in Group C which was labeled “The Group of Death” as it featured the two football powers along with dangerous Romania and the Netherlands. Surprisingly, France did not qualify for the knockout stages.

The teams that did surprisingly well, however, were a pair of perennial underachievers who regularly churn out world-class footballers – the Netherlands and Spain.

A couple of other countries embarked on their own startling runs.

Croatia, sans its injured leading goalscorer Eduardo and Russia as coached by Dutchman Guus Hiddink played deep into the tournament. Early favorites like Portugal and defending champion Greece fell by the wayside.

But in the end, it was that steady football power Germany versus Spain. But even so, the Germans couldn’t match the superb midfield play of Luis Aragones’ XI. With five gifted midfielders on the pitch at the same time, their deft passing and playmaking gave Spain plenty of scoring chances.

On June 29, 2008, at the capacity-filled Ernst Happel Stadion in Vienna, Austria, Liverpool striker Fernando Torres beat German keeper Jens Lehmann with a strike at the 33rd minute for the match’s only goal.

It was Spain’s first major football title in 44 years (the last one incidentally also a European championship).