1 – Unheralded Karen Stupples becomes the first British woman to win the Weetabix Women’s British Open with a five-stroke victory over Rachel Teske at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England.

12 – Defending Olympic 200-meter champion and Greek national hero Kostas Kenteris and his training partner, the top 100-meter contender Katerina Thanou, are reportedly in a motorcycle accident that hospitalizes them shortly after both had missed a mandatory drug test. The incident throws a pall over the Olympics, and both runners eventually withdraw from the Games without competing. Three months later, both will be charged with faking the accident to avoid the drug test.

13 – Amid the biggest security operation ever employed at a sporting event, the Olympics return with full pomp and panoply to the country where they were born and the city where they were revived. After a furious late rush to finish construction, Athens has all venues up and running and the gossamer-like wings of roof over the stadium are an artistic success.

Al Bello / Getty Images Michael Phelps won eight medals, including six golds, at Athens.

14 – On the first day of the Olympic swim meet, Ian Thorpe of Australia defends his 400-meter freestyle crown, but the big story is American teenager Michael Phelps, who has come to attempt to break Mark Spitz’ 1972 record of seven golds in one Olympics. Phelps gets off to a great start, winning the 400-meter individual medley relay and setting a new world record in the process.

14 – The U.S. women lose the 400-meter freestyle relay for the first time since 1988, falling to Australia in swimming.

15 – The U.S. Olympic men's basketball team had already lost a game to Italy during a pre-Olympic tournament. Averaging just under 24 years of age, the team is constructed for highlight shows, not for winning a medal. That becomes obvious in the team’s first game, as Puerto Rico runs away with a 92-73 win. It is the first time a team of American professionals has lost an Olympic game and only the third loss ever for the U.S.

15 - Vijay Singh, playing in the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, shoots four over for the final round, yet still wins the tournament in a playoff with Justin Leonard and Chris DeMarco. Leonard, with a chance to win, bogeys the 18^th hole to fall into a tie with Singh, while DeMarco leaves a birdie putt that would have won it just short of the hole. It is the final major of the year, and the men’s and women’s tours combine to produce eight different champions in eight major tournaments.

16 –

Japan wins the men’s team gymnastics for the first time since 1976. A strong U.S. team, led by Paul Hamm, wins silver.

16 - Michael Phelps swims an American record in the 200 freestyle, but finishes third behind Ian "Thorpedo" Thorpe of Australia and the Netherlands’ Pieter van den Hoogenband.

17 –

The U.S. women’s gymnastics team leads after two of four rotations, but the defending gold-medalist Romanian team dominates on the beam and floor exercise to take gold, with the Americans taking silver.

18 –

The U.S. women break the oldest swimming record on the books by 2:05 seconds when they bury the field in the 4X200 freestyle relay. The East Germans had set the record in 1987. The Americans who broke it are Natalie Coughlin, Carly Piper, Dana Vollmer and Kaitlin Sandeno.

18 - Korean Yang Tae Young is given the improper start value for a routine in the men’s all-around gymnastics final and ultimately finishes third as Paul Hamm wins gold. Hamm had begun his night by nearly falling off the runway on his first apparatus, the vault. Thinking he had no medal chance, he was spectacular the rest of the way. The scoring error touches off a controversy that wouldn’t be settled for another two months, but films of Yang’s routine showed that even if he had the proper start value, he should have lost two-tenths of a point for errors in the routine that the judges missed.

19 – Carly Patterson comes back from a major deficit to beat Russian prima dona Svetlana Khorkina in the women’s all-around gymnastics. Patterson is the first American since Mary Lou Retton in 1984 to win the all-around gold and the first to do it in a non-boycotted Olympics. Khorkina later whines that she lost because the judges didn’t appreciate her wonderfulness.

21 –

Michael Phelps gets a gold medal in the 400 medley relay without entering the pool. He gives up his place on the team so a teammate can get a gold, but earns the top medal by having swum qualifying races. It brings his medal haul to eight, six of them gold.

22 –

Justin Gatlin of the United States wins perhaps the greatest Olympic 100 meters ever run in 9.85 seconds. Just .09 separates the first five finishers, the first time five men had run under 10 seconds in an Olympic final. Francis Obikwelu of Portugal is second and American Maurice Greene takes bronze.

23 –

The United States sweeps the 400 meters with Jeremy Wariner leading Otis Harris and Derrick Brew across the line.

23 - The U.S. women’s softball team, perhaps the most dominating team the country has ever sent to the Olympics, wins the gold, beating Australia 5-1 behind Lisa Fernandez’ pitching and Crystl Bustos’ slugging. The run, surrendered in the sixth inning, is the only tally any team scored against the Americans during the tournament.

24 –

Paraguay ends the Cinderella run of the Iraqi soccer team toward a date in the gold medal game with a 3-1 win in the semifinals. Three days later, the Iraqis will lose the bronze-medal game to Italy. Argentina wins the gold.

24 - Kerry Walsh and Misty May win the most photogenic event in the Olympics –

beach volleyball.

26 –

The U.S. men’s sprint team followed its sweep of the Olympic 200 meters with a sweep of the 200. Shawn Crawford led the charge, followed by Bernard Williams and Justin Gatlin.

26 - The legends of American women’s soccer go out with a gold medal as Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy and Joy Fawcett lead the U.S. women to a 2-1 victory over Brazil.

27 – The ultimate ignominy of Marion Jones’ Olympics occurs when she runs on the 400-meter relay team that finishes dead last in the Olympic final –

the team not even finishing the race due to a bad baton pass.

27 - Argentina, the eventual Olympic champions, eliminate the U.S. men’s basketball team from gold medal contention with an 89-81 semifinal victory. The U.S. men will go on to finish third in the Olympics, the first team of NBA players to lose in the Olympics.

28 –

The U.S. men’s sprint team is upset in the 4X100 meter relay, finishing second to Great Britain by .01 second.

28 - The U.S. women’s basketball team wins the gold, 74-63, over Australia. It is the last Olympics for point guard Dawn Staley.

29 - Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil is leading the Olympic marathon in the late stages of the race when he is knocked off the course by a defrocked Irish priest who thinks he’s making a statement about the end of the world. Lima loses time in the incident and eventually finishes third. Stefano Baldini of Italy wins and a naturalized American, Mebrahtom Keflezighi takes silver.

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