The Olympic Report

Last Friday (September 17th), the Micronational Olympics 2004, an event co-organized by Shireroth and Mahina, were closed by the posting of Scott Siskind's final speech. This was a bit of surprise, since some people knew that an Olympic event was under discussion and only a select few knew where and when it was held, or even that it was held in the first place.

In his speech, Scott spoke about the unifying power of sports in general and the Olympics in particular. The event had brought some nations (that we otherwise might never have heard about, such as Natopia and Mahina) closer to the micronational community, even if the major part of this community was absent from the Olympics.

The primary goal of the Olympics is not politics, though, but sport. The original plans contained both physical sports and mind sports - the first everyone could hold in their own backyards (if it they were large enough for a 3,000m parcours), the mind games such as Reversi and Chess were to be held online. Since there are no results shown for these, it is doubtful these events ever took place. The physical sports (frisbee throwing, tennisball throwing, 3000m running and 100m running) did take place, and according to the true Olympic spirit no-one cheated on the times or misjudged the distances. The non-running events were a clear victory for the Natopians, who also had the largest number of participants. Further details of the results can be found in the preceding article.

The lack of publicity surrounding this event is a pity, even more so since it was good opportunity for micronationalists to get some physical exercise instead of sitting in front of a computer all day. Apparently one journal was intended to be the official news publisher for the Games, but in the end this never materialised, while the Olympic Committee forum in Shireroth gave the impression that the Games just fizzled out. Let us hope, though, that this event will continue in the future, because it is an excellent initiative.

Natopia Sweeps the Boards at the Olympics

Following a marathon effort by our correspondents, we are pleased to report on the results of the 2004 Intermicronational Olympic Games. The Games were held jointly by Mahina and Shireroth (from August 13th to 29th), with Mahina doing the website, Shireroth the forum, and everyone else the games. Unfortunately everyone was waiting for someone else to do the publicity, mostly because there was supposed to be an official olympic newspaper, but for some reason (or several), this failed to materialize, but everyone was to polite or busy with other stuff to mention this or do something about it, which is why we're the first ones to actually write anything about what happened.

There were five "offline" (physical) events at the Games this year, namely Discus (with Frisbee), Shot Put (with Tennis Ball), the 100 Metre Run, the 3,000 Metre Run, and the Long Jump. There were also five "online" (mind) events: Yahoo Reversi, Yahoo Checkers, Yahoo Chess, Monopoly and Risk. However, we assume that most of these did not take place, as the official results have only been published for four of the "offline" events, and we can't tell you when, exactly, these events took place, as no dates and times for them have been published.

But all this should not detract from the fact the micronational world's best atheletes did take part in physical events, and did very well in them, although of course some did better than others. The official results are as follows:

Discus (with Frizbee)
Her Honor Sherry Lochhaas (Natopia) - 84 feet (Gold)
His Supremacy Aaron Pavletich (Natopia) - 75 feet (Silver)
His Sovereign Excellency Nathan Shepard (Natopia) - 56 feet (Bronze)
His Excellency President Kevin Baugh (Molossia) - 52 feet
His Royal Majesty Bryan (Mahina) - 51 feet
His Honor Craig Billmeyer (Natopia) - 33 feet

Shot Put (with Tennis Ball)
His Supremacy Aaron Pavletich (Natopia) - 123 feet (Gold)
His Honor Craig Billmeyer (Natopia) - 98 feet (Silver)
Her Honor Sherry Lochhaas (Natopia) - 83 feet (Bronze)
His Sovereign Excellency Nathan Shepard (Natopia) - 82 feet
His Royal Majesty Bryan (Mahina) - 71 feet, 6 inches
His Royal Majesty Samuel (Navland) - 70 feet, 2 inches
His Excellency President Kevin Baugh (Molossia) - 56 feet

100m Run
Brandon Baker (Navland) - 13.79 seconds (Gold)
His Royal Majesty Samuel (Navland) - 15.11 seconds (Silver)
His Royal Majesty Bryan (Mahina) - 21.23 seconds (Bronze)

3000m Run
President Radu Chinan (Gabilonia) - 16 min 18 sec (Gold)
His Royal Majesty Bryan (Mahina) - 20 min 14 sec (Silver)

The final medal tally was as follows:
Natopia - 6 (2 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze)
Navland - 2 (1 Gold, 1 Silver)
Mahina - 2 (1 Silver, 1 Bronze)
Gabilonia - 1 (1 Gold)