Nine new events were held, including two from the new cycling discipline of BMX. Women competed in the 3000 metre steeplechase for the first time. Marathon open water swimming events for men and women, over the distance of 10 kilometres, were added to the swimming discipline. Team events (men and women) in table tennis replaced the doubles events.[3] In fencing, women's team foil and women's team sabre replaced men's team foil and women's team épée.[Note 2] Two sports were open only to men, baseball and boxing, while one sport and one discipline were open only to women, softball and synchronized swimming. Equestrian is the only sport in which men and women compete together in the same events.[4][5] Baseball and softball may have made their last appearances in Olympics history during these Games, as the International Olympic Committee voted to remove them from the programme of the 2012 Olympics.[6] A total of 958 medals for events (302 gold, 303 silver and 353 bronze) were awarded. In boxing, judo, taekwondo and wrestling, two bronze medals are awarded in each weight class.[7] Therefore, the total number of bronze medals is greater than the total number of gold or silver medals. Additionally there were ties for a silver medal and two bronze medals.[8][9]
American swimmer Michael Phelps was the most successful athlete, winning eight gold medals and setting a new record for most golds won in a single edition of the Olympics (the previous record, seven, had been set in 1972 by Mark Spitz).[19] Phelps also set a new record for most career gold medals (14), and his 16 total medals were ranked second all-time behind Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina (18) at the time. In 2012 Phelps set a record for most total medals.[20] Several records for career medals in a sport were tied or surpassed, including cycling (Bradley Wiggins of the United Kingdom won two gold, tied for record with six career medals); judo (Ryoko Tani of Japan won a bronze, five career medals); softball (Laura Berg of the United States won a gold and Natalie Ward, Melanie Roche and Tanya Harding of Australia won a bronze; all have four career medals); swimming (Michael Phelps, 16 career medals); taekwondo (Steven López of the United States won a bronze and Hadi Saei of Iran won a gold, both three career medals); and table tennis (Wang Nan of China won a gold and silver medal, five career medals).[20]
2008 Olympics has the most medals stripped for doping violations (50). The leading country is Russia with 14 medals stripped.
^ C. Norwegian equestrian athlete Tony André Hansen's horse tested positive for the pain relieving medication capsaicin, a banned substance. Hansen, who won a bronze medal in the team jumping event, was disqualified. In the team jumping system, the top three scores garnered by the four riders are counted. Hansen had the best score on his team, and it was removed from the total. Without Hansen's score, his team was below the bronze medal threshold so the medal was awarded to the team from Switzerland on December 22, 2008.[25]
^ E. SwedishwrestlerAra Abrahamian was originally awarded a bronze medal in the Greco-Roman 84 kg event. However, at the medal ceremony he walked off the podium and dropped his medal on the mat in protest of the judging in his event. On August 16, 2008, the International Olympic Committee decided to strip him of his medal because they felt it amounted to a political demonstration and was disrespectful to other athletes.[27]
^ Note 1. Although the official opening of the Games was on 8 August 2008, football matches were held beginning on 6 August.[29]
^ Note 2. The fencing programme included six individual events and four team events, though the team events were a different set than were held in 2004. The International Fencing Federation's rules call for events not held in the previous Games to receive automatic selection and for at least one team event in each weapon to be held. Voting is conducted to determine the fourth event. In 2004, the three men's team events and the women's épée were held. Thus, in 2008, the women's foil and sabre events and men's épée were automatically selected. Men's sabre was chosen over foil by a 45–20 vote.[30]
