Medal podium drama rivals the real thing

By Andrew Cawthorne

BEIJING (Reuters) - They have won the contest, secured the medal. So the drama is all over, right?

Not so fast.

From tantrums to tears, action on the Olympics podiums in China has often matched that off it, keeping spectators at medal ceremonies riveted long after the end of competitions.

In the wide spectrum of human emotions on show, it befell Sweden's greco-roman wrestler Ara Abrahamian to give the Games' greatest display of anger so far.

Furious with referees he deemed biased, Abrahamian made his displeasure known to the world by marching off the podium and dropping his bronze medal in the middle of the wrestling mat.

The ungentlemanly protest earned him an ironically ineffective punishment: the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ordered him stripped of his unwanted Chinese mint.

"The awards ceremony is a highly symbolic ritual. Any disruption by any athlete, in particular a medalist, is in itself an insult to the other athletes and to the Olympic movement," it said, chiding the Swede for failing to apologize.

While opinions were divided over that podium protest, there was unanimous sympathy for "sad colossus" Matthias Steiner.

After the German super-heavyweight lifter won gold to be crowned the world's strongest man, he reduced onlookers to tears by producing a photo of his wife who died after a car crash.

The bear-like Steiner, 25, sobbed and kissed the photo.

"The first thing I'll do when I get home is visit her grave," said the weightlifter, who had promised to his dying wife that he would pursue the Olympic dream in her honor.

OLYMPIC SPIRIT

While fighting between their nations cast a pall over the start of the Olympics, Georgia's Nino Salukvadze and Russia's Natalia Paderina gave an object lesson in international unity when they took bronze and silver respectively in shooting.

They embraced warmly and appealed for peace.

In further international detente, South and North Korean friends Jin Jong-oh and Kim Jong-su twice shook hands on the podium as they took medals in two shooting disciplines.