The Olympic Dictionary 198 TABLE TENNIS Governed by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF, an Olympic S

The Olympic Dictionary T TABLE TENNIS Governed by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF, www.ittf.com). An Olympic sport since 1988. TAEKWONDO Governed by the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF – www.wtf.org), it has been an Olympic sport since Sydney 2000. TAIWAN (Republic of Taiwan, Asia, capital Taipei, area 36.188 km2, 22.858.872 inhabitants). 15 medals: 2 gold, 6 silver, 7 bronze. Best Olympics: Athens 2004 with 2 golds, 2 silvers and 1 bronze. Best sport: taekwondo with 2 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals. Most decorated athlete: the two golds for taekwondo were won in 2004 by Mu Yen Chu (58 kg man) and Shih Hsin Chen (49 kg woman). There was also Chen Jing, who won the silver in 1996, and the bronze in 2000 in the women’s singles in table tennis, after winning the gold in the singles and the silver in the doubles in 1988, competing for China, with a personal total of one gold, 2 silvers and one bronze. The Olympic Committee was formed in 1960 and recognised the same year by the IOC. Taiwan competed in the Games as the Republic of China in 1956, then as Taiwan between 1960 and 1972. The 1976 Olympics were forfeited, refusing the stipulation of the IOC to compete again as Taiwan (wanting to use the name Republic of China again). They returned to the 1984 Games, with the name Chinese Taipei. TAJIKISTAN (Republic of Tajikistan, Asia, capital Dusanbe, area 143.100 km2, population 6.735.996). From 1952 to 1988 there were Tajikistani athletes in the USSR team, and in 1992 in the Unified Team. Three athletes won medals: Yury Terentyevich Lobanov won a gold and a bronze in canoeing, Andrey Abduvaliyev won a gold in the hammer, and Zebinisso Sanginovna Rustamova won a bronze in archery. The Olympic Committee, formed in 1992 (a year after independence), received IOC recognition in 1993. Took part in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics. Yet to win a medal. TANI TAMURA RYOKO (judo, Japan, b. Fukuoka 6/9/1975). Four appearances (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004), 2 gold (light flyweight 48 kg 2000 and 2004) and 2 silver (light flyweight 48 kg 1992 and 1996) medals. 1992 0-1-0, 1996 0-1-0, 2000 1-0-0, 2004 1-0-0. She is one of 2 women to have won 4 medals in judo (the other, Cuban Driulys González, won one gold, one silver and 2 bronze medals). Maiden name Tamura, 1.46 metres in height, she won silver in Barcelona a month before her 17th birthday, beating British 1989 world champion Briggs (who dislocated her shoulder in the match) and losing in the final against the then current world champion Nowak (France). From then on she remained unbeaten for 4 years and 84 matches, winning 2 world titles, but in the Atlanta final she was unexpectedly beaten by the 16-year old North Korean Kye Sun-hui, who had arrived at the Games as a wild card because her country had abandoned competition during the 3 previous seasons. Sun-hui had never heard about the Japanese judoka, and just watched a couple of videos before their match. “At that point, I thought that I could have simply resigned, but I would have regretted it for the rest of my life”. Ryoko reached Sydney after another winning streak, but she came close to losing against another North Korean, Cha Hyon-hyang, but then at last won the gold medal, beating the Russian Bruletova in the final with an ippon after just 36 seconds, and in Athens, the year after her marriage to Yoshimoto Tani (who had won silver Olympic medal for baseball in 1996), her husband won a gold medal, and she won her second gold, beating the French Jossinet in 198 The Olympic Dictionary the final. After the 1991 bronze medal, she won 7 consecutive gold medals in the World Championships (1993-95-97-99-2001-03-07, missing just the 2005 competition because she was pregnant). She also won a gold medal at the Asian Games (1994). Even though she was beaten by Emi Yamagishi at the national championships, the Japanese Federation selected her for the Peking Games, where she became the only Japanese athlete (including men) to have taken part in 5 Olympiads. In Japan, where she is nicknamed Yawara-chan for her resemblance to a cartoon character, she has featured in advertisements for about 20 companies, and hundreds of Internet sites are dedicated to her. TANZANIA (United Republic of Tanzania, Africa, capital Dodoma, area 945.090 km2, population 40.453.512). Two medals (both silver, in 1980, Suleiman Nyambui in the 5000 metres, and Filbert Bayi in the 3000 steeplechase). Tanganyika sent 3 athletes to the 1964 Olympics, and in the same year the country merged with Zanzibar to form