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History Repeats On Final Shot Bush Tells Phelps: 'America Is Proud' Sponsor Police Out In Force Women's Protest Rejected

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A Tribune wire report

Published: August 18, 2008

BEIJING - Once again, American shooter Matt Emmons chose to be philosophical.

"You just can't let it get to you; there are other things way more important," said Emmons on Sunday after watching a gold medal slip away in dramatic fashion for the second time in the same event in the past two Olympics. "I'm waiting for some really good thing to happen from this, because everything happens for a reason."

Four years ago in Athens, the more important thing was that Emmons met his future wife, Katerina, when the Czech shooter came over and consoled him after he shockingly fired at the wrong target on his final shot in the men's 50-meter rifle three-positions event.

This time, however, it might be a little tougher to get over as Emmons had a huge lead (3.3 points) going into the final shot in the same event and inexplicably misfired.
Television coverage showed Katy Emmons gasping in the stands as her husband's last shot almost missed the entire target for a score of 4.4. Emmons scored 10.0 or better on seven of his previous nine shots.

In a repeat of four years ago, a Chinese shooter benefited from Emmons' mistake as Qiu Jian captured the gold. Emmons finished fourth.

"The way I come into a target is I start above the target and come down from 12 o'clock and get into the bull's-eye," Emmons said. "And as I get down into the bull's-eye is when I start to get on the trigger with my finger and as I was starting to get on the trigger, the gun just went off.

"I guess I just set it off. I got on the trigger a little too hard. I didn't feel my finger shaking but I guess it was. It just hit the trigger, the gun went off and I was like, 'Uh, that's not going to be good. I hope it hit the black.'"

It hit the black, but a little high.

"If the shot had made it all the way down to the bull's-eye, it would've been pretty decent," Emmons said.

President Bush praised Olympic champion Michael Phelps for his performance in the swimming pool and outside it.

"If you can handle eight gold medals, you can handle anything," Bush told the record-breaking medalist in a telephone call to Beijing from his Crawford, Texas, ranch.

Phelps won eight gold medals, eclipsing Mark Spitz's seven-gold performance at the 1972 Munich Games. Phelps now has an astonishing 14 golds in his career, five more than any Olympian ever.

In the call, Bush said he and first lady Laura Bush were thrilled by Phelps' achievement and that the swimmer had handled himself with "humility," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

"He told Michael, 'Laura and I are proud of you. Our family is proud of you, but most importantly, America is proud of you. We're excited for you,'" Johndroe said.

Bush was in Beijing, cheering from the stands, when Phelps claimed his first gold medal by smashing his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley.

Afterward, the president and his father, George H.W. Bush, the 41st president, posed for a photograph with Phelps' mother.

"Give your mom a big hug for me," Bush told Phelps on the phone. "Forty-one and I were honored to get a picture with her."

The fight against ambush marketing at the Beijing Games has taken the International Olympic Committee right into the bathroom stalls.

Brands of fixtures and fittings that aren't made by official sponsors, including toilet bowls and paper dispensers, are covered by gray tape at venues. Patrols are dispatched daily to ensure they stay that way, Gerhard Heiberg, chairman of IOC marketing commission, said in an interview.

"We've been very strict on this. We want to stress: No advertising," Heiberg, 69, said in Beijing. "It's a very good tradition; we protect the companies that are involved."

The committee's 12 international sponsors, including General Electric Co. and Johnson & Johnson, paid an average $72 million for rights to use the five-ringed logo in advertising in the four years up to and including the Beijing Games.

Keeping other companies from tapping the appeal of the Olympics is part of the IOC's drive to maintain sponsorships that account for more than 15 percent of revenue.

With 37 venues, it's not always easy to prevent a corporate logo poking out where it shouldn't.

Branding of toilet seats from Toto Ltd. and bowls from American Standard Inc. are a challenge to keep covered with tape that loses its grip in moist conditions.

The U.S. track and field team's protest of the women's 100-meter final was rejected Sunday night.

The Americans asked that the race be reviewed because of a possible false start by Torri Edwards, one of the country's sprinters.

Edwards herself said she thought she false-started. She wound up finishing last as Shelly-Ann Fraser led a Jamaican sweep of medals in the dash.

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