Was having this conversation at work today. Here in Britain the majority of them that came up were British stories, ie.

Steve Redgrave winning his 5th straight medal
England losing on penalties to Germany in 1990
England losing on penalties to Germany in 1996 (I was 12 at the time and cried like a baby)
England winning the rugby world cup in 2003


Everyone scoffed at mine though. The Barcelona Olympics and the 400m race with Derek Redmond. As i even think about it I have my eyes watering. Basically it was his last shot at a 400m medal and he was in good shape to get one and in the Semi Finals his hamstring snapped/tore and he collapse don the track, and instead of going of he hobbled round the track and his dad ran on and started helping him round.

Heres the link. And now everyone at work is wondering why im sniffling. I think tis the determination on his face as he is going round mixed with the pain on his face that gets me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDsigCRtoyg

12 + 11 = 23 Wow, I would have guessed you to be older than that.
Yeah, I agree with you it does bring a lump to your throat.

Australia beating Paraguy in penalties to make it to the football world cup to then lose to Italy in the round above the pool games

Yeh I'm a spritley young 23. Just out of interest what makes you think I would be older?

Also one other sporting event was one of my own when I ran the London marathon.

Was the hardest thing ive ever done and i had blisters that covered the balls of my feet. Unfortunately they burst only half way round. I ended up finishing with my girlfriend helping me by carrying me under one arm and a random woman carrying me under the other. For those of you who dont know the final few hundred metres of the London marathon is up the Mall near Buckingham Palace. As soon as I turned the corner and saw the finish line I broke down into tears.

Every photo of me crossing the finishing line is with my head down because i didnt want the cameras to see me crying. I got some newspaper coverage and an award for Inspiration but even now when I'm working up London and I see the Mall I get a lump in my throat.

Just so you know I'm a big guy. I play Defensive Line in American Football and nobody except my girlfriend and my senial nan thought id do it. So thats one of the reasons why I think I had to finish.

I've just realised how much I have gone on about it. Shut up Luke!!!!!

I'm not all entirely sure. I'm only eighteen, so I really don't know all that much.

Ahhhhhh just a lil 18 year old. Same age as my brother but hes a little sod.

I've lost track of what you youngsters do nowadays. IS it still computer games and sports?

For many it is now myspace. Personally, I would rather read, be on here, or play with my puppy.

Ahhh what kinda puppy is it?

The one that comes to mind is from the Syndey Olympics in 2000. There was a heat for the 100m freestlye and there were three guys in it, none of whom had a chance of progressing further. Two of them broke which left a little guy from an island nation I think but I might be worng. Might have been Africa. His country did not even have a 50m pool. Anyhoo, the gun went off and he swam the race alone to the cheers of the crowd. He was actually struggling over the last 30 metres or so but he made it and the crowd erupted. I think his name was Eric so we called him Eric the Eel!

Typing that still brings a lump to my thorat. That's what the Olympics are all about.

beer:

A yorkie.
http://z4.invisionfree.com/CLIVE_CUSSLER/i...?showtopic=3788

The one where the sprinter tore his hamstring is awesome. It sends chills down my spine.

Other great moments for me are....

1) US hockey beating the Russians in the semifinal round in 1980 (I think)
2) Kirk Gibson hitting the game winning homerun in the first game of the 1988 World Series off Dennis Eckersly
3) 1996 Summer Olympics when Kerri Strug of the US vaulted with the broken ankle to help the US women get the gold medal

What really gets me the most are the stories of the small time athlete that nobody knows. There is one story where a football team dressed out a mentally handicapped kid and the other team knew about it so when he got in he was suppossed to get the ball and take a knee to end the play. The other team told him to run towards the endzone and let him score a touchdown.

Then there is another mentally handicapped kid who was a basketball manager and he got to dress out during Senior night. He scored like 20 some points in 7 minutes of action - mainly shooting threes.

Those are what sports are about.

Tedy Bruschi taking the field for his first game after having a stroke.

Steven Bradbury winning the speed skating at Salt Lake Winter Olympics after all the others fell down

Eric the eel!"!!!! I rememebr him. he was from Equatorial Guinea. Which is a tiny little country in western Africa.

Kerri Strug also came up in the convo and yes I did feel fro the girl. That was the olympics.

Another famous British one was from the 1992 games in the rowing. The Searle brothers won the coxed pairs and their cox broke down during the national anthem and was singing it whilst sobbing. THough it doesn't affect you to the point of tears it certainly makes you feel patriotic.


Another one that gets me is another rugby one. It sends a chill down your spine. For those of you Americans (Aussies will know what im on about) there's a game called rugby. England are a decent rugby team with an 80k seater stadium called Twickenham. The song "Swing low sweet chariot" is sung occasionally by the England fans. Being in Twickenham while all the fans sing that song makes the hairs stand up on end. before the 2003 World Cup (in which England won) I was at the last home game before they left to go to Australia and at the end after they had won the game the rendition of it brought tears to the eyes of many a hardened man.

I'm sure many can say the same about "Waltzing Matilda" and "Soldiers Song" by the Prisoners and Ireland. I'm allowed to call them prisoners because my girlfriends mum is a Queenslander. Well in fact that gives me no right at all but I still think its fun.

