these heady days of the 2004 Olympics - and will be even more so as the Olympic flame is doused on Sunday August 29 at the official closing ceremony.

The controversies that have attended the Games should take nothing away from their success - and if you take the International Olympic Committee's point of view, in fact represent part of that success.

Speaking on August 25, IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies said that the high-profile doping controversies during the Athens Games had not tarnished the event.
"We should keep things in perspective. We so far have seven positive doping tests and three doping violations and in Sydney (venue of the 2000 Games) we had 11. There are 10 500 athletes and there have been some wonderful successes."

She emphasised that the IOC was determined to stamp out doping, and the rate of testing in Athens, higher than it was in Sydney, was sure to expose more cases. Games spokesperson Michael Zacharatos said: "The more athletes that are caught cheating in our Games, the cleaner athletics we will have".

But in the heat and passion of the Games, and the opportunities for politicians and media to score populist points, it seemed premature to hope for anyone to convey the facts with care.

Some Bulgarian leaders, and its media, went off the deep end after Bulgarian rings gymnastics hopeful Yordan Yovchev was judged worthy of silver, but not gold.

Daily newspaper Trud bellowed: "Yovchev robbed!" and exhorted its readers, "let us salute him as a champion". 24 Chassa daily labelled him "The True Champion", and this title was repeated in headlines the same day by Pari and by Bulgarska Armia.

President Georgi Purvanov and Sports Minister Vassil "Luciano" Ivanov entered an appeal against the result, and the appeal failed.

A few notes, however, about this "robbery", which saw the Greek contestant Demosthenes Tambakos winning gold - a fact that saw conspiracy theories surfacing faster and thicker than dynamited fish. Judges are appointed by the International Gymnastics Federation (IGF), not Athens 2004, so "stacking" is not possible. And there were no Greek judges on the panel, nor on any earlier men's rings competition.
Tambakos's victory was no fluke. He had won two Pan-European contests, two world contests, and won the gold in Sydney, and had the highest marks in the run-ups to the 2004 finals.

In any case, the appeal was somewhat futile because under IGF rules, scores are not changed. The difference in points between the gold and the silver medallists was about 0.016, well within the discretion allowed to the judges.
It was not the only criticism from the Bulgarian-language media, who also said that Bulgarian wrestling medal hopeful Sergei Moureyko lost his match because of poor judging.

In the general category of complaints, Bulgaria was not alone.
Russia was reportedly planning to complain to the IOC about several results from the gymnastics competitions, including in the light of the extraordinary scenes that followed when vociferous crowd displeasure moved judges to raise the marks given to Alexei Nemov.

There were those who concede losses without kicking up a fuss. On the first day of the wind-sailing competition, the Greek gold medallist from the Sydney Olympics came first but the race was cancelled because of a mistake by a Swedish official - a mistake proven by photographic evidence. Notwithstanding this reverse, the competitor's only complaint was that the same official was still out there, probably making mistakes in other events.
The controversies in which the Bulgarians were involved were sideshows to others that gripped the attention of the international media.

Weightlifter Leonidas Sampanis returned his bronze medal after tests showed he had twice the acceptable amount of testosterone - a charge he denies, and prosecutors were reported to be investigating his allegation that he had been handed a spiked drink.

"I swear to God. I swear on my children, my two little angels, that I never took anything," said Sampanis, who has no previous record of testing positive for doping.

But while alleged doping pushed down the host country's medal tally, it also put it back up again: after a Cameroon woman triple-jumper tested positive, a Greek competitor was set to trade in her silver for gold.

Earlier, the doping controversy had deepened after it was reported on August 21 that more than 1000 units of food supplements containing ephedrine, a substance banned at Olympic Games, allegedly had been found at the warehouse of Christos Tzekos, the coach of sprinters Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, the duo who quit the Games after failing to take a mandatory doping test on the eve of the opening ceremony. Reportedly, a good deal of the substance found emanated from the US and Bulgaria.

Among others who fell because of doping were Hungarian discus champion Robert Fazekas, who lost his gold, while a Belarus high jumper was expelled after testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid.

Yet for all the controversies, there were the moments on the field that raised up a spirit of triumph and somehow shared achievement. Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva seemed to have everyone - although whether this included her compatriot and rival Svetlana Feofanova is an open question - willing her to new heights as she successfully pole-vaulted over 4.91 m and into a new world record. And who could fail to be moved by the infectious smile of Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj, the world record and world title holder, who cried and then danced in exultation at his 1500 m sprint victory?

And there were the off-track stories too, that caused smiles.
Dutch rower Diederik Simon forgot his silver medal in the back of an Athens taxi, but the driver sought him out to return it. Said Games spokesperson Serafim Kotrotsos: "The taxi driver deserves special praise for doing honour to his profession and to his country".

But sometimes doing honour to your country is not enough to keep you out of deep water.
Ask the South African team who won gold in the 4 x 100 m freestyle swimming men's relay. Even as they were being lionised at a special dinner in their honour, it was reported that disciplinary charges were being prepared against them back home - because they had worn the "wrong" swimsuits.

Through the sport's umbrella body, Swimming SA, had provided them with Speedo swimsuits, the foursome voted instead to each wear `Arena' swimsuits, having decided they would be faster. In the age in which product placement counts as much as sporting prowess, their decision has angered higher-ups.


Responding to reports they were to face a disciplinary hearing, team member Ryk Neethling was laconic: "We came to Athens and did our jobs. We swam fast and won".

It seemed an echo across generations of the reason why athletes come to the Games to compete. But notwithstanding the triumph of Athens in the successful hosting of the Games, notwithstanding the triumphs of those athletes who transcended to success untrammelled by dope or by dopes, it is sadly ever true that it is not human nature to remember success alone.