Movie Reviews

Quest for the Gold

NBC host Bob Costas begins "Quest for the Gold: Sydney 2000 Olympic Highlights", an 88 minute highlights tape from the news desk and from there you will only hear his voice as he narrates the action presented in a day by day format. In Sydney 10,651 athletes from 200 countries competed in 300 events in 28 sports. Being one of 16 tapes produced from these games, there is no surprise that for a straight track and field exposure you will want to pick up "Quest for the Gold: Track & Field" which covers each event one at a time. The highlights tape is presented here to reveal what races were considered the most memorable and can also be found in this more generic coverage. Track coverage on the highlights tape starts on day nine, forty minutes into this production, after other sport coverage such as gymnastics, swimming, soccer, softball, cycling, basketball, equestrian, weightlifting, and trampoline (in its Olympic debut) are shown. Here are the featured running highlights. 100 meters: Marion Jones wins the women's race, in the largest margin since 1952, in running away from the field with a time of 10.75; Maurice Greene captures the men's race in 9.87 and then is shown in an interview dedicating the race to his coach, Olympian John Smith. 400 meters: Kathy Freeman has the weight of her country upon her as she pulls away in the homestretch to win over Lorraine Graham of Jamaica; Freeman was also featured during the opening ceremony as she had the honor of being the final torchbearer; the men's race featured Michael Johnson, in his golden shoes, becoming the first repeat champion at this distance with a time of 43.84. 10,000 meters: it is sad that only the last 150 meters of this race, many consider it to be one of the top 10 Olympic races of all time, is shown; although Paul Tergat of Kenya set the pace it is Haile Gebreselassie of Ethiopia that repeats by the smallest of margins as he ran 27.18,20. 400 meter intermediate hurdles: Angelo Taylor is shown during the last two hurdles as he had to overcome lane one, as well as the wait for the photo finish results, to edge out Hadi Al-Samayli with a time of 47.50. 200 meters: Greece celebrated with its second running gold medal, the first being the marathon victor in 1896, in the come from behind performance of Konstantinos Kenteris in 20.09; Marion Jones again dominated the women's sprint by running 21.85, winning by the largest margin in this event since the Rome games in 1960. 1500 meters: both the women's and men's race is shown during the last 150 meters (these races deserve to be shown in full, especially on home video releases) as Nouria Merah-Benida from Algeria and Noah Kiprono Ngenya of Kenya win their respective races over formidable opponents, such as Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco who captures the silver. Relay events: the United States brings home gold in three of the four relay events with the coverage focused on Marion Jones, Maurice Greene, and Michael Johnson; with all the doping controversy this year it will be interesting to see if these results are ammended by the IOC. Men's Marathon: Kezahegne Abera brought back the fourth marathon title to Ethiopia when he cemented the victory with a surge away form Eric Wainaina of Kenya at the 25 mile mark. During the last three minutes a montage is presented to classical music (including Gail Devers ending her hopes in the high hurdles and women's marathon champion from Japan, Naoko Takahashi) that directly follows Bob Costas closing the main action with this quote: "In these seventeen days we saw not only the great triumphs and the inevitable moments of heartbreak, but also moments of inspiration that can be found nowhere else except in sport. We witnessed the most famous athletes on the planet confirm their greatness and we had the chance to applaud those who labored for years in obscurity, whose talents were rarely seen by television audiences. They confirmed that the most important thing in the Olympics is to take part, to compete for the sake of the competition itself. This is what the Olympics are supposed to be about, great competition, sometimes some great surprises, and in the end at least some moments of great unity. And so to Sydney we say thank you for a memorable fortnight."

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