Since you keep bringing up the Rugby World Cup, I'll mention the Ashes and the Cricket World Cup... :P :lol:

Speaking of Eric the Eel reminds me of Eddie the Eagle, the English ski jumper whose glasses used to fog up on the way down the ramp at the Calgary Winter Olympics. He just did the best he could. Ripper bloke.

beer:

one that caused much anger at the time was Sally Bobbins stopped rowing in the middle of a race and lost the Gold for Australia in the some 8 in a boat race at athens

I heard it takes a lot of balls to play Rugby.

When you come from a nation of overweight wanna be sports people, when you win a world cup its awesome and cant stop talking about it until the All Blacks win this years one.

Then we will talk about it in the past tense and how the current team were never as good as Jonnos boys.

Oh and well done on the demolition of every single team in the Cricket WC> It was very impressive.

and the only padding is a cup...

I played rugby for ten years and once did i ever encounter a player with a cup. there was no padding whatsoever.

How about "Team Hoyt"? The father who pushes and pulls his disabled son on tons of marathons and ironman competitions. One of the greatest stories ever told, and truly an inspiration to us all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0y2IMDhvcg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZNM4c6eZnE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flRvsO8m_KI

Note to self, Do not try Rugby. :P :P :P :P :P

There's a couple such memories. First is from 1995 when Finland win the hockey world championship and the second one is when Mika Häkkinen win the F1 championship in 1998 and 1999.

Jack Nicklaus standing on the Swilken Bridge at St.Andrews saying good bye in his last British Open...........
I have 2 Scottish $5 pound notes commemorating the event...the only other living person besides the Queen to be featured on a legal bank note issued by the Bank of Scotland

Greg Norman squandering a huge lead and losing the Masters.

As a fellow Brit I am appaled that this is true. Surely if you were gonig to have someoneone on your note apart from the queen it would eb a great scottish sportsman not an American one. Now I know there arent many great Scottish sportsmen but with the snooker world champs on then surely wouldnt Stephen Hendry be worth a note?

Or even Alan Hansen? hahahahaha

Yeah, that was a magic moment beating Uruguay th: after coming so close in the previous two qualifying campaigns party: . Another fantastic event was Liverpool winning the CL in 2005 beer: - hopefully they can win it again this year! kel:

Sports Illustrated just had an article about the Bluffton University baseball team who had 6 members killed in a bus accident this spring. The article talked about what the team has went through and the emotional trauma over it. By the time I had finished the story I had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.

Vladimir Konstantinov being wheeled on to the ice to celebrate with his former teammates the Detroit Redwings when they won the Stanley Cup in 1998. Konstantinov was on the team in 1997 when they won the cup in 1997 and when he and other teammates were riding in limo celebrating the win when the Limo crashed and left him and the team massuese in a coma. Vladie suffered serious head injuries and paralysis. He still has trouble speaking and is able to walk some but with difficulty.

I saw that one Sean, your right. it brought tears to my eyes.

Russia losing 3-2 to USA in Salt Lake City. :angry:

Russia v Finland in Torino yike:

Russia beating Canada :lol: again and again

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Arsenal 0-3 Inter Milan

Biggest European Home loss in club's history,

and the return leg,

Inter Milan 1-5 Arsenal

Biggest European Away win in club's history

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A few heart-crushing losses:

Arsenal v Galatasaray in UEFA Cup final

Arsenal v Barcelona in CL Final

Arsenal at Old Trafford, 49 games unbeaten streak ended

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Arsenal beating Leicester to become the only team to win the Premiership without defeat, thus becoming the INVINCIBLES

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THIS goal from Dennis Bergkamp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvJjXzLqbGA

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Don't want to bore you with more Arsenal memories :lol:

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Whenever Ronnie O'Sullivan is losing. Makes me want to cry.

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Andre Agassi's last ever professional match -- and the tears in his eyes.

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Marco van Basten and Jurgen Klinsmann becoming coaches. I still remember them as players from 1988, dammit. Life is so short. :(

(And yes, that's EIGHTY-EIGHT)

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Agreed. th:

Sean, yours too. Man, Vladie was awesome.

As a yid I can safely say I laughed at nearly all of the Arsenal ones.

Luke, I considered making a witty reply, but the league table gives me all the laughs I need :lol:

So let's end it at that beer:

Ok ill leave it on the note that your foreign legion are only 11 (soon to be 8) points ahead. So long as we get European football I dont mind being 8 points behind because I take pride in the fact we have British players in our team. How many have you got??? 2? Holt and Walcott and even they dont get alot of gametime.

Same here th:
When the Devils won the Stanley Cup in 2000 & 2003
When the Giants beat the Redskins this past season meaning we were going to the playoffs :)

Kind of a sport lump in the throat moment upon hearing I had a ticket to see the Giants play in London in October.

Well Kelly looks like ill see you there. Ive got tickets to the Giants game too. I had 2 tickets on the halfway line or 4 tickets on the top level but i took the 4 as the view is still awesome anyways.

Oh and ps im a Packers fan so i was considerably pissed off at the Giants getting into the playoffs this year :)

And to think you seemed like such a nice person :P

I'm on the bottom level, I really can't wait - is it October yet?