Best man on the water? It's a Germ
By Boo Turner

"I'm sure we will win," boasted a German--Germs, as this paddling world fondly calls them--before the men's kayak race.

And when they did--taking both the gold and the bronze--they celebrated their success by throwing the team manager into the drink.

German Oliver Fix thrilled the crowd with a perilous and on-the-edge blast to the finish.

"How I start, I go to the finish. No thinking in between," said Fix, the reigning World Champion.

No one in the 44-man field could argue with that strategy, not even favorite Scott Shipley, who groaned privately in the ear of a pal--after the requisite smile and explanations to the media throng--about how he really felt about his lackluster result.

"Fix's run was stellar," said Shipley, the current World Cup title holder.

The perplexing gates got the better of Shipley, who was simply too slow, almost three seconds behind Fix. With a five-second penalty to boot, Shipley ended up in unfamiliar territory--twelfth. It was the first time he had finished out of the top five since the last Olympics. The top American was Rich Weiss, in sixth.

Fix was joined on the podium by his teammate, Thomas Becker, who took the bronze.

Becker, who admitted he'd only hoped for a top-eight finish, like Estanget, was lucky to be here at all. He was Germany's third boat, and was not expected to be here originally.

Sandwiched between the Germans was Slovenia's Andraz Vehovar, ranked only 13th in the world. When asked that he must not have expected a medal, he laughed, "Actually, I did," in English he perfected when training to be a doctor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore several years ago.

Just before the start, Vehovar's coach told him it was his race. "So all the pressure went out."

This update prepared by Boo Turner