Meeting triumph and disaster

It's the moment they have waited for all their lives. After years of hard practice to be the best in their sport, Olympic victory is suddenly within their grasp.

But the difference between triumphing and finishing second can be excruciatingly small, measured by a hundredth of a second, a fingertip or a fortuitous lunge across the finish line.

For the athletes of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the assumption may be that all that glitters is gold, and that standing on the center of the podium is all that matters. Well, try telling that to overjoyed bronze and silver medalists.

For at the end of the day, whatever their official ranking, there are no also-rans in the Olympics. To have competed in the Olympic arena, and to have been part of its great, proud tradition, is a victory in itself.

-- JP