American javelin thrower Breaux Greer is, what they call in the trade, a "character". When he's not throwing javelins he's the lead singer in a band made up entirely of athletes, including Irish hurdler Peter Coghlan - they used to be called Former Track Star but changed their name to I Felt a Red Letter (something to do with the adulterous novel The Scarlet Letter, don't ask).
Javelin man has a point
The band's development, Greer reckons, has been hampered by the fact that its members cannot use drugs, particularly of the mind-altering kind.
He insists, then, that he is 100 per cent clean, hence the T-shirt he was seen wearing at breakfast the other morning: "No, I don't take steroids, but thanks for asking."
Udomporn's new assets
We're not sure how confident they were that she'd strike gold in Athens, but the grandfather and father of Thai weightlifter Udomporn Polsak promised to be ordained as Buddhist monks if she triumphed in the 53kg class. Which she did.
"Now that the gold has come true, we will set a date to be ordained," said 64-year-old Lue. Udomporn's mother, meanwhile, must now deliver on her promise of a house; prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has agreed to her request to be given the rank of a military lieutenant, while deputy prime minister Suwat Liptapallop is presenting Udomporn with $24,000 of his own money.
And there were probably people who told her she'd get nowhere in life if she wasted her time lifting weights.
Islands in the stream
In 1995, American Dave Kelsheimer accepted the job as swimming coach for the Cayman Islands, a role he soon realised might be a little challenging because "most islanders don't swim - we were labelled a survivor skill and not considered a sport".
But, despite the Islands having just one 25-metre pool, Kelsheimer has managed to put together a team of three for the Athens Games, not bad for a country with a population of just 43,103. "The only country smaller than us is Vatican City and I don't think those guys can swim very well," he said. "People are pretty curious because it's a small country. One of the funniest questions we get is, 'do you live there?' You're almost tempted to say, 'no, we commute from Miami."
Career change
Wackier career changes of our time: Edinburgh University maths graduate Shirley Webb used to be a ballerina, once starring in a show at Disneyland. Now? She'll be representing Britain in Athens in hammer-throwing. At least the pirouette will come in handy.
Athenians cut back
On the wires."Athenians' intense nightlife, that typically results in bleary-eyed traffic jams before dawn, may be cut short, at least during the Olympic Games. The Public Order Ministry is ordering bars, night clubs and coffee houses to close at a reasonable hour, 4.30 a.m., from Sunday to Thursday. But the weekends are fair game, with no early closing hours for Fridays and Saturdays."
A "reasonable" hour, 4.30 a.m.? Makes New York sound like the city that always sleeps.
Dracula strikes again
When asked to name their sporting hero in their pre-Games fact-files, most competitors opted for the likes of Muhammed Ali, Michael Johnson, Steve Redgrave, etc, etc. British fencer Richard Kruse? He opted for Ray Reardon, the former snooker world champion. Indeed.
Arndt points the finger
Having crossed the line to win silver in Sunday's road race, you might have expected German cyclist Judith Arndt to have raised her arms in celebration. Instead, she opted to raise a single middle finger in the direction of the German cycling federation for their refusal to select her girlfriend, Petra Rossner, for the event. Arndt was promptly fined 200 Swiss francs by the International Cycling Union and has apologised, kind of.
Greece-inspired tragedy
Robert Howard finished eighth in the triple jump at the 1996 Olympics and seventh in the 2000 Games, but even after taking a year out from medical school was unsuccessful in his efforts to make it to a third Olympics in a row.
He was, by all accounts, bitterly disappointed with his failure and, it would seem, the start of the Games proved a little too much: on Saturday morning he committed suicide by jumping from a 10th story dormitory window at the University of Arkansas, shortly before police found his neurosurgeon wife murdered.