Tanzania. The Olympic Committee, formed in 1968, received immediate recognition from the IOC. From then on it has taken part in all the Olympics, except in 1976, missed due to the boycott. TELEVISION The first Olympics to be broadcast on TV were the 1936 Berlin Games. The Reichspost, using Telefunken equipment, broadcast over 70 hours of coverage, to public viewing rooms in Berlin and Potsdam and to a very small number of private homes. Twelve years later, the British TV service also ran experimental broadcasts, reaching about 80,000 viewers in the Wembley area. Helsinki did not even try. Coverage of the Melbourne Games was restricted to a few Australian territories. The 1956 Winter Games at Cortina d’Ampezzo received analogous, restricted but groundbreaking coverage, while the first Games to be extensively broadcast were the 1960 Olympics, Rome, with 17 commentators for Italian broadcasts, live or taped coverage in 21 countries, and 102 hours broadcast; the USA watched the Games on tape, for which the CBS spent 395.000 dollars, a large sum at that time. For the 2004 Games, NBC, which has rights for the USA up until 2012, paid 793 million dollars, and 894 for the Peking Games (China sold rights all over the world for a total of 1.715 million dollars). In the 1960s, technology moved ahead with geo- stationary satellites. Tokyo, which had already been prepared to start experimental transmissions in 1940, before the Games were cancelled, broadcast coverage of the 1964 Games to the USA by means of the Syncom 3 satellite. In 1968, the Mexico Games were televised in black and white, and in part in colour, in Europe as well as America. Munich was the first Olympiad to be broadcast with regular colour transmissions all over the world. TV broadcasting rights, redistributed by the IOC, represent an important source of funds for the various Organising Committees. As regards viewers, live coverage of the Athens 2004 Games was broadcast in 200 countries. It has been estimated that 20.000 hours coverage of the Barcelona Games were seen worldwide during the 2 weeks of competition by 24.6 billion viewers - one and a half billion a day - with peaks of 2.3 billion and an 85% share of all those possessing a TV in the world. At Atlanta, coverage reached 25.000 hours; this increased to 29.600 for Sydney. The most recent statistics for the Summer Olympics are for Athens 2004: 35.000 hours broadcast, on 300 different channels, in 220 countries live, with peak figures of 3.9 billion viewers. Peking will be the first edition to be broadcast entirely in high definition, after the experiments in Athens 2004, and the daily share is expected to exceed 4 billion viewers. Proceeds from the sale of TV rights are as follows (in millions of dollars, corrected to the value of the US dollar in 2004): Rome 1960: 7 / Tokyo 1964: 9 / Mexico 1968: 46 / Munich 1972: 72 / Montreal 1976: 106 / Moscow 1980: 202 / Los Angeles 1984: 476 / Seoul 1988: 594 / Barcelona 1992: 778 / Atlanta 1996: 990 / Sydney 2000: 1.332 / Athens 2004: 1.364 / Beijing 2008: 1.715 (contracts signed in 2003). 199 The Olympic Dictionary TENNIS Governed by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (from 1977 simply ITF, www.itftennis.com). The sport was included at the Games from the first Olympics up until 1924, when the IOC dropped it from the programme because it was played by “non-amateur” athletes. It reappeared only at Seoul, 1988. THAILAND (Kingdom of Thailand, Asia, capital Bangkok, area 513.116 km2, population 63.883.661). 17 medals: 5 gold, 2 silver, 10 bronze. Best Olympics: Athens 2004, with 3 gold, one silver and 4 bronze medals. Best sport: boxing, 3 gold, 2 silver and 6 bronze medals. Best athletes: the winners of the 5 gold medals, one each, namely Somluck Kamsing (boxing, featherweight 57 kg, 1996), Wijan Ponlid (boxing, flyweight 51 kg, 2000), Manus Boonjumnong (boxing, light welterweight 64 kg, 2004), Udomporn Polsak (women’s weightlifting, featherweight 53 kg, 2004) and Pawina Thongsuk (women’s weightlifting, heavyweight 75 kg, 2004). The Thai Olympic Committee, formed in 1948, received IOC recognition in 1950. From 1952 on, Thailand has only missed the 1980 Games. THESSALONIKI The city of Thessaloniki was ruled by the Ottoman Empire when it took part in the 1906 Intercalated Games with a team (Thessaloniki Music Club) in the football tournament, winning the bronze medal. THOMAS PETRIA ANN (swimming, Australia, b. Lismore 25/8/1975). Three appearances (1996, 2000, 2004), 3 gold medals (100 m butterfly 2004, 4x100 m freestyle 2004, 4x100 m medley 2004), 4 silvers (200 m butterfly 1996 and 2004, 4x200 m freestyle 2000, 4x100 m medley 2000) and one bronze (200 m butterfly 2000).

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