Remember the flap over Olympics medals and the cash prizes that come with them?
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Between the years 1912 and 1952, the Olympics awarded medals for art.
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But every two years they gather for the small-states games where, unlike the Olympics, medals are plentiful and within reach.
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Marion Jones was the darling of the 2000 Summer Olympics, winning five medals and winning over fans.
They won 11 medals in the recent London Olympics, including four golds, when no other nation claimed more than six medals.
"You've got so many athletes pulling out who have medals at the Olympics, " she continued.
Both teams won medals in every Olympics between 1964 and 1988, the 1984 Los Angeles boycott apart.
"We're not going to win medals at the Olympics this way, anyone can tell you that, " Nolan told the Irish Times.
Sure, the U.S. racks up the most medals every Summer Olympics.
The thing goes on too: win rowing medals at five Olympics like Steve Redgrave and that CBE gets upgraded to his being Sir Steve.
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One of the most tightly contested medals at the Olympics in 2012 will potentially be the team sprint with France, Germany and Britain boasting strong line-ups.
Felix made history during her third Olympics by taking three gold medals and becoming the first woman to accomplish the feat since Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988.
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The newcomer to the field is Kevin Daly, an economist at Goldman Sachs, who calculates that on average the host nation of an Olympics wins 54% more medals than usual.
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Gold medals were made of solid gold at three Olympics -- in 1904, 1908 and 1912 -- but the medals themselves were smaller.
The Russians have just 10 gold medals so far this Olympics after winning 23 in Beijing.
In his previous Olympics, Lochte had sought individual medals in two styles as well: back and medley.
As he points out, China ranked a distant eleventh for Olympic medals at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
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The British sailing team's successes at the Beijing Olympics included a haul of six medals, four of them gold.
Britain's athletes won just four medals at the Beijing Olympics, with 400m runner Christine Ohuorugu claiming the solitary gold.
In 1972, Mark Spitz was the greatest swimmer in the world, winning seven gold medals in the Munich Olympics.
Marion Jones became the first woman to ever win five medals at a single Olympics at the 2000 Sydney Games.
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One of track and field's biggest stars at the 2000 Olympics, she won three gold medals and two bronzes in Sydney.
Ollie Matson, a running back, won two medals in the 1952 Olympics and Tommie Smith, who played one season in Cincinnati, won gold in 1968.
Phelps, who swam for six gold medals in the 2004 Olympics and seven in the world championships last year, is bidding to win eight this time.
In a television interview after the race, Wiggins said he now wants to add to his trove of four gold medals at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
"He is a talent, " said Evangulov, who led the Russian team to three silver and two bronze medals at the Beijing Olympics before taking the British post in December last year.
She won gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x400m relay in Sydney along with bronze medals in the long jump and 4x100m relay, becoming the first woman to win five medals at a single Olympics.
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Jeter's time - the fifth-fastest ever run - was 0.18 sec behind Griffith-Joyner's world record of 10.49 sec and 0.02 sec behind the quickest time ever run by Jones, who was stripped of her five medals from the 2000 Olympics after admitting using steroids.
Despite his finish, Boit's tenacity impressed gold medallist Bjorn Daehlie -- who with his victory that day became the first man to win six gold medals at the Winter Olympics -- so-much-so that the Norwegian legend delayed the medal presentation ceremony so he could embrace Boit as he crossed the line.
Two of India's six medals at the 2012 London Olympics were won by wrestlers.
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